Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-11-19

~ matured, Lady Wallace was teamed
up and driven 20 town TO the saloon
where all the sports congregated. After
the usual hmbering OF tongues the talk
scrub mare was said to be so old now
that anything could beat her.
Her owner bit" pretty hard on that
one and SPOKE up and said: I've got
a singie-footed cayuse that can give
her a pretty hard run for the money"
We'll" said the saloon man. ~bring
] her IN and let us have look at her"
He was told that she was outside In the
team and they went to see her. Some
/ one asked what that brand was that
/ she wore and the answer was that the
brand book said IL was no Montana
brapd.
Where did We git herr" asked the
saloon man.
wen, sir, she was Just ridden in here
to FRAGILE. The feller said he was from
Wyoming and in a hurry to get to
Canada. He may have stole her and
the sheriff q jump or two behind him,
for all know. let him have an old
crow-bait and he give me SIS to boot.
That is all I know about her except
that I have driven her a few times, and
while she looks like a runt, your good
money can find out what she can dc"
A race was arranged for and each
side put up 81 800 in the bank to start
1t off and then the side betting began
But it slowed UP after a while, because
that first bet was pretty high and no.
BODY knew where the new mare came
from. She might be a ringer" for all
anybody knew and the sports we're
cautious.
One Of the partners had Just re-
ceived his beef returns, for it was in
the fall Of the year. and he had a lot
of money to bet on Lady Wallace and
she would never get another race over
there. But he could not get his money
up, so the other two partners came to
the conclusion that they would get 1t.
This is how they arranged it: They
went to the third partner and told
him they were going to pull Lady
Wallace and not let her win. Then the
big row was on, but there were two
against one and they told him that he
ought to feel grateful that they told
him so he could get in and hedge" |
and save himself, which he proceeded I
to do and, through dummy friends, the |
other two partners took his bets.
OF course Lady Wallace was not
pulled and she was such q little fly /
away mare, that it was doubtful Wheth- /
er she could have been successfully I
pulled" without detection. She dis
tanced the scrub mare and then the /
very successfully tricked partner saw
how he had been flim-flammed. But he /
was not SO slow either. He took out his /
pencil and little memorandum book /
and wrote out a certificate on a blank
leaf of it, that Lady Wallace had won
the race. He slipped across the track
and got the judges to sign it, then he
forked his pony and raced in to the
bank, drew down the $1,000, gave a
partnership receipt for it, put the cash
in his pocket and told his partners to
go and jump in the lake.
Well, they did not excatly jump in
the lake, but they did jump into court
and sued him for their shares of the
So 900 stake and the whole story of the
complete skulduggery came out in the
trial. When the case got up into the
supreme court in the old days when
knew everybody else, some
of the judges knew those fellows who
had had their fun over in Fergus coun-
ty, and as full-blooded men, they
laughed heartily at the privileged
of horse racers. But the judges
said, in effect, that the courts were
and maintained for protec-
ton of the innocent, but where all
were wicked and all tarred with the
same stick, the wicked must settle their
own affairs among themselves, the
court would have nothing to do with 1t,
except to take the controversy with
pair of tongS and drop 1t in the sewer.
And so the two partners who went out
for wool came home Shorn.