Show an annual affair STORY By Richard H. Wilkinson YEAR WE appointed Barney LAST Bridges chairman of our annual fair in Old Jake Fletcher had been chairman for 15 and there were those who disapproved of I ousting him in Minute young the town's leading and richest voiced the sentiments of the ran a good enough but getting old and his ways are out of We gotta keep up with the times out here in like everywhere Barney Bridges la young and has modem This was true Barney promised to zip up the The first thing he planned to do was modernize the horse racing Heretofore we'd Just had races that were run for the honor of the with folks making side Barney's idea was to import some famous promoter and make the betting a heck of a lot worse to have a lot of undercover betting going on with no system to It than it will be to have open betting with everyone being given a chance to throw In his dime's Every one but Jake Fletcher only trouble with that he professional promoter jigger you're going to import known to none of If he's a look declared Barney The man I have In mind flit Q In He wouldn't dare try about said got to figure that every last man of us is endowed with one but Jake agreed He he's a look nai we're honest enough on the That's because we're But you give us a chance to pull a fast one we'll jump at it U we're sure we can get away with K Barney Imported this Dana Dana East-on had promoted everything from prize fights to steamboat races When we put the proposition up to him he said he'd sure be glad to promote the horse racing angle ol our Fair The day of the Fair arrived and It seemed that moat of the money was bet on a mare named Homing driven by Charley Charlie won plenty of races in years and It looked like be was going to i I sat in the grandstand and watched the sulkies line They made a pretty The band was the sun shinning and everybody was happy and feeling everybody was Then the race Around the track they six of Burnside's stretching out their In perfect Homing Pigeon led up to the then Jasper Bush's horse came abreast of then Hector Dryson came abreast of then Fergus Cross came abreast of It looked like a neck and neck which struck me as being Then suddenly 1 stopped yelling and Just Coming down the stretch the four lead horses had slowed down and by 15 yards from the finish they all It wasn't until late that night that I got all the Dana Easton had bribed Charlie Cole-well and Jasper Bush to pull their horses so Hector Dryson could Hector was a long shot and would have paid But It didn't work that Because Jake Fletcher had figured what Dana Easton was up to and had secretly and Individually bribed the other four racers to hold In their With all six drivers bribed the race simply came to a standstill and nobody Jake Fletcher pointed proves my contention that every man's a crook if he thinks he can get away with |