. THE PI MEMMBT
OTLQQK
VOL. XX, NO. 5
SATURDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 23, 1916
FIVE CENTS
MEMORIES OF ANNIE OAKLEY
A Desperate Adventure With Beggars and
Bad Money in Spain
Clirlatmaa In ilarcelona Under the
Shadow of Death. KIh Tide of
the Wild Wen Show
llfl
IT WAS while plan
ning a bird hunt on
the Drowning Creek
Plantation during
holiday week in
Pinehurst that some
of us fell to telling
stories of Christmas spent in
many quarters of the globe. An
nie Oakley, known to a generation
of sportsmen as one of the most
travelled as well as one of the fin
est shots among the women of the
world, was in the party. We all
knew that she had a museum of
costly presents given her by a
host of admirers from Dead Man's
Gulch to Bagdad, and so I sug
gested she tell of the castles of
Spain, and the rich Moorish dra
peries the grandees surely gave
her there or the mantilla, offered
with the heart of the torreador.
"Well," she said, "it is strange
you hit upon it. We did spend a
Christmas in Spain. And I will
never forget it. Never! But
there was no Moorish romance
or echo from the Indes in this
story. It was the bluest Christ
mas that I ever spent a blizzard
in Nebraska or a brigand camp in
Tartary would have brought us
better cheer.
"It was in the Winter of '91.
The Wild West Show fetched up
in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona, the
cradle of fiction. The delirious
dramatists must have long since
depopulated the place of heroes
and swordsmen and dashing
cavaliers. Since the first sweet
sight of it I have never been able
to figure out why ever we went
there. Now, I thought, weare at
last in Bacelona. And when we
were at home we were in a better
place.
SWAMPED BY BEGGARS
Fifty cents Mex. would have
bought out the town. Five dollars
in clear view would have raised a
revolution. The population of the
County Farm could pass as finan
ciers in Barcelona. We pitched
our camp entirely surrounded by
a congress of beggars who settled
on every scrap thrown out of the
mess tent like buzzards on a
coyote.
"It didn't take a clairvoyant to
see that no fifty cent show would
go down here. The $10,000,000
class on the income list of Greater
New York is larger than the 50
this game had two sides to it, and
sauntered into the midway, which
might have been Main Street, to
return some of this tinware to its
rightful owners in exchange for
coffee and bran, and such house
hold necessities. No use. It was
the crookedest game that outfit
ever sat in.
"Every shop keeper in the place
was armed and prepared for just
such an emergency which might
more properly be called a cer
tainty. In fact almost their only
occupation was a suspicious and
exhaustive inquiry into the nature
of the customer's coin. There was
a marble slab on every counter
which served all the purposes of
delay accomplished in more en
lightened communities by the
1 ."'f;iIf .
"2 i'Um) bfe4K.
V.1
NAT HURD LEADS THEM HOME ON CHASE
cent list in Barcelona. The boys
held a pow-wow and handed it
out that ten cents was the limit.
"So we opened her up and
pulled off the performance at ten
cents a throw, our eyes peeled for
the horizon and a quick getaway.
It didn't look quite impossible the
first day. We took in six hun
dred dollars. But no use. Of
course anyone but a tenderfoot
would have known 300 of this was
counterfeit. Not even decent
wooden money, but phoney on its
face.
THE PHONEY MONEY OF BARCELONA
"The boys doped it out that
cash boy and the overhead trolley
system. To arrive at a price for
a pound of beans was a compli
cated but possible matter. To
pay for it something else entirely.
With as careless and worldly a
manner as possible you might of
fer the King's gold, or a silver
piece. This was at once subjected
first to the tencil test. It was
hurled in suspicious fury upon the
slab. If it broke oh yes, about
half of them would break. Glass
was a favorite material for the
creation of a salary among the
less fastidious of the aristocracy
of Barcelona the storekeeper
Concluded on page five)
THE CHRISTMAS RACES
Jockey Propbecies on the Steeple
Chase
Penny Hack III Unbeaten
Pacer Ag-alnst the
Field
A PARTIAL pro
gram of the meet
of the Pinehurst
Jockey Club to be
held at the track
Christmas afternoon
at 3.00 oclock has
been handed us by the steward of
the club. Many entries are still
uncertain, and the stable fairly
buzzes with rumors and expecta
tions of this great mount or that
about to arrive, and some myster
ious champion that is going to
sweep all before him and go off
with the boodle. But confining
ourselves to the assured we give
the program as far as established
Wednesday morning.
PINEHURST STEEPLE CHASE
Full course. $100 purse Miriam
H. and Travellor, Pinehurst sta
bles ; Captain Heck, Montgomery,
George, John Jay, Kittron and
Chase, N. C. Hurd.
Mile Pace.
Walter C. J. C. Penny
Farmer Boy Thomas
Toy Boy Thomas
Mattie the Great J. R. Thomas
AreAmmBee Pinehurst Stables
King Charlie George Penny
Running race. Open to all
guests of the village either on
their own mounts or those pro
vided by the Pinehurst stables.
Quarter-mile heats. Best two out
of three.
THE LADIES' RACE
Running race for the ladies'
cup. Open to all. Half-mile dash.
The entries opened with .Miss
Concluded on page seventeen)