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THE HIKA.M JOHNSON CASE. In a rocent issue of the San Francisco Bulletin Ttalph Tozer, who was an official of the Butte meeting last summer, has the following to say concerning the supposed ringer, Hiram Johnson: " The ringing of Hiram Johnson at New Orleans is the talk of the track these days, and now it is the general belief that the Johnson which was too much for the Crescent City people, especially the pencilers was no other than our old friend McNa-mara with his coat Titianized. McNamara was the most improved horse ever known in Butte, Mont., graduating from the selling-plater division into the handicap class in short order and winning one or two good stakes for L. O. Walz, who purchased him out of a selling race the horse had won for W. P. Magrane. About the last day of the Butte meeting McNamara was sold to some unknown by Ben Levy, who was interested with Walz, the consideration being ,EO0. "The unknown walked Levy to the bank and twenty-live one hundred dollar bills were counted out, the names of the actual buyers being withheld from Levy, try as hard as he might to socure the information. Then the order came to deliver the horse into the hands of a person who would bo in waiting on a side street of Butte. That was the last seen of McNamara, and as the rumor gained currency that he had been purchased by a firm of wealthy lawyers in the Montana metropolis it was wondered what the next move would be. If Hiram Johnson and McNamara are ono and the same a . big clean-up could easily have been made, and probably was, though Riley Grannan declared not more than ,000 was lost in tho ring that day over the victory of the stranger. The suspended Mr. Mathieson owned a Horse or two at Butte last summer, and if memory Berves he was a great friend of a turfman supposed to have had something to do with the alleged Spooks last season and now in New Orleans. If this turns out to be correct it is among the possibilities that the true story of the Spooks race may come to the surface in the near future and furnish interesting reading to our patrons. "Mathieson, who got in trouble in New Orleans December 31, owned a skate named Mox Mox,at Butte last summer, and it seems this horse was taken to St. Louis in September for the purpose of making a killing. The plan was to enter a good horse, presumably McNamara. under the name of the notorious crab, Mox Mox, and it is said this was done, but the officials thought something was wrong and would not allow Mox Mox to start. Mox Mox was taken to New Orleans, and on December 29 was entered in a race for maidens, in which Major Tenny, beaten by the alleged Hiram Johnson, was the warmest kind of a favorite. The horse, played heavily by the early risers, ran like Mox Mox. forhe couldnt beat a museum fat man going up a stetp hill. It is presumed the real Mox Mox was run for the benefit of the sharpshooters, and that his double, maybe McNamara. painted to order, was to be sprung the second time and win a big bunch for the conspirators. Its my belief that when this matter is sifted thoroughly McNamara will bo found at the bottom of the tangle, and perhaps another good horse, run under a bogus name, and Mathieson will bo found to have had as a confederate a man suspected of running a certain fast mare as Spooks last season at Emeryville. The little dark bay mare that was suspected was said by horsemen to have ben painted up, and one observant turfman declares that tho paint used had not died uway around the mares crupper the last time he saw her."
