The Bunco King of Riverside Avenue

H. E. Oower, a tall, lank country man hailing from Wisconsin, was buncoed out of $221 in cash and a certificate of deposit for $3000 early this morning in an unknown place on Riverside Ave.

J. D. Riddell, who formerly ran the cigar stand at the Warwick hotel and is now a member of the firm of Rice, Armstrong Co., real estate dealers, with offices over the Warwick, claims that he cashed the certificate of deposit for $2500 and is either out this amount of money, as payment upon the certificate has been stopped, or is working with the bunco gang.

Oower's memory regarding the game that he ran against is somewhat hazy, as he can not place the locality in which it occurred or the name of the game he played. He tells the following story: "I came west three weeks ago from Jackson county, Wisconsin. I have been staying most of the time at Marshall and Missoula. I bought a place at Missoula Saturday. I arrived here last night and stayed at the Pedlcord. I went down to the Northern Pacific depot at 8 o'clock this morning to take the train to Marshall.

"While I was waiting in the depot a man, smooth shaven and rather heavy set, came up and told me he was from the same county in Wisconsin that I was. Of course, I was glad to see him, being from my old home. He told me he had some pictures of the Klondike over at his friend's room on Riverside Ave. and if I would go over with him he would give me some.

"So I went. His friend wasn't home, but some men were playing cards in his rooms. They asked us to play. I didn't want to, but the man I came with did, so I backed him in at first, because he was short of money, and then he had to go out a minute and I took his hand and played for him.

"They had all my money in about five minutes. I don't know what the game was, except that it was cards."

Meanwhile, labor tensions are heating up on the rails. The movement for higher wages has begun in earnest. The firemen on that portion of the Great Northern known as the Spokane Falls Northern railway have called upon T. H. Butler to draw up their request, which will be presented to Superintendent V. S. Forrest and General Superintendent H. A. Kennedy of this city.

The firemen request that the scale on the following Great Northern engines be increased to $2.50 per 100 miles, or for 10 hours' work, and 25 cents per hour over time. This to apply to engines 8, 10, 11, 12, 346, 329, 468 and 471. The firemen ask that the Spokane Falls Northern mogul engines pay $2.40 for 100 miles, or 10 hours, and 24 cents per hour overtime.

"The larger the engine the more cars hauled and consequently more coal to be shoveled," the report notes. "A few of the trunk lines are burning oil and have made no reductions in their scale of wages for firemen. The firemen believe that conditions are changing, prices higher in every way and tonnage is being increased to the extent that a fireman's lot is anything but an easy one."