The Great Elk Horn Swindle
A Westport man’s clever scheme to outwit a raffle winner leads to a courtroom showdown in Ocosta.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
C. W. Yana, of Westport, had a trial last Monday before Justice Tillman on a charge of petit larceny, the complaining witness being R. L. Boyle. The case was tried before a jury, who returned a verdict of not guilty, whereupon the prisoner was discharged. The particulars of the case are about as follows: On the afternoon of Saturday, August 26, a raffle for a pair of elk horns took place in Ocosta. R. L. Boyle and C. W. Yana each held tickets in the drawing. Yana was present and Boyle was absent. At the conclusion, ticket No. 49, held by R. L. Boyle, was the winner. Yana went at once to Boyle's office, and without informing him of the result, succeeded in purchasing his chances in the raffle—which Boyle supposed had not yet occurred—for $2.50. Some time later Boyle discovered he had been duped and ordered Frank Smith, the original owner of the horns, not to deliver them. Yana later went to Smith's residence, found no one there but Mrs. Smith, and took possession of the horns. Boyle invoked the law, and Yana was brought back to Ocosta. At the trial, represented by Hon. N. W. Bush, Yana was acquitted. Yana and his counsel headed a triumphal procession out of town, with the horns conspicuously carried at the front. Boyle promises to get these horns back if he has to 'bust' the real estate market to do it.
“Boyle promises to get these horns back if he has to 'bust' the real estate market to do it.”
Local disputes over prizes and perceived 'wins' have always been a staple of small-town life, though today they likely play out in online forums rather than with an elk head in a triumphal procession. The absurdity of a man risking a larceny trial over a trophy highlights the fierce, sometimes petty competitive spirit of 1890s boom towns.
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