Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-11-21
A Race I'm a Thunder Storm Az.
ter Dark.

We doubt if there is on record q more
perilous race than one in which the late
Hiram Woodruff bore conspicuous part,
and now appears as the narrator. We find
the account in a late number of Wilkes
Spirit of the Times: - s.7f
ain lS43 Dutchman was brought to New
York and again placed in my charge. Our
first race that season, and it was the last
season the old horse trottcd on the turf,
was against Americus and Lady Suffolk,
Two mile heats, IN harness, over the Beacon
Course. Bryant drove the Lady, Spicer
Amerieus, and 1 Dutchman. Dutchman
won the first heat, Americus the second
and Dutchman the third. Lady Suffolk
was third in all the heats. In week or
ten days thereafter we Went three mile
meats, in harness, over the Beacon Course,
and 1t was tremendous race of four heats.
The first was won by Dutchman. The sec
ond was stoutly contested, but Americus
won 1t. The third heat was more hotly con-
tested than the latter two, and resulted in a
dead heat between the old horse and Ameri-
Gus. Lady Suffolk was now ruled out for not
winning heat in three, and the betting
was heavy, Dutchman having the call. The
long summer day had drawn rapidly to
close. AT the same time the heavens were
overcast, and with fading CLEANS of dim,
yellow light, the sun sank into great banks
of clouds. They mounted higher and
higher, and seemed to lie like a load upon
Guc WEARY edTLn. Inc neat was intense.
and not breath of air stirring to break the
ominous report. With the last flicker of
day, the swift scud began to fly overhead,
and the seeming solid clouds to tower up
and come on like moving mountains. 1t
was dark when we got into the sulkies, and
soon after the start, the storm burst upon
US with fury 1 have never since seen
equaled. The wind blew hurricane. and
the pelting rain fell in torrents, as though
the sluices of the skies had opened all at
once. Nothing could have overpowered
the mighty rush OF wind, and the furious
splash of the rain; but the dread, tremen-
dous rattle of the thunder! it seemed to
and only few yards above us.
Nothing could have penetrated
the thick, profound gloom of that darkness
but the painful blue blaze of the forked
lightning. 1 could not see, in the short in
tervals between the flashes, the faintest
trace of the horse before me, and then, in
the twinkling of an eye, as though the
darkness was torn away like veil by the
Almighty, the whole course, the surround
ing country, to the minutest and most dis
tant thing, would be revealed. The spires
of the churches of Newark, eight miles off,
we could see more plainly than in broad
daylight, and we noticed that as the horses
faced the bowling elements their ears Law
flat on their necks. Between these flashes
OF piercing, all pervadipg light, and the
succeeding claps of thunder, the suspense
and strain upon the mind was TERRIBLE
We knew that it was coming SO as to shake
the very pillars of the earth but we rode
on. and, until it had ratified over our heads,
we were silent. Then. in the blank dark
ness, as we went on side by side. we would
exchange cautions. Neither could see the
other, nor hear the wheels nor the stride
of the horses. by reason of the wind and
rain.
"'Look out, Hiram Spicer would saw,
for we shall be into each other.'
"a few strides further on and I would
sing out:
"'Take care, George; you must be close
to me-
"Now the noise of the wheels and the
tramp of the horses could not be heard in
the roar OF the wind and the batter of the
rain, and yet our voices could be and were.
For mile and half, in the very crater,
as it were, of the volcanic war of the skyey
elements, we went side by side. Then the
Dutchman lost ground. The track was
clayey, and he having on flat shoes, began
to slip and slide at every stride. Ameri-
Gus gradually drew away from him, and,
when had reached the stand at the end of
the second mile, Istopped. have seen a
great many summer storms in my life, and
have been out in not few of them, but of
all that remember, none quite equalled,
in terrible fury and awful grandeur, that
which burst over the Beacon Course lust
as we began to heat. Spicer says the
same"