The daily gazette., 1876-05-20
THE MUSTANG RACE.
Lost 4fter Making 226 Miles-An intrepid
Rider Blinded on the Track.

Lost 4fter Making 226 Mites-An Intrepd
Rider Blinded on the Track.
George Parker, the ranohero, who en-
gagged to ride thirty mustang horses 305
miles in fifteen hours on Fleetw ood Park
course yesterday, broke down after COM
pleting 226 miles in eleven hours and
twenty-four minutes. Tho race was be-
gun at one minute past o'clock in the
moraing. -st,f t,f.tfts.f -.iN
At twenty minutes past II. he finished
$50 miles in seven hours and nineteen
minutes, He had little time to spare.
and his horses had apparently became
prostrated. Suddenly he showed his
mettle again, and with tho cessation of
the rain he began second brilliant dash
OF fifty miles, closing his 200th mile at
nine minutes past o'clock after Iride
rf ten hours and eight minutes. Had
his strength held out he could easily have
run the final los miles in time to gain the
wager, but he was perceptibly failing.
1t was not that be hao lost pluck, but
hs had no physical strength to back it.
He had foolishly ridden the wholly in
one directions most fatiguing exercise.
He had spent the best half Of q day with
out food, and had filed bis heated body
with cold water. He was almost unable
to steady himself on horseback, and thoee
who saw him were apprehensive that he
might either drop or be thrown from
some one Of his horses. Finally, at TWEEN
| ty-five minutes past 8, as he finished the
226th mile, and was supposed to be about
to mount the relay at hand for him, he
staggered like drunken man, and feel
ing along the front Of the judges stand
| as man moves in the dark, with hands
outstretched, he entered the doorway,
reeled one way and smother, and dropped
into a CHI r. From the chair he fell
heavily into the rancheros and and host
lers. They laid him on the floor, and
bathed his head until q physician ar
rived. "I am stone blind" the PROSTATE
again.
The physician examined the riders
eyes. Vision had really fed from ono
Of .hem. He told Parker that the all
ment was only temporary and urged
him to mount horse and continue the
race, Parker said, painfully: 81 am
blind. never can ride any more.-
Ill wasn't so, l would yet win the
race"
Others urged the rider to mount and
ride again; and to them he replied:-
You want to kill me. am not strong
enough to move"
| With difficulty Parker was raised to
| Ills lect. 1uC puJeiClau oShcu ulLn
questions and in reply he said that his
eyes had never been diseased, and he
did not believe that anything hard
had struck the blinded right eye in the
race.
Parker is native Of Arkansas. He
went to Visalia, CAL, when he was
two years Of age. He is now twenty
six years of age, and has spent the
greater part of his life as ranchero,
riding mustangs as daily business
He never engaged in a race with hOr-
ses, and has not, to bis own recollec-
tion, performed any remarkable exploit
on horseback; but his companions, who
knew him in the West, say that he is
an exceptionally skillful and fearless
horseman. Had he altOrnated the
direction Of his ride with every other
horse, and had he been properly fed, it
is morse than likely that he would
have made the distance in the specified
time. The physician who attended
him when he broke down is at loss to
account for his sudden less of sight in
one eye.