The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-06-08
GREAT MUSTANG RACE.

Lost after Making Two Hundred and
Twenty-Six Mles-Horses Changee One
Hundred and Ninety-One Times-An In
trepid Rider Blinded on the Track.
lFrom the New York SUM-
Geo. Parker, the ranchero, who en-
gagged to ride thirty mustang horses 305
miles in fifteen hours on the Fleetwood
Park course, broke down after complet-
ing 226 miles in eleven hours and twen-
ty-four minutes. The race was begun
at minute past four o'clock in the
morning. On che completion of the
eightieth mile the violent work began to
tell on Parker. He lost great deal of
the grace and ease with which he had
been riding. He no longer sat erect,
nor did he leap so lightly in mounting
and dismounting. He had changed
racers seventy-two times in the first 100
miles, and this itself was firing. At
the 105th mile rain began to fall, light
refreshing rain at first, but storm after
while. Parker had discarded his jacket
and cap, and was whirling through the
rain in his shirt, bareheaded. His trou
sers had worked up his legs, and bound
his thighs in a score of tight, irritating
wrinkles, that wore theirimpression deep
er and deeper into his flesh. The track
grew heavy, and, instead of cloud of
dust that started from beneath the feet
of his horses, in the early morning, clods
of hard mud were tossed behind, and
even upon him. The horses struggled
through the sticky mud, and the added
toll of forcing into speed the mired beasts
rapidly brought Parker down In both
flesh and spirits. He dismounted pain
fully and staggered, almost fell from one
horse to another, and drew himself upon
each fresh horse with evident pain. His
friends gave him glass of cold water or
iced coffee nearly every time he dis
mounted, and to appease his hunger
he was given at different times a piece
of pie, bit of chicken, or some hard
tack, instead of beef tea or Cruel. At
twenty minutes past eleven, when the
spectators inside and outside the park
must have numbered 5000, he finished
$50 miles in seven hours and nineteen
minutes. He had little time to spare,
and his horses had apparently become
Frustrated. Suddenly he showed his
mettle again, and with the cessation of
the rain he began second brilliant dash
of fifty miles, closing his 2OOth mile at
nine minutes past two o'clock, after q
ride of ten hours and eight minutes.
Had his strength held out he could easily
have run the final 105 miles in time to
gain the wager, but he was preceptibly
failing. Several times during the last
fifty miles he rested for some minutes at
time, to sit down, to eat, to walk, or to
be rubbed and clothed in fresh garments.
He continued to make these delays while
endeavoring to finish the last hundred
miles. It was not that he had lost pluck,
but he had no physical strength to back
it. He had foolishly ridden the race
wholly in one direc6on-a most fatigue
ing exercise. He had spent the best
part of the day without food, and had
filled his heated body with cold water.
He was almost unable to steady himself
on horseback, and those who saw him
were apprehensive that he might either
drop or be thrown from one of the horses.
Finally at twenty-five minutes past 3,
as he finished his 226th mile, and was
supposed to be about to mount the relay
at hand for him, he staggered like q
drunken man, and feeling along the front
of the judges stand, as a man moves in
the dark, with his hands outstretched,
he entered the doorway, reeled one way
and another, and dropped into a chair.
From the chair he fell heavily into the
arms of the rancheros and hostlers.
They laid him on the floor, and bathed
his head until a physician arrived.
am stone blind" the PROSTATE rider
moaned. "Oh, I shall never see again. -
Others urged the rider to mount again,
and to them he replied: "You want to
kill me. I am not strong enough to
move"
With difficulty Parker was raised to
his feet. The physician asked him
questions in reply to which he said that
his eyes had never been diseased and he
did not believe anything hard had struck
the blinded right eye in the race.
Seven or eight thousand spectators
anxiously waited for the PROSTATE man
to reappear and ride again. THEN num-
bers increased by train and wagon loads,
and the utmost excitement prevailed.
When they saw the exhausted rider borne
along the track to his lodging place in
the arms of his friends, they watched
him until he disappeared behind the
outbuildings, and then, without any
demonstration, they quietly dispersed.
A long train, full of business men hurry
ing to the race track, arrived just as the
foremost among the returning specta-
tors reached the depot, and all returned
together.
During the race Parker changed horses
191 times, using each of the thirty horses
six times, and some of them oftener.