The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-06-14
NaOwHERrEE,s DEATH.
How a Grea. Race Horse showed His
Blood

u
How Great Race Horse Showed His
Blood
ST. Louis Times.
When McWhirter and Mahlstick
came down the quarter stretch to COM
piete the second mile, it was neck and
neck at a steady, even run. Sixty
yards away from the string, Mahlstiek
without increasing speed, suddenly ap-
peared in the lead. "McWhirter is
giving down. cried out some excited
spectator. It was a true warning.
One leg had failed him, but he kept on
gallantly, for the game blood was hot.
Had Knox, the little colored jockey
refined him in, the life of a noble horse
might have been spared, aud be might
have served In the stud for years. But
he could have controlled the
excited animal, there stood in the way
Uncle Abe's Instructions TO make the
race from start TO finish, or in old John
Harper's expressive language, from
lend to end"
M'wHIRTER KEPT ON.
1t was virtually on three legs. He
rounded the lower turn and was well
into the second quarter of the last mile,
there being just a perceptible Stacking
OF the gate, when Jue Rhodes over
hauled him aud went by. AS the horse
passed Mc'Vhirter swerved, and then
it was that Knox, the rider, says the
other fore leg gave down. From that
point the poor fellow plunged ahead
and into the last half mile, every jump
tearing teHdons, muscles, flesh and
skin, and Knox Juggling at the reins.
When at last the Roadway slackened
-. n h. h, RI hnlN
it was with the bones of both fore legs
TORN FROM THE SOCKETS
of the ankle joint and pretruding six
inches through hide and flesh and rest
ing in the dirt, the hoOfs lying limp
and useless before. The sudden halt
sent the jockey flying oyer the horses
head.
That scene and those that followed
were fortunately located on the back
stretch, and the little crowd of about
fifty who went, partially concealed the
sad spectacle from the field glasses in
tile grand stand. Had the accident
been flashed where 1t began, on the
last quarter, it would have spoiled the
sport with many turf lover for days
over to the back stretch, turned sick at
''sHooT HIM
for Gods sake," was the prompt in
structions of the owner when he learn
ed the full extent of the misfortune.
AS soon as the jockey got out of the
dirt he had stripped the horse of pig
skin and trappings and stood crying
at the Wotul picture when the first of
the spectators reached the place. Nc
Whittier thus stood pitched forward
and two thirds of his weight resting
on the protruding bones tor fifteen
minutes, painting with the exertion of
the race. The fire CLEANED in his eyes
and the perspiratinn rolled down his
sides. AS the little group of Mortified
spectators stood about him, he looked
around as if surspTised that no trainer
hurried up with sponge and blanket.
Alas, for McWhirter! not only was
his last race run, bu5 there was no
more use for trainer.
The command to S'shoot him" came
perhaps fifteen minutes after the acct
dent, tor the news of the condition of
Nc w hiFter Travelled slowly back across
the wide field. nobody at first caring
to tell what had happened, to old Gen.
Buford, the owner. When the COM
mand did come, the half dozen po-
licemen looked at each other with no
pleasant anticipation of such task.
Officer Keeble, of the Fifth District,
a man experienced in horse matters,
undertook it. He took his stand on the
left side of McWhirter, and using a
Colts navy, fired at close range. The
ball struck square about midway be-
tween the eye and the base of the ear,
and from the hole the streaming blood
gushed forth. At the report the horse
threw himself back on his launches,
and struck out with his mangled fore
legs, but dropped down again into the
same steady position, and stood there.
Three times the officer leveled his
weapon and fired. Each time the bull
let entered the brain and the blood
gushed out. at the third shot Nc
Whittier hobbled across the track and
stood by the fence. 1t seemed as if he
would never fall. AS he painted the
blood would squirt out upon the fence
and run from his mouth and nose in
great clots. finally the officer stepped
directly in front of the now falling
horse and putting the muzzle of the
pistol almost to the forehead fired, the
ball entered right between the eyes.
The horse dropped then, but it was
not till long after he had been dragged
into the southeast corner of the grounds
underneath the shade of a great oak,
that life finally went out.
Jockeys and trainers grathered about
him with the most marked manifesto
lions of sorrow. The name, which
had been braided and tied with the
Buford colors, red and white, was
sheared off and carried away as keep
sakes.
1t was declared at first that the bones
of the fore legs had been broken. To
any one acquainted with the anatomy
of race horses this seemed impossible,
and it proved not to have been the
case. At the conclusion of the races,
and while tho grave was being dug,
GEN. Mitchell and other well known
hOrsemen made an examination. In
one sense, perhaps, both OF McWhir-
ter's legs were broken; but was not
bone fracture. Tendons and mus
cles were torn apart and the bones
disjointed. The accident was what is
known ameng horsemen as
"BREAKING DOWN"
It happens occasionally on race
tracks, but probably there was never
seen so aggravated q case as this. The
"breaking down. of one leg occurred
just before completing the second mile
and the other gave way when Joe
Rhodes slipped past. After that Nc
Whittier ran on the stumps for a fur
long, Gripping himself to the death.
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