Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-09-11
CAN A HORSE FLY.

4. H.. 100 . ... I'll 20 =
-"Can your horse fly ?" asked the
rider of Hindu, one day, of the jockey
of a rival steed. who was presumptu-
onsly Boosting of his horses capsbil-
lilies. "No, not exactly" was the re-
ply, shut he can run mighty fast"
1--WE can beat you them" said the
other, t.for we can beat anything that
can't fly y Evidently we shall have
horses presently which a fly, for
the fast trotters are gradually whit
thing down the record until presently
they will be trotting a mile in no
time at all. The Times dispatches
from Hartford, this morning, contain
the Interesting details of the most
remarkable itrotting feat yet oil re-
cord. namely, the trotting of a mile
in two minutes and eleven and a
quarter seconds by St. Julien, the re-
tdohbtable gclding whose previous
feaIs have astonished the sporting
world. Maud s.. who had shared the
glory Of ST. Jnlien's 2:114, is now left
u crueih half secoud IN the shade, and,
for all the fame she will have now,
or until she beats ST. Julien, might
az we'll be away back somewhere in
the teens. A quarter of q second OH
q trotting horses record is almost as
much as an inch on ihrend of u mans
nose. But Maud s. will presently be
making The mile in 2:lOa, probably,
and IL she does not some other horse
will, aud she will thus be revenged
on her rival. or a
Certainly the history of trotting i'll
this country encourages the idea that
the limit of speed has not yet been
reached, and that other horses will
60 IN pulling the record down until
TIVE minutes, and even less, is reach
ed. Men who are still young can re-
| member when ESQ was considered
extraordinary time, aud when Flora
Temple made e mile in 2: % there was
an intense enthu siasm all over the
country. MI. Robert Bonner, who
had even then conceived his barbarous
idea of a. horse lnnnItery, Nip which
PfaSt tfotters Of either sex could take
Che veif aud retire from the world,
made a,speech about Flora Temples
2:22, which was copied and read with
avidity all over the country. People
thought then that the highest possible
speed that could be made had been
reached. A careful calculations was
made, which showed hat a horses
legs could not be made to go any
faster than Flora's had been made TO
| 20, and that consequently the limit
had been reached. But!thisl ~calcuIa-
ton, like that of the man OF science
who demonstrated c~Onclusively that
a steamboat could not carry coal
enough to fire her across the Atlantic,
and whose figuring was badly upset
by the unexpected arrival of q steam
era in New York harbor from Liver
pool, was destined to be overthrow.
flora Temple herself made better
time Dexter made. l2:17; and this
was considered q wonder o the
world. There is no telling how much
better time Dexter might have made
IL Bonner had let him alone. After
Dexter had taken the veil American
Girl made u mile in 2:164. Hopeful
brought the record down to q: IA.
Goldsmith Maid diminished the fig
ures to 2:14. Rarus Whitfield off u
quarter, aud presently another quar-
ter. ST. Julien, at Oakland, Cal, last
year, brougbtgtbe record clean out of
the teens with 2:12a. Since tina time
notn ST. Julien and Maud S. have
made . mile in 1:114, and yesterday
st. Julien accomplished it in 2:114.
Where is this progression by dimin-
ution going to- end? Is there any
good reason why horses may not
eventually be able TO trot a mile in
two minutes, or even less2 1t will
not do to say that it is physically i'm
possible for a horse to trot any faster
than two minutes, for the same ar
gumeut which counts in favor of such
AL assertion counted IN favor of the
assertion that.a horse could not trot
faster than 2:22. 1t was calculated to.
asnicety then, aud now there are six
ty-five horses living which have beat
en- that record. Why may not trot-
ting i'll 2:10 be as common in ten years
as trottiug in 2:2O is now? The
"charmed circle" of the trotters once
included those which could trot in
''2:4O on q plank road !" now it in
cludes those which can troL in 2:3O /;
presently it will admit only those
which have beaten 2:20, and thus the
dlminuiion will go on. But it must
stop sOmew here, for it is hardly con.
celvable that horses car ever be bred
that will trot as fast as the fastest
runners can run But the limit, what
ever 1t may be, can only be ascertain
ed by experience. When ten years
have passed by, in which the best re-
cord then made hsl II not have been
beaten, it may be safely assumed that
the highest speed for a trotting horse
has been reached.
1t is needless to say that all these
great trottiDg achievements are with
out parallel in any other country in
the world. Europeans seem to care
very little about trOtting. In Russia,
q G country which resembles the United
States IN many respects, some a,teu-
tisn has been paid TO the breeding of
fast t%rotters, aud the Orlof stud,
bred by Russian nobleman, has &C
CURED q certain reputation on the
continent. Prince Orlof has taken
some Of his Tfsst trotters to Paris,
Ewherethey have caused some excite
ment among Parisians who devote
themselves to le sport; but the Frepch
had to borrow the word "trotting'
from the English in order to describe
the performance. Probably few have
ever thought of the reason why trot-
ting horses should be classed among
peculiarly American institutions, but
it lie not hard TO find. 1t has always.
been the custom of Americans to
drive for pleasure, rather than ride.
The light, wagon III which the Amer
lean has ridden for the past century
is unknown, in Europe. Naturally
the use of this light wagon, which
the Americans taste caused him to
prefer to the riding palfrey or the
'coach-and-six, led him to develop in
his horses the best pace for the road,
which is the trot. Rivalry among
gentlemen as TO who could drive the
soonest over a given distance on the
road led to trotting races on the high
roads. The earliest trotting races on
record are for long distances on the
common road. In 1886 the horse
Ariel trotted fifty miles iii New York
state in three hours, IS minutes and
40 seconds. In 1845 Fanny jerks
trotted l01 miles in 9 hours, AZ mim-
utes and 81 seconds, and in 1855, Con-
queror trotted 108 miles on Long
leland in 8 hours, SIS minutes and SO
seconds. From tests like these the
development to race courses and
short.distance heats were a natural
transition, and the preference for
trottIng over running. which had it's
foundation in the habits of the
American people. became stronger
and stronger. Trotting Is not likely
ever to be popular in Europe, for the
| reason tina the taste for IL ia nuf