St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1891-09-05
A HORSE RACE.
=" 6xcattng Scene on G Missouri
Fair Ground.

y werc horse men. Almost every
~ tncm had some piece of jewelry
60. - shape Of = horse running or trot-
s snat he wore rs a watch-charm or
p'n- As one drew nearer remarks
DC heard about the speed of such
s." such q horse. pcdigrccs were
ced 80 and fine points argued.
especially fine event upon
~ racc-track would call forth
'smataons of admiration, and CHAIRS
~, drawn closer together A. cx-
eatanx contests of speed were bcins re-
.s:ea One Of the party who had taken
ccep interest in a graphic description
memorable turf event at the con-
eausaon Of it remarked:
that's the stuff. You fellows that
-. IN The grand-stand and watch race
:. .k u Is exciting. don't you? Well,
u. ! speak from experience. O.,
ys' rude when l was a kid That
wes ~ GO. and we didn't always have a
nfce mile-track to ride on. We usually
yess guessed the distance If il was n
song race. and paced it OF il it was a
mort one. No boo!Smallcrs then. and
secre were seldom more than two
stafterA The stakes were even up
We would run anything from a hum
oreo'yard pony race to a two-milc
stretch. and even farther il necessary.
mat WAS after the war was supposed
20 DC over. but bless you it was going
on IN that country some time after
wards We had string of eight head
OF horses to run with. and they were
oeasers every time. We were doing
southern Missouri, Kansas and Nebras-
n Although they were not thickly
oeeucd. NO railroads there, and very
A1ited telegraph service. there were
enough dead game sports to make it
interesting, and If a fellow had a horse
that he thought was a winner and he
was just itching to try his speed for
soything almost = pistols, saddles.
hoese for horse, or moncy-all he had
70 do was to get out on the prairie and
declare himself and somebody-somc-
times white man and sometimes an
lndian-would either trot ont of the
hazel brush or spring up from the
lsairie grass and accept the challenge.
Il was surprising where they all came
fEum- They would run for anything
even wager part of their clothing.
"Well, as said before, we had eight
horses and they were thoroughbred
Kentucky racers at that You see ray
Old man kind of hanlercd to minglc in
The slight unpleasantncss that was just
over. lie was not my own father
adopted mo when I was a four-ycar-
old.
AT the close of the trouble down
south he bought horses and started |
down into Missouri You see he Just !
waited excitement He took me with |
him and want to say we got what VIC
were looking for. We fitted up at St |
Louis. got . big wagon and camp out
1t and the party consisted of the old
man. three St Louis gamblers, two ne
groes. four draft horses. eight racers, /
Ne and . bulldog. l was nearly twelve
yeon old at that time. We started
overland. for the railroad only ran as
lar - Sedalia then. We headed for
A few incidents in the
way Of short races for small stakes oc.
esrTed on the way. hardly worth men,
iionin&. though. was doing the
riding. We arrived in Springfield after
) journey Of ten or twelve days and
here we did strike a pudding.
AT that time there was a garrison of
nnion soldiers near there. Everybody
Deemed to be able to rake up \ little
nOoey to bet on . horse race. We
uunrtercd the horses, negroes aud bull
1sg in . livery stable on the public
Dnunre and ensconced ourselves very
,oafortably at the Lyon house. then the
eaiin1 hotel of the town. Then the
n man made a few remarks publicly I
ho2 were calculated to lead the citizens ,
: infer that he believed he had some {
Issses that could outrun anything in
hose parts and he emphasized his re- I
naxlgs by exhibiting some long green {
~ was branded with the fiat of the Z
Jnieed States of America Now Just ;
4 that time there happened to be
u had succeeded in beating everything
Sst had started against him and his |
wner considered him invincible. His !
pinion was backed BY dollars usually
"A his neighbors were perfectly will I
nx 70 furnish any amount that he c
eeded 10 make up a purse as large as
nyonc might desire to run for. Bobs '
lance was q mile. This being the
|tnstion you can readily believe that {
Z governor did not have to flaunt his t
reenbacks very long before finding a
Iker. The race was made. the terms &
Rrccd upon and money put up The +
ntancc to be run was two miles. b
ssThesc conditions were insisted uron Il
? the old man because he knew B<Hb b
rs very fast for q mile. The animal S
e nut mp against him was four-year- u
q marc. She was awful speedy for e
nv distance, hut two miles was her b
uecialty, and she was world bcater, e
firmly believe. We had two weeks to b
ain in. Everybody was interested, t
I'd men. women and even children il
ere talking about the coming event. q
he hackers of Honest Bob gathered in Il
nots about the public square and a
hispered &c each other that it was al 6
ost like q confidence game to take Il
a against him. The terms of the S:
ee demanded that il should be run on a
certain day. rain CT shine, no post Il
,ncment, or money should be for
BY the owner of the horse failing "
start It the crack of the pistol The b
ne approached and three days before b
. race. right when the excitement y
8 running high. the governor seemed f.
suffer . violent spasn Of despond- h
ey. He coniidentially remarked in . IL
en- boarse whisper that he was afraid ci
. ,are had gone lame. This remark fc
s apparently intended to be heard 81
" by the person Il was addressed to.
4 4 seemed to reach further end
klcd the car drum of several At
tive listeners Then it echoed on r