The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-09-04
A HORSE RACE.
An Exciting Scene on a Missouri
Fair Ground.

They were horse men. Almost every
one of them had some piece of jewelry
in the shape of horse running or trot-
ting that he wore as a watch-charm or
scarf-pin- AS one drew nearer remarks
could be heard about the speed of such
and such horse, pedigrees were
discussed and fine points argued
Some especially fine event upon
the race-tracll would call forth
exclamations of admiration, and chairs
were drawn closer together as eX-
citing contests of speed were being re-
lated One of the party who had taken
a deep interest in a graphic description
of memorable turf event at the con-
clusion of it remarked:
That's the stuff. You fellows that
sit in the grand-stand and watch a race
think it is exciting, don't you? Well,
it is. / speak from experience o,
yes; rode when ! was Il kid That
was in &c, and we didn't always have a
nice mile-track to ride on. We usually
just Guessed the distance if it nas a
long race, and paced it off if it was
short one. No boollmakers then, and
there We're seldom more than two
starters The stakes We're even up.
1--WE would run anything from a hun
dred-yard pony race to a two-mile
stretch, and even farther If necessary.
That was after the war was supposed
to be over, but bless you it was going
on in that country some time after
wards We had 4 string OF eight head
of horses to run with, and they were
beaters every time. We were doing
southern Missouri, Kansas and Nebras-
+f,i.l-lv-
settled. no railroads there, and very
limited telegraph service, there were
enough dead game sports to make it
interesting. and il a fellow had horse
that he thought was 4 winner and he
was just itching to try his speed for
anything almost pistols, saddles.
horse for horse. or money-all he had
to do was to get ont on the prairie and
declare himself and some ebody-some-
times white man and sometimes an
Indian-would either trot out of the
hazel brush or spring up from the
prairie grass and accept the challen ge-
1t was surprising where they all came
from. 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 my
old man kind of hanl1cred TO mingle in
the slight unpleasantness that was just
over. He was not my own father
adopted me when | was four-year-
old
AT the close of the trouble down
south he bought horses and started
down into Missouri Nou see he Just
wanted excitement He took me with
him and want To say we got what we
were looking for. We fitted up at St
Louis got big wagon and camp ont
fit and the party consisted of the old
man, three St Louis gamblers, two ne
groes, four draft horses, eight racers,
me and bulldog. | was nearly twelve
years old ut that time We started
overland, for the railroad only ran as
far as Sedalia then We headed for
Springfield. 4 few incidents in the
way of short races for small stakes oc-
CURED on the way, hardly worth men
tioning, though I was doing the
riding. We arrived in Springfield after
n journey of ten or twelve days and
there we did strike n pudding.
AT that time there was 4 garrison of
union soldiers near there Everybody
seemed to be able TO rake up a little
money to bet on a horse race. We
quartered the horses, negroes and bull
dog in a livery stable on the public
square and cnsconced ourselves very
comfortably at the Lyon house, then the
leading hotel of the town. Then the
old man made a few remarks publicly
that were calculated to lead the citizens
to infer that he believed he had some
horses that could outrun anything in
those parts and he emphasized his re-
marks 10y exhibiting some cong green
that was branded with the fat of the
United States of America Now just
At that time there happened to be
horse down there called Honest Bob.
He had succeeded in beating everything
that had started against him and his
owner considered him invincible. His
opinion was backed by dollars usually
and his neighbors were perfectly will
ling to furnish any amount that he
needed to make up n purse as large as
anyone might desire to run for. Bob's
distance was a mile. This being the
situation you can readily believe that
the governor did not have to Haunt his
greenbacl1s very long before finding
taker. The race was made the terms
agreed upon and money put up The
distance to he run was two miles.
ntSt toHalillolfS WtTt luSlSItu upon
by the old man because he knew Bob
was very fast for "A mile. The animal
we put up against him was a four-year-
old mare She was awful speedy for
any distance, but two miles was her
speciality. and she was n world heater,
] firmly believe We had two weeks to
train in. Everybody was interested,
and men. women and even children
t,ll
The hackers of Honest Bob gathered in
knots about the public square and
whispered tc each other that il was al
most like a confidence game to take
bets against him. The terms of the
race demanded that it should be run on
certain day, rain or shine, no post
poncment or money should be for
feited by the owner of the horse failing
to start at the crack of the pistol. The
time approached and three days before
the race, right when the excitement
was running high, the governor seemed
to suffer violent spasm of despond-
ency. He confidentially remarked in a
deep boarse whisper that he was afraid
his mare had gone lame This remark
was apparently intended to be heard
only by the person it was addressed to,
but it seemed to reach further and
tickled the ear drum of several at
tentive listeners Then it echoed on
and on until almost everyone in the
country he ard it
'It was quite a revelation to me as i
had given her two mile gallop that
morning and was laboring under the
impression that she had done the last
quarter in a shade better time than
ever before. ] began to get just trifle
apprehensive that had crowded her
little bit too hard and caused the lame