The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-01
DANGEROUS SPORT
How an Englishman Came Near
Having His Bones Picked.
DOGS DID THE DRIVING
The Adventure of a GreenhOrn Who Tried
to Drive a Dog Train in
Lower Canada.

New YORK, Feb. 81, 1S91.-[Special cor
respondence of THE HERALD. -"Has the
mail come in yet?"
"Not yet, major; it is expected every
minute"
"Well, tell mail carrier Clapper, a gen
tleman desires to ride to the post with him"
The speaker was Major Colville, of the
Canadian mounted police, quartered at Cal
gary, and whose unexpected guest was
by reason of a sudden heavy fall of snow,
rendering horse travel impossible. AS it
was imperative that l should reach Fort
Mcleod at the earliest possible moment, 1
had arranged, at the majors suggestion, to
leave my horse at Calgary until the road
opened and take advantage of the "dog ex-
press"
Having given the command to his orderly
Colville lit a cigar and said: "By the way,
we had a great circus with a fellow here
last fall. 1t was the funniest accident 1
ever saw, and may interest you. The
shooting being good around here, we have
a lot of Englishmen calling at Cal
gary; some are fine manly fellows, with no
nonsense about them, and others of that in
siderable type of the genus asinus, who
think because they happened to have been
born under the Union Jack they know
everything and can do anything. Last fall
a specimen of the latter class, tall, gawky
and sandy haired, named Tom Bristow,
came out here and was storm-bound as you
have been. He was a decent rife shot,
rode well for a European, and would lave
made lots of friends but for his supercil-
%iousness, drawing tones and languid man
ner, which said as. plain as speech, "Hang-
this country give me-dear-old- England"
This was accentuated by an eye-glass,
which, forever was being screwed into his
eye but obstinately refused to stay there,
and consequently the men 'sized it upn
against him. He fumed and fretted, ana
thematized the snow and the climate, and
refused to avail himself of the dog sleigh
express because I've did not want to leave
his horse; and hurt her, because there was
not room to take along his ''barth,' and he
could not do without his "barth, don't-yer-
know" He became very interested IN the
team, however, and examined the dogs, the
sleigh and the long whip, and asked driver
Clapper all kinks of questions as to the
way OF driving them. When The mail de-
parted he stood gazing after it until Fred
Alcott remarked to him: ''That's a nice
piece of driving isn't it?" He replied: 'Oh,
any fool can drive a dog team. Why, when
| was a boy, l used to drive four goats,
with two st. Demands as leaders, and have
great fun" Alcott laughed and said: eff
you think you can drive that team from
here round that oak tree (about a quarter
of a mile away and back, Ill bet You 500
to $50 you don't do it next week when Clap
per is here again" OF course under the
circumstance Bristow could not reject
such a public challenge, so he accepted the
bet, and the boys prepared for fun.
"These dogs" the major explained in
parenthesis, ''are very difficult TO handle
and very savage. They would as soon eat
a man as look at him, and are only govern
able by moral force. Well, the Britisher
made a whip with a handle two feet in
length and a sixteen foot lash, and prac-
ticed with it until he became fairly dexter
GUS in its use. When Clapper came round
he was told of the wager, and agreed to let
BristoW have the dogs next morning. but
~strenuously advised him to pay and let the
bet go by default. This made him still
more determined, and it was worth a jour
ney to hear him talk. Next morning my
entire contingent turned out to see the fun.
About 9 am. the dogs were harnessed by
Clapper, who, seating himself on the sleigh
behind Bristow drove the team out of the
gates, and then slid off. These dogs are
driven without reins and are guided by the
whip, the sleigh being literally a %toboggan.
Away they went, all serene, until they
reached the turning point. Here Bristow