Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-12-24
WHEELING REoIsTERNs gg6fNDAY. DEoEMBER q. 1888

Young horse went on chipping points
from his record until he reached 2:09H,
at that time the fastest time ever made
ty a stallion or by a ~5-year-old trotter.
His %unfinching gameness, his grand
appearance in action and his good
breeding made him the idol OF turfmen
and the most valuable trotting horse In
the world. Innumerable efforts were
made to purchase him. The agents OF
Marcus DAILY, the Montana copper king,
offered SIPS, 900 for Allerton. Williams
deliberated for days and then declined
to sell. This was his second costly
error.
MusFoRTUNEs CONE THICK AND FAST.
The ~bewildering success of the Inde-
pendence races Of 1891 removed what
ever doubt Williams may have enter
tanned touching the feasibility OF con-
Quoting a metropolitan race meeting al
a way station in Northern Iowa, and
the headstrong plunger projected for
the next season 2 two weeks meeting
with 500, 600 offered Ia purses and
stakes. To accommodate the CROWDS
which had before been chiefly depend
ent on side-tracked Pullman cars and
private residences about town, Williams
wanted q hotel. In the erection OF q
structure which would bring credit to
a city Of 100, 900 inhabitants and in con-
structing an electric street railway be
accordingly expended $3.50, 600 during
spring of 1885, giving an unrecorded
blanket mortgage on all his property
horses excepted to secure 100000 OF
this amount. This proved 10 Do MS
third and fatal blunder.
Misfortues soon came upon him thick
and fast. Allerton, who babe fair to
win an unprecedented sum on the turf,
wreuched an ankle in his first race and
had to be retired. The ambitious Au-
gust meeting of 1892. while it produced
a series Of most brilliant harness races,
was but poorly attended and the ven
ture proved a financial failure. Ihen
came the slump in trotting stock, when
withered values until they were less
than before the boom Of 1878. Aller-
toms stud fee fell from $1,000 to 500,
which meant q shrinkage OF S3O,OOO
or more in the stallion's earning capac-
ity. Many OF the stakes which VIII
liams opened during the winter season
for his summer meeting OF 1898
failed to Gil and were declared OIL Tor
lack OF entries, and the outlook for the
enterprising Independence mar became
serious. His creditors took fright, aud
to make themselves secure they placed
on record their 500. 900 mortgage. This
move created the impression that VIII
liams was In financial straits and would
be unable TO pay his purses at the ap-
preaching August meeting, which OPP
Grated TO keep many horsemen away.
The meeting was consequently an al
most total failure, but Williams did not
fail to discharge every obligation in
cash, even at the height OF the financial
panic.
To those who are best acquainted
with the man aud his affairs this latest
moveo OF Williams is not altogether q
surprise. He was highly lncensed when
the matter OF his mortgage became
known and injured his credit, claiming
the holders had broken faith with him
by placing il on record. IL Is said he
then threatened to step down and out,
leaving the mortgages with a race
track plant on their hands. The as
signment is understood TO have been
purely voluntary. Williams was not
forced into the action. On the con-
trary, he might have had his own time
to pay the one debt he owed. But the
man simply decided to sacrifice every
thing and begin anew rather than try
to carry the load Of interest ne had
s%houldered.