Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-10-17

! Of course, a rank outsider and hadn't
| a ghost Of chance, but you are eX-
pected to make, at any tate. some
kind of a bid, and to do all you hn nv
10 keep with the other horses. In
stead Of that YOU pulled out of the
race from the start
Yes, sir" answered the jockey in
the most confident tone and with the
greatest alacrity, 'but the horse is
short of work
Then why in thunde. don't you
work hiul in the morning? You have
every chance here and lave jumps
to school him over"
ooh, sir, but this is doing him such
heap Of good"
Can any practical racing man Won
der if the stewards jaw fell and he
concluded to defer any admonition to
a future period?
Some of our jockies nave a large
sense of humOr, but more of them are
uninteDtionally hum 5rous. I shall
never, if J live to be a hundred years
Of age, forget the jockey who asked
me as I entered the paddock, whats
favorite?" The reply was that his
mount was to shot.
Have you seen him?" queried the
knight Of the pigskin. mo- was
the answer, and then with a light
ming expression of scorn the jockey
said: He's as big as a poisoned
pup" The horse was as fat as a
prize OK, but the fiaying he got that
day even did not prevent him from
winning a good race the next time
tout of the box"
Steeplechase jockeys are proverb-
tally devil-may-care fellows, to whom
possible injury or loss of life repre-
sents absolutely nothing. 1t may be
raining so hard that the avera ge
spectator wonders how any man
born of woman can be found fool
hardy enough to tempt fortune over
the jumps. Do the jockeys care?
Not bit of it. The weather and the
condition Of the country are merely
food for chaff. "'Twill be soft falling
today" they remark, with never a
thought of what may follow a fall.
They tell a hard story on Tom -,
an old Irishman who rode across
country before he left the "Ould sod"
Tom was put up, with instructions
not to win by any means, as the
mount of Captain -, the crack
local gentleman jock, was the good
thing. But Toms mount was too
much for him, and, things not going
exactly right, he found himself a
handy winner, with the redoubtable
captain second.
"Tom, you young blackguard, %
halloed the latter worthy, as he
pdlled up, "what the divil do you
mean by winning? You'll have the
hide flayed off We. The moneys all
gone and there's niver a chance TO
save it now"
Tom, despite his unpropitious win,
was no fool. and he quickly an
sWered: "Sure, your honor, | couldn't
help myself but l can fall off now
before 1 get back to scale, and they'll
disqualify me-" And. to cut a long
story short, history does Tom an in
justice if this is not exactly what he
did, and so lost the race and won the
money.
Probably no jockey ever had a big.
ger scare than Spider" Anderson
the time he upset the late Mr..
Withers while skylarking in the
Gravesend paddock. With all the re-
SpCct any true lover of the turf in
evitably entertained for that really
great pillar of racing, it was the fun
niest and most laughable incident
| Imaginable. The spider" grown into
big, cumbersome lad, was fOOling
with some other boys, when he
slipped and went down or the bricks
in true slide, Kelly, slider fashion.
Unluckily for him, his momentum
carried him head first between the
! legs of the late master of Brookdale,
who, losing his equilibrium, sat
down with considerable force on the
small of the colored Jockeys back.
! Anderson quickly saw what had hap
! pened and rose to his knees to receive
! the full force of the remarks that Mr..
| Withers, with umbrella poised in an
! CRY disposition to chastise, summar-
! ily delivered. please, sir, I didn't
mean to do it," he half sobbed, but
/ he was ashen colored before Mr..
Withers had recovered himself suf-
| ficiently to turn on his heel and walk
! off.
There is a lot of humor about the
! Jockeys room. A more variegated
! collection of humanity than gather
| there would be hard to find, and the
! nationalities are we'll represented.
! Here is, at any rate, one place where
| the color line may be said not to
exist, for white and colored mix, and
sometimes fight, without any prejn-
dice Of course when an argument.
! generally about fouling or claim
! Of fouling, grows very warm, one is
! apt to hear pointed illusions to the
) color question, but not ordinarily.
! To most persons the diminutive
: feather weights are interesting and
amusing. In themselves they are
! persons of the first Importance.
! please, mister, there's a man wants
to speak to you a minute" l heard a