The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-04

finest lot of distance runners ever pro
 duced in England, or anywhere else for
 that matter. Among the prominent
 ones were Bill Richards, of Millwall; Bill Lang, the Crowcatcher, of Man chester; Jack Fleet, also of Manchester; Jack White, of Gateshead, and who was here with the London Athletic club last fall; Sam Barker, of Billingsgate; Jones,
 of Islington, and the great favoyite Ted dy Mills, Young England"
 The sketch of Deerfoot's career abroad as telegraphed from Buffalo is altogether wrong. He was taken in charge by Dick Lewis. of Hackney Wick, who after one or two running matches pitted him against Teddy Mills then little more than a slim boy. | They met at six miles and Mills won, | then at ten miles and Deerfoot won. so | a, third match of eight miles was made and they ran a dead heat. About half way in the race Mills left shoe began | to twist under his foot, but he did not stop; finally he got it so that he kicked | it off and ran the last three miles with one bare foot. At the finish of the race | the people crowded into the narrow path and just as the runners reached | the beginning of this narrow human gorge a policeman got in the way. | Deerfoot struck the policeman with his right shoulder and was knocked on to Mills. They righted themselves and dashed for the tape and the referee de- 1 clared it a dead heat. Many years af- terward one who stood at the tape told l the writer that Deerfoot just won, but ,aJ coticfiaH yith fhn de- cision in view of the grand race and the
 accident at the finish. The Prince ot
 Wales had Deerfoot and Mills present.
 ed to him after this race, which shows l how much interest the American was exciting in England. Mills wore the | princess half sovereign on his watch chain for many years, but Deerfoot ] probably disposed of his at the first op- portunity.
 1 Dick Lewis then got up traveling company and by means of stakes and canvas made inclosures sufficiently | large to be used as running grounds where such could not be secured. The l troupe travelled for a year through the 1 United Kingdom, and it was always understood that the men iran to or ders," and Deerfoot, who gave the other | handicaps, was probably first more ire quently than would otherwise have I been the case That, however, had | nothing to do with his great races, one | of the most important of which was the great twelve-mile race at Brompton, | London, on April 3, 1863 To this day three of Deerfoot's records made in that
 race still stand, eleven miles in 56m. 52s.. twelve miles in 1h. 2m. 21ss and the eleven miles 970 yards in the hour. Deerfoot's age was then given as thir- | ty-seven, and that would make him
 seventy years of age at his death, but it
 is said he was but sixty1eight years old. The interest in the Indian and long distance running dying out, he returned | to America, and about the first place he | landed in was the Tombs Police court. The late Charles J. Foster used to tell l the story of how, when he was editor of the Spirit of the Times" a messenger | from the Tombs Police court came one morning and asked him to step down
 and see the magistrate about a strange l prisoner they had. It was Deerfoot who had arrived with a pocketful of | English sovereigns, watches and jewell ' | ing an Indian. MT. Foster explained who he was and his undoubted right to his cash and effects and Deerfoot was started homeward. His last public per- formance was at Toronto in the summer of 1880, when 9 six days race was at- tempted and Deerfoot was engaged as
 an attraction. He was even then fair ly we'll preserved man, but had lost the
 use of one eye, and seemed to thorough ly enjoy talk over the old London days with one who could give him the latest news of his old opponents. He
 was undoubtedly a great runner, and although such men as Lang, Richards,
 Mills and White could in turn lead him up to about eight miles, after that no one could hold him. How good he could Ehaye been made will never be known, for Dick Lewis could not get him to
 train or diet, and was always in dread
 as to the effects of a severe race follow ing immediately after a hearty meal of
 jindigestible food, but all seemed alike
 to Deerfoot. He was the last man to
 lecture on physical training, as has
 4+