The age-herald., 1897-09-12
RISE OF THE PAGER.
Star Pointers Feat Fixes the Side
 Wheeler's Fame Forever.
THE GAIT ONCE DESPISED
Prior to 1877 the Lateral Flyer Was Not Tolerated on the Big Tracks. The Big Four" that First Broke the Ice. e.l

New York, Sept. 11.-Star Pointer has fixed the fame of the pacer high in the history of the harness world and the men who have been fighting the rise of the side-wheeler for the past twenty years, are now knuckling to the mightiest achievement ever &C., complished by harness horse.
 Prior to 1877 the pacer was an out cast in the horse world. He was not tolerated in regular tracks. In these days the horse that moved both feet on the same side at the same time was regarded as fit subject for the ex- ecutioner's bullet. The true blue horsemen despised him with a hearty vigor that could not be understood these days.
 This was the condition of affairs in 1877 when four rackers who had been waging the fiercest kind of split heat war against one another on the little tracks of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsyl- vania, suddenly obtained recognition at the more important meets. These side-wheelers were Sleepy George, Lucy, Sweetser, and Bay Sally and they soon became famous as the Big Four" While of plevian blood and steppers of the despised &gait these horses put up the fiercest fights that had ever been seen and proved them selves game from the rose to the hind most hoof. nt
 It was in this notable year of 1877, that the Cleveland Driving Park hung up the first purse ever offered for pacers on the Grand Circuit. It was s1,0oO, and Sleepy George who was far and away the best of the entries, was ho i7at, ,od hu la fn wagon while the others were hitched to sulkies. George was as blind as bat but he was only beaten a nose by Sweetser in the first heat in the rat ting time of 2:18, half second slower than the champion record of Poca- hontas which had stood since 1855
 That race was the beginning of the fame of the pacer and the lateral gait ed horse has steadily grown in popu- larity ever since. This has been par ticularly the case during the past half dozen years when many trainers have taught fashionably bred trotters the side gait, getting increased speed and greater earning capacity.
 Natural gaited pacers who had been forced by artifcials appliances to trot, have been permitted to return to the pace notable case being the mare Minnie R., who had been taught to trot in 2:19, but when she was allowed to pace she clipped many seconds from this record.
 It has been estimated that ninety five per cent of the pacers in training to-day are the product of trotting-bred stock. This shows the tendency of the times better than anything else. The few old-timers who have always been the friend of the pacer can find abundant cause for joy in the fact that Star Pointer is the only free-for-all pacer of orthodox blood on the turf to-day. John R. Gentry, Joe Patchen, and Robert J.. his three most danger ous competitors, have not an ounce of genuine pacing blood in their veins
 Take John R. Gentry for instance. , His sire, Ashland Wilkes, trotted to a record of 2:17k. and he was by Red Wilkes, the son of George Wilkes, out of Daisy B., by Administrator, and she out of a daughter of the imported English running horse The Knight oi St. George Gentry's dam, Dame Wood was by the noted trotting stallion Wedgewood. 2:19. son of Belmont an,