The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-03-03
SMaersna gntellfgeaeer'
The DeacOn's Race.


''Whcn | was youngster, said
Kentucky horse raiser to Washington
Star reporter the other day, II lived
in a highly respectable blue grass
town with an old uncle and aunt, who
were seeing to the proper bringing up
of their only and we'll beloved nephew.
Among their possessions were two
horses and negro boy, who took care
of them, and those horses and that
boy we're my especial delight. After
my first winter in town. and when the
weather began to soften in the spring,
the boy and | were accustomed to ride
the horses to pond to water, which
was perhaps three quarters of mile
from the stable, half of which distance
was through the town. Itsoon became
our custom when the horses had
finished drinking to let them go full
tilt for home, and the speed they
attained was startling, SO fast in fact,
that we soon had to take to the alleys
and run them to the stable that way
I suppose we had been keeping this up
for three months, and the horses had
got so that they would scarcely wait
to drink before they wanted to be off,
when one Sunday my uncle and aunt
concluded they would go to meeting in
the country-my uncle was staid and
severe deacon in the Presbyterian
Church-and c for a change they rode
the horses instead of driving them.
AS luck would haveit, they came back
to town over road that led by the
pond where Jim and I watered the
horses, and as it was about watering
time as they passed, they stopped and
let the horses drink. OF fcourse, uncle
and aunt had perfect confidence in
their 'critters, and were not expecting
any demonstrations, but as soon as
those horses had taken good, long
pull at the water and lifted their heads
to take a look around it seemed to
occur to them all at once that that was
the time to cut and run for the stable.
"And they did. My eye, how they
did. Down the road for the first
quarter of mile, past the houses of
three deacons in opposite churches,
with their families sitting out on their
galleries in the cool of the evening
then on past the minister's house
they went like the wind, my uncle
doing all he could to hold the beast
and my aunt frightened out Of her
wits by the unexpectedness of it,
doing all she could to hold herself on
her horse back. Uncle's hat few of
as he turned into the first alley, OF
rather as the horse turned him into
the alley, and four boys with three
dogs got hold of it and came bowling
after. My aunt's horse always made
his squirt at this point, and as hel
skirts few at the mercy of the wind,
he gave wild plunge and dashed ahead
Of my uncle. AS they sped up the
alley people on the streets where the
alleys crossed hurried out of the way
and gazed in awestruck wonder as the
deacon and his geod wife scurried
along on Gathering hoofs. The usual
Sunday quiet had prevailed, and the
noise Of the racing steeds seemed to
fill all the town, and people soon began
to run out on the streets and inquire
what was going on. At last the horses
reached the stable, and there, without
any trouble at all, they stopped and
waited to be let in, as usual. don't
know what would have happened to
me when my part, though wholly
unintentional, in the affair, became
known to my uncle, had it not been
for my aunt, who had an eye to the
ludicrous, and she got me off with only
one application of the hickory, while
the negro boy got twice as much. My
uncle was not on pleasant terms with
me for several months, however,
because he was jollied about his horse
race for a long time, and every fresh
jar he would get on it would react
upon me. I may say, in conclusion,
though, that my aunt did not stand by
me when he said that Jim and I would
suffer severe pains and penalties if
there were any more running of the
horses.