The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-19
DEATH OF LEE SHANER
Stricken Down at the Great Falls
Race Meeting.
HORSEMAN
Had Suffered Untold Misery for Twenty
Years-He Was a Unique Figure
Among the Horsemen of
the Country.

: Great Falls. Sept. 1s.-The only thing
which has happened to mar the plea
sure Of the race meeting here was the
death of Lee Shaner. the California
horseman. at $50 this morning. He is
known from one coast to the other.
For several years he has not been a
strong man, and during the past two
years he has been more or less troubled
with weakness of the heart. His last
trip TO Montana has been harder on
him than any before. and to the few
men who knew him he has confided
from time to time the fact that he was
a very sick man. Yesterday afternoon
he was at the race track where his
horse Granger won the hurdle race,
and il was not long after the race be-
gan that he was taken down with
weakness and a physician summoned.
An ~hypodermic injection of morphine
was given him and he was laid down
in the shade of his stable on a pile OF
blankets. He insisted that he would
soon be all right and would remain
until the close of the hurdle race. in
which he was interested n which was
the las number on the programme.
w. p. Fine, a lifelong friend and a
fellow Californian, was with him just
prior to the race and Shaner asked
him to go to the track and see how the
horse ran and how the boy rode him.
Fine complied and when he returned to
tell him that his horse had won, he
found his friend p~erceptibly weakened
by the news told by another a minute
or so before.
Shaner was placed in a carriage and
driven to town as soon as possible. To
Mr.. Lawrence, who accompanied him,
he said that he was very sick and that
he really did not care whether he lived
or died. He had suffered untold misery
for 20 years and If ii was ended now by
death he would be grateful. His friends
were with him through the night, but
he continued to sink and died at $50
a. m.
Among horsemen he was a unique
figure. He had followed the business
all Of his life and during the last 20
years had done nothing else. He had
built up for himself a reputation that
rivals that of Budd Doble, Splan, Hic-
kok or any of the others against whom
he had driven so many times. but no
one had ever seen him take a drink or
a cigar or heard a p~rofane word leave
his lips. The stranger would at once
have taken him for a professional man
and there was not a trace of the typi-
cal horseman in his makeup. To his
companions even he was a puzzle. He
had little or nothing to say to any save
the very few with whom he was forced
to converse. and II is related that he
could not tell the name of a jockey
whom he had seen every day for the
past ten years. He attended strictly to
his own business and cared little for the
affairs of others. And all Of this in
spite of the fact that his name was
closely connected with the race track
fame of such horses as Lot Slocum.
Lady H, Adonis, Sidmore. Whitmores
Dawn. Alteo and Chris Peterson. His
2 areer had started with running horses
- -, vvo ~ HaH fuyn or thvpa in his
string. but up to two years ~ he was
always thought Of as an owner and
one Of the most skillful drivers Of har-
ness horses in the country. Since that
time he has returned 10 running horses
and with these he had started toward
as great a success as he had achieved
with the other class. One harness race
alone in which ne drove brought to
himself and the other owners Of Lot
SIocum over $40, 900, and his success
was proportionately as great with other
t~rotters and PAGERS, several Of which
held a record of nine and one-half sec
onds.
AS near as may be learned tonight
he was Al years OF age. He leaves 2
wife but no children. Mrs. Shaner Is
with her parents at the little town OF
Bloomfield, in Sonoma county, Cal, 4
miles from San Francisco. The saf
news was wired TO her this morning by
Mr.. Fine and the body win be shipped
Tomorrow evening without services IL
the CITY. Until Instructions are re.
ceived from Mrs. Shaner, Mr.. Fine vii
take charge of the horses and vii
probabl- continue to run them here un.
til the close Of the meeting. While +
is hardly possible for a man of sucf
reticent disposition TO become exactly
popular, he was one who may be safely
said to possess the respect Of every
one on the track or in other walks o.
life and the words spoken of him thi,
afternoon by a brother horseman form
a very fitting epitaph: 81 wish ever
one an The track mas like him