The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-11-18
he IS THE AMERICAN WELLER
Fair Reminder Of 0Id.Tlme Coachman as
Pictured In PlckwIck Papers.
NOT OF THE GREAT FOUR HUNDRED.
Though Born 10 Wealth and Once Year Asso.
caled With the Uppsrcust Of Society, He is
In No Sense a Member of Il.

NEW YORK, Nov. 1s.-(Speciall Com
petent observers say the success of the
Madison Square Garden horse show this
year has so far been quite up to Its highest
level. They also declare that the popular
ity Of Charles +. Bates-commonly called
Fatty" Bates-as an appendage of the
show. has in nowise diminished, especial
ly among the grooms and stable boys
1t would be difficult TO explain to the
reader who has never attended the New
York horse show just how important a
feature of that annual exhibition of well
trained equine and human creatures
Fatty Bates has como to be, and il
would be difficult for any one familiar
with the show TO understand how IL could
be run at oil without him. Some of his
admirers declare that he was created chief
ly that he might add 10 the show humor-
Gus features, while Others opine that the
show must have been brought into being
by the irresistible logic Of events chiefly
that Fatty" might have an annual oppor-
tunity to display himself. AT all events
the man and tho exhibition fit each other
ly TO tho Joy OF the nations in the middle
week OF each November.
'Fatty" an American Weller.
Those who have read their "PickwicN
Papers" with true appreciation will get
some notion Of "Fatty's" personality from
the statement that he Is pretty fair re-
minder Of the old time English coachman
represented In that book by the elder
Weller.
1t is true that FATTY" Is an American
and not Briton. 1t is true that he Is much
younger than the immortal person whose
second matrimonial venture led to SO
much phlosophizing regarding 'widders"
i'm genera, and In particular Ii is true that
Fatty" has altogether too much wealth
ever to need to drive coach for living
and that be was born into this world too
late to follow that calling, anyway.
1t is true also that his views OF life may
be slightly more sophisticated in many re-
spects than were those of sam Wellers
"am' able PARENT" but i'm spite of all
these things il Is impossible for the spec
tator TO gaze on the ample form of Fatty"
Bates on the box as he drives his horses
round the ring; To behold his expansive,
all pervasive smile; 10 hear his chuckling,
throaty laughter, without being forcibly
reminded of tho most genial Character
ever portrayed 10y the pen of Dickens.
Not of the -Four Hundred.
Though born to wealth and in way
associated once year with the gilded cir
Gle known as the Four Hundred, Fatty"
Bates is In no sense member OF that
coteric, aud his annual prominence at the
function which It's members patroniZe so
extensively has led TO many protests from
them.
But it would be exceedingly impolitic
TO shut him cut, both because his horses
are always among the very finest entered
and because he Is himself as great an at.
traction TO the hoi polloi, whose dollars,
after all, IL is that make the horse show
profitable, as the handsome, splendidly at
tired society men and women who sit In
the boxes TO be stared at. Besides, his
exhibits are invariably numerous enough
to mako his entrance money well worth
having.
"He Is tho first man, )" said horse show
expert today, THAT the treasurer of the
show looks TO, and the last man the So
ciety exhibitor Of mediocre animals likes
TO see in the list of exhibitors.
The first appearance of Fatty" Bates
In the Madison square Garden arena was
made some 10 or l2 years ago. He was
then little moro than "A boy, but bis tend
ency to rotundity had already manifested
itself TO such an extent rs To mako him
nltogetEer tho funniest feature Of the oc-
casion when he drove his horses into tho
ring. His appearance was hcralded by
i'll yclls and cheers from tie attend
nnts, among whom he had distributed
Eandfuls Of beer money, and before their
cries had died away the entire vast amphi.
thcater had broken out I'm u roar of sIon-
taneous laughter.
The "Fntty" Bates Smile.
IL was then that horse show habitues
got their first sight of the Fatty" Bates
smile. He showed mob the slightest trace
OF resentment at the fact that the multi
tudc took him for the biggest joke OF tho
occasion. On tho contrary, he enjoyed IL
quite as much as any one present, and that
smile, beginning under tho shadow cast
by his wide brimmed coaching dicer,
trickling over broad stretch of ruddy
check, expanding a mouth not too small
I'm any circumstances and losing itself
somewhere In the back of tho neck, made
IL clear to every one that ho was tho very
essence Of good humor.
And as ho drove dashincly round the
ring, handling the ribbons with an ease
and a confidence that bad not yet been
matched by any Of tho exhibitors, he won
for himself degree of respect among the
spectators that was quite ON "a par with tho
regard they already felt for him a. a mirth
proyokcr. Ever since that timo Fatty"
Bates has been exactly what be now Is, n
combined joke for the delectation Of the
jovial minded and "a icy TO behold as an
expert rcinsman. 1t might be possible for
the show to run without his presence, and
there are those especially among the ex.
hibitors, who would rejoice To know that
he had forsworn the exhibition forever,
but no single imaginable untowsrd cir
eumaance would shock the managers
more than the announcement that bis
horses must hereafter be left out Of the
lists
DRIVES Most of the Time.
Patty" Bates now claims New York as
bic abiding place, but be was born In