The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-07-07
RACE UP A MOUNTAIN
AKANAKA RUNNER DlSTANCED HALF
A DOZEN HORSES.

did any of you ever hear of 80 |
mile steeplechase for man and beast?"
inquired one of the California men in
q party of turf followers when stories
of queer bets and long shots were 60
ing around. "Well, there was an af-
fair of that kind down in the Hawai-
ian bunch in the fall of 1888, when
that genial chile concarne proposition,
Kalakaua, was king Of the islands
There were no telephones joining the
islands then, and state messages and
mandates were carried by the inter
island steamers and delivered by Ka-
naka runners. These runners could
gallop all day, like American Indians
in retreat or on the trail, and they
didn't know what getting winded or
tired meant.
"Kalakaua thought q good deal of
these runners of his. He always main
tanned that they could 60 faster and
farther than horses over the rough
Hawaiian country. In this he was dis
puted by n number of the white at
taches of his court. Kalakaua wager
ed $1,000 in gobs of 81 900 with five of
them that he would pick out a runner
from among his Kanakas who'd get
from IIilo to the top of the burning
lake of Kilauea, a distance of 80 miles,
quicker than any horse and any rider
could do the trip. They snapped the
king up at even money. 1t looked as
If they had the good end of it, The
king and a big party from Honolulu
sailed in one of the interisland steam
ers to Hilo, on the main island of Ha-
wall. to see the finish.
THE king picked out n huge, 1.-the,
sinewy Kanaka. man about 80 years
old who had been employed as a run
ner on the island of Maui for n num-
Der of years, to try the trick for him.
Eight kanakas made the start
a-horseback, on native ponies, bred
away back from western cayuses-
strong, sure footed, nppy tempered lit
tie demons, thoroughly used to the bad
roads and the climbing. The king and
his party had gone up to the Volcano
House, at the top of Kilauea, in coach
es the day before TO be on hand to
greet the winner.
"Now, | understand that that road
from Hilo up to the burning lake of
Kilauea has been improved since the
time I'm speaking of, but it surely was
bad trail then. 1t was only wide
enough for one wagon, and it was
about a 40 degree affair in the climb
all the way up. The palms that lined
the road used to get blown across the
trail by the score in big windstorms.
and the coach drivers counted it part
of their business to jump from their
seats every time they came to these
distractions and shoulder them out
of the way. This work had all been
attended to carefully, however, in ad-
vance of the race by order of Kala-
kaua, and it loked like a pipe for the
cayuses, all of which had made the
run up many time.
'Kalakaua didn't ask for any handi-
cap allowance for his man. The run
her toed the scratch with the horses,
and they got off together at the crack
of the gun. The horses distanced the
runner from the jump, and he let them
distance him. He was dressed in Il
G string, and he just took up steady
lope and let the cayuses get out of his
sight. For ten miles the cayuses We're
so far above him on the trail that he
couldn't even see them, but this Kama
ka knew how to wait. The horses be-
gan to come back TO the runner long
before the Half Way House was reach
ed, and the Kanaka was just galloping
along at the beginning of the third
hour with the same big stride he had
started in with, his arms up and shoot
ing out in front of him like soldiers on
the double time drill There wasn't a
pant in him when he fetched up at the
Half Way House. He stopped down
there to a spring beside the road and
took couple mouthfuls of water. The
cayuses We're up ahead bit, blowing
their heads off, for they had been GO
ing at clip that they had never been
pushed to before.
The Kanaka headed the bunch a
mile beyond the Half Way House and
it was big romp for him the rest of
the distance. lie took a position for
the remaining II miles of the journey
ubOul Il CITY blOCh uucdu VI lut NIllll-
ing and painting horses and he just
stuck to his lope like man wound up.
He never let 'em get nearer than a
block to him for the remaining three
hours of the trip, looking back ut them
with grin once in awhile. When only
three miles yet remained before the
Volcano House was to be reached, the
Kanaka took another drink out of a
spring and began to draw away. The
Kanaka riders whipped and spurred
their horses, but it was no good. The
Kanaka runner disappeared out OF
their sight on the tortuous trail, and
when six of the cayuses pulled up al
the hotel veIanda about three-quarters
of an hour later the runner was sitting
on the steps, tanning himself and
drinking saki Two of the horses had
dropped dead in their final effort.
THE Kanaka made the 80 mile triT