The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-25
= New York SUM-

grounds track" asked a man from
Kansas That was about as bad a
betting proposition as 1 ever took a
chance on, even for fun. 1t happened
back IN 81. Six or seven citizens of
Leayenworth possessed mules that had
a turn of speed. and the way they
Dragged about their respective mules
was a caution. Now, while mule has
whole lot Of commendable points, his
long suit isn't speed, and these mule
owners were a good deal ridiculed foI.
their talk about thorough bred mules :
The managers of the local fair finally
decided to put all of those nifty mules
down on a card for a race or the last
day of the fair purse of 500 was
hung up, and the mule that ran last
was to win out the purse Cor his owner.
Now, that looked easy enough, didn't
it? All that the owner and rider of
his mule had to do. you'll suppose, was
to let his mule loaf in the race. or
snatch him, as they call pulling an
animal nowadays, But this wouldn't
have done, of course. for all the owner
riders would have tried the same game.
and there wouldn't have been any race
at all.
THEREFORE,, NO MULE OWNER
entered in the race was permitted TO
ride his own mule. Each OF the owner
riders had to ride one OF the other fell
lows mules. See? Then il was up to
each man on top of a mule TO ride his
lonS-eared mount for all he was
worth, in order to better the chances
OF his own mule to finish last. There
were two or three local books on the
three-quarter track, and when the
ayers came to this race they made it
to 1 and take your pick That was
ABOUT the only time ever saw a large
crowd OF bettors scrambling to get on
dead one. All Of us that wanted 10
put bet down on the race had the
privilege of looking the mules over in
the paddock in order TO pick out what
looked like the dopieSt and most luke
warm of the bunch. There was ora
siate-colOred mule in the lot that look
ca ike he couldn't and wouldn't run a
DOCK Tor the honor of the nation That
mule was 50 tred-looking that he posi-
lively leaned against a fence in the
paddock. The wise people including
myself, picked out that mule As the
one that ought to be a 1 10 10 chance
to run last, and we began to play him
OF the boards. Everybody in the
ring got onto that mule before the
DOCKS had been opened long. and when
the mule went TO the post to race he
NaS,l 10 D. ara the rest write your own
ticket The nervous, kicky. on-edge
mules stood all the way from 90 10
10 100 in the betting to finish last. and
we all thought it WAS like getting
money in a letter 70 be on the dopey-
looking mule at such a. good price as >
TO l. Well, that Weary-lookinC animal
got away IN front at the fall of the
nag, and he simply tiptoed his field all
the way, finishing twenty lengths
ahead, pulled up. The glossy-coated.
nervous mule that was the outsider in
the betting at $50 to l. without a bet
down on him, couldn't raise Iope. and
ne was beaten Il furlong and pulled
down the purse"
That reminds me Of Il cat-Iosing We /
mad out in Rock Island, IL. in so, said
another man in the party.
NEVER HEARD OF A CAT-IOs-
ING?
Why, they've been shaving them all
over the middle west ever since that one !
was pulled off in Rock Island The /
way it happened was this: There was /
an old citizen out in Rock Isl~ld named /
Bill Chetwood- who Dragged all during 4
the summes' of 80 that he had \ ca. /
that couldn't be lost. The cat was /
ornery and night marauder Of the |
despised male gender, and Bill mad /
tried all ways to lose that cat, he said. 1
He had tied fopr bricks TO the cats /
neck on several different occasions and /
then heaVed the feline into the AiisSis- /
sippi. which runs pretty swift at Rock
Island, but every time that Bill went /
home after doing this he had found /
the cat sitting on the front porch. lick /
ing OF the wet and summing himself
Bill was determined to get rid Of the
cat, though. and he finally tied the cat /
up In d .Jute bag and handed the cat
TO friend Of his. mail clerk on the
Rock Island railroad. asking the mail
clerk TO just ditch the cat. bag and all.
at any old point not nearer than 100
miles from Rock Island The mail
clerk did this 10 oblige Bill heaVing the
cat out in the dark somewhere near u
swamp. about 125 miles from Rock Is
land Bill announced down at the post
Office three days later that his cat was 4
back. looking q bit hungry, and with
less of its left ear than 1t had had be-
fore. but still in the ring and not
whit shy in appetite. Bill. by this time.
his cat as a wonder, and he
made a good deal OF nuisance OF him
self telling everybody in Rock Island
that in his opinion. which he was
willing to back with money there
wasn't a cat in the state of Illinois. or.
for the matter of that, in the whole
country that had such a dead bead on
home as his tom had. Bil's fellow citi-
sens insisted that there was nothing
= l.
lnces; that il was only natural for A
at to decline to be lost under any IT.
and that Rock Island was
-ull of cats that could repeat any or I
all OF the
PERFORMANCES OF BILLS CAT.
Somebody finally suggested that the
hing be tried. This was just what Bill j
wanted. and So a committee on ar
went ahead to organize the ]
,at-losing. AT first it was desired by !
Ill hands, and especially by Bill. that ]
Ill o. the cats TO be entered in the I
sheuld be lost off a sailroad
<ain as BilHs cat had been when il {
asst turned up; but, of course. the rail
way mail clerk couldn't take all the {
ats along with him in the mai car. l
md railway facilities could not be got I
or twelty or thirty bagged cats Then ,
somebody suggested that the cats ali
)e double bricked and dropped into the I
Mississippi from a skiff about ten I 7
niles above Rock Island, but the {
women folks, hearing of this PROPOSE
ion. vetoed it as cruel So il was | !
inally determined that all OF the cats !
inferred in the event should be driven 7
nut in the woods in 4 farm wagon and d
hen. at point about five miles from f
own. ch1cked cut Of the wagon, free 1
Dotted, and left to hustle for them n
elves. There were thirty entries. each $
nan who entered his cat paying s. !
or the privilege. The cat that reached 2
is home first wSs to pull down the /
$50 for its owner \
a good many of the Rock Island {
itjyeEs who had cats entered in that y
vent rehearsed their felines several Y
INES before the regular cat-iosing was q
n cop,1p az and all If tho pafc / .