The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-15
g BROUGHTON,W WEST.

emphatically The only gallopine. land
turtle in the country. Your Uncle EbeD's
name will be laundering down the ages
as the trainer and foster father of tbat
turtle. I'm going to get up grand tlr
tie handicap, open TO all Pike county mr.
ties of good reputation. That will in
crease my fame, and, If any benighted
owners of vagrant, unframed turtles are
looking for bets, they will be accommo-
dated
You've made a good thing of IT. al
ready, l warned him, and now is the
| time 10 stop. Even a turtle that adoptS
joyous galop as its means of travel
may go up against che real thing It's
the pitcher that goes too often to the
well and the owner of sure things in rae
ing that get broken.
But Eben wouldn't listen and kept
booming up his turtlehandicap scheme
until nearly every one of the boys had
| turtle entered The committee in charge
, of the race handicapped Eben's turtle
back nearly half the distance of the
course, but Eben din't seem to care and
kept plunging until he brought the odds
on his turtle down from 20 l to less
than even money.
THE day of the race Squire Rogers
who had been growing more and more
suspicious of Ebens galoping turtle
| managed TO get Eben m the tavern. and
filed him up with Pike county apple
| Jack. Eben had been toting his precious
| turtle about in a basket all day but
growing careless under the seductive IN
| tiuence of applejack, he put the turtle
| on the bar and let the squire have a
| chance to examine Ii carefully The
| squire came out of the tavern fairly boil
ing with Indignation
No wonder that turtle galops when
he's on the ground Squire Rogers splut-
tered wrathfully. That's a regular cleo
J trio automobile turtle Eben Brown has
| tucked a tiny storage battery under the
! back part of that poor abused turtles
| shell. When he put the innocent creature
on the ground the circuit is complete, and
| tortured by the electric current the poor
animal has to galloD. It's cruelty to ami
mails, and an outrage on unsuspecting men
who thought they had an easy thing bet
ting against fat land turtle.
Then an idea seemed to strike the
squire.
Seeing that abused turtle is used to
| electric racing he sort of murmured to
| himself, maybe it would be cruel to take
| that battery out altogether, but it must
be monotonous for the poor creature TO
have it in the same place all the time. 1
| will just tuck that little battery in under
the front part of his shell That's the
| least a humane man can do to aid a poor
dumb animal which has undoubted gifts
| in the sprinting line.
| 80 while Eben $ attention was distract
ed, Squire Rogers managed to take out
the little battery from the back Of the tur-
| tie and slip it under the shell near his
neck.
AT last the time came for the race.
| All the other turtles were on the ground,
! but Eben held his carefully in his hand
| until the word was given to start. Then
Eben put the fat, lazy looking turtle m
the ground, and watched to see it gallop
And that turtle did gallop. But it was
| a backward sort of gallop, as if the AMI
nal was trying to get away from Itself
| Eben of course, didn't understand that
his pet was trying to back away from the
! electric current which was getting IN us
work under the turtles neck.
I've heard of alternate currents
said Eben. amazed like, as his turtle
backed out of sight in the bushes TO the
rear of the handicap course, but this Is
the first time | really ever saw electricity
working backwards. The wonders OF SCI
ence are past finding out And Eoeh
shook his head like a man who had mads
| a great scientific discovery.
| Just then Eben saw Squire Rogers
doubled up with ribald laughter. Then
Eben understo what had happened TO
his gallOping turtle. For church mem
Der and a man who had been professor
of religion two score and ten years, Ebeh
| language was fluent and shocking But
| Squire Rogers took 1t calmly
"I never dreamed such a respected
| man as Eben Brown put that battery III
so as TO win a race unfairly" replied the
squire. Knowing you for a kind-hear'ed
| person, I thought you would be pleased
| at my endeavor to make life less monoto-
nous for that big turtle. And judging
from the efforts he was making to 'roI
backwards as he disappeared in tne
bushes, my humane attempt to introduce
variety into his life was meeting with I'M
| qualified success