Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-04-04

ana nVe CnlluTeu surviving HILL Ills
remains were buried at Hopewell on
Sunday.
UP A sTEEPLE ON HORSEBACK.
Some Extraordinary Performances Of
Horses and Their Riders.
Some Of the feats Of horsemanship on
record are so marvellous as to be al
most incredible were they not support
ed by the unimpeachable evidence Of so
many who actually witnessed them.
It is not many years since reckless
Dane made a wager that he would ride
his horse to the summit Of the spire Of
st. Saviour's church, in Copenhagen;
and, impossible as the feat may appear
he actually won his wager and des-
cended to the earth in safety. The
contemporary accounts Of this mad
performance are in the highest degree
thrilling, with their picture of the
blanched, breathless crowd looking up
with straining eyes at the horseman,
growing smaller and smaller as he
wound his way round and round the
dizzy, narrowing steeple, expecting ev-
cry moment to see the horse and rider
dashed to pieces at their feet; until at
last he stood silhouetted against the
sky on the topmost pinnacle and waved
his hand triumphantly to the crowd so
far beneath him.
To understand this feat at all it is
necessary to say that the spire was
climbed by a steep and narrow stair
case, which winds round it; but think
Of the daring, the courage and the
GOODNESS necessary to accomplish such
a climb, when the most trifling slip or
loss of balance would have meant a
swift and terrible death.
A similar feat was performed by that
monarch Ferdinand VII,
when he rode his favorite horse to the
top Of the tower Of Seville Cathedral in
Spain. This, however, was less haz-
ardous performance than that Of the
Dane, for there is a fairly wide inclin-
ed pathway which climbs the tower;
although to the spectators 1t seemed
that the king could ever
emerge from the venture alive.
There Is an account Of feat Of Won
derful horsemanship which seems more
marvellous than either of those des-
cribed. It Is stated in the records that
in London in the year 100 a man rode
to the top Of st. Pauls on his horse
Morocco, to the amazement Of thous-
ands Of onlookers. If this feat ever
had any existence outside the imagina-
tion Of its chronicler 1t is probable that
the ascent was made by staircase
which may have been feature Of Old
st. PauPs.
It is doubtful whether any horseman,
however daring and expert, can excel
the skill Of some Cossacks. When rid
ing at full gallop they will pick up a
child from the ground and toss 1t high
in the air and catch it repeatedly like
a ball. They will, also at a gallop, leap
Off their horses, pick up any small OBJ
ject and, without checking the horses
speed, leap in a standing position on
his back.
They will ride their horses down pre-
cipitous cliffs, on which there scarcely
seems footing for an agile mountain
eer, or leap them thirty feet down into
a river; while a common feat is for a
cossack galloping at full speed to
snatch a needle and thread from one Of
his fellows and thread the needle in
less time than would seem possible in
an arm chair.
Few Of these performances, however,
are more astonishing than that credited
to Mr.. John Leech Manning, who rode
his horse into an upstairs dining room
at the White Hart hotel, Aylesbury,
England, and jumped him over the din
ing table. In describing the feat he
says: Nothing was removed from the
table; in fact, the dinner was actually
going on. jumped the horse bare
formed before more than forty gentle
men, who were dining after the steeple-
chases."
Some of the records Of long distance
rides are we'll worthy of note, as when
Mr.. Osbaldeston, a famous squire and
sportsman Of seventy years ago, rode
200 miles at Newmarket, England, in
hours, AZ minutes, in November, 1881,
using twenty eight horses for the jour-
ney. In October, 1871, Wilde covered
127 miles on horseback at the Curragh,
in Ireland in hours 81 minutes, and
tWenty-six years ago, Leon, the Mexi-
can rider, rode 100 miles at Alexandra
park, London, in three minutes under
five hours, an average speed Of twenty
miles an hour. In the following year
Leon covered sos miles in less than fif-
ty hours, wonderful feat Of endur-
ance. 1t would be difficult to rival the
recent performance Of five French lieu
tenants of the 18th Hussars. Leaving
Gray at o'clock in the morning, the
officers rode seventy-two miles to Bel
port, arriving at o'clock in the after
noon. They then dismounted, walked
a further distance Of twenty-four miles
and dined, walked back to Belport, sad
died their horses and rode back to
Gray. which thew reached the follow
ing afternoon at 3 o'clock. Thus, with
in the thirty-siX hours, these five men
completed a journey of 1872 miles, of
which IA were on horseback and 4S
on foot.