The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-08-15

ment COLT, getting the MoASN u z lot OF
rough riding, was damned against the
inner rail. His nigh front foot struck
I hard against the bottom OF rail post,
and the colt was done for. His ankle
was shattered so that the bones pro-
itruded.
/; The field swept past the judges stand
the doomed colt brayely trying to hob
Bile on three legs after the flying horses.
But the agony was too great for him,
and he propped himself pitiably against
the rail and whinnied. At nod from
the judges a track policeman stepped
across the track, pulled his service gun
and, in full sight of the great holiday
crowd in the grand stand, put bullet
between the moaning colts eyes. The
lcolt leaped in the air, with much the
same sort of a convulsive movement as
lis made by a man planted against a
lwalI and shot at by rifle armed execu-
Ition party, and fell over on his side,
dead. ..
He had no sooner fallen than mid
lget Of a ffty-pound stable boy, a
lfreckle faced tyke not much above or
Is years old, who had ridden the LOVELY
ling colt on the occasion of the only VIC
TORY he or the horse had ever achieved,
Traced across the field from the stables,
lknuckling his eyes, from which the
Tears were streaming. The little chap
lin the earish sweater tumbled beneath
1.-THE rail out upon the track and fell in
la heap across the dead colts neck, sob
bling with all the wildness Of a ehild's
despair. .,~..
Even the self-eontained women of the
lworld on the clubhouse lawn could not
refrain from weeping at that genuinely
affecting picture, and in the betting
5lring uncouth men who would almost
Irather have been shot themselves than
Eexhibit the emotion the scene caused
within them, choked and cursed in
their throats to give themselves count
enance before their fellows.
Turf prophets, renowned for their
lpresence and conservation, are saying
nowadays that the steeplechase race
Twill not endure much longer Holiday
visitors at racetracks no longer care to
isee men and horses risking broken
lnecks and backs with such wanton
lreclxlessness as riders and animals
must practice in steeplechase race.
1t is safe assertion that not cr1e-
tquarter of the people seated in a New
york racetrack grand stand nowadays
lever look at steeplehase race. The
women. especially, deliberately turn
their backs upon races Of this kind.
They fear to see men and horses soIrg
down at the jumps, People don't visit
lracetracks to have their nerves tor
ltured that way in these days; and
!, folks who are not so consumed by the
gambling fever as to be obvious TO ev-
erything else no longer view witt
lequanfnlity the spectacle Of half deac
steeplechase jockey being tossed into
Wagon like a sack of salt, or willing
horse or two lying prone at the far side
, lof a stiff jump with no chance Of ever
lgetting on their feet again.
There are influential tIrfnlen who
even declare their belief that the pres
, ent will be the last year Of the steerle
lchase on Eastern racetrhcks
"Highbalfs doleful cash-in was jot
, Ito make almost any fellow possessed q
the right kind of gizzard do q lot Of un
, derhand coughing TO hold himself In
said a veteran trainer in the course OF
Italklthe other day about accidents t
racehorses. but I've seen some hors'
Finishes that hit me even harder
TAKE the wind-up Of Traverser fol
instance, at Chicago, eight or min
years ago. l didn't have any sort Q
connection with that horse, and his wa.
lof handing in his checks wasn't an.
! business of mine; but | want to tel
lyou that for three or four days afte
! the death of that good horse there wa
a lump in my throat that no atomlze
spraying could reduce. And there wer
, fellows out there at the time who hal
! lbeen in the game just as long as VIII
weren't talkative or even civil wit
, leach other for a long time following tn
, lafternoon they saw Traverser die.
"The man who owned Traverser use
Ito race hts horses-and he had som
: lgood ones-every day. He'd have race
lthem all twice a day If he could hay
> found openings for them, He wa
| even then known as the worst hors
) FOUNDER in the game, and even wheI
/, the honest brutes in his barn race
|, themselves to mere skeletons for hin
2 inc WdSlttI Ill ttle 1SehoI opPAS v
Z their efforts
! "Trayerser had in him the making
: iof a great racehorse, but he was race
/, Ito dizziness and exhaustion from tn
: hour that his owner found out that tn
! horse was a money maker. During tn
! week preceding the day that Traverse
/, reached the end of his little old rope
/ walk he had won three straight race
: lin three different cities on the Wester
circuit, and then he was dumped off
q freight car in Chicago and asked to g
! to the races on the very afternoon Q
4 his arrival In the town
i THE bones of the good horse ache
v land the heart within him was weary
j, but ssaddled and bridled he had to b.
d all the same, his owner knowing II
d pity. The three races that he had al
d ready won that week weren't enough
: So he went to the barrier for his fourt
: try for purse in the same week.
" "Traverser wasn't any sulker II
iehirked up when he got to the barrie
Il land the watch me- look blazed ono
n Iagain in, his eye. When the webbin
j. flew up the dead square little old hors
v Twas off like a bullet, and there WASH
e a cave or curlup under his pelt. i
Q WANTED to do what they were askin
e him to do Just as long as he could.
Il "He led the field all the way, and we