Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-08
A REMARKABLE RACE

"Did any OF you ever hear Of thirty
flve-mile steeplechase for man and beast?'
inquired the Californian in the crowd Of
turf followers. 'It doesn't sound like a
thing to bet on. does it? But there was an
event Of that kind down in the Hawaiian
Islands in the fall of 1883. when that
genial caloric proposition, Dave Kalakaua,
was king Of the islands.
There were no telephones joining the
islands then and state messages and man
dates were carried by the interisland steam
ers and delivered by Kanaka runners.
These runners can gallop all day. like
American Indians on the trail, and they
didn't know what getting tired or winded
meant.
''Kaiakaua thought a good deal of these
state runners of his. He always maintained
that they could go faster and farther than
horses over the rough Hawaiian country.
In this he was disputed by number OF
| the white attaches of his court. Kalakaua
wagered $1,000 with these white courtiers
| that he could pick out runner from among
| Burning Lake Of Kilauea. a distance Of
nearly thirty-five miles, quicker than any
horse and rider could do the trip. They
snapped Kalakaua up at even money.
1T looked If they had the good end
of 1t. The king and big party from Hon
olulu sailed in one of the interisland steam
ers to Hilo, on the main island of Hawaii,
| to see the finish of the race. The king
| picked out a huge, 1.-THE, sinewy Kanaka
| a man about thirty years old, who had been
| employed as a runner on the Island OF
Maui for number of years, to essay the
| task for him.
Eight Kanakas made the start on horse
back on native ponies, bred from western
cayuses-strong, sure-footed, nippy little
devils, thoroughly used to the bad roads
| and the climbing. The king and his party
had nv IN VOlcapO House at the
| top of Kilauea. in coaches the day before
to be on hand to greet the winner.
Now. 1 understand that that road from
Hilo I'D to the Burning Lake of Kilauea
| has been greatly improved since the time
I'm speaking of. but 1t was bad trail
then. 1t was only wide enough for one
wagon and it was a climb Of about thirty
five degrees all the way. The trees that
lined the road used to get blown across the
trail in big wind-storms, 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 carefully at
tended to, however, In advance OF the race,
by order of Kalakaua, and 1t looked ike a
pipe for the ponies, all of which had made
the run up the mountain many time.
"Kalakaua didn't ask for any handicap al
lowance for his man. The man runner toed
the scratch with the horses and they got on
together at the crack of the gun
1.-THE horses distanced the runner from
the jump and he let them distance him.
He just took up his steady lope and let the
cayuses get out of his sight. For ten miles
the cayuses were so far above him on the
trail that he couldn't see them, but THIS
Kanaka knew how to wait.
THE horses began to come back, as they
say, to the runner long before the Half
way House was reached, and the kanaka
was just galoping along at the beginning
| of the third hour with the same long strlde
he had started with. There wasn't short
breath in him when he fetched UP at the
Halfway House. He stopped down there
to spring beside the roao ana Iooh Juss {.
couple of mouthfuls of water. The cayuses
were up ahead bit, blowing their heaos Oh
for they had been going at clip that they
had never been pushed to before.
1.-The Kanaka forged ahead a mile beyond
the Halfway House and it was only romp
for him the remainder of the distance.
He took a position for the remainder OF the
tourney about two city blocks ahead or the
painting and exhausted horses, ana he just
stuck to his lope like man wound up. ne
never let them get nearer than quarter
of a mile of him for the remaining three
hours of the trip, and he occasionally
looked back at the cayuses and grlnhed at
their riders When only three miles yet re-
manned before the volcano house was 70
he reached the Kanaka riders whipped and
| spurred their horses. but it was no use.
| The Kanaka runner disappeared out or thetr
sight along the tortuous tran, ana "heh SIX
| of the ponies pulled up at the hotel Veranda
| about half an hour later the runner was slt-
| ting on the steps, cool as a cucumber, and
en- loving his pot of saki. Two of the ponies
| had dropped dead in their final effort.
when L was reading about those young
| fellows who made the long distance run
| during the Olympian games in st. Louis
| last fall it struck me that any one OF those
Kanaka runners of Kalakaua could have
made the whole bunch look like aluminium
| dollars"