Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-02
HOW LONGBOAT LEARNED
THAT HE WAS A RUNNER

IIERE is the story of how Tom
Longboat discovered that he could
run. The yarn has been spun be-
fore, but there has always been belief
that 1t was a product Of tho vivid i'm
agination Of some newspaper man.
Longboat himself, however, acknowl-
edged the truth of the story recently,
although he modestly disclaimed that
1t was at all remarkable feat.
"That old horse can't run anyway"
he said.
Longboat had been known as good
runner on the Indian reservation at
Caledonia, which is about fifteen miles
from Hamilton, but while he could beat
any of the Indians at distances from a
mile up to five, there was no idea that
he had it in him to break worlds rec
ords from ten miles up to twenty-five,
WHICH is what 'e has done since last
fall.
One day last September Longboat
drove with his father and mother from
the reservation into Hamilton. Arriv-
ing in the city Longboat was left to his
own devices, but warned to turn up at
the stable where the horse had been
left in time to start for home by
o'clock.
Visits to Hamilton were few and far
between for Longboat and the young
Indian put in his time seeing the sights,
admiring the store window displays
and having as good a time as he could
without any money in his pocket.
In spite of that handicap he had sc
good time that it was after o'clocl
before he rememb bered that he had to &c
back to Caledonia.
He hurried to the stable and found
that his father, with the stole sternness
of the Indian, had started for home
leaving Tom to get there the best way
he could.
There was nothing left but to hoof il
the fifteen miles. Tom started right of
and when he got outside the city limits
started with swinging lope, hoping to
catch up with the old horse.
Starts for Home
Mile after mile he logged along an6
no sign of his people appeared in the
dusty road ahead. He increased the
pace and stiii no sign. When he haf
covered half the distance he was sur
prised to find that he was not in the
least winded or fatigued.
So he ran still faster. Finally, abou
three miles from the reservation, he
came to fork in the roads either Of
which would take him home, with lit,
tie choice in the distance.
1t so happened that Longboat chose
one road while his father had driver
over the other, and Longboat arrived
at the reservation ahead of the ole
horse. His father was naturally sur
prised when he arrived and iound Ton
home ahead Of him.
The news of Longboat's run was soor
the talk of the reservation. Billy Davi:
heard of it and got interested. Davis is
a distance runner himself. In 1901
when Johnny Caffrey set the record ir
the B. A. A. Marathon, which hung fire
six years for Longboat to break, Davis
| finished second to Caffrey.
| Davis is an Indian himself, from tn,
same Indian settlement which is Long
boats home. Since his great race IL
Boston in 1901 Davis has entered il
many distance runs, but has alway
| been beaten.
His ambition was to have an India1
from the Caledonia settlement capture
the Hamilton Herald annual road rae
| of nineteen miles and a little over
which is the blue-ribbon event for Can
ada's distance runners, just as the E
A. A. Marathon is the great race O
America.
Four weeks remained before this race
which is run late in October. Davi
was in training for the event, but h
dropped his personal ambition an,
secretly went to work to train Long
boat.
Longboat needed little training. Davis
1