The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-05-13
RACE UP A MOUNTAIN
The Wonderful Feat Of a Gaun;
Kanaka Runner.
BEAT HALF A DOZEN HORSES

Was Ierrltc est OF Encurahce,
and the Sturdy Hawaiian Native
Won Easily, Though Two of the
Competing Horses Dropped Dead.
did any of you ever hear of thirty
Ave mile steeplechase for man and
heastY inquired California man In
a party Of turf followers when stories
Of queer bets and long shots were go
ing around. well, there was an affair
Of that kind down In the Hawaiian
bunch In the fall Of 1888, when that
genial gambler, Kalakaua, was king
sf the islands. There were no tele-
phones joining the islands then, and
state messages and mandates were car
RED by the interisland steamers and
delivered by Kanaka runners. These
runners could gallop all day, like
American Indians in retreat or on the
trail, and they didn't know what get
ting winded or tired meant
1Kalakaua thought good deal of
these runners Of his. He maintained
that they could so faster and farther
than horses over the Hawaiian couE-
nv. In this be was disputed by num-
Der of the white attaches of his court.
Kalakaua wagered $1,000 in gobs OF
$1,000 with FIVE Of them that he would
pick out runner from among the ka-
aakas who'd get from Hilo to the top
sf the burning lake Of Kilauea. dis
tance of thirty-f1ve miles, quicker than
any horse and any rider could do the
trip. They snapped the king up az even
money. 1t looked as If they had the
good end of ii. The king and big
party from Honolulu sailed in one of
the interisland steamers to Hilo, on
fhe main island of Hawaii, to see the
finish.
THE king picked up huge, 1.-the.
Kinewy Kanaka. man about thirty
years old, who had been employed as
n runner on the island of Maui for a
number of years. to try the trick for
him. Eight Kanakas made the start
R-horseback. on native ponies, bred
away back from western cayuses =
strong sure footed, nippy tempered
little demons. thoroughly used to the
Dad roads and the climbing. The king
and his party had gone up to the Vol
eano House, at the top of Kilauea, in
coaches the day before to be on hand
10 greet the winner.
''Now. / understand that that road
from Hilo up to the burning lake of
Kilauea has been improved since the
time I'm speaking Of, but it surely was
q bad trail then. 1t was only wide
enough for one wagon, and it was
a forty-five degree affair in the climb
a1l the way up. The palms that lined
the road used to get blown across the
trail by the score in big windstorms,
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 at
tented to carefully. however. in ad-
vance Of the race by order of Kala-
kaua, and it looked like a pipe for the
eayuses, all of which had made the
Eun up many a time.
"Kalakaua didn't ask for any handi
cap allowance for his man. The run
ner toed the scratch with the horses,
and they got off together at the crack
Of the gun. The horses distanced the
runner from the jump, and he let them
distance him. He was dressed in
g string, and he just took up steady
hope and let the cayuses get out of his
eight For ten miles the cayuses were
no far above him ON the trail that he
couldn't even see them. but this Kama
ka knew how to wait.
THE horses began to come back to
the runner long before the Halfway
House was reached, and the Kanaka
was just galloping along at the begin
ming of the third hour, with the same
big stride he had started in with, his
arms up and shooting out in front of
him like soldiers on the double time
drill There wasn't pant in him
when he fetched up at the Halfway
House. He stopped down there to a
spring beside the road and took cou-
pie of mouthfuls of water. The cay
uses were up ahead bit, blowing their
heads off, for they had been going at a
Clip that they had never been pushed
10 before
1.-THE Kanaka headed the bunch a
mile beyond the Halfway House, and
It was a big romp for him the rest of
the distance. He took a position for
the remaining seventeen miles Of the
Journey about city block ahead of the
writhing and painting horses, and he
Just stuck to his lope like man wound
ND. He never let 'em get nearer than
a block to him for the remaining three
hours of the trip, looking back at them,
with grin, once in awhile. When only
three miles yet remained before the
Volcano House was to be reached, the
Kanaka took another drink out of
spring and began to draw away. The
Kanaka riders whipped and spurred
their horses, but it was no good. The
Kanaka runner disappeared out OF
their sight on the tortuous trail, and
when six of the cayuses pulled up at
SI,e hotel veranda about three-quarters