The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-12-23

william Fraser, Lately Deceased Wa
0oa.scssu with Many Racing
Events In His Day.
Ihe death of William Fraser, owe
IN Aurora. county. has started a
sfain OF thought and r%ecollections
emoAs some OF his old friends. and
one of them sent to this Office for
publication, a little sketch which he
wrote some few years ago, and the
a0oJect OF 1t was William Fraser.
Woven into the story Is a reference
% Hed Reuben. q famous old horse
tnat MI. Fraser owned down. in Iowa.
mo also to Mr.. F~raser's PAGER, Cen
efal Thomas. which at one time de-
eseated the Logan PAGER in an exciting
lsce at the Mitchell race track. the
memory Of which still liEgers with
many who saw it. The little old
man. rheumaticky. faded. hat pulled
down e his ears. bumped into a
admaA heap. and driving like mad"
Viii readily be recognized as old MI
Fraser. The story told by the old
friend Of Mr.. Fraser is as follows:
Hello! John, you were at the
races. I SUPPOSED"
"S''pose nothin', 1 saw you smilin,
1t my bobin' about on the stretch.
an I'm thinkin' 1 must ave been
amusin'-an old rheumatic, cap'rin'
Hike q yearlin.'"
by the by. I won't ask II your
feelin's got to goin' fast in the pacin'
heats. for it was nothin' but impellin'
goodness that stirred the crowd for
that, old man an his horse Tommy.
Trustin'. as I do. that the heart beat
In in his %weathered coat an the head
under the fadin' gray of his old
slouched hat have been level for
truth. as he has seer 1t, for six an
seventy years, I'm not wonderful why
flew .swifter an harder again the
magnet than ONE that didn't know
why they we're drawn"
Then. you yielded to a resistless
power In the man, of the faded hat
and coat"
"Resistless or not. I'm believin'
that love Of fair plays the touch CT
God. You saw it yesterday, workin'
on that crowd like wind on a fire
Now. to my mind, that blaze of SYM
patty. was q reward to that mans
life. I've been touchin' palms an
yarns with him too long to leave me
doubtin'.
1T was In Iowa (I'm DRAWN on
the past nigh to thirty years for ,this)
that Red Reuben died an was buried.
To this man he left a memory, an en-
dearment compellin' tears an a grave.
I'm not KNOWN to a meltin' sorrow
more affection than the tenderness
Of the man In the faded hat and coat
for dead Reuben; for Reubenewas old
an only a horse. but one that, alive,
though old an only a horse, was a
pleasin' ideal to this man, an that
old an dead is still to him a soothin' (
dream. a swoonin' echo of the past,
an. CROWN fainter through the in
%tervenin' years, Reuben-Red Reuben
-Reuben-is breakin' sweetiy to his
spirit yet.
oPonk In n4rftnrn T1ryo AIovoSc r.
highway close beside a railway, that's
where I first saw Reuben. I was
ridin'. In q caboose, an a trainman
cried look! here's Rope Lines, an
we'll have a race; and I looked, an
We had 1t. You see, to be odd, this
man Of the faded hat an coat drove
Reuben with rope reins; an for j
taste of fast company, lined up, now
an then, agin the train. 1t was up
grade for the cars, an easy down
hill for Reuben, an he held his own
an a little better.
Tommy. the winner yesterday, of
The three hot pacin' heats, is one of
The many descendants of Reuben up
On whom the man in the faded hat an +
eoat has lavished his time, though,
until then, in all the years since Reu-
ben's death, only to meet defeat; but
rommy pulled his heats out of the
I've for Reuben's name an the crown
In glcfy Of the man in the faded hat
I'M coat.
"How excitin' it all was: the great
sowd with every eye on the white
haired driver an his hard pressed
horse; an what a relief, that leadin'
pap Of light as he shot into the back
stretch in the final heat. an then, the
train Of SEEM him losin' his want
sxe; Of seem. another gainin' his