Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-04-20
HORSES RUN
MILE RACE
Course Was Santa Fe Station
to the Federal
Building
PRIZE WAS 16O ACRES OF LAND
Two Mountainair Farmers Sem
sational Dash for Land
Office.

A horse race with many thrilling
incidents and the stake nothing less
than $50 acres of good Land, titled for
four years and on which were many
was pulled off" IN
Santa Fe and once more emphasized
the extraordinary value minute OF
time may assume given the proper
conditions.
The race moreover reminded one of
the old days when land was drawn
and when the best land was won by
the man who was drawn by the best
horse. The land officials in the federal
building are still smiling over the af-
fair and there is a man in Mountainair
about so miles south of Santa Fe who
is also wearing a smile that won't
come off and thinking fondly of a GER
tain span of horses in the stables of
Williams & Rising in Santa Fe. And
there is also man in Mountainair
who perhaps is not smiling. He was
the loser of the race by 60 seconds.
How it Started.
The story of the race and how it
came about is told as follows: Some
four years ago Sherman Carmony, a
young man came to Mountainair and
took up 100 acres of land. He worked
hard and got results. But a short
time ago it appears that Jesse E.
So!es, also of Mountainair, heard that
Carmony had already exercised his
right to take up land in Oklahoma
and that the question of whether or
not he could lawfully take up this
Mountainair land now is before the
land commissioner in Washington. Ac-
cording to land experts Carmonys cue
was to have some friend come to the
Santa Fe land Office and file claim on
the land in this way to save at least
the improvements, for almost anyone
would be willing to pay for such i'm
proVements to get quarter section of
land. 1t seems that Carmony realized
this and to use a familiar expression
was on his way" to Santa Fe with
an application of a friend in his
pocket But another was also "op his
way" To make the struggle of the
two men to gain possession of the
land all the more tragic, both Soles
and Carmony are said to bave come
here on the same train.
SoIes is Ingenious.
1t appears, however, that Soles was
a bit more clever in a way than his
adversary, and telegraphed Williams
d Rising, the liverymen, that he
would be in On the noon train and
that he wanted the swiftest turnout
they could put up to rush him with all
speed to the Santa Fe land office. He
described his clothes and said he
would wear a cap and even gave
minute directions as to where to have
the rig so that he could jump into it.
The. prize was well worth fighting for
and Soles meant to have a trv at it.
The Race Is On.
When the train came in, two men
were seen to jump off as though they
were in real up-to-date METROPOLITAN
mans hurry. Soles is said to have
found his rig just where he wanted it
and hoped into it with the speed of a
bullet out of a gun. Carmony found
nlmselt at a disadvantage and had to
rush around to get a rig. He got one.
however, and just what consideration
he offered the driver is not generally
known, but certain it is if little Helen
OF Helen's Babies story book fame had
been there she would have "seen the
wheels go round" to her hearts con-
tent.
Soles in the Lead.
seated on soft leather seat with
d good view of his adversary, Soles
must have had a few thrilling minutes
as he saw those $50 acres grow nearer
and nearer. And there was Carmony
wondering why his horses seemed
stuck in the dust. Old Father Time.
whose material is so often scoffed at
and burned" must have grinned to
see how precious the minutes and
even seconds had become to two
young men.
Just how the race horses looked as
they whirled around the Claire hotel
from San Francisco street to Lincoln
avenue is not generally known. One
man with sporting blood in his veins
said he would have given S. to have
seen the sight and SO if one of Doc
tor Dlaz's automobiles had happened
just then to be going the other way.
Now for Open Stretch.
Carmony wasn't far behind, it seems
however, and if Soles in rounding the
meta" familiar to the Romans AND
Which in this race was a telegram