New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-16
Harlem
Losers in Many a Friendly
Brush Furnished Supper
for the Winner.

FEW DAYS ago fire broke out IN tne
~ ell Of the house Of a certain "hsnt
~ club" standing near the end OF
~. Mscomb's Dam Bridge on Jerome ave-
me When the firernen had removed their
Aorarotus the blackened ribs Of the end of
the ell were visible to the passerby. the
tower and staff, with its brass weather
vane in the shape of a horse. and the
major part Of the old frame building with
its Swiss gingerbread work, showed no eA'
ternal evidences Of the fire.
On the day following the threatened de-
s,rpction a visitor called at garage on
1a1th street. near Seventh avenue, and
asked for a certain johnny Barry. After
some questioning among the different en-
Moves of the garage. one who had evident
" been connected with the establishment
for a long time reported laconically:
..Jobnnv Barry's been under six feet
of earth this two weeks
The difficulty which the attaches OF the
garage had in locating Barry was explained
when the information was volunteered that
the garage had been q livery and boarding
stable ND to q year or two ago. The name
of Quinn was still over the door. 1t used
10 be Ouinn's stable. and. in certain cir
Giles. growing smaller and smaller every
wear mis- is a well remembered name.
These three incidents have a connection
and a common significance. The old franc
building. Barry and Quinns stables were
all institutions connected with the great
davs of road racing in Harlem and The
Bronx thirty years ago Their passing is
significant Of the passing of the days OF
the road horse i'm New York City. The
number Of persons who can sit down and
reel off "reminiscences of the days when
upper Seventh avenue and Jerome avenue
were thronged Of an afternoon with horses
which could trot or pace to a road wagon
in less than 2:30. and the floating Dun
drearies and the high hat of a Vanderbilt
were daily sights on these avenues are
few indeed. They are septuagenarians and
octogenarians, and their tales are ad-
ventures into period when New York was
q great overgrown village, and captains
of industry, railroad men, bankers, great
merchants and well-to-do milknaen, butch
ers and stablemen all had fast roadsters
and mingled with each other on the COM
mon level of a speedway out of love of a
horse and for pure sport.
No one journeying along Seventh avenue,
north of Central Park. with its broad es-
phalt surface and long vista of apartment
houses, or following the winnings of Je-
rome avenue, with its iron trolley poles,
dingy frame buildings and long rows CT
highway horrors in the form of advertising
signs would ever be able TO picture the
days when thousands of spectators
thronged the grassy banks OF these streets
TO see the delicate limbed horses-Siant
greyhounds in structure-hash by. drawing
behind such men W. H. vanderbilt
Robert and David Bonner, the Flaglers,
father and son; Colonel WILLIAM II. kip
and William II. Turnbull. Every afternoon
at the close of business hours-and these
were usually considered by the horse low
ers TO be over at $3.50 o'clocK-the drives in
Central Park would begin TO lven up with
satin-coated, slender-legged horses attached
TO narrow one-man buggies. The thread
like spokes flashed in the sunlight as the
refined products of the wagon makers art
rolled over the parkways on their way TO
Harlem Lane, or 10th street, as 1t is now
called. Once in the lane the tributaries ct
vehicles all streamed toward Seventh ave-
nue.. Then up the avenue they sped. and
many would cross over the old wooden Ma