The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-07-27
CHAPTER l..
Blister.

Blister.
How my old-young friend
"Biister" Jones acquired his re-
markable nickname, | learned
one cloudless morning late in
June.
Our chairs were tipped against
number 81 In the curving line of
NOx-stalls at Latonia. Down the
eep of whitewashed stalls the
Jper doors were yawning wide,
and from many of these openings.
velvet black in the sunlight, sleek
heads protruded.
The track, a brand new rib
bon with a Iaee-work edging of
white fence, was before us; the
'upper-turn" with its striped five
eighths pole, not fifty feet away.
Some men came and set up the
starting device at this red and
white pole, and l asked Blister to
explain to me just what it meant.
Coin to school two-year-olds
at the barrier" he explained. And
presently-mincing, siding, max
ing futile leaps to get away, the
boys on their backs standing clear
above them in the short stirrups
"a band of deer-like young thor
or so from the barrier.
Then there was trouble. Those
sweet young thing performed,
with the rapfdity of thought,
every lawless act known to the
equine brain. They reared. They
plunged. They bucked. They
spun. They surged together
They scattered like startled quail
he - l..
shiny hoofs lash out in every di-
rection; and the dust spun a yell
low haze over it all.
Those jockeys will be killed."
gasped.
Jockeys" exclaimed Blister
cOntemptuously. Them amt
Jockeys - they're exercise-boys
Do you thing a jock would school
a two-year-old?"
A man, who Blister said was a
trainer, stood on the fence and
acted as starter.
That bay filly's a niee-lookin'
trick Four Eyesi" said Blister.
pointing out a two-year-old stand
Ing somewhat apart from the
rest. ''She's by Hamilton m her
dams Alberta. by Seminole"
The bay filly, 1 observed, had
more than beauty-she was so
obviously the outcome of a SPLEEN
did and selected ancestry.
I turned to Blister and found
him gazing at the filly with a far
away look in his eyes.
"Ole Alberta was grand
mare" he said presently. "I see
her get away last in the Crescent
City Derby m be ten len'ths back
at the quarter.
"Ole Alberta dies when she has
this filly," he went on after a
pause. Judge Dillon, over near
Lexington, owned her. n Mrs.
Dillon brings the filly up on the
bottle. See how nice that filly
stands? Handled every day since
she was foaled, N never had a
cross word. Sugar every mawnin'
from Mrs. Dillon. That's way to
learn a colt somethin'."
At last the colts were formed
into a disorderly line.
Now, boys, you've got a
chance-come on with 'em!" bel
lowed the starter. Mot too fast
:" he cautioned. "Awl-r-r
right let 'em go-o-l"
They were off like rockets as
the barrier shot up, and the bay
filly flashed into the lead. Her
slender legs seemed to bear her
as though on the breast of the
wind. She did not run-she
fioated-yet the gap between her
self and her struggling school
mates grew ever wider.
Standing on my chair,
watched the colts finish their run,
the filly well in front.
shes a wonderi" | exclaimed.
resuming my seat.
''She acts like she'll deliver the
goods" Blister conceded. She's
got lot of step, but 1t takes
mOre'n that to make a race boss.
Well know about her when she
goes the route, earryin' weight
against class"
The colts were now being led
to their quarters by stabIe-boys.
When the boy leading the winner
passed, he threw us a triumphant
smile"
Il guess she's bad" he opined.
Some baby" Blister admitted.