The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-11-17

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with the races be fully explained.
Well, brothers Mann and Beaudrot
had the same idea as uncle Jim, and
that was to slip into the races with
something up their sleeves, beat all
the other horses before they knew
who was in the races and swipe up
some easy money. Tom Cosby gave
George tip as to how the trick could
be turned. He told him about the
black horse he had been driving to
his hack at night for about ten years,
and in order to keep everything Sc
cret George came down at night to
see Tom trot the horse. Well, there
was no doubt about it, that horse
could trot faster than anything
George had ever seen in the Nation,
or that Beaudrot had heard tell of in
Greenwood. So by giving Tom good,
sound, gentle, well-broke, young colt,
three years old, flax tail and name,
he at last consented to let George
have "King Kosby."
Well, the next thing to do was to
get the proper harness. George got
in communication with man who
had line of racers harness to sell,
and after being properly convinced
that the harness has good deal to
do with how horse runs, George
parted with the biggest end of bale
of cotton for Maud S. set, whit silver
trimmings, proper trappings, acces-
sories, frills and furbelows. Beau
drot had read in a race horse journal
that the gentleman loaned to George
that there was a certain kind of
shoes, costing a dollar each, which a
horse should wear in a race if he
wanted to be a winner; so George
ordered off for these and Beaudrot,
in order to keep everything perfectly
secret put the shoes on himself, and
strictly according to directions.
Well, the races began. George
knew that Will Ferguson was little
suspicious that he had been holding
"King Kosby" back in the practice
races, and he was afraid that Will
had been doing the same thing with
"Cotton Patch, as for the rest of
the horses, George was perfectly
easy. "King Kosby' took his place
in the race and when the pistol fired
he lit out, but it didn't take George
and Beaudrot long to see that while
a country horse can run like scared
cat barefooted on country road with
no clothes on, when you put him in
a race with Sunday shoes on him and
a full set of town harness, there is
nothing doing. So "King Kosby"
went around, or partly around, once,
until he came to the gate, where he
slanted through the opening just be-
hind "Cotton Patch, and hiked it to
Beaudrot's shop to get those shoes
taken off as they were pinching his
feet, and to get rid of the harness
which had already CALLED him SO bad
ly. "King Kosby" is still boarding
at the Beaudrot horse-hospital, in
charge of DR.. O'Bryant, where he is
looked upon daily by George and
Beaudrot with profanity in their
looks and disgust in their language.
The night after the races George
was down town with the other horse
men and he heard Jim Raysor tell a
crowd of fellows, from Donalds how a
lot of "Rubes" always turn up at a
county fair with a bunch. of plugs
which they think can run, and what
a good living he had made during the
last seeral years beating them with a
few old race horses he picks up here
and there for a small price.
Which caused George to remark to
Beaudrot in one of their private con-
ferences in the back room of the shop
when they were figuring up the ex-
penses, that "a cobbler should stick