The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-03-29
DIR. M. E. WEIGH
KNEW STEVENSON.
AUTHORS ECCENTRIClTY RECALLED
doc" WeIch, Physician to Mans Animal
Friends, Was Long in The
Racing Game

Mike, as the physician to mans
best friends, dogs, cows and horses,
has become familiarly known, is ever
ready, and be the call to the barnyard
of neighboring farmer or to some
locality that requires a days ride he
goes. Somewhat like, the oldtime
country doctor he has grown into an
established institution. In speech DR..
mike" is all but abrupt and his re-
plies to the questions of newly arrived
ranchers, seeking his professional SER
vices, have at times provoked resent
ment. His more lovable traits are
displayed when he is thrown among
children. DR.. Mike loves children and
animals, and how his eyes light up
when he talks of the fine points of
horsefesh. AS the duration of an ac :
quaintance with DR.. Welch extends
over period of considerable time it is
almost sure to ripen into friendship,
that is, if you measure up to the old
mans standard. You may swear in
ordinately aud even chew tobacco you
may never have donned pair of kid
gloves and your best suit may be a
woollen shirt and overalls pants your
use of language and lack of knowledge
of approved etiquette may be such as
to brand you as one who has never en-
tered the door of an institution of
learning but if you can look your fell
low man straight in the eye and are on
the square, displaying no evidence of
an affectation then you are ace high
with Doc Welch. His is a. character
tb at irr,prnyao xusfh ana
But DR.. Mike is not just common,
ordinary village horse doctor. If he
were this sketch would never have
been written. The foregoing reference
to the subject under discussions as an
old man may bring the writer the
threat of cudgeling. Doc Welch is 81
years of age, but even those who have
known him for 10 years would never
know it. and he has spent at least 40
of those years travelling down the
stretch of life at fairly record gait.
Yet he is a young man, despite the
fact that little crow-feet wrinkles
are settling around his eyes. His face
is covered by a beard somewhat
browner than his hair, beard, as well
as hair, that seems not to know how to
turn gray. When men have reached
the age of three score years they begin
to talk about how old they have grown
and they like to tell about the good old
times of the days that have passed.
Doc Welch, whether from natural
desire or from policy, abstains from
the fomer old mans hobby, although
he likes no occupation better, when he
knows there is no stranger present,
than to hold an audience. spellbound
with his "reminiscences. Still, in the
prophesies of the time honored veter-
marian, the days that are coming are
going to be even better than those that
have passed.
Doc Welch saw the first pink dawn
of summer in Medina county. Ohio, on
June Is, 1856. When he was nine
years old he was circus boy. For
two years he rode in the sawdust ring
of Dan Costello's famous road circus.
"Old Dan," you may hear him say, as
he calls up those vivid pictures of boy
hood "I'll never forget him. How
kind he was to us children with the
circus" DIR. Mike might have grown
into veteran of the big tent but for
an injury that forced him to retire to
a life less strenuous. Recuperation,
however, was fast, and in 1867 he was
at Dexter Park, Chicago, jockey,
riding thoroughbreds.
'"There at Dexter Park, says DR..
Mike. first saw Bud Doble drive
Dexter, the forerunner of the great
days to come for trotters.
Names of great race tracks, of
famed horses and the owners come as
readily to the tongue of Doc Welch as
the personnel of a municipalities prom
inent citizenry to veteran city editor.
He has ridden in races at Sheepshead
Bay, at st. Louis, at Cold Springs
Park in Milwaukee, at New Orleans,
at Syracuse and Chicago, not to men,
tion scores of other places. He can
recount incidents of a personal nature
connected with such noted owners as
General Withers, Dan Mace, l.. L..
Dorsey. McKern, Chas. Green and Nc
Kinnon.
''The greatest aggregation of trot-
ting horses that | ever saw at one
place, says DR.. Welch, twas at St.
Paul when May Queen, Hopeful, Lulu,
Santa Claus and Woodford's Mambrino
Wed for honors. Bonesetter, the
$100, 900 stud, was there.
sin 1894 | saw Bud Doble drive
Thomas jefferson at Rochester, N. Y.
And by the way, Bud Doble, who is
now 75 years old and who was recently
seriously i'll, as | noticed in the papers,
is one of the greatest drivers of trot-
ting horses the turf ever produced.
For several years the veteran has been
in charge of Hammet farm, which he
established in southern California.
His sires have been famous.
From a rider of running horses, DR..
Welch became driver of trotters, and
after he left the big circuits of the
east he drove on Pacific coast circuits
for about five years. He has since
been a prospector. While mining in
California in the COS he became for a
time the boon companion of Robert
Louis Stevenson. No man living today
is a greater admirer of the author Of
DIR. Jekyl and Mr.. Hyde, and Doc
Welch is Just as familiar with the
other characters of Stevenson.
Stevenson and his wife, Fanny,
were ensconced in an abandoned bunk
house of the old Calistoga NINE in
Napa county when | had the good for.
tune to meet them, says DR.. Welch.
The old riddled shack. with the rubbish
left by miners cleared away, seems
to me today rather funny place ir
which to find a man who has since
grown SO famous. But Stevenson was
there on the high side of Mount St
Helena for his health. The bunk house
consisted of three rooms, so set against