The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-02

This is a story of Ed r. ('Pop') ceers, reinsman so wonderful that his work through half century beggars descrip- tion. 2#
 Way back in the days that followed the ending of the Civil war this Silent Man of Tennessee" then youngster, decided to make harness horse driving his lifes profession. He loved horses and the. horses loved him. From the first moment that he vaulted into a sulky until the present time. he has been the standard by which all other reinsmen have been judged; the wonder of turf wonders.
 Geers is now 67 years old. an age long past that at which most men decide to | go into retirement and to take things easy for the balance of their days. Yet 1 right now this same Pop" Geers is set l ting the harness world afire by his re- | markable performances behind his string of trotters and pacers. Volumes could be written about the good deeds of Geers through more than half century, but probably none is more amazing than that which he accomplished a week or so ago 1 in Toledo, 0.
 Battered and bruised and with a body 1 twisted out of shape by almost count
 less accidents, Geers showed that day in Toledo that age and a semi-crippled con- dltlon couldn't beat man with stout
 neart. uncanny racing judgment, re- sourcefulness and a marvellous brain.
 Geers entered Single G., his great pacer
 in the great free-for- all pace against Miss Harris M., William V. and Russell Boy.
 The mare piloted by Tommy Murphy
 raced the first mile in 1:5SA, the fastest
 tune ever covered by racing mare in
 the entire history of the harness game
 And It was only one-fourth of a second
 behind the worlds record made by Drec- | tum in Columbus four years ago mat IS the kind of a horse that Geers l mad to beat in the next two heats-or
 lose the race And Geers beat her. Un- | shaken by the defeat in the first heat
 the Silent Rensman' drove Single G. in the next two heats in a way that made the crowd gasp in astonishment, winning
 the second heat in 1:59h and the third IF l:59A, establishing record for his own horse, having sent him the two fast est consecutive heats ever travelled by a harness horse.
 Harness horse racing is sport that knows many dangers-and Geers has suf- I Iered more than his share of accidents
 lie has been injured countless times and almost every bone in his body has been broken. on at least six occasions phy- slclans have given him up But always the wonderful Geers has pulled through
 ana come back to add more fame and
 more glory to the sport that he loves.
 Most men suffering injuries as often as I VT h,xv l. - ana perhaps never returned to the sport where one ever flirts with death But
 not so The Silent Reinsman of Tennes- see He is never happier than when he IS in the sulky and nothing gives him
 keener delight than to drive through the
 smallest possible openings so that he can
 pilot his horse into the lead. Day after i day and year after year he has risked l life and limb and never in all the years has he shown the slightest fear of death. l Geers has gained close to S2, ,OOO, ,OOO in ! purses-the greatest sum of money any
 reinsman ever has won. During his ca
 reer he has figured in close to 4o0O races l which, averaging three heats to a race.
 means that he has been participant
 in more than 1900 turf duels From 1850
 until l9lf-a stretch of 25 years-Geers
 won sl,lIS.4S2. His greatest winning was In lS2, when he annexed purses totaling $116.370. That stood as the record figure Auntil two years or so ago, when Tommy
 Murphy eclipsed it by a few hundred I dollars.
 One of the strangest things about l1eers'
 career is that he never realized his am bition to drive horse in better than two minutes until 1916. In the other years he owned and drove many famous race
 horses, but he never could force one of them to travel at a clip under the 1 charmed two-mnute mark until Napo- leon Direct turned the trick for him, do- ing mile in 1:59% over the Columbus, l O. track on August 16,l9l6
 l How do you manage to get such won- iderful results from horses?" Geers was asked some years ago.
 sHorses are somewhat lfKe human be- lings," Geers replied One has to study them. learn their peculiarities and then humor those peculiarities to get the best out of them.
 "How long are you going to continue in the racing gamer" Geers was asked the other day.
 "Oh," he answered with a rare smile, "I'm still young fellow. I guess I'll stay in the game for 10 or Is years vet, and then if I'm not tired of the, sport I may stick around 10 or 15 years longer !
 Therc's8 a romance in the early careei of every great fighter. but perhaps none eclipsss that of William H. Rothwell