Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-08-31
THE RACE HORSE QUESTION
How Many People Took Slightest
Notice of Peter Manning
Stepping Mile in
2:OOL.

A new worlds trotting record was
set last week. Peter Manning step
ped mile in 2;00l4 thus breaking
the records for geldings.
Now how many people took the
slightest notice of it? Generally
speaking it passed without even at
tracing perfunctory notice.
But step back into the now misty
past of the harness horse and recall
the universal note that would have
been taken Of that performance say
go years ago. Thirty or so years ago
when the druggist and the butcher
and the candlestick maker each had
a prospect" and when every barber
shop was center of horse CONVEX
sation, congratulations and defances
between horse owners and those who
never had nor hoped TO own a horse.
Those were the days when harness
horse talk was serious business,
when records and performances ran
glib off every tongue and blood lines
and breeding were part Of real Gull
ture and Of the necessary informal
ton needed to keep up a real con-
.versation. 1t was when a telegraph
operator had trained a worlds re-
cord breaker and sold him for $685.
000-and $1O5,OOO was competence
and fortune in those days. 1t was
when independence drew crowds
Ike a state fair to see the fast one
circle the kite track, itself an IN.
novation; when the deacon himself
found it necessary to attend quietly
as a matter of the business Of breed
ing and yet more quietly to have
few pools on his favorite in the
twenty class" In those days g
trotting stallion drew as much at
tention, as a prize fighter does now
and that's going some. The farm
er drove standard bred" to town
and talked as glibby of wilkes"
and "Old Abdallah" and "Dysdyck's
Hambeltonian" and "little
thoroughbred blood two or three
crosses back" and quoted "Elec-
tioneer." These were the days when
the home race meets sold the "pri-
vileges" and coteries OF track gam
blers "made book" and iran the
wheel" and exploited the opportuni-
ties of "the old army game;' when
every sporty youth bought quarter
stretch tickets and bodily bet his
two bits or so on every heat with
his fellows.
Alack and alas, those halcyon days
Of pedigrees and marks" and gay
silk jackets and peaked caps; of the
programs without which you could
not enjoy the races" so ran the as
severations Of the program peddler
and when you paid your dime and
kept score diligently; all gone, all
gone except now and then a few
hoppled skates at the county fairs
with Jock sticks along their noses or
shades above their eyes. Axtell, and
Phallas and even Goldsmith Maid
and Jay Eye See are dim memories
or forgotten names. A gelding breaks
the worlds record and nobody looks
up from the wheel of his car to
smile or cheer. There is little left Of
the old game except Old Man Geer
and John Kathan; and they're like
the stranded wrecks" of Sir Walter
Scots. poetry waiting "on the
hither side of dread eternity with
''the tide returning hoarse to sweep
them from the shore" Time sure
runs it's ceaseless course"
Well that's about all. Have you
seen the new six that the Mile a
Minute folks are putting out. They
say it's some car. -Marshalltown
Times Republican.
-O