Year: 1870

tudt TepIeu IOuulTy.


Done, then p cried the other, highly de-
lighted that he had secured what he regarded as
a safe bet, where he expected to have little
Improbable badinage.


"Perhaps you We got another thousand 70 bet
in the same way?' said another of the party.


"No | haint' replied Country that's
about all fetched with me, 'cept a little purse
to pay enpenses out of, eff lose"


"rm most always in tor one agn five" spoke
up another country looking fellow, and I'll put
up thousand agin five on Country hoss -


" Have you any more to bet ~ asked still
another.


ayes; I've got five thousand dollars" was
the reply "and I'll stake the whole on in the
same way"


The whole five thousand was wagered in a
very short time, the owner receiving the heavy
odds we have named-thrty Thousand dollars
being thus staked against six thousand dollars
that Country's horse would not be the winner of
the scrub race. This gave considerable import
ance to the rustic strangers, and afforded ample
material for conversation and mrth during the
rest of the evening.


We pass over the first race on the following
day, which, by large number of those present,
was regarded with much less interest than the
scrub affair, which came after it. When Coun-
try, among others, rode up to take his place for
the start, both rider and horse looked so ungainly
awkward, and ridiculous in appearance, as to ex-
cite shouts of laughter and dersion from the
whole body of spectators including even the
judges. The man was long g-haired and long
legged, and sat on his skeleton of u beast, that
everybody expected to see tumble down, with
about the same uneasy grace as boy on a sharp
rail and as he urged the animal up to the star
ing point with kick, slap and jerk, it be.
came question with the lookers-on, whether he
would ever be able to get him into respectable
hog gallop or not.


a. Whoa dprn yer 2'' ha crind ot lanctb ;ark
ing up the slim head of the beast with his two
lines, "now saud still, will yer2" Then glanc-
ing around him with the air of one wholly un-
concious of being object of universal atten-
tention, mirth and ridicue, he added in loud,
clear tone; I've got five hundred dollars here
that II bet agin' five thousand that III win this
yere race and take the prize -


He had scarcely done speaking when a gentle
man stepped up and took the bet.


A few minutes afterward the word was given
and away bounded thirty forty horses on n
four mie-heat. Country, as everybody expected,
was the last to get his skinny beast under full
headway aud then, notwiths standing his kicks
slaps and jerks, he gradually lost ground against
all the rest and when the majority passed the
judges stand making the first mile, he was
alone, pounding away for dear ife and just en-
tered on the last quarter. When, he, in turn,
passed the Judges stand, there was universal
laughter and some men, unable to keep their
feet, actually rolled on the ground and held their
sides.


Who bets agin' Country winning the prize p
said queer looking man, edging himself in
among the sporting fraternity.


Odds of hundred to five were now freely Of
Tered against :he greenhorn, and all were in
stantly taken by the queer little man, in any
amounts proposes chose to name.


Meantime the second mile was made, and
Country appeared to hold his own. The laugh
tar uTA1 1ltti -.
ing jerking and humping past the judges stand,
but it was II good deal less wild and boisterous
than ever.


The queer little man still kept on taking all
the bets he could get, ut whatever odds the diff
erent parties chose to name, even going up from
five against hundred to Ave against fifty
thirty, twenty and ten. A few who remarked
this confidence in the final success of Country
began to look grave and instruct the whole af-
fair for IA cunning trick though the suspicion
was excited too late to be of any value to them.


The third mile showed the horses well strung
out, with Country quite near the hindmost, and
not any farther from the foremost than during
the first mile.


But as he passed the judges stand for the last
mile, marked alteration was observed to come
over him. lie lifted his hat and made digni-
fed bow to the judges and waved his hand ma
Jestically toward the spectators. Then settling
himself into an easy position in his old saddle,
he drew up the reins, after the manner of n
finished equestrian gave his beast one or two
friendly pats on the neck, spoke two or three
cheering words in his ear, and flew away like
the wind.


To the unbOunded astonishment of the specta-
tors in general, and the utter chagrn of those
who had staked their money at heavy odds on
the issue, that thin, awkward, slabsided, hog
galoping beast now displayed the graceful speed
OF the thoroughbred racer, and passing one after
another of the horses in the rear, he gradually
came up to the foremost, passed him with ease,
steadily increased the distance between them,
and finally drew up alone, at the end of the race,
amid deafening cheers and the most uprorous
excitement.


1t was terrible blow to the sporting frater-
nifty of that region, and many of them had rea-
son to remember that day through the rest of
life. More than a hundred thousand dollars
changed hands and there was several who lost
all they possessed betting at foolish odds.


"Ive heard tell that them laughs best who
laughs last ~ said Country, he cooly
pocketed the ten thousand dollars which had
been staked against his fifteen hundred ave
got money enough now to buy another hoss
when this critter gins out, and hope the next
time you want to larf, you'll just think what
you've made off me, and you'll find it'll tickle
you heap"


1t turned ont that Country, and two men who
bet on his side, were three noted jockeys from
Texas who bad previously arranged the scheme
by which they so suddenly amassed fortune
on small capital


Discovery OF AMERICA ny THE ARABs.-One
fact corroborative of the idea that the old world,
or at least some of the inhabitants of Asia, we're
once aware of the existence of America before
its discovery by Columbus, is that many of the