A Track For Cyclers

New York, 1895

THE QUEENS COUNTY JOCKEY CLUB HAS A BIG SCHEME ON HAND.

Proposing to Build Half and Quarter Mlle Tracks at Aqueduct and Make it the Racing Centre of Eastern Wheelmen — Their Plans.

Cycle racing will probably enjoy a big boom on Long Island next season. Arrangements are being made to make it the cycling centre of the east, and if the plans of those interested in the movement do not miscarry there is little doubt that the attempt will be successful. The necessity of having a thoroughly equipped bicycle track near the cities has been made apparent during the past season, owing to the numerous injuries sustained by riders on local tracks, and the inability of crack men to do anything approaching record time. Attempts to interest capitalists in ventures looking toward the construction of a track up to the present-time have been in vain.

John S. Johnson has succeeded in finding men who are willing to take the chance of making bicycle racing in the East a success, and they are almost prepared to go ahead. The men whom Johnson has succeeded in interesting in the matter are the officials of the Queens County Jockey Club, whose track is situated at Aqueduct, in the town of Jamaica.

It is intended to make the track the fastest in the world, and have trials for records made on it. Training quarters will be established at the track and every facility offered racing men to prepare themselves properly for contests.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 4, 1895, p. 1.

Note: The article ends early because the page is ripped and the rest is missing. These details can still be gotten from the dangling half-paragraph: David Holland was vice president of the Queens County Jockey Club. "Our idea is to construct a track that will eclipse either the Waltham or [Fo——] Ferry tracks."

Race Horse Driver Seventy-Two Years

1916

HUNTING BARNES OF IOWA IS OLDEST MAN IN SPORT.

Started as a Jockey When a Boy in Wisconsin — He's Still Spry at Age of 89.

WEST UNION, Iowa, Sept. 14. — Hunting Barnes of West Union is the oldest racing man now actively engaged in the sport both in age and number of years in the service. He is 89 years old, and is now racing for his seventy-second consecutive year.

Barnes was born in New York State, Oct. 12, 1827. He went to Wisconsin with his parents when a boy and started work at selling fruit on the streets of Milwaukee. Later he began riding horses.

At that time there were few established tracks, the racing being done on the public road, a straightaway course, with the running races generally only a quarter of a mile in length. In 1845 Barnes went across Wisconsin to Madison, Wis., and Prairie du Chien with a party of race horse men. They pitted their mounts against those of the French and Indian half breeds on these impromptu half mile tracks. In 1849 Barnes began driving harness horses.

In 1853 Barnes joined the rush to California, going around Cape Horn, but speedily got enough of it there, returning via Panama, where he rode a mule across the isthmus. However, he later returned to California and after the trip there rejoined his parents, who had moved in 1853 to Fayette County, Iowa.

He hired to two families from Fayette to take them across the Great American desert to the Pacific Coast, and getting other young men to go along they took a bunch of trotters and runners. He remained on the coast, riding and driving until 1865. One of his runners, a mare named Seed Wheat, was run by him there for three years without losing a race.

Barnes has lived in Fayette County since 1865, and in West Union for forty years. He was one of the men who about forty-five years ago, as members of a driving association, surveyed and had graded the first circular track in Fayette County, the one now on the Fayette County fair grounds in West Union.

Barnes recalls an incident of his early driving days that amuses him considerably. He had charge about 1850 or 1851 of a trotter, Badger Boy, that could make a mile in three minutes on a good track on days when he was in good trim. Barnes took this horse to the State Fair at Madison, Wis., and beat everything in sight. The next year he returned, and was barred out of the races, but the officials softened the blow to him by giving him a blanket inscribed "The fastest trotting horse in Wisconsin," and letting him drive around the track with the horse wearing the blanket.

Barnes had his horse hitched to a sulky weighing about 300 pounds, or ten times the weight of the average racing sulky of today. As he passed the stand the [la___*] said to him, "Mr. Barnes, you are [____ and*] spry, but you'll get killed riding in so light a cart as that."

He has raced every season since that time.

—The Saturday Blade, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 8.

*Missing a couple bits here. Possibly "you are young and spry" and "the lady there said to him," but I don't know that "the lady" makes much sense.

Cockroach Derby Excites "Rookies"

1916

HERB ROTH'S "ATTABOY" IS EASY WINNER.

Runs the Two-yard Course in Two fifths of a Second — A Classy Brute.

BOSTON, Massachusetts, (Aboard the U. S. S. Kentucky). — "Attaboy," the pride of Herb Roth's string of racing cockroaches, won the two-yard championship on a recent afternoon from a field composed of Dal Dawkins' "Hammock King," J. W. Bailey's "Ditty Box Bill," Herbert Reed's "Mess Jumper," Albert Schedy's "Scamperer" and a half dozen others. Practically all of the civilian volunteers and many of the regular crew witnessed the speed contests and the bookmakers did a thriving business.

It was thinness which finally resulted in victory for the Roth string. Hawkins had starved his roaches for two days in preparation for the big race, but some miscreant broke into the stables and fed them, so that they were a bit leggy at the start and not much interested in the mince pie which awaited them at the finish, while Roth's "Attaboy," ravenous, covered the two yards in two-fifths of a second.

The overfed condition of Hawkins' string resulted in all his entries running last, while Bailey's "Ditty Box Bill" and Reed's "Mess Jumper" were a bad second and third to the winner.

"Attaboy" is a magnificent brute, standing nearly three-quarters of an inch high at the withers and weighing not less than ten milligrams.

These cockroach races have proved so interesting a divertissement that it is proposed to arrange intership contests.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 7.

The Jockey's Bogy

1901

"The bogy of a jockey's life is taking on flesh," says Ainslee's. "He dreads this as a beauty dreads to lose her charms, and his whole thought from the age of 16 to 25 is to avoid the catastrophe. This is the pernicious feature of the life and distinguishes as a healthful sport from boxing or from football, in which the physical being is developed according to the laws of nature and is not outraged or balked. In order to reduce his weight nine pounds Monk Overton once remained in a Turkish bath from 10 p.m. one day until 2 p.m. the next, with no nourishment except a cup of tea and some toast.

"Again, Mike Bergen, mounted on a favorite, rode such a poor race that the stewards came to the paddock to investigate and punish him for fraudulent riding. They forgave the performance, however, when they found him collapsed and unable to speak. Knowing that he had to ride at a certain weight, Bergen had spent 48 hours in a Turkish bath, eating nothing whatever. When he reached the track, he was so weak that a stimulant was necessary. The one drink of whisky he took so demoralized his faculties that he could scarcely keep his seat in the saddle.

"Such a violation of physical development at the age when a boy should be most rapidly maturing makes it difficult for a jockey ever to become robust. Moreover, the mere riding of a race is a terrible drain on the nerve force of a jockey. A boy may lose a pound of weight in a hard race."

A Dead Face In the Window

1901

Crockford, the proprietor of a well known London gambling house, was made to play a queer role after he was dead. When one of Crockford's horses was poisoned just before the Derby, the misfortune brought on an attack of apoplexy, which proved fatal within 48 hours. Now, many of Crockford's friends had staked large sums on another of the gambler's horses, which was a favorite for the Oaks and which was disqualified by the death of the owner. Only the people in the gambling house knew of Crockford's death, and it was resolved to keep it a secret until after the race.

The servants were bribed and sworn to secrecy, and the conspirators on the day after the night upon which Crockford died had the body placed in a chair at a window, so that people returning from the track could see the gambler sitting there. He was fixed up to look as lifelike as possible and through the window and partially concealed from view by the curtains looked so natural that no one of the great crowd which came cheering by the house when on their return from seeing Crockford's horse win the Oaks suspected the trick.

The nest day it was announced that Crockford was dead, but it was years before the true story leaked out.

Camel Races

1900

Camel races are held regularly in the south of Algeria, where valuable prizes are offered for the encouragement of the breed of racers, and as much interest is taken in their preparation and performance as in that of race horses at Latonia.

The racing camels are the result of very careful breeding through many generations, and in size, temper and appearance they are so different from the ordinary beast of burden that they might almost be considered a different race of animals.

Perhaps the most conspicuous characteristic of the ordinary camel is its extreme slowness. Nothing on earth will ever induce it to hurry. A $20 note will buy a very fair specimen, but for a mehari, or racing camel, five or ten times that sum is required to effect a purchase.

The racer, however, can be depended on for nine or ten miles an hour and kept up for 16 or 17 hours almost without stop. The pace in a camel race is generally fast and furious at the beginning, when all the animals are together and seem to realize that a contest is in progress.

Odd Indian Foot Race

1917

A foot race among the Tarahumare Indians is a most picturesque scene, especially after nightfall, when the course is lit up by flaming torches carried by the eager friends of the runners, who steadily pursue their way, the only silent people in the excited crowd.

How in this weird fitful light the men contrive to keep the ball in view is a mystery. One would think that so small an object would be lost to the flickering torchlight; but Indians have wonderful eyes as well as wonderful muscles, and somehow the ball survives all perils and is there at the finish.

In these races the runners receive no prizes, but only honor and glory and the admiration of the women, which no doubt fully repays them. It is, however, customary for those who win wagers on the race to give some part of their winnings to the men who have won; but this is optional.


Splinterless Goggles

Splinterless goggles are a new development that is expected to be of great value in military gas masks and for aviators, as well as for machinists, welders and other workers requiring protection for the eyes.

The lenses consist of two layers of optical glass separated by a layer of celluloid, the whole being perfectly welded together. The product is claimed to have the advantages of ordinary glass without its dangerous splintering on being broken, and the strength of celluloid without its inflammability and lack of rigidity. The heat insulating effect of the celluloid is said also to prevent clouding by moisture.

Harry Potter, 55, Former Resident, Called by Death

Zanesville, Ohio, 1932

Former Agent for Union News Co. Local B. & O. Passenger Station

Friends here have been notified of the death of Harry Potter, 55, former well known resident of Zanesville, which occurred Friday morning at his home in Cincinnati. The funeral will be conducted there Monday afternoon and burial will be made in Cincinnati.

The deceased for a number of years was in charge of the Union News company's stand at the local Baltimore & Ohio passenger station, and left this city about six years ago. Shortly after leaving Zanesville he was badly injured in an automobile accident and since that time he had been in failing health.

Mr. Potter was an ardent sportsman and was a great baseball fan. He was also a race horse enthusiast and was well acquainted with prominent known sportsmen throughout the country. Surviving are his widow and one daughter, Miss Harriet Potter, all of the home.

—The Times Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio, April 23, 1932, p. 2.

Bets on Race; Nevah Again!

1915

Virginia Gentleman Is Bittah Because Mistah Millah Wins His $1,000

PHILADELPHIA. Pa., Dec. 16. — A peanut grower from Virginia placed a cool thousand dollars on a race horse in a well-appointed apartment and lost. He is now touring the central section of the city with a detective in an endeavor to find the apartment and two men who escaped with the money he lost.

"Nevah again will I visit youah city, suh," said the indignant plantation owner, T. M. Edwards of Rushmere, Va. Edwards says a chance acquaintance introduced him to a man named Miller.

"Mistah Millah was represented to me as being the gentleman who won back Judge Grinell's fortune by playing the hosses," said Edwards. "I was prevailed upon to go to New York to get $1,000, and returned here today. I put up the money and lost. So did my friend.

"Mr. Millah won all. My friend was very bittah against Mistah Millah and vowed he would shoot him and get my money back. Then he disappeared."


Pleas for Woman's Life Win

OTTAWA, Ont., Dec. 16. — The women of Alberta have won their fight to save the life of Mrs. Annie Hawkes of Macleod, sentenced to hang for the killing of her husband's affinity. Announcement was made that executive clemency has been extended and the sentence commuted to 10 years' imprisonment.

Hundreds of petitions protesting against the death sentence imposed upon Mrs. Hawkes were received here. The plea was made that Mrs. Hawkes while hysterical killed the woman who had been brought into her home.

2 Plus 2 Plus 3 Plus 6 is 13

1915

They Give Barney Oldfield Badge 2,236, and He Broke Rod

The number thirteen is not popular with drivers of racing cars, and it was noticed that no car at the Astor cup race bore that number. And thirteen did not appear on the official score board.

Barney Oldfield had badge number 2,236 given to him quite by chance. An hour or so before the race W. Bob Holland of the speedway publicity department was talking to Oldfield, and he noticed the badge number.

"You have a hoodoo number, Barney," he laughingly remarked.

"What's the matter with it?" asked

"Add the figures together," said Holland.

Barney turned the badge up. "Two and two are four and three is seven and six is thirteen," he said slowly. He eyed the badge suspiciously for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and remarked: "Oh, I'm not superstitious; I guess the badge is all right."

An hour or so later Oldfield completed six laps, twelve miles, in the race for $50,000 in prizes. While negotiating the thirteenth mile the connecting rod of his car broke, and he was out of the race.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 8.

Blow-Line Fishing

1900

Advantages Not Possessed by "Invisible" Line Methods

"Some fishermen dislike a heavy line," says an old fisherman, "believing that it is more easily seen, and consequently alarming to the fish. I am convinced that this is an erroneous impression, however, as if a proper length of leader be used and the fly correctly handled it is impossible for the fish to see the line, not to mention the enormous advantage in accuracy and distance obtainable in the cast, particularly in a wind.

"A line which has never to my knowledge been used locally is known as the blow-line. I should have tried it long since for lake fishing were it not for the difficulty in obtaining one and my failing to remember this fact until too late each year. The line is constructed of very loosely woven silk, and is very light and porous. The fisherman proceeds to that shore of the lake from which the wind blows, armed with a very long, stiff pole (not rod), some live grasshoppers, willow or May flies and a small hook attached to a long gossamer leader. The bait is impaled on the hook and the pole given a quick jerk upward, throwing the line directly overhead, where the wind catches it and blows line, bait and all well out into the lake, where the bait struggles in an enticing manner. I believe the method to be a deadly one, and hope to try it some day, if my memory improves."


Dyed Birds

A resident of Presourg, Austria, after years of experimenting, has succeeded in coloring the plumage of birds by the administration of food mixed with aniline dyes. In this way he has produced red and blue pigeons, and has imparted to canaries all the tints of the rainbow.


Only Half?

Half the suicides in France are caused by losses at horse races.

Protection For The Motorcycle Racer

1916

Novel Armored Suit That It Is Thought Would Save Life In Event of Accident

A pneumatic armor has been patented for the purpose of saving the lives of motor-cycle riders, and particularly racers, who, with this protective garb, may smash into each other or dive into a fence without the least regard for the consequences. The armor consists of a one-piece suit of stout material into which the wearer is laced.

Attached to the exterior of the suit is a long tube curled back and forth until the entire person of the wearer is protected by a cushion of air. Air is pumped into the tube in the same manner as a tire is inflated and when it is desired to pack the suit the air may be allowed to escape so that the outfit will take up as little space as possible. The inflation and deflation is done through the means of the check valves at the sleeves and at the trousers' top.

Death and Sadness in the News

Iowa, 1898

STATE NEWS

John Burk was instantly killed in a horse race at Winthrop, Iowa.

Mrs. Mary Christensen of Council Bluffs has gone insane through worry.

Charles Andrews, aged 20, was drowned while bathing in the Coon River at Farnhamville.

It is supposed that the four weeks' old child of J. W. Warford of Des Moines came to its death by reason of a wound inflicted by a pin near its ear.

John Gibbins, a switchman at Ottumwa, was struck by an engine in the yards at that city and injured so severely that he died within a short time.

While the little daughter of Mr. Gullander, living near Denison, was leaning over a fence of a hog lot, the animals caught her by the dress and pulled her over. She was twice severely bitten before being rescued.

Horse, the 7-year-old son of James Maualtt of Brooklyn, was playing with a number of companions, the game being practice in throwing the lasso. The rope was thrown over his head and tightened with a quick jerk, throwing the little fellow to the ground, breaking the collar bone and rupturing a blood vessel in the head. The little fellow died in about three hours.

--Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, September 6, 1898, page 7.