Looking Back: An AutobiographyRichardson, Merrick Abner
History
Looking Back: An Autobiography
Richardson, Merrick Abner
Richardson, Merrick Abner, 1841-
One noon, on going home to lunch, Billings tackled us on Washington
Street for a race. Tom drawing us two was a little handicapped, so it
made the race about an even thing. Billings became so excited that he
did not turn off at Sheldon Street, to his home, but kept on through
Union Park. When at Robey Street we encountered a fat colored woman and
her dog crossing the street. A policeman saw us coming and tried to get
her out of the way, but we ran over the whole bunch.
We turned right back to the policeman, who knew Billings had been
instrumental in getting him his job. He said he was not much hurt, only
his shins ached terribly where we had run over them with both wheels.
The woman had been rolled over and over in the mud, but she said she
did not care, only for her dog.
We decided on the officer's advise that it was better to settle the
case out of court, so we gave the woman a dollar for her dog. The
next noon we had the race over again, and really it was rich to hear
Billings and my brother both tell how easily they would have won had
not their horses gone into the air.
We West Siders had what we called the gentlemen's race track, on the
south wing of Central Park (Garfield Park). Every Saturday afternoon
many of the prominent men with their wives and fast horses assembled
there, one to show the other how easy his horse could do the other
fellow's nag up.
Mr. Eighmy, a man past 75 years, usually had a fine stepper and he was
a good driver. One day in a race of five or six, we could see from the
grandstand that on turning into the back stretch they had purposely
enclosed the old gent in a pocket, allowing Wrigley with Fly-Away and
my brother Gordon with Tom to pass on the outside. Soon we saw the
sulky in front and the one at the old gent's side, together with his
own, all in a mixup and turning flipflops. When we reached the spot we
found them all bruised and bleeding, with their horses loose on the
prairie, but the old man was game, and this is what he said:
"I ran between them purposely. I knew it would top us all over, but
I said to myself, 'Old Eighmy, you haven't long to live at the best,
and if you must die you might as well kill a couple of these damn mean
cusses for the good of the community, after you're gone.'"
Isaac Waxwell and Jim Rawley were forever wrangling. Jim was usually on
the judge's stand and Isaac claimed that Jim did not give him a fair
show. He certainly should have had a fair show, for it was rich to see
him drive in the dead heat; he had a peculiar way of leaning forward
and sticking out his elbows so it looked as though he was pushing on
the reins.
John Brennock, a pioneer packer from the stockyards, was a unique
character. He was a big man with a large head, and his mouth was very
large in proportion to his head. Everyone liked Brennock and knew he
was rich, for he had told them so. His last resort, in a dead heat,
was to bawl so loud as to frighten the other drivers' horses off their
feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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