AN EXCITING RUNAWAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 632, 8 October 1909, Page 7

AN EXCITING RUNAWAY.

HORSES CHARGE INTO 'ALCHEMIST'S shop. ;; , v , ',v. At about 9.15 a.m. yesterday all Courtenay. Place was 6tartlcd by the rattlo and clatter of a pair of bolting horses'attached to a cab. lhe horses, whjch had been under the charge of W, Larkin, had taken' .fright while the' driver, reins in hand, was on the footpath opposite Boffa's tobacconist's shop at the eastern end of Courtenay. Place. ' What startled them Larkin could not say. All ho. knew'was that one of the horses gave a plunge, and swinging round on the lock excited tuo other, and together they galloped madly 'cityward along Uurtenay Place. Larkin, dragged on the road, hung on to tho reins'as long-as he dared, but failed to pull them up. • , .;■ ■ The horses—both five-year-olds—galloped down Courtenay Place, missing by a miracle the iron tramway poles in the middle of the street, and veering to tho. southern side of that broad thoroughfare, swung along,at top,pace, an I finished up charging right into Mr. Ayres's chemist shop m Taranakj Street, which faces the end of Courtenay Place.' If anyone had been making a purchase at the timo it is hard to say what might have happened, for one of the horses smashed tight through tho thick plate-glass window and mirror back, and fell n a sprawling heap on tho .floor of the shop near the counter. The other,took'tho door for it, and pulled up with his body half-way through the entrance, he having been checked by the obstacles struok by h.is runaway partner- ' ■ ■ . The pace at which the pair were travelling at the finish must havo'been terrific, for they carried away and rushed into the shop one of the stout verandah poles, apd the big windows were shattered to such an extent, that it was impossible to pick up a pieco measuring more than six inches. " ''.'".'■. Strange to say, the. only injuries sustained by the horses were a few minor, cuts. The cab was unharmed save for a few scratches. Fortunately the cab was unoccupied, and rib one was harmed from the beginning to the erld of the exciting episode. The windows wero insured in the North Queensland Insurance Company. The sum of ,45 should about cover tho damage to Mr. ; Ayres's window, stock.