A STORY TOLD IN THE SENATE CLOAK ROOM ABOUT A BIT OF HORSE FLESH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3206, 7 October 1881, Page 4

A STORY TOLD IN THE SENATE CLOAK ROOM ABOUT A BIT OF HORSE FLESH.

'That is a very fast train that flies between New York and Philadelphia, but I don't think they will ever get a railway train that will go as fnst as I once was carried over the old Bloominwdale-road. , So said Senator Beck the other day to a number of his brother senators.

' I don't just remember what year it was,' Mr Beck said, ' but it was before I came to Congress, and when T was quite , a young man, that I was in New York City, It was in the days when the old Bloomingdale-road was a favorite drive for New Yorkers with faefc horses. Now I like a fast horse myself, and. I thoupht I had ridden behind some. One afternoon I was up town, or what was at that time tip town in New York, and a gentleman came along whom I knew. His name was Captain Novris. Hβ was driving a dieadfully bony and angular looking mare, and when he asked me if I would lite to take a seat b?side him, I was almost ashamed to get in behind such a specimen of horseflesh. Still I knew that Captain Norris was something of a lover of horses, and besides I couln't in courtesy refuse him. i-'o 1 pat in. The sleepy-seeming old mare jogged along in a most tiresome way. Her heart hung down, and it seemed as though Tt v..d ~!i «he could do to drag her feet

along.' 1 " vVe'll go out on the "Bloomingdale roa'l. it' you ilnn't ininrl," the captain said, " and see some of the steppers."

1 Well that would be pleasant enough, for I thought 1 would have a chance to see a brush or two between some of the noted hordes of New York on that day. I said to the oitptain that I almost wondered why he wWnt out with a stepper himself, knowing how fond he was of fiieh driving. He said that lie sometimes did tuke a fast horse out, .-irv.J I I't'rnt'/nbcr looking at the* dingy bony c.-.-A-o .:■-?:;' i'b>:\inn toy tin- captain some of fclie rfhamo which I thought ho ought to hnve felt lot- iii'.iiaclf. i noticod, too, that the people whom we passed, who recognised him, were staring at his mare, and I thought thai they were wondering how it happened that C aptsin 'Vorris was out with such a plug as that. Well, by-and-bv we got on the Bloomniarbile road, and ons after another fce.iim passed by. I obecrved that now and then the gentlemen who were driving noticeably fine and speedy animals would turn to the captain as they were alongside and intimate a desire to match speed with him. The captain would shake hia head, and sometimes reply, " No you are no good ;" and he said this in a bantering way, as though to return banter for banter.

' ' hen we jogged allong and I was really getting eick of it.' ' By-and-by a noble animal passed us. The gentleman who was driving looked, as he passed around at the captain. I noticed that the captain nodded, and that he took a little firmer crip of the reins. The gentleman elowed up a little, sufficient to let us pass. '" Try it, Cap.," he shouted. ' The captain nodded.' ' I caw the mare lifted her bead a little as the grip on the reins tightened, and put some little animation into her feet. By and by we heard the clatter of hoofs back of us. I looked around and saw that the gentleman was coining at a eplendid pace. '" See if he passes üb," said the captain, and be made one little chirrup to the mare, ' Gentlemen, I have seen transformation scenes. I have seen the old man in the opera of " Faust" changed in an instant to the handsomest young fellow. I hi.ye eeen a politician change his coat, but I never saw such a transformation as then happened. The mare lifted her head. Her ears no longer hung limp. They were erect and tossed back to catch the sound of those approaching hoofs. Her dingy body now seemed to gleam, and her legs looked like the spokes of a rapidly revolving wheel. She was all fire, all animation, all electricity. I could think of nothing but a locomotive rushit-g along at the rate of a mile a minute. Heavens how the wind cut my face ?

'" Loot out for your hat, Beck," said the i captain, and I pulled it down over my ears. I glanced quickly at the captain, He held the reins firmly, and his eyes were fixed ahead. "Wβ -were plunged ahead on a whirlwind. I though what a beauty that mare now is, and I thought there was only one end of it all —annihilation. I grabbed the seat firmly with both hands and I pressed myt'eet against the dashboard. The wind moaned in my ears, although we made the breeze ourselves. I could hardly breath. I could not see, except away ahead. I knew we were passing team after team, and X heard the people cheer. I shut my eyes. I thought the crash, would come. I would have begged the captain to Btop, if the speed had not been so great that speech was impossible. I said to myself, James Beck, your day has come. Whew-w-w-w! How we were flying ! There was no motion excepting speedy Wβ were flying over the road, horse and riders seemingly impelled by an unseen irresistible power. I opened my eyes once and saw some men away ahead waving their hats. In an instant we had reached and passed them, and, as we went by, the three men seemed mingled into one. When will this end ? I wondered. The suspense wus awful. I wanted whatever was going to happen to happen at once. It seemed as though we had been an hour riding, when the speed slackened, slower and slower, and at last the mare stopped. I opened my eyes and saw that we were standing at a roadside inn. ' " Are we through, Captain ?*' I asked. ' " Yes," he said, laughing* " let's tako a little Santa Cruz." • " Captain, you gave me a great fright," I said. " I bad no idea that mare could go. Why ahe't fit to be a racer. ' " Yes, T don't- know but she is," said the captain nonuhaluntly,. ' Here n man touched me and drew roe aside. " Don't you know that mare, man ?" he aske^. '" N..." •"Thv.'e Lady Suffolk." '" The fleeteet mare of the day," said Senator i'.ntler. ' " Yes," replied Senator Beck, laughing heartily at the recollection of the manner in which Norris had "had" him.