A SINGULAR RACE.

Evening Star, Issue 3413, 29 January 1874, Page 3

A SINGULAR RACE.

;"A-recent issue of the ‘Geelong A dyertiser 1 relates the following “The passengers by the down train from Ballarat, on Tuesday morning/enjoyed a treat'that baa seldom or never fallen td 'the lot of any person’before- the excitement caused by the Melbourne Cup wail as nothing compared |with it, The train had j nst left -, Buninyohg when-’a horseand'waggonette appeared, upon the Up linW; and raced with the' train c UoWhtO'ial Lai’station—‘•a distance of three, milea and three-quarters. It appears r that‘ Mr Walker, a trainer at Buninyong, had arriivedf • rather 1 • late for the. train,' and in rushing for his ticket forgotten to hitbh ms horse up to ; a post,;' where it;might be 1 found, and taken back to his establishment r7 0 j®. 0 *r m P'o.y63, and by some meins the ariimal found its way bn to the line; ' The u ■ ,r e ?PP r oacbing engine caused it U' ortuna tely, it managed 1 all (W to 1 lirtb keep the ne ’' ■. excitement iq train was Very greatj pot 'a, window but what had at Jeast a couple of heads poked out, and the jappeals of the less fortunate passengers inhide for a look Were generally met by the yespopse, “Oh, I can’t - it i 8 too good.’ Every second was expected to be the unfortunate horse’s last / but, as if the wheels of the waggonette Were grooved on to the line, it kept on the tenpr pf its way, following the curve of the line when necessary, (but neyer apprftwhipg; the engine,* with (which it kept pace, too near. ' The pawenwere astonished hJt&ough many of

them sang out eneppragipg cries to the lire horse, they thought the.pace of ..the iron one ra ast. kill it, e*en if it did not come into collision The fact of the matter was when ‘ Billy atone,’ the driver of the engine, came up alongside of the horse, be determined to keep even with it, not to go ahead nor let it go ahead of him, justly reasoning that if the poor brute was allowed to go ahead it would probably swerve on to the wrong line, and if he got ahead of it the steam from the engine would so frighten it that it would most likely kill itself by rushing away down the embankment, or up against the carriages. Consequently, whenever the horse was going too slow the engine whistled and started it on again; whenever it went quicker a little more steam was put on to keep up with it. On arriving at Lai Lai the train stopped before going into the station, and attention being called to the horse the gates across the line were closed, and it was stopped uninjured ia any way.”