SPREAD EAGLEISM

Kumara Times, Issue 866, 10 July 1879, Page 4

SPREAD EAGLEISM

In announcing Parole’s victories on the English turf Puck (a New York publication much after the style of the defunct Tomahawk) indulged in this choice specimen of Yankee “ blow ” :

“ We did—there’s no use denying it—we did feel a little sore when O’Leary, instead of pegging away for the Astley Belt, incontinently pegged out and left the belt aforesaid to Rowell, and the glorification of John Bull. But now we can crow; the eagle and the whangdoodle (a bird unknown to Andubon) can clap their wings and scream for our American horse, Parole, has won three races from Mr Bull. He has put his foot in the British pocket and extracted therefrom many thousands, and the British lion feels very much like a British ass when he remembers that he wagered 40 to 1 against a horse that had the record that Parole made in this country. But there is a deeper significance in this than appears on the surface. There is a sporting rivalry between this country and England, and we have always claimed the supremacy. We have tried in many ways to show the little Island her inferiority. We sent over our yacht (the America), and she beat all England. Then we sent a man (Heenan), who certainly ‘swalloped’ her best man—Sayers. Then we sent a boat with half a dozen men, and Columbia won the honors of the English river. Then next we sent a man to walk against all England, and O’Leary brought home to ua the champion’s belt. This aroused the energies of all England ; the entire land was scoured to find a man to whip America at our own game. Little Rowell was discovered, sent over here, and he did the job. But this was too much for Yankeeland. Of course we had hundreds of human steam-engines who could go as they pleased at the rate of 800 to 1000 miles in six days ; but a more humiliating defeat was deemed necessary to utterly crush ‘aughty Halbion’—something noble, yet inferior to a man. So Parole was summoned to the front, and thoroughly flabbergasted Great Britain, not once, not twice, but thrice in three successive efforts. It took a little Man, with all sorts of legs—running legs, walking legs, castiron legs—to beat America—America can and has settled England’s hash with only a horse. It has long been a slur cast upon Americans that we haven’t any beer in this country, because ‘ they arn’t got the ’ops, you know.’ We now retaliate. Our British cousin has no racers—they ‘’hain’t got the hops, you know ; ’ when they get a horse that can hop and skip over the turf like our American horses, then we’ll send over a still inferior animal to knock the stuffing out of J. Bull, we’ll send over a Mule, and even back him against an English Man.” Talk about colonial “ blow” after this, an’ you will.