Show DANGEROUS SPORT How an Englishman Came Near Baying His Bones Picked WHEN DOGS DID THE DRIVING The Adventure of a Greenhorn Who Tried to Drive a Doe Train in Lower Canada NEW YORK Feb 27 18D1SpeJial correspondence cor-respondence of THE HEItALDHas the mail come in yet 1 Not yet major it is expected every minute Well tell mailcarrier Clapper a gentleman gen-tleman desires to ride to the post with him The speaker was Major Colville of the Canadian mounted police quartered at Calgary Cal-gary and whose unexpected guest I was by reason of a sudden heavy fall of snow rendering horse travel impossible As it was imperative that I should reach Fort McLeod at the earliest possible moment I had arranged at the majors suggestion to leave my horse at Calgary until the road opened and take advantage of the dog express ex-press Having given the command to his orderly Colville lit a cigar and said By the way we had a great circus with a fellow hero last fall It was the funniest accident I ever saw and may interest you The shooting being good around here we have a lot of Englishmen calling at Calgary Cal-gary some are fine manly fellows with no nonsense about them and others of that insufferable in-sufferable typo of the genus asinus who think because they happened to have been born under the Union Jack they know everything and cando anything Last fall l a specimen of the latter class tall gawky and sandy haired named Tom Bristow came out here and was stormbound as you have been He was a decent rifle shot rode well for a European and would have made lots ot friends but for his superciliousness supercil-iousness drawling tones and languid manner man-ner which said as plain as speech Hang this country give me dear = oldEngland This was accentuated by an oye glass which forever was being screwed into his eye but obstinately refused to stay there and consequently the men sized it up against him He fumed and fretted anathematized ana-thematized the snow and the climate and refused to avail himself of the dog sleigh express because ho did not want to leave his horse and hurt her because there was not room to take along his barth and ho could not do without his barth dontyer know He became very interested in thE team however andexamined the dogs the ileigh and the long whip and asked driver Clapper all kinks of questions as to the way of driving them When the mail departed de-parted he stood gazing after it until Fred Alcott remarked to him Thats a nice piece of driving isnt it Ho replied l > Oh any fool can drive a dog team Why when I was a boy I used to drive four goats with two St Bernards as loaders and have great fun Alcott laughed and said If you think you can drive that team from here round that oak tree about n quarter of a mile away and back Ill bet you 100 too you dont do it next week when Clapper Clap-per is hero again Of course under the circumstances Bristow could not reject such a public challenge so ho accepted the bet and the boys prepared for fun These dogs the major explained in i parenthesis are very dilllcult to handle and very savage They would as soon eat a man as look at him and are only governable govern-able by moral force Well tho Britisher made a whip with a handle two feet i in length and a sixteen foot lash and practiced prac-ticed with it until he became fairly dexterous dexter-ous in its use When Clapper came round he was told of the wager and agreed to et Bristow have the dogs next morning but strenuously advised him to pay and let tin bet go by default This made him still more determined and it was worth a journey jour-ney to hear him talk Noxt morning my entire contingent turned out to seo the fun About 9 am tho dogs wore harnessed bj Clapper who seating himself on the sleigh behind Bristow drove the team out of the gates and then slid off These dogs are driven without reins and are guided by the whip the sleigh being literally a toboggan Away they went all serene until they reached the turning point Here Bristow i I I I III i l w t41 I u n p i l l l I Il EVERYTHING WENT WELL AT FIRST leaned forward and got in one crack of tin whip to the right side of the team causin oQ or the leaders to turn to the left another crack and they would have goen round and tho bet won but tho end of the lash caugh either the nose or the ear of one of the dogs on the off side and he not accustomed to b D hit in turning immediately fastened on t o the dog behind him demoralizing tho whole procession in a minute and Clappers well known voice not being behind to restore dicipline a free fight was instantly inaugurated inaugu-rated The twelve dogs simply tangling themselves up snapping and snarling liked like-d Jlons finally turning tho sleigh over and z C pitching Bristow into the snow which lay I bout eighteen inches deep where he had driven Now commenced the fun He picked up the whip lost his temper and went for the team with all his might Ho idnt know those dogs 1 At first it did not produce much effect but presently one of the dogs raised his head and seeing a stranger using the whip vi ant straight at him but was brought up with a jerk that drew the dog harnessed behind him out of ho melee who in turn jerked up the dog behind him In a flash the whole dozen dogs were eri route open mouthed for the A GENERAL ROW Britisher He dropped his whip turned and ran closely pursued by the inf uI fated team withthe overturned sleigh going bump bump bump in their wake He had no earthly chance of outspeeding them and they gained at every stride When he upset up-set Clapper had reached for his snowshoes and now slipped them on and started off to the rescue crying Run in a circle man run inacircle I Bristow pallid with fright obeyed abut losing his head simply ran round and round not moving one yard towards to-wards the buildings every time he turned the dogs turned also and the sleigh flying in the airswung the hinder portion of the team off their feet and thus gave him a few yards advantage It was the most ludicrous sight I ever beheldthat long legged gawky fellow minus his hat with his eyeglass flying behind him plowing his way frantically through the snow slipping here staggering there and with difficulty recovering himself His face turned ever towards the most awfullooking lot of canine ruffians I ever saw The dogs toro along slipping up and scrambling forward THE DOGS DID THE DRIVING with the sleigh now on the ground and now jerked three feet into the air I dropped my dignity as commanding officer and sitting on a horso block just yelled Everyone else was affected the same way bar Clapper and if his risible faculties had been equally acute the aogs would have eaten that Britisher sure as shooting As it was Clapper dodged behind the team seized the sleigh with one hand turned it over stepped on it sat down whirled his whip round his head twice and straitened it out in a lino plumb down the centre of that team with a crack like that of a pistol Every dog jumped as if he was hit another crack linked to a powerful expletive in a wellknown voice and the pack came to a standstill Bristow still ran round and round in an aimless dazed manlier and when Clapper caught his arm to stop him fell in a dead faint Noxt morning he was all right but no more dog drwing for him r Hello there is Clappers whip now I Como and see him harness his fresh span They were queerlooking lot a cross between Esquimaux and Newfoundland I with a dash of wolf coyotefaced bushy tailed with ragged irongray coats and so fierce that it is necessary when thoy are not running to push tho forefoot through the collar The kennels are also built so low that they cannot stand upamI fight ° When two teams meet on a road they pass a hundred yards apart if possible otherwise other-wise no power on earth will keep them from rushing to a canine mill which is only ended by each driver turning his sleigh over and watching every opportunity to secure an inch of purchase by digging the runner points into the ground until finally they are pulled clear The harness is a col lar and a girth the trace running from girth to girth Wo had two such mills on our way to McLeod and a lively time we bad Twelve dogs have been known to cover 100 miles a day but since the railroad rail-road was opened their occupation is well nigh gone |