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Inter Ocean June 30

Lessons from the Cowboy Race.

The first and the most unpleasant
lesson learned is that "cowboy racing"
is just as dishonest as Washington park
or Garfield park racing. This lesson
would have been omitted but for the
praiseworthy zeal of THE INTER OCEAN
cycling commissioner, who followed and
watched the horsemen, and who detected
some of them in the fraudulent
act of riding on cars and in buggies
when they were supposed to be pattering
along the roads on horseback. One
of them gave his horses a ride and a
rest on the cars from Dixon to DeKalb.
There was little or no betting on the
outcome, and therefore it was supposed
that the race would be an honest trial
of the endurance of men and horses.
It proves to have been a tricky scramble
for lucre.

Another lesson is in cruelty to animals.
For though the condition of the
horses while in the State of Illinois and
outside of it-they do not seem to have
been closely inspected-was not wretched
enough to warrant the interference of the
officers of the Humane society, yet it is
certain that several of them were ruined
for life; indeed, they 'were so reduced in
strength as to compel their abandonment
on the way by their riders. The
horse brought in by Rattlesnake Pete
would have fared better had its rider
refrained from the cup that cheers and
inebriates, but as to how it fared under
the actualities of the race may be
learned when the proceedings of the
suit of the Humane society against that
rider are made public.

We do not know that there is any
other lesson. We have learned, it is
true, that bronchos and cowboys can
endure great hardships. But we did
not need to learn it again. The narratives
of a hundred forced marches with
Crook, a thousand journeys across the
plains, myriads of 'perilous adventures
on the frontiers had taught us this
long ago.

The race was projected by Colonel
Cody, of Wild West fame. He is an
enthusiast as to horses and horsemen,
and doubtless meant that there should
be an honest and humane test of the
powers of bronchos and cowboys. He
was not able to control the conduct of
the riders, and the result is that the
race has been neither honest nor
humane. We assume that by this time
he is convinced that his judgment was
at fault. As proprietor of what without
any exaggeration may be called "the
greatest show on earth," he has nothing
to lose by confession of his error. His
exhibition is marvelous enough without
the addition of one or two broken down
bronchos and a few Ricky riders.