Newspapers / Polk County News and … / July 24, 1902, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE : ; o f-y HE Was called "Lorence, the V-Z Equestrian Queen," on the i (Tj showbills; and her photo graphs, -which were sold for twenty-five cents apiece after her; act in the ring, were signed ."Lorence De La Vielle" in an angular, school girlish hand; but her real name was Louise Bolton. ,.' ; v:'v :.. She joined Maddox & Lane's circus a year after I did, and remained with it eight months, but she attained fame in that brief time. Although fortune did not come to her from the circus, it did come as a direct result of her skill, in riding. I have said In a previous article that Hezekiah Potter's exploit with the lions seemed to me at the moment the bravest deed I had ever seen. But his courage was based on ignorance. On the other hand, Lorence's feat was performed with full knowledge of the peril involved, It was as unselfish as it was daring, and the hundreds who saw and applauded the act fully appre ciated it. We were in Kentucky, the State most noted for its horses-and horse manship, when Louise joined us. She was not Lorence then; that was vhe invention of Collins, the ringmaster, and very proud he was of it. Her family had been small farmers for many generations with a special love for horses. But reverses had come; her father died after a long ill ness, and with an invalid mother she had been forced to seek a home in the family of a close-fisted uncle. The girl, .who was in her nineteenth year and exceptionally bright, although not exactly pretty, was bidden to seek do mestic service in the neighboring city of Maysville. j Louise "walked to Maysville and our circus arrived there- that same morn ing. An inspiration came to her when she saw the white tents. She sought the proprietors, resolved upon securing - aiitriJ5ageraeur"as''a-ljarebacKTider" it modest, hnldnpsa nnrl flMprminntlnn could bring it about. - "My dear young lady," said Mr. Lane, politely but rather patronizingly, "this is a circus, not a riding school. Our performers have to spend months add even years in learning difficult feats before we engage them. There would be no time to teach you on the road." 'Sir," Louise replied firmly, "I, too, have been trained though not in a rid ing school. When I was only so high" indicating the stature appropriate to a babe in arms "I could ride, and I have ridden ever since that Is" and her lip quivered "up to last spring, when papa died and we were sold out. Just give me a trial; I will show you what I can do." "I have no doubt that you are an ac complished horsewoman most Ken tucky ladies are but we require much more than that. You see- -" But Louise cut him short "I am much more than that," she said. "Why, I broke Black Prince, that even papa was afraid to ride! Please let me show you! I'm sure I have all the essen tials; the mere tricks I can learn." ,. "You haven't got to learn self-confidence, anyway,", said Mr. Maddox, smiling. ''There are reasons, sir, why I must have self-confidence," she answered, soberly. "I will convince you that, it isn't mere conceit. Everybody knows something, I suppose has some spe cialty, I mean. Well, riding is mine." A quiet old ring-horse was brought around. It was late in the forenoon, just after the street parade, and the big tent contained only a handful of circus people. "I like your grit," Colling, the ring master, whispered, as he tightened the , girths .of the riding-pad. "This horse is safe do your best!" i She, wore an ordinary walking dress of light woolen goods, and did not even stop to remove her sailor hat I doubt if she had ever seen a performing pad before, and all the conditions were new to her. To make a good showing , in such circumstances seemed impost 's Ibife; but only her heightened color showed that she was embarrassed or . ill .. at ease. ; "H.v-; :''-',v---v " 'J.' 'i She waved me aside when I stepped forward and offered to take her foot and assist her to mount. .With a spring she alighted on her knees on the .. Pad, and there she clung somehow, as Turks sit, while the old horse started rtfund the ring in the fainiliar swinging lope.;;: -;-";?--, ' i;' : Then followed an exhibition of rid ing that, in Its way, was unequaled. - Urging the old white horse to a faster 1 ? pace, she rose to her. feet and danced about his backt maintaining -her bal- i ': By , . . . Roe I. Hendrick. ance as easily as if she had beeri upon a floor. : Suddenly she sprang lightly o the ground. The trained animal slackened his pace, prepared to stop, but she chirruped' to him. As he broke Jnto a rocking gallop, with three quick! steps she ran lightly to his side and vaulted upon his back, only to spring dowjn and the other side and repeat the perform ance. This she did-three times in one circuit of the ring. '..-j The strength, skill' and endurance in volved in doing this make it Impossible of accomplishment for four trained I riders out of every five; and a found The hand-clapping seemed to give her renewed courage. Blushlngj she stopped before the little group of jspec- tators and said: "There were one or two little things that I used to Io at Deep Rock in my riding skirt. Ilhave the. skirt here in my bundle. Wait a moment, please." j She disappeared into the properties booth beside the performers entrance. and in a moment emerged, wearing the riding skirt. 1, "Will some one please scatter aj. few small coins about the ring?" she aked.. This was done, and meanwhile, iwith her own hands, she quickly removed pad and bridle leaving the horse With out a strap upon him. ;i s Then, urging him ahead, she sprang upon his shoulders, and in some mys terious manner clung there like a Sioux warrior, with her body hanging! far to one side; only in her case thefeat was rendered far more difficult by.-Slav ing nothing to cling to. With the horse running as fast as he could be made to go, she bent dpwn and picked up the coins, not only. 911 ce but many times, for she tossed them ahead as' fast as she secured them. ... - 1 This act won for her even louder ap- plause than the other. It was so plain tnnt sue was a oorn nuer, anu , cpuiu learn, any feat with ease, that the .iw&s engaged at a good salary on the spot I Of course she had to encounter more or less jealousy on the part of some of the other riders, but no one could hold out long against her simple directness. And for the same reason her progress in learning the new points of her toil some profession were both rapid and complete. It was about this time that chariot races came Into vogue, and every circus manager felt compelled to Introduce one Into his program. j In St. Louis we were fitted out with four gorgeous chariots, guaranteed! to represent the true Roman model, and the proprietors also secured three-horse matched teams to draw them. There- 1" T the race. The swiftest team was assigned to "Mademoiselle Lorence," who by pre- aritfngement, was to be the winner! in every contest. She drove with as great spirit and . delight as' if the struggle had been real Her team consisted of three blacks, loosely harnessed to the swaying char lot by means of broad breast collars and traces of silver plated steel. They made a brave show, but only the out side horse on the left was really trained, the others having recently been bought because they matched the other horse. It was at Hot Springs, Arkansas, that the girl's opportunity to be a hero ine came to her. We ulaved the early in December, as we were swing ing to the South after a summerspent In the Northern Central States of the' TTnfnn . ; i , I think the race had been run In piib- Un hnn tnf. mM ulll lie perhaps twenty times, and horses as well as drivers were becoming ac customed to it. j Of the latter two were men and two women, attired very much alike, . . ... ; out all were in armor-like costumes, glittering with . spangles. j-j uiuve at u mau run, ano tne race was very realistic. The chariotsalthough not so heavy as they: seemed, "were lumbering, two- nKnm-n wheeled, springless vehicles, and, lack ing thills or a tongue, they slued alarm ingly in turning a corner. In each. race the. chariots made sjx circuits, the last the swiftest of all. Before this round now.one and now ah other would forge ahead, but on the final turn Lorence would fnmo hv three steeds to the front, take the out- nti thcour?f d win a length, amid great excitement and ipplausei -Chat evening the tent was throricred. and under the canopy, which presuma- ui. tuut wvenng a proconsul's throne, was a party, of well known people. The family of I State Senator M a silver mlnins mil- lionaire from & Colorado, were Three tiers above the ring level. No one was in front of them. Their only son and child, a strong, active boyv of about five years 'of age; sat between his par ents, so engrossed in what he sa,w tnat he forgot all else. ' . The chariots were swinging about from the back stretch on the sixth and final found.- the drivers calling to the - plunging" horses and urging them on. The audience was in an uproar ana the" boy leaned far forward in his eagerness. . ' Suddenly heflost his balance and feu forward. Hfs father ciutcnea at nis little blouse, but the m'otion only thrust; him farther forward: Over and, over, he pitched down the steps and then rolled six or eight feet into the ring, where he lay half-stunnea. ;r The; father sprang frantically, down the seats, and was at the edge of the. course when he was seized and held back. If he had entered thef ring he could only : have been knocked down and trampled to death. Besides, there was a chance just one ; in a hundred, as it seemett tnat ;anomer auu mure skilled rescuer might save the boy. Lorence baij just spurted ahead and taken vthe outside course when she saw the accident To pull up was impossi ble; those behind who had seen nothing would run her down before they had realized what had happened. The little fellow sat up, still half- dazed, and faced her with frightened, wide-open eyes, while the Senator still struggled with his restraining friends. Whatever was done must be accom- pushed within a few seconds, DroDninsr the reins, the cirl poised herself on the dashboard of the chariot, and then sprang forward upon the centre horse. The untrained creature cringed and leaped, but. with another spring, even more daring than the first, she alighted on the shoulders of the horse on the left This one she had ridden before, and unexpected as was her coming, he swerved scarcely an inch. . . Not even the smallest fraction of a second could safely be lost. Catching the toes of her right foot beneath the shoulder strap that upheld the breast collar on the horse, she swung her body downward and to the left, as in her act of picking up coins ' from the ground. , A horse, unless gone mad from fright, will not trample upon a person. In this case the chief danger to the child was from the heavy chariot wheels behind. . As she threw herself forward the intelligent animal crowded his team mates away so that his hoofs barely cleared the boy. Lorence swept her left arm around the child's waist and drew him to her breast.1 Shifting the weight upward as high as possible, she made a mighty effort to regain (he horse's back, but in vain. Thus outstretched and hanging by one root the young woman and the child were carried half-way round the ring again. But the other drivers had seen what she "had done, and as they checked tlreir speed, the blacks , also slowed down, and on the back stretch Mr. Collins ran out and caught them by the heads. " Then we helped the fainting girl to the ground, and, amid almost frantic demonstrations on the part of the audi ence, s carried , .her into the dressing Physician and surgeon of the troupe was summoned in all haste. But be fore he reached her side the boy's mother, kneeling on the ground, was holding Lorence's head-in her lap and sobbing over her, -while she expressed her gratitude in disconnected words and phrases. The surgeon shook his head. "She will not ride again in months," he said. "if she ever does. He spine is wrenched, almost dislocated." 'My poor mother!" the girl kept say ing. "What will become of her?" When the cause of her anxiety was explained to the boy's mother, she bent over Lorence again and whispered something in her ear that seemed to reassure her greatly. Despite her pain. she smiled bravely and bade us all farewell when a barouche drove to the side entrance, and she was carried away to the Senator's home. , 1 ne!er S7 rence again or heard from her directly, but , through Mr. Lane I learned that the Senator and his wife formally ' adopted her, and also took her mother to their home. After a trip to - Europe the health of both was fully restored. r ' ' " Lorence now is married, and is liv ing happily with her husband in one of Lil. "V UU6t.w . UU5y uiiuweou x uo not uoudi tnat norse- back riding is still her chief recreation; nor do I believe that she has grown ashamed of her brief experience as a professional e equestrienne. Youth's Companion; The Guiana Diamond Fields. : ThOllirh difflonlt nf n nonce nn n recently .discovered diamond fields of British Guiana are attracting a good deal of attention. Tho TTnitPd st Consul at Dememrn rPnnrt amounting to a large sum haveialready oeen exnorted ; throusrh thA nfv. House.. The fields are situated on the Essauibo RIvpt. vous beinc Bartica.' . ' " SOUTHER.N Topics of Interes.t to tne Planter, ston, :. man and Truck Grower. Silos and SiUfte in the South. t TbP foUowlnir question by a Missis- lppian, answered by Mr. Andrew M. Soule, of the Tennesse . Experiment Station, may be of interest to reauers: 4I am contemplating building a silo. Will it prove 'a paying investment in the South, where we can graze cattle in the winter except when too wet, and :where large crops of turnips and ruta bagas can be grown ? v I want-to feed silage t6 young mules, colts, -cows, calves and work stock when not in use. Daring about one-third of the winter the ground is too wet to graze. ,. I am raising beef cattle, hut do. not fatten them for market' ", ; It will certainly pay to hav-e a silo in the South, as it cannot only be used to advantage In j the winter ( when the ground' is too wet to permit pasturing, but it can also be use'd to advantage 'in the summer when drouth prevails and when It would (Otherwise be necessary to use soiling crops, which are expen sive unless they can be utilized in the form of pasture. Silage has been fed at the Tennessee Experiment Station throughout the entire summer, and when fed in comparison with such soil ing; crops as cow peas, corn and sor ghum, has given better results with cows than the freshly cut soiling crops. By, means of the silo your correspond ent can preserve a large quantity of food in the most palatable form with less labor than after any other fashion. It costs to make a ton .of hay from peas and corn fodder from $3 to $5, de pending on the crop yield. According to the yields obtained at this station, with those cropsj varying from three to five tons of cured nay, the first cost of making the hay is greater than putting an acre of the same crop in the silo. While the hay will lose about one-quarter of its food value the same crop if properly preserved in the silo will not lose more than' five to ten per cent, of its food value. When the crop is put In the silo everything connected with It is done, whereas the hay will need to be handled overtjagain and frequently cut' in order to get the cattle to con sume it to the liest advantage, all 6f which entails a good deal of extra la bor and expense.) For feeding beef cattle your corre spondent will find sorghum silage par ticularly valuable", and with certain va rieties, as the Red Head, he can obtain. a yield of from fifteen to twenty tons. According to some experiments made the green weight! of corn fodder, peas and turnips wa respectively 39,645 pounds, 17,643 pounds and 28,500 pounds; the dry matter furnished by these crops was 5580 pounds, 2590 pounds and 2559 j pounds respectively. At the Pennsylvania Station the cost of placing an acreiof sugar beets in tbi pit was $56.07, arid aii acre of corn in the silo, $21.12. At the Tennessee Sta tion in 1901 one acre of corn, in the silc cost,$lo.30, and one acre of cow peas and 'sorghum in the silo cost $10.40. ,Your correspondent will make no mis take In building a silo for use in the South. These figures make, it evident that the silo will prove an invaluable aid to the Southern farmer, whether ht contemplates feeding beef or .dairy cat tie or other farm stock. One can feed silage with advantage to horses an? mules. Of course it must be fed judi ciously, and animals .cannot be expect ed to do as hard and j continuous laboi as where they arc receiving a higt grain ration and plenty of hay, but foi a maintenance ration and for light work during the winter months it wiL prove excellent for horses and mules and other farm stock. A Cheap Homemade Silo, A perfect silo can be built for one half to one-third the expense they cosl many who , build or buy them. By building it octagon, or eijght-sided in shape and ceiling perpendicular witU two thicknesses cf inch hemlock boards with felt paper between a per fect silo may be made at small cost. 1 built one in August, 99, and have filled FRAMEWORK FLAK OF, OCTAGON SILO. It twice. It gave perfect 1 satisfaction last winter. Every silo that has been built in this vicini ty since and I know' ot twelve, have been built after the same plan? and others; will be built the coming year. . They can be built any size wanted. With 2500 feet of good hemlock boards, 900 2x7's, three feet Ion- and $6 worth of felt and nails. FAR.M NOTES, tnree men can build ln vs. Tli a 'U lis1 ;would be. the sam2 as f''Uit) suape or sryie. -1 got out the lumbc nnv!nr com- 1. . . 1 . any paper, mason work and on cost me $29.70. .The zlzQ? lM luoiue uuu tweniy-toiu' fOAf , . c Will hold Silaze.enrm ... a-M head , of cattle twice n f1, . 'it; months. When the f oundat pleted place the sills on ana corners together. Tiion h 2ll1 up ai tne . corners and with a level or plumb man hold the joist on the at the corners" nndi,w, nail them, from the inside. joist at the corners as you 0 h first twelve feet, th? section un thp K.omo vi-ot. n,.m - . w M U V rni may be sawed the same len- th siuu... ny xue grouna plan it,,; seen that the joist and boards Jt corners all-have to be the same'sv ... OHumc uma ur an aiK torty-nve degrees. Kasily Made Poultry Houie. . . f """-j iuuwn ? accompanying illustration can be h ror aoout per running foot, it fourteen feet wide at -bottom andi length is determined by th? nnmbe; -J vuv UiUJ iOJU tVJ i-iu U7; t. H POULIEY HOUSE FOE EVERYBODY, timoer is usea. taiie one piece h inches thick by six inches wide fourteen feet long with another oft size, but only twelve feet long. Pb them together at the top and -fonrted feet apart at the bottom on a fou tion of coarse gravel or cobble st tone, with a flat one for the end of the tii ber to rest upon. Have a set of tbd rafters every six feet. On the son; side build out the windows by nailli on two by four strips perpendicular the surface of the ground. Hang th; windows, on hinges at the bottom, opei toward the inside -and let themttod the main timbers while open. Cots with boards, paper and shingles The Cotton Crop. i - "i Fortunately for .the South cottom. the least exhausting to the soil of q of our staple crops. The lint of iiti cotton and the oil of the seed contain but an Insignificant amount of fertifo ing elements. Therefore, if the roots anl leaves and stalks are turned under and the hulls and meal of the seeds ap plied to the soil or are fed to cattle aud the resulting manure used the less of fertility from growing'a crop of ccttci Is very small. But many farmers on rich alluvial soils knock down, pile and burn the cotton stalks because they are! in the way of the plow, and farmers on upland, seeing their more pi-osperoa bottom land neighbors burning "cotton stalksgo home and do the same. This is highly injudicious and en thin lands is sure to result in a deserted farm on stinted Hying. The fertilizing of cotton is as yetan unsolved problem, for the same process that gives srood results in Mississippi fails in Arkansas, and fertilizers used profitably in Georgia do not benefit the crop in Texas. Especially is the Texas black land a puzzle to th? farmer who would largely Increase his yield by7er" tilizing his fields. Experiments so far indicate that the land is better off in the matter of . yield of cotton without than with any fertilizer that has yet been systematically applied. The Tvrit er had a field part of which was sandy post oak and part black and sticky. Sheep were penned on two acres of &e sandy land, ? and this land planted to cotton for. six alternate years averss 515 pounds of lint. The same pen, inclosed by the s-cJ fence, was remored to the blr.ck land and used as a sheep pen for two yea& and the average crop of cotton for three alternate years was 2Gi poucds of lint. The average of previous crops on this black land was not accural known, but was believed to have not less than 275 pounds. Thus it wouia seem that the very fertilizer that n01 than doubled the yield of the saudy sot was slightly ; detrimental to the soil. This Is a subject that needs haustiye- systematic experinientatiO ' and. this should be supplied hy State. Farm and Ranch, . Wheat as a Forage Crop. talS about; substituting wheat as a tov srpp instead of oats. The latter are ble to pe killed three winters m w Wheat, if sowa in September n the dough state the last week m vhen it should be cut. Horseftll0lJt amies will fatten on. the feed w tny corn. The Cotton riant-
Polk County News and The Tryon Bee (Tryon, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 24, 1902, edition 1
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