Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1887 — Equal to Mark Twain’s Frog. [ARTICLE]

Equal to Mark Twain’s Frog.

An old gentleman at Tewkesbury for many years rode a blind horse. Though sightless, the steed, which had probably been a good fencer once, had learned to jump whenever he received a hint that he was desired to do so. One da.v, after a run with the hounds, some hunting men were talking in the bar of the hotel about jumps, and theqwner of the blind horse stoutly maintained that that aninal would jutnp over a single obstacle which none of their hunters would leap, lie was ready to hack his words with money, and, as the result of the conversation, lie made dour bets of £5 each on tiie sub ect. Very soon the four sportsmen repented of risking'their money so rashly. The owner of the blind put down a straw in the street, and this constituted the obstacle. He rode up to it, and the blind steed, responding to his call, “rose at the rasper,” clearing it with a bound, four feet in the air, and covering twelve feet of ground at least. None of the other four horses would rise at a straw, and the owner of the blind horse was £2O the richer. —English paper. v A well at Yakutsk, Siberia, was many years ago sunk 382 feet without penetrating the frozen ground, which a recent estimate, based on temperatures taken at various depths, shows must extend 612 feot below the surface. - ‘