Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1886 — A Thrilling Experience. [ARTICLE]

A Thrilling Experience.

“I have had plenty of experience calculated to try a man’s nerve,” said a friend of mine. “I have sought the bubble reputation even at the cannon’s mouth. I led a relief party into a cavedin coal mine, I stayed in New Orleans all during the yellow-fever epidemic, but I never was so scared in all my life, never felts so great a responsibility, as one day in a quiet country street without another human being in sight. It was this way: A friend of mine who lived there owned a twenty-two thousand dollar trotter, and he was taking him out with only a halter on. He forgot something and gave me the halter while he ran back. He did not return at once, and a sudden start given to the horse by apiece of paper blowing across the street made me realize my position. I had at the other end of a slender strap twenty-two thousand dollars’worth of horse-flesh belonging to another man. At any moment a sudden noise might cause the animal to break away from me and dash himself to death against the fences or in a ditch. Even the discovery of my presence might have that effect. I scarcely breathed and the perspiration broke in cold streams all over_ me. 1 cofild not take my eyes off the the beast; I was fascinated by its face. Every time it lifted a foot or moved a muscle an involuntary shudder ran through my frame. My friend was only gone a minute or two, but it seemed an age. When he returned I fairly forced the baiter into his hand. ‘Why, old fellow,’said he, ‘you’re as pale as a ghost!’”— Chicago News.