HANNISAND CHARLEY FORD. 41 



John Goldsmith climbing: or the winding that character- 

 ized Wagner, none of the stiffness seen in a Hickok 

 finish or recklessness seen in Bowens, but there was 

 a steady get there, get there quickly in a straight line, 

 and at the same time make no mistakes. Add to the 

 above a "gift of gab" which can be equalled only by 

 the end man of a minstrel show and a war whoop of 

 such calliope proportions that it prompted early turf 

 legislators to pass a rule against loud shouting and 

 you will have a very fair idea of John Splan when he 

 and Charley Ford met Turner and Hannis at the 

 West Side track in Chicago in 1880. 



Hannis was a bad tempered little horse, but as 

 Turner knew that he would make a serviceable piece 

 of racing material he waited for him and was reward- 

 ed as usual. In 1880 after a series of races in which 

 Hannis had never shown his true form, Turner landed 

 in Chicago with the pony cherry ripe. The admirers 

 of Charley Ford were confident that it was finding 

 money to back the gray gelding at any kind of odds 

 against Hannis and Ettie Jones and Turner allowed 

 them to think so until they were "all down." After 

 six heats, three of which were battles royal, the dele- 

 gations from the levee had lost everything but their 

 reputations. Turner had the money. 



As for the race, the first heat was declared dead in 

 2:19*^, although Splan always contended that his 

 horse won it. The Judges then as now did the think- 

 ing and after Ford's second heat in 2:16^4 the game 

 was up, although the betting did not change. In the 

 third heat Hannis was stepping by Ford in the stretch 

 when he caught a quarter boot and left his feet, the 

 gray gelding winning the heat in 2:19. Splan's last 



