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L t « From Farm Drudge to
’ sfc JT HorseShowChampion!
'■ ■ How Nickel
M $ Plate—No
/if /bfbfb Pedigree, Too
I If. • Sensitive to
Work--Jumped
Iftf from a s6oFail-
[1 b/f I y4ff< tyure to a SIO,OOO
Winner Over
■Bt Night and Gath-
|M JSvlHr ered in All
“Nickle Plate Was Just Like the True Princess , "so'u^1 , ." ,0^e" t,,
Who Felt the Crumpled Rose Leaf Under ffi «?*i f M*w d "
Twenty-four Mattresses.” '■ ■* txl.C I J I 11P
(An Adaptation of Mr. Kay Neilsen's Charming Picture.) ii --~ '-'' \ I *WV
MRS. HOPE ATTERBURY, daughter of the
late Lewis Atterbury of New York, and
one of the tew women in fashionable so
ciety who exhibits her own stables at the Horse
Show, won every prize in the show just ended
with a horse called Nickel Plate. Nobody had
ever heard anything about Nickel Plate. Yet over
night, almost. Nickel Plate became the champion
saddle horse of America, winning the blue ribbon
over the finest horaes of America and the pick
of army horses of England and Belgium. In June
he w’ill compete at the International Show In
London against the finest horses of the Conti
nent. Yet no one know that Nickel Plate makes an
equine fairy story worthy of Grimm.
A year ago Nickel Plate was dragging a ped
dler’s cart around tho streets of Louisville, Ky.
Before that he had been undergoing painful utili
tarian experiences on a farm. Ho wasn't any
good on the farm and he wasn’t any good In the
shafts of the peddler's cart, but when Nickel Plate
was rescued from work and came up to the Horse
Show, its blazing lights, its equally blazing jewels,
pretty women all around and the excitement of
an entirely useless but extremely ornamental
function thrilling him, Nickel Plate found what
he had been torn for. Right away he became
champion!
There is a very well known old fairy story
called ''The True Princess” which fits Nickel
Plate's case exactly. The True Princess was
spirited away when she was very young and later
on there were a lot of rival claimants, each say
ing that she was the true Princess and wanting
to take her rightful place on the throne The
true Princess was there, too, but for years she
had been doing housework. The Court and the
I rime Ministers, and even the true Princess's
parents, were very puzzled. How, from all the'
claimants, could they pick out the true Princess"
very easily!
They took twenty-four mattresses and idled
them one on top of each other and underneath
the bottom one they put a crumpled rose leaf
Then they made all the alleged Princesses sleep
on the pile or mattresses. Every one of them
•urneo In and slept soundly, but when it came
the true Princess's turn, she could not sleen at
all. she was restless. Irritated and uncomfortable
'.o' l Bee , Bhp felt ,he ‘■rumpled rose leaf through
the twenty-four mattresses. She didn't know what
was the matter, but she knew something was th.
matter.
By that the Court knew she was the true
Princess. No one whose every drop of blood
wasnt of the deepest blue, who was not so
royally and aristocratically sensitive as a true
Princess with her lineage ought to have been
could have felt that rose leaf, and so, after dig
ging In gardens and doing assorted housework
snd being generally useful, the true Princess at
last came Into her proper circle and lived orna
mentally, and it is to be presumed uselessly, ever
after.
This was exactly the case with Nickel Plate
with this exception, that when the true Princess
was picked out they handed her a parchment
which told just who her mother and father were.
Poor Nickel Plate has the throne, but nobody
can tell who bis royal papa was.
Nickel Plate was foaled six years ago, on a
farm in the Blue Grass country. His mother, so
the tale goes, was a useful member of the farm
family, and. although comely, a hard worker and
a contented one. His sire came from out the
State, a princely stranger to the farm, and un
doubtedly the cause of all his son's ambitions. It
was a brief wooing. Soon tho princely stranger
deserted his mate and vanished. As a colt no
one cared a little bit about tne future cham
pion's shape, color or action. He was all legs,
so they called him Daddy Long-Legs.
Reaching the "breaking age." "Daddy" was
trained to the plow. Instinctively he hated It. he
hated the work and the coarse toil of the farm.
His draughty stall made him miserable, although
the other horses didn't seem to mind. He hated
the smell of fresh turned earth in the furrows, the
language which the farmer or the farm hands
would use to him at times made him droop his
head in horror ana disgust. How could you ex
pect a Prince to work?
The sight of a set of harness and a Duteh col
lar made him prance with fury. Nickel Plate or
"Daddy" knew something was all wrong. He
hadn't been born for that kind of life -but what
else was there.
At last tlie farmer gave up trying to make a
plow- horse out of "Daddy," and lie sold him to
an expressman, saying:
"This 'Daddy' s good enough horse—but
somehow be don’t seem to fit in well with farm
work. J don’t think he likes the country. He
may prefer the citv smells and noises."
“But ‘Daddy’ did not like the city He trotted
Nickle Plate, the “Over-Night” Horse Show Champion, with His Proud Owner,
Mis* Hope Atterbury, Riding Him Into the Ring to Get His Prizes.
*'°ng the streets with the air of one whose
oughts were far away, and he plainly showed
®t his soul was above express bundles.
He didn't like to associate with the horses he
came Jn contact with in the city either, lie saw
“uses he would have liked to have known. They
pranced along proudly, their coats shone and they
carried pretty ladies who rode them lightly.
~?^ ddy tried to get acquainted, but they turned
heir noses at him. "Daddy" grew more and
more dejected.
At last the expressman sold him to a peddler
saying. This is a very nice horse in his way,
but I don't like his way. He does not like the
city and he hates the country. Perhaps you can
make him contented as you spend part of the day
in both places.”
sad t tlm U « B tuK “ nfPßßei ‘ ‘hat the peddler had v
mg the citv horse ' 0,10 day after l,,av -
g the city Daddy met a man on horseback
k' 8 .,"® 8 1,0 " ew thing, for every one rides in
nartlciiUHv thls day " Dadd - V ” "as feeling
hors with and he looked at thp mun and
Mmself SndrtpLTJ ß^ s '' to ,akp his nli,1(l < lff
nodding on th« « \ the ° d ppii,llpr - wh ° bad been
self lust >’ Bave a jump and caught him
out ] "I addv" - “ h l6 WOU1(1 haV ° been thrown
X" SV'' 1 ■>'
“n^v” 10 / ,OUB a Al l. tumn day thp Peddler headed
Daddy toward the open country. When thev
were about three miles out from Lexington thev
passed a field where the annual horse show was
being held. Flags were flying, a band was nlav
ing and the finest horses of the Blue Grass state
were exhibiting their fascinations.
As the peddler's cart reached the gate "Daddv"
stopped short. The gate was open, "Daddy" sniffed
tow-Lrrt'the C fl f 'ia lIiS T. earS and ,Urned a bright eye
A’^ ad J h( fl d ' !t was all over ; with one bound
Daddy was inside the gate and before the ped
dler and gateman could help themselves "Daddy"
was on. First he cantered around the ring, then
L® ,® a 11 . oppd ‘ thpn J™ did what the delighted crowd
insisted was the Turkey Trot. Back of "Daddy"
the old cart careened and out fell turnips and
squash, but Daddy" never stopped until the head
sroum ran out and said: "Line up" and "Daddy,"
the ex-farm horse, the ex-express horse. "Daddv."
who had never seen a horse show, turned and
lined up by the Judges' stand.
"Daddy" did not get a ribbon that dav. but the
judges took the future champion and the old ped
dler was very glad to get rid of him and pocketed
sixty dollars with gratitude.
Right away "Daddy" knew he was getting close
to his Ideal. No vulgar work for him now. He
was groomed and polished and curried until his
rough gray coat shone like satin. He was trained
and ridden until his muscles rippled under his
glossy skin like those of a prize fighter's. Six
months of this made "Daddy” forget turnips. His
name was changed to Nickel Plate, and after being
ridden for many months he was entered at a
small show near Louisville. Here he won a blue
ribbon and was sold for two hundred dollars to
a girl who wanted him for a saddle horse.
It was early last Spring that Nickel Plate was
sold as a young saddle horse for two hundred
dollars. All Summer he was ridden by his
new owner far away in Kentucky. And all Sum
mer in New York Miss Atterbury was looking for
a new horse, one that would win the Madison
Square championship. In August a man from
the South said to her: “Talk about your horses
there is one down in Kentucky that will win
against all comers when some one is clever enougn
to get him and enter him in the National Show "
Miss Atterbury talked with the man and the-,
sent for pictures of the novice. She fell tn
with Nickel Plate when she saw his niX™. °'!
oft she went to Kentucky to buy him T a " d
meantime some one else had heard of li In
and before she arrived Nickel Plate hm k <>l!es; 1
for thief: hundred dollars. Miss Atterh Deen A
care. She was determined to have t'inti didn '
when she left Kentucky she was poo>- 10rse - am’
thousand dollars, but Nickel Plate ° r by thre.
Nickel Plate bad gone up from " as hp rs
S6O to $3,000 in less than a vear
Os course, no horse can be
shown in the Garden without
many rehearsals.
"I just devoted myself to Nickel
I ate," says Miss Atterbury. “I rode him
and potted him a lot. too.'for I think peumg
has a lot to do n ith a horse's success in the ring
He gets used to the idea that every one admires him
and then nothing will be allowed to hurt him"
Thp » « nlp ,hp oPening-Say of the show that
is watched for with eagerness all over this coun
try and Europe. 1 ben came the hour when the
finest saddle horses in the world cantered into the
big ring, and for the first time Nickel Plot r ,
‘tanbark 26 ]eW<?lS and be
Ah. now Nickel Plate knew what he had been
_orn for. He took to the ring like the True
Princess to her throne. Un went i-u i,
went his head-all the true artltOcratic'grVe?
showed themselves. No coarse, uncultivated lan
guage here to hurt hfs delicate sensibilities no
crudities of countryside to jar his nerves no vul
gar utilitarian tasks to irritate his patrician feel- ,
Now he knew what the rose leaf was ‘hat haa I
been bothering him. He pranced it- with borU I
which have pedigrees miles long, horses that have I
won blue ribbons everywhere, and Nickel Plate s
who didn't even know his father's name, took a' '
the blues away from them!
Sixty dollars he sold for a little over a vea J
ago. He can't be bought for SIO,OOO to-day. ’
Ribbons
from His
IKIW Fashionable
Rivals
Jr WU&
a! / m///
M Acute >eonltivencMß Maue fbe More Vul«ur ( ompiinloii
MWmMIWWMIWrIMmIMF Os >ilN !>•>« Utterly Ilrpusnant to
’ - 1
“Hut \\ lien .\lcklr I'lntr Mruck the Horse >hu»»
Me Knew Whnt lie Was Horn For. He
Became Übamplou Blaht Away."
MBSkaaOwam
•k
Srifflw ■**
=tew
- .f
Mus Atterbury Carrying the Saddle Clast Championship
Cup Which . ' kie Plata V/on for Her.
How the Corset Helps to
Ward Off Consumption
PROFESSORS FELIX HIRSCHFELD and
Adolph Loewy, two distinguished German
scientists, have just made known the re
sults of their investigations into the effect oftb«
corset on a woman’s health. They announce
that as a general principle the corset has a de
cided use in the struggle against consumption
that it helps, when intelligently worn, to ward
off tuberculosis.
The two scientists came to the conclusion that
consumption that originated in the lungs was
both more frequent and found more favorabls
ground in those lungs which were least used,
or, to be more explicit, not so much in tb»
weaker lungs as in those whose upper part was
neglected in favor of stomachic respiration.
Breathing entirely with the body below the dia
phragm was prejudicial. Having compounded
this theory, and having found much other evi
dence to corroborate it, they then set about to
test the influence of the corset in this respect
By means of the apparatus for measuring lun?
capacity and an X-ray observer for watching
the action of the lungs, they were able to gather
a quantity of facts.
From these facts they now conclude that h*
use of the corset furthers the use of the upper
parti of the thorax, and contends, therefore,
against any tendency that the lungs may have
to become delicate or susceptible to tuberculosis.
This, of course, is not an out-and-out defense
of the corset. The experts are outspoken 'on
cerning other dangers it presents. The hindrancs
to circulation of the blood, an indirect help
to the progress of tuberculosis, they very strong
ly condemn. If the corset is to be defended fo*
its use in keeping down abnormal stomachic
breathing it is only when it is of reasonable de
sign. suitably cut, and not too tightly laced.