Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, December 21, 1912, HOME, Image 20

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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.