Dead

Thronged were the grandstands of the State Fair Grounds at Wheeling, W. Va. The race track was empty. It was a quiet crowd. A black gelding hitched to a sulky was slowly led forth and up to the barrier. There he was draped with black crepe and, while the crowd stood silent and a band began a dead march, the gelding walked slowly around the full circuit of the track.

The horse was Peter Manning, world's champion trotter. The ceremony he and those present were joining in commemorated the death, one day before, of his owner and 'driver, Edward F. ("Pop") Geers, most no table of all reinsmen. Rounding a turn behind his mare Miladi Guy, Geers had been catapulted from his seat when the mare fell, had fractured his skull, died unconscious. He was to have driven Peter Manning one last race, to try and beat the mile record again before retiring.

"Pop" Geers, at 73, was the great figure of the U. S. trotting turf. He will remain its great legend. He trained, drove, loved horses from early boyhood, which began in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn. He brought more horses under the wire first than any other driver in the history of light harness racing. Their winnings aggregated nearly two million. He was a seasoned driver in the high-wheeled sulky days of Maude S. and Jay-Eye-See and created a sensation in 1892 by driving Nancy Hanks a mile in 2 :04 hitched to the new ball-bearing, pneumatic tire, featherweight sulky. In 1893, he drove three horses abreast, hitched to a high-wheeled skeleton wagon, a mile in 2:14. He held the world records for a trotted mile, two miles, three miles, other distances, and several pacing records.

After years on the Grand Circuit, Geers was urged by friends to quit racing. He had had many accidents, was 30 aging. Friends bought Peter Manning, presented him to Geers, begged him to drive exhibitions only. Spirited, Geers could not refrain. He seldom whipped a horse, never raised his voice. He sat his seat immovable, hunched forward. Called "The Silent Man from Tennessee," Geers never swore. Neither did he drink alcoholics. His passions were cigars, clean sportsmanship, straightforwardness, philanthropy and ice-cream. A millionaire at his death, he died as he would have liked to--in a hot race. At Brooklands, England, another racing figure was killed in action. Scorching down the famed speed saucer's straightaway, 122 miles an hour, Dario Resta's Grand Prix Sunbeam, with the power of 160 horses, went out of his control, skidded for 300 yards, shot sidewise over the saucer's edge, crashed an iron fence, nose-dived into the ground, righted, burst into flames. Resta was hurled headlong with terrific force against a fence-post, semi-decapitated, horribly mangled. His mechanician fell free, damaged but slightly. A few days before, Resta had called Brooklands "the easiest course in the world." After he won the U. S. championship in 1916, and six other big events the same year, Dario Resta had occupied a niche similar to those accorded Barney Oldfield, Ralph Mulford, Ralph De Palma, Eddie Rickenbacker, Harry Grant, Wilcox, Vail and perhaps the Chevrolets--all old-school racers. He was a spectacular driver, daring and popular. He held many records, won the Vanderbilt Cup race twice running (1915 and 1916). He used to drive Peugeots, usually blue.