The Horseshoe King of Moscow

Thomas Mark, a bright Irish lad who has been living in Seattle with his mother, Mrs. E. Mark, has been honored with a unique position. Mark has been hired for a salary of $1,500 per year plus all expenses from Seattle to Moscow, Russia, to shoe horses at the royal stables. Mark is only 21 years old and is well known in the city by the sobriquet 'Reddy.' He was a very clever chap at handling horses, and when a call came from horse owners at the State Fairgrounds race track, Mark was sent out to do the work. Frank Starr, a well-known horse trainer, observed the lad's work and was much impressed with the skillfulness of it. Two years ago, Starr was employed to take a string of trotting horses to Moscow. Upon arriving, he found that there were few men there who knew much about trotters, particularly those from America. Starr experienced much trouble with the royal horses; several Englishmen came along and tried to shoe them, but they knew little about the proper footwear for trotters. Starr then remembered the lad whose work he had observed at the race track. He wrote to a friend in Seattle to look up an Irish boy named 'Reddy.' When the letter was put in his hands, Mark was asked to cable Starr if he would come. Mark replied that it would be worth a fair figure to go many thousands of miles away from home to a land where it is cold during the greater part of the year. He received a cablegram accepting his figure and instructions to draw on New York bankers for expenses and additional funds to buy American stable equipment.