This and the other photos were taken from The Weird and Wacky: Humour in Archival Photographs
Posted on 01/05/2007 6:52:48 AM PST by SpringheelJack
WAUSAU, Wis. - Who is that mysterious, elegant man? And why is he sitting on a dead horse? Such are some of the questions sparked by a black-and-white photograph taken in Sheboygan between 1876 and 1884 that has led to nationwide curiosity, speculation and jokes.
"It is just a funny picture," Prescher said. "He is sitting on there with a top hat like he had somewhere special to go and his horse just croaked in the middle of the road."
No one knows who the gentleman is, exactly what year the picture was taken or the circumstances surrounding it, said Beth Dipple, director of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, which has had the picture in its collection for at least 20 years.
Some of the ideas for what the picture depicts include the thoughtful — it was staged for a political campaign perhaps related to sanitation issues — to the bizarre — the horse is being helped to relieve "excess flatulence."
A Web site sponsored a contest for readers to write the best caption for the photo and about 100 were submitted, including: "Lay still old girl, FEMA's on the way."
Dipple said about all that's known about the picture is it was taken at South Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue between 1876 and 1884 — based on the bridge over the Sheboygan River in the background and the lack of railroad tracks that were installed in 1884.
The city had laws on the books that required people to stay with their dead horses until they were picked up and disposed of, Dipple said.
"Who knows why somebody would take a picture of it?" she said. "People had weird senses of humor then just like they do now."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This and the other photos were taken from The Weird and Wacky: Humour in Archival Photographs
He obviously hit it with his new horseless carriage and is waiting for the DNR officer to come and tag it so he can take it home and eat it.
[only hillbillies will "get" that]....:)
The original Ford Mustang?
It would be truly pathetic if you NEEDED to be told that picture is fake.
I wonder what the hoist frame in the background was used for.
Weird-things-from-Wisconsin-ping!
bump
It is rather piquant, no?
Maybe he was a livery driver and his carriage is out of the picture's range.
Might explain the clothing; could be waiting for his backup horse.
Mention my name in Sheboygan!
:>)
That picture has been around since 9/12/01. It's a fake.
2. I'm going downtown to see a man about a horse.
Many people will know what it means when you say "I have to go see a man about a horse." When I was in Mongolia which is truly a horse culture, my interpreter said, "I have to go see a horse".
We both laughed quite a bit that the same experession was common in both our cultures. I've often wondered why the American version has added "the man"?
We had one of our boarders horses die in it's stall one night, and we didn't learn about it until late the next day. I had to disassemble the front of the stall, get a strap around the horse, and drag it out of the stall with my tractor. Took me about four hrs to do the whole thing. It's something I'll never forget. Next time I'll just burn down the barn.
Nobody wants to be the last owner of a horse, for that reason.
The real disaster is if one dies in its stall, lying against the door. Then you have to take the barn apart to get it out. Heaven help you if you don't have a tractor or Bobcat.
Part of the last rites for a horse is dropping it somewhere accessible :-(
It is kind of like the old picture of the cowboy riding the giant jackrabbit.
It was so good it fooled my uncle from back east. When my uncle visited the west he thought an antelope (seen at a distance) was a giant jackrabbit.
I believe that would be a jackalope
***I believe that would be a jackalope***
Not quite. The jackalope was a jackrabbit head with Antelope horns and later, deer antlers on it.
The picture I was refering to was the cowboy riding a jackrabbit as big as a horse.
Cause "seeing a horse" may have meant you were going to
rustle one which in certain parts of the country may have been
a capital offense. So it was better to say you were going
to see some one (certainly not a woman) about a horse. Cause
if you were going to see a woman about a horse, you may have
meant you were going to "horse around" with the woman!
Anyway, it's just my poor etymological guess.
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