Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 30 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
inus, 11 is saia inai a Tennessean named Sam Flynn (or Flyn) went from town to town, entering a dark horse named Dusty (or Dusky) Pete in local races.
The horse looked like a lame plug until each race began, when it would suddenly stop limping, begin sprinting, and make its owner a lot of money.
This is such a good story that one yearns to believe it.
Alas, the expression began as British slang, not American. Benjamin Disraeli helped popularize it, the oldest known example of the phrase coming from his novel “The Young Duke” (1831): “All the 10-to-lers were in the rear, and a dark horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.”
Nowadays, the phrase is heard more often in political circles than around the racetrack. The extension in meaning from little-known, long-shot horses to little-known, long-shot political candidates seems to have taken place in the U.S. in the 1840s or ‘50s.
94.9%