WPLN News Archive; Beautiful Jim Key (Rebecca Bain) 2 22 05; News Archive 2/14/05-4/1/05

beautiful jim key made his first major public appearance at the tennessee centennial in nineteen ninety seven and over the course of the next decade the big handsome stallion was seen by an estimated ten million americans and his exploits were followed by countless others through front page stories in all the country's biggest newspapers he became famous because he was smart skeptics when away believers after watching the horse correctly spell words caught out by the audience at and subtract even engage in political debates gm was an ardent democrat this story begins with a man who bragged him raised him and trained him william key who was born a slave but free by the civil war bill became a self taught veterinarian developing his own formula for a limit which he successfully paddled around the south on one of these trips he discovered beautiful jim keyes mother what he says as he was writing on the road and he looked over and he saw what others would've looked as a broken down there but he saw genetically that the telltale signs of an arabian and eventually found some documentation

that loretta queen of course has been stolen from an arabian sea by an agent of pt barnum and had been created throughout iraq brought to america and eventually sold to lessen muscle circuses bill but the meringue nurse lorena back to health he brought her to a thoroughbred hamiltonian horse named tennessee volunteer expecting great things from there called he was commanding him to abraham lincoln and are a biblical name that's when the course was full for the first few weeks he was so crippled in that way and so wobbly he couldn't really stand and he had and named him now on his one of the names that he didn't him for a town drunk with a wobbly they do and i heard it's failing so again as our last name said he was simply but the spindly young cold was a careful observer he watched bill play fetch with the family dog seeing how the animal was padded him praised when he brought the stick back so gently picked a stick up in his mouth which he presented to bill bill through at the coal retrieved it and from that point on jim and his owner were inseparable

jim he grew into a beautiful day and bill key taught him a number of tricks using gentleness and patients he decided on a win so he sat is to teach him the letter a and you can hear a wealthy tribe been seen it took another year and then he proceeded to the alphabet over a period of seven years and jim successfully learn his abcs mariana seven years he could spell emetic correctly at the tennessee centennial celebration in nashville beautiful jim keep dazzled audiences by spelling words he would pick out cards with the appropriate letter from a rack and then put them in order and he made national news for the first time through an exchange with president william mckinley dr keith and one republican voted for abraham lincoln then i'm bad for you and you can we asked him to do that for me is in black has had no any snow come on you're a good republican it exists as a nanny for your democratic fifty f that story caught the eye of a man named albert rogers he was a promoter who fancied himself as the next peak barnum

and he rushed to find out jim and dow and tell them look i'm i'm taking your time to make you guys the biggest box office stars in the country and that they would be there there are countless stories of beautiful jim keyes amazing talent but his most lasting legacy is the all where has he gave the public concerning animal cruelty idea of kindness the animals was really radical why was it rhymes have nots feed your horse or to starve an animal or to kick a man were beaten animal two million children find up to become members of the gym he banned of mercy which was an offshoot of the massachusetts spca in depth american education humane association what had been his friends movement was now named street and the phrase be kind to animals have come and being nearly a hundred years have passed since beautiful jim he was a household name and the destruction of the shelbyville courthouse by fire four times also help to bury the legend but despite all this the stories about jim key are still known to some

congressman cooper told me that when he was growing up his daughter told him so many stories about jim key and comes into presidio of all the things that his father experiencing his life three term governor attends a turbulent periods in history at everything he lived here he talked more about that horse and the impact the gym hat on and to honor that experience of and so when he found out i was writing this book is i never knew if this is true or not meme reverse author of beautiful jim mckee for national public radio