Nation abuzz over photo of man on dead horse

Culture & Society Forum

Nation abuzz over photo of man on dead horse

Associated Press

WAUSAU, Wis. - Who is that mysterious, elegant man? And why is he sitting on a dead horse?

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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's a 1870s picture of a mustachioed man in a suit and stovepipe hat who sits rakishly on an expired horse in the middle of a dusty, deserted street. advertisement

The picture was included in a newspaper's 2007 calendar and the response from readers prompted news articles. From there, it took off on the Internet.

"This thing has gotten more mileage than you can shake a stick at," said Scott Prescher, who has a copy of the dead horse photo in his Sheboygan restaurant.

"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.

"It is a great picture and every time I see it I just laugh," she said. "But this time the novelty is everybody else is seeing it for the first time. The whole world is seeing it now."

After writing two stories about the picture, The Sheboygan Press received more than 50 calls and e-mails about it, including from a California genealogist.

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."

Dibble said the newspaper published the photo on Aug. 20, 1974, but mainly to focus attention on the nearby buildings. The caption said the man who provided the photo to the newspaper received it from a friend who had no idea about its origin.

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."
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Actually I think its more funny to look at the people in the background looking at him sitting on the horse.

I think the guy in the background could be a butcher and the guy on the horse could be protecting it from going off to the meat market. You could almost imagine the guy in the background hiding a cleaver behind his back.

I'm a city dude and don't know nothing about horses. So my question is how do we know the horse is dead?

Do horses never ever lay down like that?

Well tehy do lay down but tbey don't like to because it put's tremendous pressure on thier legs to get back up again. Mind you I can't imagine a live horse letting somebody sit on it or a person having the guts to sit on a live horse

I think that feller on the horse was becker!

Im city folk too, but it doesnt look like a horse to me, it looks more like a donkey . Back then they couldnt print a caption saying ''Man in the middle of street sits on ass''.

I found this:

"People had weird senses of humor then just like they do now. Or he was practicing using his new camera. I don't know. That is one of those things that I doubt we will ever know."

Bill Wangemann, who's been Sheboygan's unpaid city historian since being appointed to the job in 1986, said it's not unusual for old pictures to become mysteries because information about them doesn't get passed along.

He said he got a recent call from a woman who told him that her husband once had a glass plate of the picture -- the technology used in 1870s to make pictures -- but it broke and the envelope with it said only that the photo was a man on a dead horse.

Wangemann's seen other gag photos done from that era and thinks the dead horse is one, too.

"I always took it to be just somebody's weird idea of a joke," the 71-year-old historian said. "'Hey Joe, go out there and sit on that dead horse and I'll take your picture.' Maybe he was a friend of the photographer."

Too funny. Though, I still think the people in the background are the best part of this picture.

I just like the way he's looking all stoic off in the distance, like he's pondering some great Earth shattering ideas... while sitting on a rotting, dead horse. Excellent.

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Maybe this picture is part of a set that leads to some hilarious climax orm maybe it's just some dude on a dead horse. Not that I know a lot about the bottom of horses but is that dark hair going down it's stomach or has some body cut that sucker open? Or it might be some weiord advertisement for an undertakers the guy looks like an undertaker and the horse is dead.

It could have been cold out and they stuck some dude inside the dead horse like Han did for Luke with the Tonton in Empire Strikes Back.

"I thought it smelled bad... on the outside."

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It's like a hunting scene - he's conquered the animal, like he's The Man, and he's conquered the animal.

Of course the poor bastard horse was probably already dead, and sport's just gone out with his photographer mate and sat on it, as if he'd conquered the horse, like a hunter.

Of course maybe he's just a sicko who likes sitting on dead beasts. Could've been a cow, or a moose, or a badger, this bloke would've plonked down and had himself photographed.

It's a rich tapestry.

Hunting horses? Back in the day horses were transportation and cost a few dollars. Maybe it died as he was going to a party and he just sat on it until AAA came.

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yeah I wasn't suggesting that he'd hunted down the animal and killed it - i'm suggesting the animal was lying there dead, and sport saw an opportunity to get a photograph of himself as if he had hunted and killed it ... that he's a very lazy and vain man who wanted a picture of himself as a big game-like hunter, but didn't want to travel to Africa, or for that matter outside of Poland. He saw his chance and took it, in the form of having a seat on a dead horse.

What sport in the b/g thinks is anyone's guess. Looks like he's waiting for the idiot aristocrat to leave so he can carve up the horse for meat. The dog looks equally unimpressed.

Gotcha. Yeah, he could be just a poser alright.

Maybe he shot the horse of someone he didn't like and was going to send the picture to him and rub it in.

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he was probably just tired and a dead horse is a good a place as any to rest your feet.

I bet he tried to beat it.

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I bet one of the background people started that animal lover group... dammit, I forget the same for some dumb reason... ruined the joke. Screw it.

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Dude, gotta bury some of the weird ones for sure. Freak people out in the future. They get the flying cars afterall, might as well have some fun at their expense.

I don't know how common tophats were back in the day but I think it adds to the randomness of the thing.

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