SBR Extra Chapter 1
~How the Steel Ball Run Race Got Started~ is the first extra chapter of Steel Ball Run.
Summary
This flashback narrates the past of Stephen Steel.
Born in 1840 as the 4th child of a family of Irish immigrants, Stephen Steel fell in love at 15 with the daughter of a florist. When the girl died from a carriage accident, Stephen enlisted in the cavalry to flee his sadness, yet spent the war sick from typhoid fever. Stephen would in the later years do a number of odd jobs and live highs and lows:
- 1858: Stephen works in a circus disguised as a chinese, his specialty being swallowing goldfishes and make them come out of his nose. The attraction is a great success.
- 1859: Stephen becomes the star of his circus.
- 1860: Stephen goes on a tour in America.
- 1861: Stephen invents and promotes new shows in the circus, among others "Midget Women Wrestling", "The Bug-Eyed Man", and "Pigs On a Tightrope". All are great hits.
- 1863: Stephen is thrown out of the circus for acting self-important.
- 1865: Stephen becomes a heavyweight boxer.
- 1866: Stephen becomes a debt collector.
- 1867: Stephen refuses to throw a rigged fight and a gang knee-caps him.
- 1868: Stephen disappears, rumored to have fled the country as a sailor.
- 1881: Stephen is seen in San Francisco, informing the E&W Newspapers that he's going to Costa Rica look for dinosaurs, the story is a hit.
- 1883: Stephen becomes promoter from several stories such as "Capturing the Yeti in the Rocky Mountains", "Looking for the 3-legged Cavefish", "In search for the 20-meters long penguin", "The Newlyweds in a Haunted Mausion: a Documentary". All of these stories become great successes.
- 1884: Rich, Stephen buys a mansion in San Jose with 4 servants and indulges himself in many hobbies. His appliance to a university is rejected.
When a scandal exploded about a promoter passing a shaved monkey as an alien, Stephen's credibility went down the drain despite having nothing to do with it. He became heavily indebted and it is as a drunk bum that he met Lucy Pendleton, then a young child. Interested in his bumblings about his former glory, Lucy suggested that he organizes a great horse race across America. Finding the idea ridiculous, Stephen went to a bar drinking again. However, soon, many important representatives approached him, interested in the idea and offered to sponsor the race. Two years later, as the race was still being organized, Stephen remembered Lucy and went looking for her to thank her. At Lucy's doorstep, Stephen found out that Lucy looked exactly like his first love, and sobbingly asked her hand in marriage.
Appearances
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