1883.] THE AMEETCAN TROTTING HORSE. 237 



can Turf Register was established in 1829, and with that, records 

 in our present form may be said to have begun, although the 

 " Trotting Record : containing a list of all published performances in 

 which any heat was trotted in 'B.Jfi or less from the earliest dates,^'' in 

 "Wallace's American Trotting Register, I, p. 325 to 468, I think, 

 cites no records earlier than 1830 as worthy a place there. 



Just as records became an established fact, light steel-spring 

 wagons began to be made, and between 1835 and 1845, driv- 

 ing to light carriages became exceedingly fashionable, particu- 

 larly about New York. Several European travelers of that time 

 speak of it as a curious fashion, and being unknown in England, 

 they did not speak of it usually with admiration. The old 

 prejudices against trotting lingered, and a writer in The London 

 (New) Sporting Magazine for July, 1839, speaking of sporting in 

 the United States, where '^trotting is the order of the day," says 

 '<our cousins on the other side of the salt water are mad in the 

 encouragement of that nasty, awkward, ugly, Chelsea-water-works- 

 style of action which characterizes the fast trotter." He allows, 

 however, that " there is method in the madness," and that the best 

 trotters bring big prices. 



Although I have brought the history down to the time when 

 there was only one (or two ?) record in the world of 2.30, the story is 

 nearly told. A famous capitalist is reported to have said that it 

 was easier to make a thousand dollars out of one than one out of 

 nothing. It appears to have been just so with trotters. It took 

 from 2200 B. C. to after A. D. 1800 to produce one three-minute 

 trotter, — many thousands have been produced since. 



I invite your attention now, specially to the two tables I have 

 ^ hanging on the wall. The first is a Talle of Best Records (see 

 p. 228), showing progress in the rate of speed, from Yankey in 

 1806. to Maud S. in 1881, the earlier ones on the list, it must be 

 understood, not being authenticated records in the sense that term 

 is now used. 



