CHAPTER XIX. 

 Men I Have Met. 



During the more than half a century that I have spent 

 on the turf I have met many of the most distinguished men 

 from all sections of the country. They came from the frozen 

 and sterile North, from the golden hills of the West, the 

 magnolia-scented groves of the South and from the aristo- 

 cratic East. I have been in close connection with the most 

 of those of the present time and was intimately acquainted 

 with the royalty of turfdom in the olden days. 



Beginning away back in the early part of another 

 century, of course I have seen the friends of my boyhood 

 slip silently away into the realms of eternity as flowers bloom 

 and wither. I have seen their sons grow to manhood and 

 then in turn sink into the arms of the grim reaper under the 

 fell hand of disease or the weight of years. Father Time 

 does not touch us all with the same harshness. With me he 

 has been gentle indeed. Eighty times has my natal day 

 passed, and now at this writing I am able to walk almost 

 any distance. I could mount a yearling and break him just 

 as easily now as I could when I was a boy. 



But others whom I loved were not as favored as " the 

 old veteran." The flowers blossom on their graves, but in 

 my heart their memory is just as dearly cherished as it was 

 in the olden days when I walked hand in hand with them in 

 earthly paths. 



Probably the grandest man I ever knew was Col. W. R. 

 Johnson, sometimes called " the Napoleon of the American 

 turf," because of his colossal turf ventures, his boldness in 

 making matches between the celebarted horses of his time, 

 and through it all characterized by his sterling integrity and 

 gentleness of deportment. There was perhaps no man in the 

 whole South and West that stood as high socially and in a 

 business way. His word was worth more than the bond of 

 most men. Everybody with whom he came in contact loved 

 him and had a kind word to say for him. He was a man 

 among men, and towered as a giant amid a race of giants, for 

 the men of the South were all big men in heart. 



