312 THE HOUSE OF AMERICA. 



and I think I have used this term myself in referring to the horse, 

 but there is really no foundation for crediting him to that source. 

 The earliest information we have of him is from an unpublished 

 source, to the effect that he was well known to certain sporting 

 men about Covington, Kentucky. He next appears in New 

 Orleans, hitched to a peddler's cart, but really looking for a 

 match as a green pacer. To promote this object, Major Dubois, 

 a sporting man, was taken into the confidence of his owner, and 

 it is said the horse showed him a mile in 2:26 with one hundred 

 and sixty-five pounds on his back, and the major bought him for 

 one thousand dollars. In 1832 Dubois sold him to Glasgow & 

 Heinsohn, a livery stable firm of Louisville, Kentucky, and he 

 remained the property of that firm till he died, about 1855. It 

 has been asserted with some semblance of authority that he could 

 trot as well as pace, but this seems to be wholly apocryphal, and 

 on this point I am prepared to speak without hesitation or doubt. 

 A large breeder in the vicinity of Louisville, whom I have learned 

 to trust implicitly, through the intercourse of many years, has 

 assured me repeatedly that he knew the horse and his master 

 well, and that he had seen him very often, for years, that he 

 would not trot, and that his master could not make him trot a step. 

 On the occasion of a very deep fall of snow he was taken out to 

 see whether that would not compel him to trot, and he went 

 rolling and tumbling about with no more gait than a hobbled 

 hog. 



He left a numerous progeny, most of them pacers, with some 

 trotters. We know but little of their merits, as at that period 

 pacing and trotting races were carried on, generally, on guerrilla 

 principles, and no records kept, except at a few of the more 

 prominent occasions. His fastest pacer, probably, was Bear 

 Grass, and there is a little history here that will be interesting 

 further on. My late friend, Edmund Pearce, had always, from 

 childhood, been a great admirer of the grand old saddle mare, 

 Nancy Taylor. She had been bred to Old Pilot and produced a 

 colt foal, which Mr. Pearce bought when young and named him 

 Bear Grass. This was the first piece of horseflesh he ever 

 owned, and he didn't think he had ever owned a better one. 

 He was amazingly fast, and could go away from all competitors, 

 but unfortunately an accident befell him that ended his career 

 before he reached maturity. Bear Grass had a half-sister 

 called Nancy Pope, being the daughter of Nancy Taylor, that 



