THE STRUGGLE TO HOLD THE THRONE 



1.04!. She trotted fast around the upper turn and 

 the watches split at the three-quarter pole In 1.3 51- 

 Down the home stretch Bair touched the great mare 

 with the whip and the official time for the mile was 



2.08f." 



I was in the timers' stand with Geo. W. Short and 

 N. L. Hunting, and kept my eyes on the watches, and 

 know that the mare was not favored. The judges 

 were Thomas Axworthy, C. F. Emery, and William 

 Edwards, and, when the latter announced that on 

 a track which the directors do not consider fast, 

 Maud S. had trotted to a record of 2.o8f , there were 

 thunders of applause. Maud S. was decorated with 

 a floral collar and BaIr was handed a bouquet. The 

 dining-room In the Edwards mansion that evening 

 was full of good cheer and ladies vied with gentle- 

 men in praising the performance of Maud S. 



It was In 1880 that Maud S. first obtained cham- 

 pionship honors as a trotter, and, with the exception 

 of a single day when Jay-eye-see took a record of 

 2.10 at Providence in 1884, she held her place at the 

 head of the list for eleven years. Her 2.o8| at 

 Cleveland was the best to high-wheel, plain-axle 

 sulky on a regulation track until In November, 1904. 

 She was In truth an epoch-making mare, and he who 

 writes history cannot do otherwise than accord to 

 her liberal space. 



Mr. Bonner drove Maud S. to high-wheel wagon 

 over his three-quarter track In 2. 13 J, and Mr. Van- 

 derbllt drove her to top road wagon In double harness 



41 



