38 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



a horse, and Henry Clay was one of that innumerable 

 company of dumb beasts whose fate it has been to 

 supply this kind of entertainment for the superior 

 animal. When his " peculiar turns were upon him," 



writes one who knew both horse and man, "W 



always wanted to drive Henry Clay. At such times 

 the city of Rochester, which is twenty-eight miles 

 by road from G-eneseo, was the objective point. 

 When ready to return, after an experience that tries 

 men's nerves, he would get into the wagon, take out 

 his whip, and, giving it a wide swing, exclaim, ' One 

 hour and a half into my barn,' — which the horse 

 had to do. Sometimes his carriage would break down. 

 The President of the Livingston Agricultural Society, 

 the late M. L. Cummings, wishing at one time to 



see W on some important matters, waited for 



him in his barn, and W finally drove in hang- 

 ing to the dashboard, the hind axle dragging, both 

 hind wheels gone. The horse was dripping wet, and 

 panting so that Mr. Cummings (a first-class horse- 

 man) thought that he would never recover his wind. 

 W took out his watch, looked at it, and ex- 

 claimed, ' He did it, or I would shoot him. One hour 

 and a half, twenty-eight miles ! ' " 



On another occasion W struck Henry Clay 



with a club, breaking one of his ribs, and the injury 

 left its mark on the skeleton of the horse, which 

 is still preserved in the National Museum at Wash- 

 ington. 



The Orloff trotters of Russia were bred in much 

 the same way as the Cla}^s, and there is a resemblance 

 between the two families. Some vears asro there was 

 an exhibition of Orloff trotters at a State fair held in 



