OF THE AUTHOR. xxv 



dollars a side, to trot sixteen miles an hour, with two hundred and 

 fifty dollars a side on every quarter over that distance up to 

 seventeen and three-quarter miles. Hiram rode Paul Pry at his 

 work, and was chosen to steer him in his race on the Union 

 Course. The confidence Mr. Niblo had in the strength, endur- 

 ance, and judgment of the lad of sixteen was signally justified 

 by the event. Hiram rode the horse eighteen miles in a fraction 

 les than fifty-nine minutes, and the last quarter was jogged out at 

 that. Considering the great difficulty there is in riding fast 

 trotters many miles at a time, and recollecting the fact that Paul 

 Pry was a puller, this was a very remarkable feat; and those 

 among the trainers and amateurs who looked ahead must have 

 concluded that in this lad there was the stuff of which great men 

 are made. Some have said that Hiram Woodruff first dis- 

 tinguished himself by riding Dutchman ; but it is an error. He 

 was famous before Dutchman had left the string-team which hauled 

 the brick-cart. 



At this time, and for many years afterwards, Hiram was a 

 model of strength, grace, activity, and suppleness. He was a 

 swift runner and a mighty jumper and leaper, as well as a bold 

 and skilful rider; and his stamina was afterwards found to be 

 such, that Jack Harrison, a noted matchmaker of those days, 

 publicly offered to back him to ride different horses a hundred 

 miles in five hours. The offer was not accepted ; for the sports- 

 men had already learned, that, with uncommon fine constitutional 

 stamina, young Woodruff possessed sinews of steel, nerves that 

 could not be shaken, and an intuitive sagacity which made him 

 master of almost any situation, and capable of accomplishing 

 almost any feat. All this, too, was accompanied by a cheerful 

 modesty of disposition, which endeared him to his associates, and 

 a high rectitude of principle, which his friends can now justly 

 boast was never in his whole life impaired. His integrity, indeed, 

 through life, has been of that adamantine and obstinate degree 

 that it never took the seeming of a flaw. It was of that high 

 quality which may be compared to the constancy and courage of a 

 bull-dog of true English breed, which may be cut up piecemeal, 

 but can never be subdued. 



It was while here at Harlem that Hiram was fortunate enough 

 to win the affections of Miss Sarah Ann Howe, a young lady of 

 great personal beauty and much sweetness of disposition. His fa- 



