220 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



days was rekindled at the sight of the half-mile 

 oval. The game horse forgot his sufferings in 

 the flood of memories, and with the determina- 

 tion that caused Christian martyrs to face fire 

 without flinching, he lifted his head and reached 

 out with the stroke which had so often carried 

 him to victory. Like a ghost under the full-orbed 

 moon he swept around the track, and there were 

 hopes that through heroic effort his life would be 

 saved. But the machinery cracked as he swept 

 proudly down the home-stretch. At the little 

 judges' stand he dropped as if a bullet had 

 pierced his brain, and when the group of awe- 

 struck watchers reached him he was stone dead. 

 This little story reminded Hon. P. P. Johnston, 

 president of the National Trotting Association, of 

 an incident that occurred at the colored fair at 

 Lexington. A large man, who was speeding on 

 the track to road wagon, sat rigid in the rush 

 down the home-stretch, and when the horse 

 stopped of his own accord, the discovery was 

 made that the man was dead of heart-disease. 

 The figure was so braced that it did not fall when 

 breath left the body. It was a striking illustra- 

 tion of how closely death sometimes rides with 

 life in the bright sunshine of a summer morning. 



