512 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



and only a few yards above us. Nothing could have penetrated 

 the thick, profound gloom of that darkness but the painiul blue 

 blaze of the forked lightning. I could not see, in the short inter- 

 vals between the flashes, the faintest trace of the horse before me ; 

 and then, in the twinkling of an eye, as though the darkness was 

 torn away like a veil by the hand of the Almighty, the whole 

 course, the surrounding country, to the minutest and most distant 

 thing, would be revealed. The spires of the churches and houses 

 of Newark, eight miles off, we could see more plainly than in broad 

 daylight ; and we noticed, that, as the horses faced the howling 

 elements, their ears lay back flat upon their necks. Between these 

 flashes of piercing, all-pervading light and the succeeding claps of 

 thunder, the suspense and strain upon the mind was terrible. We 

 knew that it was coming so as to shake the very pillars of the earth, 

 but we rode on ; and, until it had rattled over our heads, we were 

 silent. Then, in the blank darkness, as we went on side by side, 

 we would exchange cautions. Neither could see the other, nor 

 hear the wheels nor the stride of the horses, by reason of the wind 

 and rain. 



" ' Look out, Hiram,' Spicer would say, ' or we shall be into 

 each other.' 



'' A few strides farther on, and I would sing out, ' Take care, 

 George ; you must be close to me.' 



" Now, the noise of the wheels and the tramp of the horses could 

 not be heard in the roar of the wind and the patter of the rain, 

 and yet our voices could be and were. For a mile and a half, in 

 the very centre, as it were, of this Titanic war of the skyey 

 elements, we went side by side. Then Dutchman lost ground. 

 The track was clayey, and he, having on flat shoes, began to slip 

 and slide at every stride. Americus gradually drew away from 

 him ; and, when 1 reached the stand at the end of the second mile, 

 I stopped. I have seen a great many summer storms in my time, 

 and have been out in not a few of them, but, of all that I remember, 

 none quite equalled, in terrific fury and awful grandeur, that which 

 burst over the Beacon Course just as we began that heat. Spicer 

 says the same." 



After being beaten three-mHe heats by the pacer Oneida Chief 

 and Lady Sufiblk, at Baltimore, Dutchman was withdrawn from 

 the turf, and died in 1847, full of years and honors. 



Ptipton was a very handsome bay horse, about fifteen hands high, 

 with four white legs and a blaze in the face, high strung and 

 possessing unusual spirit and determination. Like Dutchman his 

 pedigree was unknown, but like hioi also his performances prove 

 that there must have been good blood in his veins. He was Hiram 

 Woodruft's pride, and in his hands often contended with Lady 



