LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 23 



who was willing -to buy a horse or two, and started with my 

 stable for the ]3umpkin fairs. 



At this time I got hold of a brown mare that I named 

 Lady Sali^augh, in compliment to a friend of mine, and she 

 was afterward called Constance. When I got her this 

 mare was good for a mile in about three minutes, but after 

 about two months of careful handling she showed me 2:38, 

 which in those days was a clip that would get the money 

 almost anywhere. In fact w^e thought we had w^hat the boys 

 call "a cinch" on all the three-minute x)urses. We trotted 

 through Columbia and Dutchess Counties wdth fair success, 

 and then the whole outfit crossed over to Orange County, 

 the centre of horse-breeding in New York, and where all 

 the crack j)erformers of the day were certain to be found. 

 There we fell in with such veterans of the sulky as Bill 

 Bodine, the first man that ever drove Goldsmith Maid; Ike 

 Hoyt, Jess Woods, Jersey Bill, who sold Goldsmith Maid 

 to j\lden Goldsmith for $600; Jim Post, wdio w^as afterward 

 a poolseller, and W. C. Trimble, wdio has since had some of 

 the most noted horses in the land, and w^hose fitting of 

 Garnet tw^o years ago and giving him a record of 2:19 is still 

 fresh in the public mind, and a good many of the pool- 

 buyers remember it sadly, as it showed that the old man's 

 hand had not lost its cunning. We started Lady Salpaugh 

 in the three-minute class, and after a consultation with her 

 owner concluded it w^ould be best to lay her up the first 

 heat, wdiich w^as done. In the second heat I went out to 

 win, but in si^ite of all I could do the mare was beaten. 

 Jersey Bill, wdio had a few tickets on the mare, came to the 

 stall and gave me a little advice in the matter of driving, 

 which tips I followed in the third heat, and landed the 

 mare a winner. From that time she won easily. I trotted 

 the Lady a number of races that season, winning a fair share 

 of them and getting money out of the balance. 



The best horse I had driven up to this time was Major 

 Edsall, a son of Alexander's Abdallah, that afterward 

 made a name for himself as the sire of Robert McGregor, 



