24 LIFE WITH THE TEOTTERS. 



2:17|-, and lie in turn sired Bonnie McGr<5^or, record 2:16. 

 As Alexander' s Abdallali died while yet a yonng horse in 

 Kentucky, where but few people had an opportunity of see- 

 ing him, and as several of his sons, notably Almont and 

 Belmont, have sired some of our fastest trotters and also got 

 a number of very fast x^acers, I think it Avill be of interest, 

 especially to breeders and horsemen, to give some account 

 of the appearance and characteristics of Major Edsall. He 

 Avas a very handsome, strongly built, light bay horse, about 

 fifteen and a half hands high, a good scorer, handy breaker, 

 and an honest all-round racehorse. He was trained by a 

 man of the name of Jim Bertholf in Goshen, 'N. Y., but as 

 Bertholf was a good deal over weight he concluded to have 

 me drive him. This was at Binghamton, N. Y. I remem- 

 ber two of my opponents in this race. One was the veteran 

 AVilliam H. Doble, father of Budd, and the other Tom 

 Carpenter. As I remember it Major Edsall got second 

 money in this race, and I am j)articularly certain that the 

 old heads did not give me much the best of it. But I 

 hustled around, helped myself to all I could get, and said 

 nothing. That night I met Mr. Doble. He asked me what 

 my name was, and my age, and after learning these points 

 he remarked dryly: "Well, you are pretty industrious 

 with a horse and sulky," which I considered a great com- 

 pliment. The following spring my friend Suydam bought 

 Lady Salpaugh, and we named her Constance. She had at 

 that time a record of 2:40, and Suydam gave for her $1,800, 

 which would look like a long i^rice now for a 2:40 horse. 

 I trotted her with some success that season, and she wound 

 up with a record of 2:34. I trained Constance and my 

 other horses that year at Paterson, N. J. I had several 

 other fair jDerfoimers, but she was considered the star of 

 the stable. 



At Paterson that year, there was a race between two road- 

 horses which created a good deal of talk, and an account of 

 it will show the difference between the time made then and 

 now. Mr. Post, one of my patrons, had a chestnut mare, 



