Life with the Trotters. 



CHAPTER I. 



Boyhood Days at Little Falls, N. Y. — Running Away from Home and Reacli- 

 ing the Buffalo Track — Pelham Tartar, my First Trotter — Something 

 about the Stallion BjTon — lluw Old-Time Trotters were Trained — Pilot 

 Temple, Tackey, and Dixie— The Pacer, Billy Boyce— A Trip to Cuba— 

 I Return to New York City and go to Work for Dan Mace — "Lucy 

 Jimmy " Teaches me to Rub a Trotter — Tempest and Her Fevered Feet — 

 Starting out on my Own Account as a Trainer — My First Race and the 

 Glory Thereof — Lady Saidpaugh and Her Races — The Great Match at 

 Paterson, X. J. — Fun on Staten Island. 



I was born at Little Falls, Herkimer County, N. Y., on 

 the 6tli day of May, 1849, and from the time that I can 

 remember, horses had a fascination for me. 



Like most country towns, the one where I first saw the 

 light had a livery stable, and this one was run by a man 

 named Mort Bellinger, a good soul, who was not annoyed 

 if a boy who liked a horse hung around his x^lace. It Avas 

 at the Bellinger stable that I got my first ideas of horse- 

 flesh, and by the time I was seven years old had a fair 

 notion of a horse. There had been a half-mile track at 

 Little Falls for a good many years, and Charlie Champlin 

 was the star of the driving fraternity in that xxirt of the 

 country then. He used to have trotters at the track, and 

 they were the first fast horses I ever saw. .Vbout this time 

 my mother found that I was x^aying a little too much atten- 

 tion to horses, and insisted on sending me to school. Like 

 most boys, this plan did not take well with me, and after 

 three days at school I l)olted the track and went home. 

 Then my mother gave me the alternative of going to school 



