114 LIFE uITir THE TKOTTEII.S. 



2:50 to 3:00, sometimes as many as a half a dozen in a 

 day, Avith twenty minutes rest between tliem. There was 

 no attempt to drive at a high rate of speed, but after the 

 weatlier became settled, I gradually improved his speed in 

 the work, at the same time shortening the distance. About 

 May 15, I made an engagement to show Rarus at Pitts- 

 burg two weeks later, stij)ulating, however, that I should 

 not be expected to drive him better than about 2:21. I gave 

 him a few moderate miles between 2:30 and 2:25, brushing 

 only at the finish of each mile. His best performance was 

 2: 24 J, and in it he showed me that he had plenty of speed, 

 so I had no fear but that he would be able to fulfill the 

 Pittsbuig contract, Avhicli he did easily enough. The track 

 there was a half-mile one with a good deal of grade in it, 

 the first quarter being doAAaihill and the last quarter uphill. 

 Here I found the same trouble to exist that I had noticed 

 at Fleetwood the j^revious year. With his light shoes 

 Earns could not get down the hill well, and this caused me 

 to at once shoe him heavier in front. On the da}' of the ex- 

 hibition he went the second heat in 2:21^, which was by 

 long odds the best performance that had been made over 

 the track. On the 12th of June we were at Jackson, Mich., 

 again, trotting the third mile in 2:20f, with the track deep 

 and slow from recent rains. Up to this time I had not 

 done much with Rarus, as the stewards of the grand circuit 

 had seen fit to bar him in the free-to-all race at their meet- 

 ings, something never heard of before — barring a horse in a 

 free- to-all class before he had ever trotted there through the 

 circuit. Several parties approached me Avitli a x)roposition 

 to show Rarus against some i)acers, but I told them no; 

 that if they had a j)acer capable of beating him to get him 

 ready and come on with their money. The circuit people 

 made me what I considered one-sided loropositions to show 

 him over the different tracks, but to all these I said no. 

 Tlien they Avanted to know what I Avas going to do Avith 

 him, pointing out that the horse was barred in the free-to- 

 all class, and Avithout record Ioav enough to make him a 



