124 LIFE WITH THE TROTTEES. 



Col. William King, of Minneapolis, who has been a Congress- 

 man, and held several offices of public trust, to which he 

 has been elevated by the votes of the people of that section, 

 and a leading man in all the public undertakings of Minne- 

 sota. 1 contracted with him to go to Minneapolis and show 

 Rarus three heats at the fair. At this time there was a great 

 strife between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The St. Paul 

 people concluded they would have a fair at the same time, 

 and 1, not knowing about this feeling, engaged with the 

 president, Mr. Finch, to show Rarus at that fair also. I 

 agreed to show at St. Paul on Tuesday and at Minneapolis 

 Friday. Long before I arrived in that country, I had learned, 

 by both the newspapers and the telegraph, that unknowingly 

 I had got myself in hot water, as the Minneapolis people 

 claimed that, having engaged with them, I had no right to 

 show at St. Paul. While I would not have done it had I 

 known the feeling that existed, I had, at the same time, as 

 much right to trot my horse at St. Paul that week as I would 

 have to do so the next year, and I saw no way to get out of 

 it. When the MinneajDolis people found that 1 had my horse 

 at St. Paul, and intended to start him there on Tuesday, they 

 opened up on me in the newspapers, and I got more abuse 

 than any politician that ever ran for office. Everything they 

 could think of to say was said with a vengeance. I saw^ Mr. 

 King, and we talked the matter over, and we both viewed 

 the affair in the same light. He expressed regret that the 

 newspapers had given me such a going over, but I said to 

 him, ' ' Let them go on. It is the best advertised affair that 

 has come off in these parts for a long while." 



The day of the St. Paul race, I showed Rarus to a crowd 

 of people, such as I had never before seen, they, of course, 

 taking my part on every turn. Rarus went in 2:16, which 

 I thought a good x)erformance, considering the track. From 

 there we journeyed to Minneapolis, and the reception that I 

 received on all sides there, made me think that I must be a 

 very mean man. Still, as I was to receive $3,000 in money 

 for the exhibition, and had already earned the same amount 



