LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 147 



race, which was the fastest, he distanced Billy S. and Eddie 

 D. , and in the second Gurgle was behind the flag at the finish. 

 On October 9, of the same year Johnston i^aced a mile in 2:10 

 over the Chicago track, beating the then best pacing record 

 of 2:11|, which was previously credited to both himself and 

 Little Brown Jug. 



At this time I was training Commodore Kittson's stable 

 of pacers and trotters. The Commodore was api^roached 

 by the owner of Johnston to buy that horse. In an inter- 

 view with Mr. Kittson he told me that if I thought Johnston 

 was capable of beating his record he would like very much 

 to own him. He said he mshed I would investigate the 

 matter and give him my opinion. At this time Johnston 

 was rather a delicate -looldng horse, and I, with many other 

 people, had fears about his staying abilities. I saw his 

 owners and they arranged to drive him three heats for me. 

 When the day for the trial came it was raining. Finally, 

 on the 23d of the month, the track was fairly safe, but 

 not at all fast. I asked Mr. Johnston to drive the pacer 

 three heats, twenty minutes apart, and not to punish him in 

 any one of them. I figured for myself how much slow the 

 track was, and then took into consideration the fact that 

 the horse had been interfered with in his training. In this 

 trial Johnston went in 2:14, 2:15^, 2:15|. That satisfied me 

 that he was game. I thought any horse that would pace 

 the first mile in 2:14 and then finish the third one in 

 2:15| had courage enough, and went home very much pleased 

 with the perfoiTQance, which, together with his mile in 2:10, 

 convinced me that he had a first-class chance to make a very 

 fast record. I reported the facts to Mr. Kittson and told 

 him I thought, without doubt, Johnston would beat every 

 pacing record in the world. On the strength of that recom- 

 mendation Mr. Kittson gave $20,000 for the horse and 

 placed him in my hands, with the understanding that he 

 would be trained expressly to go a fast mile. 



When Johnston arrived at my stable I found him very 

 low in flesh from the fact of his having been very sick 



