LIFE WITH THE TROTTEES. 255 



doubts the public may have had regarding my honesty and 

 ability I think Mr. Gordon never (shared, as he always 

 seemed willing to trust me implicitly with his horses in 

 every way. I do not wish by this to be understood as lind- 

 ing any fault with the public in their treatment of myself, 

 as I think it has always been as good or better than I 

 deserved. Not only has the public treated me well but 

 with very few exceptions my employers have been the 

 kindest friends to me a man ever had. 



It has always seemed to me that members of the horse 

 family have more peculiarities of habits, formation, disposi- 

 tion, etc., than there is in the human family. Take, for 

 instance, the trotting family among horses, and the most of 

 them that are bred now trace their pedigree back through 

 «ome of the numerous channels to Rysdyk's Hambletonian. 

 Each family seem to have many things about them distinctly 

 their own, which always aj)pears to me rather a strange 

 thing, seeing that they all come from one fountain head, and 

 I have never been able to find a satisfactory reason for this. 

 We see a great many different drivers that seem to have 

 made their rej)utation with some particular family. For 

 instance, Crit Davis, one of the best known and favorably 

 thought of reinsmen in this country, while he has been 

 more than ordinarily successful with different families of 

 horses, has made his great reputation in connection with the 

 Hed Wilkes family, he having given Prince Wilkes, one of 

 tlie star performers of 1888, his record of 2:14f. Prince 

 Wilkes has fought his way to the front in trotting circles 

 purely by his own merits. His owner, a sportsman of the old 

 school, not wishing any, particularly newspaper, notoriety 

 in regard to him, has never had his horse "boomed," as has 

 so often been done with inferior animals. Mr. George A. 

 Singerly is a great admirer of the horse, he having owned, 

 driven and bred trotters long before it was considered highly 

 fashionable for a gentleman to do so, and in my younger days 

 I remember of often having seen him riding trotters to sad- 

 dle on some of the tracks about Philadelj)hia, and he was 



