X LETTER FROM JOSEPH CAIRN SIMPSON. 



provided should be drawn upon to cover the whole outlay. He par- 

 ticularly referred to the trainer as a man worthy of the fullest confi- 

 dence, and that this certificate of good character would be signed by 

 all who were intimate with him. 



I was so strongly impressed with the evident candor of the writer 

 that I urged Messrs. Schwartz and Gage to join me in the purchase. 

 The price at that time was $6,000, and there was a good chance to 

 " win him out " at the meeting, which was to be held in July. There 

 was a partial agreement, and I was preparing to make the journey 

 when something came in the way, and the preparations for the meet- 

 ing, at which $40,000 were **hung up," engrossed my attention, and 

 the idea of purchasing was abandoned. 



He was to show 2:30 or better, and only a few weeks previous to his 

 first letter he was far behind that figure. Writing from memory I cannot 

 state positively what the improvement was, though it certainly demon- 

 strated that there were the best of grounds for believing that he was 

 destined to become a very fast trotter. The history of Smuggler is 

 so well known that there is no necessity for amplification, further 

 than to call attention to the fact that Mr. Marvin took him when he 

 was regarded of "little account," and carried him through the whole 

 of his education until he reached the summit of the temple of equine 

 fame. 



I hold that the talent necessary to be a successful trainer of 

 trotters, especially youngsters, is more rarely met than the same 

 amount of ability as a driver in races. And there is another point 

 worthy of consideration, that a man who has been eminently suc- 

 cessful as a teacher rarely, if ever, fails to be a good driver in races, 

 whereas some of the renowned knights of the sulky are far from 

 being in the front rank of the profession, or that part of it which 

 consists in carrying animals from the primary schools to the first 

 place in the graduating classes. There is a great deal of nonsensical 

 talk, and not a little arrant humbug in the learned disquisitions 

 which are heard when race-driving is the topic. 



The jangle of words indulged in on such occasions would be amus- 

 ing were it not that insidious comparisons, and, at times, malicious 

 attacks are made by men who have small knowledge of the business, 

 although their dogmatical assertions mislead people who are not con- 

 versant with trotting affairs. Mr. Marvin is unquestionably a driver 

 of the highest class, and it would be eminently a work of superero- 

 gation to present long arguments to prove that he possesses that 

 faculty. 



