68 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



bathed his head and face as if it flowed from inex- 

 haustible springs. No excitement surpasses that of the 

 race-course, in very important, closelj^-contested heats, 

 both to the rival horses, their jockeys and their owners. 

 That mountain of flesh, General Buford, had bravely 

 ridden up to the foe on many a battle-field of the lost 

 cause, even w^hen his face was darkened by thick- 

 coming showers of loyal bullets, without blanching in 

 the least ; but when his deer-like race-horse, Versailles, 

 thrilled the audience at the Buckeye Course by chal- 

 lenging the champion Herzog for the lead and beating 

 him home the first heat in the then remarkable time of 

 1:43|, the stalwart General suddenly gave way to a 

 spasm of nervous paroxysms, as he wrung his hands 

 with joy before that vast throng, and exclaimed in 

 tearful hysterics : ' My God, the fearful strain upon my 

 nervous system is positively overwhelming.' If any 

 reader dreams that such a mighty struggle as that be- 

 tween the emperor and the empress of the trotting-turf 

 does not awaken in the interested spectator the very 

 superlative of nervous tension, he should have gazed 

 upon the two faces we have sketched, revealing a mo- 

 ment of supreme joy to the one and of depressive sor- 

 row to the other. 



"Never was witnessed a grander performance on the 

 trotting-turf till Smuggler ecHpsed his own greatness 

 in the succeeding heat. In vain did Doble plead with 

 the judges for the heat, laying before them the old age 

 and gallant struggle of the favorite mare, but they 

 were inexorable. Despite his special pleadings the 

 heat was given to Smuggler, amid the acclaims of the 

 approving spectators. The results of the concluding 



