- "FALCON'S" HISTORY. 37 



excitement in the country, and my man was so anxious to 

 have him trot fast all at once, that he ventured to whip 

 him to increase his speed. This treatment his high spirit 

 would not brook, and then began the contest between 

 them, but the biped's arms was no match for the quadru- 

 ped's strength of jaw, and when the day of the trot carae 

 he was utterly unable to hold him. I had not seen him 

 from the day the race was made till the one prior to it. 

 It was too late then, even to suggest anything, so he was 

 driven in a long shanked curb-bit that had purchase 

 enough to break the jaw of a mule. He was easily beaten. 

 I cared not a straw for the money lost, but it was bitter 

 to hear the remarks : " I told you it wan't no use trying 

 to make a trotter of a race-horse, they aint fit for nothing 

 only to put a little boy on their backs and run over a 

 smooth path," with hundreds still more ill-natured. I 

 sent him home, and housed him again in his roomy box. 

 Before the frost went out I started with him for Chicago. 

 He was just as pleasant as ever, and I greatly enjoyed 

 driving him the trip. Again I was unlucky in putting 

 him in the hands of a man who did not understand the 

 nervous organization of the descendant of a long line of 

 illustrious ancestry. He hit him sharply with the whip 

 when driving him down the road that follows the shore 

 of the beautiful lake, which the Falcon resented by run- 

 ning away. The bit and reins were of no avail to stop 

 him, but on he sped. The prairie was soon passed, and 

 the driver thought of throwing himself out of the 

 skeleton-wagon as they rushed through the timber. At last 

 from sheer exhaustion he was forced to give up his pull, 

 when a few soothing words was sufficient to stop him. 

 The fright, however, deterred the man from getting behind 

 the horse again, and the only exercise he got was from 

 the son of the trainer riding him behind the wagon when 

 his father was driving. I brought him home, thinking it 



