PREFACE 



centers of activity to gratify a desire for excitement 

 and to enlarge the human understanding by watching 

 the distribution of prizes among trotters and pacers. 

 The tracks on which the light harness horse per- 

 forms are counted by the thousand, and the results 

 of races on which comparatively little money is risked 

 have shown the way to a standard of excellence. In 

 1906 speculation was restricted or prohibited in some 

 localities, but as a rule the meetings were never so 

 largely attended or the races more earnestly con- 

 tested, thus demonstrating beyond cavil the strong 

 hold of trotting on the public at large. In " The 

 Trotting and the Pacing Horse in America," pub- 

 lished in July, 1904, I have given a compact history 

 of harness speed evolution, and the reader is referred 

 to it for a grouping of foundation families. In these 

 pages I have enlarged upon the subject, and given 

 personal recollections of the men, as well as horses, 

 who played conspicuous parts in the formative era 

 of breeds and track discipline. Millions of people 

 are deeply interested in the question, and I have 

 endeavored to discuss it from a high standpoint and 

 to reflect the truth as revealed by thousands of let- 

 ters, many of which, in being kept so long from the 

 public eye, show the ravages of time. At the urgent 

 request of George B. Raymond, I undertook this 

 task, and, when I grew weary of it, was encouraged 

 to go on by one in whose judgment I had confidence, 

 whose loyalty was sincere, whose sympathy was re- 

 sponsive, whose religion was to speak kindly of those 



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