GEORGE WILKES. 251 



others very handily, it was resolved to start him. He 

 won it with ease, not being called upon to trot much 

 better than 2:33*4. His next race was the $10,000 

 match with Ethan Allen. I had now begun to call 

 often upon the brown stallion, and used to stand on 

 Cherry Avenue, at the Fashion Course, while William 

 Cunningham led him up and down. He was always 

 an eccentric sort of a horse, and he used to plod on 

 with a lounging walk after Cunningham, much as a 

 young elephant in the East follows his mahout. Like 

 the elephant, too, he would get mad at times and 

 threaten to run amuck. I have said that when a 

 suckling in Orange County he would make a muss 

 among the maids if his milk-punch was not provided 

 at the proper hour; and now that he had attained 

 horse estate, he made nothing of summarily pulling 

 Bill out of bed when the hour for his first feed ar- 

 rived. He began by. pulling the bed-clothes from 

 the cot, as a gentle hint ; and if that was not speedily 

 attended to, he took Bill by the shirt and pulled him 

 on to the floor. t 



"The trot between these stallions, one the ac- 

 knowledged best representative of the Morgan blood, 

 and the other a promising scion of the great Messen- 

 ger strain, took place on the Fashion Course, Septem- 

 ber 10, 1862. It was mile heats, best three in five, in 

 harness, for $10,000. Ethan Allen had been trained by 

 Mace, and looked well. Wilkes had received unre- 

 mitting attention from Horace Jones, and came on in 

 capital condition. The concourse of people was im- 

 mense. A vast number of gentlemen had come from 

 the Eastern States, and many from the West were 

 also in attendance. Most of these held to the notion 



