304 The American Thoroughbred 



that they could be as gracious in defeat as they 

 had been jubilant in victory. There were such 

 scenes about the old Crescent City that night 

 as one in this day and time would like to see 

 repeated. There was an atmosphere of gentility 

 and of delightful courtesy between the people 

 of the extreme South and the sportsmen from 

 along the Ohio which unfortunately does not 

 have repetition in this more practical day of the 

 turf. 



If their hero had been deposed, the towns- 

 people of New Orleans were quite as loud in 

 their acclaim of the new hero who had come, 

 and their jealousies were hidden deep down in 

 those bosoms that were knightly enough to be 

 generous under any circumstances while the 

 guest was within the city gates. 



And then, too, Lexins^ton was a son of Boston, 

 and therein he was related to the Louisiana cham- 

 pion, and so, after all, there was balm in Gilead 

 because these gentlemen from the North had 

 not brought an entire alien to give defeat to 

 Lecompte. It took a member of the family to 

 do that. 



Lexington's return to his own Kentucky land 

 was a processional triumph. There are still aged 



