CHAPTER XVIII 



HARRY BASSETT AND LONGFELLOW 



Since the days of the reconstruction of the 

 turf there has been such a great number of 

 splendid races run upon American courses that 

 to enumerate all of them would require volumes. 

 We can have affair only with those great individ- 

 uals which came out from time to time between 

 the years of the great four-mile past and the 

 present. 



It was 1870 before another real champion ap- 

 peared in this country. That was Harry Bassett. 

 Harry Bassett was as a race-horse what Bona- 

 parte was as a military chieftain. He had his 

 victories and he met with disasters, but whether 

 the victor or the defeated, he was the central 

 figure upon which all eyes rested. It was the 

 popular tribute to greatness. The vox populi 

 said he was great ; and the same voice which pro- 

 claimed him great as the conqueror of the Bel- 

 mont, the Kenner, and the Dixie, when he died 

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