264 SPORT INDEED 



moderate, the merchants have not got used to the 

 changed condition of affairs. 



Everything is absurdly high. You are charged 

 twenty-five cents for a shave, fifty cents for a pint 

 bottle of apollinaris or Bass' ale, and corresponding 

 prices for everything else. But the livery stable men 

 are the real Shylocks of the town. A physician was 

 dilating upon the qualities of a very good young mare 

 he had just bought for ten dollars, and assured me he 

 could buy any number of them at that price. I thought, 

 as horse flesh was so cheap, I should be able to enjoy 

 many drives and see the country without injuring my 

 pocket. The thought was hardly a sound one. At 

 my first trial of it, the stable man charged me five 

 dollars for a very sorry looking horse and a dilapidated 

 buggy whose years might have equaled those of the 

 " Deacon's one horse shay." The charge for a pair of 

 similar looking animals and a similar looking wagon 

 I found to be ten dollars. Such modesty is rare. 



We had been here a week, and, while there were 

 three livery stables, all doing a rushing trade, we had 

 never been able to see the proprietor of any of them 

 to know whether the charges exacted from us were 

 warranted or not. In fact each proprietor seemed to 

 be more interested in shooting or horse-racing than in 

 looking after his business. 



This is truly a wonderful belt of country, and the 

 most fertile we have yet seen. The Presbyterian min- 



