122 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 



beat the world's record for the double oval, which was then 

 2:031/4- I looked the track over and found that the river 

 had flooded it the previous spring and made up my mind 

 we could not beat the record there. Returning to my hotel 

 I saw in the window of an enterprising merchant an alligator 

 grip full and overflowing with one-dollar bills, a huge sign 

 on it stating it would be given to the driver of Dan Patch if 

 he beat 2:031/4. Charley Dean, was driving the runner for 

 me at the time of the mile and we decided to go the first 

 half as near a minute as possible and take chances on the rest 

 of it. We made the first trip round in a minute and half a 

 second but the dust was so thick we could hardly see where 

 we were going. In fact I did not know where Dean was 

 except when I would feel Dan's nose hit him in the back, so 

 I drove absolutely by that sign. Coming to the lower turn 

 on the back side Dean was so blinded by the dust that he 

 did not know when he got to the turn and went clear to the 

 outside before he discovered where he was. But that let 

 us out of the dust. He snatched his runner, straightened 

 him up and got him back to the pole, I did the same with 

 Dan, who went to a break but recovered quickly and we 

 finished the mile; the time was 2:03 and the record was 

 lowered. 



"After the performance was over and the horses cared 

 for we started for our hotel. On the way up I said to Dean 

 that it would be a grand idea to look in that enterprising 

 merchant's store and see where the dollar bills and the 

 alligator grip were. We found the window but no grip. 

 Arriving at the hotel we found the grip lying on my bed. 

 I delegated Charlie to open it as I did not feel I could stand 

 the shock of the surprise. He opened it and found the foxy 

 merchant had removed the bills. I still have the grip. 



"Perhaps one of the most interesting financial incidents 

 of Dan's career developed at the Indiana State Fair. When 

 we were dickering for the booking we off^ered to go one mile 

 for $2,500 but the management thought that was too much 

 money to pay one horse to go one mile. So we made them 

 the proposition to take 60 per cent, of all over their average 

 paid Wednesday attendance for the previous three years. 



