XXX INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 



as was his habit with a rough word for everyone; 

 and a small man with flashing eyes, his hair done 

 up in a queue exquisitely dressed and the most 

 polished in address, whom everybody looked at 

 but nevertheless kept aloof from, for it was 

 Aaron Burr, the slayer of Alexander Hamilton. 

 In fact, everybody in society was present, the 

 betting was fast and furious, the Southerners 

 laying two to one on Henry. 



The first heat, at the tap of the drum, Henry 

 took the lead and kept it for the whole four miles 

 and from the stand John Randolph squealed out, 

 "I'll bet a crop of niggers on Henry." Time 7 

 min. 37 sec. 



The next heat Purdy, ancestor of Belmont 

 Purdy, was substituted for Croft on Eclipse and 

 brought him in a victor by thirty feet. Time 

 7 min. 49 sec. 



The third heat. Taylor, a famous Southern 

 jockey, was put on Henry but Purdy again 

 steadied Eclipse and applying the whip the last 

 quarter came in three lengths ahead. Time 8 

 min. 24 sec. The twelve miles being run in 23 

 min. 50 sec." 



These were the times when every stable had its cham- 

 pion of the Turf and every town a course, and it is said 

 that when the favorite of South Carolina was beaten on 

 the Metairie Course at New Orleans in 1818 half the 

 planters of that State were financially crippled and Joseph 

 Alston, Ex-Governor of the State, bet and lost a planta- 

 tion and slaves worth fifty thousand dollars. 



To further show the "broad sympathies" that the 

 Stevens' family have always shown towards sport in the 

 States the following is introduced : 



In the cabin of the schooner yacht, Gimcraek, the proper- 

 ty of John C. Stevens, while she lay off the Battery, the 

 New York Yacht Club was formed in 1844, and with 

 George L. Schuyler, James A. Hamilton and others he 

 formed the syndicate which took the yacht America 

 abroad and won the now famous international trophy 

 called the American Cup. While anchored opposite Os- 

 borne House he received Queen Victoria, who, on the day 

 of the race from the royal yacht, Victoria and Albert, 



