EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 79 



This time I was out for business and wanted to get up and get 

 the word in the front rank. In coming up King tripped his 

 hind toe, knuckled over and nearly fell down. It hurt so bad 

 that he went three or four steps on three legs and fairly groaned 

 right out, and everyone said, '' Well, the jig is up with that big 

 horse.'* 'But I asked permission of the judges for a few min- 

 utes' time, which they granted. I sent one of the boys to the 

 stable for a bottle of liniment that I had prepared with a lit- 

 tle cayenne pepper in. I formerly used it across his back, as 

 he was not any too strong there on account of self-abuse, of 

 which I had a great deal of trouble with him in warm weather. 

 I applied the liniment, which was pretty sharp, and in five 

 minutes he had forgotten the hurt. It seemed toconteract the 

 pain and he was all right. As I was about to get into the 

 sulky the General called out to me over the fence, " What did 

 he do, Jack, break his back ? '' I replied, " No, I guess not.'' 

 His reply was, " He would if he had been my horse." I got 

 in and we went up and came down two or three times to let 

 him get confidence again. Finally I went up and turned him 

 around in a business way and called him a few naughty names, 

 which he always seemed to know meant business, and we 

 came down a boiling and got the word. I just stepped around 

 those horses as though they were hitched. Deucalion staid 

 with me pretty well to the quarter pole, which was reached in 

 3-1 seconds, but the pace was too hot and he had to be ex- 

 cused. I stepped along to the half-mile pole in 1:09 and 

 from there home as I pleased, actually in a jog in 2:22|. 

 From that time on I had no more trouble, as I won the next 

 two heats easily in 2:23 and 2:22J. Mr. Lewis, the manager 

 of Deucalion, and John Goldsmith held council together. Eli 

 Ager, myself and the other friends on the staff of King Al- 

 mont had another convention a little farther down the quar- 

 ter stretch, and it was easy to tell the successful financiers 

 from the countenances of the two different groups. 



This was the last important event of King's that year, 

 though I trotted him several times after that very successfully. 



