HARTFORD. 19 



"In 1874, Charter Oak Park, at Hartford, was opened 

 with a $30,000 meeting, August 25 to 28. Ebenezer Rob- 

 erts was president, Morgan G. Bulkeley, treasurer, and 

 Alexander Harbison, secretary. It was admitted to the 

 circuit in 1876, and is still a member. That year, or the 

 following one, the Board of Stewards were the guests 

 of the Rochester Driving Park, whose officers requested 

 them to hold all of their future meetings in that city. To 

 decline such a location after the entertainment provided 

 by the Hon. Fred Cook, E. B. Parsons, George J. Whit- 

 ney, George W. Archer and their associates, was an issue 

 that could not be considered, and from that date until 

 Springfield, and for that matter, until Rochester dropped 

 out of line in 1896, the Stewards of the Grand Circuit, 

 with very few exceptions, held their annual meetings in 

 that City. To what might be termed the "Old Guard" 

 there are many pleasant memories attached to those 

 meetings and banquets at which the love for a good horse 

 and the purely American sport, harness racing, was the 

 bond of fellowship. Sentiment without a particle of com- 

 mercialism brought together the men who sat around the 

 board each year. To them a race was a contest for which 

 they were willing to pay, should the associations which 

 they represented, and in a few instances managed, come 

 out at the small end of the horn when the last heat was 

 trotted. This happened two or three times in Springfield, 

 there being one season when seven of us were called on 

 to chip in $1,000 apiece to balance accounts. Then there 

 were years when the balance was the other way. In the 

 old days the commercial spirit of the turf was left to those 

 who entered and drove horses and the general public. 

 The financial ventures of those who managed meetings 

 were foreign to the race track. Grand Circuit week was 



