SEALSKIN BRIGADE. 69 



tation on the roads, by some Clay horse; Capt. Jack 

 Dawson had his old black mare that could hold her own 

 in any company, and three or four others whose names I 

 do not recall ; all trotters, not a pacer on the road in those 

 days on your life. Well, this crowd headed into the park, 

 going- down town. Capt. Jack Dawson was then super- 

 intendent, or something, of the parks, and we cut loose. 

 The sleighing was prime and we went a merry clip. I 

 was driving Stilletto. One policeman after another 

 rushed out to stop us, when Capt. Jack would yell at 

 them, and they'd touch their hats and retire, so the race 

 was fast and furious. The Clay mare led at the end of 

 the brush, Capt. Jake Vanderbilt was second with Bos- 

 ton, I was at his necktie with Stilletto, while Mace, Daw- 

 son, Freeman and the others were close up in a bunch. 

 It was gay sport, that ; sleighing through the park under 

 the protection of its boss, the big-hearted Jack Dawson, 

 who was a power in those days. Seems to me that folks 

 had more fun then. It was the time of the 'sealskin 

 brigade,' when the powerful were Americans, practiced 

 American ways, drove American trotters and were proud 

 to be Americans. No perching up on an eighteen-foot 

 high cart, holding the lines against one's bay window, 

 driving a mutilated horse that couldn't do fast enough 

 time for a funeral from a workhouse. I may be a bit old 

 fogyish for these new fangled notions, but I can't help it." 

 While on this trip William B. Fasig made his first 

 appearance as a delegate at a Congress of The National 

 Trotting Association. He did not take an active part in 

 the proceedings. A short time after his return home, 

 Fasig was, on the suggestion of Colonel Edwards and 

 W. J. Gordon, employed by the representatives of the 

 estate of H. B. Hurlburt to dispose of his stable of road 



