the gentlemen's driving club. 135 



but two pneumatic-tired wagons with small wheels in 

 Cleveland. John D. Rockefeller had one, but the axles 

 were so low that it was not of much use for fast work, and 

 Harry Devereux had an ordinary top road wagon with the 

 axles cut and U-shaped forks, in which the little wheels 

 turned, welded to them. The first heat in a race 

 at a matinee of the Gentlemen's Driving Club was won by" 

 Harry Stephens with the Young Jim gelding Jim Wilkes. 

 The next heat went to M. A. Bradley's mare, Mattie Bas- 

 sett, and the race to George T., a chestnut gelding by 

 Elyria, owned by C. G. Barkwell. The races at this meet- 

 ing and the following one were at half-mile heats, but 

 from that time on they were at a mile, and in a short time 

 the doings of Firefly, Mattie Bezant, Peep O'Day, 

 Wyreka, Tague O'Ragan, East End, Incense, Doc 

 Sperry, Tom Shannon, etc., were the. talk of the town, 

 the first spark of enthusiasm being struck on 

 July 6, when O. G. Kent wheeled in from the 

 road behind Incense to a high-wheeled wagon and 

 won in 2:17, 2:16^. This was a remarkable perform- 

 ance, and it was not beaten during the season of 1895. In 

 the pacing division Harvey Goulder's road horse, Tom 

 Shannon, fought for first honors with Doc Sperry in 

 hopples, and the latter won with a mile in 2:17^, Tom 

 Shannon's fastest mile being in 2:19. With the begin- 

 ning of 1896 the hopples were barred in the wagon races, 

 and from that time up to the present The Gentlemen's 

 Driving Club of Cleveland has grown in strength and 

 popularity, until it has become the leading amateur organ- 

 ization of the kind in the world. Its signal success can 

 be attributed, not to the work of any one member or group 

 of members, as is the case in many associations, but to 

 the harmony that has prevailed in its ranks, and the con- 



