SALE RING REMINISCENCES. 175 



wagon horse, and I set sail for the speedway with consid- 

 erable confidence that I could beat almost any horse ever 

 driven there ; but it appeared to me that it would be pru- 

 dent to tackle some of the unknown ones first and 'size up' 

 my steed before flying higher into the ranks of the top- 

 notchers. So I collared a bay mare driven by a big man 

 with a woman beside him. He beat me easily, waited and 

 tempted me into another brush, and again trimmed me 

 with ease. Again he waited, but I knew when I had 

 enough, so I said to him : 'Drive ahead, you are too fast 

 for me ; I don't want any of your game.' He replied : 

 'Don't you know dot mare, Fasis: ? I bought dot mare of 

 you in de sale. Don't you recomember I said to you, "Is 

 dot mare a good von for me to puy, Fasig?" und you said 

 she vas, so I bought her und baid a hoondred und twenty- 

 five dollar for her, und don't you forged it, her's a goot 

 un. Dey don'd tell aboud her in de pabers, but she can 

 beat lots of dem dey plow aboud.' I was knocked clean 

 off my pins. Here was a $125 nag, bought at my sale a 

 short time before, making my $1,000 horse look like a 

 piece of lemon that had done duty in a yesterday's whisky 

 sour." 



At the same time he also recalled the following remin- 

 iscences of the sale ring which are worth preserving: 



"There is no place in the world where all sides of 

 human nature, the ludicrous as well as the pathetic, are 

 so vividly portrayed. It is an ever-changing play and I 

 imagine has much to do with its popularity. Each year 

 adds to the crowds that gather about the ring. Did you 

 ever notice the foreigners at a sale? A foreigner who 

 is bidding against an American looks straight at the auc- 

 tioneer and never takes his eyes off of that functionary. 

 But directly two foreigners get to bidding against each 



