A STRANGE LAND. 233 



merry clip, the immense throng yelling themselves wild, 

 and I was about crazy myself with excitement. Ten 

 thousand things flashed through my mind. I knew there 

 was a distance flag in their races, but whether there was a 

 saving clause in their rules for an 'unavoidable accident' 

 I did not know. I thought of the immense sum wagered 

 by my friend, and I drove with blind desperation, the 

 mare seeming to share in the feeling. She flew on, on, 

 closer and closer we came, and were about three lengths 

 inside the flag when the pistol announcing the finish of 

 the heat was fired. It took a strong force of police to 

 keep the crowd, now frenzied with excitement, from 

 trampling the mare and myself under foot. At last the 

 excitement subsided, and the next heat started, which I 

 won, carrying my watch in my hand, with ridiculous ease 

 in i :$2 1 /{- I also won the succeeding two heats in I \X7V\ 

 and i 483^, which I was given to understand was the 

 fastest three heats on record, although for a single mile 

 the record was some faster. My patron, alive to business 

 in my behalf, immediately patented the harness and sulky, 

 and I have since received a royalty on every one built. 

 They are universally adopted now. My share of my pat- 

 ron's winnings, which he divided equally between us, is 

 an enormous amount, just how much in dollars and cents, 

 I. of course, cannot state, but my bank account is all 

 right, and my I. O. U. is good for a fabulous sum. 



"I have written over one hundred of these letters, and 

 set them all afloat with the hope that one of them may fall 

 into the hands of some one in my country, and eventually 

 reach my relatives. If so, they will know I am alive and 

 well, but dead to them, and they to me. But life here is 

 the same as life in America. It comes to an end. The 

 same Supreme Ruler is over us, and my hardships and 



