THE SANDPIPER. 



(Published in "The Horse Review," December 19, 1891.) 



'The Sandpiper" was the nickname of a shifty, fore- 

 handed, jolly citizen of Cleveland, of Teutonic pedigree, 

 because he got rich gathering the sand by the lake and 

 selling it by the load. He would sell a yard of sand, and 

 with the profits buy another rod of beach, thus adding to 

 his worldly possessions, till at last he bought a trotter, a 

 good-looking bay mare of Hiatoga breeding. She im- 

 proved quite rapidly on the road, and to say she was not 

 short of work at any angle of the game is drawing it mild, 

 for the Dutchman would give anybody and everybody he 

 came across a race. In sleighing season "The Sandpiper" 

 was the first driver on the path every day and the last one 

 to leave. 



It was Sunday, that day of rest to all men except a 

 Secretary. The light had faded down into twilight and 

 the shadows deepened in the gloaming. The next day the 

 entries closed, and I was about taking the car in front of 

 my office for the depot, to make the train for Wheeling, 

 where a fair was in progress. I intended the next day 

 doing missionary work in preaching to the benighted trot- 

 ting men the merits of Cleveland, Ohio, from a racing 

 standpoint; convincing them that they had first money 

 already won, and it only needed the formality of applying 

 for it in person, when along drove 'The Sandpiper" be- 

 hind the bav mare. 



