EARLY DAYS. 35 



about 2 40, a remarkable performance in the thirties, 

 when a 2 130 horse was an unknown quantity and John 

 Treadwell was chanting the praises of Abdallah. 

 Jacob Piatt bred these mares, and from Rose, a 

 chunky mare with a good head and neck, he got a 

 chestnut colt, by Henry, who then stood on Long 

 Island at Jacob Van Cott's stable. The colt was 

 foaled on the first day of May and was named May 

 Day. He grew up to be a fine looking horse, was sold 

 to New Jersey parties and eventually drifted to Phila- 

 delphia. Bet never produced any foals worthy of 

 mention, but Surrey afterwards threw Henry Clay to 

 the cover of Andrew Jackson. 



John E. Turner's early days were ones in which 

 hard work took out all of the play. He had to see 

 where the money came from and also see that it was 

 spent judiciously. On that account he did not enjoy 

 any of the advantages of education. His school ex- 

 perience was of but three or four days' duration. 

 While he was at the tavern looking after the road 

 horses of its patrons, the wife of a gentleman who was 

 connected with one of the express companies in Phila- 

 delphia, asked him if he had ever been to school. On 

 receiving an answer in the negative, she had her hus- 

 band make arrangements for John to attend school 

 during the winter. He did so, but the surroundings 

 were new to a boy that had been out of doors all of 

 his life. After an hour or two his legs began to cramp. 

 Then, to make matters worse, he imagined that he 

 could not wrestle with the pot hooks and other 

 primary marks in chirography as cleverly as others of 

 his age, so he politely took French leave of the institu- 

 tion and the gentlemanly tutor and made his way back 



