TOD SLOAN 



I didn't get rid of the idea at the back of my mind that 

 I would hke to learn to ride. I kept on figuring to 

 myself that I ought to be able to do as well as the next 

 fellow, but somehow it all left me in a bit of a whirl. 

 Yet I was always coming back to the subject. My 

 brother Cash lost his job with Johnson, and in the 

 spring we went to Denver, and he got a position with a 

 big fellow, named Hank Combs. Then the desire to 

 ride again came back to me. But it took me longer to 

 learn than anyone I ever heard of. I did have another 

 chance of showing what I could do in this stable ; but 

 it was the same old story. They found a little chestnut 

 colt for me to exercise, but he threw up his tail and ran 

 away with me into the woods, getting rid of me against 

 a tree. I nearly broke my neck ! I didn't remember 

 anything until I found myself lying in one of the 

 attendants' cots. My Denver debut had thus ended m 

 disaster, and I wanted to clear out ; but how to get 

 away presented certain difficulties. We had nothmg 

 except a little handbag each. Luckily Cash, thinkmg 

 he was going to be a jockey, had bought about forty 

 dollars' worth of saddlery, caps, etc., and had paid for 

 them. They were coming west to him through the 

 American Express, and by showing the receipt and the 

 way-bill to a fellow in the town he got ten dollars. 

 They didn't put up the bar against youngsters gomg 

 into pool-rooms and gambling saloons in Denver m 

 those days, and with two dollars of the ten I went mto 

 one of them and began to win. I ran the two dollars 

 into fifty. \Vliat would have happened next I don't 

 know, but Cash suddenly came to me saying : "For 

 God's sake, give it up ; I've lost all my eight dollars, 

 and we shall have to walk if we lose what you've got 

 there." I had a little sense— and we cleared out. 

 I then found my way to Kansas City and began to 



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