that he was a much heavier man than I was, that he 

 had driven a number of races with it, and if it would 

 hold him it certainly would hold me, and with this 

 assurance I reluctantly mounted the sulky and the 

 race soon commenced. It was a half-mile track, and 

 there were several horses in the race, but it soon 

 became apparent that the contest would be betvveen 

 Fred Tyler and another horse, who had full as 

 much speed as he had. When we reached the head 

 of the stretch in the last half of the mile, Fred Tyler 

 and the other contending horse were about on equal 

 terms, and when I called on my horse for an extra 

 spurt, he left his feet, and to get him back to his gait 

 I pulled first sharply on the right rein, and then on 

 the left. With the second pull he settled into a 

 square trot, but the effort in pulling so hard on the left 

 rein threw my weight on the outside wheel of the 

 sulky, and it instantly collapsed, the spokes leaving 

 the hub and the hub striking the ground, but, strange 

 as it may seem, this mishap did not cause the horse to 

 break and did not unseat me. This accident occurred 

 about 150 yards from the wire, and I drove to the 

 wire with one hub dragging on the ground, and Fred 

 Tyler, under the persuasion of the whip, won the heat, 

 amid the plaudits of as excited an audience as was 

 ever seen upon a race track. I stopped a few feet 

 beyond the wire, and some gentleman in the audience 

 ran up to the sulky and took hold of the hub and 

 raised it up, and carried it in his hand while I drove 

 back to the judges' stand. Another sulky was then 

 procured and I went on and won the race. While no 

 harm resulted to anything but the old sulky, I confess 

 I have never cared to repeat this experience. There 

 are hundreds of people still living in Montgomery who 



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