OF THE AUTHOR. XXVU 



'fhe Stjond was the distancing of Awful, three miles in harness, in 

 7m. 41s. The third was the time-match, three miles, in which the 

 mark, still standing at the head of the record, 7m. 32^s., was made. 

 Hiram has always maintained, and no doubt with good reason, 

 that Dutchman could have greatly surpassed this. In the second 

 mile, which was trotted in 2m. 28s., Isaac Woodruff, who was on 

 the running companion, conceived that Hiram was going too fast, 

 and called to him to pull. The third mile was in 2m. 30s., and 

 Dutchman was pulled all the way. It was Hiram's conviction that 

 he could have trotted this in 2m. 26 s. This very remarkable 

 horse was not coarse, as many suppose him to have been. He 

 showed breeding in form as well as bottom, and was savage in dis- 

 position. After his time-match he went to Philadelphia, and 

 Hiram beat him two or three times with Washington. But he 

 returned into Hiram's hands, and trotted his famous races with 

 Americus under his direction. 



Hiram Woodruff had then just reached his twenty-sixth year, 

 and had fully entered upon that career of hard work and useful- 

 ness which was increasing in importance every day, which finally 

 made him one of the best known and most renowned men in 

 America, and in which his genius, his faithfulness, and his sagacity 

 enabled him to do his country weighty and honorable service. 

 The greatest nations, and many of the greatest men that have ex- 

 isted in the world, have held, that, next to the improvement and 

 culture of mankind itself, the improvement and cultivation of the 

 horse is one of the best and mightiest of tasks. Our country is 

 distinguished abroad, as well as at home, for having effected the 

 greatest and most surprising improvement in the horse of daily 

 use, the trotter, that is mentioned in the annals of horsemanship, 

 from the period of the misty fables of Castor, Pollux, and Chiron 

 the Centaur, down to this day. Now, for this improvement the 

 country is more indebted to Hiram Woodruff than to any other 

 man — or any ten men. Nobody with any character for sense and 

 veracity will dispute this. 



Before he had done with Dutchman on the turf, Ripton had 

 come to Hiram Woodruff; and this "white-legged pony" soon 

 became as great a favorite with him, as great a prodigy with the 

 public, and as great a scourge to those who stood against him, as 

 Dutchman had been. He it was that first made two miles in 5m. 

 Ss., in hai'ness, going against Lady Suffolk ; and he finally became 



