14 LIFE WITH THE TEOTTEES. 



sometliing wonderful in that day, and I saw the race, I 

 will give some idea of how Jim Rockey and Murphy rode 

 their respective horses. 



RoUa Grolddust won the first heat, Boice making two 

 breaks, but in the second mile Boice went away steadily, 

 and took the pole on the turn, never being headed, finishing 

 the mile in 2:14^; and it should be noted that this time by 

 a pacer under saddle was never beaten until Johnston did it 

 in 1888 at Cleveland, where George Starr rode him a mile 

 in 2:14. On this latter occasion I drove the runner that 

 accompanied Johnston, and I think that he could have 

 gone better than he did, but Mr. Starr' s idea was to simply 

 win and be satisfied Avith that. This mile, in 2:14|- by Billy 

 Boice, shows what a wonderful horse he was in his day, for 

 at that time a 2:20 horse was an absolute novelty, and as 

 for any harness animal, trotter or pacer, going a mile in 

 2:15, it had not been thought of. Of course, since then 

 there have been a good many 2:15 pacers, but it has taken 

 fifteen years of training, breeding, and driving, and all 

 the improved construction of vehicles to bring them down 

 to the present standard, so that Boice must have been a 

 phenomenon. I have no doubt that, with his natural speed 

 and the improved facilities in the way of tracks, better 

 vehicles, etc., he would have been a star performer in the 

 present day and able to hold his own with the best. 



From St. Louis I took a trip with a Spaniard to Havana, 

 Cuba. This Spaniard was buying a shipload of horses to 

 take there. I thought it would be a novelty to see a foreign 

 country, and so arranged with this gentleman to go with 

 the first consignment of horses. Havana was a dull place 

 to me. No race-tracks, no trotters, and nobody that I 

 could see who could talk English, and as that was the only 

 language I knew I was what might be called a homesick 

 boy. I stated the case to my new-found friend, and he 

 sympathized with me and released me from my contract. 

 Then I concluded to ship for New York. Taking the first 

 boat for the United States, I reached New York City in 



