LIFE WITH THE TKOTTERS. 63 



renewed the battle, and it was anyone's race to the finish, 

 where Earns landed a winner in 2:22f, this being the fastest 

 and best race he had ever trotted. Two days later he per- 

 formed over the same track against Annie Collins, Little 

 Fred, Adelaide, and Bonner. He won this race in straight 

 heats, the time being 2:21^, 2:23^, and 2:24f . This race was 

 conceded to Rarus, and all the betting was on the place. 

 Crawford' s mare had not shown any remarkable speed here- 

 tofore, the most of the money going on Bonner. Mr. Craw- 

 ford took advantage of public sentiment, something which 

 he has done on several occasions, and placed his money on 

 Annie Collins for second place, and the resnlt of the race 

 shows the wisdom of the whole transaction, because Annie 

 Collins went the best race of her life, making Earns trot the 

 first mile in 2:21^ to beat her, and the second and third in 

 2:22^ and 2:24|. All of Earns' s other races through the 

 balance of this season were fully described in a former 

 chapter in connection with Kansas Chief. 



At the end of this season Earus was taken home to his 

 owner's farm, on Long Island, and placed in his own quar- 

 ters, which he had left without fame, but to which he returned 

 encircled by the halo of glory that in those days a record of 

 2:20f would give to any horse. The Long Islanders are 

 all horsemen, and they appreciated the fact that Mr. Conk- 

 lin's prophecies, which they deemed wild and visionary at 

 the time, had been more than fulfilled, and in the frosty 

 days of November, and all during the following winter, they 

 would stroll up to the barn, sit around the glowing stove in 

 the office, and listen to the old gentleman as he recounted the 

 triumphs that the bay gelding had won in the big cities of 

 the land. 



The first time that ever I saw Mr. Conklin to know him 

 was the next morning after Kansas Chief had beaten Earus 

 the last race in Prospect Park, in the fall of 1875. I was out 

 at the stable, looking over Kansas, when I saw, walking to- 

 ward me, a gentleman who looked as though, in the prime 

 of life, he might have been a man of great size and strength. 



