114 



LIFE "vVITH THE TROTTEBS. 



2:50 to 3:00, sometimes as many as a half a dozea in a 

 day, with, twenty minutes rest between them. There was 

 no attempt to drive at a high rate of speed, bnt after the 

 weather became settled, I gradually improved his speed in 

 the work, at the same time shortening the distance. ) About 

 May 15, I made an engagement to show Rarus a Pitts- 

 burg two weeks later, stipulating, however, that I should 

 not be expected to drive him better than about 2:21 . I gave 

 him a few moderate mUes between 2:30 and 2:25, blushing 

 only at the finish of each mile. His best performaD;e was 

 2:24J, and in it he showed me that he had plenty of speed, 

 so I had no fear but that he would be able to fuBll the 

 Pittsburg contract, which he did easily enough. Ths track 

 there was a half-mile one with a good deal of grad( in it, 

 the first quarter being downhill and the last quarter iphill. 

 Here I found the same trouble to exist that I had : oticed 

 at Fleetwood the previous year. With his ligh shoes 

 Rarus could not get down the hil-l well, and this caused me 

 to at once shoe him heavier in front. On the day of the ex- 

 hibition he went the second heat in 2:21^, which ms by 

 long odds the best performance that had been made over 

 the track. On the 12th of June we were at Jackson, lich., 

 again, trotting the third mile in 2:20f , with the track deep 

 and slow from recent rains. Up to this time I hal not. 

 done much with Rarus, as the stewards of the grand crcuit 

 had seen fit to bar him in the free- to-all race at their neet- 

 ings, something never heard of before — ^barring a hors^in a 

 free-to-all class before he had ever trotted there througl the 

 circuit. Several parties approached me with a proposiion 

 to show Rarus against some pacers, but I told them no; 

 that if they had a pacer capable of beating him to get lim 

 ready and come on with their money. The circuit pemle 

 made me what I considered one-sided propositions to slpw 

 him over the different tracks, but to all these I said \o. 

 Then they wanted to know what I was going to do wibh 

 him, pointing out that the horse was barred in the free 

 all class, and without record low enough to make hint a 



