The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-12
MR.. HAMLlN and HIS HORSES
THE CAREER OF THE MILL
IONAIRE HORSEMAN

views OF Man Who Has Bred TrOt-
tiers for Forty Years-He Thinks
That Under Certain Conditions
Advocate of Beauty of Form as
Well as Speed.
The views of a man who has stuck
to hobby in horse breeding forty
years through thick and thin are like
ly to be Of interest to hCrSemen, the
more so, when they reflect the observa-
tlonS, experiences and opinions of a
man who Is at once probably the oldest,
most extensive and most successful
breeder of trotting horses in the world.
Besides being the foremost breeder and
thurman of the day, c. J. Hamlin is
one of the most picturesque characters
among the rich men of the country. At
seyenty-nlne years of age, the New
York Sun says, he is as straight and
stalwart of form. firm of step. strong
of voice, ruddy of face, sharp of eye
and active of body and mind as mos.
men are at sixty. Even his snow-white
hair and beard would never lead a
stranger to suspect that he is almost
all octogenar!an. A genial, cheerful,
optimistic, upto-date and up-to-snuff
CID man who lives in the present and
the future, not in the past; a rock-rib-
bed American Of sturdy New England
stock. an outspoken radical in horse
breeding, politics and religion, whose
idols are Mambrino King, Ed Geers,
Abraham Lincoln and Tom Paine; dem
ocratic to the last degree, knows all the
bright Bohemian camp followers OF the
Grand Circuit as we'll as they know
him; hater OF everything illiberal who
Will give you strong argument that
buying pool on a horse race is just as
legitimate as buying May wheat on the
board of trade. and that both are all
right in law ard morals; a bold specu-
1ator himself who will bet more money,
So the bookmakers say, than anybody
that follows the trotters when he likes
the chances of one Of his Village Farm
horses that Ed Geers is driving in a
Re ce; keen, close, hard-headed man
in business transaction who has
learned the value of a dollar in accumu-
lating several millions of them: not a
promising customer for gold bricks in
any form; drives hard bargain. some
persons say. but Ives UP to his agrees
ments, without murmur, although he
doesn't always require those who deal
with him to do the same; good judge
CT men and horses, with strong likes
and dislikes concerning the different
families of trotters pronounced theories
about breeding and an abiding faith
that Ed Geers is the abl5st trainer and
driver who ever mounted sulky, as
we'll as an absolutely honest man.
His love-no other word fills the bill
fer Geers Is one Of the shining features
Of Mr.. Hamlin's character. He will tell
you that this big, brawny, bronzed
backWoodsman from Maury county,
Tenn, Is an undiscovered Lincoln in
his goodness of heart, wealth of COM
mon sense, and loyalty to truth
There is nothing ostentatious in the
manners or the dress of Mr.. Hamlin.
He might be taken for a prosperous
merchant, which he was some thirty
years ago, but no stranger who saw
him on the quarterStretch at the races
with his familiar green umbrella, straw
hat and linen coat would be likely to
pick him out as a man whose wealth
runs away up into the millions. The
veteran horseman does not often miss
meeting where his trotters are en-
gagged. His large business interests in
Buffalo are looked after by his eldest
son, William, while he follows the cir
cult from June until November, BRAY
ing the heat and the hotels for the
pleasure, CT seeing his horses perform
OF late years he has had in his, son,
Harry, an able lieutenant in his breed
ing and campaigning operations. Iteis
sa1G of Harry Hamlin that he would
rather win with one of his dock-tailed
trotters in the champion class for high
steppers at the national horse show
than to pull down $4,000 purse in the
grand circuit. With their trotters and
their trotting-bred park horses the
Hamlins are usually the largest eX-
hibitors, and they are frequently the
largest prize winners at the annual
exhibition in Madison square garden.
That event is the wind up of their cam
paign.
After the big show is ended Ed Geers
goes up to the breeding farm at East
Aurora, in Erie county. where he and
his employees pick out forty or fifty
likely young trotters from among the
400 or 500 animals on the place. These
are shipped down to Selma, Ala, to be
conditioned, trained and sorted over
during the winter and early spring in
preparation for the next campaign
About the first of May Geers selects a
carload Of the best ones to take through
the circuit. Shipping the others back
to the farm, he moves northward with
the season, stopping a month or so at
Louisville, and then going to one of
the Northern tracks to await the open
ing of the grand circuit. Wintering in
the South has proved to be an i'm
portant factor in the campaigning oper-
atoms Of the Hamlins their stable hay
ing headed the list of owners every
year since the experiment was first
tried.
For more than a quarter Of century
Mr.. Hamlin was the leading spirit in
the management of harness racing at
Buffalo. He owned a majority interest
in the old Buffalo driving park, which
was the leading trotting track of the
country as far back as 1857, when Dex-
ter made his memorable record Of
2:17A there. He was one of the or
ganizers of the National Trotting asso-
citation in 1870, and later led the move
ment which resulted in the formation
of the Grand circuit.
When Mr.. Hamlin came to New York
the other day on his way home to Buff
falo after a winter in the South, he
talked entertainingly to a reporter Of
The Sun about his own and other peo-
pies trotters and about his theories of
breeding the harness horse. He said:
Il bought my first trotters in 1857.
The horse world has moved since then.
young man. Just think of It! At that
time Rysdyk's Hambletonian hadn't
been heard of outside Of Orange coun-
ty. The great Hambletonian family.
which now OvershadoWs all others
combined in point Of numbers, was not
in existence. The Morgans, now so
nearly extinct, were then perhaps the
leading family, If it can be said that
there were any recognized families Of
trotters in those days. The best time
on record was 2:241a, made by Flora
Temple. Ethan Allen held the cham
pion record for stations with a mark
of 2:2S. No four-year-old had trotted
as fast as 2:3O up to that time, and
1 don't suppose a three-year-old or a
two-year-old had ever beaten 800
Now we have yearlings that can beat
Flora Temples time, If we are foolish