Recollections of Men And Horses

ious to excel and worked over hours to learn as much as it was possible to learn about the business. He came to New York in 1844 and founded the New York Ledger, making a phenomenal success of it. He accumulated a large fortune and spent money generously to uplift humanity and to advance the interests of breeding. He despised shams and resolutely set his face against the foibles of fashionable society. His associates were the intellectual men, the dominating spirits of his day and generation. It was my good fortune to win his confidence, to study him behind the scenes as it were, to see him in all of his moods, and to closely advise with him. I always found him as true as the magnet to the pole, never stooping to deception, unflinchingly advocating what he believed to be right, never swayed by public clamor, and his word was in truth as good as his bond. There is much that I should like to write about him, whichI cannot do, because, although he has preceded me across the river which separates night from morning, the seal of confidence is still on my lips. And yet I feel at liberty to make extracts from the hundreds of letters in my possession. There was never a more enthusiastic horseman than Robert Bonner, and his heart was adamant when you sought to persuade him to deviate even a little from the policy which he had mapped out in the beginning. He was not the slave of Dogma, but he kept faith with the Church, while indulging a fancy for speed in light harness. He...