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WINNING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. "Do you remember the fast sprinter I had named Chinaman:" asked the California racing veteran George Van Gordeti of one of his old-time friends. "Yes, very well," replied the friend. "Well, the most exciting time of my life was over a match race I had on with this horse," said Mr. Van Gorden. "I matched Chinaman against a mare belonging to a lot of Mexicans for ,500 a side. A thousand dollars was up on each side, and the remaining 00 was to be put 1111 in the stakeholders hands the day of the race. Each side picked a judg" and the two judges picked a third — an utter stranger. The Mexicans seemed to be holding oft* to the last minute, but that was only t blind. They put up all right. Two separate tracks had ! een built for the horses to run over — the old-time style, side by side — and the race was to be run on the top-and-bottom plan. The Greasers bad dug four or five holes in Chinamans track the night before, tilled them with water and put grass over the top, so that it looked all right. The mare got away about a foot in advance of my horse, which ran past her in a twinkling, but stumbled in one of the hales and dropped back. Hed get up to the mare again and make another stumble. Finally they got near the finish, and I thought the mare beat Chinaman about hall a neck, but the judges decided they had passed the winning post on even terms, and as the mare of the Mexicans bad gotten away a foot in front, I was given the race. Immediately guns and knives were drawn, and it looked bad for us Americans, for we were greatly outnumbered. "I shall never forget how a big Texan got up and shouted that he wasnt afraid of all the Mexicans they could pack in the valley, and his brave air seemed to scare the backers of the mare ami all their friends, for they put up their cannons ami toothpicks, and bloodshed was averted. Chinaman, given a fair deal, would have beaten the marc witii ease — in fact, lie was the fastest horse at sariBtlHS on the coast in those days. That third judge, the stranger, was certainly a trump, and, strange to say, I have never learned his name nor caught sight ofbim since."
