order to give them all an equal chance of becoming the
owner of the famous steed. There were ten chances at thirty dollars each,
and they were all quickly taken.

Old Brigham was won by a gentleman--Mr. Ike Bonham,--who took him to
Wyandotte, Kansas, where he soon added new laurels to his already
brilliant record. Although I am getting ahead of my story, I must now
follow Brigham for a while. A grand tournament came off four miles from
Wyandotte, and Brigham took part in it. As has already been stated, his
appearance was not very prepossessing, and nobody suspected him of being
anything but the most ordinary kind of a plug. The friends of the rider
laughed at him for being mounted on such a dizzy-looking steed. When the
exercises--which were of a very tame character, being more for style than
speed--were over, and just as the crowd were about to return to the city,
a purse of $250 was made up, to be given to the horse that could first
reach Wyandotte, four miles distant. The arrangement was carried out, and
Brigham was entered as one of the contestants for the purse. Everybody
laughed at Mr. Bonham when it became known that he was to ride that
poky-looking plug against the five thoroughbreds which were to take part
in the race.

When all the preliminaries had been arranged, the signal was given, and
off went the horses for Wyandotte. For the first half-mile several of
the horses led Brigham, but on the second mile he began passing them one
after the other, and on the third mile he was in advance of them all, and
was showing them all the road at a lively rate. On the fourth mile his
rider let him out, and arrived at the hotel--the home-station--in
Wyandotte a long way ahead of his fastest competitor.

Everybody was surprised, as well as disgusted, that such a homely
"critter" should be the winner. Brigham, of course, had already acquired
a wide reputation, and his name and exploits had often appeared in the
newspapers, and when it was learned that this "critter" was none other
than the identical buffalo-hunting Brigham, nearly the whole crowd
admitted that they had heard of him before, and had they known him in the
first place they certainly would have ruled him out.

I finally lost track of Brigham, and for several years I did not know
what had become of him. Three years ago, while I was at Memphis,
Tennessee, I met a Mr. Wilcox, who had been one of the superintendents of
construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad,