ear by the
Chamber. A former officer of the Haras has also set up an establishment
at Vire for the training of trotters. In 1878 a track was laid out at
Maison Lafitte, near Paris, for the trial of trotting-horses, and the
government, in the hope that animals trained to this gait would be sent
to Paris from other countries during the great Exhibition if sufficient
inducement were offered, awarded a sum of sixty-two thousand francs to
be given in premiums. Six races took place on the principal day of the
trials. These were in harness to two- and four-wheeled wagons, and two
of the matches were won by Normans, two by English horses and two by
horses from Russia of the Orloff breed. America was, unfortunately, not
represented. As to the public, it took little interest in the event,
notwithstanding its novelty: the few persons who had come to look on
soon grew tired of it, and after the fourth race not a single spectator
was left upon the stands.

The marquis de MacMahon, brother of the marshal, used to say that the
gallop was the gait of happy people, the natural movement of women and
of fools. "The three prettiest things in the world," wrote Balzac, "are
a frigate under sail, a woman dancing and a horse at full run." I leave
these opinions, so essentially French, to the judgment of Americans, and
turn to another point of difference in the racing customs of the two
countries.

In France the practice of recording the _time_ of a race is looked upon
as childish. The reason given is, that horses that have run or trotted
separately against time will often show quite contrary results when
matched against each other, and that the one that has made the shortest
time on the separate trial will frequently be easily beaten on the same
track by the one that showed less speed when tried alone. However this
may be, it appears that the average speed of running races in France has
increased since 1872. At that time it was one minute and two to three
seconds for one thousand metres (five furlongs); for two thousand
metres (a mile and a quarter), 2m. 8 to 10s.; for three thousand metres
(one mile seven furlongs), 3m. 34 to 35s.; for four thousand metres (two
miles and a half), 4m. 30 to 35s. The distance of the Prix Gladiateur
(six thousand two hundred metres or three and three-quarter miles one
furlong)--the longest in France--is generally accomplished in 8m. 5 to
6s., though Mon Etoile has done it in 7m. 25s. But the mean speed, as we