People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1894 — A Close Finish. [ARTICLE]

A Close Finish.

There is an amusing story told of the early days of Longfellow’s career as a sire that E. Watson Taylor tells, and the young horseowner and handicapper declares that the tale was told to him by one of the “old timers” of Kentucky. “You know Longfellow was not regarded as much of a success as a sire at first,” says Taylor, “and many cage rail-birds and paddock philosophers declared that the horse would prove a failure, as none of his sons or daughters won stakes in their two and three year old forms. Now, John Harper was just superstitious enough to be alarmed over some of these stories, and he determined that one of Longfellow’s get should be a stake winner at a.ay cost. To accomplish the result Mr. Harper arranged a stake called the LongfeHow stakes, in which none but three-year-old Longfellows were eligible. It was an ordinary race, but the finish was quite close. Gen. Abe Buford, who was one of the spectators, drew a full breath and exclaimed: ‘By, gad, sah, them Longfellows cahn’t beat each othaw, sah.’" —Detroit Free Press.