The training of Walter Direct has been in keeping with Mr. Geers’ theory that colts should be trained early but not hard. From the May night when he was foaled in a terrific thunderstorm, so fierce that Old Wash, who acted as his midwife, was scarcely able to keep him from drowning, until to-day, he has had the best of attention. His dam was fed grain during the nursing period, and Walter soon learned to eat it with her. He was broken to halter as a weanling, and the next spring, Negley, the colored caretaker, broke him to harness, with occasional jogs. The fall after he was a two-year-old he was sent to Memphis to Geers and given his first real lessons, and so trained each winter, with joggings in the summer by Negley at Columbia. Mr. Geers’ rule is to keep them feeling good with a brush now and then for speed. He has a horror of overworking colts. Indeed, his stable is never asked to go the fast heats that many other owners delight in before being shipped to the races. He saves their speed and vital force for the time when it is needed most. In the spring when Walter was a three-year-old he was asked to go a fast mile in 2:14, and was sent to Columbia to be jogged and turned out. The next spring he paced his mile in 2:08-3/4, when he was sent back home again. On September 15, 1904 he was sent again to Mr. Geers and to fame. * * * * * LORD ULLIN’S DAUGHTER. (Revised by Trotwood and brought up to date.) A chieftain to the Highland bound Would steal Lord Ullin’s daughter; He bought a new machine in town-- A thing he hadn’t auto. He sought the castle by the sea And stopped behind the kitchen; “This beats a pony bad,” said he, “Because it don’t need hitchin’.” He got the girl and started out By pullin’ of a lever, And then that auto turned about-- It was a gay deceiver. It snorted, backed, went round and round, Broke belly-band and breechin’, Reared up and kicked--then, with a bound, It started through the kitchen. In there was Ullin fast asleep, His stomach full of mutton; That auto knocked him in a heap It broke his only button. “O, haste, thee--haste!” the Lady cries, “Tho’ steams around me gather, I’ll meet the ragings of the skies But not a naked Father.” “Aha--farewell--and now we’ll go,” Said Laddy, smiling grimly; He tried to head her for the door-- She started for the chimney. “Come back--come back!” old Ullin cries, “Not up there--that’s my larder; You’ll ruin my meat and pies-- Come back an’ take my darter.” By this the thing grew loud of pace, Its waterworks were shrieking; It started for the old staircase, While Ullin was a-speaking. It met Mrs. Ullin coming down-- She’d tucked the kids to cover; She wore her night-cap and her gown-- She never wore another!