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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #62972 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62972)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Horse of America in his Derivation,
-History, and Development, by John H. Wallace
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Horse of America in his Derivation, History, and Development
-
-Author: John H. Wallace
-
-Release Date: August 18, 2020 [EBook #62972]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HORSE OF AMERICA ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
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-
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-
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-
-[Illustration: JOHN H. WALLACE.]
-
-
-
-
-                                   THE
-                            HORSE OF AMERICA
-                                 IN HIS
-                  DERIVATION, HISTORY, AND DEVELOPMENT.
-
-    TRACING HIS ANCESTORS, BY THE AID OF MUCH NEWLY DISCOVERED DATA,
-              THROUGH ALL THE AGES FROM THE FIRST DAWNINGS
-                     OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY.
-
-    INCLUDING THE HORSES OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD, HITHERTO UNEXPLORED,
-          GIVING THEIR HISTORY, SIZE, GAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS
-                    IN EACH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
-
-     SHOWING HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED, TOGETHER WITH A HISTORY
-               OF THE PUBLICATIONS THROUGH WHICH THE BREED
-                      OF TROTTERS WAS ESTABLISHED.
-
-                     _WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS._
-
-                                   BY
-                            JOHN H. WALLACE,
-     _Founder of “Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” “Wallace’s
-                 Monthly,” “Wallace’s Year Book,” etc._
-
-                                NEW YORK:
-                        PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
-                                  1897.
-
-                Entered according to act of Congress, by
-                            JOHN H. WALLACE,
-                 in the year 1897, at Washington, D. C.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-The study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history, sacred and
-profane, and tracing him from his original home through his migrations
-until all the peoples of the globe had received their initial supply, may
-not be a new idea, but it is certainly a new undertaking. Horse Books
-without number have been written, mostly in the century just closing,
-but in the history of the horse they are all alike—merely reproductions
-of what had been printed before. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore,
-this volume is the first attempt, in any language, to determine the
-original habitat of the horse and to trace him, historically, in his
-distribution.
-
-The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse into Egypt,
-and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as the plebeian blood
-from which the English race horse has derived his great speed, will be a
-shock to the nerves of the romanticists of the old world as well as the
-new. Taking the facts of history and well-known experiences together,
-my readers can determine for themselves whether the claims for the
-superiority of Arabian blood is not pure fiction. For my own part I
-cannot recognize any blood in all horsedom as “royal blood” except that
-which is found in the veins of the horse that “has gone out and done it,”
-either himself or in his progeny.
-
-In our own country there has always remained a blank in horse history
-that nobody has attempted to supply. This blank embraced a century of
-racing of which we of the present generation have been entirely ignorant.
-Believing that a correct knowledge of the horse of the Colonial period,
-in his size, gait, qualities and capacities was absolutely essential to
-an intelligent comprehension of the phenomena presented on our trotting
-and running courses of the present day, I have not hesitated to bestow
-on this new feature of the work great labor and research. In this I have
-felt a special satisfaction in the fact that while the field is old in
-dates, this is the first time it has ever been traversed and considered.
-
-In the chapters which follow, many historical questions are treated at
-such length as their relative importance seems to demand, embracing
-the different families that have contributed to the building up of the
-breed of trotters; and the question of how the trotting horse is bred is
-carefully considered in the light of all past experiences and brought
-down to the close of 1896. These chapters will not surprise the old
-readers of the _Wallace’s Monthly_, for they will here meet with many
-thoughts that will not be new to them, but they will find them more
-fully elaborated, in more orderly form, and brought down to the latest
-experiences.
-
-It is not the purpose of this book to furnish statistical tables covering
-the great mass of trotting experiences, nor to consider the mysteries of
-the trainer’s art that have been so ably discussed by experienced and
-skillful men. But the real and only purpose is to place upon record the
-results of years devoted to historical research, at home and abroad; to
-dispel the illusions and humbugs that have clustered about the horse
-for many centuries; and to consider with some minuteness, which of
-necessity cannot be impersonal, the great industrial revolution that
-has been wrought in horse-breeding, and all growing out of a little
-unpretentious treatise written twenty-five years ago, which contained
-nothing more striking than a little bit of science and a little bit of
-sense intelligently commingled. The battle between the principles of
-this treatise and selfish prejudices and mental sterility, was long and
-bitter, but the truth prevailed, and in the production of the Driving
-Horse the teachings of that little paper have placed our country first
-among all the nations of the earth.
-
-                                                         JOHN H. WALLACE.
-
-NEW YORK: 40 WEST 93D STREET.
-
-_September 1, 1897_
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-                                                                      PAGES
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-
-                              INTRODUCTION.
-
-    General View of the Field Traversed                               1-23
-
-                               CHAPTER II.
-
-                     ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE.
-
-    No indications that the horse was originally wild—The steppes
-    of High Asia and Arabia not tenable as his original home—Color
-    not sufficient evidence —Impossibility of horses existing in
-    Arabia in a wild state—No horses in Arabia until 356 A.D.—Large
-    forces of Armenian, Median and Cappadocian cavalry employed
-    more than one thousand seven hundred years B.C.—A breed of
-    white race horses—Special adaptability of the Armenian country
-    to the horse—Armenia a horse-exporting country before the
-    Prophet Ezekiel—Devotion of the Armenian people to agricultural
-    and pastoral pursuits through a period of four thousand
-    years—All the evidences point to ancient Armenia as the center
-    from which the horse was distributed                             24-35
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
-                      EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES.
-
-    First evidences of horses in Egypt about 1700 B.C.—Supported
-    by Egyptian records and history—The Patriarch Job had no
-    horses—Solomon’s great cavalry force organized—Arabia as
-    described by Strabo at the beginning of our era—No horses
-    then in Arabia—Constantius sends two hundred Cappadocian
-    horses into Arabia A.D. 356—Arabia the last country to be
-    supplied with horses—The ancient Phœnician merchants and their
-    colonies—Hannibal’s cavalry forces in the Punic Wars—Distant
-    ramifications of Phœnician trade and colonization—Commerce
-    reached as far as Britain and the Baltic—Probable source of
-    Britain’s earliest horses                                        36-50
-
-                               CHAPTER IV.
-
-                           THE ARABIAN HORSE.
-
-    The Arabian, the horse of romance—The horse naturally
-    foreign to Arabia —Superiority of the camel for all Arabian
-    needs—Scarcity of horses in Arabia in Mohammed’s time—Various
-    preposterous traditions of Arab horsemanship—The Prophet’s
-    mythical mares—Mohammed not in any sense a horseman—Early
-    English Arabians—the Markham Arabian—The alleged Royal
-    Mares—The Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—The Prince
-    of Wales’ Arabian race horses—Mr. Blunt’s pilgrimage to the
-    Euphrates—His purchases of so-called Arabians—Deyr as a great
-    horse market where everything is thoroughbred—Failure of Mr.
-    Blunt’s experiments—Various Arabian horses brought to America
-    —Horses sent to our Presidents—Disastrous experiments of A.
-    Keene Richards—Tendency of Arab romancing from Ben Hur           51-66
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
-                         THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE.
-
-    The real origin of the English race horse in confusion—Full
-    list of the “foundation stock” as given by Mr. Weatherby one
-    hundred years ago—The list complete and embraces all of any
-    note—Admiral Rous’ extravaganza—Godolphin Arabian’s origin
-    wholly unknown—His history—Successful search for his true
-    portrait—Stubbs’ picture a caricature—The true portrait alone
-    supplies all that is known of his origin and blood               67-78
-
-                               CHAPTER VI.
-
-                  THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (_Continued_).
-
-    England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred
-    for different purposes—Markham on the speed of early native
-    horses—Duke of Newcastle on Arabians—His choice of blood to
-    propagate—Size of early English horses—Difficulties about
-    pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Early
-    accumulations very trashy—The Galloways and Irish
-    Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The pacers
-    wiped out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book              79-89
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-
-                        THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE.
-
-    Antiquity of American racing—First race course at Hempstead
-    Plain, 1665—Racing in Virginia, 1677—Conditions of early
-    races—Early so-called Arabian importations—The marvelous
-    tradition of Lindsay’s “Arabian”—English race horses first
-    imported about 1750—The old colonial stock as a basis—First
-    American turf literature—Skinner’s _American Turf Register and
-    Sporting Magazine_, 1829—Cadwallader R. Colden’s _Sporting
-    Magazine_, short-lived but valuable—The original _Spirit of
-    the Times—Porter’s Spirit of the Times—Wilkes’ Spirit of the
-    Times_, 1859—Edgar’s Stud Book—Wallace’s Stud Book—Bruce’s
-    Stud Book—Their history, methods and value—Summing up results,
-    showing that success has followed breeding to individuals and
-    families that could run and not to individuals and families
-    that could not run, whatever their blood                        90-107
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII.
-
-                    COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—VIRGINIA.
-
-    Hardships of the colonists—First importations of horses—Racing
-    prevalent in the seventeenth century—Exportations and then
-    importations prohibited—Organized horse racing commenced 1677
-    and became very general—In 1704 there were many wild horses
-    in Virginia and they were hunted as game—The Chincoteague
-    ponies accounted for—Jones on life in Virginia, 1720—Fast
-    early pacers, Galloways and Irish Hobbies—English race horses
-    imported—Moreton’s Traveler probably the first—Quarter racing
-    prevailed on the Carolina border—Average size and habits of
-    action clearly established—The native pacer thrown in the
-    shade by the imported runner—An Englishman’s prejudices        108-119
-
-                               CHAPTER IX.
-
-                    COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.
-
-    Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of
-    Dutch and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size
-    of horses—Horses to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands
-    not to run at large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English,
-    1664—First organized racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement
-    in speed—First advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction,
-    contestants must “be bred in America”—Great racing and heavy
-    betting—First importations of English running horses—Half-breds
-    to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half-bushel
-    of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress
-    against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and
-    trotting contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost  120-127
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-
-                   COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW ENGLAND.
-
-    First importations to Boston and to Salem—Importations
-    from Holland brought high prices—They were not pacers and
-    not over fourteen hands—In 1640 horses were exported to
-    the West Indies—First American newspaper and first horse
-    advertisement—Average sizes—The different gaits—CONNECTICUT,
-    first plantation, 1636—Post horses provided for by law—All
-    horses branded—Sizes and Gaits—An Englishman’s experience
-    with pacers—Lindsay’s Arabian—RHODE ISLAND, Founded by Roger
-    Williams, 1636—No direct importations ever made—Horses largely
-    exported to other colonies 1690—Possibly some to Canada—Pacing
-    races a common amusement—Prohibited, 1749—Size of the
-    Narragansetts compared with the Virginians                     128-134
-
-                               CHAPTER XI.
-
-       COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, MARYLAND,
-                                CAROLINA.
-
-    Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s
-    newspaper—Conestoga horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish
-    origin—Acrelius’ statement—NEW JERSEY—Branding—Increase of
-    size—Racing, Pacing and Trotting restricted—Maryland—Racing and
-    Pacing restricted 1747—Stallions of under size to be shot—NORTH
-    CAROLINA—First settler refugees—SOUTH CAROLINA—Size and gait in
-    1744—Challenges—No running blood in the colony, 1744—General
-    view                                                           135-141
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-
-                       EARLY HORSE HISTORY—CANADA.
-
-    Settlement and capture of Port Royal—Early plantations—First
-    French horses brought over 1665—Possibly illicit trading—Sire
-    of “Old Tippoo”—His history—“Scape Goat” and his
-    descendants—Horses of the Maritime Provinces                   142-153
-
-                              CHAPTER XIII.
-
-               ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE.
-
-    The mechanism of the different gaits—The Elgin Marbles—Britain
-    becomes a Roman province—Pacers in the time of the
-    Romans—Bronze horses of Venice—Fitz Stephen, the Monk of
-    Canterbury—Evidence of the Great Seals—What Blundeville
-    says—What Gervaise Markham says—What the Duke of Newcastle
-    says—The amble and the pace one and the same—At the close of
-    Elizabeth’s reign—The Galloways and Hobbies—Extinction of the
-    pacer—The original pacer probably from the North—Polydore
-    Virgil’s evidence—Samuel Purchas’ evidence—The process
-    of wiping out the pacer—King James set the fashion—All
-    foreign horses called “Arabians”—The foreigners larger and
-    handsomer—Good roads and wheeled vehicles dispensed with the
-    pacer—Result of prompting Mr. Euren—Mr. Youatt’s blunder—Other
-    English gentlemen not convinced there ever were any pacers     154-171
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-
-      THE AMERICAN PACER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE AMERICAN TROTTER.
-
-    Regulations against stallions at large—American pacers taken
-    to the West Indies—Narragansett pacers; many foolish and
-    groundless theories about their origin—Dr. McSparran on the
-    speed of the pacer—Mr. Updike’s testimony—Mr. Hazard and
-    Mr. Enoch Lewis—Exchanging meetings with Virginia—Watson’s
-    Annals—Matlack and Acrelius—Rip Van Dam’s horse—Cooper’s
-    evidence—Cause of disappearance—Banished to the frontier—First
-    intimation that the pace and the trot were essentially one
-    gait—How it was received—Analysis of the two gaits—Pelham,
-    Highland Maid, Jay-Eye-See, Blue Bull—The pacer forces
-    himself into publicity—Higher rate of speed—Pacing races
-    very early—Quietly and easily developed—Comes to his speed
-    quickly—His present eminence not permanent—The gamblers
-    carried him there—Will he return to his former obscurity?      172-189
-
-                               CHAPTER XV.
-
-                       THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE.
-
-    The saddle gaits come only from the pacer—Saddle gaits
-    cultivated three hundred years ago—Markham on the saddle
-    gaits—The military seat the best—The unity of the pace and
-    trot—Gaits analyzed—Saddle Horse Register—Saddle horse
-    progenitors—Denmark not a thoroughbred horse                   190-195
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI.
-
-                       THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA.
-
-    The romances of fifty years ago—Was the horse indigenous
-    to this country?—The theories of the paleontologists not
-    satisfactory—Pedigrees of over two millions of years too
-    long—Outlines of horses on prehistoric ruins, evidently
-    modern—The linguistic test among the oldest tribes of Indians
-    fails to discover any word for “Horse”—The horses abandoned
-    west of the Mississippi by the followers of De Soto about 1541
-    were the progenitors of the wild horses of the plains          196-204
-
-                              CHAPTER XVII.
-
-                      MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.
-
-    Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of
-    pedigrees in English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable
-    sources—Messenger’s right male line examined—Flying Childers’
-    “mile in a minute”—Blaze short of being thoroughbred—Sampson,
-    a good race horse—His size; short in his breeding—Engineer
-    short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at least two pacing
-    crosses; distinguished as a progenitor of coach horses and fast
-    trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified—Among
-    all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one
-    that founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by eminent
-    writers in attempting to find others                           205-221
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-                          HISTORY OF MESSENGER.
-
-    Messenger’s racing in England—His breeder unknown—Popular
-    uncertainty about the circumstances and date of
-    his importation—The matter settled by his first
-    advertisement—Uncertainty as to his importer—Description of
-    Messenger by David W. Jones, of Long Island—Careful consensus
-    of descriptions by many who had seen Messenger—His great and
-    lasting popularity as a stock horse—Places and prices of his
-    services for twenty years—Death and burial                     222-231
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX.
-
-                            MESSENGER’S SONS.
-
-    Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader
-    R. Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville,
-    N. Y.—Some of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse
-    in appearance—Failure as a runner—Good natural trotter—His
-    most famous sons were Abdallah, Almack, and Mambrino
-    Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his pedigree and
-    history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly
-    a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree
-    and description—Noted as the sire of coach horses and
-    trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam
-    thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga,
-    Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander,
-    Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury, Hotspur,
-    Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of the name
-    “Messenger.”                                                   232-254
-
-                               CHAPTER XX.
-
-                        MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.
-
-    History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam,
-    Amazonia—Speculations as to her blood—Description of
-    Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion line—Mambrino
-    Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino
-    Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’
-    Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam  255-266
-
-                              CHAPTER XXI.
-
-                      HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.
-
-    The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s
-    description, and comments thereupon—An analysis of
-    Hambletonian, structurally considered—His carriage and
-    action—As a three-year-old trotter—Details of his stud
-    service—Statistics of the Hambletonian family—History and
-    ancestry of his dam, the Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson,
-    Green’s Bashaw, and his dam                                    267-283
-
-                              CHAPTER XXII.
-
-                   HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS AND GRANDSONS.
-
-    Different opinions as to relative merits of
-    Hambletonian’s greater sons—George Wilkes, his history
-    and pedigree—His performing descendants—History and
-    description of Electioneer—His family—Alexander’s
-    Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and
-    Belmont—Dictator—Harold—Happy Medium and his dam—Jay
-    Gould—Strathmore—Egbert—Aberdeen—Masterlode—Sweepstakes—Governor
-    Sprague, grandson of Hambletonian                              284-314
-
-                             CHAPTER XXIII.
-
-                     MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY.
-
-    Description and history of Mambrino Chief—The pioneer trotting
-    stallion of Kentucky—Matched against Pilot Jr.—His best
-    sons—Mambrino Patchen, his opportunities and family—Woodford
-    Mambrino, a notable trotter and sire—Princeps—Mambrino
-    Pilot—Clark Chief—Fisk’s Mambrino Chief Jr.—Ericsson           315-320
-
-                              CHAPTER XXIV.
-
-                         THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.
-
-    The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior
-    individual —His greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter
-    and pacer—His history—His noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island
-    Black Hawk—Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius
-    M. Clay—The various horses named Cassius M. Clay—George M.
-    Patchen—His great turf career—George M. Patchen Jr.—Harry
-    Clay—The Moor, and his son Sultan’s family                     321-337
-
-                              CHAPTER XXV.
-
-          AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.
-
-    Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding
-    really unknown—A trotter of some merit—His stud career—His
-    daughters noted brood mares—Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing
-    Pilot—History and probable origin—Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training
-    and races—Prepotency—Family statistics summarized—Grinnell’s
-    Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing
-    descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse
-    Horse—Swigert and Blackwood                                    338-351
-
-                              CHAPTER XXVI.
-
-                 THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.
-
-    Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His
-    family rank—The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom
-    Rolfe—Young Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal Family—The various
-    Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin
-    Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas        352-365
-
-                             CHAPTER XXVII.
-
-                    THE BLACK HAWK, OR MORGAN FAMILY.
-
-    Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original
-    Morgan—The fabled pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin
-    Morgan’s breeding hopelessly unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black
-    Hawk—His disputed paternity—His dam called a Narragansett—Ethan
-    Allen—His great beauty, speed, and popularity—The Flying Morgan
-    claim baseless—His dam of unknown blood—His great race with
-    Dexter—Daniel Lambert, the only successful sire of the Black
-    Hawk line                                                      366-389
-
-                             CHAPTER XXVIII.
-
-        THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.
-
-    Orloffs, the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis
-    Orloff, founder of the breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff
-    began breeding in 1770—Smetanka, Polkan, and Polkan’s son,
-    Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire—The Russian
-    pacers—Their great speed—Imported Bellfounder—His history
-    and characteristics—Got little speed—His descendants—The
-    English Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The old Norfolk
-    trotters—Hackney experiments in America—Superiority of the
-    trotting-bred horse demonstrated in show ring contests         390-408
-
-                              CHAPTER XXIX.
-
-                  INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.
-
-    Tendency to misrepresentation—The Bald Galloway and
-    Darley Arabian—Godolphin Arabian—Early experiences with
-    trotting pedigrees—Mr. Backman’s honest methods—Shanghai
-    Mary—Capt. Rynders and Widow Machree—Woodburn Farm and
-    its pedigree methods—Victimized by “horse sharps” and
-    pedigree makers—Alleged pedigree of Pilot Jr. conclusively
-    overthrown—Pedigrees of Edwin Forrest, Norman, Bay Chief and
-    Black Rose—Maud S. pedigree exhaustively considered—Captain
-    John W. Russell never owned the mare Maria Russell—The deadly
-    parallel columns settle it                                     409-431
-
-                              CHAPTER XXX.
-
-           INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES (_Continued_).
-
-    How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree
-    making in that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas
-    Jefferson—True origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts
-    about the old-time gelding Prince—The truth about Waxy, the
-    grandam of Sunol—Remarkable attempts to make a pedigree out
-    of nothing—How “Jim” Eoff worked a “tenderfoot”—Pedigree of
-    American Eclipse—Pedigree of Boston—Tom Bowling and Aaron
-    Pennington—Chenery’s Grey Eagle—Pedigree of George Wilkes in
-    doubt                                                          432-455
-
-                              CHAPTER XXXI.
-
-                     HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED.
-
-    Early trotting and pacing races—Strains of blood in the
-    first known trotters—The lesson of Maud S.—The genesis of
-    trotting horse literature—The simple study of inheritance—The
-    different forms of heredity—The famous quagga story not
-    sustained—Illustrations in dogs—Heredity of acquired
-    characters and instincts—Development of successive generations
-    necessary—Unequaled collections of statistics—Acquired injuries
-    and unsoundness transmitted                                    456-479
-
-                             CHAPTER XXXII.
-
-              HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (_Continued_).
-
-    Trotting speed first supposed to be an accident—Then, that it
-    came from the runner—William Wheelan’s views—Test of powers of
-    endurance—The term “thoroughbred” much abused—Definition of
-    “thoroughbred”—How trotters may be made “thoroughly bred”—How
-    to study pedigrees—Reward offered for the production of a
-    thoroughbred horse that was a natural pacer—The trotter
-    more lasting than the runner—The dam of Palo Alto—Arion as
-    a two-year-old—Only three stallions have been able to get
-    trotters from running-bred mares—“Structural incongruity”—The
-    pacer and trotter inseparable—How to save the trot and reduce
-    the ratio of pacers—Development a necessity—Table proving this
-    proposition—The “tin cup” policy a failure—Woodburn at the
-    wrong end of the procession                                    480-507
-
-                             CHAPTER XXXIII.
-
-              HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (_Continued_).
-
-    Breeding the trotter intelligently an industry of modern
-    development—Plethora of turf papers, and their timidity of
-    the truth—The accepted theories, old and new—Failure of
-    the “thoroughbred blood in the trotter” idea—“Thoroughbred
-    foundations,” and the Register—“Like begets like,” the great
-    central truth—Long-continued efforts to breed trotters from
-    runners—New York the original source of supply of trotting
-    blood to all the States—Kentucky’s beginning in breeding
-    trotters—R. A. Alexander, and the founding of Woodburn—The
-    “infallibility” of Woodburn pedigrees—Refusal to enter
-    fictitious crosses in the Register and the results—The
-    genesis and history of the standard—Its objects, effects, and
-    influence—Establishing the breed of trotters—The Kentucky
-    or “Pinafore” standard—Its purposes analyzed—The “Breeders’
-    Trotting Stud Book” and how it was compiled—Failure and
-    collapse of the Kentucky project—Another unsuccessful attempt
-    to capture the Register—How honest administration of the
-    Register made enemies—The National Breeders’ Association
-    and the Chicago Convention—Detailed history of the sale and
-    transfer of the Register, the events that led up to it, and the
-    results—Personal satisfaction and benefits from the transfer,
-    and the years of rest and congenial study in preparing this
-    book—The end                                                   508-546
-
-                                APPENDIX.
-
-                  HISTORY OF THE WALLACE PUBLICATIONS.
-
-                      _By a Friend of the Author._
-
-    Mr. Wallace’s early life and education—Removal to Iowa,
-    1845—Secretary Iowa State Board of Agriculture—Begins work,
-    1856, on “Wallace’s American Stud Book,” published 1867—Method
-    of gathering pedigrees—Trotting Supplement—Abandons Stud
-    Book, 1870, and devotes exclusive attention to trotting
-    literature—“American Trotting Register,” Vol. I., published in
-    1871—Vol. II. follows in 1874—The valuable essay on breeding
-    the forerunner of present ideas—Standard adopted 1879—Its
-    history—Battles for control of the “Register”—_Wallace’s
-    Monthly_ founded 1875—Its character, purposes, history,
-    writers, and artists—“Wallace’s Year Book” founded 1885—Great
-    popularity and value—Transfer of the Wallace publications, and
-    their degeneration                                             547-559
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-  PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR                                    _Frontispiece._
-
-  MAP OF ARMENIA, CAPPADOCIA, SYRIA, ETC.                _To face page_ 24
-
-  MAP OF PHŒNICIAN COLONIES AND THE MEDITERRANEAN            ”    ”     36
-
-  GODOLPHIN ARABIAN, TRUE PORTRAIT }
-                                   }      In one view        ”    ”     67
-  GODOLPHIN ARABIAN, DISTORTED     }
-
-  STAR POINTER, THE CHAMPION PACER (1:59¼)                   ”    ”    155
-
-  JOHN R. GENTRY, PACER (2:00½)                              ”    ”    173
-
-  ALIX, THE PRESENT CHAMPION TROTTER (2:03¼)                 ”    ”    255
-
-  HAMBLETONIAN (RYSDYK’S)                                    ”    ”    267
-
-  GEORGE WILKES, SON OF HAMBLETONIAN                         ”    ”    284
-
-  ELECTIONEER, SON OF HAMBLETONIAN                           ”    ”    289
-
-  ABDALLAH (ALEXANDER’S), SON OF HAMBLETONIAN                ”    ”    294
-
-  NANCY HANKS, BY HAPPY MEDIUM  (2:04)                       ”    ”    306
-
-  ETHAN ALLEN, BY VERMONT BLACK HAWK                         ”    ”    381
-
-NOTE.—Nine of the above engravings have been reproduced, by permission,
-from the Portfolio issued by _The Horse Review_.
-
-
-
-
-THE HORSE OF AMERICA.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-INTRODUCTION.
-
-    General View of the Field Traversed.
-
-
-In undertaking to fulfill a promise made years ago, to write a history
-of the American Trotting Horse and his ancestors, I am met with the
-inquiry: What were his ancestors and whence did they come? To say that
-the American Trotter, the phenomenal horse of this century, is descended
-from a certain horse imported from England in 1788, does not fully meet
-the requirements of the truth, for there are other and very distinctive
-elements embodied in his inheritance that are not indebted to that
-particular imported horse. In searching for these undefined elements,
-I have found myself in the fields of antiquity, reaching out step by
-step, further and further, until the utmost boundaries of all history,
-sacred and profane, were clearly in view. There I found a field that
-was especially attractive because it was a new field, and the relations
-of the peoples of the earliest ages to their horses had never been
-investigated nor discussed. Having no engagements nor necessities to
-hurry me, the careful exploration of this hitherto unknown territory has
-afforded me very great enjoyment.
-
-As the result of these investigations, the breadth and scope of this
-volume will be greatly widened, touching upon the originals of most of
-the lighter types of horses, and many of the idols of the imagination
-will be demolished. The objective point is the history of the Trotting
-Horse, but before reaching that point we must consider the beginnings
-of, practically, nearly all the varieties of horses in the world. The
-assistance that I may be able to gain from modern writers will be very
-limited, and restricted Haicus, the great grandson of Japheth, became
-the ruler of his people. Descending from him, in the direct male line,
-there were five or six long reigns before the dynasty was overthrown by
-the Assyrians. They were largely an agricultural people, and the ancient
-historians have told us they were famous for the great numbers and fine
-quality of the horses they produced. The market for their horses, the
-prophet Ezekiel tells us, was in the great commercial city of Tyre,
-whence they were carried “in the ships of Tarshish” by the Phœnician
-merchants to all portions of the known world. Having here reached back to
-the Noachic period and country, with all that this implies, I will leave
-the problem, with the more extended consideration that will be given it
-in the chapter on the general distribution of horses in all parts of the
-commercial world.
-
-Horsemen of average intelligence and writers on the horse, oftentimes
-much below average intelligence in horse matters, all seem to unite on
-the Arabian horse as their fetish, when in fact they know nothing about
-him. The songs of the poets and the stories of the novelists have taken
-the place, in the minds of the people of all nations, of solid history
-and sober experience. When a story writer wishes to depict an athletic
-and daring hero, he never fails to mount him upon an “Arab steed,” when
-some blood-curdling adventures are to be disclosed. When Admiral Rous,
-the great racing authority in England, announced some years ago, that
-the English race horse was purely descended from the horses of Arabia
-Deserta, without one drop of plebeian blood, all England believed him,
-and this rash and groundless dictum has served all writers as conclusive
-evidence ever since. Now, it is not probable that more than two or at
-most three per cent. of the blood of the English race horse as he stands
-to-day is Arabian blood. The greatness and value of the Arabian horse is
-purely mythical. He has been tested hundreds of times, both on the course
-and in the stud, and in every single instance he has proved a failure.
-This is what all history and experience teach. There are but few horses
-bred in Arabia and there are, comparatively, but few there now. From
-the time of their first introduction into Yemen—Arabia Felix—up to the
-time of Mohammed, about two hundred and seventy years, they were still
-very scarce. Mohammed was not a horseman nor a horse breeder, nor is it
-known that he ever mounted a horse but once, and then he had but two in
-his army. When he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca he rode a camel;
-and when he went the second time in triumph, mounted on a camel, he made
-the requisite number of circuits round the holy place, then dismounted
-and broke the idols that had been set up there. Then came the triumphant
-shout of his followers; “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his
-prophet.” Since then, this cry has rung over a thousand battlefields, and
-as I write it is still heard in the homes of the slaughtered Armenians.
-From a great, warlike, and conquering people, the followers of Mohammed
-have degenerated into an aggregation of robbers and murderers of
-defenseless Christians. Since the days of Mohammed, horses no doubt have
-increased in numbers, but all modern travelers express their surprise at
-the small numbers they see. The horse is an expensive luxury in Arabia,
-and none but the rich can afford to keep him. He fills no economic place
-in the domestic life of the Arab, for he is never used for any purpose
-except display and robbery. Nobody is able to own a horse but the sheiks
-and a few wealthy men. Nobody would think of mounting a horse for a
-journey, be it long or short. The camel fills the place of the horse, the
-cow and a flock of sheep, all in one, and surely the Arabs are right in
-saying, “Job’s beast is a monument of God’s mercy.” It is very evident
-that nearly all the horses said to have been brought from Arabia never
-saw Arabia. As an illustration of the uncertainty of what a man is
-getting when he thinks he is buying an Arabian, in the Orient, I will
-give, in some detail the experiences of Mr. Wilfrid S. Blunt, a wealthy
-Englishman who had an ambition to regenerate the English race horse by
-bringing in fresh infusions of Arabian blood. He went to Arabia to buy
-the best, but he didn’t go _into_ Arabia to find it. He skirted along
-through the border land where agriculture and civilization prevailed,
-while away off to the south the wild tribes roamed over the desert, and
-to the north, not far away, was the land of abundance that had been
-famous for more than three thousand years for the great numbers and
-excellence of the horses bred there. Here on the banks of the Euphrates
-Mr. Blunt found the town of Deyr, and he soon discovered it was a famous
-horse market. The inhabitants were the only people he met with who seemed
-to understand and appreciate the value of pedigrees, and there were no
-horses in the town but “thoroughbreds.” Here Mr. Blunt made nearly all
-his purchases which amounted to eighteen mares and two stallions “at
-reasonable prices.” As will be seen in the extracts from his book, he
-was strikingly solicitous that the friends at home should have no doubt
-about the quality of the stock he purchased being all “thoroughbred.”
-No doubt he realized the awkwardness of the location as not the right
-one in which to secure “thoroughbred” Arabians and hence the vigorous
-indorsement of the honesty of the “slick and experienced” dealers as
-honest men and true descendants of the Bedouins of the desert. In this
-“he doth protest too much” and thus suggests that while the pedigrees
-came from the tribes of the desert to the South, it might be possible
-that the horses came from the farmers who bred them to the North. However
-this may have been, the whole enterprise turned out to be a flat failure,
-and after a number of years spent in begging for popular support, the
-whole collection was dispersed under the hammer of the auctioneer, not
-realizing a tithing of the cost.
-
-While it is not necessary that I should express any opinion as to whether
-Mr. Blunt was deceived in the breeding of the animals which he brought
-home, I will make brief allusion to an American experience which is more
-fully considered elsewhere. Some forty or more years ago Mr. A. Keene
-Richards, a breeder of race horses in Kentucky, became impressed with the
-idea that the way to improve the race horse of America was to introduce
-direct infusions of the blood of Arabia. He did not hesitate, but he
-started to Arabia and brought home some horses and mares and put them to
-breeding. The pure bloods could not run at all and the half-breeds were
-too slow to make the semblance of a contest with Kentucky-bred colts. He
-concluded that he had been cheated by the rascally Arabs in the blood
-they put upon him. He then determined to go back and get the right blood,
-and as a counselor he took with him the famous horse painter, Troye, who
-was thoroughly up on anatomy and structure. They went into the very heart
-of Arabia and spent many weeks among the different tribes of the desert.
-They had greatly the advantage of Mr. Blunt or any other amateur, for
-they were experienced horsemen and knew just what they were doing. When
-they were ready to start home they believed they had found and secured
-the very best horses that Arabia had produced. When the produce of this
-second importation were old enough to run it was found that they were no
-better than the first lot, and thus all the bright dreams of enthusiasm
-were dissipated. Thus was demonstrated for the thousandth time that the
-blood of even the best and purest Arabian horse is a detriment and
-hindrance rather than a benefit to the modern race horse. Mr. Richards,
-with all his practical knowledge and experience, was no more successful
-than the amateur, Mr. Blunt. The blood which Mr. Richards brought
-home was, no doubt, purer and more fashionable, as estimated in the
-desert, than that brought home by Mr. Blunt, but when tested by modern
-advancement it was no better.
-
-A careful study of the chapter on the English Race Horse will present
-to the minds of all my intelligent readers the consideration of several
-points to which they will be slow in yielding assent. These points run
-up squarely against the preconceived opinions and prejudices of two
-centuries, and these preconceived opinions and prejudices are well-nigh
-universal. The first point upon which the public intelligence has gone
-wrong is in the general belief that horse-racing had its origin in the
-seventeenth century, when Charles II. was restored to his throne. The
-truth is we have accounts of racing by contemporaneous historians in the
-twelfth century, and indeed, we might say from the time of the Romans
-in Britain. To go back four centuries, however, is far enough to answer
-our present purpose. After selecting, breeding, and racing four hundred
-years we must conclude that the English had some pretty good race horses.
-This is fully verified by the writers at the close of Queen Elizabeth’s
-reign as well as at the beginning of Charles II.’s. They had native
-English horses that were able to beat all the imported exotics, including
-the Arabian owned by King James. We must, therefore, conclude that the
-race horse was not created by Charles II., but that racing was simply
-revived by him, after the restrictions of Cromwell’s time, and that the
-old English blood was the basis of that revival. The importations of so
-many exotics in his reign were simply so many reinforcements of the old
-English racing blood.
-
-The next point to which exception will be taken is the conclusion reached
-as to the character and influence of the exotics that were introduced in
-the reign of Charles II. These exotics have been designated in a general
-way, by the phrase “foundation stock,” which has been introduced more
-out of deference to the popular understanding than to its legitimate and
-true meaning. For the real “foundation stock” we must look away back
-in the centuries, long before Charles was born. The analysis of the
-data furnished by Mr. Weatherby as “foundation stock” clearly shows
-that the Turks predominated in numbers, but, possibly, the Barbs in
-influence. The Arabian element, in both numbers and influence, seems
-to be practically _nil_, and this is the “gist of my offending.” The
-one great horse—Godolphin Arabian—exerted a greater and more lasting
-influence upon the English race horse than any other of his century and
-probably than all the others of his century, and his blood is wholly
-unknown. Fortunately, a few years ago I was able to unearth his portrait
-and prove it a true portrait, and in that picture we must look for his
-lineage. He was a horse of great substance and strength on short legs,
-with no resemblance whatever to a race horse. About fifty years after his
-death Mr. Stubbs, the artist, who prided himself upon representing the
-character of a horse rather than his shape, came across this picture,
-from which he made an “ideal” copy of what he thought the horse should
-have been, which is a veritable monstrosity. These two pictures will
-appear together in their proper places, where they can be leisurely
-studied, and the honest and the dishonest compared.
-
-The American race horse is the lineal descendent of the English race
-horse, and like his ancestor he is very largely dependent upon the
-“native blood” for his existence as a breed. The first English race horse
-was imported into Virginia about 1750, and he there met a class of saddle
-mares that had been selected, bred, trained, and raced at all distances
-up to four-mile heats, for nearly a hundred years. These mares were
-the real maternal foundation stock upon which the American race horse
-was established, as a breed. The phrase “native blood” is here used as
-applying to the animals and their descendants, that were brought over
-from England at and soon after the plantation of the American colonies.
-Up to the time of the Revolution there were but few racing mares brought
-over—as many as you could count on your fingers—but they must have been
-marvelously prolific, for thirty or forty filly foals each would hardly
-have accommodated all the animals with pedigrees tracing to them. Quite
-a number of our greatest race horses and sires of forty or fifty years
-ago traced to some one of these mares through links that were wholly
-fictitious. Indeed, from the period of the Revolution, and even before
-that, down to our own time, the pernicious and dishonest habit of adding
-fictitious crosses beyond the second or third dam became the rule in the
-old American families, and an animal with a strictly honest pedigree
-was the exception. In spreading abroad these dishonest fictions as true
-pedigrees, the press—perhaps not venally, but ignorantly—was made the
-active agent. Whenever a rogue could get a pedigree into print, however
-absurd, nothing could prevent its spread as the truth. The early sporting
-and breeding press was not in the hands of men remarkable for conscience
-and still less remarkable for knowledge. But the worst of all was the
-“professional pedigree maker” who knew so many things that he never knew,
-and stopped at nothing. In all this dirty work of manufacturing pedigrees
-there is a very striking resemblance between the awkward efforts of the
-early English and the early American pedigree maker. This whole topic
-of the ignorance of the press and the dishonesty of the pedigree makers
-will be considered fully in its proper place. Fortunately, although still
-far from perfect, the methods and care in the preservation of the true
-lineage of the race horse in our own day have been greatly improved. The
-many efforts to improve the American race horse by introducing fresh
-infusions of Saracenic blood will receive due attention, especially as
-they have nearly all been made within the newspaper period, and their
-uniform and complete failure will not be new to American horsemen.
-
-When we reach the horses of the colonial period, we are in a field
-that never has been explored and cannot be expected to yield a very
-rich harvest. Here and there I have been able to pick up a detached
-paragraph from some contemporaneous writer, and occasionally a record,
-or an advertisement, from which, in most cases, I have been able to
-construct a fair and truthful outline and description of the horses of
-the different colonies, down to the Revolutionary war. The collection of
-the material has required great patience and great labor, but it has not
-been an irksome task, for many things have been brought to light of great
-interest to the student of horse history. The knowledge of the colonial
-horse in his character and action, that may be gathered from the chapters
-devoted to his description and history, I flatter myself, will not only
-be interesting as something new, but will throw a strong light on the
-lineage of the two-minute trotter and pacer.
-
-The colonists of Virginia were subjected for a number of years to great
-suffering, privation, and want. They were badly selected and many of them
-were improvident and never trained to habits of industry and thrift.
-There were quite too many “penniless gentlemen’s sons” among them, who
-had been sent out with the hope that the change might improve their
-habits and their morals. They were too proud to work, and when they were
-driven to it by necessity they didn’t know how. After suffering untold
-hardships for a succession of years, those that survived learned to
-adapt themselves to their environment and to make their own way in the
-world. Their first supply of domestic animals were all consumed as food,
-embracing horses, cattle, swine, and goats, and everything had thus been
-consumed except one venerable female swine, as reported by a board of
-examiners. Their second supply of horses, cattle, swine, and goats was
-more carefully guarded, and from them in greater part came the countless
-denizens of the barnyard.
-
-There were several shipments of horses at different times, by the
-proprietors in London, down till about 1620 and possibly later, but they
-do not seem to have increased very rapidly, for in 1646 all the horses
-in the colony were estimated at about two hundred of both sexes. This
-estimate was probably too low, for ten years after this the exportation
-of mares was forbidden by legislative enactment, and eleven years later
-this restriction was removed, and both sexes could then be exported. From
-this legislation and from writers who visited the colony we learn that
-horses were very plenty, and they are described as of excellent quality,
-hardy and strong, but under size. It was the custom in Virginia, and
-indeed in all the other colonies at that period and for long afterward,
-to brand their young horses and turn them out to hustle for their own
-living. They increased with wonderful rapidity and great numbers became
-as wild and as wary of the habitation and sight of man as the deer of
-the forest. About the close of the seventeenth century the chasing and
-capture of wild horses in Virginia became a legitimate and not always
-an unprofitable sport, for an animal caught without a brand became the
-unquestioned property of his captor. It is a noteworthy fact that off
-the coast of Virginia the island of Chincoteague has been occupied for
-probably two hundred years by large bands of wild horses. They are
-still there, and not till within the last few decades have there been
-any efforts made to domesticate some selections from them. They are of
-all colors, but quite uniform in size, not averaging much over thirteen
-hands, with clean limbs, and many of them are pacers. There is only one
-way to account for them in that location, and that is, that they were
-originally a band of Virginia wild horses that wandered or was chased
-out onto this sandy peninsula, and while there some great storm set the
-mysterious ocean currents at work and cut off their retreat by converting
-a peninsula into an island, and there they have lived and multiplied ever
-since.
-
-The colonial horses of Virginia were of all colors and all very small
-in size, as we would class them in our day. An examination of a great
-many advertisements of “Strayed,” “Taken up,” etc., of the period of
-about 1750, clearly establishes the fact that at that time the average
-height was a small fraction over thirteen hands and one inch. More were
-described as just thirteen hands than any other size, and they were
-nearly all between thirteen and fourteen. From this same advertising
-source I was able to glean conclusive evidence as to their habits of
-action, and found that just two-thirds of them were natural pacers and
-one-third natural trotters. Thus for more than a hundred years they
-had retained the peculiarities of their English ancestors in the reign
-of James I., in color, size, and gait. This in no way differs from the
-description of the Chincoteague Island ponies of to-day. As early as 1686
-a law was enacted that all stallions less than thirteen and a half hands
-high found running at large should be forfeited; but this, like Henry
-VIII.’s laws in the same direction, had failed to increase the average
-size of the horses. From the indomitable passion for horse-racing which
-prevailed universally among the colonists, we may safely conclude that
-some animals were carefully selected and coupled with a view to the speed
-of the progeny, both at the gallop and at the pace, but the great mass
-were allowed to roam at large, and under such conditions no variety or
-tribe of horses has ever improved in size, or indeed in any other quality.
-
-The early horses of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, afterward New
-York, were brought from Utrecht in Holland. As we would look at them
-to-day, they were small, but they were larger and better, and brought
-higher prices than the English horses of the Eastern colonies or than
-the Swedish on the West. It was conceded, however, that for the saddle
-they were not so good as the New England horses, and hence it may be
-inferred that they were not pacers. It is very evident, however, that the
-two breeds were soon mixed, as the saddle was then the universal means
-of travel, whether for long or short distances. During the time of the
-Revolutionary war a large accumulation of data bearing on the size and
-action of the horses of that period goes to show that the average size
-had then increased to fourteen hands and one inch, and in gait fifteen
-both paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. It is
-not pretended that these data represent the horses of the early colonial
-period, but only of the period above indicated. Strains of larger breeds
-had been introduced, but the little New England pacer had made his mark
-on the habits of action.
-
-In 1665, the next year after the Dutch had surrendered the country to
-the English, Governor Nicolls established a race-course on Hempstead
-Plains and offered prizes for the fleetest runners, and his successors
-kept up annual meetings on that course for many years. This was the first
-official and regularly organized race-course that we have any trace of
-in this country. These meetings seem to have been well supported from
-the very first by both town and country, and as the people were then
-practically all Dutch, it is a fair inference that the horses engaged in
-the races were Dutch horses. This was before the English race horse had
-reached the character of a breed, and a hundred years before the first of
-that breed was imported into New York. From this beginning many tracks
-were constructed or improvised in and about the city, upon which racing
-at all forms and at all gaits has been carried on to the present day.
-When honestly conducted the sport has always been favorably received by
-reputable people; but at successive periods it has degenerated into a
-mere carnival of gambling that placed it under a ban.
-
-The horses of the New England colonies fill a very important place in the
-horse history of the country. This is especially true of a remarkable
-tribe of swift pacers, produced in Rhode Island and known throughout
-the whole country as the “Narragansett Pacers.” To the description of
-these a special chapter will be devoted. The first horses imported into
-New England reached Boston harbor in 1629 and were sent direct from
-England by the proprietary company in London. The same year a small
-consignment reached Salem. The next year about sixty head were shipped
-to the plantation, but many of them were lost on the voyage. In 1635 two
-Dutch ships landed at Salem with twenty-seven mares and three stallions,
-and were sold there at remunerative prices. Other shipments followed,
-no doubt, that have not been noted. In 1640 the colonists seem to have
-been supplied with all the horses they needed, for that year they shipped
-a cargo of eighty head to the Barbadoes. From these importations into
-Boston and Salem, all the New England colonists received their supplies.
-The field specially gleaned to determine the size and gaits of the
-Massachusetts horses covered the years 1756-59, from which it appears
-that the average height was then fourteen hands and one inch; and as
-to gait, just three-fourths were pacers and one-fourth trotters. In
-comparing this average size with the Virginians of the same period we
-find that the Massachusetts horses were about one hand higher, which
-would indicate the influence of the early Dutch blood. Besides this we
-must make some allowance for a possible different habit of estimating
-size.
-
-When the plantation was made at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636, the
-planters brought their horses and other domestic animals with them. In
-1653 the General Court, at New Haven, made provision for keeping public
-saddle horses for hire, and all horses had to be branded. After passing
-over a period of more than a hundred and twenty years we find that in
-1776 the average size of the Connecticut horse was thirteen hands and
-three inches, thus ranging below the other New England colonies. At that
-period it is found that the ratio of pacers and trotters was as fifteen
-pacers, or trotters and pacers, to four that trotted only. The very
-interesting experience of two English travelers, mounted on Connecticut
-pacers, in 1769, and their enthusiasm about their superlative qualities,
-will be found in its place.
-
-The colony of Rhode Island was planted in 1636 by Roger Williams and his
-followers, and eleven years later they obtained their charter. Their
-supply of horses came wholly from the colony of Massachusetts, and in
-a short time the new plantation became greatly distinguished for the
-superiority and speed of its pacers. From the official report of the
-colony for 1690, we learn that horses constituted their leading item of
-exports, and that they were shipping horses to all the colonies of the
-seaboard. At that early day the fame of the Narragansett pacer extended
-through all the English colonies, and probably also through the French
-plantations on the St. Lawrence. All trade with Canada was strictly
-prohibited, but in the then condition of the borders how could such
-regulation be enforced, if a Frenchman, with a bale of peltry, wanted
-to exchange it for a Narragansett? Freed from the Puritan restrictions
-of New England, of that day, the Rhode Islanders developed the speed
-of their pacers by racing them, and thus the best and fastest of all
-New England were collected there. In 1768 the average height of the
-Narragansetts was fourteen hands and one inch, which shows them to have
-been about three and a quarter inches higher than the Virginia horses of
-the same period. They were not all pacers, for out of thirty-five there
-were eight that did not pace, and some others that both trotted and
-paced. A full account of these famous pacers will be found in the chapter
-on the Colonial Horse History of New England, and that on The American
-Pacer and his Relations to the American Trotter.
-
-William Penn did not visit his princely gift from Charles II. until 1682,
-and it was then under the government of the Duke of York. In giving a
-description of things as he found them he remarks: “The horses are not
-very handsome, but good,” and this is all he says of them. Knowing that
-Pennsylvania, in the early part of this century, produced larger and
-heavier horses, than any other portion of the country, it was a great
-surprise to me to find the undoubted proof that a hundred years earlier
-she had produced the smallest and the lightest horses of any of the
-colonies. In the first half of the last century the average size of the
-horses of Eastern Pennsylvania was thirteen hands one and a quarter
-inches, and they were remarkably uniform in size. This was one-quarter
-inch below the average of the Virginians. Of the twenty-eight animals
-examined as to gait, twenty-four of them were natural pacers, three both
-paced and trotted, and a single one trotted only. Finding these two facts
-of uniformity of size and uniformity of gait together, we are prepared
-for another fact that follows, viz., in Philadelphia the pacers were more
-popular and fashionable than in any other city, so far as we can learn,
-and they were selected with great care and bred for their speed, and that
-speed was highly tested on the race-course. They were breeding for speed
-without much regard to size, and hence the uniformity.
-
-It has not been discovered that the colonists of New Jersey made any
-direct importations of horses from England. Their original supplies
-were obtained from New York on the one side and Pennsylvania on the
-other. From these sources, therefore, we can form a correct estimate of
-the size and gaits of the Jersey horses, without going into particular
-investigation. The only object, then, in referring to this colony is
-to prove that before 1748 all kinds of racing had become so common in
-the colony as to be a nuisance. Consequently the legislative authority
-passed an act in 1748 for the suppression of “Running, Pacing and
-Trotting Races.” This was in strict harmony with the well-known condition
-of things in Philadelphia and vicinity very early in the century. If
-there had been no pacing races there would have been no legislation
-suppressing them.
-
-The horses of the colony of Maryland would necessarily partake of the
-characteristics of Virginia and Pennsylvania, from which she probably
-received her supply. There seems to be no evidence of direct importation.
-This colony was really the first, in point of time, to legislate for the
-suppression of pacing races. In 1747, one year before New Jersey, an act
-was passed forbidding pacing races in certain locations at certain times,
-and the avowed object was the protection of the Friends in holding their
-yearly meetings. Here, then, we have historic evidence that the three
-colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had frequent pacing
-races, and legislative evidence that Maryland and New Jersey had quite
-too many pacing races, early in the last century. It follows, then, that
-the other colonies indulged their sporting fancies in pacing races also.
-
-The colonies of North and South Carolina obtained their supply of horses
-from Virginia, and they possessed the same characteristics as the parent
-stock. The first permanent settlement in North Carolina was in 1653, but
-before this it had become the refuge of Quakers and others fleeing from
-the proscriptions that prevailed in Virginia against all who did not
-conform to the English church. South Carolina received her charter in
-1663, at a time when horses were beginning to run wild in Virginia. In
-1747 thirty horses were advertised in which the size was given, and the
-average is within a small fraction of thirteen and a half hands high, and
-in this number two were given as fifteen hands, which was a very large
-horse for that day. The gait is given in only twelve cases—ten of which
-were pacers, one paced and trotted, and one trotted only.
-
-The chapter on the “Early Horse History of Canada” is very brief. It
-was not till the year 1665 that the first horses were brought over from
-France, and as they came from ancient Picardy, right across the Channel
-from England, it is reasonable to assume that they partook of the same
-characteristics as the English horses, and that many of them were pacers.
-Another theory of the origin of the Canadian pacer is the probability of
-clandestine trading with the New Englanders. Among the many impossible
-stories about the breeding of Old Tippoo, the greatest sire of Canada,
-the truth seems to come to the surface at last, and there can be no
-reasonable doubt that he was got by “Scape Goat.” However much or little
-dependence can be placed upon many of the claims of fast pacing stallions
-coming from Canada, it must be conceded that some of these claims
-seem to be well founded, and that the pacing element has been greatly
-strengthened by blood from the other side of the border.
-
-The most striking fact in the history of the pacing habit of action is
-its great antiquity. The average Englishman of to-day and the average
-American of twenty years ago have been united in insisting with the
-greatest vehemence that the pace is not a natural but an acquired gait,
-resulting from some injury or malformation. One of the great leaders on
-that side of the discussion called it “structural incongruity” arising
-from the breeding of the “thoroughbred” horse on the “slab-sided” mares
-of the West and South, and thought the idea was unanswerable, but
-never cited any instances to prove it. Now, the truth is, the earliest
-unquestioned evidence we have that horses paced is that furnished by
-the chisel of Phidias when he sculptured the horses on the frieze of
-the Parthenon at Athens, and that is two thousand three hundred and
-thirty-three years old. From the period when the sons of Japheth turned
-their attention to horse-breeding on the fruitful plains and valleys in
-the regions of the mountains of Ararat down to this culmination of Greek
-art, I have not been able to find any contemporaneous evidence of the
-existence of the lateral habit of action; but as we know it existed more
-than two thousand years ago, we are justified in concluding that among
-the original bands of horses, in their original habitat, pacers as well
-as trotters abounded. From the erection of the Parthenon in Athens, the
-occupation of Britain by the Romans, and through all the centuries down
-to the plantation of the colonies in this country, we have mountains of
-indisputable evidence of the antiquity of the pacer. In its place this
-topic will be quite fully discussed.
-
-The relation which the pacer bears to the American Trotting Horse has
-for twenty-five years been a topic of much senseless discussion. In the
-historical sketch which served as an introduction to the first volume
-of the “American Trotting Register,” the attention of the breeding
-public was first called to this question, in a form that was somewhat
-tentative, and much less didactic than my judgment suggested, but
-it served as an introduction to the study of the question which it
-foreshadowed. From this initial paragraph grew the discussion that has
-been going on ever since, much of which has been the merest jargon. The
-essential oneness of the trot and the pace has been clearly demonstrated
-by thousands of experiences. The trotting inheritance that produces the
-fast trotter also produces the fast pacer; and the pacing inheritance
-that produces the fast pacer also produces the fast trotter. The
-trotting-bred John R. Gentry, with his pacing record of a mile in two
-minutes and one-half a second, is but a single instance of very many
-of the same character. The fastest harness racers in the world are the
-pacers, and it seems to make no difference whether the inheritance of
-speed comes from the trotter or the pacer. The subject of the pacer in
-his diversified historical relations to the American trotter will be
-found in different portions of this work, and all tending to show the
-significant fact that he is again rapidly attaining the position of honor
-among the equine race which he maintained for so many centuries in the
-far-distant past.
-
-Early in this century the American Saddle Horse, the real saddle horse of
-all time, past and present, began to vanish from sight. Improved roads
-and wheeled vehicles superseded him, in great measure, long before the
-days of railroads. For business and travel he was the sole dependence
-of our forefathers for two hundred years, and in point of health it
-is a great misfortune that he has gone so completely out of use. The
-horse that cannot take the “saddle gaits” and carry his rider without
-discomfort or fatigue is not a saddle horse. Springing up and down at
-every revolution of the horse is not riding for pleasure, but to avoid
-punishment and a torpid liver. In the chapter devoted to his description,
-origin, and breeding, it will be clearly shown that he is indebted to
-his pacing ancestry of the past centuries for his saddle gaits. As the
-mere matter of great speed cuts no figure in the qualifications of a
-saddle horse there is a wide field here for the production of style and
-beauty in the breeder’s art. The aims of a goodly number of intelligent
-breeders are now moving in this direction, and with the foundations so
-well laid as they now are, we can look forward to a grand superstructure.
-As the breeder of speed at the trot goes to the horse that can do it
-himself, and as the breeder of speed at the gallop goes to the horse
-that can beat all the others, so the breeder of the saddler will go to
-the handsomest and best of all his tribe, and when we reach the horse
-that is perfect in symmetry, style, quality, and disposition, he will
-be a saddle horse and no questions will be asked about what particular
-combinations of blood he may possess. He will be strictly eclectic, with
-the one exception of the inheritance of gait, and he will be the result
-of wise choosing in his size and structure, and of skillful handling in
-his disposition and manners.
-
-The Wild Horse of the plains and pampas of North and South America was
-at one time an object of great interest and curiosity with all our
-people. No schoolboy of sixty or seventy years ago knew any lesson
-in his geography so well as the one which pictured and described the
-millions of wild horses that roamed over the Western plains. In the
-field of imagination and exaggerated fiction he was a fairly good second
-to the Arabian—both arrant humbugs, at least so far as their merits
-have been tested. In the past, the question has sometimes been asked,
-tentatively, whether the horse may not have been indigenous on this
-continent? The paleontologists have undertaken to answer this question
-in the affirmative and have produced the bones of what they call the
-horse to prove it. This “horse” is scant fifteen inches high and he has
-three, four or five toes on each foot. These toes resemble “claws” more
-than anything else. They tell us these little animals flourished over
-two millions of years before man was placed on the earth, and that they
-are now found imbedded in the solid rock, say two hundred feet below the
-general surface. The outline drawing of horses on works supposed to have
-been erected by a prehistoric and lost race, and also the linguistic
-question as to whether any of the oldest Indian tribes had any word
-representing the horse, will be fully considered, with that presented
-by the paleontologists, in the chapter devoted to the Wild Horse. Too
-much prominence has been given to the horses of Cortez in his conquest
-of Mexico, as the progenitors of the American wild horse. He had very
-few horses in his command, and it is very doubtful whether any of them
-escaped the slaughter of battle and found a home in the wilderness.
-The horses in the army of the unfortunate Ferdinand De Soto, that
-were abandoned on the confines of Texas, after his death, became the
-progenitors of all the wild horses of North America.
-
-The remarkable pre-eminence to which Messenger attained as the founder
-of a great race of trotters, in his own right and by his own power,
-and more especially as he was the only English-imported running horse
-that ever showed any tendency whatever in that direction, the study of
-Messenger’s lineage becomes a question of very great interest and value
-to all students of trotting history. His sire, Mambrino, was a great
-race horse, and was distinguished above all others of his generation, or
-indeed of any other generation, before or since, as the progenitor of a
-tribe of coach horses of great excellence and value. In addition to this,
-the evidence seems to be conclusive that he had a natural and undeveloped
-trotting step that far surpassed that of all other running horses of his
-day. His sire, Engineer, was notoriously short on the side of his dam,
-and his grandsire, Sampson, was a half-breed of great size and bone, and
-ran some winning races, in the best of company, for that day.
-
-The history of Messenger himself is still clouded in mystery, and the
-blood he inherited from his dam remains hopelessly unknown. The identity
-of his importer and owner has never been established, which of itself
-throws a suspicion upon the pedigree that is said to have come with him.
-He ran several races at Newmarket, England, and proved himself a second
-or third-rate race horse. The racing records there show that he was by
-Mambrino, and that is all that is known about his inheritance. He left
-a few tolerably good race horses, for their time, but he filled the
-country with the best road and driving horses that the horsemen of this
-country had ever known. A chapter each to Messenger’s ancestors and to
-himself will be found in their proper places in this volume. The twenty
-years of Messenger’s life and service in this country fell in a period
-of indifference to all kinds of racing except running. The English race
-horse was then the popular idol, and it is not known that any of his sons
-or daughters were ever trained to trot. Neither can it now be certainly
-determined that any of them were disposed to pace, but if we may judge
-of the habits of action of his immediate progeny by what we know of
-succeeding generations, we can hardly doubt that there were pacers among
-them. As the custom then was, and as it so remained for at least half a
-century later, all pacers were hidden away from public sight, as they
-were supposed to furnish evidence of ignoble breeding.
-
-The chapter on “The Sons of Messenger” will be long, but it will be of
-exceeding interest. They constitute the connecting link that brings
-together the peculiar trotting instincts of the sire and develops them
-in their own progeny. Several of them were not only trained to run,
-but did run successfully. It is not known that any of his sons was
-ever trained to trot, but it is known from contemporaneous evidence
-that several of them were fast natural trotters, notably Bishop’s
-Hambletonian, Bush Messenger, Winthrop Messenger, Mambrino, etc., all of
-which will be considered in their proper place. When we reach the second
-remove from Messenger we begin to enter into the full fruition of all the
-promises, and in considering such animals as Abdallah, Almack, Mambrino
-Paymaster, Harris’ Hambletonian, etc., we begin to feel that we are well
-within the trotting latitudes, for this remove began to found families
-and tribes that attracted the attention of all intelligent breeders.
-
-In the next remove from Messenger we strike the most famous of all
-trotting progenitors in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian. At one time there was an
-active and determined difference of opinion among breeders as to which
-of three horses, Hambletonian, Ethan Allen, or Mambrino Chief, would in
-the end prove to be the most successful sire. This controversy may not
-be remembered by the younger of the present generation of horsemen, but
-it was bitter and uncompromising, and it presents a lesson so important
-that it may be here referred to. The adherents of Ethan Allen argued
-that as he was handsomer, that his gait was the very perfection of
-trotting action, and that he was incomparably faster than either of the
-other two, he must of necessity prove the most successful in begetting
-trotters. The adherents of Mambrino Chief used the same argument, with
-the exception of beauty and style, and dwelt strongly on the fact that he
-was a faster horse than Hambletonian, and would consequently get faster
-offspring. Both these arguments were good, so far as they went, but they
-lacked completeness and hence were not sound. Neither Ethan Allen nor
-Mambrino Chief had a dam, and so far as we know the inheritance of both
-was restricted to the male side of the house. Development of speed is
-a valuable and real qualification in any sire, but all experience goes
-to show that it is only a help to an inheritance. Hambletonian was not
-much developed, but it is conceded on all hands that he could show a
-2:40 gait at any time and that his action was very perfect. He was got
-by a grandson of Messenger, whose dam, Amazonia, was one of the fastest
-mares of her generation, whatever her blood may have been. Abdallah got
-more and faster trotters than any other grandson of Messenger, and his
-daughters were very famous as the producers of trotters. Hambletonian’s
-dam, the Kent Mare, was by imported Bellfounder, a horse that got no
-trotters practically, but this mare was the fastest four-year-old of
-her time, and that because she was out of a very fast mare, One Eye,
-that was a double granddaughter of Messenger. That is, One Eye was by
-Hambletonian, the son of Messenger, and out of Silvertail, a daughter of
-Messenger. This double Messenger mare was unknown to the trotting turf,
-but she was well known throughout Orange County as a remarkably fast
-trotter. Hence Hambletonian not only possessed more Messenger blood than
-any horse of his generation, but that blood came to him through developed
-trotters, and he had a right to surpass all competitors, especially the
-two that were, at one time, the most prominent.
-
-Several of the sons of Hambletonian, as shown by the tabular statistics
-which will be introduced, became greater than their sire, not only in
-getting trotters from their own loins, but in transmitting the trotting
-instinct to their descendants. The growth and spread of this family
-is far and away beyond any precedent that can be cited in any age or
-country, and is simply marvelous. It is said that fully ninety per cent.
-of the fast trotters now on the turf have more or less of the blood of
-Hambletonian in their veins, and I think it is a safe conclusion to say
-that no intelligent breeder in all the country is trying to produce
-trotters without it. All the other tribes are dropping out of sight,
-and at the present ratio of rise and fall it will be but a few years
-till every trotter on the turf will be credited in some degree to the
-one really great progenitor, Hambletonian. The other tribes will not be
-blotted out nor will their merits be lost, but absorbed into the mightier
-tribe.
-
-Such families as the Bashaws, the Clays, the Black Hawks, the Mambrino
-Chiefs, the Pilots, the American Stars, the Blue Bulls, etc., will be
-fully considered through several chapters, according to their strength
-and merit. As these families have not been able to hold their own in
-the rush to the front, and as they seem to be falling further to the
-rear in the number and quality of their performers each succeeding year,
-we may as well begin to designate them as “the minor families.” Their
-inheritance was feeble and unsatisfactory, and more or less sporadic, and
-we never had any right to expect a brilliant and permanent success from
-such beginnings.
-
-As the investigation of disputed, spurious and fraudulent pedigrees
-was a prime necessity in order to reach safe and honest grounds upon
-which to build up a breed of trotters, much of my time through all my
-editorial life was devoted to this kind of investigation. From the first
-page of the first volume of the “Register” I was deeply impressed with
-the importance of having all pedigrees absolutely correct, and this
-impression grew into a vital conviction that without this a breed of
-trotters never could be established. I soon found that I had accepted
-from some breeders of the very highest respectability a goodly number of
-pedigrees that were thoroughly rotten in their extensions. This taught
-me that I must study the moral fiber of breeders critically, as well as
-their pedigrees, and that from the highest to the lowest. Some men are
-honest from principle and because it is right to be honest, while others
-are honest because “honesty is the best policy.” Some men are dishonest
-because of ignorance, others because they were born cheats, but the
-most dangerous of all rogues is the man who will utter a false pedigree
-and then prove it by trained witnesses who, for half a dollar, can
-remember whatever is necessary and forget whatever might be against their
-employer’s interest. By this kind of evidence a man can prove anything.
-Not very long ago a man proved that a certain mare came out of a certain
-other mare, and when that was shown to be impossible he turned round and
-proved (?) that she was out of another mare, and there was just as much
-truth in the one as the other, and not a single word of truth in either.
-So long as there are men in the world there will be rogues among them,
-but the intelligence of the public in breeding matters has so greatly
-advanced that many an honest man would begin to doubt his own sanity if
-he were even to think of breeding in lines that he was once ready to
-fight for as the only right and successful way to breed. The brainless
-advocacy of “more running blood in the trotter,” was substantially the
-basis of the whole brood of dishonest pedigrees, against which it became
-my duty to wage war; but to-day no intelligent man in all the land can be
-found to advocate any such balderdash unless it be in the foolish support
-of thoughtless opinions previously expressed.
-
-The subject of “How the Trotting Horse is Bred,” is a most interesting
-one because it is entirely new in animal economy and is distinctively
-American. The initial thought that opened the door to the practical and
-scientific consideration of the subject was the happy conception, in the
-spring of 1872, of the little phrase, “Trotting Instinct.” Following this
-with the definition of the word “instinct” as being “the sum of inherited
-habits,” the term expressed in two words and the definition of it in five
-words, put the whole subject in a form that was easily comprehensible and
-flashed upon the mind as thoroughly practical. This little phrase, with
-its definition, when once comprehended, is a very complete epitome of all
-that has been taught and all that has been learned of the art of breeding
-the trotter. It not only embraces, but requires, the trotting inheritance
-as the only starting point, which must be strengthened and the instinct
-intensified by the development of the speed of succeeding generations.
-It stood some years at the parting of the ways between intelligence and
-ignorance, between enlightened judgment and stupid prejudice, between
-honesty and dishonesty, but now it is accepted, in practice, as the
-universal law from one end of the land to the other. Thus, we have
-not only added millions to the wealth of the country, but without any
-outside assistance or instruction we have produced a horse that by way of
-pre-eminence, throughout the world, is justly entitled to be designated,
-“The Horse of America.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE.
-
-    No indications that the horse was originally wild—The steppes
-    of High Asia and Arabia not tenable as his original home—Color
-    not sufficient evidence —Impossibility of horses existing in
-    Arabia in a wild state—No horses in Arabia until 356 A.D.—Large
-    forces of Armenian, Median, and Cappadocian cavalry employed
-    more than one thousand seven hundred years B.C.—A breed of
-    white race horses—Special adaptability of the Armenian country
-    to the horse—Armenia a horse-exporting country before the
-    Prophet Ezekiel—Devotion of the Armenian people to agricultural
-    and pastoral pursuits through a period of four thousand
-    years—All the evidences point to ancient Armenia as the center
-    from which the horse was distributed.
-
-
-In undertaking to consider and determine what particular portion of the
-earth was the original habitat of the horse, we must not forget that we
-are in a field that antedates all history, both sacred and profane. When
-we have gone back to the very first dawnings of historical records we
-are still far short of the period in which initial light can be reached.
-In profane history, with more or less safety, we can get back to a point
-about seventeen hundred years before the Christian era; and in sacred
-history about two hundred years less. At both of these dates the horses
-referred to were not in a feral state, but were the companions and
-servants of man.
-
-There have been two separate theories advanced which demand some
-attention, because of the eminence and learning of the men who have
-advanced them. The first is that the original habitat of the horse was
-on the steppes of High Asia, east and north of the Caspian and the Black
-Sea. The only argument I have ever seen advanced in support of this
-theory is based upon the great number of wild horses that are found in
-that part of the world, and that so many of them are of a dun color.
-From the frequency of the recurrence of the dun color another theory has
-sprung up to the effect that the original color of the horse was dun,
-and hence it is argued that when the dun color appears in our own day
-it must be taken as evidence that the original color of the horse was
-dun. This reasoning is very far from being conclusive, for there are dun
-horses and dun tribes in all breeds, just as there are greys, and the
-color is just as liable to be transmitted as any other color. In the
-last century there were many dun horses in England, and at least one of
-that color was advertised very widely as “the Dun Arabian,” probably a
-foreign horse, but it is hardly possible that he was an Arabian. It was
-then the custom of the country to call all foreign horses “Arabians,” no
-difference from what part of the world they came. It has been stated on
-what seemed to be good authority that a dun horse once won the Derby,
-but whether the color may result from line breeding or from atavistic
-tendencies, the argument advanced does not seem to have any weight in it
-for the purpose intended.
-
-[Illustration: ARMENIA, CAPPADOCIA, NORTHERN SYRIA ETC.
-
-ABOUT 1200 B.C.]
-
-Another argument in favor of the wild and unknown regions east and north
-of the Caspian as the habitat of the horse has been urged with much
-more power and effect. It has been accepted and reiterated by so many
-learned men, one after another, that I doubted the wisdom of attempting
-to overthrow it, until I found the spot in which it was fatally weak.
-This view of the question seems to rest upon the fact that the successive
-hosts of Barbarians that overran Europe in the early centuries of the
-Christian era brought their horses, as well as their flocks and herds,
-with them, and it is assumed that these horses were the first brought
-into Europe. This involves a total misconception of dates; not of a few
-years merely, but of many centuries. All of Europe, including Britain,
-and all of Northern Africa, were abundantly supplied with horses,
-probably a thousand years before the first destructive wave of Barbarians
-touched Europe. Linguistic and ethnological facts clearly prove that
-those people came from Asia, and possibly from a part of Asia where
-there were horses running wild, but that does not prove that they came
-from the original habitat of the horse. With no dates, either definite
-or approximate, to support this theory, and with no specific portion
-of the earth fixed upon as the general locality from which they came,
-it resolves itself into a mere speculation with nothing to support it,
-except the fact that different writers have been copying it from one
-another, without throwing any additional light upon it, for a number of
-generations.
-
-The most remarkable and at the same time the most untenable of all the
-claims that have been urged about the horse is that he was indigenous
-in Arabia. We can tolerate any number of foolish claims set up to show
-that the Arabian horse is superior to all others, for such assertions
-can be tested and disproved, as they have been a thousand times, but
-the claim that Arabia was the original habitat of the horse is so
-utterly preposterous, and yet so widely advocated by writers and others
-who know nothing about it, that we must consider it with some brief
-deliberation. When the maimed and crippled horses of De Soto were turned
-loose and abandoned on the plains of Texas, they had all around them
-the means of an abundant and healthy subsistence, and they multiplied
-and grew into an innumerable host that made the earth tremble when they
-moved in great masses. Under the same favorable conditions of water
-and pasture, the same results followed on the pampas of South America.
-Upon the early settlement of Virginia, as well probably as in some of
-the other colonies, and within two hundred years, many of the horses of
-the colonists strayed away, became wild and remained so, propagating
-and increasing for generations, and until the growing numbers of their
-former masters captured or exterminated them. The varied herbage of the
-forest and its grassy swales, and streams of pure water everywhere, made
-Virginia a paradise for the horse in his feral state.
-
-Buffon, the French naturalist of a hundred and fifty years ago, notices
-the theory of the wild horses of Arabia, but he is careful not to
-commit himself nor indorse it in any form. In Vol. I., p. 237, he says:
-“According to Mannol, the Arabian horses are descended from the wild
-horses in the deserts of Arabia, of which, in ancient times, large
-studs were formed,” etc. In going further, to find where Mannol got his
-information, it appears that somebody, with an unpronounceable name that
-I have forgotten, told him so. Major Upton, a very intelligent but very
-credulous modern writer on what he saw and learned in the desert, says
-he never heard of this story of wild horses in Arabia, and pronounces it
-a “fallacy.” When we consider that Arabia never was conquered and the
-reason why, although Rome, at the very culmination of her power, followed
-by Assyria and Egypt, all failed of their purpose without meeting an
-enemy in battle, we must accept the fact that nature had interposed
-a barrier that military power could not surmount. The barrenness and
-aridity of the desert has always protected the Arabs against the most
-powerful armies of the mightiest nations. Now, to maintain that wild
-horses could not only live, but flourish and increase, in a country
-where there was not enough edible herbage on a thousand acres to keep
-a grasshopper alive, and not a running stream of water within five
-hundred miles, requires a measure of mental sterility that can be found
-nowhere but among a few of the writers on the Arabian horse. Of all
-the curiosities in which the literature of the Arabian horse abounds
-and in the multitudinous efforts to give him the primacy among horses,
-there seems to be nothing quite so absurd as this story about his being
-indigenous to the desert. Animals in a wild state are never found except
-in countries and districts where the conditions surrounding provide them
-with food and water. How long would a band of strong, healthy horses live
-if turned loose to seek their own subsistence in the desert of Arabia?
-Of all the countries on the face of the globe there is no one where the
-horse is so completely dependent upon, the care and support of his master
-as Arabia.
-
-Fortunately, we are not left for data to unwritten traditions two
-thousand years old, nor to the fervid imaginations of a race of
-cutthroats and thieves of the very lowest order of civilization,
-but we can turn, with full confidence, to authentic contemporaneous
-history, from which we can settle this question, at once and for all
-time. Strabo, the great Greek geographer and philosopher, flourished
-in the reign of Augustus, at the very beginning of the Christian era.
-He describes Arabia just as we know it to-day, for all countries have
-changed in their boundaries and government except Arabia. He describes
-the people as chiefly nomadic, and as breeders of camels. The most
-remarkable thing in this description is the fact, found in his great
-work, Vol. III., p. 190, that they had no horses at that time. The exact
-language used in this statement will be found in the next chapter of
-this work. The question now arises, If there were no horses in Arabia
-at the beginning of the Christian era, when and how did they become
-possessed of them? Fortunately, again, written history supplies the
-answer to this question. In my next chapter will be found, quoted at
-some length, the circumstances bearing on this question. In brief, the
-facts are as follows: Philostorgius, a distinguished Greek theologian,
-wrote an ecclesiastical history in the fifth century which is no longer
-extant. Photius, at one time Patriarch of Constantinople, in the ninth
-century wrote an epitome of the work by Philostorgius and to this
-epitome we are indebted for the facts we here relate. Constantius, at
-the time of which Philostorgius wrote, was on the throne of the Eastern
-empire, and was exceedingly zealous in spreading and strengthening the
-Christian religion. He learned that the prince of Arabia Felix (that
-part of Arabia which we will designate by its modern name Yemen) was
-strongly disposed to come out with his people and embrace Christianity.
-Constantius thereupon determined to encourage both prince and people in
-the movement they were contemplating, and he sent them a grand embassy
-with many valuable presents, the most noted of which were two hundred
-“well-bred Cappadocian horses.” The embassy was completely successful,
-and Theopholis, who had been made a bishop and placed at the head of it,
-remained there several years. This was in the year 356 of the Christian
-era, and is the first intimation we have in all history of horses in
-Arabia. These are the facts, so far as any facts are known, upon the
-consideration of which I am not able to assent to the claim that either
-High Asia or Arabia was the original habitat of the horse.
-
-I have been surprised at the number of coincidences that seem to point
-to ancient Armenia as the first habitation of the horse. This country
-at one time was a very powerful kingdom, extending from the mountains
-of Caucasus on the north to Media or Assyria on the south, and from
-the Caspian Sea on the east to the Euphrates on the west, and at one
-time even to the Mediterranean. It was intersected by several ranges of
-mountains and not only gave rise to the Euphrates and the Tigris, but to
-a number of smaller rivers. It was well watered everywhere, and produced
-in great abundance all varieties of herbage, cereals, and fruits. It
-was originally called Ararat by the Hebrews, probably after a range of
-mountains about central to the territory embraced, and because Noah’s Ark
-rested somewhere “on the mountains of Ararat.” It is also called Togarmah
-in Scripture, after Torgom, son of Gomer, who was the son of Japheth,
-the son of Noah. Japheth seems to have been the oldest son of Noah, and
-he chose this fruitful region as the future home of his descendants.
-The Rev. Michael Chamich, a native Armenian, went back into the old
-Armenian records, translated the language as originally used, and wrote
-a history of the country from its first settlement; and this history has
-been Englished by Johannes Adval, another native Armenian, and published
-in Calcutta in 1827. This work seems to be worthy of credence, and it
-clearly establishes the lineal descent of the governing family back to
-Japheth, the son of Noah. The order of succession as the head of the
-tribe continues through several generations unbroken, from father to
-son. Gomer, the son of Japheth, was succeeded by his son Togarmah, then
-followed Haicus, Armenac, Aramais, Amassia, Gelam, Harma, Aram, Arah, who
-was slain in battle, his son Cardus (at twelve years old), Anushaven, who
-died without issue and was succeeded by Paret, who reigned fifty years
-and during his reign the patriarch Joseph died in Egypt, B.C. 1635. These
-princes all had long reigns. Haicus was the first of the line to assume
-the title of king, and he was greatly distinguished for extending the
-boundaries of his kingdom. Gelam extended his borders to the Caspian.
-Aram was fifty-eight years on the throne, during which time he had a war
-with the Medes, and also with the Cappadocians, in both of which he had
-a large force of cavalry in the field. This was about seventeen hundred
-years before the Christian era, and is the first mention of cavalry that
-I have found in history, either sacred or profane. In both these wars
-his cavalry was met by the cavalry of the enemy, equal to or greater
-than his in numbers. How long before this troops may have been mounted
-on horses it is impossible to say, but from the numbers so used at that
-period of the world by the neighboring nations and tribes, as the Medes,
-the Cappadocians, etc., it is fair to conclude that the horse had then
-been an important factor in all military movements for many generations.
-When we consider two opposing armies, each provided with divisions of
-five thousand cavalry, the period being about B.C. 1700, with no dates
-beyond that are known as relating to the horse, we are shut up to our own
-reasoning as to the number of centuries that may have been required to
-produce these great numbers. It must have been at least one century, or
-it may have been three or four, and this would carry us back to the head
-of the house of Japheth.
-
-If we accept Egyptian chronology, which still lacks much of being
-reliable, one of the Pharaohs, named Thutmosis I., invaded Syria, passing
-up through Palestine till he reached the latitude of Aleppo, and then
-turned eastward and crossed the Euphrates. His campaign was successful;
-he fought many battles and returned laden with spoils, especially horses
-and chariots of war. This was before the Israelites reached the promised
-land, and before Joshua’s battle with the “Northern kings,” in which
-they had “horsemen and chariots very many,” and which is the earliest
-Scriptural instance in which horses were employed in battle.
-
-The territory embracing the ancient countries of Eastern Asia Minor,
-bounded on the north by the Black Sea and the Caucasian mountains, on
-the south by the thirty-seventh degree of north latitude, and extending
-to the Caspian Sea, has always been remarkable for the variety, value,
-and abundance of its agricultural products. Many of the very early
-historians have noted the fact that each one of the countries embraced
-in this territory was distinguished for the excellence and numbers of
-horses produced, and they appear in about the following order, namely,
-Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Media. The last-named country embraced
-what is now the northern part of Persia, and as between the “Medes”
-and the “Persians” there is no little confusion in the public mind, as
-sometimes one was on top and sometimes the other. Then, to add to the
-confusion, the Assyrians came in, occupying the same country and the same
-capitals. For our present purposes it is not necessary to enter into the
-consideration of these successive dynasties. The Medes were comparatively
-newcomers, and as they were a great military people their prominence
-in horse history resulted more from the spoils of war and the tribute
-in horses that they collected from their neighbors than from their own
-production. Kitto says that in the time of the Persian empire the plain
-of Nissæum was celebrated for its horses and horse races. This plain was
-near the city of Nissæa, around which were fine pasture lands, producing
-excellent clover. The horses were “entirely white” (probably grey) and
-of extraordinary height and beauty, as well as speed. They constituted
-part of the luxury of the great, and a tribute in kind was paid from them
-to the monarch, who, like all Eastern sovereigns, used to delight in
-equestrian display. Some idea of the opulence of the country may be had
-when it is known that, independently of imposts rendered in money, Media
-(then the undermost dog), paid a yearly tribute of not less than three
-thousand horses, four thousand mules, and nearly one hundred thousand
-sheep. The races, once celebrated through the world, seem to exist no
-more.
-
-When Darius the Mede had extended his empire over the whole of Western
-Asia and Egypt, he exacted heavy tribute in horses from all subjugated
-provinces. This was about 520 B.C., and antedated the racing referred
-to above. In all parts of his extended empire he built roads and
-established lines of couriers, mounted on fleet horses, that there
-might be no delay in receiving at his capital and sending out again
-intelligence of what was transpiring in any part of his dominions. For
-this service the best and fleetest horses were required, and the only
-guide we have to determine how these horses were selected we find in
-the fact that the tribute collected from the little kingdom of Cilicia,
-formerly a part of Cappadocia, was, in addition to a stated sum of money,
-one white horse for every day in the year. It is possible that these
-white Cilician horses may have been the progenitors of the white (grey)
-race horses spoken of in Media.
-
-In describing the general fruitfulness of Cappadocia, Strabo says:
-“Cappadocia was also rich in herds and flocks, but more particularly
-celebrated for its breed of horses.” Strabo speaks of this as a leading
-characteristic of the country and doubtless it had held pre-eminence in
-this respect for generations before he wrote. Three hundred and fifty-six
-years later, when Constantius was selecting his presents of horses for
-the prince and people of Yemen, in Arabia, he knew just where to look, in
-all his dominions, for the best of their kind, and selected two hundred
-“well-bred” ones for Arabia. Sir R. Wilson, in discussing the quality
-of the Russian cavalry horses about 1810, had evidently heard of this
-Cappadocian origin of the Arabian horse, but, unfortunately, he got all
-the parties badly mixed in his reference. He makes Constantine instead
-of Constantius the donor of three hundred Cappadocian horses, instead of
-two hundred, and they are given to one of the African princes, instead of
-to an Arabian prince. The African traveler, Bruce, found some excellent
-horses in Nubia, Africa, and from their high quality and unusually large
-size he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that these were the
-descendants of the three hundred from Constantine.
-
-After glancing over all the different countries in this great zone as
-defined above, and extending from the Bosphorus to the Caspian Sea, one
-cannot fail to be impressed with its special adaptation to the production
-and sustenance of all varieties of domestic animals, in their greatest
-perfection. Here the country seems to have been made for the horse, and
-the horse for the country. Here was a country suited to his nativity, and
-here we find records of his existence centuries earlier than in any other
-country. The wild ass flourished in this country, but I have not been
-able to find any evidence or indication that the horse was not always
-the companion and servant of man. Wherever he is found in a feral state
-reasons that are amply satisfactory are never wanting to account for that
-state. Ancient historians have specially noted each of the principal
-countries embraced in this zone for the superiority and numbers of its
-horses, but no one has made any allusion to wild horses, nor suggested
-that there may have been a time when their ancestors were wild.
-
-Now, as we have designated a long and wide region of Western Asia,
-embracing a number of different nationalities and governments, as the
-probable original habitat of the horse, can we go further and designate
-the particular nationality or government in which was his original home
-and from which he was distributed to adjoining nations or peoples? In
-answer to this question, we cannot present any dates of record earlier
-than about 1700 B.C., and this date will apply as well to Media and
-Cappadocia as to Armenia. We must, therefore, consider it in the light of
-other facts and circumstances, not dependent upon specific dates. In the
-first place, and taking the Mosaic account of the deluge as the starting
-point, “the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.” This is the original
-name of a country, intersected by a mountain range, and that range took
-its name from the country in which it was found. “Mount Ararat” was
-simply a very high peak in that range. The distinction should be observed
-here between “the mountains of Ararat” and “Mount Ararat.” In the second
-place, it is clearly established by all history that near the base of
-this mountain range Japheth and his descendants had their homes. His son
-Gomer was highly distinguished in his day, and his grandson, Togarmah,
-son of Gomer, became a powerful chief. To such prominence did he rise in
-the affairs of his age that for centuries after his day his country was
-called “Togarmah.” Hence we have the three names, Ararat, Togarmah and
-Armenia applied in sacred and profane history to the same country that we
-are now considering.
-
-During the continuance of the dynasty of King Haic or Haicus, the son of
-Togarmah, the Armenians became a very prosperous and powerful people.
-They did not seem to be an aggressive or warlike people, although
-their boundaries were greatly extended, but a thrifty agricultural and
-industrious people. Breeding and marketing horses seem to have been
-their leading employments. In the twenty-seventh chapter of the Prophet
-Ezekiel he gives a catalogue of the different peoples trading with the
-great Phœnician merchants and the products of their countries, in which
-they traded. This catalogue was written five hundred and fifty-eight
-years before the Christian era, and is very remarkable for its extent
-and completeness. It not only shows what the Phœnicians carried away
-to the West, in their “Ships of Tarshish,” but also what they brought
-back for distribution among their customers in Western Asia. I will
-quote, from the revised version, two or three of the classes of articles
-enumerated, embracing both import and export trade. Of foreign imports
-he says: “Tarshish” (Spain and beyond) “was thy merchant by reason of
-the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead,
-they traded for thy wares.” Of articles for export he says: “They of the
-house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and
-mules.” “Togarmah” here means “Armenia,” and this is the only instance
-in which horses are mentioned in the catalogue. I will give another
-quotation, not because it is conclusive in itself, but because it is
-confirmatory of Strabo’s statement that there were no horses in Arabia
-in his day. He says: “Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the
-merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they
-thy merchants.” Other products from more southern portions of Arabia are
-enumerated, but no horses. This is the initial step toward the general
-distribution of horses, by the Phœnician merchants, which will be
-developed in the next chapter.
-
-In speaking of Media (Vol. II., p. 265), Strabo says: “The country is
-peculiarly adapted, as well as Armenia, to the breeding of horses.” Of
-one district not far from the Caspian he remarks: “Here, it is said,
-fifty thousand mares were pastured in the time of the Persians, and
-were the king’s stud. The Nessæan horses, the best and the largest in
-the king’s province, were of this breed, according to some writers, but
-according to others they were from Armenia.” Again he says: “Cappadocia
-paid to the Persians, yearly, in addition to a tribute in silver, one
-thousand five hundred horses, two thousand mules, and fifty thousand
-sheep, and the Medes contributed nearly double this amount.”
-
-Of Armenia he says, p. 271: “The country is so well adapted, being
-nothing inferior in this respect to Media, for breeding horses that the
-race of Nessæan horses, which the king of Persia used, is found here
-also; the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia
-twenty thousand young horses.”
-
-The Nessæan horses, so famous for their speed, were the “thoroughbreds”
-of their day, and there can hardly be a doubt they originated in Armenia,
-and, just like our own “thoroughbreds,” they were essentially the result
-of careful selection through a series of generations, and of breeding
-only from animals possessing the desired qualifications in the highest
-degree. In the earlier days of racing in Media, it appears that white
-was the fashionable color, but I am disposed to think that grey, growing
-white with age, was the color intended to be expressed by the writers
-of that period. The “albino” color is abnormal and supposed to indicate
-tenderness and lack of stamina.
-
-There is one fact, in considering this question, to which I have probably
-not given sufficient prominence and weight. So far as the records go,
-the three countries of Armenia, Cappadocia, and Media are synchronous
-in having mounted troops in their armies seventeen hundred years before
-the Christian era. We must, therefore, consider the conditions of these
-countries antecedent to the period of 1700 B.C. Of Cappadocia we know
-absolutely nothing historically until it was conquered by Cyrus, king
-of Persia, about 588 B.C. Of Media the earliest knowledge we have of a
-historical character does not go back further than about 842 B.C. It
-should be observed that I here speak of “historical” knowledge and not
-of uncertain traditions of many centuries earlier. Both of these nations
-with their distinctive nationalities have, long since, been wiped off the
-surface of the earth.
-
-When we reach Armenia, we reach a people with a most remarkable history,
-extending back for more than four thousand years. This history, although
-not wholly free from criticism or doubt, seems to be honestly written and
-worthy of a liberal measure of confidence. That the children of Japheth
-should have settled at the foot of the mountains of Ararat strikes every
-one as a very natural event, but that their descendants should still be
-there, through all the triumphs and oppressions of four thousand years,
-is one of the most stupendous facts in the history of the world. From
-the very first we know of them they seem to have been an agricultural
-people, strongly attached to their native soil. When they ruled over the
-land from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, they built no great cities,
-but adhered steadfastly to the rural pursuits of their fathers, and
-this, probably, was the chief cause of their weakness. Their wealth
-and sources of wealth were chiefly in their horses, and these they sold
-to the merchants of Sidon and Tyre, who carried them to all the nations
-of Europe and Africa, commencing with Egypt, and supplying all wants as
-far as Spain and Morocco, and beyond, probably, as far as Britain. The
-Phœnician merchants were the first to open commercial transactions with
-Europe and Africa, and they were in control of the commerce of the world
-long before King Solomon entered into commercial partnership with Hiram,
-king of Tyre. Armenia had horses to sell long before they had horses
-in Egypt, and Phœnicia had ships and enterprise to carry them there.
-There is a fitting of interests here that seems to point to Armenia as
-the great original source of supply, and as the original habitat of the
-horse.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES.
-
-    First evidences of horses in Egypt about 1700 B.C.—Supported
-    by Egyptian records and history—The Patriarch Job had no
-    horses—Solomon’s great cavalry force organized—Arabia as
-    described by Strabo at the beginning of our era—No horses
-    then in Arabia—Constantius sends two hundred Cappadocian
-    horses into Arabia A.D. 356—Arabia the last country to be
-    supplied with horses—The ancient Phœnician merchants and their
-    colonies —Hannibal’s cavalry forces in the Punic Wars—Distant
-    ramifications of Phœnician trade and colonization—Commerce
-    reached as far as Britain and the Baltic—Probable source of
-    Britain’s earliest horses.
-
-
-Having considered the different theories or opinions as to the original
-habitat of the horse and the means and facilities by which distribution
-to the different portions of the earth may have been effected, I have
-omitted land migration, which will be self-evident to all as an important
-factor in the problem. It is now in order, therefore, to consider such
-dates and facts as are pertinent and may be gleaned from history, sacred
-and profane.
-
-[Illustration: PHŒNICIAN COLONIES
-
-ABOUT 1200 B.C.]
-
-When Abraham, with Sarah his wife, visited Egypt about 1920 B.C., the
-Pharaoh for her sake bestowed upon him many gifts: “Sheep and oxen and
-he asses and men servants and maid servants and she asses and camels.”
-Among these great gifts there were no horses, evidently because Egypt
-had no horses at that time. There is no mention nor reference to horses
-in Egypt till Joseph became prime minister two hundred years later,
-when there were a few horses, and they were traded or sold to Joseph by
-their owners in exchange for food, not in droves, but as individuals.
-These scriptural facts in the experiences of Abraham and Joseph seem
-to be circumstantially sustained by the discoveries of those learned
-Egyptologists who, in late years and with the spade in their hands,
-have resurrected so much of history that had been buried for thousands
-of years. It was during the reign of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings,
-that Abraham and Joseph were in Egypt, and in order to approximate the
-time when horses were first introduced, we must glance at a few facts
-in connection with what is known of the Hyksos. Some have claimed they
-were from Chaldea, some from Northern Syria and Asia Minor, and some
-again from Phœnicia, and it is one of the strangest things in history
-that a great nation should be overthrown and held in subjection for over
-five hundred years and nobody know who did it. Then again, it is equally
-incomprehensible that any nation should have subdued Egypt and held it
-in bondage so long and yet never have claimed the honor of having done
-so. Still another mystery remains that never has been solved, and that
-is, what became of the Shepherds and their followers when they were
-driven out? At the period of the conquest the governing class was rent by
-factions and under a weak and tyrannical king. The Delta and the Valley
-of the Nile were crowded with slaves, many of them of Asiatic origin.
-The elevated plains and mountain sides were covered with fierce and
-intractable nomads, all of Asiatic origin, tending their flocks. Some
-brave and skillful shepherd organized the shepherds and the slaves and at
-their head swept down upon the government with a power that was so mighty
-as to be irresistible. Manetho, the great Egyptian historian of more
-than two thousand years ago, thus describes the event: “Under this king,
-then, I know not wherefore, the god caused to blow upon us a baleful
-wind, and in the face of all probability bands from the East, people of
-ignoble race, came upon us unawares, attacked the country and subdued it
-easily and without fighting.” In remarking upon this same event Professor
-Maspero, who stands at the very head of the Egyptologists, says: “It
-is possible that they (the shepherds) owed this rapid victory to the
-presence in their armies of a factor hitherto unknown to the Africans—the
-war chariot—and before the horse and his driver the Egyptians gave way in
-a body.” In view of the direct declaration of Manetho that the question
-of the succession was settled “without fighting,” the mere suggestion of
-an unsustained “possibility” from Maspero that the result may have been
-determined by the war chariots cannot be accepted. All the authorities
-agree that the horse was introduced into Egypt at some period during the
-rule of the Shepherd Kings, but there is absolutely no evidence that this
-was at the beginning or anywhere near the beginning of that rule.
-
-No records or delineations of the horse have been found in any of the
-temples or tombs of Egypt prior to the beginning of the eighteenth
-dynasty, which was probably about the year 1570 B.C. and contemporaneous
-with the birth of Moses. If the Shepherd Kings left behind them any
-records or delineations of the horse it would be quite natural for the
-true kingly line to destroy and erase every vestige of whatever would
-revive a memory to them so bitter and hateful. But the absence of all
-traces of horses under the seventeenth dynasty of the Shepherds does not
-prove that there was none, for we have direct proof in Joseph’s case that
-they were there one hundred and fifty-six years, and in Jacob’s burial
-one hundred and nineteen years before the beginning of the eighteenth
-dynasty.
-
-The question as to the time when they procured their horses having
-now been approximately settled, the inquiry naturally follows as to
-where they came from? In answering this question there seems to be no
-hesitation or doubt. They came from Northern Syria, which embraces not
-only the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean, including Phœnicia,
-but the countries north and east of it trading there, which means the
-great horse-breeding countries of Armenia and Cappadocia. Being largely
-engaged in the Egyptian trade for many centuries, it is probable the
-Phœnician merchants were the principal agents in supplying them. In
-speaking of the horse in Egypt, Prof. Maspero says: “The horse when once
-introduced into Egypt soon became fairly adapted to its environment. It
-retained both its height and size, keeping the convex forehead—which
-gave the head a slightly curved profile—the slender neck, the narrow
-hind-quarters, the lean and sinewy legs and the long, flowing tail which
-had characterized it in its native country. The climate, however, was
-enervating, and constant care had to be taken, by the introduction of new
-blood from Syria, to prevent the breed from deteriorating. The Pharaohs
-kept studs of horses in the principal cities of the Nile valley, and the
-great feudal lords, following their example, vied with each other in the
-possession of numerous breeding stables.”
-
-There are some facts here that are worthy of special emphasis: (1)
-There were no horses in Egypt till the period of the Shepherd Kings,
-i. e., about the time of Joseph. (2) All Egyptologists down to the
-present day agree that the supply of Egyptian horses was procured from
-Northern Syria. (3) The Egyptians and the Arabians were adjoining nations
-in constant, friendly intercourse, exchanging the products of their
-respective countries, and yet there is no shadow of an intimation that
-the Arabians had then ever owned a horse. It is reasonable to conclude,
-therefore, not only from what is written, but from what is implied, that
-the Arabians at about the period of 1600 B.C. had no horses. Northern
-Syria, as the source of Egyptian supply, points directly to Armenia,
-adjoining on the east, as the original source. When Strabo wrote at the
-beginning of the Christian era that there were no horses in Arabia at
-that time, he would still have been within the bounds of the truth if he
-had said there had been none there for more the sixteen hundred years
-before his day. All these considerations confirm the history that has
-come down to us from Philostorgius.
-
-As early as the dynasties of the Shepherd Kings and while the Israelites
-were still in Egyptian bondage, the Phœnician merchants had accumulated
-great wealth and great power and were literally the masters of the seas.
-The Phœnicians were a commercial and maritime people and the Egyptians
-were, in fact, dependent upon them for all their foreign supplies.
-These conditions leave hardly a doubt that Egypt’s first supply of
-horses came through the Phœnicians. But upon the establishment of the
-eighteenth dynasty under the old Thebans, the spirit of war and conquest
-revived, and under Thutmosis I. and Thutmosis III., notably, numerous
-and successful campaigns were made against Northern Syria and then
-extending eastward across the Euphrates into the borders of Armenia and
-Assyria. And from the number of horses and chariots captured in battle
-and collected as tribute, the careful student cannot avoid the conclusion
-that this kind of spoil was the chief incentive to the various campaigns.
-“Besides the usual species,” Maspero informs us, “powerful stallions were
-imported from Northern Syria, which were known by the Semitic name of
-_Abiri_, the strong.” This is the first mention in history of an improved
-type of horse noted for his strength.
-
-Whatever may have been the precise period in which the Patriarch Job
-lived, he was the author of the grandest panegyric on the war-horse that
-ever was written. Yet it seems strange that he owned seven thousand
-sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred
-she asses, but did not own a horse. To draw his picture of the war-horse
-he must have seen him in action, on the field, and it is not improbable
-in his younger days he witnessed, or possibly participated in, some great
-battle between the Babylonians and the Persians, north of the latitude
-and country in which he lived. It is now generally conceded, I think,
-among learned men that the “land of Uz” was in the southeastern portion
-of Arabia Deserta, bordering on the Persian Gulf, where the horse is a
-useless luxury. Job was a very rich man, he certainly did not lack in
-admiration of the horse, and if he had thought that horses would add to
-his comfort and enjoyment he could easily have obtained them from the
-great herds in the north. But the camel is the great beast of service
-and utility in Arabia; it was so in Job’s time, it is so to-day, and it
-always will be so because it is suited to the environment.
-
-When Joshua was subduing the tribes of Canaan, B.C. 1450, he found that
-the Phœnicians had several well-fortified cities and did not attack them,
-but he encountered a combination of “Northern Kings” with a vast army and
-“with horses and chariots very many.” His victory was complete, and he
-houghed their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
-
-Jabin, called the King of Canaan, in the time of the Judges, had his
-kingdom on the northern border of Palestine and east of Phœnicia, at
-the southern extension of Mount Lebanon. Sisera, one of the greatest
-commanders of the time, B.C. 1285, commanded his army and he had nine
-hundred chariots of iron, but the victory of the Israelites was complete.
-
-In the year B.C. 1056, David pursued some of the tribes of Western Arabia
-that had made a raid on Southern Palestine and carried away many captives
-and much spoil. He overtook them with his own followers and subdued them,
-and none escaped except four hundred young men who fled on camels. He
-recovered all the captives and brought back all the flocks and herds,
-but there were no horses among them. About the same time, historians
-inform us, the tribes of Eastern Arabia were paying their tribute to the
-Assyrians in camels and asses, while the northern countries were paying
-theirs in horses and money.
-
-The Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon B.C. 992, to learn of his wisdom
-and “to prove him with hard questions.” Her kingdom was in that part
-of southeastern Arabia now called Yemen, bordering on the Red Sea. Her
-journey was a very long one and she “came with a very great train of
-camels that bare spices and very much gold and precious stones.” It will
-be observed that there were no horses in this “very great train.” It will
-be observed further, from the incidents above related, that whenever the
-Israelites met their neighbors north of them, whether in peace or war,
-they met horses with them; and whenever they met their neighbors south
-of them, they were mounted only on camels.
-
-When the dominions of Solomon had become vastly extended, embracing
-numbers of tributary kingdoms, as well as nomadic tribes, and when his
-ships had gathered in untold riches from all parts of the world, he
-found it prudent to reorganize his army for the defense of his kingdom
-and his wealth, and on a scale commensurate with the dangers that might
-arise from a combination of the jealous and envious neighbors with whom
-he was surrounded. Among the northern kingdoms of that day it had been
-often demonstrated in battle that the effective force of an army must
-be estimated by its strength in horsemen and chariots of war. Solomon,
-therefore, bought horses and chariots from Egypt, and horses from all
-lands that had them for sale. It is probable that the superiority of
-the Egyptian chariots was the special reason for buying them in that
-country, as he paid six hundred shekels of silver for the chariots and
-one hundred and fifty for the horses to bring them home. The reorganized
-army consisted of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand
-horsemen, and they were quartered in the different large cities in his
-dominions. In the interval of seven hundred and twenty-eight years that
-had elapsed since Joseph was Prime Minister, and horses introduced in
-Egypt, they had greatly multiplied. When Solomon died and his kingdom was
-divided into two hostile camps, Hiram, King of Tyre, his lifelong friend
-and associate, became virtually his successor to the trade of the world.
-
-The great Greek geographer, Strabo, traveled and wrote in the reign of
-Augustus, and died A.D. 24. For descriptions of all countries of that
-period and their industries and productions, he has been quoted for
-eighteen hundred years as the best if not the only authority. Writing
-as he did, at the very initial point of the Christian era, he gives us
-a landmark that fixes itself in the mind. He gives a brief, but quite
-satisfactory, description of Arabia, in which he notes the general
-topography and boundaries as they are understood to-day; and then he
-enters, somewhat, into the climate, productions of the soil, character
-and industries of the people, etc. Of one part of the country he speaks
-of the inhabitants as breeders of camels, and of another, that is more
-productive, he remarks: “The general fertility of the country is very
-great; among other products there is in particular an abundant supply
-of honey. Except horses, there are numerous herds of animals, asses
-and swine, birds also of every kind, except geese and the gallinaceous
-tribes.”
-
-Here we have from the very highest authority the pivotal fact that there
-were no horses in Arabia at the commencement of the Christian era. This
-does not rest upon argument, nor is it a deduction from some condition
-of things that might have existed; but it is a distinct declaration of
-what Strabo saw with his own eyes and wrote down when he saw it. It must,
-therefore, stand as an undisputed fact, until some reputable authority is
-brought forward to contradict it. This description from Strabo applies
-to that rich portion of Arabia, bordering on the Red Sea along its full
-length. With the fact established, circumstantially and historically,
-that there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning of the Christian
-era, it now remains to consider how and when they were first introduced
-in that country.
-
-Philostorgius, a distinguished Greek theologian, born A.D. 425, as
-related in the preceding chapter, wrote an ecclesiastical history, which
-is no longer extant, but fortunately Photius, at one time patriarch
-of the Eastern church, born A.D. 853, prepared an epitome of it. This
-epitome of Philostorgius comes down to A.D. 425, and is to be found
-in the Lenox Library of this city, bound up in the same volume with
-Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical History. I will here quote literally from this
-epitome so much as is pertinent to the question before us. Constantius
-was then on the throne of the Eastern Empire, and labored for the
-promotion of the Christian religion.
-
-    “Constantius sent ambassadors to those who were formerly called
-    Sabæans, but are now known as Homeritæ, a tribe descended from
-    Abraham, by Keturah. As to the territory which they inhabit,
-    it is called by the Greeks Magna Arabia and Arabia Felix, and
-    extends to the most distant part of the ocean. Its metropolis
-    is Saba, the city from which the Queen of Sheba went forth to
-    see Solomon.... Constantius, accordingly, sent ambassadors to
-    them to come over to the Christian religion.... Constantius,
-    wishing to array the embassy with peculiar splendor, put on
-    board their ships two hundred well-bred horses from Cappadocia,
-    and sent them, with many other gifts.... The embassy turned
-    out successfully, for the prince of the nation, by sincere
-    conviction, came over to the true religion.”
-
-Other facts might be quoted from this epitome, showing that Theopholis
-was made a bishop and placed at the head of this embassy and that
-he remained in Arabia Felix several years, prosecuting his work
-successfully. It might also be quoted to show that the people of the
-cities of Yemen (Arabia Felix) were, at that day, well advanced in
-civilization and refinement, and that wealth and luxury abounded on
-all sides. Their lands, from the sea to the desert, were wonderfully
-productive, and their people lived in the cities and on their farms,
-but few leading a nomadic life. In later generations this part of the
-country, which is in Arabia Felix, has been called Yemen, and I believe
-it is universally conceded among the Arab tribes and by writers who have
-studied the subject that the best horses come from Yemen.
-
-Taking the administration of Joseph as indicating the time when the first
-horses were introduced into Egypt, about B.C. 1720, and the actual date
-when Constantius sent the first into Arabia, A.D. 356, we find that Egypt
-led Arabia by two thousand and seventy-six years. And yet numbers of men
-have written great pretentious books on the horse, in which they tell
-us that the Egyptians got their horses from the Arabians; while others
-equally pretentious and voluminous tell us the Arabians got their horses
-from the Egyptians; and neither class probably ever gave the labor of an
-honest hour to settle this question. The one is over two thousand years
-out of the way, and still they know just as much about it as the other
-knows. They are both equally ignorant and equally dishonest, for they
-simply copied, as their own, what somebody had said before them.
-
-It is conceded on all hands and by all men who have gone beneath the mere
-surface, that the literature of the ages furnishes no evidence that there
-were horses in Arabia before the fourth or fifth century of our era.
-General Tweedie, by far the ablest writer on the Arabian horse that we
-have examined, concedes the pertinency and force of the absence of all
-literary evidence, until the fifth century is reached, and as a reply he
-says: “The several Roman invasions of Arabia, in the reigns of Augustus,
-Trajan, and Severus, must have left foreign horses behind them.” This
-is, in fact, conceding the accuracy of Strabo’s representations and that
-there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning of the Christian era. The
-truth of the historical allusion is that the Romans never overran nor
-conquered Arabia. They could skirmish around the border and capture a
-few towns or cities, but the death-dealing desert was too much for them.
-Trajan at last made it a Roman province by his proclamation, and not by
-his sword, and for the excellent reason that “the game was not worth the
-candle.” What a strange fact it is that Arabia, instead of the first,
-should have been the last country in all the old world to be supplied
-with horses!
-
-It is very difficult to comprehend or even imagine the changes that may
-be wrought in a thousand years by a strong, enterprising, and aggressive
-people, colonized in a rich country occupied by semi-barbarians and
-savages. This was the condition in Northern Africa, when the Phœnician
-colonies were planted there, a thousand years before the Christian era.
-The colony at Utica in Algeria was planted about eleven hundred years
-before the Christian era, which was contemporaneous with the reign of
-Saul as king of Israel. The colony of Carthage, that afterward contested
-with Rome for universal dominion, was planted in the same country, about
-two hundred years later, and was contemporaneous with Jehu. The whole
-southern shore of the Mediterranean was dotted with Phœnician colonies,
-from Egypt westward.
-
-The oldest of the Phœnician colonies so far from home was probably Gades,
-now called Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain and outside of the
-Pillars of Hercules. This colony was planted about fifteen hundred years
-B.C. and was contemporaneous with Moses and the forty years’ journeying
-of the Israelites in the wilderness. The more recent scholarship seems
-to have developed the fact that still north of Gades and extending from
-the mouth of the Guadelete to that of the Guadiana, there was a very
-large and flourishing colony planted by the Phœnicians, possessing within
-itself many of the requisites and functions of statehood, and that
-this was the ancient “Tarshish” of scripture. This plantation became a
-secondary Tyre, and the “ships of Tarshish” not only made their voyages
-back and forth through the length of the Mediterranean, but extended them
-northward, up the European coast and to Britain, and southward along the
-African coast for a great distance, establishing trading posts wherever
-the products of a country promised profitable exchange.
-
-The planting of colonies in that age, even for the one ostensible purpose
-of trade, involved more than the mere erection of a “trading post”
-at some selected harbor. A strong and well-equipped and well-trained
-military force had to be employed to protect and defend them. The
-Phœnicians were great traders, and at the same time they were excellent
-fighters. Their numerous colonies on both shores of the Mediterranean
-required a strong military force that was made up very largely of
-slaves and the nomadic tribes of the country, but always commanded by
-prominent and influential Phœnicians. It is impossible to tell what the
-very early experiences of the colonists may have been with regard to
-horses; nor do we know whether they found horses already there when they
-arrived at their new plantations. My belief is, however, that they were
-not only the first to carry horses to Egypt, but they were the first
-to carry them to the western extremities of the Mediterranean. It will
-be remembered that the early trade of the Armenians with the Phœnician
-merchants was not only in horses, but in _horsemen_, and it is probable
-that these “horsemen” were slaves, expert and skillful in managing the
-horse. It has been said by historians that certain classes of their ships
-were ornamented with a carved horse’s head, at the prow; and it has been
-inferred that the ships so designated were specially constructed and
-fitted up for the safe carrying of horses. It is true that in the course
-of the centuries horses may have found their way from Egypt westward to
-Algeria, and by crossing the Bosphorus they might have found their way
-from Asia Minor to Spain, but it is also true that from small beginnings
-at the plantation of the colonies there was ample time for them to
-increase to almost countless herds before the period when the colonists
-became a mighty military power in the earth.
-
-Historians tell us that the military establishment of the city of
-Carthage alone, when on a peace footing, consisted of three hundred
-elephants, four thousand horses and forty thousand foot soldiers.
-When Hannibal started out to fight Rome, in the second Punic war, say
-B.C. 218, he had with him eighty thousand footmen and twelve thousand
-horsemen; and he left thirty-two thousand soldiers at home to guard his
-Spanish and his African dominions. With a proportional division of the
-home troops, he then had about seventeen thousand mounted men in his
-army. These were not war levies, but hardened and trained soldiers, and
-it is, therefore, not remarkable that he held nearly the whole of Spain
-in subjection, and practically all of Northwestern Africa. Polybius,
-the soldier historian, tells us that “his Numidian cavalry formed the
-strongest part of his army, and to their quick evolutions, their sudden
-retreat, and their rapid return to the charge, may be attributed the
-success of Hannibal in his great victories.” At an earlier period, we
-learn that in the organization of the Phœnician armies the numerous
-nomadic tribes were placed on their flanks, and wheeled about on
-unsaddled horses guided by a bridle of rushes.
-
-At a very remote period there were two tribes in the interior of Spain,
-the Celtæ and Iberi, that were greatly distinguished for their love of
-independence and their bravery in defending it. The antiquarians have
-failed to give us any information as to what they were or whence they
-came. They were contemporaneous with some of the early colonies of the
-Phœnicians. Their tactics in battle seemed to have been to break the
-enemy’s ranks by a charge as cavalry, and to then dismount and fight on
-foot. They united as one people and called themselves Celtiberi. Where
-they got their horses, or whether they had them before the Phœnicians
-arrived, are questions that cannot be answered.
-
-The Visigoths, or western Goths, overran Northern Italy, settled in
-Southern France and eventually passed over into Spain, where they
-established a dynasty that lasted over two centuries and until it
-was overthrown by the Saracens, A.D. 711. Roderick, the king of the
-Visigoths, went out to battle with the Saracens, arrayed in his most
-showy apparel, and mounted on his splendid chariot, made of ivory and
-set with precious stones. As the battle progressed he saw what he had
-good reason to believe was treachery on the part of one wing of his army
-and he alighted from his chariot, mounted his horse called Orelia and
-rode away while his soldiers were being butchered. He was the last of
-the Gothic dynasty. There had been a battle between the navies of the
-Saracens and the Goths, A.D. 680, fifty-one years earlier, in which the
-fleet of the Saracens had been entirely destroyed, and at that time the
-Saracens occupied the whole of the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
-The word “Moors,” as often used to designate the people of Northern
-Africa, is not well chosen, for it really belongs to but one of many
-different tribes of different names. The term “Saracen” anciently meant
-only an Arab born, but since the middle ages it has come to mean any
-and all adherents to the Mohammedan religion, in the usage of Christian
-people, and is particularly apposite when speaking of a number of tribes
-engaged in a common cause.
-
-The people of Northern Africa were not negroes as we understand the word,
-but a mixture of different races. When the Phœnicians settled among
-them they were nomadic barbarians, possessing a country of great riches
-without knowing it. Under the tuition of their new masters they made
-great advances in many of the arts of peace and in all the arts of war.
-The Phœnician blood was liberally commingled with that of the natives.
-The blood carried the brains, and hence the beautiful structures that
-came from their hands and heads. No purely bred nomad ever could have
-conceived or constructed the Alhambra. The Phœnicians were refined and
-educated idolaters, as refinement and education were understood in their
-day, while the native people were literally barbarians.
-
-The then recent and rapid spread of Mohammedanism among all the people
-of Northern Africa is, on its surface, one of the most remarkable facts
-in history. As a religion it served to unite, under the banner of the
-Crescent, all who accepted it, and guaranteed to all who fell in its
-defense immediate admission to paradise. All who did not accept it were
-enemies and only fit to perish by the sword of the Saracen. The founder
-of this religion died A.D. 632, and seventy-nine years afterward his
-followers, in Northern Africa alone, won their great victory over the
-Gothic dynasty of Spain. When once on Spanish soil they appeared to take
-root there and held possession of a large part of Spain for nearly nine
-hundred years.
-
-Now that I have traversed the field of Spain and Northern Africa, from
-the first dawnings of history down to the beginning of the seventeenth
-century, in order to gather in all that history reveals touching the
-introduction and propagation of the horse in those regions, we are
-ready to summarize the facts that we have gleaned. At the periods of
-six hundred (when Carthage became independent of the mother country),
-four hundred, and two hundred years before the Christian era, there is
-undoubted evidence, over and over again, that Spain and Northern Africa
-were abundantly supplied with horses. Then, how is it possible that the
-hordes of Barbarians from Asia could have supplied these countries with
-horses, when they did not arrive there until several centuries after
-the supply is established to have existed? Take, if you please, the
-shortest of the periods suggested above, when Hannibal’s cavalry almost
-annihilated a great Roman army, two hundred and sixteen years before
-the Christian era. This was five hundred and seventy-two years before
-Arabia had any horses; and how can “the blind leaders of the blind”
-supply Hannibal’s cavalry with Arabian blood? When the people of Northern
-Africa, west of Egypt, fought their way into Spain it is not known that
-there was a single Arabian soldier nor a single Arabian horse in the
-whole army. They were all called Arabians, however, and that pretense has
-existed ever since.
-
-The Phœnicians were the most remarkable people of all the early ages
-and indeed of any age. They belonged to the Aramaic or Semitic race;
-they settled in Canaan long before the days of Abraham and attained
-their greatest prosperity in the days of Solomon, when his fleets and
-those of his friend Hiram, King of Tyre, controlled and monopolized the
-commerce of the world. More than five hundred years before this alliance,
-however, they had established commercial relations with all the countries
-bordering on the Mediterranean, and their ships were trading in the ports
-of every country from Egypt to the Pillars of Hercules and far beyond.
-There seems to be no doubt that they carried tin from Britain and amber
-from the Baltic, and, of course, they had to bring something to exchange
-for what they carried away. What did they bring? As amber did not enter
-into the necessary arts it is not probable the trade was very large, but
-tin was required by many nations in their everyday life, especially the
-Egyptians, who had no foreign commerce and were thus dependent upon the
-Phœnician merchants. We may conclude, therefore, that the trade in tin
-was large, and as there was no Phœnician colony in extreme southwestern
-Britain, the foreign traders would bring just what the Britons most
-needed. If they were already in possession of horses they would not need
-that kind of exchange, but if they were not in possession of horses,
-that would be just the kind of exchange they would want, and probably
-this was the source from which they obtained their supply. The question,
-however, of how or when our British ancestors obtained their first supply
-of horses has never been positively answered. That they had them in great
-abundance at the beginning of the Christian era is fully established by
-the experience of the Romans when they captured Britain. From their great
-numbers and the skill displayed in their management in battle, it cannot
-be doubted that they were there for many generations before the Roman
-armies came in contact with them. Many theories have been advanced as to
-how the horse may have reached Britain, but no one of them rests on so
-reasonable a basis of probability as that of the Phœnician traders. If
-from this source, which I am strongly disposed to believe was the true
-source, it must have been during the maritime supremacy of the Phœnicians
-and their colonies, and this would place the date several centuries
-before the Christian era. If we were able to reconstruct the original
-line of the migration of the early English horses, we would, probably,
-first find them in “the land of Togarmah” starting to market at Tyre,
-where they were exchanged for supplies needed in Armenia. There they were
-put on board one of the great “ships of Tarshish,” and when they next
-touched the land it was at one of the ports at the southwestern portion
-of England, where they were exchanged for tin and other products of the
-mines.
-
-In addition to the argument furnished by this known course of trade
-between nations and peoples, in prehistoric times, we have an additional
-one in the natural perpetuation of racial qualities, extending through
-many centuries. In reply to some questions submitted to a friend of
-mine who was born in Western Persia, educated in this country, and then
-returned to the land of his nativity, I have replies to my questions
-bearing date of July, 1896. He is located at Oroomiah, not far from the
-modern line between Persia and Turkey, and in what may be considered the
-very center of ancient Armenia. He is not skilled in horse lore, but he
-uses horses a great deal and is a very intelligent observer. He says
-that the Persian horses have been greatly overrated and that the country
-is full of very ordinary horses. He says that they are all colors, with
-bays probably predominating. There is a great variety of mixed greys,
-shading into white, and a few that are dappled. Then there are chestnuts,
-sorrels, “mouse-color” (duns), and not many blacks. They are small, as a
-rule, and a harness of small size from this country has to be cut down
-for them. From this I infer that they are generally under fourteen hands.
-On the whole the horses are nicely shaped, have slender, clean limbs,
-small ears, and carry the head and tail well up. As a rule they are great
-stumblers. With regard to gaits he says that stress is laid on a rapid
-walk—a half walk and half trot. In this country we would call it the
-“running walk” that may be kept up for days in succession. In speaking of
-the pace, my correspondent says: “There are some horses trained to pace,
-while some pick it up naturally, that is, are born pacers. The greater
-number are natural pacers. Now and then one will find a rapid pacer, but
-commonly the pace is a five or six miles an hour gait. There are some
-that single-foot naturally, and from birth.”
-
-He then says horses are not bred with any care. They are turned loose in
-herds and the breeding is such as would naturally occur.
-
-It will be observed that my Persian friend speaks of the different
-colors “of grey, shading into white,” which suggests a possible descent
-from the famous breed of white Nissæan horses kept by the great Darius
-and other Medo-Persian monarchs for racing purposes. But the striking
-feature in this description of the horses of Persia, or more properly,
-of ancient Armenia, of this day, is the fact that they are of the same
-size and color and habits of action as the horses of Britain when
-first visited by the Romans, as well as when they were more minutely
-described twelve hundred years later, and as they were at the beginning
-of the seventeenth century, and as they still were at the middle of the
-eighteenth century. As evidence on these points reference is made to
-the chapters on horses of the colonial period that will follow in their
-place. In ancient Armenia, as with all pastoral people of the early ages,
-horses were turned out to run in herds and literally left to Mr. Darwin’s
-law of “natural selection and the survival of the fittest.” So it was in
-Britain to a great extent, until the eighteenth century, and so it was in
-the American colonies until fifty years later; hence the same types and
-characteristics prevailed and were perpetuated in all these countries.
-
-It is sad to contemplate the present debased and semi-barbarous condition
-of the descendants of a great people who for centuries stood first among
-all the nations of the earth in commercial enterprise, in learning, and
-in the arts. The banishment of the Saracens from Spain in the beginning
-of the seventeenth century of our era was in fact the banishment of
-the descendants of the Phœnicians who first colonized Spain. The
-architectural structures which they left behind them, and which for
-their marvelous beauty have challenged the admiration of the world, were
-not the work of nomads and barbarians. They were the flashes of the old
-Phœnician taste and genius as exemplified by the descendants of the men
-whom Hiram sent to construct and decorate the buildings of Solomon. The
-Alhambra and some other structures in Spain are all that we have to
-remind us of the genius, and grandeur of Phœnicia. Whatever may have been
-the character and attainments of the descendants of the colonists at
-the time, the change from idolatry to Islamism was a bad one. Wherever,
-throughout the world, the teachings of the “Prophet” have been accepted,
-whole nations have become intolerant, murderous and brutalized, and the
-modern Phœnicians are no exception. They have now lost their identity in
-the follies and crimes of Islamism and we can have no sympathy for them.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-THE ARABIAN HORSE.
-
-    The Arabian, the horse of romance—The horse naturally
-    foreign to Arabia— Superiority of the camel for all Arabian
-    needs—Scarcity of horses in Arabia in Mohammed’s time—Various
-    preposterous traditions of Arab horsemanship—The Prophet’s
-    mythical mares—Mohammed not in any sense a horseman—Early
-    English Arabians—the Markham Arabian—The alleged Royal
-    Mares—The Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—The Prince
-    of Wales’ Arabian race horses—Mr. Blunt’s pilgrimage to the
-    Euphrates—His purchases of so-called Arabians—Deyr as a great
-    horse market where everything is thoroughbred—Failure of
-    Mr. Blunt’s experiments—Various Arabian horses brought to
-    America—Horses sent to our Presidents—Disastrous experiments of
-    A. Keene Richards—Tendency of Arab romancing from Ben Hur.
-
-
-Admiration always leads to exaggeration. This is true in most of the
-relations of life, but in our admiration of the horse it becomes greatly
-intensified, so greatly indeed that in magnifying his excellent qualities
-we find ourselves telling downright falsehoods about him before we know
-it. This “amiable weakness,” as we might call it, is true of our everyday
-life and our everyday horses; but when we come to the horse that is the
-universal ideal of perfection, everybody seems to lay aside all the
-restraints of truth in extolling the superiority of his qualities. The
-“Arabian horse” is the ideal horse of all the world. He is the “gold
-standard” in all horsedom, with the one important distinction that the
-one is real and the other is mythical. Not one so-called horseman in a
-million ever saw a genuine Arabian horse, nor any of the descendants of
-one; and in all the discussions of the past three hundred and fifty years
-it has never been shown in a single instance that a horse from Arabia,
-with an authenticated pedigree and tracing as such, has ever been of any
-value, either as a race horse or as a progenitor of race horses. The
-superior qualities of “the Arabian horse,” like the superior qualities of
-“The Arabian Nights,” are purely works of the imagination. There is just
-as much truth in the stories of Sindbad the Sailor and Aladdin’s Lamp as
-there is in most of the literature relating to the Arabian horse.
-
-I am fully satisfied that these views of the Arabian horse will not meet
-with a ready acceptance by the vast majority of the horsemen of this
-or any other country, but my reasons for presenting them will become
-apparent as the discussion progresses. They smash too many idols and
-dispel too many chimeras of the brain to be readily accepted. It takes
-the average man a long time to get clear of the prejudices in which he
-was born, and the first question that will be asked by the doubter is,
-“Why could not Arabia have supported a race of indigenous wild horses, as
-well as any other country?” Because the horse, wild or tame, has never
-learned to dig a well forty feet deep, nor to draw water after it is
-dug. Neither has he learned to lay up a store in time of plenty against
-a time of famine. The horse could not live in Arabia without the care of
-man. And, second, “Why were all the civilized and semi-civilized nations
-west of Asia supplied with horses a thousand years before Arabia, when
-so near the original habitat of the horse?” It is the first law of our
-nature to supply ourselves with what we need. The camel always has been
-a necessity to the Arab, not only to carry him and his burdens, but to
-furnish nourishment and sustenance to him and his family. The camel is
-adapted to the country and the country to the camel, and no other created
-animal can fill that place. He is, literally, “the ship of the desert.”
-The horse in Arabia is a luxury that can be indulged in only by the rich;
-hence his ownership is practically restricted to the chiefs of tribes. He
-is never used except for display and war. Palgrave, in speaking specially
-of the Nejd tribe, says: “A horse is by no means an article of everyday
-possession, or of ordinary or working use. No genuine Arab would ever
-dream of mounting his horse for a mere peaceful journey, whether for a
-short or a long distance.”
-
-When we consider the immeasurable superiority of the camel to the
-horse in meeting the wants and necessities of the Arab, we will not be
-surprised at the immense herds of the former and the small numbers of
-the latter that are bred and reared in that country. A camel can go four
-days without water, and under stress, it is said, a good one can cover
-the distance of two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. The camel and
-the country are suited to each other, while the horse is an exotic, and
-has no part in any industrial interest except raiding and robbery. My
-attention was first called to this unexpected smallness in the numbers
-of Arabian horses in the seventh century, two hundred and sixty years
-after the introduction of the original stock from Cappadocia. The flight
-of Mohammed from his enemies in Mecca to Medina took place A.D. 622.
-There, setting up as a Prophet, and as holding communications with
-Heaven, he soon gathered around him a number who believed in his divine
-inspiration. Understanding the habits and instincts of his followers,
-he soon found he must give them something to do. He called them about
-him, mounted a camel, and at their head he was successful in plundering
-two or three caravans, which greatly enraged his old enemies at Mecca.
-Whether the anger of his enemies was kindled anew because some of the
-plunder belonged in Mecca, or whether he merely deprived the Meccans of
-the opportunity of doing the plundering themselves, the historian fails
-to make clear. Whichever may have been the underlying reason, it led to
-war. In the first campaign of the Meccans and in the first battle fought,
-they far outnumbered the followers of the Prophet. There were some camels
-in Mohammed’s train, but no horses. He did not lead the battle himself,
-but remained in his tent and promised his followers that all who fell
-in battle would be forthwith admitted into Paradise. They believed the
-promise, as millions and millions have believed it since; it inspired
-them with a recklessness of life, and they were completely victorious.
-The result of this victory was the capture of one hundred and fifteen
-camels and fourteen horses, besides the entire camp of the enemy. In the
-battle of the next year (A.D. 625) between the same parties, the forces
-were much increased on both sides. Sir William Muir, the historian,
-informs us that Mohammed had but two horses in his army, one of which
-he mounted himself and took command of his forces. This battle was not
-decisive. In subsequent raids he captured many enemies and traded his
-female captives for horses with the surrounding tribes, so far as he was
-able to obtain them. The next year he had an army of three thousand men
-and thirty-six horses, while the enemy had an army of three thousand men,
-of whom two hundred were cavalry, but there was no fighting. The fame of
-Mohammed as a successful and relentless pillager and destroyer had now
-spread far and wide, and as a means of escape the chiefs of the larger
-portion of the tribes of Arabia hastened to tender their allegiance
-and obey his commands. From this forward, therefore, we must consider
-Mohammed as the representative of the whole of Arabia, in both its
-religious and military power. The next year his old enemies, the citizens
-of Mecca, surrendered the sacred city to him without a blow, and thus
-Islamism became a mighty power in the world.
-
-It is evident from many sources other than the history of Mohammed that
-horses have always been a very sparse production in Arabia. Burckhardt,
-the famous traveler in the East, journeyed very extensively in Arabia
-about 1814, and he gives the result of his observations on this point of
-numbers as follows: “In all the journey from Mecca to Medina, between
-the mountains and the sea, a distance of at least two hundred and sixty
-miles, I do not believe that two hundred horses could be found, and the
-same proportion of numbers may be remarked all along the Red Sea.” This
-is in strict conformity with the observations of other writers, the
-reasons for which have already been given.
-
-Time out of mind, everybody has heard of the insuperable difficulty of
-prevailing upon an Arab to part with his genuine, high-caste mare for
-either love or money. He will expatiate, as the story goes, upon “the
-beauty and graces of his mare as the light of his household and the joy
-and playmate of his children, and above all as she is royally bred he
-cannot, as a good Moslem, disobey the injunctions of the Prophet not to
-sell such mares, but to keep them forever that their descendants may
-enrich the children of the faithful to all generations.” If you ask him
-more particularly about her lines of descent, he will give you fifty or
-a hundred generations and land you safely on the name of the particular
-one of the five mares of the Prophet from which she is descended. To
-illustrate the sham of all this Major Upton’s experience, in purchasing
-horses in Arabia for the East India service, may be cited. It is evident
-the major understands his dealers and they understand him. He says: “In
-the desert we never heard of Mohammed’s mares, nor was his name ever
-mentioned in any way as connected with the Arabian horse.” He says there
-is no restriction nor difficulty in buying as many mares as you want, in
-any part of Arabia. This disposes of the tricky pretenses of the Arab
-horse dealer when he is negotiating a sale to a man without Arabian
-experience.
-
-Some modern writers make mention of a tradition that still prevails
-among some tribes as to the origin of the Arabian horse, and it is to
-the effect that their best horses came originally from Yemen. This
-tradition is met with in Arabia Deserta, a long way from Arabia Felix, of
-which Yemen is a portion. While this tradition is of no possible value
-as evidence, it is suggestive of what might be unearthed in that strange
-country. The people were not nomadic, but agricultural and commercial,
-and the cities were rich. The people were well advanced in the arts and
-comforts of civilized life, and in their cities they had many beautiful
-temples and palaces. Such a people would of necessity produce learned
-men who would leave records of their national history behind them, and
-especially that of such an event as the conversion of the whole people
-to Christianity. Possibly the researches of scholarly men may yet bring
-to light more of the facts connected with the embassy from the Emperor
-Constantius and the introduction of the Cappadocian horses into Yemen, as
-related in the preceding chapters.
-
-There are many other traditions, so called, that are burnished up and
-brought out whenever the crafty dealer finds he has a Richards from
-America, or a Blunt from England, with his mind already made up that all
-the best horses of the world have come from Arabia. To such a customer,
-with his mind already at high tension in search for the longest pedigree
-and the purest blood, the dealer casts his hook in something like the
-form following:
-
-“When King Solomon had completed the temple he turned his attention to
-supplying his army with horses and chariots. He searched every nation
-that had horses for sale and would have none but the very best that the
-world could produce. He spent much of his time in admiring his beautiful
-horses, and one day he was so thoroughly absorbed that the hour of prayer
-passed without his observing it. He felt that this neglect to pray at the
-proper time was a great sin, and that his horses had led him into it.
-He did not hesitate longer, but he at once ordered all his horses to be
-turned loose to the public. Some of my ancestors succeeded in securing
-six of these mares, and from these six mares all the good horses of
-Arabia are descended.”
-
-Other dealers are a little more modest in their claims for the antiquity
-of the pedigrees of their horses, and generously knock off about sixteen
-hundred years, being content to trace to the mares of the Prophet
-instead of the mares of Solomon. This still leaves them with a pedigree
-only about twelve hundred years long, which beats our modern romancers
-in making stud books. In order to test and select the mares that were
-worthy of becoming the dams of the best horses, as the story goes, the
-Prophet shut up a herd of mares, in plain sight of water, and kept them
-there till they were almost famished with thirst; and then at a signal
-they were all released at once, and when rushing headlong to the water
-the trumpet sounds, and notwithstanding their sufferings they turn and
-align themselves up in military order. In this test of obedience and
-discipline, it is said, only five of the mares obeyed the signal (some
-say only three) and thus the mares that obeyed, notwithstanding their
-sufferings, became justly entitled to the distinctive and honored name of
-“The Prophet’s Mares.” Another story is told of the particular markings
-which, in the Prophet’s estimation, indicated the best horses. By one
-authority he always selected a black horse with a white “forehead,” and
-some white mark or marks on his upper lip. Another authority says he
-always chose a bay horse with a bald face and four white legs, and so
-we might go on till we had embraced every color and every combination
-of marks, and we would then find that each “authority” had a horse to
-sell corresponding with the Prophet’s preferences. Now the fact is that
-Mohammed was neither a horseman nor a horse breeder, and the whole tenor
-of history goes to show that he neither knew nor cared very much about
-horses. In his first pilgrimage to Mecca, after the battles referred to
-above, the privilege for which was secured by negotiation, a hundred
-horsemen, it is said, were started and kept one day’s journey in advance
-of the main body of pilgrims. The great numbers following Mohammed on
-this pilgrimage admonished his old enemies of Mecca of the futility of
-attempting to resist his power longer, and they fled from the city during
-the continuance of the ceremonies. A year or two later he summoned all
-the tribes of Northern and Eastern Arabia to follow him again to Mecca,
-and they had too lively a sense of their own safety to disobey. Due time
-was given for preparation, the rendezvous was at Medina, and a vast host
-from all Northern and Western Arabia congregated there for a purpose that
-might be to fight, or it might be to pray. Mohammed mounted his camel
-and the word was passed, “On to Mecca.” As against such a multitude the
-Meccans saw that resistance was hopeless, and the city was surrendered
-without either side striking a blow. Arrayed in great splendor and
-mounted on his camel, the Prophet made the requisite number of circuits
-round the holy place and then entered and ordered all the idols that
-had been set up there to be destroyed, and his followers then shouted,
-“Allah is Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet!” Thus he became master of
-all Arabia—and woe to the Christian or the Jew who stood in his way. Two
-years afterward he died, and there is nothing in his life or history to
-indicate that he ever owned a horse or that he ever mounted one, except
-on a single occasion. In the ten short years of his public life he had
-something more important on hand than to determine how to breed horses.
-
-In studying the Arabian horse in the light of what he has done and what
-he has failed to do, we are indebted to English writers for little
-snatches of experiences extending back for a period of about two hundred
-and fifty years. The earliest English writer who has had anything to say
-about the Arabian horse was the Duke of Newcastle, who seems to have
-known a great deal about the various types and breeds of horses of his
-day. During the period of the Commonwealth it appears he devoted his
-time, in the Netherlands, to training horses in the _manege_ of that day.
-From his experience in this employment he became an expert in the form,
-structure, and docility of the different kinds of horses that he handled.
-When Charles II. was brought back and placed upon the throne, the duke
-also came to his own, and being a personal friend of the king he became
-his counselor and adviser in all matters relating to the improvement of
-the horses of the realm. In 1667 the duke published his famous book upon
-the horse, in which he speaks right out on any and every question that
-he touches. There can be no doubt that he knew more about horses and
-horse history than any man of his day. In speaking of the Arabian horse
-he says: “I never saw but one of these horses, which Mr. John Markham, a
-merchant, brought over, and said he was a right Arabian. He was a bay,
-but a little horse, and no rarity for shape, for I have seen many English
-horses far finer. Mr. Markham sold him to King James for five hundred
-pounds, and being trained up for a course (race), when he came to run
-every horse beat him.”
-
-It is generally held that this Markham Arabian was the first of that
-breed ever brought to England, and this seems to be established by the
-fact that historians antedating his arrival make no mention of any
-Arabian horse before this one, and those following always speak of this
-horse as the first. In speaking of the powers of endurance of the Arabian
-horse, the duke says: “They talk they will ride fourscore miles in a day
-and never draw the bridle. When I was young I could have bought a nag
-for ten pounds that would have done as much very easily.” The duke’s
-masterful knowledge of the subject, as well as his special official
-relations to the king, gave him control of whatever was done or attempted
-in the direction of improving the racing stock of England. Tradition
-informs us that “King Charles II. sent abroad the master of the horse
-to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding, and the
-mares brought over by him (as also many of their produce) have since been
-called Royal Mares.” It is very doubtful whether any such importation
-was ever made. The question has been discussed, from time to time and
-even recently, but nobody has ever yet discovered who was “Master of the
-Horse,” to what country he was sent or what the character of the mares
-he brought home, or where he got them. The fair presumption is that
-these “Royal Mares” were myths and that they were created merely for the
-purpose of putting a finish on certain very uncertain pedigrees, just as
-a trotting-horse man would finish a pedigree that he knew nothing about
-by saying, “out of a thoroughbred mare.” As a matter of course it has
-always been assumed that these “Royal Mares” were of distinctively pure
-Arabian blood. But, if we admit that such an importation was really made,
-we must consider that it was made under the direction and control of the
-Duke of Newcastle, the king’s mentor in all horse affairs, and this is
-sufficient proof that there was no Arabian blood about the “Royal Mares.”
-As the size of the English race horse and especially his weight of bone
-commenced to increase soon after this time, it strikes me as probable
-that this was the wise and guiding motive of the duke in making his
-selections of the “Royal Mares.”
-
-When we come down a little nearer to our own times and step across the
-border from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century, we are still
-in the realm of traditions, and many of them very preposterous. The
-deceptions practiced in nomenclature were so common as to be well-nigh
-universal. Everybody who owned a foreign horse must have “Arabian”
-attached to his name. To illustrate this evil and the misleading effects
-flowing from it, I will give two instances of the most famous horses
-in all English history. The Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian
-stand pre-eminent and before all others as progenitors of the English
-race horse. The former of these two was purchased at Aleppo, in Asia
-Minor, and brought to England in 1711, by Mr. Darley of Yorkshire who
-secured him through a brother in trade in that region. He was the sire of
-Flying Childers and many others, and his blood carried from generation
-to generation. Aleppo is in Northern Syria and far distant from Arabia.
-At one time it was embraced in Armenia Minor, the original home of the
-horse, and adjoined Cappadocia and Cilicia, all famous for the excellence
-of their horse stock more than two thousand years before there was a
-single horse in Arabia. Upon the restoration of the ancient Theban line
-of Pharaohs in Egypt, at the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, no time
-was lost by Thutmosis I. in leading a great army into Northern Syria for
-no other purpose that is apparent except to replenish and reinvigorate
-the horse stock of Egypt, from the region of Aleppo and further east, for
-this is the region from which they had secured their original stock. His
-successors pursued the same course, year after year, and the number of
-horses and chariots captured in battle, as well as the number of mares
-sent as tribute by the frightened people, were duly recorded in the
-annals of their achievements. If the Darley Arabian, so called, bore any
-relationship whatever to the Arabian horse, it can only be established
-by tracing him back to some one of the animals in Cappadocia that the
-Emperor Constantius sent to Arabia in the year A.D. 356. A writer of
-the seventeenth century, Dr. Alexander Bursell, in speaking of Aleppo,
-says: “Formerly this part of the country was famous for fine horses; and
-though many good ones are still bred here, it may be said they are much
-degenerated.” This is the observation of an intelligent man, written and
-published in 1756, about forty years after Mr. Darley’s horse was brought
-from there.
-
-The other illustration is that of Godolphin Arabian. As a progenitor of
-race horses this was the greatest horse of his century, or indeed of any
-other century in the history of the English race horse. He died in 1753,
-and absolutely nothing is known of his origin or his early history. The
-story is generally accepted, and I suppose is true, that he was bought
-out of a cart in Paris, as an act of humanity, by a Mr. Coke, taken to
-London, presented to Mr. Williams, the keeper of a coffee-house, and
-passed from him to Lord Godolphin, who kept him till he died. The story
-that he was presented to Louis XV. by the Bey of Tunis in 1731 has never
-been verified in any manner, and breaks down on the vital point of date.
-Some intelligent Englishmen insist that he _must have been_ an Arabian,
-while others insist that he _must have been_ a Barb, while no man
-_knows_ whether he was either one or the other. With the most prominent
-horses of the nation and of their century thus used to mislead the public
-mind as to their lineage, what are we to expect from the great ruck of
-the obscure and less prominent? But, as a more elaborate and methodical
-discussion of this topic will be found in the chapter on the English
-and American Race Horse, we will now turn our attention to the actual
-experiences with the Arabians in recent times.
-
-When we come down to the present century we get into the era of
-newspapers that really begun to give the news, and thus educate their
-readers, not very authentically, but circumstantially, in what was
-passing in the world in every department of knowledge and enterprise.
-Under these wide sources of information, a few authentic experiences
-will serve to illustrate the true status of the Arabian horse and his
-influence, or lack of influence, on English and American horses. More
-than twenty years ago the Prince of Wales made a royal progress through
-Her Majesty’s dominions in the East. The enthusiasm was unbounded and he
-was loaded down with many valuable presents, among them several elegant,
-high-caste Arabian horses. It appears that some of these horses had
-already won reputation and money on the turf, and were considered the
-very best that could be found in the East. On their arrival they were
-greatly admired and praised, especially by the sporting friends of the
-prince, who seemed to have no doubt, nor did they conceal their opinions,
-that they could beat any horses in all England. This was a conclusion
-that a great many racing men, with longer memories, could not accept,
-and after a good deal of diplomacy a match was finally concluded between
-the prince’s best horse and an old horse that was third or fourth-class,
-in his prime, but was unsound and liable to break down any time he was
-extended. The prince was popular, had many supporters, and much money
-was pending. The old horse was patched up as well as possible, the day
-came, the race was started, and the old cripple was so much faster than
-the Arab that his managers had the hardest work in the world to prevent
-him from running clear away and disgracing the prince. This account of
-the race I had from one of the most eminent and successful trainers
-that England has produced. He witnessed the race and knew all the facts
-concerning it. Notwithstanding the popularity of the prince and the
-universal feeling of loyalty toward him, it was a long time before his
-Arabs ceased to be a laughing-stock among horsemen.
-
-Some sixteen or eighteen years ago, an English gentleman of wealth and
-intelligence—Mr. Wilfrid S. Blunt—got it into his head that the way
-to improve the English race horse was to secure fresh infusions of
-pure Arabian blood. He was industrious in propagating his fad, in an
-amateurish way, through the columns of the English newspapers, evincing
-great zeal and a great lack of knowledge of the hundreds of experiments
-in the same direction and in the history of his own country that had
-proved disastrous. But he had a will of his own and a bank account that
-enabled him to carry out his views to their own realization. In the
-autumn of 1877 he made up a pleasant family party, consisting of his
-wife, Lady Anne, and two of her lady friends and started for Arabia, with
-the full determination to find the best and to buy nothing that was not
-of the purest and best lineage that could be found in all that country.
-Fortunately, Lady Anne carefully noted down everything that transpired in
-their journeyings and after the return wrote a very pleasant and readable
-book, understood to have been edited by her husband in some of its
-features. The title of the book—“The Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates”—did
-not strike me pleasantly, for I never knew that any of the numerous
-Bedouin tribes were to be found on the Euphrates. But my purpose is not
-to criticise either the book or its title, but to follow the party over
-its itinerary and discover just where Mr. Blunt found the blood he was
-looking for, and upon what evidence he accepted it as “the best blood.”
-With this view I will carefully give his own language, so far as it
-applies to the point in view.
-
-His first purchase was at Aleppo, where he got a mare he named Hagar, as
-he says, “for a very moderate sum.” “She was of the Kehilan-Ajuz breed.”
-“When purchased she was in very poor condition, having just gone through
-the severe training of a campaign.” “She was bred by the Gommussa, the
-most able of the horse-breeding tribes, had passed from them to the
-Roala, and had now been captured and ridden some two hundred miles, in
-hot haste, for sale to Aleppo.” “We never met anything in our travels
-that could compete with her over a distance, and she has often run down
-foxes and even hares, without assistance, carrying thirteen stone on her
-back.” This was the first experience of the English “tenderfoot” among
-Syrian horsethieves. According to his own showing, he bought her from
-the fellow who had stolen her and had ridden her two hundred miles to
-escape, and he accepted what the thief told about the breeding of the
-mare as true. The thief knew just what Mr. Blunt wanted and he shaped the
-pedigree and tracing to suit the purchaser. Mr. Blunt had no knowledge of
-this mare’s breeding, nor where she came from; still, her blood was to
-become one of the great influences in renovating the English race horse.
-This incident is of no importance, in itself, except as it illustrates
-the universal conditions under which amateurs buy horses in the Orient.
-
-Upon leaving Aleppo, the party traveled eastward till they struck the
-Euphrates and then down the right bank of that river. The first town
-of any importance was Deyr, on the river, and just across was ancient
-Mesopotamia. They were still in the border land between the productive
-north and the desert south, with the Syrian desert between them and the
-Arabian desert. All this region is occupied with a mixture of races,
-employed in varied pursuits, with but a feeble trace of tribal authority,
-as all are under the direct government of the Sultan of Turkey.
-
-    “Deyr is well-known,” Mr. Blunt says, “as a horse market, and
-    is, perhaps, the only town north of the Jebel Shammar where
-    the inhabitants have any general knowledge of the blood and
-    breeding of the beasts they possess. The townsmen, indeed, are
-    but a single step removed from the Bedouins, their undoubted
-    ancestors. They usually purchase their colts as yearlings
-    either from the Gomussa, or some of the Sabaa tribes, and
-    having broken them thoroughly, sell them at three years old
-    to the Aleppo merchants. They occasionally, too, have mares
-    left with them, in partnership, by the Anazah, and from
-    these they breed according to the strictest desert rules. It
-    is, therefore, for a stranger, by far the best market for
-    thoroughbreds in Asia, and you may get some of the best blood
-    at Deyr that can be found anywhere, besides having a guarantee
-    of its authenticity, impossible, under ordinary circumstances,
-    to get at Damascus or Aleppo. There are, I may say, no horses
-    at Deyr but thoroughbreds.”
-
-He made some purchases at Deyr and then they pursued their journey down
-the river, and at the most convenient point he crossed over to Bagdad,
-on the Tigris. Here he inspected the stud of the Turkish pasha, but the
-prices were high and he seemed to lack confidence in the purity of their
-breeding. Whatever the cause, he made no purchases, and soon started
-on his journey up the Tigris. Upon reaching Sherghat on the Tigris,
-he turned westward, and crossing ancient Mesopotamia, he was again at
-Deyr, where he seems to have made more purchases, and then started, in
-a southwesterly direction, with eighteen mares and two stallions for
-Damascus and the coast. This closed the search of Arabia for Arabian
-horses of the highest caste and purest blood, without really being in
-Arabia, and this is all that can be said of “The Bedouin Tribes of the
-Euphrates”—without having seen a real Bedouin.
-
-No doubt Mr. Blunt thinks he is right in his high appreciation of
-the town of Deyr as a horse market; that it is “the best market for
-thoroughbreds in Asia;” and that “there are no horses in Deyr but
-thoroughbreds,” or he would not have bought his horses there. Dealing
-in horses seems to be the principal business of the people, they are
-all well informed on the best and purest strains of blood, according to
-Mr. Blunt, and all their own horses are thoroughbred. Truly an ideal
-market, an ideal people, and ideal horses, just suited to the needs
-of enthusiastic amateurs like Mr. Blunt. This remarkable horse town
-is located on the border between the rich grain fields and luxuriant
-meadows on the north, and the comparatively barren deserts of the south.
-On the north the country has been famous for thousands of years for the
-great numbers and excellence of the horses produced, and they are still
-produced of excellent form and quality, and are sold at very low prices.
-On the south is the land of the camel, and but few horses and those few
-held at high prices, and the simple term “Arabian horse” always brings
-them purchasers. Here, then, we find that Deyr is the very paradise of
-horse traders—a tribe, wherever we find them on the face of the earth,
-distinguished for elasticity of conscience. The north furnishes the
-horses and the south furnishes the pedigrees, and no wonder the Deyrites
-had nothing but “thoroughbreds” when Mr. Blunt came along. In the line
-of their business and from their southern neighbors, they had picked up
-enough “Arabian horse talk” to satisfy all inexperienced buyers that
-they knew all about the value of the different strains of Arabian blood,
-and could supply them from their own studs, at very reasonable prices.
-And thus Mr. Blunt brought home to England eighteen “Arabian” mares and
-two stallions, without any satisfactory evidence that they ever had seen
-Arabia. In this enthusiastic venture, resulting in utter failure, there
-is one alleviating fact that Mr. Blunt can call to mind, and that is that
-his horses were just as good for the purpose of improving the English
-race horse as any others that have been brought from the Orient in the
-past hundred years. Whatever their blood, whether genuine or counterfeit
-Arabians, they have all alike been failures, and all alike good for
-nothing.
-
-Early in the history of our own government it became not an unusual
-thing for the Sultan of Turkey, the Emperor of Morocco, or some other
-potentate of the Saracenic races, to present to the President two horses,
-and as they were presents from royalty to what they esteemed royalty,
-they were necessarily of the highest caste and of the greatest value of
-any horses in all their dominions. It is probable that Mr. Jefferson
-was the first president to receive these royal gifts, and under the
-requirements of the constitution and without any disrespect to the donor,
-he ordered them to be sold to the highest bidder, and turned the money
-into the treasury. Several of the presidents received these presents of
-horses, and without knowing the fact, I will presume disposed of them
-the same way. In the case of President Lincoln, Mr. Seward seemed to
-be more highly favored and the sultan sent the horses to him. Through
-the State Agricultural Society, Mr. Seward presented his royal presents
-to the State of New York. My recollection is not very distinct, but
-my impression is that Mr. Van Buren had disposed of his in the same
-way. When General Grant received his, he was not in public office and
-hence they became his personal property. A number of the first of these
-importations, together with some others that were brought from Arabia,
-individually and by private persons, were, in the early part of the
-century, carried into the South, which was then the “race-horse region,”
-but the breeders there very soon discovered that in breeding from them
-they were taking a backward instead of a forward step. Their progeny
-could neither run nor trot, and as they were too small for the ordinary
-uses of the farmer and planter, they were almost unanimously rejected,
-with nothing left but the ignorant “fad” that was embodied in the name
-“Arabian.”
-
-The most notable example of the folly of attempting to regenerate the
-American race horse by the introduction of the “blood of the desert”
-is furnished in the sad experience of the late A. Keene Richards, of
-Kentucky. He inherited a large estate, and when he came into possession
-he proved himself an intelligent and successful breeder, and ran the
-colts of his own breeding, with a full share of winnings. He was not a
-spendthrift nor a gambler, but he was not content with mediocrity in
-sharing triumphs with his neighbors, for he was ambitious to beat, them
-all. He soon had his head full of such horses as the Darley Arabian and
-the Godolphin Arabian, and he argued if that blood founded the English
-race horse, he would go to Arabia and get it, and it could not fail to
-regenerate the American race horse. He did not stop to inquire whether
-either of his great ideals might have had a drop of Arabian blood in his
-veins, but he started for Arabia at once. He brought home a few stallions
-and felt sure he was on the eve of the greatest triumph of his life. When
-the half-Arab produce of his strong and elegantly bred race mares were
-old enough to run the jockey club allowed the half-breeds seven pounds
-the advantage in weight and they were beaten. The club then allowed them
-fourteen pounds and they were again beaten; and finally the allowance was
-raised to twenty-one pounds, and they were still in the rear rank. Under
-these humiliating defeats a careful man would have hesitated before he
-went further, but he at once jumped to the conclusion that his defeat
-was not in the fact that Arab blood could not run fast enough to win,
-but in the fact, as he supposed, that the rascally Arabs had sold him
-blood that was not Arab blood. In a short time he was off for Arabia
-again, taking with him as companion and adviser the distinguished animal
-painter, Troye, who had a long and successful experience as a delineator
-of race horses and knew all about the anatomy of the horse. They spent
-several months among the different tribes, and in order to get “inside
-of the ring,” as it were, they ate with the Arabs, slept with the Arabs,
-and worshiped with the Arabs, as Mr. Richards told me himself. They came
-home full of the highest expectations, bringing several mares as well as
-stallions with them, and fully assured that every one was of the highest
-caste and the best form for racing that could be found on all the plains
-of the desert. After the foals of this importation were old enough to
-start in the stakes, they were given the same advantages in weight as
-before, and they proved no better than the first lot. Poor Mr. Richards
-was crushed in spirits, not only by the vanishing of his air castles,
-but by the importunacy of his creditors. In his heroic, but misguided,
-efforts to improve the American race horse by infusions of pure Arabian
-blood, he involved his once handsome estate, and he died hopelessly
-insolvent. He had bred a number of pure Arabs of several generations, but
-the abundant feed and luxuriant blue grass of Kentucky did not increase
-their size, for when they came under the auctioneer’s hammer they were
-but little “tackeys,” and they brought only the price of little “tackeys.”
-
-The number of horses brought to this country, whether as gifts to
-statesmen or as private ventures, and called “Arabians,” is not very
-large, and it is safe to say that not one in ten of them ever saw Arabia.
-They came from Turkey or some of the Barbary States. But in the case
-of Mr. Richards there can be no doubt that he made his selections in
-Arabia itself. Those selections having been made personally and with
-care and skill, we are bound to accept them as genuine Arabians. When
-we find, therefore, that having been tested they are no better than the
-horses brought from Turkey or from Africa, we must conclude that the
-whole scheme is mere moonshine, and that Arabian blood as a means of
-improvement has failed to develop the value that enthusiasts and dreamers
-have claimed for it since “time whereof the memory of man runneth not to
-the contrary.” Practical and thinking men always judge of the value of
-a breed of horses from what the representatives of that breed can do or
-what they fail to do. The emotional and unpractical are always looking
-for an ideal horse, and the poets and story writers are always furnishing
-them one. Where a horse figures in a story he is uniformly endowed with
-an almost supernatural intelligence and sense. To finish up the ideal
-horse, he always traces back to the “Courser of the Desert.” If his
-triumph is in a flight of speed, he distances all competitors because
-he is a pure Arabian. The story of “Ben Hur,” written by General Lew
-Wallace, furnishes a fitting illustration of this tendency of the public
-mind. The story of the chariot race at Antioch is a masterpiece of most
-exciting ingenuity, and one of the finest specimens of word painting in
-the English language. The irascible old sheik is quite overdrawn, but the
-judgment and skill of Ben Hur cannot be surpassed. As a matter of course,
-the team of black Arabians was bound to win. Every bright schoolboy in
-the country has read the story, and he has joined in the triumph of the
-black Arabians. The wide interest in the chariot race seemed to demand
-its pictorial delineation, and soon the public was gratified with a large
-and elegant etching, which hangs before me as I write. The only trouble
-about this excellent work of the imagination and the team of black
-Arabians is that there were no horses in Arabia till about three hundred
-and fifty years after the date of this supposed scene. We must let the
-poets sing and the novelists work out their plots, but it is well to pay
-some attention to the facts and experiences of history.
-
-[Illustration: GODOLPHIN ARABIAN.
-
-A true portrait taken from life by D. Murrier, painter to H. R. H. the
-Duke of Cumberland.]
-
-[Illustration: GODOLPHIN ARABIAN.
-
-A distorted copy by Mr. Stubbs who never saw the horse, and changed to
-express the idea of fleetness.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE.
-
-    The real origin of the English race horse in confusion—Full
-    list of the “foundation stock” as given by Mr. Weatherby one
-    hundred years ago—The list complete and embraces all of any
-    note—Admiral Rous’ extravaganza—Godolphin Arabian’s origin
-    wholly unknown—His history—Successful search for his true
-    portrait—Stubbs’ picture a caricature—The true portrait alone
-    supplies all that is known of his origin and blood.
-
-
-The English Race Horse is the great central figure of all the horse
-literature of the past two hundred years. Much has been claimed for him
-and much has been written about him, in a haphazard way, by people who
-know but little of the subject. A few men of independent and real thought
-have written on this subject, but they have devoted their attention to
-the comparing of family with family or individual with individual. Of
-the books that have been written by brainless people on the English
-horse there is no end, and they are generally mere repetitions, without
-giving credit, of what somebody has said before. Among all the books
-that have been written on this subject I have never yet found one that
-even pretended to make a serious attempt at discovering the real origin
-of the English Race Horse. They all seem to agree with Admiral Rous that
-he is purely descended from the Arabian horse, and without one drop of
-the blood of the indigenous English horse. The average writer for the
-two past centuries has been content with just this much knowledge, and
-he wants nothing more. Occasionally it is modestly suggested in some
-magazine article that this exclusively Arabian origin may not be true,
-and I am glad to note that these suggestions are becoming more frequent
-of late years. It has been claimed that the pure Arabian origin of the
-race horse “is as solid as a pyramid,” all of which may be accepted—but,
-unfortunately for the claimant, the “pyramid” is standing on its apex,
-and when the facts breathe upon it, as gently as a zephyr, it will topple
-over. The most convenient and the most authoritative collection of facts
-relating to the earliest exotic horses that were brought in is to be
-found in the English Stud Book itself, and as but few of my readers have
-access to this work, I will copy that portion of it entire, as it appears
-in the first volume, and the edition of 1803. In the edition of 1808 the
-list was reprinted with four additional animals and some verbal changes,
-which, when important, will be noted.
-
-    “ARABIANS, BARBS AND TURKS.”
-
-    1. The Helmsley Turk was an old Duke of Buckingham’s and got
-    Bustler, etc.
-
-    2. Place’s White Turk was the property of Mr. Place, studmaster
-    to Oliver Cromwell, when Protector, and was the sire of
-    Wormwood Commoner, and the great grandams of Windham, Grey
-    Ramsden and Cartouch.
-
-    3. Royal Mares: King Charles the Second sent abroad the master
-    of the horse, to procure a number of foreign horses and mares
-    for breeding, and the mares brought over by him (as also many
-    of their produce) have since been called Royal Mares.
-
-    4. Dodsworth, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb.
-    His dam, a Barb mare, was imported in the time of Charles
-    the Second, and was called a Royal Mare. She was sold by the
-    studmaster, after the king’s death, for forty guineas, at
-    twenty years old, when in foal (by the Helmsley Turk) with
-    Vixen, dam of the Old Child Mare.
-
-    5. The Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the
-    Duke of Berwick, from the siege of Buda, in the reign of James
-    the Second. He got Snake, the D. of Kingston’s Brisk and Piping
-    Peg, Coneyskins, the dam of Hip, and the grandam of Bolton
-    Sweepstakes.
-
-    6. The Byerly Turk was Captain Byerly’s charger in Ireland,
-    in King William’s wars (1869, etc.). He did not cover many
-    bred mares, but was the sire of D. of Kingston’s Sprite, who
-    was thought nearly as good as Leedes; the D. of Rutland’s
-    Black Hearty and Archer, and the D. of Devonshire’s Basto, Ld.
-    Bristol’s Grasshopper, and Ld. Godolphin’s Byerly Gelding,
-    all in good forms: Halloway’s Jigg, a middling horse; and
-    Knightley’s Mare, in a very good form.
-
-    7. Greyhound. The cover of this foal was in Barbary, after
-    which both his sire and dam were purchased, and brought into
-    England by Mr. Marshall. He was got by King William’s White
-    Barb Chillaby, out of Slugey, a natural Barb Mare. Greyhound
-    got the D. of Wharton’s Othello, said to have beat Chanter
-    easily in a trial, giving him a stone, but who, falling lame,
-    ran only one match in public, against a bad horse; he also got
-    Panton’s Whitefoot, a very good horse; Osmyn, a very fleet
-    horse and in good form for his size; the D. of Wharton’s Rake,
-    a middling horse; Ld. Halifax’s Sampson, Goliah and Favorite,
-    pretty good 12-stone Plate horses; Desdemona, and other good
-    mares, and several ordinary Plate horses, who ran in the North
-    where he was a common stallion and covered many of the best
-    mares.
-
-    8. The D’Arcy White Turk was the sire of Old Hautboy, Grey
-    Royal, Cannon, etc.
-
-    9. The D’Arcy Yellow Turk was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and
-    the great-great-grandam of Cartouch.
-
-    10. The Marshall or Selaby Turk was the property of Mr.
-    Marshall’s brother, studmaster to King William, Queen Anne, and
-    King George the first. He got the Curwen Old Spot, the dam of
-    Windham, the dam of Derby Ticklepitcher, and great-grandam of
-    Bolton Sloven and Fearnought.
-
-    11. Curwen’s Bay Barb was a present to Louis the Fourteenth
-    from Muley Ishmael, King of Morocco, and was brought into
-    England by Mr. Curwen, who being in France when Count Byram
-    and Count Thoulouse (two natural sons of Louis the Fourteenth)
-    were, the former, master of the horse, and the latter an
-    admiral, he procured of them two Barb horses, both of which
-    proved excellent stallions, and were well known by the names
-    of the Curwen Bay Barb and the Thoulouse Barb. Curwen’s Bay
-    Barb got Mixbury and Tantivy, both very excellent formed
-    Galloways. The first of them was only thirteen hands two
-    inches high, and yet there were not more than two horses of
-    his time that could beat him at light weights. Brocklesby,
-    Little George, Yellow Jack, Bay Jack, Monkey, Dangerfield, Hip,
-    Peacock, and Flatface, the first two in good forms, the rest
-    middling; two Mixburys, full brothers to the first Mixbury,
-    middling Galloways; Long Meg, Brocklesby Betty, and Creeping
-    Molly, extraordinarily high-formed mares; Whiteneck, Mistake,
-    Sparkler, and Lightfoot, very good mares, and several middling
-    Galloways, who ran for Plates in the North. He got two full
-    sisters to Mixbury, one of which bred Partner, Little Scar,
-    Soreheels and the dam of Crab; the other was the dam of Quiet,
-    Silver Eye and Hazard. He did not cover many mares except Mr.
-    Curwen’s and Mr. Pelham’s.
-
-    12. The Thoulouse Barb became afterward the property of Sir J.
-    Parsons and was the sire of Bagpiper, Blacklegs, Mr. Panton’s
-    Molly, and the dam of Cinnamon.
-
-    13. Darley’s Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr.
-    Darley, of Yorkshire, who, being an agent in merchandise
-    abroad, became member of a hunting club, by which means he
-    acquired interest to procure this horse. He was the sire
-    of Childers, and also got Almanzor, a very good horse; a
-    white-legged horse of the D. of Somerset’s, full brother to
-    Almanzor, and thought to be as good, but meeting with an
-    accident, he never ran in public; Cupid and Brisk, good horses;
-    Dædalus, a very swift horse; Dart, Shipjack, Maica and Aleppo,
-    good Plate horses, though out of bad mares; Ld. Lonsdale’s
-    Mare in very good form, and Ld. Tracy’s Mare in a good one for
-    Plates. He covered very few mares except Mr. Darley’s, who had
-    very few well-bred mares besides Almanzor’s Dam.
-
-    14. Sir J. William’s Turk (more commonly called the Honeywood
-    Arabian) got Mr. Honeywood’s two True Blues; the elder of them
-    was the best Plate horse in England, for four or five years;
-    the younger was in very high form and got the Rumford Gelding,
-    and Ld. Onslow’s Grey Horse, middling horses out of road mares.
-    It is not known that this Turk covered any bred mares except
-    the dam of the two True Blues.
-
-    15. The Belgrade Turk was taken at the siege of Belgrade, by
-    Gen. Merci, and sent by him to the Prince de Craon, from whom
-    he was a present to the Prince of Lorraine. He was afterward
-    purchased by Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, and died in his possession
-    about 1740.
-
-    16. Croft’s Bay Barb was got by Chillaby, out of the Moonah
-    Barb Mare.
-
-    17. The Godolphin Arabian was imported by Mr. Coke, at whose
-    death he became (together with Cade, Regulus, etc., then young)
-    the property of Ld. Godolphin. His first employment was that
-    of a teaser to Hobgoblin, who, refusing to cover Roxana, she
-    was put to the Arabian, and from that cover produced Lath, the
-    first of his get. He was also sire of Cade, Regulus, Blank,
-    etc., and what is considered very remarkable, as well as a
-    strong proof of his excellence as a stallion, there is not a
-    superior horse now on the turf without a cross of the Godolphin
-    Arabian, neither has there been for several years past. He was
-    a brown bay, with no white, except on the off heel behind, and
-    about fifteen hands high (a picture of him is in the library at
-    Gog Magog, Cambridgeshire). It is not known to what particular
-    race of the Arab breed, indeed it has been asserted that he was
-    a Barb. He died at Gog Magog in 1753, in or about the 29th year
-    of his age. The story of his playfellow, the black cat, must
-    not be omitted here, especially as an erroneous account has got
-    abroad, copied from the first introduction to the present work.
-    Instead of his grieving for the loss of the cat she survived
-    him, though but for a short time; she sat upon him after he
-    was dead in the building erected for him, and followed him to
-    the place where he was buried under a gateway near the running
-    stable; sat upon him there till he was buried, then went away,
-    and never was seen again, till found dead in the hayloft.
-
-    18. The Cullen Arabian was brought over by Mr. Nosco and was
-    sire of Mr. Warren’s Camillus, Ld. Orford’s Matron, Mr. Gorges’
-    Sour Face, the dam of Regulator, etc., etc.
-
-    19. The Coomb Arabian (sometimes called the Pigot Arabian
-    and sometimes the Bolingbroke Grey Arabian) was the sire of
-    Methodist, the dam of Crop, etc., etc.
-
-    20. The Compton Barb, more commonly called the Sedley Arabian,
-    was sire of Coquette, Greyling, etc.
-
-    (ADDITIONS IN 1808 EDITION.)
-
-    21. King James the First bought an Arabian of Mr. Markham, a
-    merchant, for 500gs., said (but with little probability) to
-    have been the first of the breed ever seen in England. The Duke
-    of Newcastle says, in his treatise on Horsemanship, that he had
-    seen the above Arabian, and describes him as a small bay horse,
-    and not of very excellent shape.
-
-    23. Bloody Buttocks; nothing further can be traced from the
-    papers of the late Mr. Crofts than that he was a grey Arabian,
-    with a red mark on his hip, from whence he derived his name.
-
-    23. The Vernon Arabian was a small chestnut horse. He covered
-    at Highflyer Hall, and was the sire of Alert, etc. Alert had
-    good speed for a short distance.
-
-    24 & 25. The Wellesley Grey, and Chestnut Arabians (so called)
-    were brought from the East, but evidently not Arabians. The
-    former was a horse of good shape, with the size and substance
-    of an English hunter.
-
-This list of twenty-seven different animals, which for the sake of
-convenience I have numbered, was presented to the public more than
-a hundred years ago by Mr. Weatherby, the highest of all English
-authorities, as the foundation stock from which the English race horse
-was propagated. The uniform omission of dates of importations, etc.,
-discloses the fact that the compiler had no accurate knowledge of the
-animals or their history, and that he was dependent largely upon very
-uncertain traditions for his information. It must not be understood that
-the animals in this list were contemporaneous, or that the list embraces
-all the foreign animals that were brought in, but only those that were
-recognized as of value in founding the breed.
-
-To understand just what we have to consider, I will place here, in
-juxtaposition to the above list, the remark of Admiral Rous, at one
-time the great race-horse authority of England, which expresses the
-popular opinion as to the origin of the race horse, that is practically
-universally held in all lands. The admiral says: “The British race horse
-is a pure Eastern exotic whose pedigree may be traced two thousand years,
-the true son of Arabia Deserta, without a drop of English blood.” To
-reach the approximate truth on the issue here made, and to puncture this
-extravaganza is the work now before us.
-
-Numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, were Turks, and to these we may
-add Mr. Darley’s horse, known as the Darley Arabian, number 13, for he
-was brought from Aleppo in Turkey, far removed from Arabia, and famous
-for the great numbers and excellence of its horses many centuries before
-Arabia had any horses. To carry horses, for sale, from the deserts of
-Arabia, where they are scarce, to the region of Aleppo, where they are
-very plenty, and of the highest quality, would be simply “carrying coals
-to Newcastle.” We may therefore safely conclude that the ten horses here
-enumerated were Turks.
-
-Numbers 4, 7, 11, 12, 16, 20 were Barbs, as they are named in the list.
-It is a surprise to me that these six horses should be designated as
-“Barbs,” for it has been the usage of many generations to call these
-horses “Arabians.” As late as 1819 the Dey of Algiers sent several
-Algerine horses as a present to the Prince Regent of England, and they
-were always spoken of as “Arabians.”
-
-Numbers 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 are all unsatisfactory as to their
-origin. Number 17—Lord Godolphin’s horse—is wholly unknown as to his
-blood elements, and further on his history will be considered. Number 18
-“was brought over,” but from whence nobody knows. Number 19 is in the
-same condition, and not one of his different owners has been able to
-tell us anything about his origin. Number 21 was, possibly, an Arabian,
-but the Duke of Newcastle, who knew the horse well, seems to have doubted
-his genuineness on account of his inferiority. However this may have
-been, he preceded other importations so many years that it is not known
-that he ever sired a colt, and as a progenitor we may as well strike
-him out. Number 22 seems to be in darkness, and all efforts to find his
-origin having failed he may as well be classed as unknown. Number 23
-is furnished with no evidence that he was entitled to be classed as an
-Arabian. Numbers 24 and 25 were confessedly not genuine.
-
-This reduces the analysis to its lowest form and shows that in the
-original foundation stock, including Mr. Darley’s horse (13), there were
-ten Turks and six Barbs that can be accepted with reasonable certainty.
-This leaves eight so-called “Arabians,” from which we must eliminate
-numbers 17, 21, 24, 25, leaving numbers 18, 19, 22, 23, without any
-evidence whatever that they were Arabians except in name. From these four
-rather obscure animals, therefore, according to the Rous dictum, the
-English race horse must have derived every drop of his blood; and yet
-there is not a scintilla of evidence either direct or inferential that
-any one of them, or the ancestors of any one of them, ever saw Arabia.
-From the custom of calling every horse from abroad an “Arabian,” that
-has prevailed in England for more than two hundred years, it is fair to
-conclude that there was no Arabian blood in the foundation stock. It
-was the blood of the Turks and the Barbs, commingled with that of the
-native blood that had been bred to race for centuries, that furnished the
-foundation of the modern English and American race horse.
-
-Blood in the race horse is an imperative necessity, but it must be blood
-that has been carefully selected from winners, and raced for generations,
-or it is of no value as an element of speed. If the English race horse
-had been a strictly pure exotic from Arabia Deserta, as Admiral Rous
-maintained, he would have been of no value either as a race horse or the
-progenitor of race horses, without many generations of careful selection
-and development of speed.
-
-The Godolphin Arabian was altogether the greatest horse of his century.
-He flourished during most of the reign of King George II., but the
-horsemen of the world, even Englishmen themselves, know far more about
-him than they do about the reign of that monarch. Still, nobody knows
-anything of his birthplace, his origin or his blood. He was to the
-English race horse what Rysdyk’s Hambletonian has been to the American
-trotter. Neither of them was ever in a race, but each of them stood
-immeasurably superior to all others of his day as a progenitor of speed,
-at his own gait. From the latter we had reason to expect speed because we
-knew he inherited speed, but from the former we had no reason to expect
-anything, for we knew nothing of what he inherited until he proved his
-inheritance by what he transmitted to his progeny. Some of the principal
-semi-tragic incidents, so far as known in the early life of Godolphin
-Arabian, were seized upon by the great novelist Eugene Sue, and out of
-them grew a “horse novel” from his gifted pen. The horse was foaled
-about 1724, was brought to England from France about 1730, and died
-at Magog Hills, 1753. There seems to be a substantial agreement among
-those who had the best opportunities to know that the horse was employed
-on the streets of Paris as a common drudge in a cart and driven by a
-brutal master. A Mr. Coke, who is represented to have been a Quaker, was
-in Paris on business and he happened to witness the brutality of the
-ruffian who was this horse’s master in trying to make him draw a load
-of wood up a steep acclivity on to a new bridge, which the horse after
-repeated trials and clubbings was unable to accomplish. To relieve the
-poor brute from his sufferings, Mr. Coke’s feelings of humanity asserted
-themselves, and he stepped forward and bought the horse on the spot and
-had him released from the cart. Mr. Coke, it is said, brought the horse
-to London and presented him to Mr. Williams, the proprietor of a famous
-coffee-house, and Mr. Williams presented him to Earl Godolphin.
-
-In September, 1829, Mr. John S. Skinner commenced the publication of the
-first horse magazine that ever appeared in this country, and in the first
-number there appeared a steel engraving purporting to be executed by the
-famous Stubbs and to represent the great horse, Godolphin Arabian. Not
-many years afterward I came into possession of a copy of this publication
-from the beginning, and the sight of this picture always impressed me
-as the most ludicrous abortion of the likeness of a horse that could be
-conceived of. The neck was absolutely longer than the body, the legs
-were about strong enough for a sheep, and all over it lacked strength of
-both muscle and bone to a most absurd extent. When this picture appeared
-in London, some years before, it was laughed at by all artists as
-well as by all men who knew anything about the shape of a horse, as a
-monstrosity, and it was received in the same spirit on this side of the
-water; but it bore the name of a great artist and that was sufficient to
-secure the approbation of the unthinking and the unknowing. The only key
-to the origin of the horse, the only pedigree that can be given, must be
-found written in his own structure of bone and muscle and brain. A true
-delineation, therefore, of his form and shape became a matter of the
-highest moment, not merely to satisfy the curiosity of the curious, but
-as a study of the true sources of his wonderful prepotency.
-
-Sixty-five years ago a correspondent of Mr. Skinner’s magazine, referred
-to above, and a descendant of Mr. Samuel Galloway of Maryland, spoke of
-an oil painting of Godolphin Arabian that had hung in the hall at Tulip
-Hill from the days of his childhood as still hanging there, and said
-that it was wholly unlike the Stubbs engraving. Mr. Galloway was one of
-Maryland’s land barons, an enthusiastic horse breeder, and a successful
-horse racer. He was educated at Cambridge, I think; and if so, no doubt
-he saw Godolphin Arabian many times before he died, for he was within
-four or five miles of him, and his sporting instincts could not fail to
-take him to see so great a horse when so near at hand. As he was a young
-man of great wealth and great ambitions, it is quite probable he was on
-terms of friendly acquaintance, if not intimacy, with Lord Godolphin, and
-thus secured the oil painting from that distinguished friend himself.
-This theory is strengthened by the fact that the picture still bears the
-coat of arms of Lord Godolphin.
-
-To reach and secure this picture, or at least a faithful copy of it,
-became an object of continuous effort that was never intermitted for
-more than twenty years. At last, in the spring of 1877, one of the
-correspondents of _Wallace’s Monthly_, Prof. M. C. Ellzey, of Blacksburg,
-Virginia, wrote me that the picture was then the property of Dr. J. H.
-Murray (whose wife was a lineal descendant of Mr. Galloway) of Cedar
-Park, adjoining Tulip Hill, West River, Maryland, and that he would have
-the picture sent to me. In a few days it arrived, and when my eyes rested
-upon it, it was like the feast of a lifetime; for there was all that
-could ever be known of the greatest horse of his century. The painting
-was in a state of excellent preservation and the coat of arms of Lord
-Godolphin was plainly traceable. The horse is shown from his right
-side, in his rough, paddock condition, with his right hind foot a little
-advanced, and his head low and without any animation or excitement. The
-standpoint of the artist is a little forward of the shoulders, and he
-must have been a tall man or the horse must have been a low horse, or
-perhaps both, for he sees over the horse and portrays the fine spring
-of muscle over the loin, on the opposite side of the vertebra. From the
-position of the artist the drawing is slightly foreshortened, and this,
-together with the advance of his right hind foot, intensifies the droop
-of the rump, to some degree, in the outline. From the proportions, as
-shown in the painting, I would conclude he was below fourteen and a half
-hands high rather than above it. His head is striking and unusually
-large for an animal of his size, with remarkable width between the
-eyes, and without a star to lighten it up. His ear is not fine, and it
-droops backward as he stands, as if half-asleep. His mane is sparse and
-in disorder. His throat-latch is very good, and the windpipe large and
-well developed. The neck is of a fair length for a horse of his blocky
-formation, and there is nothing unusual about it except its great depth
-at the collar place. The slope of the shoulder is very marked and shows
-his ability to carry his head in the air when he wished to do so, but the
-shoulder itself is coarse and angular to an unusual degree. His withers
-rise very abruptly and there is great perpendicular depth through the
-carcass at this point. His back is remarkably short and the spread and
-arch of his loins is simply magnificent. But the point of superlative
-excellence is in the remarkable development of power in his quarters.
-His limbs, instead of being “spider legs,” are unusually strong for an
-animal of his size; indeed, they might be considered coarse for any horse
-that was pretended to be a race horse. His tail is of the usual weight
-and somewhat wavy. With the addition that there is a little white at
-the coronet of the right hind foot, and not forgetting his friend and
-companion the cat, I have made a somewhat detailed description of what is
-represented in the painting. Several artists examined the picture, and
-they pronounced it the work of an artist of ability and experience. The
-signature “D. M. pinxt” was carefully examined, but no one was able to
-throw any light upon the name represented by the initial letters “D. M.”
-
-While this painting contained within itself evidence of its great value
-as a likeness of its subject, it lacked confirmation as “true to the
-life;” and nothing could supply this lack but to find a portrait of the
-same horse, painted by another artist, and then if the two agreed, the
-proof would be fully satisfying to the understanding. A little over a
-hundred years ago Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne, Duke of Leeds, and heir
-to Lord Godolphin, wrote Sir Charles Bunbury, a great race-horse man,
-that he had a painting of Godolphin Arabian, by Wootton, at Gog Magog
-Hills. Over sixty years ago an American gentleman wrote to Mr. Skinner’s
-magazine that he had seen a painting of Godolphin Arabian hanging in
-Houghton Hall, Norfolk. In 1878 my physician told me I must quit work
-for awhile, and that I had better visit the great Exposition at Paris
-that year. I was anxious to see the Fair, but I was a great deal more
-anxious to see those two paintings of Godolphin Arabian, if they were
-still in existence. Gog Magog Hills is a quaint old place, and the origin
-and meaning of its name is lost in a very remote antiquity. As it has
-not been the residence of its owners for more than a hundred years, it
-is much neglected. The people in charge were very obliging, and I was
-immediately admitted to the view of Wootton’s painting of Godolphin
-Arabian. The first glance was a complete vindication of the truthfulness
-of the Maryland painting as a true likeness in every important feature
-of the outline and proportions. The canvas is about four and a half by
-four feet, inclosed in a massive frame. After studying it and comparing
-it, point by point for more than an hour, with a copy of the Maryland
-painting, it became evident they were not painted by the same hand,
-although the horse had the same position in both pictures, with the
-exception that the right hind foot was thrown backward in the Wootton
-painting instead of forward, and thus gave a less abrupt droop of the
-rump. The head was precisely the same shape, but in the large painting
-the articulations were less distinct and expressive.
-
-After a little peregrination through Norfolk, studying the “Norfolk
-Trotter” as then called, but since called “Hackney,” on his “native
-heath,” I reached Houghton Hall, in Norfolk. This grand old place was
-built over a hundred and sixty years ago by the famous Sir Robert
-Walpole, and at that time it was considered the most splendid structure,
-as a gentleman’s country seat, in all England. For many years it has been
-the property of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, but is not often occupied as
-a residence. Here too, I was lucky, for upon my entrance to the picture
-gallery, about the first object upon which my eye rested was the painting
-of the Godolphin Arabian, and the first impression was that there must
-be “spooks” around, for that seemed certainly the Maryland picture I was
-looking at. I had it taken down and removed to a good light, and there
-the whole mystery was removed. It is difficult to compare two peas. All
-you can say about them is that they were just alike, and that is all I
-can say about the Galloway picture in Maryland and the Houghton Hall
-picture in England. The paintings were the same size, and the pigments
-used were of precisely the same shades of color and quality. The colors
-were peculiar in the fact that the artist had used no varnish nor oil
-that would leave a shiny appearance. The Houghton Hall picture had a
-black, glossy margin all around it of about five inches in width on
-which the names of the most noted of his progeny were inscribed in gold
-letters, and at the bottom was this inscription: “The original picture
-taken at The Hills, by D. Murrier, painter to H. R. H. the Duke of
-Cumberland.” This explained the modest signature attached to the Maryland
-picture, which was a replica of the original. “The Hills” is the local
-designation of “Gog Magog Hills.” The word “original” not only implies
-that the picture was made from life, but that one or more replicas were
-made at the same time.
-
-Here, then, in this picture, we have all that we know or probably ever
-will know of the origin and pedigree of this horse. It does not tell
-us what he was, but it does tell us in the most clear and unmistakable
-language what he was not. There is no feature nor element in his make-up
-that does not say that he was neither an Arabian nor a Barb. He was a
-stout, strong-boned, heavily muscled, short-legged horse. In his form and
-shape he was very far removed from an ideal progenitor of race horses,
-but he was that progenitor all the same. About forty years after his
-death Mr. Stubbs, who never saw the horse, brought out a painting of
-him which all artists laughed at as the picture of an impossible horse.
-This picture, however, was engraved on steel and became the standard
-representation of Godolphin Arabian, in England, till this day. Both
-these pictures are here given, and a comparison of many points makes
-it evident that Stubbs copied from the original of Murrier or from the
-painting by Wootton, which was probably also a copy of Murrier, and
-he followed his copy just as closely as he could while converting a
-big-boned, stout saddle horse into a long-necked, spindle-shanked race
-horse. By actual measurement the neck is longer than the body, but it is
-not necessary to point out the Stubbs absurdities, as they are apparent
-to every eye. It was simply an awkward and dishonest attempt to express
-in his form and shape such a pedigree as a great racing sire should have
-had. In these two pictures we have the real and the imaginary—the honest
-and the dishonest.
-
-The search for this picture and then for its verification was a labor
-of many years. I never expected to find the horse’s origin, but the
-discovery of his likeness seemed to be in the bounds of a possibility
-that was finally realized. Murrier’s picture, as a mere work of art, is
-of no mean value. It contains within itself undoubted evidence that it
-is a true picture of a horse, and it is shown circumstantially that this
-horse was the great “unknown and untraced founder” of the English race
-horse, with nothing of the race horse in his appearance.
-
-The name of this horse has been a misnomer ever since the day he fell
-into the hands of Lord Godolphin, and it has misled a multitude of men
-to their financial hurt. Of late years the more intelligent class of
-writers, instead of calling him an “Arabian” call him a “Barb,” but
-there is just as much propriety in using one name as the other, and not
-a scintilla of authority for using either. Whatever may have been his
-origin, his marvelous structural combination of propelling power supplied
-what was wanting in the English stock of his day, and gave him success.
-Since then thousands of Arabians and Barbs have been tried and all of
-them have failed.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (_Continued_).
-
-    England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred
-    for different purposes—Markham on the speed of early native
-    horses—Duke of Newcastle on Arabians—His choice of blood to
-    propagate—Size of early English horses—Difficulties about
-    pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Early
-    accumulations very trashy—The Galloways and Irish
-    Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The pacers
-    wiped out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book.
-
-
-Britain was fully supplied with horses when first invaded by the Romans,
-but as there is no history beyond that period we are only groping in
-the dark when we attempt to discover when or whence this supply was
-procured. The most reasonable theory is that the first supply came
-from the Phœnician merchants, when they were trading for tin in the
-southwestern part of Britain. If this theory be correct, the trading
-between the Phœnicians and the Britons could hardly have been later than
-the fourth century before the Christian era, and it is more probable
-that it was several centuries earlier. This topic, however, has been
-considered in a preceding chapter. Another theory is that when the tides
-of migration struck the Atlantic, in the higher latitudes, there was a
-natural deflection toward the warmer countries of the south, the people
-carrying their horses with them. But from the primitive condition of
-the arts and of maritime affairs among the Norsemen of that very early
-period, and from the insular position of Britain, it seems to me that to
-reach it with horses, the most probable source of supply was from that
-great nation whose “ships of Tarshish” had been trading to all lands more
-than a thousand years before the Christian era. But, laying all theories
-aside, there are some facts and dates that we know, and the particular
-one to which I wish here to call attention is the historical record that
-when the Romans first visited Britain they found an abundant supply of
-horses; and this was about four hundred years before Arabia received her
-supply from the Emperor Constantius.
-
-From the time of the Romans in Britain, horse-racing has been a popular
-and favorite amusement of our ancestors, and from that time horses have
-been bred for special purposes. The “Great Horse,” as he was called, was
-bred for war, parade, and show, and was large enough and strong enough
-to carry a knight in armor. The smaller horses were bred for the race
-or the chase, others for the saddle on account of their easy, gliding
-motion, and the comfort of the rider, while others, again, were stout
-of back and limb and able to carry burdens. In regard to the speed
-of the horses bred for that purpose, Mr. Gervase Markham, the second
-Englishman who undertook to write a book on the horse, has given us some
-very interesting and valuable information. He brought out his work in
-the latter part of the sixteenth century, and it passed through several
-“enlarged and improved” editions. In the edition of 1606 he says:
-
-    “For swiftness what nation has brought forth the horse which
-    excelled the English? When the best Barbaries that ever were
-    in their prime, I saw them overcome by a black Hobbie, of
-    Salisbury, and yet that black Hobbie was overcome by a horse
-    called Valentine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor
-    running was ever equalled, yet was a plain English horse, both
-    by syre and dam.”
-
-From this we must conclude that some horses from the Barbary States had
-been brought over previous to 1606, which doubtless antedated the arrival
-of King James’ Arabian. This is the horse known as the Markham Arabian,
-and is in the above list of foundation stallions. In speaking of the
-Arabian horses as a breed, the Duke of Newcastle remarks as follows upon
-this particular representative of that breed:
-
-    “I never saw but one of these horses, which Mr. John Markham, a
-    merchant, brought over and said he was a right Arabian. He was
-    a bay, but a little horse, and no rarity for shape, for I have
-    seen many English horses far finer. Mr. Markham sold him to
-    King James for five hundred pounds, and being trained up for a
-    course (race), when he came to run every horse beat him.”
-
-The duke then goes on to speak of the staying qualities of the Arabians:
-
-    “They talk they will ride fourscore miles in a day and never
-    draw the bridle. When I was young I could have bought a nag for
-    ten pounds that would have done as much _very easily_.”
-
-These remarks are repeated here because they are specially pertinent in
-this connection.
-
-It will be conceded by every one who has any knowledge of the horse
-history of this period that the Duke of Newcastle was the best-informed
-man of his generation on all subjects connected with the history and
-breeding of the horse. His preference for blood was in the following
-order: The Barb, the Turk, the Spaniard, the Neapolitan, and the
-handsomest of the English stock. It will be observed that in this
-classification the Arabian has no place.
-
-From these illustrations, to which other similar ones might be added,
-it seems to be evident that the native English stock did not lack speed
-so much as they lacked quality, finish, and beauty. Perhaps size should
-be included in this enumeration. They had been bred and trained to run
-for centuries, and they were as stout and fleet as the exotics, but they
-lacked the qualifications of beauty and style. The foreigners possessed
-what the natives lacked, and more than all they furnished both the
-climatic and the blood outcross that were needed to re-invigorate the
-native character. It was the custom of the people in the seventeenth
-century to let their horses of both sexes roam at will through forests
-and glades, and in this way the average size had been reduced and the
-law of Henry VIII. (prohibiting the running at large of stallions under
-a certain size) had become a nullity. At the time of the restoration of
-Charles II. (1660) the average size of the traveling stock of England was
-very small—perhaps not over thirteen hands high—and then commenced the
-serious work of increasing the size and improving the speed of the light
-horse stock, under the direction and influence of the Duke of Newcastle.
-The introduction of the new blood would give vigor to the stock, but as
-that blood was the blood of Turks and Barbs, probably but little if any
-larger than the native stock, the mystery still remains unsolved. In
-about one hundred years from that time the average size of the race horse
-had been brought up from less than fourteen to about fifteen hands. This
-increase of size cannot be accounted for on any other grounds than the
-introduction of the blood of some larger breed. We cannot conceive of
-this being the blood of the old Flanders stock that had been brought over
-centuries before; hence I am strongly of the opinion that the duke knew
-just what he was doing when he brought in a lot of stallions and mares
-(the latter called the “Royal Mares”) without telling anybody what they
-were or where they came from. This view is strengthened by the fact that
-none of the descendants of these mares, for several generations, ever
-made a mark upon the turf. If we reject this theory of the “Royal Mares,”
-we are then forced to the conclusion that the increase of size came
-chiefly from the large cold-blooded mares of the native stock. The fleet
-running families of the natives were small, and the imported Turks and
-Barbs were but little if any larger; hence, if we accept the evidence of
-our own senses and study the great variations in height, we cannot reject
-the conclusion that these variations had their origin in the size of the
-original elements entering into the formation of the breed.
-
-What was the extent of the influence of the speed of the old English
-race horse upon the new race horse that sprang up in the seventeenth and
-eighteenth centuries? This is a question that has not been very much
-discussed, but every intelligent and thinking man has given it more or
-less thought. Britain was not rapid in the progress of civilization and
-refinement, but through all the centuries of her history she had her
-race horses and she ran them. There can be no doubt that many of these
-native horses could outrun and outlast the best of the exotics that were
-brought in. None of those exotics, so far as we know, could run and win.
-Their value, then, was measured, not by what they could do themselves,
-but by what their progeny could do; and that progeny, at the foundation,
-carried half the blood of the old tribes. There were no racing calendars
-in the seventeenth century and none till the second decade of the
-eighteenth, and during all that time the blood of every man’s horse
-would, naturally, be fashionable blood. When the racing calendars were
-established they were a partial check upon untruthful representations,
-but this check only extended to the sire of the animal, and was then not
-always trustworthy. This left the whole maternal side open to all kinds
-of misrepresentation, and as the Anglo-Saxon race is fond of liberty,
-every man exercised the liberty of making his pedigrees to suit himself.
-Thus, through advertisements, sale papers, etc., great multitudes of
-fictitious pedigrees, all shaped on fashionable lines, gained currency
-and were propagated from owner to owner, from generation to generation.
-On this point I speak from the personal knowledge of a long lifetime
-in connection with such affairs in our own country, and I take it for
-granted that our English ancestors were no better and no worse than we
-are ourselves. This was the condition of things in England for about
-one hundred and fifty years, and when Mr. Weatherby was at work on the
-Stud Book he was overflowed with a flood of those bald-headed fictions,
-concocted by generations long past, and nobody could disprove them. In
-this way a large portion of the accumulated rubbish of past generations
-found its way into the English Stud Book and there it stands to-day,
-serving only to misguide the seeker after truth.
-
-The earliest records of English racing commence with the year 1709, and
-at Newmarket 1716. There have been several racing calendars published at
-different times, but probably the best and most convenient for office use
-is the Racing Register published by Bailey Bros., commencing with the
-first and now filling several large volumes. In the early days very few
-of the winners even had any pedigree, but after the lapse of about fifty
-years we find it the rule to insert the sire of all winners, although
-there were still some exceptions. Under this usage it became possible in
-the course of time to establish the leading facts on the paternal side,
-and thus the work of the stud-book compiler was greatly facilitated.
-Those racing calendars, although intended merely to serve the convenience
-of men who bet their money, caring nothing for blood, served the more
-permanent and valuable purpose of fixing the paternal lines in the
-genealogy of the English race horse.
-
-In 1786 Mr. William Pick, of York, England, published “A Careful
-Collection of all the Pedigrees it was then Possible to Obtain,” thus
-antedating Mr. Weatherby’s “Introduction” by five years. In 1785 Mr. Pick
-had commenced the publication of a racing calendar called “The Sportsman
-and Breeder’s Vade Mecum,” which was continued a good many years. These
-little annual volumes were well received, and they were the forerunners
-of Pick’s Turf Register, the first volume of which was brought out in
-1703. This was the same year that the first volume of Weatherby’s Stud
-Book appeared, and there was a sharp rivalry between the two authors,
-not merely as two men, but as representing two divisions of the country.
-Mr. Pick was a Yorkshire man and Mr. Weatherby was a Londoner. Yorkshire
-claimed to be the “race-horse region” of England, and the Southrons were
-ready to fight rather than concede that claim. This rivalry survived two
-or three generations of racing men, and it is a question whether it
-has yet subsided. In the north Pick was the authority and in the south,
-Weatherby.
-
-These two men worked on different plans, and each had its advantages.
-Pick limited his labors to the great animals of the past, and took them
-up in chronological order, giving a brief sketch of the history and
-performances of each. This plan required space, and when he had completed
-his first volume of five hundred and twenty-eight pages he had only
-reached the close of 1763. The second volume, bringing the work down to
-the close of 1772, made its appearance in 1805. Mr. Pick did not live
-to continue the work, and it fell into the hands of Mr. R. Johnson, who
-brought out the third volume in 1822, which continued the chronological
-order to the close of 1782. After the lapse of forty-five years, namely
-1867, the fourth volume appeared under Mr. Johnson’s name, bringing
-the work to the close of 1792, and I am not aware that the work has
-been continued. These four volumes contained much that cannot be found
-elsewhere, and are very valuable.
-
-When we come to study these assemblages of impossible things put together
-and called pedigrees, we begin to realize the absolute rottenness of the
-alleged pedigrees of that whole early period. Take, for instance, the
-case of the horse called the Bald Galloway. He bore this name because
-he had a bald face, and was of the Galloway breed. This Galloway breed
-took its name from the old Province of Galloway, in the southwestern part
-of Scotland. They were small, active horses and were famous for many
-generations as a breed of pacers. It has been said that the last pacers
-in Great Britain were found in Galloway. This horse, Bald Galloway, was
-foaled some time about 1708 and was famous as a fast race horse till he
-trained off at five years old. I think there is no doubt about his being
-a genuine Galloway, and if so how could he have a pedigree all of foreign
-blood and ending in a “Royal Mare?” This Galloway horse was the sire of
-the famous Roxana, that produced Lath and his full brother Cade, that
-made the early reputation of the great Godolphin Arabian. I will ask my
-readers to refer to the Curwen Bay Barb, No. 11, near the commencement of
-this chapter. This was one of the very best of all the Barbs imported,
-and his origin and history are given with unusual fullness, as well as
-an enumeration of the best of his get. In examining this enumeration it
-will be seen that a good number of his best foals were out of Galloway
-mares and are called “Galloways.” Brocklesby Betty was one of the great
-mares of her day, and the Stud Book says that “as a runner, she was
-thought to be the superior of any horse or mare of her time.” She was
-foaled 1711, was got by Curwen Bay Barb and out of Mr. Leedes’ Hobby
-Mare. She was a brood mare before she was trained, and her performances
-were soon after the establishment of the Racing Calendars, which show
-her great superiority. The “Hobbies” were a breed of Irish pacing horses
-that had been noted for more than a hundred years, on both sides of the
-Irish channel, as saddle horses, hunters, and runners. The theory that
-these “Irish Hobbies” were descended from the horses on board one of the
-ships of the Spanish Armada, that was wrecked on the Irish coast, is
-purely fanciful, for they were known as a breed long before the Spanish
-Armada was projected. The Hobbies were larger and better formed, as a
-rule, than the Galloways, and more highly esteemed. These illustrations
-of the influence and power of indigenous blood in the formation of the
-breed, known throughout the world as the English race horse might be
-extended indefinitely, but let these suffice. With the “Galloways” and
-the “Hobbies,” well known to our ancestors two hundred years ago as
-established breeds or tribes of horses, we cannot avoid the conclusion
-that they were very prodigal of fancy and very economical of truth when
-they attempted to clothe Bald Galloway, Leedes’ Hobby, etc., in foreign
-pedigrees to make them fashionable. Aside from the matters of evidence
-here introduced going to show the composite material entering into the
-constitution, structure and instincts of the race horse as he is today,
-there is another that plays a very prominent part in the combination.
-When we see a race horse fourteen hands high, and another of equally pure
-blood standing beside him seventeen hands high, we naturally wonder, and
-ask, Why this difference in size? The Turk, the Barb, the Hobby, the
-Galloway, and indeed all the old English racing stock, were very small,
-scarcely averaging fourteen hands. After we have made every allowance for
-a salubrious climate and a generous and unstinted dietary we must concede
-a gradual increase of growth, but these things fail to account for a
-difference of twelve inches in the height of two horses bred in the same
-lines for untold generations. The conclusion seems to be inevitable that
-there were big horses as well as little ones in the original combination
-of ancestors. From these diverse sources of his inheritance, it becomes
-plain to the mind of every one that the English race horse is thoroughly
-composite in the blood he inherits, and it is beyond the powers of
-analysis to determine whether one element did more than another in making
-him the fastest running horse in the world.
-
-While it might be forcibly, if not conclusively, argued that the native
-English horse had in him all the elements necessary to the development of
-a breed of race horses as great as the breed of our own day, there is one
-fact ever present to the senses which goes to show that the influence of
-exotic blood was very wide and very powerful in controlling the action of
-the race horse. The popular and prevailing pacing action of the Hobbies,
-the Galloways, and other hunting, racing and saddle tribes was completely
-wiped out more than a hundred years ago. Any attempt to account for this
-revolution in the gait of the English horse as a fancy of fashion, or on
-the introduction of wheeled vehicles, fails to satisfy the understanding.
-In the first half of the seventeenth century pacers were popular,
-common, and abounded everywhere. In the second half of the eighteenth
-century not one could be found in all Britain, “from Land’s End to John
-O’Groat’s House.” Of all the facts that are known and established in the
-history of the English horse, the wiping out of the pacer is the most
-striking and significant. This exterminating process was not limited
-to the families that were intended for hunting or racing purposes, but
-extended to all types and breeds of English horses. The little English
-pacers that had been the favorites of kings and princes and nobles for
-so many centuries were submerged in the streams of Saracenic blood
-that flowed in upon them, and their only legitimate descendants left
-upon the face of the earth found homes in the American colonies. Their
-blood is one of the principal elements in the foundation of the English
-race horse, but the “lateral action” in his progeny was esteemed a
-bar-sinister on the escutcheon of the stallion, and it was sought to
-be covered up with something more fashionable in name. The old saddle
-horses of England were not all pacers, although that habit of action was
-very general among them, and in some families it was more uniform and
-confirmed than in others, and my authority for this conclusion will be
-found in the detailed account of the horses brought from England to the
-American colonies early in the seventeenth century. It is evident that
-from the day the blood of the Saracenic horse was brought in contact
-with that of the indigenous saddle horse, they were antagonistic, if
-in nothing more, certainly in the habit of action. The one never moved
-in the lateral action and the other very generally adopted that form of
-progression because it was his inheritance. What might have been the
-result if left to the laws of “natural selection,” it would be impossible
-to decide; but with the dictates of profit to the master, the mandates of
-fashion, and above all the accepted teachings of the Duke of Newcastle,
-the little pacer had no “friends at court,” and all he could do was to
-get out of the way, with his lateral action. In our own country and
-under the observation of everybody the pacer shows great tenacity to his
-long-inherited habit of action, and although buried in non-pacing blood,
-as supposed, for two or three generations, the pace is liable to appear
-again, at any time. So it was, doubtless in English experiences, but as
-the revolution was not retarded by the development of pacing speed, in
-one hundred years from the restoration, in 1660, there was no longer a
-pacer on British soil.
-
-When the first Mr. Weatherby assumed the task of making and keeping a
-registry of English race horses, he seems to have had only a very faint
-conception of the magnitude of the undertaking. The first volume of his
-“General Stud Book” was published in 1803, and when it appeared it was
-found to contain so many things that were not true that the necessary
-work of revision and excision reduced its contents fearfully. In these
-eliminations he started in with a free hand, as is shown by comparison
-with later editions, but soon found that his book was disappearing very
-rapidly, and not much of it would be left, if he did not stay his hand.
-At this point he seems to have adopted some new rule, unfortunately,
-either of evidence or of date, probably the latter, for his work
-discloses the fact that he declined all responsibility for pedigrees
-as they came to him, of an earlier period than about 1780. Beyond that
-date nearly all the crude and impossible things of fiction were allowed
-to remain and are thus propagated as true, down to our own day. There
-was one rule, however, adopted very early in the management of this
-compilation that saved it from degeneracy, and that was the difficulty
-of getting into it. In all its history, from the beginning, it has been
-a kind of “close corporation,” and the animals in the volume of the last
-year are almost uniformly descended from the animals to be found in the
-first volume. The application of this rule, no doubt, worked an injustice
-in very many cases, but it made the English race horse a BREED,
-pre-eminent above all other horses for his unequaled speed as a running
-horse. This general rule restricting admissions to the descendants of
-such as had places in preceding volumes seems to have been followed and
-maintained with a good share of rigidity, by the different generations
-of the Weatherby family, in whose hands the compilation still remains.
-Whatever may have been the ratio of fables and forgeries in the first
-volume, they were there compacted and neither the Weatherbys nor the
-breeders have been much annoyed with them since. The plan of the Stud
-Book itself is very unsatisfactory to the careful student, for the reason
-that it admits of no details of breeder, owner, etc., that are of vital
-importance in tracing and identifying an unknown or disputed pedigree.
-While the plan is very desirable and effective in placing the produce of
-mares underneath the dams, it is very defective in relation to breeders,
-and subsequent owners. Unless the identity of the animal can be traced
-and established by the records, the pedigree is always doubtful. But
-notwithstanding the unsatisfactory plan of its construction, it has been
-honestly compiled, and we may safely accept its contents, back as far as
-the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Mr. Weatherby began his
-work; but when we reach the period of the eighteenth century, facts,
-fables and frauds are so inextricably mixed that whatever we accept must
-be _cum grano salis_. Beyond that period Mr. Weatherby furnishes nothing
-but the wildest fancies and traditions shaped up by those contributing
-them with a view to lengthen a pedigree and a price accordingly. All that
-we can ever know of the horses of that period we must gather from the
-little snatches dropped by contemporaneous historians.
-
-In establishing his “General Stud Book,” Mr. Weatherby’s work may be
-compared to the building of an embankment around a great field which
-contained all the race horses of the realm. They were of all colors, all
-markings and all sizes, except the monster cart horse and the diminutive
-Shetland. They had all raced or possessed blood that had raced, and they
-all had pedigrees of various lengths and various degrees of reliability.
-They all walked and trotted and galloped, and there was not a pacer among
-them, for the last pacer had disappeared from England probably fifty
-years before this. The antagonism of the Saracenic horse had triumphed,
-and that antagonism was bred in the blood and bone of every animal in
-the field. They were placed there to be inter-bred and to produce race
-horses. Every one of the thousand owners was anxious to produce a great
-winner, and he was left to the exercise of his own fancy and judgment as
-to what cross would be most likely to prove successful, and to vindicate
-his superior intelligence. With, all experimenting outside of the breed
-practically barred, the instincts of the breed ripened and intensified
-until its representatives are able to beat the fleetest in the world
-at the gallop, but they could neither walk fast nor trot fast. It is
-doubtful whether any person in the world has ever seen a true-bred race
-horse that could trot a mile in four minutes. At this gait they show no
-aptness nor speed whatever. By breeding to fit the modern methods of
-racing, the speed of the race horse has been greatly increased, for short
-distances, but his stamina and endurance no longer command admiration as
-in former generations.
-
-In the latter half of the last century there were a good many excellent
-trotters in England, but the further we get away from the blood of the
-old English pacer, the fewer the trotters we find, until at last there
-are none at all. It seems to be true of all countries that where there
-are no pacers there are no trotters. It was not the purpose nor wish of
-the English people to banish the trotter, but when the pacer was banished
-the trotter soon followed him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE.
-
-    Antiquity of American racing—First race course at Hempstead
-    Plain, 1665— Racing in Virginia, 1677—Conditions of early
-    races—Early so-called Arabian importations—The marvelous
-    tradition of Lindsay’s “Arabian”— English race horses first
-    imported about 1750—The old colonial stock as a basis—First
-    American turf literature—Skinner’s _American Turf Register and
-    Sporting Magazine_, 1829—Cadwallader R. Colden’s _Sporting
-    Magazine_ short-lived but valuable—The original _Spirit of the
-    Times_—_Porter’s Spirit of the Times_—_Wilkes’ Spirit of the
-    Times_, 1859—Edgar’s Stud Book —Wallace’s Stud Book—Bruce’s
-    Stud Book—Their history, methods, and value—Summing up results,
-    showing that success has followed breeding to individuals and
-    families that could run and not to individuals and families
-    that could not run, whatever their blood.
-
-
-Horses were kept for running, and horse racing was a common amusement
-in some of the American Colonies for about a hundred years before the
-first English race horses were imported. This embraces a century of horse
-history that, hitherto, has been practically unexplored and unknown.
-For the details of what I have been able to glean of this neglected
-and unknown century my readers are referred to the chapters on the
-different colonies. The first racing in this country of which we have any
-historical knowledge was organized by Governor Nicolls. In 1664 the Dutch
-surrendered the province of New Netherlands to the English, and the next
-autumn, 1665, the new race course at Hempstead Plains was inaugurated by
-the new governor of the colony. This course was named Newmarket, after
-the famous English course, and Governor Nicolls’ successors continued to
-offer purses on this course for many years, and after a time there were
-two regular meetings held there, spring and autumn. Owing to the distance
-of this course from the city, other courses, near at hand, were soon
-constructed and racing of all kinds and at all gaits held high carnival.
-The principal prizes were called “Subscription Purses,” the distance
-almost invariably two miles, and the weight carried ten stone. The horses
-that ran were known as “Dutch horses,” and were descended from the
-original stock brought from Utrecht, in Holland. They were larger than
-the English horses, and brought better prices, although the latter were
-esteemed more highly for their saddle gaits. I think the Dutch horses,
-originally, had no natural pacers among them, but for the pleasures and
-uses of the saddle they were inter-bred with the English horses and the
-mixed blood soon produced many pacers. It is probable also that this
-mixture increased the speed of the whole tribe. Thus racing continued
-with but few interruptions and without any known changes in the rules
-or conditions governing performances, except that after fifty years or
-more the weight to be carried was reduced from ten stone to eight stone.
-In the year 1751, which was eighty-six years after Governor Nicolls had
-established the Newmarket course on Long Island, we find the following
-significant condition inserted in the terms of entrance to the races, for
-the first time: “Free to any horse, mare, or gelding bred in America.”
-The simple meaning of this new condition was to “head off” the scheme
-of some “sharp” fellows who were, probably, then on the ocean with two
-or three English race horses, with which they expected to “gobble up”
-whatever stakes or purses came within their reach.
-
-The first record we have of racing in Virginia is to be found in the
-court records of Henrico County, in the year 1677—twelve years after the
-establishment of racing in New York. For fuller particulars of this,
-the reader is referred to the chapter on that colony. The Virginians
-were a horse-racing people from the start, and it is impossible to
-tell how long before racing first commenced, but probably just as
-soon as any two neighbors met, each owning a horse, a few hundred
-pounds of tobacco were put up the next day, to make it interesting, in
-determining which was the faster. This racing feeling was not confined
-to neighbors nor to neighborhoods, but it pervaded the whole colony, and
-the people of every county had their annual and semi-annual meetings,
-which everybody attended. Their methods of handicapping will strike the
-present generation as somewhat peculiar. In their advertisements of the
-meetings, such language as the following was very common: “Sized horses
-to carry one hundred and forty pounds and Galloways to be allowed weight
-for inches.” From this we learn that the tribe of little Scotch pacers
-were still to the fore on this side of the water and that they were
-just as fleet as the larger horses, provided the weight was graduated
-to their inches. There was one feature in these race meetings that will
-be a surprise to many of my readers, as it was to myself, and that is
-the fact that at most of these meetings there was one four-mile race.
-Smaller prizes were run for by horses classed as to size, and it may be
-noted that there was one class “not exceeding thirteen hands.” At these
-meetings the distance never seems to have been less than one mile, while
-on the southern border of the colony and in North Carolina, quarter
-racing was very popular and very common from the earliest dates, and it
-was kept up through the greater part of the eighteenth century. For a
-fuller account of the racing of those early days the reader is referred
-to the chapter on Virginia.
-
-In this old English, Irish and Scottish blood, full of the pacing
-element, which we may now call “native” blood, we have the real
-foundation upon which the English race horse was bred and from which has
-come the approximate if not the complete equal of the highest type of the
-English horse, in both speed and stamina. The English and the American
-race horse came from the same source and possess the same blood, with
-this trifling distinction—the native mares in England were bred to horses
-of exotic, Saracenic origin, while the native mares of America were bred
-to the descendants of that native-exotic combination. Hence, with the
-original maternal ancestry of the same blood, the combined and improved
-English descendant of that blood became the paternal ancestor of the
-American race horse. We must not forget that this “paternal ancestor”
-had been the result of crossing and recrossing, selecting, breeding and
-developing for nearly a hundred years, and that he was, therefore, a
-far better horse and far more prepotent as a sire than the produce of
-the first cross made under the direction of the Duke of Newcastle. We
-must not ignore the fact that while there were many stallions brought
-over in the early days there were also a few mares, but they were so few
-in number that their influence was hardly appreciable in the new breed
-to be established. Saracenic blood was touched very sparingly in the
-colonial days, as even the names of not more than three or four have
-been preserved in history. The only one of that period fully identified
-was named Bashaw and was kept on Long Island about the year 1768. Like
-all the others, he was called an Arabian, but according to the showing
-of his advertisement he was bred by the Emperor of Morocco, and was not
-an Arabian. Of the later period and coming down to about 1860 there are
-twenty-five or thirty that have been called “Arabians.” Near the head
-of the list stands one called “Arab Barb” or “Black Arabian Barb.” He
-was claimed to be an imported Barb from Algiers, and was seventeen hands
-high, “and coarse in proportion.” Many other so-called “importers” were
-equally absurd and dishonest in their claims, but there horses all passed
-as genuine “Arabians.” Out of the whole number called “Arabians” not more
-than five or six seem to have had a shadow of right to the name, and
-these exceptions were practically restricted to the animals imported by
-Mr. A. Keene Richards, of Kentucky. That each and all of these exceptions
-were irredeemable failures is a fact well known to all intelligent
-horsemen. This motley crew of “Arabian” importations came from all the
-countries bordering on the Mediterranean, except Arabia, were all called
-“Arabians,” and they were all flat disappointments both as race horses
-and as producers of race horses.
-
-Out of this list of thirty-five or forty so-called Arabian horses, there
-is one that requires special mention, not only because a correction
-may be made in his history, but because I have frequently spoken of
-him as the only Arabian that had left any mark upon the horse stock of
-the country. Lindsay’s Arabian, as he was called, was a grey horse and
-represented to be over fifteen hands high. The story is that he was a
-Barb and had been presented to the commander of a British man-of-war,
-when a colt, by the ruler of one of the Barbary States, as an expression
-of gratitude to the captain for having saved the life of his son. The
-captain sailed away for a South American port, and while lying there he
-took his present ashore to let him have a little exercise. The colt was
-given the free range of a lumber-yard, as the story goes, and in his
-playfulness a pile of lumber fell upon him and broke three of his legs.
-The British officer was greatly grieved at his loss and proposed to put
-the colt out of misery by knocking him on the head. There happened to be
-an American trading vessel in port and the skipper “allowed if he had
-that critter on his vessel he could save him.” The officer at once gave
-him to the skipper and told him his history. Yankee ingenuity and thrift
-soon got him aboard the trader and he was swung up and his legs properly
-bandaged. The surgical treatment was good, the bones knit, and in due
-time the vessel arrived at New London, and the colt was taken to the
-vicinity of Hartford. Just where this story originated it is not possible
-now to say, nor do I know that it ever had currency in Connecticut, but
-it was certainly rehearsed and probably believed in Maryland. He was
-owned by Colonel Wyllis of Hartford, and was advertised in 1770 under the
-single name of Ranger, and described as “a fine English stallion of the
-Barbary breed, bred in England.” From this it would appear that nothing
-was then known of his romantic history. As a part of his Maryland history
-it was said that General Washington’s attention had been attracted to
-a body of Connecticut cavalry by the excellence of their horses, and
-at his instance Captain Lindsay bought Ranger, because he was the sire
-of many of those horses, and took him to Maryland, where he was ever
-afterward known as “Lindsay’s Arabian.” The story of the indorsement
-of Washington made an excellent stallion card, and it is not necessary
-that we should inquire into it too closely, for the dates might raise
-a question. The horse passed from Colonel Wyllis to James Howard, of
-Windham, and was advertised by him as “The Imported Arabian Horse called
-The Ranger to stand at his stable the season of 1778.” Hence we must
-conclude that he was not taken to the South before the season of 1779,
-or possibly later. Then, as now, to catch the popular fancy, North and
-South, the horse is no longer an “English stallion of the Barbary breed”
-but an “Imported Arabian Horse.” His cross was well esteemed in his
-day, and it has held its place in the estimation of all the experienced
-horsemen as a good cross in an old pedigree. We now see that he was bred
-in England, that he was got by a Barb horse or the son of a Barb horse,
-and that it is not probable there was a single drop of Arabian blood
-in his veins. This little sketch will serve to illustrate the methods,
-general and particular, that were invariably used to place a fictitious
-value upon the so-called imported “Arabians.” In no other department of
-human knowledge has there been such a universal and persistent habit of
-misrepresenting the truth of history as in matters relating to the horse.
-It seems to have been, and still is, a kind of psychical contagion that
-has been generating dishonesty and a habit of lying in the minds of the
-great body of horsemen for the past two hundred and fifty years. If a
-horse is brought from Turkey, or Syria, or Egypt, or Spain, or Morocco,
-or any of the Barbary States, he is at once called an “Arabian.” This
-is worse than a misnomer, for it is an essential untruth, and its
-universal use does not redeem it from its essence of deception and fraud.
-It must be conceded, however, that this deception may have sprung from
-bad teaching and ignorance rather than from a depraved moral sense, for
-many people, as well as the poets and the novelists, may have concluded
-that as the nations named above got their religion from Arabia, so
-they got their horse stock from the same country, and thus the horses
-brought from Turkey, or Syria, or Egypt, or Spain, or Morocco, or any
-of the Barbary States, are descendants of the Arabian horse and thus
-entitled to the name “Arabian.” This seems to be the only theory upon
-which this universal misrepresentation can be palliated. Let us repeat a
-sentence or two here, to show what history reveals on this point. Strabo
-says there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning of the Christian
-era. Philostorgius says that in the year 356, two hundred “well-bred”
-Cappadocian horses were sent as a present to the prince of Yemen, by
-the Emperor Constantius. These were the first horses in Arabia. In the
-days of Mohammed horses were exceedingly scarce in Arabia, and they have
-remained so to the present time. The horse is an expensive exotic in
-Arabia, as he is never used for any domestic purpose, nor for any other
-purpose except robbery or display. For all domestic and commercial uses
-the camel is far better. All the countries named above were abundantly
-supplied with horses, at least eight hundred or a thousand years before
-there were any horses in Arabia. The Moslems got their religion from
-Arabia, but not their horses. This topic is more fully discussed in the
-chapter on the Arabian horse.
-
-The importation of English race horses to this side of the water
-commenced about the year 1750, and that being the middle of the last
-century it is easy to remember the date when the line was drawn between
-the old and the new elements appearing on the race course. The following
-six animals were brought over within a year or two of that date—Monkey,
-Traveller, Dabster, Childers, Badger, and Janus. A few others might be
-named, but some at least are mythical. Of those here named, Traveller
-was the great horse. Janus became the progenitor of a tribe of very fast
-quarter horses, and although he did not found that tribe, which had been
-in existence for a hundred years on the border line between Virginia and
-North Carolina, he doubtless improved it. Monkey was twenty-two years old
-when he came and did not live long. The whole number imported into all
-the colonies before the war of the Revolution counts up to about fifty,
-and some of these are practically unknown, and a few of them were wholly
-fictitious. Maryland, I think, was first in the field of importations,
-and then followed Virginia, New York, and North Carolina. Possibly the
-very earliest importations were made in South Carolina, but there is
-not much evidence that those importations were utilized to any extent
-for racing purposes, and hence we know but little of the doings of that
-colony till a later date. There were not more than about twenty mares of
-English race-horse blood imported, in the quarter of a century preceding
-the Revolution, into all the colonies. As many of these animals of both
-sexes were stolen or destroyed during the war, we can approximate with
-some degree of certainty the great reduction in this producing force by
-the time the war ended and importations again commenced.
-
-Now, we have before us the old colonial running stock that had been
-tested in many a battle and found able to cover the distance of two to
-four miles, and we have also the new running stock that had never been
-asked to go any further, but we have no actual, authentic and reliable
-knowledge of the comparative speed of the two classes. There were no stop
-watches nor records of time kept in those days. This much only we know,
-that prizes were offered for “half-breds” for a few years, but when it
-was found that some of the half-breds could run just as fast and as far
-as some of the whole-breds, this class of prizes was withdrawn. Then
-commenced the manufacture of fraudulent pedigrees, for, it was argued,
-“How could an American horse beat an English horse unless he had English
-blood and plenty of it?” Hence, when a horse won that fact was taken as
-proof that he was full bred, and no time was lost in investing him with
-a first-class, pure-bred pedigree. This was a little onerous on the few
-imported mares that were known and named, as in the case of imported Mary
-Gray, for she had to _produce_ eleven filly foals by imported Jolly Roger
-in order to accommodate her numerous progeny, as alleged, and how many
-more claims were made of the same pedigree it would be very difficult
-to estimate. When it began to appear a little awkward to require Mary
-Gray to have, on paper, more than eleven filly foals by Jolly Roger, it
-was soon, discovered that it was less perplexing and at the same time
-less liable to be “cornered” by saying “dam an imported English mare.”
-No doubt there was a great deal of sharp practice, to say nothing of
-cheating and lying, about horse matters in Colonial times, but those
-little venialities were only the blossoms indicating the mature fruits
-of deceptions and frauds that were to follow when pedigrees would be
-considered an element of value in the running horse, and when every man
-would have the power, in fact, to make and print his pedigrees to suit
-himself. This brings us to a very brief consideration of what has been
-done in the direction of correcting the frauds of the past and preventing
-them in the future.
-
-The period of fable and of falsehood in the genealogy of the American
-race horse seems to have commenced not long after the first importations
-of English race horses. In the first generations from the imported
-English horse and the native mare, it was rather difficult for a man
-to fix up a pedigree for his half-bred colt that would show him to
-be full bred, but after forty, fifty, or sixty years had elapsed the
-events became misty, and then every man exercised the right to make
-his own pedigrees to suit his own fancy. This seems to have been the
-condition of things for many years, and while there were a few honest
-men who would stick to the truth, the great majority either made their
-pedigrees to suit themselves or employed some “expert” to make them for
-them. The confusion which ensued was most perplexing, and the slipshod
-manner in which editors and writers on the horse did their work was most
-discouraging. Whatever was found in print on a crossroads blacksmith shop
-door was taken as authentic, because it was in print.
-
-In 1829 Mr. John S. Skinner, of Baltimore, Maryland, commenced the
-publication of a monthly magazine, entitled “_The American Turf Register
-and Sporting Magazine_,” and as it really “filled a long-felt want,” it
-received a very encouraging support. As its name indicated its field,
-it at once became the authority on sporting events and the receptacle
-of a great amount of valuable correspondence on the horses of the day,
-as well as the earlier race horses. Mr. Skinner was industrious in
-collecting material for his magazine, but unfortunately he published
-whatever was sent to him relating to the horse, and just as it was sent.
-If a communication was well written, no difference how many errors of
-fact it might contain, it never seemed to occur to Mr. Skinner to use
-his blue pencil. Pedigrees were sent in, amounting to many thousands,
-during his ownership, with fictitious and untruthful remote extensions,
-and published without any possibility of tracing the different crosses
-to a known or responsible source or name. Here was the opportunity of a
-lifetime to “fix up” the pedigrees of stallions to suit the public demand
-and the fees sought by their owners, send them to Mr. Skinner, and have
-them duly spread before the public in all their dishonest finery. The
-early volumes are very rich in the accumulations of pedigrees, such as
-they are, and hence very valuable. The magazine received less and less
-attention from its proprietor each succeeding year and finally it was
-transferred to the _Spirit of the Times_, of New York, and died after an
-existence of some fifteen years.
-
-Mr. Cadwallader R. Colden, of New York, commenced the publication of
-another sporting magazine, that was of very great merit, and did much to
-correct some of the errors that abounded in Mr. Skinner’s publication.
-In the controversies which naturally sprang up he had greatly the
-advantage of his adversary, for he knew horse history and Mr. Skinner
-did not. Mr. Colden was a man of marked ability, and over the signature
-of “An Old Turfman” he made himself famous as a writer. He hated a fraud
-and wherever he saw one he did not hesitate to hit it. His publication
-was a large and expensive one, racing was then under the periodical
-interdict of public opinion, and after about two or three years, and
-greatly to the loss and misfortune of the truths of horse history, the
-publication was discontinued. The weekly press had no representative in
-the field of “horse literature and sporting subjects” until early in
-the thirties, when the _Spirit of the Times_ was founded by William T.
-Porter. The conception of a weekly paper devoted to all kinds of sports,
-such as hunting, fishing, racing, gaming, etc., was not only new in this
-country, but it was brilliant. Mr. Porter was not only a gentleman in his
-appearance and manners, but he had fine social qualities and was a writer
-of ability and polish. Such a personage would naturally gather about him
-friends and correspondents that were congenial, and very soon _The Spirit
-of the Times_ became noted as the organ of a great body of educated men
-who loved sport and enjoyed wit. It was the only publication of its kind
-on the continent, and it soon obtained a very wide circulation. Mr.
-Porter knew very little of horses, either theoretically or practically,
-but he was a ready adapter and wrote some fine descriptions of famous
-racing contests. His habits were sportive rather than industrious, hence
-he left nothing behind him of value to his friends or to the world
-except the mere fact that he was the founder of the first sporting paper
-in this country. In course of time the paper with all its belongings
-became the property of John Richards, the former pressman, and Mr. Porter
-had to look for a living wherever he could find it. Mr. George Wilkes
-then took him under his wing, and started a new sporting paper called
-_Porter’s Spirit of the Times_. The use of this name carried with it the
-support of a good many friends, but as he was not able to write anything,
-practically, for the new paper, from its very commencement in September,
-1856, it failed to yield any support to Mr. Porter, and not much to Mr.
-Wilkes and his partners. Litigation arose and Mr. Wilkes finally withdrew
-from _Porter’s Spirit of the Times_, and started _Wilkes’ Spirit of the
-Times_ in September, 1859. We then had three sporting papers all claiming
-to be the original and only legitimate _Spirit of the Times_. Among their
-readers they were distinguished as the _Old Spirit_, _Porter’s Spirit_,
-and _Wilkes’ Spirit_. The circulation of the Old Spirit was largely in
-the Southern States, and the war destroyed it, in 1861. _Porter’s Spirit_
-having but little money and still less brains, died about the same time.
-This left Mr. Wilkes in open possession of the field, and his remarkably
-trenchant articles on the conduct of the war gave _Wilkes’ Spirit of
-the Times_ a very wide circulation, even among those who cared nothing
-for sporting matters. At the same time he was fortunate in securing the
-services of Mr. Charles J. Foster, an able writer on horse subjects, and
-a very industrious and capable man in managing and discussing affairs
-connected with the horse. Some years later, Mr. Wilkes dropped his
-own name from the title of his paper, and not long afterward he added
-twenty-five or thirty years to its age by changing the numbers so as to
-cover the period of the original _Spirit of the Times_ founded by William
-T. Porter. The old sporting publications, one and all, maintained the
-view, so far as they ever had any view to maintain, that all that was
-of any value in the American horse, for whatever purpose, had come down
-to us from the Arabian through the English race horse. Their value,
-therefore, consists wholly in the naked statistics which they contain.
-
-The first attempt made in this country, in the direction of publishing
-a stud book of American race horses, was the product of Patrick Nesbitt
-Edgar, an eccentric and apparently not well-balanced Irishman, who was
-a resident of North Carolina. This book, which purported to be a “first”
-volume, was very remarkable in many respects, two or three of which I
-will enumerate. The prevailing absence of dates and all means by which
-the truth or falsity of a pedigree could be determined; the astounding
-number of crosses given, even to the _immediate_ descendants of imported
-sires; the multitude of animals never heard of before nor since, with
-pedigrees extended a dozen crosses; the absence of many animals that
-everybody had heard of. This book had been in print about thirty years
-before I ever saw it, and the first impression it made on my mind was
-that the author was “clean daft.” At the same time, through all his work
-there was a “method in his madness,” going to show the care he had taken
-to exclude or suppress any little fact that might lead to detection and
-exposure. As an illustration of his methods I will take the following
-pedigree, at random, as given by him and copied, literally, by Mr. Bruce,
-following the particular form of the latter:
-
-    CENTAUR, b. h. foaled 1767, bred by ——; owned in Virginia, got
-    by imported Stirling (Evans’) (foaled 1762).
-
-    1st dam by imp. Aristotle (imported 1764).
-
-    2d dam by imp. Dotterel.
-
-    3d dam by imp. David (imported 1763).
-
-    4th dam by imp. Ranter (imported 1762).
-
-    5th dam by imp. Othello (imported 1755).
-
-    6th dam by imp. Childers (imported 1761).
-
-    7th dam an imported, thoroughbred mare.
-
-Now, what do we know about this pedigree that has been indorsed and
-published, just as here stated, by two stud-book makers? They do not
-pretend to know by whom he was bred, nor do they know in what part of
-Virginia he was owned, but they assume to know perfectly well each cross
-in his pedigree and that his seventh dam was an imported, thoroughbred
-mare. The dates of importations in parentheses in the foregoing have
-been placed there by myself for the sake of the exhibit. The horse
-Dotterel, the original of that name and by the same reputed sire, never
-left England, and it is probable this Dotterel is mythical. Now, let us
-analyze this pedigree by the aid of the searchlight of dates. Ranter,
-imported 1762, might have had a filly to his credit in 1763. This filly
-at two years old might have been bred to David and produced a filly in
-1766. This filly at two years old might have been bred to Dotterel and
-produced a filly in 1769. This filly at two years old might have been
-bred to Aristotle and produced a filly in 1772. This filly, at two years
-old, might have bred to Evans’ Stirling (or Starling), and produced the
-colt Centaur in 1775—_but he was foaled in 1767_. Not once in a million
-times would this succession of possibilities occur, but if they did occur
-in this case the pedigree of Centaur still remains absolutely impossible,
-for four generations of horses cannot be crowded into five years. This
-exhibit fairly illustrates the character of Mr. Edgar’s work, and being
-right on the border line between the “native” race horse and the modern
-“thoroughbred” we see just how they compressed the breeding of eight
-generations into the space of fifteen or sixteen years. If we were to
-compare the English with the American methods of manufacturing pedigrees,
-it would be hard to determine which was the more shamefully dishonest.
-Mr. Edgar was fiercely dissatisfied with the indifference of horsemen to
-his enterprise, and with the lack of support which they rendered him. He
-went forward with his second volume and professed to have completed it,
-but announced that it should never be put in type until the horsemen of
-the country should assist and support him. In the event of their failing
-to do so he threatened to sink his manuscript twenty feet deep in the
-center of the Dismal Swamp, where no mortal would ever find it. The
-second volume never appeared, and it is to be hoped he carried out his
-threat.
-
-For the second attempt at compiling a stud book of American Race Horses
-I must, myself, plead guilty. Some time in the “fifties” I came into
-possession of a number of volumes of the “old” _Spirit of the Times_,
-Skinner’s American Turf Register, three or four volumes of the “English
-Stud Book” and a large number of volumes of the _English Sporting
-Magazine_. As I was then dabbling slightly around the edges of “horse
-literature,” I found this little nucleus of a library very convenient,
-but very unsatisfactory in answering questions that came to me, and
-which an official position seemed to require that I should be able to
-answer. When asked for the pedigrees of other domestic animals I could
-take down the Herd Books of the different leading breeds and give precise
-information, but when asked about the pedigree of a horse, unless he was
-greatly distinguished as a racer, days of solid labor might be expended
-on the one question and then not discover the information sought. It
-was, perhaps, ten years after this time before I ever saw or heard of
-the misbegotten and foolish compilation of pedigrees made by Edgar. For
-some years this labor of compilation was prosecuted at odd hours, for
-my own personal use and satisfaction, and without the remotest purpose
-of ever publishing a stud book. As I plodded my way along, finding what
-I supposed to be a fact here and another there, and often conflicting,
-I found myself invariably accepting what was longest as a pedigree,
-as this feature seemed to be evidence not only of completeness, but
-of truthfulness at the same time. As my gleanings grew in volume my
-interest in what I was doing became more absorbing and intense, and when
-I had completed the search of every page and paragraph of my published
-sources of information, up to the close of the year 1839, I found I had
-enough matter for a large volume. About this time I came into possession
-of a copy of “Edgar’s Stud Book”—and I was greatly perplexed to know
-what to do with it. The copyright was dead and it contained a good many
-unimportant and utterly unknown things that I had not met with in all my
-gleanings. Under these circumstances and considering the fact that it
-abounded in the crudest uncertainties, to call them by no harsher name,
-I concluded to use his work in all cases where I did not have a pedigree
-from other sources, to cut off all imaginary extensions and to insert his
-name, in every case, as the source of information and responsibility. The
-work then went to press and the first volume of “Wallace’s American Stud
-Book” made its appearance in 1871. The time and labor expended on the
-first volume made me quite familiar with the leading performers of the
-several generations embraced therein, and the work on the second volume
-went forward with more ease and rapidity, and in 1871 I had completed the
-gleaning of all publications relating to the race horse, up to the close
-of 1870.
-
-This second volume, being about the size of the first, was completed and
-put in due form for the compositor, but never was published. The reason
-why it was never published may not be without interest to the student
-of horse genealogy, and I will, in a few words, state that reason.
-Side by side with the progress of the second volume of the runners,
-I was carrying forward a careful investigation of the lineage of the
-early trotters and their progenitors. As there were no trotting records
-giving pedigrees, I was compelled to go back to the breeders as the only
-source of reliable information. When I obtained this from intelligent
-and reputable people I accepted the information and stood by it as the
-truth; and when I came to compare it with the representations of pedigree
-made in advertisements of some stallion scion of the family, the truth
-began to dawn upon me that advertisements, whether in newspapers or on
-crossroads blacksmith-shop doors, with scarcely an exception, were made
-up of statements that were utterly false and fictitious. They were made
-up for the single purpose of securing patronage, and generally traced
-in different directions to famous and well-known horses. The fictitious
-extensions of stallion advertisements have served as the basis for the
-fictitious extensions of families and tribes. When I came to compare
-the extensions of trotting pedigrees with running pedigrees, I could
-not discover that the one was any more or less reliable than the other.
-They rested on precisely the same basis of stallion pedigrees, and no
-difference whether they appeared in Mr. Skinner’s _Turf Register_ or in
-a big poster, there was no censorship, and they were both in type—and
-whatever was in type was generally supposed to be worthy of belief. In
-one respect the pedigrees of running horses are more reliable than the
-early advertisements of trotting horses, particularly with those that
-raced, for they were required to give the sire and dam when they were
-entered in races, and a failure to comply with this rule was penalized.
-The sires, therefore, are generally right, but unfortunately the rule did
-not require the dam to be named and definitely specified, hence any one
-of a dozen unnamed mares by a given horse could be represented in after
-years as the dam of that particular horse. Here commenced the trouble
-in the unnamed and untraced mares that never have been nor ever can be
-identified. On a careful and sorrowful review of my work of many years I
-found that I had been working on a wrong basis from the start. Instead of
-discovering and arranging a great many valuable truths, as I supposed,
-I had devoted years to perpetuating thousands and thousands of fictions
-in these unknown, unnamed, and unidentified dams. This is the reason the
-second volume of “Wallace’s American Stud Book” never was published.
-The only benefit I ever derived from the work was in its educational
-aspects. The work made me familiar with the early running-horse history
-of this country and of England, and taught me what so many horsemen
-should learn—that a truth is always better than a lie. The more carefully
-and thoroughly I went into the origin, lineage and history of what we
-may call the modern race horse, the more evident it became to my mind
-that the great mass of the running horses of our own generation are
-carrying, in their pedigrees, the frauds and fictions of the seventeenth
-and eighteenth centuries, to say nothing of the innumerable deceptions
-and tricks of our own century. To accept and propagate these untruths is
-simply to, in a manner, indorse them, and an attempt to eliminate them
-would invoke the clamors of a continent. Hence, more than twenty years
-ago, I washed my hands of all responsibility for the pedigrees of English
-race horses, and turned my attention to establishing the lineage of the
-American trotter, on sure foundations, and building him up into a breed.
-
-The third attempt at compiling the pedigrees of running-bred horses was
-made by Mr. Sanders D. Bruce, of New York, and as it followed Edgar and
-Wallace, it was made up chiefly of what he found in these works. The
-conscienceless fictions of Edgar were accepted without hesitation or
-remorse, and the central aim seemed to be to make every pedigree as long
-as possible, whether true or false. No fictitious stallion advertisement
-was ever too absurd to serve as a basis for the pedigrees of all his
-kindred. Mr. Bruce accepted everything and rejected nothing, and it is
-not probable he ever investigated a pedigree in his life. His rule of
-action seems to have been to please his customers, and to scrupulously
-avoid all public discussions of pedigrees. This was the politic course to
-pursue, for any attempt to defend the monstrosities it contained would
-have wiped it out of existence very quickly. Bruce’s Stud Book seems to
-have been supported by a few individuals, from the beginning, as a kind
-of eleemosynary institution, and it is not likely it will ever rise above
-that condition.
-
-The substantial correctness of the generations extending back for a
-period of sixty or eighty years, and in some cases even a little further,
-is a very valuable contribution to our store of knowledge in this
-department of industry, but, unfortunately, the generations beyond those
-that may be classed as recent very largely rest upon foundations that are
-fictitious and fraudulent.
-
-These fictions and frauds are so general and common in the remote
-extensions on the female side of the pedigree that when we find a
-string of ten or perhaps twenty dams and not one of them named, known
-or identified until we strike the twenty-first, and she described as
-“thoroughbred, imported mare,” we know that this is the work of the
-professional “pedigree maker,” and not more than once in a hundred times
-will we be mistaken. This is alike true of both English and American
-pedigrees of race horses. The modern crosses are comparatively honest,
-but the remote extensions, through the maternal lines, in both countries
-are chiefly the products of a venal imagination.
-
-There are some foundation truths in the history and development of the
-English and American race horse—for they are both one in blood—to which
-I must briefly advert before dismissing this topic. In announcing the
-conclusions which I have reached, I am fully conscious that I will come
-in contact with preconceived opinions that have been very prevalent, if
-not universal, for at least two centuries.
-
-1. There were race horses in England that had been racing and breeding
-for centuries before the first Saracenic horse was brought there, and
-it was not an uncommon thing for the native to beat the exotic, when he
-first arrived. There had been racing in America, by what we will call the
-native stock—but they were all English and Dutch—for about one hundred
-years before the first English race horse reached this country.
-
-2. These horses had been selected with care and bred for centuries with
-more or less intelligence, with the single purpose of increasing their
-speed. During those centuries there were not so many writers on biology,
-heredity, etc., as we have now, but the old aphorism, “Like begets
-like”—a complete epitome of all science on this subject—was just as well
-known and as universally believed a thousand years ago as it is to-day.
-We may, therefore, safely conclude that at the close of the sixteenth
-century there were many native English horses, descended from lines and
-tribes that had been selected, raced and bred for generations, that were
-fully the equals of the best of the exotics, that were brought in about
-that time.
-
-3. The native stock of England at the close of the sixteenth century, was
-the stock from which the American colonies received their first supplies,
-except the few brought from Utrecht, in Holland, to the Dutch Colonists
-in New York. When brought across the Atlantic, especially in Virginia, no
-time was lost in continuing their development as race horses, which was
-carried forward for nearly one hundred years before the first English
-race horse was imported for their improvement. Their regular racing was
-at all distances, up to four miles.
-
-4. On this basis of the native English blood, common to both countries,
-the breed of English and American race horses was built up. The foreign
-elements brought into England were chiefly from the Barbary States and
-from Turkey. This exotic blood certainly had a very marked effect upon
-the horse stock of Britain, but it cannot be said, with certainty, that
-it increased the speed of the race horse. All the experiences of the past
-hundred years with these foreign strains have gone to show that instead
-of increasing the speed they have retarded it.
-
-5. The list of the foundation stock of the English race horse as given
-by Mr. Weatherby, in the first volume of the English Stud Book, and
-reproduced in the preceding chapter, is worthy of very careful study,
-especially by those who seem to think that the English race horse is
-descended, without admixture, from the Arabian horse. The striking
-feature of that list is the overwhelming preponderance of other blood
-than the Arabian, even if we accept all that is called Arabian as
-genuine. Mr. Darley’s horse, called an Arabian, and Lord Godolphin’s
-horse, called an Arabian, count for more than all the others put
-together, in the make-up of the English race horse. Mr. Darley’s horse
-came from a region remote from Arabia and where a thousand good horses
-are bred for one in Arabia, and should be called a Turk. Lord Godolphin’s
-horse—“the great unknown”—will ever remain unknown. He seems to have been
-traced to France, and, after studying his portraiture, it is probable he
-was a French horse.
-
-6. Taking this list of foundation stock and viewing it from the
-standpoint of the greatest lenity and liberality that a sound and careful
-judgment can accord, we find that the inheritance of Arabian blood in the
-veins of the English race horse, if there was any such inheritance at
-all, was strictly infinitesimal. This historical fact in the foundation
-of the race horse, showing the inutility of Arabian blood, whether
-genuine or spurious, has been fully confirmed in great multitudes of
-trials, in both nations, during the past hundred years. In no case has it
-been a benefit, but always a detriment.
-
-7. The race horse has been bred through centuries for the single purpose
-of speed. Through all his generations he has been the product of the
-brains, judgment and skill of his successive masters. Parents were
-selected that could go out and win the prizes from their fellows. The
-next generation was not only the product of running parents, but parents
-that were from running families. Thus grew up the pedigree of the
-race horse under the direction of thought and judgment. Pedigrees are
-practical things and full of winners, and in no sense made more valuable
-by having some supposed “Arabian” cross away back ten generations, that
-never ran in his life.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—VIRGINIA.
-
-    Hardships of the colonists—First importations of horses—Racing
-    prevalent in the seventeenth century—Exportation and then
-    importations prohibited—Organized horse racing commenced 1677
-    and became very general—In 1704 there were many wild horses
-    in Virginia and they were hunted as game—The Chincoteague
-    ponies accounted for—Jones on life in Virginia, 1720—Fast
-    early pacers, Galloways and Irish Hobbies—English race horses
-    imported—Moreton’s Traveler probably the first—Quarter racing
-    prevailed on the Carolina border—Average size and habits of
-    action clearly established—The native pacer thrown in the shade
-    by the imported runner—An Englishman’s prejudices.
-
-
-The colony of Virginia, settled at Jamestown, May 13, 1607, was subjected
-to a succession of dissensions, privations and disasters extending
-through a number of years. The elements of which this first plantation
-was composed were heterogeneous, and many of them wholly unsuited to
-battle with the hardships and privations of the wilderness. A very large
-proportion of the adventurers were mere idlers at home, descended from
-good but impecunious families, and had never done an honest day’s work in
-their lives. Too proud to labor even if they had known how, hunger and
-rags soon made them the most unhappy and discontented of mortals. The
-governmental affairs of the colony fell into confusion, like the people
-forming it, and we have no official record of what was done for a number
-of years. All that is known today of what transpired in the early years
-of the colony has been gleaned from the personal correspondence of actors
-in the many strifes that came so near destroying them all. These letters
-are, generally, so strongly imbued with partisan feeling that there seems
-to be no room left to tell us anything about the industrial growth of the
-colony, either in planting or breeding. The excerpts, therefore, relating
-to the early horses of Virginia which I have been able to gather from a
-great many sources, will fall far short of being complete, but I think
-they will serve as a basis upon which to form an intelligent estimate of
-the Virginia horses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and as
-to the nineteenth, the newspapers will furnish everything what is needed.
-
-It is evident that the fleet of three vessels which took out to Virginia
-the first adventurers took also some horses and mares with them; for
-the governor and council, who went out the next year, in reporting the
-condition of the colonists to the home company, under date of July 7,
-1610, use this language:
-
-    “Our people, together with the Indians, had, the last winter,
-    destroyed and killed up all our hogs, inasmuch as of five or
-    six hundred, as it is supposed, there was not above one sow
-    that we can hear of left alive, not a hen or a chick in the
-    fort, and our horses and mares they had eaten with the first.”
-
-From a letter written by M. Gabriel Archer, who arrived in Virginia
-August 31, 1609, we gather the following facts:
-
-    “From Woolwich, the fifteenth day of May, 1609, seven sail
-    weighed anchor and came to Plymouth the twentieth day, where
-    George Somers, with two small vessels, consorted with us. There
-    we took into The Blessing, being the ship wherein I went, six
-    mares and two horses, and the fleet layed in some necessaries
-    belonging to the action; in which business we spent time till
-    the 2d of June, and then set sail to sea, but crossed by South
-    West winds, we put into Falmouth, and there stayed until the
-    8th of June, then gate out.”
-
-Now, as The Blessing was probably about the average size of the rest of
-the fleet, I think it is reasonable to conclude that each of the other
-vessels took some horses also. In a report of a voyage to Virginia, dated
-November 13, 1611, we find the following statement: “They have brought to
-this colony one hundred cows, two hundred pigs, one hundred goats, and
-seventeen horses and mares.” In 1614 the Virginians made a raid on Port
-Royal, in what was then called New France, and carried off to Virginia,
-among other captures, a number of horses, mares and colts. A second raid
-in the same quarter seems to have resulted in carrying off wheat, horses,
-clothing, working tools, etc.
-
-Mr. Harmor, writing in 1614, in his “True Discourse on the Present State
-of Virginia,” says: “The colony is already furnished with two hundred
-neat cattle, infinite hogs in herds all over the woods, some mares,
-horses and colts, poultry, great store, etc.”
-
-In 1894, in the Public Records Office in London, I found that the
-Virginia Company had sent out four mares, February, 1619, on The Falcon.
-And further, I found a kind of summary of what the company had done in
-the past toward populating and supplying the colonists with live stock.
-It is stated that they had sent twelve ships, taking out one thousand
-two hundred and sixty-one persons, making the total number in Virginia
-at that date about two thousand four hundred. The exportations include
-five hundred cattle, with some horses and goats, and an infinite number
-of swine. In 1620 the company ordered twenty mares to be sent over, at
-a cost, delivered, of fifteen pounds each. From the price of horses in
-England at that day, I would infer that somebody was making money out of
-the colonists.
-
-In a little work published in London, 1646, entitled “A Perfect
-Description of Virginia,” the author says that “There are in Virginia,
-of an excellent raise (race), about two hundred horses and mares.” It
-is evident that this statement is a mere estimate, and I am disposed to
-think it a very wild estimate from what follows in a very few years. It
-is true that horses do not propagate and increase as fast as any other
-variety of domestic animals, but under the circumstances every effort
-would be made to increase the stock, and from what follows, I think my
-criticism will be sustained.
-
-In the legislation of the colony we find no mention of horses, till the
-year 1657, when the exportation of mares was prohibited. Eleven years
-after this (1668) this restriction was removed and the exportation
-of both mares and horses permitted. The very next year, 1669, the
-importation of more horses was prohibited by legislative enactment. From
-this it would seem that there were already too many horses in the colony,
-or possibly some horse breeder had begun to realize that there were
-better horses in some of the other colonies that were finding a market in
-Virginia, and they thus sought “protection” for their own stock.
-
-This prohibition could not have been aimed at the mother country,
-for the prices obtained would not justify the cost and risk of a sea
-voyage. We must, therefore, conclude that it was intended to shut out
-the New England colonies, which were already shipping horses to all
-the settlements on the seaboard, as well as to some of the West India
-Islands. In this we see at what an early date commenced the interchange
-of commodities among the colonies. As early as 1647 the Dutch authorities
-at New Amsterdam authorized Isaac Allerton to sell twenty or twenty-five
-horses to Virginia.
-
-The court records of Henrico County, Virginia, for the year 1677 contain
-three distinct trials growing out of horse races for that year. In one
-case the contest was for three hundred pounds of tobacco; in another
-the winner was to take both horses; in the third the amount at issue
-does not appear. From the readiness at sharp practice and from the
-cunning dodges to get clear of paying a bet it is very evident that the
-principals and the witnesses were well up in all the tricks of racing
-as it was practiced at that early day. How long before 1677 racing was
-practiced in Virginia I have no means of determining, but the next year
-and the next, continuing to the end of that century, the records of the
-court speak for themselves. In these trials I find the names of Thomas
-Jefferson, Jr., grandfather of President Jefferson, and also the name of
-Benjamin Harrison, the ancestor of two presidents, although they were not
-principals in any of the cases.
-
-In Beverley’s History of Virginia, published in London, 1705, at section
-ninety-four, we have the following:
-
-    “There is yet another kind of sport, which the young people
-    take great delight in, and that is the hunting of wild horses;
-    which they pursue, sometimes with dogs and sometimes without.
-    You must know they have many horses foaled in the woods of the
-    uplands, that never were in hand and are as shy as any savage
-    creature. These having no mark upon them belong to him that
-    first takes him. However, the captor commonly purchases these
-    horses very dear, by spoiling better in the pursuit, in which
-    case he has little to make himself amends, besides the pleasure
-    of the chase. And very often this is all he has for it, for the
-    wild horses are so swift that ’tis difficult to catch them; and
-    when they are taken ’tis odds but their grease is melted, or
-    else being old they are so sullen that they can’t be tamed.”
-
-In the number of _Wallace’s Monthly_ for September, 1877, p. 684, will
-be found a very interesting article from the pen of the late Dr. Elwood
-Harvey, on “The Chincoteague Ponies,” that have from time immemorial
-occupied, in a wild state, the islands of Chincoteague and Assoteague off
-the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland. The traditions relating to
-their origin are very hazy and improbable, and the most reasonable one,
-because it is within the range of possibilities, is that a Spanish ship
-was wrecked off this part of the coast and the original ponies were on
-board and swam ashore. It is well established that they have occupied
-the islands for more than a hundred years. They are about thirteen hands
-high, uniform in shape and resemble each other except in color, for all
-colors prevail. Some of them pace a little, and they have rather light
-manes and tails, and no superabundance of hair on the fetlocks. Now, the
-horses of Virginia, at the period of which Mr. Beverley writes, and
-of which I will have something further to say as we progress, were but
-little if any larger than these semi-wild inhabitants of the islands;
-they were of all colors and many of them paced. As it is well known that
-the action of the ocean, so unaccountable to all human ken, one year
-builds up a dike connecting islands with the mainland, and the next year,
-perhaps, washes it out again, we can thus easily understand how a herd of
-these semi-wild animals may have been caught and kept there. In this way,
-it seems to me, the origin of the Chincoteague ponies may be easily and
-rationally accounted for, without any shadow of violence to the clearest
-reasoning. Mr. Hugh Jones, who, in many directions, seems to have been
-a closer observer of the life of the colonists than any of the other
-tourists whose writings we have examined, wrote a little work entitled
-“The Present State of Virginia,” which was published in London, 1724,
-expressing himself as follows, on page 48:
-
-    “The common planters, leading easy lives, don’t much admire
-    labor or any manly exercise except horse-racing, nor diversion
-    except cock-fighting, in which some greatly delight. This
-    easy way of living, and the heat of the summers, make some
-    very lazy, who are then said to be climate struck. The saddle
-    horses, although not very large, are hardy, strong, and fleet;
-    and will pace naturally and pleasantly at a prodigious rate.
-    They are such lovers of riding that almost every ordinary
-    person keeps a horse, and I have known some spend the morning
-    in ranging several miles in the woods to find and catch their
-    horses only to ride two or three miles to church, to the
-    courthouse or to a horse race, where they generally appoint to
-    meet on business, and are more certain of finding those they
-    want to speak or deal with than at their home.”
-
-Mr. Jones here places us in close contact with the character and
-habits of the people of that day, as well as with the character and
-qualifications of their horses. It is not to be inferred, I think, that
-all their horses were pacers, but that all their saddle horses were
-pacers there can be little doubt. This is the first intimation we have
-from Virginia that some of their pacers were very fast, and when Mr.
-Jones says “they could pace naturally and pleasantly at a prodigious
-rate,” he means that the speed was marvelous, wonderful, astonishing.
-This “prodigious rate,” in a good measure, balances Dr. McSparran’s
-account of the Narragansett, which he had seen go a mile “in a little
-over two minutes and a good deal less than three,” and gives strength
-to the statement of Mr. Lewis, that when a boy he had ridden in pacing
-matches and return matches between the Rhode Islanders and the Virginians.
-
-In the _Virginia Gazette_, under date of January 11, 1739, we find the
-following advertisement, to which we invite special attention, as it
-brings out some facts which, inferentially, throw a great deal of light
-upon horse racing, up to that period:
-
-    “This is to give notice that there will be run for at Mr.
-    Joseph Seawall’s, in Gloucester County, on the first Tuesday in
-    April next, a Purse of Thirty Pistoles, by any horse, mare or
-    gelding; all sized horses to carry 140 lbs. and Galloways to
-    be allowed weight for inches, to pay one Pistole entrance, if
-    a subscriber, and two if not, and the entrance money to go to
-    the second horse, etc. And on the day following, on the same
-    course, there will be a Saddle, Bridle and Housing, of five
-    pounds value, to be run for by any horse, mare or gelding that
-    never won a prize of that value, four miles, before. Each horse
-    to pay five shillings entrance and that to go to the horse that
-    comes in second. And on the day following there is to be run
-    for, by horses not exceeding thirteen hands, a hunting saddle,
-    bridle and whip. Each horse to pay two shillings and sixpence
-    at entrance, to be given to the horse that comes in second.
-    Happy is he that can get the highest rider.”
-
-The first point suggested by this advertisement is that there were no
-distinctions made except by size, and that, at this date, 1739, there
-were no English race horses then in Virginia. The second point is that
-there was such a thing as “horse size” but what size this was I have
-not been able to discover. The third point is that Galloways were
-allowed weight for inches. They were evidently below “horse size.” But
-they were expected to enter for the big purse of the meeting, and they
-must, therefore, have ranked as good race horses; but what did they
-mean by “Galloway?” This is the only instance in which I have met the
-term in Virginian history, although it is well known in general horse
-lore. “Galloway” is an old name of a territorial division of Scotland,
-embracing Wigtonshire, part of Ayrshire, etc., in the southwestern
-part of that country, and was at one time famous for the excellence of
-its pacers, and it is probable they were to be found there after the
-influx of eastern blood had driven the pacer from all other portions of
-Great Britain. The Irish Hobbie, always undersized, was a famous race
-horse, as well as a pacer, many generations before the period now under
-consideration. The name “Galloway” is only known in history and is not
-to be found on any modern map. I have learned by many experiences that
-the name is very generally believed to be Irish and is confounded with
-“Galway,” an Irish county. It is known that an Irish gentleman shipped
-many cattle to the colony, and it is quite possible that he shipped
-horses also, and if this reasoning be right, these “Galloways” may have
-been Irish “Hobbies.” It will be observed, also, that the distance to be
-run is not definitely stated, but it is fairly to be concluded that the
-race of the second day was to be four miles, and none of them less than
-one mile, and that in heats. Races of four-mile heats were very common
-long before the first English race horse was imported.
-
-We here have a stock of horses that the people of Virginia have bred and
-ridden and raced for a hundred years, and we know comparatively nothing
-about them. They seem to have been specially adapted to the saddle, but
-they could run four miles, or they could run a quarter of a mile, like an
-arrow from a bow. They were not a breed, although selecting and crossing
-and interbreeding for a hundred years would make them quite homogeneous.
-There is a romantic interest attaching to these little horses, for we
-have reached the middle of the eighteenth century, and all the successive
-idols of this race-loving people are about to be dethroned by their own
-act, and their homage transferred to a stranger—a larger and finer animal
-and faster over a distance of ground. Whatever of glory and honor, to say
-nothing of money, that was to be achieved from this time forward was to
-be ascribed to the newly arrived English race horse. But the truth should
-not be concealed that this old stock furnished half the foundation, in
-a vast majority of cases, for the triumphs of future generations of the
-Virginia race horse, and the same may be said of the old English stock
-upon which the eastern blood was engrafted. About the middle of the
-eighteenth century the line was drawn, and there was thereafter developed
-the engrafting of the new upon the old. In 1751-52, Moreton’s imported
-Traveller was there, and he was the only English race horse advertised
-that year. There may have been two or three others, but they had not made
-themselves known to the public, and I very much doubt whether there was
-any other. A very few years later there were many others, and some of
-them of great celebrity.
-
-Mr. J. F. D. Smith made an extended tour of the colonies, especially
-of Virginia, before the Revolutionary war, and he suffered some of the
-inconveniences growing out of the rising hostility to the mother country.
-In speaking of quarter racing, he says:
-
-    “In the southern part of the colony and in North Carolina,
-    they are much attached to Quarter Racing, which is always a
-    match between two horses to run one quarter of a mile, straight
-    out, being merely an exertion of speed; and they have a breed
-    that perform it with astonishing velocity, beating every other
-    for that distance with great ease, but they have no bottom.
-    However, I am confident that there is not a horse in England,
-    nor perhaps in the whole world, that can excel them in rapid
-    speed; and these likewise make excellent saddle horses for the
-    road.”
-
-It will be observed that Mr. Smith speaks of these heavily muscled
-horses as a _breed_, which expression, I suppose, is intended to be used
-in a restricted sense. In the many generations of horses that would
-necessarily succeed each other in a century, in the hands of a people
-so devotedly fond of racing, it is merely an exercise of common sense,
-among barbarous as well as civilized people all over the world, to “breed
-to the winner.” In this way, and without any infusion of outside blood,
-there would be improvement in the strength and fleetness of all animals
-bred for the quarter path. He remarks further that “these likewise make
-excellent saddle horses for the road.” In that day nothing was accepted
-as a “saddle horse” that could not take the pacing gait and its various
-modifications. This was true of Virginians of that day, and it is still
-true of their descendants who have built up new States further west.
-
-In the early days, as already intimated, it was the habit of Virginians
-to brand their horses and then turn out all not in daily use to “hustle”
-for their own living. As a matter of course these animals would often
-stray long distances away, and not a few never were found. In due time,
-legislation provided for the recovery of estrays, embracing all kinds
-of domestic animals as well as negro slaves. Fortunately this enables
-me to reach what may be considered “original data,” in determining the
-size and habits of action of the early Virginian horses. As the field
-of my examination, I have taken the _Virginia Gazette_, for the years
-1751 and 1752, published at Williamsburgh, and in these volumes I find
-a great many advertisements of “Strayed or Stolen” animals scattered
-through the pages; and in the second especially a great many “Taken Up”
-advertisements appear. In a very large proportion of these notices,
-perhaps a majority of them, all the description that is given is the
-color, sex and brand, with occasionally some natural mark. As a matter
-of course these are of no value for the object in view. In some cases
-the size is given without the gait, and in others the gait is given
-without the size, in a few both size and gait are given. The range of
-size is from one of fifteen hands down to one of twelve hands, with more
-of thirteen hands than any other size, either above or below. The true
-average of the whole number is a little over thirteen hands and one inch,
-and none of them are called ponies. As further evidence of the small size
-of the colonial Virginia horses we find that in 1686 the legislature of
-Virginia passed an act providing for the forfeiture of all stallions
-under thirteen and a half hands high found running at large. It provided
-that any person might take up such stallion and carry him before a
-justice of the peace, and if he measured less than thirteen and a half
-hands, the justice was required to certify to the measurement and the
-facts, and the horse passed legally to his new owner.
-
-As to the gaits I find just twice as many pacers as trotters.
-Double-gaited animals, of which there were a few, I have here classed
-with the pacers. That many of these little fellows were very stout and
-tough is fully demonstrated by the fact that they could run heats of
-four miles with a hundred and forty pounds on their backs. This closes
-the first epoch in the history of the Virginia horse. The fleet and
-compact little horse of thirteen to fourteen hands had had his day, and
-he was now about to be overshadowed by a greater in speed and a greater
-in stature. Much of the blood of the little fellow that could run four
-miles and pace “at a prodigious rate,” was commingled with the blood of
-the English race horse, but whatever its triumphs, the lately arrived
-“foreigner” took the credit. A man would have been pronounced “clean
-daft” if at that time he had dreamed that one hundred and forty years
-later the blood of this little pacer would stand at the head of the great
-trotting interest of the world. The tough little fellow has retained his
-qualities through all the generations in which he has been neglected,
-despised and forgotten, until he was taken up twenty odd years ago, and
-now the names and achievements of the great pacers are as familiar to
-the whole American people as ever were the name of the greatest running
-horses. It is not known how long he continued to be a factor in the
-racing affairs of Virginia, but probably not later than about 1760.
-
-From about 1750 to 1770 seems to have been a period of great prosperity
-in Virginia and, notwithstanding the general improvidence of the times,
-many of the large landholders and planters were getting rich from their
-fine crops of tobacco and their negroes. This prosperity manifested
-itself strongly in the direction of the popular sport of horse racing
-and improving the size, quality, and fleetness of the running horse.
-England had then been selecting, importing Eastern blood, and “breeding
-to the winner” for a hundred years, with more or less intelligence and
-success, while the colonists had rested content with the descendants of
-the first importations from the mother country. Doubtless progress had
-been made here too, but it was as the progress of a poor man against
-another with great wealth and backed by the encouragements of royalty.
-The English horse could then run clear away from the Saracenic horse, his
-so-called progenitor, and he was very much larger than that “progenitor.”
-We can understand how the speed might be increased by its development in
-a series of generations and by always breeding to the fastest, but the
-increase of size can hardly be accounted for as the result of climatic
-causes—but we are getting away from the thought before us. When the
-Virginia planter found he had a handsome balance in London, subject
-to his draft, he at once ordered his factor to send him over the best
-racing stallion he could find. The action of one planter stirred up
-half a dozen others who felt they could not afford to be behind in the
-matter of improvement, but more especially that they could not afford
-to be behind in the finish at the fall and spring race meetings of the
-future. These importations went on continuously for about twelve years,
-and until they were interrupted by the excited relations and feelings
-between the colonies and the mother country and the preparations for the
-War of the Revolution, which was then imminent. After the close of the
-Revolution a perfect avalanche of race horses was poured upon us, some of
-which were good, but a great majority of them were never heard of after
-their arrival, on the race course or elsewhere. But up to the close of
-the century they had not succeeded in exterminating the pacer—the saddle
-horse of a hundred generations.
-
-As a specimen of how absurdly a man can talk and even write on subjects
-of which he knows nothing, I cannot refrain from giving the following
-from what an Englishman had to say in 1796 about the horses and
-horsemanship of Virginia:
-
-    “The horses in common use in Virginia are all of a light
-    description, chiefly adapted for the saddle; some of them are
-    handsome, but are for the most part spoiled by the false gaits
-    which they are taught. The Virginians are wretched horsemen,
-    as indeed are all the Americans I have met with, excepting
-    some few in the neighborhood of New York. They ride with their
-    toes just under the horse’s nose, and their stirrup straps left
-    extremely long, and the saddle being put three or four inches
-    on the mane. As for the management of the reins, it is what
-    they have no conception of. A trot is odious to them, and they
-    express the utmost astonishment at a person who can like that
-    uneasy gait, as they call it. The favorite gaits which all
-    their horses are taught are a pace and a _wrack_. In the first
-    the animal moves his two feet on one side at the same time
-    and gets on with a sort of a shuffling motion, being unable
-    to spring from the ground on these two feet, as in a trot. We
-    should call this an unnatural gait, as none of our horses would
-    ever move in that manner without a rider; but the Americans
-    insist upon it that it is otherwise, because many of their
-    colts pace as soon as born. These kind of horses are called
-    “natural pacers” and it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to
-    make them move in any other manner. But it is not one horse in
-    five hundred that would pace without being taught.”
-
-There can hardly be a doubt that our English friend in his “Travels
-Through the States” noted and wrote down just what he thought he saw,
-and when he saw anything that he never had seen in England, he was
-ready to either deny its existence altogether or to insist that there
-was some mistake about it. Poor man, he could not understand how there
-could be anything outside of England that could not be found in England.
-His vision, mental and physical, seems to have been restricted to the
-shores of his own island home, and he was probably a descendant of a
-very good man we once heard of. As you sail up the Firth of Clyde you
-pass an island of three or four miles in extent, called Cumbrae. At
-the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the island was a very pious man,
-some generations back, and every Sunday morning he prayed that the Lord
-would bless the “kingdom of Cumbrae and the adjacent islands of Great
-Britain and Ireland.” The author of “Travels Through the States” was
-evidently one of the very numerous descendants of this good man, as
-they are scattered all over England, and as I am a strong believer in
-the laws of heredity, I can hardly avoid this conclusion. Indeed, some
-of the numerous tribe, tracing their genealogy through many generations
-back to “The kingdom of Cumbrae,” have found their way across the water,
-and at another place I will pay my respects to them. But to return to
-our traveler: there can be no doubt about his never having seen a pacer
-in England, for the last one had disappeared before his day, unless an
-occasional one might have been found in the old province of Galloway, in
-the southern part of Scotland. If he had known the history of the horses
-of his own country he would have known that from the time of King John
-down to that of James I., the pacer was the most popular and fashionable
-horse in England, and that the nobility and gentry used no other kind
-for the saddle. He was always of “a mean stature,” but he was compact,
-hardy and strong, and could carry his burden a long journey in a day with
-great ease and comfort to his rider. In the reign of Elizabeth, he was
-kept separate from others, and bred as a breed on account of his easy,
-gliding motion, which he transmitted to his progeny. At the time of the
-plantation of the English colonies in this country the pacers were very
-numerous, and as they were just the type of horse suited to wilderness
-life, a very large proportion of those selected were pacers. The pacers
-our traveler saw in Virginia were the lineal descendants of the original
-English stock brought over by the adventurers, and the awkward riding
-charged upon the Virginians, with some evident exaggerations, was wisely
-and sensibly adapted to the action of the horses they were riding. The
-criticism of the long stirrups is wholly unjust, as they are just the
-right length for the “military” seat, and nobody in this country when
-mounted on a _real saddle horse_ would ever think of taking any other.
-The Englishman, when mounted on his “bonesetter,” is compelled to have
-his stirrups short so that he can rise and fall with every revolution the
-horse makes on the trot to save himself from being shaken to death. This
-up and down, up and down, tilt-hammer seat, if it can be called “a seat”
-at all, is one of the most ungraceful things, especially for a lady, that
-can be conceived of in all the displays of good and bad equestrianism.
-The English have been compelled to adopt it because they have no trained
-saddle horses, and a lot of brainless imitators about our American cities
-have followed them because “it is English, you know.” If the English had
-pacers and horses trained to the “saddle gaits,” they never would have
-anything else, and the tilt-hammer “seat” would disappear from Rotten Row
-and everywhere else.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.
-
-    Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of
-    Dutch and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size
-    of horses—Horses to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands
-    not to run at large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English,
-    1664—First organized racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement
-    in speed—First advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction,
-    contestants must “be bred in America”—Great racing and heavy
-    betting—First importations of English running horses—Half-breds
-    to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half bushel
-    of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress
-    against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and
-    trotting contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost.
-
-
-For several years after Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of
-the Dutch, discovered the harbor of New York and the great river which
-took his name, in the year 1609, there is uncertainty and doubt as to
-the nature of the settlement. For a time it seems to have been merely a
-trading post, occupied only by those in the employment of the company
-that owned it, and without many of the elements requisite to make up
-a permanent colony. At Fort Orange (Albany) and at Esopus (Kingston),
-the conditions were the same as at New Amsterdam, as New York was then
-named. The first party of immigrants that seemed to have the elements of
-permanent colonization about it arrived in 1625, and consisted of six
-families and several single men, making in all forty-five persons, with
-furniture, utensils, etc., and one hundred and three head of cattle.
-Doubtless some of these “cattle” were horses, and the general instead
-of the specific term was used in enumerating them. Very little is known
-of the early horse history of the New Netherlands, as the whole region
-was then named; there can be no doubt, however, that they increased and
-multiplied. Sometime, probably about 1643, a cargo or two of horses were
-brought up from Curaçoa and Azuba, in the Dutch West Indies, but the
-climatic change was too great for them, and they did not do well, being
-specially subject to diseases from which the Dutch horses seemed to have
-complete immunity. In 1647, Isaac Allerton, as agent, was authorized to
-sell twenty or twenty-five of these horses to Virginia, and whether the
-authorities were able thus to get clear of a bad investment does not
-appear from the existing records. In a report to the home company, made
-in 1650, I find the following prices were given at that time: A young
-mare with second foal, one hundred and fifty florins; stallion, four or
-five years old, one hundred and thirty florins; milch cow, one hundred
-florins. The same report makes a comparison by giving the prices of
-New England horses, as follows: A good mare one hundred to one hundred
-and twenty florins; stallion, one hundred florins; milch cow, sixty to
-seventy florins. Neither horses nor cows were then allowed to be shipped
-out of the province without permission of the council.
-
-Adrien Van der Donck wrote a description of New Netherlands which was
-published 1656, in which he speaks of the horse stock as follows:
-
-    “The horses are of the proper breed for husbandry, having been
-    brought from Utrecht for that purpose; and this stock has not
-    diminished in size or quality. There are also horses of the
-    English breed which are lighter, not so good for agricultural
-    use, but fit for the saddle. These do not cost as much as the
-    Netherlands breed and are easily obtained.”
-
-From a large number of facts collected for the years 1777 and 1778 the
-horses then averaged about fourteen hands and one inch, and when compared
-with earlier data it is evident they had increased in height. In the
-gaits of those advertised, fifteen both paced and trotted, nine trotted
-only, and seven paced only. As this was in the period of the Revolution,
-and right in the center of hostilities, some allowance should be made for
-horses from other colonies.
-
-The people of this colony, like those of all the others, branded their
-horses and turned them out to seek their own living in the summer season,
-and this resulted in many losses, and oftentimes in much bad feeling.
-The Dutch were not accustomed, in the “old country,” to building fences
-around their crops high enough and strong enough to keep out all the
-droves and herds of animals running at large. In the line of improvement
-and increase of size in their horses, they provided that all stallions
-running at large, of two years and nine months old, must be fourteen
-hands high or be castrated. This law was in force in 1734, and no doubt
-was effective. Among the many laws for the suppression of vice of
-different kinds, I find one prohibiting horse racing on Sunday, and from
-this we might infer that it was not forbidden on other days of the week.
-
-In old newspapers, advertisements, etc., we sometimes come across “Esopus
-Horses, Esopus Mares,” and, for years, I was not able to tell what this
-term meant. The locality of Kingston was originally called Esopus, and in
-that neighborhood there were several farmers who bred horses largely, at
-an early day in the history of the colony, and the locality became famous
-for the character and quality of the horses produced there. They were of
-the best and purest Dutch blood, and for what we would call “all-purpose
-horses” their fame was very wide in that day. Hence I infer that the term
-“Esopus” was used to indicate what was considered the best type of Dutch
-horses. There is danger of going astray in the meaning of the term “Dutch
-horses,” as in later times it was applied to the great, massive draft
-horses of Pennsylvania. They were better “for agricultural purposes,” as
-Van der Donck puts it, than the Connecticut horses, because they were
-larger and stronger, but they were sprightly and active and some of them
-could run very well. They had a fine reputation in the adjoining colonies.
-
-New Amsterdam, and consequently all the plantations in New Netherlands,
-surrendered to Colonel Nicolls, commanding the British forces, August
-27, 1664. Colonel Nicolls remained as governor of the colony three or
-four years and until he was succeeded by Governor Lovelace. Among his
-early official acts, Governor Nicolls laid out a race course on Hempstead
-Plains, and named it Newmarket, after the famous course in England.
-No engineering or grading was necessary, as nature had already made a
-perfect course without stick or stone or other obstruction. The first
-race was run 1665, and although it was a long distance from the city,
-the presence of the governor gave the occasion prestige and there was a
-great gathering of the gentry from town, and the farmers of Long Island.
-These meetings were kept up annually by the appointment of succeeding
-governors, and after a time they were held twice a year, spring and
-fall. There are some very important facts about these races that are not
-known and probably never will be known, namely, who were the nominators
-and what breed of horses were entered in these contests. With these
-two essential facts left out the value of the information is greatly
-impaired. As it is known, however, that there were but two breeds or
-types of horses that could have been engaged in these contests, it
-becomes a matter of interest to reach a conclusion as to which were the
-victors. Mr. John Austin Stevens has done some very excellent work on
-this part of the horse history of New York, but I cannot agree with him
-in his characterization of the Dutch horses as being Flemish. They did
-not come from Flanders, but from Utrecht. They were not great unwieldy
-brutes, such as we would associate with Flanders, but hardy, compact
-animals that could make their way in the wilderness. Although larger,
-it does not follow that they could not run as fast or even faster than
-the New England ponies. All breeds of horses were very much smaller
-two hundred years ago than they are now. These races were instituted,
-evidently, for the improvement of the breed of horses in the colony, and
-the great majority of these horses were the descendants of the original
-stock brought from Utrecht. We must, therefore, conclude that they were
-not slow, heavy, unwieldy animals with no action, as the language of Mr.
-Stevens would seem to imply, but capable of improvement in the direction
-of speed. No doubt there were very many New England horses in the colony,
-“lighter and better adapted to the saddle,” but neither the interests nor
-the pride of the old Dutch settlers would have permitted them to support
-racing for a period of more than eighty years, unless the early Utrecht
-blood was represented. Besides this, the weights carried, one hundred and
-forty pounds, and the distance, generally two-mile heats, were conditions
-that were strongly against the New Englanders, even if they were lighter
-of foot. With these two breeds in the field, we may accept it as an
-inevitable sequence that the superior qualities of the one would very
-soon be engrafted on the other, and by this process of breeding, a better
-type would be produced than either of the originals. This first step was
-only a prelude to the next, and that again to the next, until the common,
-plain lesson was thoroughly learned, that if a running horse was wanted
-the way to get him was to breed to a running horse that had proved he
-was a running horse. The improvement became very wide and general, and
-occasionally an animal was produced with such phenomenal speed that he
-was barred from stakes and purses. On this foundation, and this alone,
-the running turf was built up and continued for about eighty years, with
-occasional intervals, when the gamblers made it so nasty that no decent
-people would go near it.
-
-The first subscription plate race of which we have any trace is to be
-found in the _New York Gazette_, of September 27, 1736, of which the
-advertisement is given below. The course indicated is believed to have
-been on the Church Farm, west of Broadway, and not far from where the
-Astor House now stands. There is no account of what horses won, and all
-we know is just what is in the advertisement.
-
-    “On Wednesday, the 13th of October next, will be run for, on
-    the course at New York, a plate of twenty pounds’ value, by any
-    horse, mare or gelding, carrying ten stone (saddle and bridle
-    included), the best of three heats, two miles each heat. Horses
-    intended to run for the plate are to be entered the day before
-    the race, with Francis Child, on Fresh Water Hill, paying a
-    half pistole each, or at the post on the day of running, paying
-    a pistole. And the next day being the 14th, will be run for,
-    on the same course, by all or any of the horses that started
-    for the twenty-pound plate (the winning horse excepted) the
-    entrance money, on the conditions above. Proper judges will be
-    named to determine any disputes that may arise. All persons on
-    horseback or in chairs, coming into the field (the subscribers
-    and winning horse only excepted) are to pay sixpence each to
-    the owner of the grounds.”
-
-Passing on to 1747 we find a duplication of the foregoing for the plate
-race of that year, with some variations. Entries are restricted to
-animals that never won a plate before “on this island,” and a horse
-named Parrot is not permitted to compete. This race was advertised
-to take place on the Church Farm. The next that I will notice is the
-advertisement of this same stake for 1751, when the weight was reduced to
-eight stone, and in addition to the usual exclusion of previous winners,
-we have for the first time a restriction of the entries to animals “_bred
-in America_.” At the May meeting at Hempstead Plains, the year following,
-1752, the entries are again restricted to animals “bred in America.”
-From this, then, we are able to fix the precise period when English Race
-Horses were first brought to this colony. At this time there were two or
-three other courses on Manhattan Island, besides several noted speeding
-grounds on the roads and elsewhere, for the trotters and the pacers, of
-which no advertisements appear, and consequently no notice was taken by
-the newspaper press.
-
-From about 1760 up to the time when the Revolutionary struggle began
-to engross and absorb all thought and all action, racing received a
-tremendous impetus, not only in this colony but in others. Ten or twelve
-years before this a very few rich men in Maryland, Virginia and South
-Carolina commenced importing English running-bred horses with great
-success, and Mr. James De Lancey and other rich men of this colony were
-only a year or two behind them. This fancy grew and spread until a
-great many breeders and planters of the richer class had imported stock
-of their own, while their less wealthy neighbors were well supplied
-with half-breds. These half-breds were, for a short time, classed by
-themselves and purses were offered and run for, restricted to this class.
-After experimenting with animals bred in this way it was found that not
-a few of them were able to hold their own in any company. Mr. Morris’
-mare Strumpet was only half-bred, but she was able to beat many of the
-imported animals, as well as the full-breds that started against her.
-From this it would appear that breeding for speed for a hundred years had
-produced results in this country as well as in England. These experiments
-led many owners of old-fashioned stock to try it, and right there is
-where thousands and thousands of our best old American pedigrees end.
-The decade from 1750 to 1760 witnessed a complete transformation from
-the old methods to the new, from the old blood to the new, and more than
-all from the old managers to the new. During the next decade, from 1760
-to 1770, the new blood came out in great strength, and the saturnalia of
-horse racing grew more and more furious. Purses of a hundred dollars, as
-in the olden time, sprang up to ten times that sum, and matches were made
-for sums that were fabulous in that day. One match, between Mr. Delaney
-of Maryland and Mr. De Lancey of New York, specified the consideration on
-each side as a half bushel of silver Mexican dollars, and the Marylander
-had the satisfaction of carrying home a bushel of silver dollars. The
-great struggle, in New York, for supremacy on the turf was between the De
-Lancey family and the Morris family. These two families had been bitter
-political rivals for years, and when they met on the turf it was for
-“blood.” The De Lanceys were Tories and the Morrises were Whigs, and this
-intensified the feeling that had so long existed between them. When the
-Continental Congress adopted that remarkable resolution, advising the
-people to abstain from horse racing, cock fighting, gambling and some
-other more slight offenses, on the grounds of “economy,” in view of the
-approaching conflict with the mother country, the effect was thrilling
-and electrical. Every man who loved his home and his country obeyed it.
-True, as I have said, it was drawn in the form of advice and in the
-interests of “economy,” but there was but one great evil, one great
-prodigality at which it was aimed, and that was the gambling connected
-with horse racing. It was well aimed and struck the bull’s eye. It came
-in the midst of preparations for the greatest race meetings ever then
-projected, but everything was dropped and there it lay through all the
-years of the bloody struggle and until peace again smiled upon a land
-of free men. Before avowed hostilities commenced, Mr. James De Lancey,
-one of the first and largest importers and breeders of his day, sold out
-every animal of the horse kind that he possessed and retired to England.
-Thus, as the colonial period drew to its close, the brave little colonial
-horse that had weathered the storms of a hundred winters and carried his
-master in safety and comfort through all that time, is superseded by
-another race, and no one has ever attempted to write even so much as his
-epitaph.
-
-As the contests of speed considered, up to this point, have all been
-at the running gait, I must not close my review of this colony without
-giving some attention to the pacers and the trotters. At these gaits
-all sources of information are almost hopelessly barren of facts and
-incidents. We know that the running horses of the colonial period were
-the saddle horses of the country, and we know that the best and most
-fashionable saddle horses were pacers. When we connect these two facts
-and place them alongside of the pacing and trotting experiences of
-Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we have no difficulty in reaching the safe
-conclusion that the same conditions would produce the same results as
-in those two States. Pacing and trotting contests were just as frequent
-and as exciting in this colony as in any other, but they were sustained
-chiefly by road-house keepers and butchers, and were never advertised.
-Matches were made one hour and decided on the road in the next. In the
-“Annals of New York,” compiled and published in 1832, by John F. Watson,
-we find the following curious, but very valuable, scrap of horse history:
-
-    “Some twenty or thirty years before the Revolution, the steeds
-    most prized for the saddle were pacers, since so odious deemed.
-    To this end the breed was propagated with much care. The
-    Narragansett pacers of Rhode Island were in such repute that
-    they were sent for, at much trouble and expense, by some few
-    who were choice in their selections. It may amuse the present
-    generation to peruse the history of one such horse, spoken of
-    in the letter of Rip Van Dam of New York, in the year of 1711,
-    which I have seen. He states the fact of the trouble he had
-    taken to procure him such a horse. He was shipped from Rhode
-    Island in a sloop, from which he jumped overboard when under
-    sail, and swam ashore to his former home. Having been brought
-    back he arrived in New York, in thirteen days’ passage, much
-    reduced in flesh and spirit. He cost thirty-two pounds and his
-    freight fifty shillings. This writer, Rip Van Dam, was a great
-    personage, he having been president of the Council in 1731, and
-    on the death of Governor Montgomery that year, he was governor,
-    ex-officio, of New York. His mural monument is now to be seen
-    in St. Paul’s Church.”
-
-As New England saddle horses were only worth forty dollars in 1650, and
-this horse cost more than four times as much, when horses were more
-plentiful, we must conclude that he was a fine specimen of the breed, and
-was, probably, bought for stock purposes. The date of this transaction is
-a significant fact that should not be forgotten, as 1711 is the same year
-in which the first of the two great founders of the English race horse,
-Darley Arabian, was brought to England.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW ENGLAND.
-
-    First importations to Boston and to Salem—Importations
-    from Holland brought high prices—They were not pacers and
-    not over fourteen hands—In 1640 horses were exported to
-    the West Indies—First American newspaper and first horse
-    advertisement—Average sizes—The different gaits—CONNECTICUT,
-    first plantation, 1636—Post horses provided for by law—All
-    horses branded—Sizes and Gaits—An Englishman’s experience
-    with pacers—Lindsay’s Arabian—RHODE ISLAND, Founded by Roger
-    Williams, 1636—No direct importations ever made—Horses largely
-    exported to other colonies 1690—Possibly some to Canada—Pacing
-    races a common amusement—Prohibited 1749—Size of the
-    Narragansetts compared with the Virginians.
-
-
-In 1629 the London founders of the plantation of Massachusetts Bay sent
-out six vessels laden with emigrants, horses, cattle, goats, etc. These
-vessels brought some twenty-five head of mares and stallions, that
-were valued at six pounds each and all owned by the company in London,
-except three mares from Leicester, that were owned by private parties.
-At that time there seems to have been some rivalry between Boston and
-Salem as a shipping point, but this fleet came to Boston harbor. This
-same year (1629) Salem seems to have had six or seven mares and one
-stallion, besides forty cows, and forty goats. From this it might be
-safely inferred that a part of this fleet put into Salem harbor, or that
-there may have been another and somewhat earlier shipment of which we
-have no details. Salem was really founded in 1626, and the settlement
-at Charlestown, Boston, dates from the same year. The next year about
-sixty head were shipped to the plantation, but many were lost during the
-voyage, of both horses and cattle. Several other shipments followed,
-but nothing worthy of special note, till 1635, when two Dutch ships
-arrived at Salem with twenty-seven mares, valued at thirty-four pounds
-each, and three stallions. Some writers have spoken of these mares as
-“Flanders mares,” but I have not been able to find any evidence or even
-indication that this might have been the fact. The records show they
-were Dutch ships, and that on a given day they sailed out of the Texel,
-a Dutch port, far away from Flanders. I think, therefore, we are safe in
-concluding they were “Dutch mares,” and they should be so designated.
-Just about this period they were bringing Dutch horses from Utrecht, in
-Holland, to the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam, and it was well known
-in Holland as well as in New England that the Dutch horses brought
-much better prices in New England than the English importations. It is
-probable, further, that these Dutch traders were looking out for a choice
-of markets, as between New England and New Netherlands. These mares
-were valued at thirty-five pounds each, the record says, but we are not
-informed as to the price that was really paid for them. There is a very
-wide discrepancy between the figure at which these mares were “valued”
-and the cost of the mares that were brought from England. The English
-company charged the colony six pounds each for the horses sent from
-there, and ten pounds freight.
-
-I have labored assiduously to get at such data as would afford a safe
-basis upon which to determine the size and other qualities of these
-Dutch horses. They were larger than the English horses of that period
-and they were more muscular, with greater weight of bone. They were,
-doubtless, better adapted to the various offices of the “general purpose”
-horse than their English contemporaries, in every respect, except the
-saddle. There is no distinctive evidence that they were pacers or could
-go any of the saddle gaits, in their own right. It is probably safe to
-conclude that the original importations would not average more than
-fourteen and a half hands high, and very likely the exact truth, if
-it could be reached, would place them below that figure rather than
-above it. The process of reducing the size commenced as soon as they
-arrived: for the English horses had saddle qualities which the Dutch
-did not possess, and everybody wanted a saddle horse. Still the Dutch
-blood was highly prized, and a hundred and fifty years afterward it
-was no uncommon thing, especially in the valley of the Connecticut,
-to meet with the advertisements of stallions seeking patronage on the
-strength of “Dutch blood.” This, for a time, was a puzzle to me, but
-as we consider the horse interests of the region of the Hudson and the
-Mohawk Valley extending eastward and that of eastern Massachusetts
-extending westward along with the current of emigration, it is not
-difficult to understand how the blood of the Dutch horse should have
-become so generally diffused. On the one hand we had the much-desired
-saddle qualities, and on the other we had the much-desired increase of
-size without deterioration in appearance. Thus owners were accommodated
-and the horse stock of the country was improved by the interbreeding
-of the two nationalities. It is not necessary to further particularize
-different importations. It is sufficient to say that they were very
-numerous, and the multiplying of the stock was carried forward with vigor
-and success. Five years later—1640—the colonists not only had all the
-horses they needed, but they shipped a cargo of eighty head to Barbadoes.
-From the colony of Massachusetts Bay all the plantations of New England
-secured their foundation stock of horses, hence they are here considered
-collectively.
-
-The people of the Plymouth plantation were very slow in providing
-themselves with horses, and it was not till after 1632 that they had any.
-It is hard to conceive of a colony like that of Massachusetts Bay living
-and flourishing for a period of, say, eighty years without a newspaper,
-and yet such is the fact. The Boston _News-Letter_, the first newspaper,
-so called, in this country, was established May 29, 1704, and it lived
-many years. The early colonial newspapers, from one end of the land to
-the other, were anything and everything but newspapers, as we understand
-the meaning of the title in our day. If a boy fell off a building in
-London and broke his leg, six weeks before, it was liable to appear as an
-item of “news” in the local American newspaper, but if the same accident
-happened the week before, in a neighboring town, it was never mentioned.
-The name “newspaper” attached to such publications was a fraud.
-
-The following is a copy of the first horse advertisement ever published
-in this country, and for that reason it is worthy of preservation. It was
-taken from the Boston _News-Letter_ of November 19, 1705:
-
-    “Strayed from Mr. John Wilson of Braintree, at Mr. Havens’
-    in Kingston, in Narragansett, about a fortnight ago, a
-    sorrel mare, low stature, four white feet, a white face,
-    shod all round, her near ear tore, has a long white tail and
-    mane. Whoever will give any intelligence of her ... will be
-    sufficiently rewarded.”
-
-As this was in the period when the Narragansett pacers had reached their
-greatest fame, we might argue that this mare had been sent down to
-Kingston from Braintree, Massachusetts, to be wintered and to be bred
-in the spring to some famous horse in Kingston, the very center of the
-horse-breeding interests of that day.
-
-Under the date of June 17, 1706, I find a bay horse advertised as
-“strayed or stolen: fourteen hands high, hardly possible to make him
-gallop,” and October 28, 1706, a black gelding “fourteen hands high,
-paces, trots, and gallops.” Then in the years 1731 and 1732 I find a
-“black mare fourteen and three-quarter hands, trots and paces;” a “black
-horse twelve hands,” no gait given; “black gelding, fourteen hands,
-races, trots, and gallops;” “bay horse large, good pacer;” “roan mare,
-fourteen hands, paces and trots.” But the field which I specially gleaned
-was for the years 1756-59, where I found the average height was fourteen
-hands one inch, the data including eight pacers and two trotters. This,
-I think, may be taken as fairly representative of the size and habit
-of action of Massachusetts horses in the first half of the eighteenth
-century.
-
-In 1636 the first plantation was made in Connecticut at Hartford by the
-Rev. Thomas Hooker and over a hundred of his congregation with him. They
-left nothing behind, but brought all their domestic animals to their new
-home. I have not been able to discover just how many horses they brought
-with them, but in a few decades they had a great abundance and to spare.
-In 1653 the General Court at New Haven made provision for keeping public
-saddle horses for hire and fixed the rate of charges for their use. It
-also prohibited the sale of horses outside of the colony. In 1658 all
-horses, young and old, had to be branded by an officer appointed for
-that purpose, and it required several years of legislation before the
-system of branding, selling and recording could be so perfected as to
-prevent dishonesty and frauds. In 1674 an act was passed providing and
-enjoining that all colts entire and stallions running at large, under
-thirteen hands high, should be gelded. This law also required a good
-deal of amending before it could be made to work smoothly. The size of
-the Connecticut horses about the time of the Revolution was an average
-of thirteen hands three inches, thus ranging below the other New England
-colonies. In 1778 horse racing was prohibited under the penalty of
-forfeiture of the horse and a fine of forty shillings. In 1776 a careful
-compilation of the gaits of the horses of that period, embracing nineteen
-individuals, taken as they came, showed that fifteen were pacers, or
-pacers and trotters, and four were trotters only. As an evidence of
-the quality of the Connecticut pacers, take the following passage from
-a little volume published 1769, in England, entitled “A Voyage to North
-America,” by G. Taylor, Sheffield, England, 1768-69:
-
-    “After dinner at New London, Conn., Mr. Williams and I took
-    post horses, with a guide to New Haven. Their horses are, in
-    general of less size than ours, but extremely stout and hardy.
-    A man will ride the same horse a hundred miles a day, for
-    several days together, in a journey of five or eight hundred
-    miles, perhaps, and the horse is never cleaned. They naturally
-    pace, though in no graceful or easy manner, but with such
-    swiftness and for so long a continuance as must seem incredible
-    to those who have not proved it by experience.”
-
-This is a very different view of the pacer from that expressed by another
-Englishman who visited Virginia in 1796. He had never seen a pacer before
-and he was wholly unwilling to believe his host when he assured him it
-was a natural gait and that many colts paced from the day they were
-foaled. This, to the mind of the Englishman could not be true, he says,
-“for none of our horses ever move in that manner.” (See Virginia, pp.
-117-118).
-
-The most noted horse ever owned in Connecticut, at least in colonial
-days, was the horse named and known in later times as Lindsay’s Arabian.
-When I was younger I accepted the marvelous story of the origin and early
-history of this horse, of which a brief account is given in the chapter
-on the “American Race Horse,” to which reference is here made. This
-acceptance on my part of the romantic story was largely superinduced by
-a statement made by a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,
-that he had examined the animal when he was old and found on three of
-his legs undoubted physical evidence that they had at one time been
-broken. This appeared in a reputable publication, but when compared with
-some other facts in the history of the horse that are known, there can
-hardly be a doubt that the examination by the justice was a fiction.
-When I began to realize that the marvelous story was a mere fiction my
-“wrath waxed hot” against the people of “the land of steady habits,” to
-say nothing of “wooden nutmegs,” until Mr. O. W. Cook made it very plain
-that the people of Connecticut never had heard of the remarkable story.
-(See _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol. VI., p. 251). Thus it became evident
-that the whole story had been fabricated in Maryland and was a kind of
-“green goods” method for catching the unwary. These are my apologies
-to the general public and especially to the Connecticut public for
-supposing them guilty of any such fraud. The naked truth of the matter
-is, that while this horse may have been imported from England, his public
-advertisements clearly indicate that his owners knew nothing of his blood
-or early history.
-
-The colony of Rhode Island was planted by Roger Williams and his
-followers in 1636, and the first patent giving it a legal existence
-was obtained 1647. It was an offshoot from Massachusetts and a protest
-against the intolerance of that colony in religious affairs. For several
-years I made renewed and persistent efforts to discover whether in
-the early colonial period Rhode Island had ever imported any horses
-from foreign countries, and after exhausting every source of recorded
-information, I have not been able to find a single intimation of such
-importation. It is evident, therefore, that the famous Narragansett
-pacer is simply the result of carefully selecting and breeding from
-the best and the fastest of the descendants of the English pacers, to
-be found everywhere in the colony of Massachusetts. The superiority of
-the Narragansett pacer over all others of his kind seemed to suggest
-the probability that he must have possessed blood that was superior to
-all others, and to supply this “want,” a Rhode Islander advanced the
-claim that his grandfather had imported the original stock from Spain.
-Unfortunately for this “claim” there were two difficulties in the way
-of accepting it. First, there were no pacers in Spain, and second, the
-Narragansett pacers were famous for their speed and value before the
-grandfather was born, or at least before he was out of his swaddling
-clothes.
-
-The horse interests of Rhode Island seem to have been active and
-successful from the very founding of the colony, and the fame of her
-pacers extended to all the American colonies at a very early day. When
-the authorities made their report to the Board of Trade at London, in
-1690, showing what they had produced and where and how they had disposed
-of their surplus, they place horses at the head of their products and
-state that they are shipped to all the English colonies on the American
-coast. This statement is sustained by corresponding facts that are known
-in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Trading with the French colonies
-in Canada was rigorously prohibited, but it is quite probable that many a
-good pacing horse found his way to the St. Lawrence in exchange for pelts
-and furs. But, as the Narragansett and the pacer generally will be fully
-considered in another part of this volume, the reader is referred to the
-chapters wholly devoted to those topics.
-
-That racing was a common amusement of the people of Rhode Island is fully
-established by the very best of contemporaneous evidence, and by the
-silver plate prizes won, that are said to be still in existence in some
-of the old families. Attempts have been made to laugh this statement out
-of court, on the grounds that Rhode Island was a Puritan colony, and
-such a thing as a horse race would not be tolerated for a single day.
-This attempt shows a great deal more smartness than knowledge, for Rhode
-Island was not a Puritan colony, as that term is generally understood,
-but had for its very foundation opposition to the spirit of intolerance
-that prevailed in all the other New England colonies. But, what is still
-more conclusive, the legislature of the colony in 1749 enacted a law
-prohibiting all racing, under a penalty of forfeiture of the horse and
-a fine of one hundred dollars. As in other colonies not in New England
-racing and betting had become so common that the moral sense of the
-people rose up and abolished it. If there had been no racing there would
-have been no law to wipe it out.
-
-When the Rev. Dr. McSparran, of Rhode Island, made a trip in Virginia
-and rode the Virginia pacers some hundreds of miles, early in the last
-century, he seems to have observed them closely and spoke very highly of
-them, but he said they were not so large and strong as the Narragansetts,
-nor so easy and gliding in their action. It might be suggested that this
-opinion was the natural result of esteeming one’s own as better than
-those of a neighbor, but he was certainly right in the matter of size. In
-1768 the Rhode Island horses averaged fourteen hands one inch, while the
-Virginia horses averaged (1750-52) thirteen hands one and three-quarter
-inches, making a difference of three and one-quarter inches in height.
-In the matter of gait they were not all natural pacers, for out of
-thirty-five there were eight that did not pace, and some of the others
-both paced and trotted. From this it may be inferred that breeders, in
-order to increase the size, had incorporated more or less of the blood of
-the early Dutch importations.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, MARYLAND, CAROLINA.
-
-    Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s
-    newspaper—Conestoga horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish
-    origin—Acrelius’ statement. NEW JERSEY—Branding—Increase of
-    size—Racing, Pacing, and Trotting restricted—MARYLAND—Racing
-    and pacing restricted 1747—Stallions of under size to be shot.
-    NORTH CAROLINA—First settlers refugees—SOUTH CAROLINA—Size
-    and gait in 1744—Challenges—No running blood in the colony
-    1744—General view.
-
-
-When William Penn arrived on this side of the water (1682) and took
-possession of his princely gift from Charles II., he found the eastern
-border of his new province already occupied, though sparsely, by an
-industrious and enterprising people. The old Swedish colonists as well as
-a sprinkling of Englishmen and other nationalities had been there for a
-good many years, and were beginning to get the necessaries as well as the
-comforts of life about them. For their numbers, they had a fair supply of
-horses, cattle, sheep, and swine; and the growing of cereals and fruits
-of all kinds showed encouraging progress, with the promise of plenty.
-The new proprietor was gladly welcomed and his rule proved kindly and
-beneficent. In a letter to Lord Ormonde, after his arrival, Mr. Penn, in
-describing the condition of things in his new colony, says: “The horses
-are not very handsome, but good.” The public affairs of Penn’s grant,
-before his arrival, had been administered in the name of the Duke of
-York, from about the time New Amsterdam had surrendered to the English,
-and hence we find sundry regulations with regard to the horse in force
-before that event.
-
-The first of these, having the efficacy of law, was in the year 1676,
-requiring all horses to be branded, and officers appointed to do the
-branding and keep a record of the fact. Besides the individual brands,
-each town had its own brand that had to be applied, and by this double
-marking it was supposed that strays could be identified with certainty.
-Another provision was that no mares should be exported to Virginia or
-Barbadoes or other foreign plantations. Again, every owner was supposed
-to keep a certain number of horses at home, for daily use, and he was
-allowed to keep twice that number running at large. In 1682 no stone
-horse under thirteen and one-half hands high was allowed to run at
-large. This was afterward changed to thirteen hands. In 1724 this law
-was revised and re-enacted so that colts “of comely proportions” and not
-more than one year and a half old, if thirteen hands high, might run at
-large; but if older than eighteen months they must be fourteen hands high
-or suffer the penalty, which was castration. In 1750 horse racing of all
-kinds was prohibited, under a severe penalty.
-
-In that grand old repository of ancient, curious, and valuable things
-relating to colonial affairs, the New York Historical Society, to which
-I am greatly indebted, I found a file of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_,
-commencing with the year 1729, published by “B. Franklin, printer.”
-In that day the term “editor” or “reporter” was not known in the
-vocabulary of any well-regulated newspaper office, and for anything of
-a local character you had to look in the advertising columns. To these
-I resorted, as usual, and they presented results that were a great
-surprise to me. Pennsylvania has long been famous for the production
-of great massive draft horses, and before the days of railroads just
-suited, with six or eight of them in a team, for the transportation of
-freights from the seaboard to the Ohio River. This was a great business
-at the beginning of this century and for forty or fifty years afterward.
-The fame of those great teams, the great wagons and the great loads
-they hauled over the mountains, spread far and wide, and as a special
-designation that went with them they were called Conestoga horses, and
-the wagons were called Conestoga wagons, named after a creek in Lancaster
-County, Pennsylvania, where many large horses were bred. There was no
-particular line of blood to be followed, for a large horse bred west
-of the mountains was just as certainly a Conestoga as though he had
-been bred in Lancaster County. The Conestoga was simply the horse that
-was best suited for a big team with an enormous load, and he varied in
-size from sixteen and one-half to eighteen hands in height and from one
-thousand six hundred to one thousand nine hundred pounds in weight. These
-measurements he reached by breeding for the one purpose of strength
-and weight. It is safe to conclude that in the latter part of the last
-century breeding animals of large size were brought over the water, for
-we can hardly conceive of their being descended from the little pacers
-preceding them only fifty or sixty years.
-
-The Pennsylvania horses of the first half of the last century were
-remarkably uniform in size, and from a large number of cases in which
-the size is given I find the exact average was thirteen hands one and
-one-quarter inches. Of the twenty-eight animals in which the habit of
-action is given, twenty-four were pacers, three both paced and trotted,
-and just one is given as a natural trotter. Here we have two very
-striking facts—the low stature and the uniformity of the pacing gait.
-These horses average a quarter of an inch below the Virginians, the next
-lowest, and a higher ratio of pacers than in any other colony. There must
-have been some reason or reasons for this, and I will suggest two which
-strike me as probably effective in producing these results. The earliest
-settlers in Southeastern Pennsylvania were the Swedes. They brought their
-horses with them from the Old World, and they were undoubtedly pacers,
-but I have no means of determining anything about their size. This may be
-an important factor in determining the uniformity of the gait, as well as
-the diminutive size. The other consideration that I will present is the
-fact that the pacer was more fashionable in and about Philadelphia, then
-the leading city of the continent, than in any other section or portion
-of the colonies. It is a fact that seems to be fully established, that
-early in the last century the breeding of pacing horses was carried on in
-the region of Philadelphia, with much spirit and intelligence, and that
-pacing stallions for public service were carefully selected for their
-shapeliness and speed. It is also a fact that all horses that could not
-pace were, in the public estimation, classed as basely bred.
-
-The Swedes and Finns planted a colony on the west bank of the Delaware in
-1638, and as they were an industrious and thrifty people they prospered
-and extended their plantation up the river as far as Philadelphia. This
-territory was then claimed by the Dutch of New Netherlands, and they
-overcame the Swedes in 1655, and ten years later they in turn had to
-surrender to the English. Of the early Swedes, the Rev. Acrelius wrote
-and published, in the Swedish language, a very valuable account of
-his people. In speaking of their horses he says: “The horses are real
-ponies and are seldom over sixteen hands high [evidently a misprint and
-should read “thirteen” instead of “sixteen”]. He who has a good riding
-horse never employs him for draft; which is also the less necessary, as
-journeys are for the most part made on horseback. It must be the result
-of this, more than of any particular breed in the horses, that the
-country excels in fast horses, so that horse races are often made for
-very high stakes.” Such horses often sold for sixty dollars in our modern
-money. The question of the pacers of Philadelphia will be considered more
-at length in the chapters devoted to the history of the pacer.
-
-NEW JERSEY is not known to have made any direct importations of horses
-from the old country. Lying between New York on the east and Pennsylvania
-on the west, she had abundant opportunity to get her supply of horses
-from her neighbors on either side, to say nothing of the overflow from
-Virginia about 1669. Like all the other colonies, as early as 1668 her
-horses were ordered to be branded and then suffered to roam at large and
-find their own living. Not much attention seems to have been given to the
-idea of improvement in the size and quality of the stock till 1731, when
-it was provided by law that all colts of eighteen months old, running at
-large and under fourteen hands high, should be gelded. I have not made
-any attempt to get at the exact average size of the Jersey horses, nor to
-ascertain the ratio of pacers among them, for we know the environments
-and the sources of supply, and in knowing these we know just what the
-Jersey horses were—a large majority of them were pacers and they were not
-over fourteen hands high.
-
-The statutes of this colony, enacted 1748, furnished the first real
-evidence of record, with one exception, going to show that pacing and
-trotting races, as well as running races, were the common amusement of
-the people in the first half of the last century. They were so common,
-indeed, that the legislative authorities declared them a nuisance
-and restricted them to certain days in the year. That this was not a
-“moral spasm,” as some might call it, that had seized the legislative
-authorities of that particular year, is evident from the fact that,
-afterward and from time to time, this statute was amended, and always
-in the direction of greater restrictions and greater severity. This is
-sufficient evidence that the moral sense of the community sustained the
-lawmakers in pronouncing it a nuisance, to be abated. It is not probable
-that pacing and trotting races were any more common or more demoralizing
-in New Jersey than in some of the other colonies, but they seem to have
-been content with fulminating against “horse racing” without specifying
-the different gaits at which the horses might go in the race. Until this
-old colonial statute was discovered, it was not possible to prove by
-contemporaneous evidence that there had been any pacing or trotting races
-before the first decade of the present century. This, however, adds to
-their antiquity more than a hundred years.
-
-MARYLAND was really the first in point of time to legislate for the
-suppression of pacing, as well as running races, but the old statute,
-enacted in 1747, was not discovered till very recently. This proves that
-pacing races were very common in Maryland one hundred and sixty years
-ago, but it says nothing about trotting races. It will be observed that
-in the New Jersey statute the different kinds of racing are placed in
-this order: “Racing, pacing and trotting,” and I take this to mean the
-order of their prominence. Applying this method to Maryland, it may be
-inferred that trotting races were infrequent and practically unknown,
-and hence not enumerated as offensive. Taking these two cases together,
-I think we are justified in concluding that the pacer antedated and
-preceded the trotter in all turf sports. No doubt he was faster then
-than the trotter, and he has maintained his superiority, in that respect
-at least, to this day. Maryland was a great racing colony and it was
-afterward a great racing State. This statute did not sweep over the
-whole colony, but applied only to the race course at Newmarket, and Anne
-Arundel and Talbot counties. As I understand the matter, this statute was
-enacted specially at the request of the Society of Friends, and for the
-protection of their yearly meetings.
-
-With Pennsylvania on the one side and Virginia on the other, it is not
-necessary to spend any time on the sizes and gaits of the horses of
-Maryland, for they were simply duplicates of those in the two colonies
-with which they were in constant intercourse and trade. In the matter
-of undersized stallions running at large Maryland was more in earnest
-and more savage than any of the other colonies. For, by an act of
-Legislature, passed 1715, it was provided that any person finding an
-entire colt eighteen months old, or an unbroken stoned horse, running at
-large, no difference what his size, might shoot him upon the spot.
-
-NORTH CAROLINA was first permanently settled by a colony from Virginia,
-led by Roger Green, July, 1653. For some years previous to this it had
-been the refuge of Quakers and others fleeing from the persecutions and
-proscriptions that prevailed in Virginia at that time, against all who
-did not conform to the ritual of the English church. These refugees and
-colonists took their horses and all they had with them, and as this was
-but a few years before there was an overproduction of horses in Virginia,
-and great droves were running wild without an owner, we may conclude they
-cost but little and that they spread rapidly in the new colony. As we
-thus know whence they came, we necessarily know what they were in size
-and gait, and we need not trace them any further.
-
-SOUTH CAROLINA received her colonial charter in 1663, and the
-earliest newspaper that I have found was for the year 1744, from the
-advertisements in which I have extracted the following data as to size
-and gait. In the first four and the last four months of the _South
-Carolina Gazette_ for 1744 I find thirty horses advertised as strayed
-or stolen, in which the size is given, and they average within a small
-fraction of an inch of thirteen and one-half hands, and of this number
-three are given as fifteen hands, which was considered, in that day, a
-large horse. Out of this number the gait is given in only twelve cases,
-ten of which were pacers, one paced and trotted, and one trotted only.
-The foundation horse stock of South Carolina was obtained chiefly, if not
-wholly, from Virginia, and the practice of branding and turning out, to
-roam at large, prevailed everywhere.
-
-In the issues of the _Gazette_ for this year (1744) I find but one
-advertisement of a stallion for public service, and he is called the
-“famous racing horse named Roger,” and is advertised as a great, race
-horse, but there is no attempt to give a pedigree or to claim that he
-possessed any blood that was not the inheritance of all others. Another
-advertisement is a lengthy challenge from Joseph Butler to run his
-gelding Chestnut against any horse, mare or gelding for five hundred or
-one thousand pounds “inch and weight,” the lowest horse carrying thirteen
-stone. No mention or reference is made to his blood, and from these two
-facts we may reasonably infer that at that time there were no strains of
-blood, known to the Carolinians, specially bred to run. The distance to
-be run is not definitely mentioned, but it was on a road from one point
-to another, and I suppose it was about two and a half, or possibly three
-miles. This was three years before the first English race horse was
-imported into Virginia. It has been represented that an old gentleman,
-whose name is forgotten, imported into South Carolina a number of English
-race horses at a period long anterior to this, but that claim has never
-been in a shape that placed it above very grave suspicion and doubt; and
-the claim accompanying it, in the way of apology, that the old man would
-never allow any of his horses to race, did not improve its credibility.
-From the advertisements just referred to, it seems evident that there was
-no distinctively English running blood in the colony till after this date.
-
-This review of the horses of the colonial period embraces all that I
-have been able to glean of the character, qualifications, size and
-habit of action of the earliest importations and their descendants.
-Their diminutive size will be a surprise to my readers as it has been
-to me, and the overwhelming ratio of pacers to trotters will be a still
-greater surprise. The importance of increasing the size by judicious
-selections of the largest seems to have been ever present to the minds
-of the colonists, but not much could be accomplished in that direction,
-under the system prevalent everywhere of roaming at large. The little
-pacers were great saddle horses, and down to the days of good roads and
-wheeled vehicles they were deemed indispensable. That there were race
-horses among them at the running, pacing and trotting gaits there is
-indisputable evidence, covering about a hundred years of the colonial
-period, but there is no record of the rate of speed. The pacer was the
-favorite and fashionable horse of that period, and after something has
-been said about the Canadian horse we will take up his history and treat
-it with that fullness its importance demands.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-EARLY HORSE HISTORY—CANADA.
-
-    Settlement and capture of Port Royal—Early plantations—First
-    French horses brought over 1665—Possibly illicit trading—Sire
-    of “Old Tippoo”—His history—“Scape Goat” and his
-    descendants—Horses of the Maritime Provinces.
-
-
-Before taking up the two provinces of the Dominion—Quebec and Ontario—to
-which reference is made in this volume as “Canada,” there is an incident
-in the history of Nova Scotia, full of sadness, that I cannot pass over
-without mention. The French made a settlement here in 1602, and named the
-country New France. The settlement to which I refer was at Port Royal,
-afterward named Annapolis by the English. This seems to have been a
-thrifty and flourishing little plantation, far removed from all outside
-associations, except the savages of the forests, with whom they lived in
-peace. The first horses brought to North America were owned and bred by
-the people of Port Royal. In November, 1613, Captain Argall, of Virginia,
-organized a plundering expedition, and having learned of the defenseless
-condition of Port Royal from Captain John Smith, he sailed up there with
-two or three ships, captured the place and carried away horses, cattle,
-sheep, wheat, farming utensils, and indeed everything their ships would
-carry, and then sailed away to Virginia. This raid was without authority
-or orders, but it was winked at by the officials, and forthwith a second
-raid was made by Argall, and all that had been left in the first was
-carried away in the second, as well as some of the inhabitants.
-
-The pacer of Canada, generally believed to be of French origin, has
-long been an object of diligent investigation, without reaching any
-satisfactory results. Again and again I have gone over the first
-half-century of the history of the French plantations on the St.
-Lawrence; examining everything in the English language that held out any
-hope of throwing light upon the question, but nothing was revealed. The
-trouble was that my search stopped a little short of the date when the
-first horses arrived. The management of the affairs of the plantations
-on the St. Lawrence being in a company located in France, there was a
-lack of vigor, not much growth, and still less profits to the projectors
-of the colony. The energies of the people seemed to be directed almost
-wholly to collecting and trading in peltry instead of building up a
-commonwealth from the productions of the soil. For half a century these
-primitive people lived without horses. Their farms, if they could be
-called farms, all had a frontage on the water, running back in narrow
-strips to the highlands. They did their plowing with cattle and their
-canoes supplied the place of the saddle horse, the family carriage and
-the lumber wagon to carry the scanty surplus of their little farms to
-market. At last the company in France, holding direction and control, got
-out of the way, and the king of France assumed direct authority over the
-affairs of the plantation. On June 30, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy arrived
-at Quebec, as viceroy, with a numerous suite of retainers and a regiment
-of French soldiers. Two months later a large fleet arrived bringing
-many colonists, embracing artisans, farmers, peasants, etc., with their
-families, and a good number of horses, the first that had ever been seen
-on the St. Lawrence. There is a tradition that a horse had been sent over
-to the governor in 1642, but it is probable he was lost on the voyage, as
-the older people of the colony had no recollection or knowledge of any
-such animal. These colonists came from the ancient province of Picardy,
-not now to be found on the modern maps of France, but it lay on the
-English Channel in the extreme northwest of France. As it is expressly
-stated that these colonists came from Picardy, it is fair to conclude
-that the horses came from that portion of the kingdom also. At this
-period in history there had been no wars between France and England for
-many years, and commercial as well as social intercourse had long been
-cultivated between the people on both sides of the channel. We know but
-little of the early horse history of France, but in our own time we know
-that France has been largely benefited by the diffusion of the English
-blood among her horse stock, so we may conclude that if a man in Kent had
-a horse that a man in Picardy wanted, he very soon got him in the way of
-legitimate trade. I think, therefore, it is safe to conclude that the
-horse stock of Northwestern France and the horse stock of England were
-very much the same in appearance, action and blood. On this basis of
-reasoning, which involves no improbabilities, we may conclude that the
-same proportion of the horses from Picardy were natural pacers.
-
-There is another theory, giving the Canadian pacer an Anglo-American
-origin, that commends itself to the unbiased judgment with even greater
-force than the one just suggested. Various writers have talked about
-the “French characteristics” of the Canadian pacer, and all that, when
-probably not one of them ever saw a horse that he _knew_ to be French.
-The early pacers—the pacing-bred pacers—all have more or less strongly
-marked resemblances, especially in conformation, and it makes no
-difference whether they come from Canada or whether their habitat has
-been south of Mason and Dixon’s line for two hundred and fifty years.
-When we look at a pacer, therefore, we may as well be honest and say we
-don’t know whether he resembles the horses that reached the St. Lawrence
-in 1665, or those that reached Massachusetts Bay in 1629. The theory
-that the French Canadians got the foundation of their pacing stock from
-the New England colonies rests upon two well-known facts. First, the
-colonies had a great abundance of such horses for sale; and second, they
-were within reach of and purchasable by the Canadians. To these two facts
-rendering the theory possible, we have others which render it probable.
-The jealous restrictions sought to be imposed on both the English and
-French colonists by the home governments of both people strongly indicate
-that there was no small amount of illicit trading, and this trading,
-in the very nature of things, must have been between the English and
-French. Toward the close of the seventeenth century the English colonies,
-especially Rhode Island, had far more horses than they needed for home
-use, and they did a thriving business in exporting them to different
-parts. These were just the kind of horses the Canadians needed for their
-wild life in the wilderness; they were cheaper than they could be brought
-from France; the water way of Lake Champlain was convenient; pelts and
-furs were a desirable commodity of exchange, and there was no cordon of
-customs officers to keep the willing traders apart. Of these theories we
-consider the second the more probable of the two, and if we accept it
-we reach the conclusion that the so-called “French” Canadian pacer is
-merely a descendant of the old English pacer brought over by the early
-New England colonists. Objection has been presented to this theory, on
-the grounds that the powerful confederation of the Six Nations Indians
-interposed an insurmountable barrier to all trade, whether legitimate or
-illicit, between the Canadians and the colonists of New England. This
-objection is certainly conclusive as applied to the different periods
-of hostilities, but the hostilities were not continuous. During both
-the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries there were periods of
-years at a stretch when there were no hostilities, and when there was
-nothing to prevent the Canadian and the Yankee from coming together and
-exchanging what they each had that the other wanted. The border abounds
-in traditions of the incidents connected with this illicit trading, but
-we need not go to the border in the wilderness to learn that the desire
-to “beat the customs” is almost universal. We can see it manifested every
-day at the docks in New York, when a steamer arrives from abroad. The
-fine lady, with her gloves and lots of other lingerie that she has been
-contriving all the way across how best to keep from the sight of the
-officer, is no better and no worse than the “Canuck,” who in a retired
-place at midnight trades his peltry to the Yankee for his horse. If the
-Canadian pacer did not have his origin in New England it was not because
-he could not be carried across the border.
-
-When we enter upon the consideration of the actual performers descended
-from the original Canadian stock, we find both pacers and trotters of
-speed and merit, but in attempting to trace them to their particular
-ancestors we find ourselves in a labyrinth from which there seems to be
-no deliverance. In the midst of this darkness I am glad to be able to
-say there is a ray of light that illumines much that has been obscure.
-The greatest progenitor of trotters and pacers that Canada has produced,
-“Old Tippoo,” has been fully identified in his true origin, and he has
-been well named “The Messenger of Canada.” He seemed to be known all
-over Canada as the greatest of their trotting and pacing sires, and many
-attempts were made through several years to give his pedigree, but in all
-these attempts there were elements of weakness and in many of them very
-bald absurdities.
-
-When the roan gelding Tacony made his record of 2:27, away back in 1853,
-the performance was looked upon as something that would not be surpassed
-in a generation at least. Then when Toronto Chief made his saddle record
-of 2:24½, ten or twelve years later, and it was found that he and Tacony
-were both descended from a Canadian horse called Tippoo, the inquiry
-became quite active as to what Tippoo was, and all kinds of imaginable
-stories were told about him. In the search for the history and breeding
-of the horse Tippoo, extending through more than twenty years, many
-curious and some impossible things were developed, and as these old
-“fads” may come as new discoveries in future generations, I will mention
-two or three of them here. The first of these untruthful statements to
-assume tangible form was to the effect that Tippoo was imported from
-England, and that he was got there by Nesthall’s Messenger. I never
-could tell how or where this story originated, but it first appeared in
-the pedigree given to Toronto Chief when he went into the stud on Long
-Island. This was settled by the facts, expressed in very few words, that
-the horse was not imported, but bred in Canada, and that there was no
-such horse in England as “Nesthall’s Messenger.”
-
-The next representation came from an old horseman, Mr. V. Sheldon, of
-Canton, New York, a very intelligent and careful correspondent, who
-had given much labor to the question. He had learned from different
-sources, that were satisfactory to his mind, that a Mr. Howard, a
-traveling preacher, had ridden a mare from Lowville, New York, over into
-Canada; that this mare was in foal “by a very noted horse that stood
-at Lowville;” that when the mare became too heavy for his use under
-the saddle he sold her to Isaac Morden, and that the foal she dropped
-was the famous Tippoo. The name of the “very famous horse that stood
-at Lowville” was not remembered, but as Ogden’s Messenger was there
-at that time—1816-17—the conclusion followed that he was the horse.
-This representation was far from complete, but as there was nothing
-unreasonable about it, and nothing known to be untrue, I accepted it for
-a time, awaiting further light.
-
-The third representation came from Mr. Lewis T. Leavens, of Bloomfield,
-Ontario, who was born 1792, and was, therefore, old enough to have had
-some personal knowledge of the horse. But whether his knowledge was
-personal or only traditional cannot now be made to appear. He says that
-Tippoo was got by a horse called Escape, and I will ask the reader to
-note this name “Escape” as we progress. He says that “when Escape was on
-the ocean, the vessel encountered a severe gale, and the horse had to be
-thrown overboard, and he was picked up the ninth day off the coast of
-Newfoundland, on a bar, eating rushes.” This silly and ridiculous story
-had been told and possibly believed by some fools more than a hundred
-years before the dates here implied by Mr. Leavens. It is probable it
-was first told as a joke, by some wag in Rhode Island, when asked about
-the origin of the Narragansett pacers. He replied that the original
-Narragansett “was caught swimming in mid-ocean, when a ship came along,
-lassoed him, pulled him on board, and landed him safely in Narragansett
-Bay.” The vitality of the joke probably had its origin in the experience
-of Rip Van Dam, when in 1711 he went up to Narragansett for a flying
-pacer, which is related in another part of this volume. Mr. Leavens
-speaks of the Rev. Erastus as the owner of the dam, and the breeder of
-the horse; but he says the horse did not come into possession of Isaac
-Morden till he was six or eight years old. The date of his death is
-fixed by Mr. Leavens in 1835, and while he is more definite than our
-information from other sources, all agree he died from a kick about that
-year.
-
-The next representation that seems to be worthy of noticing is a
-communication that appeared in the New York _Sportsman_, written by
-somebody who signs himself “Dick.” Whether “Dick” is in earnest and
-believes what he writes, or whether he is merely trying to “sell”
-somebody, we will leave for him to decide. He seems to depend upon
-Mr. Morden, at one time the owner of the horse, as the source of his
-information. “Dick” says the sire of Tippoo was imported into New York in
-1811, and was called Fleetwood. Why did he not tell us by whom the horse
-Fleetwood was imported? If there was a man in New York in 1811 so big a
-fool as to import an English stallion at great expense, and then send him
-up to the wilderness of Canada where there was neither money nor mares,
-his name should be handed down as a historical curiosity. The whole story
-is a “fake.”
-
-In January, 1883, I received from the Hon. J. P. Wiser, of Prescott,
-Ontario, the following letter, which he had just received from the writer:
-
-                                     WELLINGTON, December 27, 1882.
-
-    As the origin of the Tippoo horses seems to be a mystery to you
-    I will tell you. Erastus Howard was a traveling preacher in
-    those days, and he traveled on horseback. He bought in Kingston
-    a dark chestnut mare and bred her to a horse called “The Scape
-    Goat,” brought from Narragansett Bay, in Rhode Island. The
-    horse was a large brown horse, and could rack (pace) faster
-    than he could run. The colt was coal black and large, and was
-    sold to Mr. Wilcox, who named him Tippoo Sultan. His gait was
-    like the “Scape” some, but soon squared off to a trot, and the
-    way he could go was dreadful. In June, 1836, he broke his leg
-    and was lost.
-
-                                                      WILSON SERLS.
-
-This short letter was a great surprise, for never before had I heard
-of Mr. Serls. Through the kindness of Mr. Wiser he had entered the
-discussion, evidently without knowing anything about what representations
-had been made by others. His short, crisp sentences seemed to be an
-epitome of a history of this horse, which he might be able to give. It
-will be observed that the traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, is still
-in the foreground, and that Mr. Leavens’ “Escape” and Mr. Serls’ “Scape
-Goat” are evidently one and the same horse, and thus these two men
-practically confirm each other, so far as the identity of the horse is
-concerned. No time was lost in preparing a series of questions to be
-submitted to Mr. Serls, embracing the sources of his information, for
-although well advanced in years he certainly could not have had personal
-knowledge of what he testified. These questions not only covered the
-minute points in the history of the matter, but they were so framed as
-to test the accuracy and honesty of his memory. In due time they came
-back fully and satisfactorily answered, and as these answers embrace
-many things that my readers care nothing about I will condense them into
-narrative form.
-
-Mr. Serls derived his information from his uncle, Stephen Niles, the
-brother of his mother. In 1798 Stephen Niles took a band of horses to
-Prince Edward County, and stopped with an uncle of his who was then a
-member of the provincial parliament, living on the Bay of Quinte. His
-uncle prevailed upon him to settle there. In 1800 he was married, and
-bought a farm of two hundred acres four miles west of Wellington, where
-he lived many years, and the place is still known as Niles’ Corners.
-He was an orthodox Quaker in his religious belief, and for a number of
-years he was one of the bench of magistrates for Prince Edward County.
-When the War of 1812 broke out he was employed by the British forces in
-procuring hay and grain for the mounted troops. In 1858 he died, leaving
-an honorable name behind him.
-
-At the close of the war the military authorities sold off a large number
-of horses to the highest bidder, and Mr. Niles was present when the
-traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, bid off a dark chestnut mare for
-ninety-three dollars, at Kingston. This mare afterward became the dam
-of the famous Tippoo, and as a matter of course nothing can ever be
-known of her breeding. In 1816 a man from Rhode Island, whose name is
-not definitely remembered, but believed to be Williams, traveled the
-horse Scape Goat through Prince Edward County, and he stopped one day
-and night in each week at the house of Stephen Niles, and during that
-season Mr. Howard bred his chestnut mare to this horse, and, as already
-said, the produce was Tippoo. This black colt passed into the hands
-of Mr. Wilcox, who gave him his name, and he afterward passed through
-several other hands before he reached Mr. Morden about 1826, and he died
-ten years later from the effects of a kick. As the horse Scape Goat was
-brought from Narragansett Bay, and as he was a remarkably fast pacer,
-there can be no mistake in calling him a “Narragansett Pacer.” He was
-considerably larger than the average of that tribe, but this does not
-vitiate his title to a place in that family. It seems he was only kept in
-Prince Edward County the one season, and his owner, not being satisfied
-with the extent of his earnings, took him back to Rhode Island. Thus, the
-horse that has been proudly designated as “Canada’s Messenger,” was the
-son of a Narragansett pacer. In his younger days, Tippoo paced like his
-sire, but as he grew older the trotting gait was more fully developed.
-
-It is safe to say that the immediate progeny of Tippoo were numerous, and
-it is safe to say that some of them, either as trotters or pacers, were
-fast for their day, but it must be confessed that we know very little
-about the way they were bred. One son was called Sportsman, but nothing
-is known of his dam and very little of the horse himself beyond the fact
-that he was the sire of the roan gelding Tacony, that trotted some great
-races about 1853, and made a record of 2:27. This horse had a son called
-Young Sportsman, that was more widely known as “the Sager Horse,” and his
-horse became the sire of the trotting mare Clara, or Crazy Jane, as she
-was at one time called, that made a record of 2:27 in 1867. Beyond these
-two representatives of the Sportsman line, I have not been able to go. It
-has been claimed that another son of Tippoo, called Wild Deer, was the
-sire of the Sager Horse, but it does not seem to be well sustained. There
-was a son called Wild Deer, and several others that have been mentioned
-by turf writers, but no particulars of any value have been given.
-
-Warrior, or Black Warrior, as he is sometimes called, was a brown horse
-and not a black, as his latter name would imply. He was a son of old
-Tippoo and his dam was a black mare owned and ridden by an officer in an
-English regiment, known as the First Royals. She was a black mare and
-after she was sold out of the service she was called “Black Warrior,”
-and this name was transmitted to her son. This mare was for a long time
-represented as the dam of Royal George, but she was the dam of his sire.
-This horse was bred at Belleville, Ontario, and about 1840 a certain Mr.
-Johnston was moving from Belleville to Michigan. He had this horse with
-him, which, becoming lame on the way, he traded to a Mr. Barnes, living
-about twenty miles south of London, Ontario. He was a valuable horse and
-left many very useful animals. Many of his get were pacers, and he was
-kept by Mr. Barnes till he died.
-
-Royal George was a brown-bay horse, foaled about 1842, and was got by
-Warrior, son of Tippoo. His dam was the off one of a pair of bay mares
-taken to that vicinity from Middlebury, Vermont, by a Mr. Billington.
-This mare got her foot in a log bridge and the injury made her a
-comparative cripple for life. Being thus unfitted for road work, Mr.
-Billington sold or traded her to Mr. Barnes. She was bred to Warrior
-and produced Royal George. It is said by those who knew both animals,
-that this mare was a better trotter than Warrior, and from this springs
-the argument that Royal George had a trotting inheritance from his dam
-as well as from his sire. To learn whence this inheritance came, I have
-labored assiduously for years without being able to technically determine
-it. The single fact that her sire in Vermont was known as “the Bristol
-Horse,” is beyond all doubt, but as Mr. Billington was not living when
-this search was commenced, it has not been possible to determine just
-what horse is meant by “Bristol Horse.” At one time Harris’ Hambletonian
-was known very widely as “Bristol Grey” or “Bristol Horse,” and this
-is the only horse in the records so designated. It may, therefore, be
-assumed as more than a probability that this was the sire of the dam of
-Royal George.
-
-When three or four years old he was sold by Mr. Barnes to James Forshee,
-and he was known as “the Forshee Horse” for several years. He was sixteen
-hands high, not very handsome, but well formed, with plenty of substance
-and stamina, good action, and a first class “business” horse for anything
-that was wanted of him. In the stud, at low prices, he was largely
-patronized, and during the other months of the year he was employed in
-all kinds of drudgery. From Forshee he passed to Frank Munger, and from
-Munger to Mr. Doherty, of St. Catherines, for four hundred dollars, and
-he gave him the name of Royal George, and kept him many years. In 1858 W.
-H. Ashford, of Lewiston, New York, bought him and kept him two or three
-years there and at Buffalo. He seems to have passed into Doherty’s hands
-again, and died at St. Catherine’s, December, 1862. It is not known that
-he ever had any training as a trotter except what he got from his owner
-on the road, and there is no tradition of his ever having been in a race
-but once, and that was on the ice at Hamilton, about 1852, against the
-famous State of Maine, for a considerable wager. In this contest he was
-the winner. His highest rate of speed was about 2:50 under the saddle.
-He was strongly disposed to pace, but when he got down to his work his
-gait was a square, mechanical trot. He left a numerous progeny with a
-heavy sprinkling of pacers among them; they were generally of fine size
-and very useful animals. Many of his sons were kept entire and that
-whole region of Ontario was filled up with Royal Georges, to say nothing
-of the large numbers that were brought across the border. He left one
-representative in the 2:30 list, and five sons that became sires of
-performers.
-
-Toronto Chief was the best son of Royal George, according to the records.
-He was a brown horse, foaled 1850, and was bred by George Larue, of
-Middlesex County, Ontario. His dam was a small bay mare by a horse called
-Blackwood, and his grandam was by Prospect. The horse Blackwood “was
-bought of a Frenchman below Montreal in 1837,” and that is all that can
-be said of his blood. He was a horse of fine size and went with great
-courage. Toronto Chief passed through several hands before he reached
-his owner, A. Bathgate, of New York. He was a horse of great speed for
-his day, having a record of 2:31 in harness and 2:24¼ under saddle. He
-left three representatives in the 2:30 list, and among them the famous
-Thomas Jefferson, 2:23, with thirty-nine heats to his credit. Six of his
-sons became sires of trotters, and five of his daughters producers. Like
-all the other minor families, the Royal George family is surely being
-absorbed or submerged in trotting strains of more positive and uniform
-prepotency.
-
-It is probably true that Old Columbus and Old St. Lawrence were both
-descended from the Tippoo family, as they were both bred in Canada and
-seemed to possess and transmit the same characteristics as the Royal
-Georges possessed, in conformation and gait. Their descendants were
-not numerous, but so many of them were able to show such a rate of
-speed, either at the lateral or diagonal gait, that they left a distinct
-trace on the trotting stock of the United States. Old Pacing Pilot has
-always been classed as a Canadian, but no trace of his origin has ever
-been secured, and it is impossible at this day to give any definite
-information as to whether he was brought from Canada or not. Some forty
-or fifty years ago the “Canadian pacers” were so highly esteemed for
-their speed that very many horses were called “Canadians” that never
-saw Canada. The original Tom Hal was purchased in Philadelphia as early
-as 1828, and was always called a Canadian. He was the progenitor of
-the great pacing family still bearing his name, that is doubtless the
-most noted pacing family now in existence. Sam Hazzard, it is said, was
-brought from Canada about 1844, and left some noted descendants. Many
-others might be named, but as they never gained great celebrity, and as
-their origin is not fully established, I will leave the Canadians for
-future investigators.
-
-The rich province of Ontario has always been, in all its ways, the most
-English section of the Canadian Confederation, and in nothing more than
-in horsemanship. True, it is now a great trotting region, but running is
-and always has been the sport of the rich and fashionable, and almost
-all the English horses imported in Canada have gone to Western Ontario.
-On the other hand, in the Maritime Provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
-and Prince Edward Island—running races have never been popular, except
-at Halifax, which is a great military station and socially and otherwise
-much influenced by its English army and navy residents. It is the only
-point in the provinces where running meetings are given or where the
-running horse is at all cherished. For generations the principal sport of
-the people of these provinces has been trotting and pacing races, winter
-and summer, for ice racing is very general and very popular, through
-Maritime as well as Western Canada, the numbers of great bays and wide
-rivers affording ample courses, everywhere, throughout the long winters.
-Though there is, through these provinces, a generous sprinkling of horses
-called French Canadian, it is a fact that when we write the horse history
-of Maine we have written that of the Maritime Canadian provinces. The
-best of the early trotting stock of these provinces came from Maine,
-and the most and the best of the old-time trotters of New Brunswick,
-Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island were of tribes loosely described
-as Maine Messengers. For this there are ample geographical and natural
-reasons. That part of Quebec nearest them has never been rich in horses
-nor in anything else which the Provincials want, or in which they trade.
-The people of eastern New England are their natural trading neighbors,
-and the city of St. John, New Brunswick, especially in the past, the
-common market place; and almost all the earlier Maritime trotting sires
-trace through St. John to Maine, or some of the other New England
-States. It is a fact, too, that for generations enterprising horsemen,
-in the lower provinces, have been importing American trotting stallions
-for service, and to-day the trotting stock of these provinces is very
-thoroughly Americanized. While the exportation of horses, principally to
-Boston and Bangor, is one of the industries of Nova Scotia and of Prince
-Edward Island especially, almost without exception trotting and pacing
-stallions in use there are imported American horses, or the descendants
-of American trotting sires; while, as we have noted, the foundation stock
-came chiefly from Maine, and in very small degree from Ontario or Quebec.
-In either of the Maritime provinces it is a rarity to find a trotting
-horse that has not more or less of American blood.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE.
-
-    The mechanism of the different gaits—The Elgin Marbles—Britain
-    becomes a Roman province—Pacers in the time of the
-    Romans—Bronze horses of Venice—Fitz Stephen, the Monk of
-    Canterbury—Evidence of the Great Seals—What Blundeville
-    says—What Gervaise Markham says—What the Duke of Newcastle
-    says—The amble and the pace one and the same—At the close of
-    Elizabeth’s reign—The Galloways and Hobbies—Extinction of the
-    pacer—The original pacer probably from the North—Polydore
-    Virgil’s evidence—Samuel Purchas’ evidence—The process
-    of wiping out the pacer—King James set the fashion—All
-    foreign horses called “Arabians”—The foreigners larger and
-    handsomer—Good roads and wheeled vehicles dispensed with the
-    pacer—Result of prompting Mr. Euren—Mr. Youatt’s blunder—Other
-    English gentlemen not convinced there ever were any pacers.
-
-
-In considering the antiquity and history of the pacing horse, it seems
-to be necessary that we should have a clear perception of the mechanism
-of the gait from which he takes his distinctive name and the relation
-which that mechanism bears to other gaits or means of progression. In
-the study of this mechanism we learn the combination by which we unlock
-the mystery that has puzzled so many breeders of the past and present
-generations. Some have maintained that the pace is a combination of the
-trot and the gallop, while a smaller number have maintained that the fast
-trot was a combination of the pace and the gallop. It is quite evident,
-as I will be able to show, that neither of these parties has ever given
-any careful attention and study to the mechanism of the different gaits.
-The most simple and least complicated method of illustrating this
-mechanism of movement is furnished in the human means of progression. At
-the walk, a man steps off with his left foot and the heel of that foot
-strikes the ground before the toe of the right foot leaves it. Then the
-right foot advances and strikes the ground before the toe of the left
-foot leaves it. This is the natural “heel and toe” walk, and the speed
-may be increased by quickening the step and extending the stride, so
-far as physical conformation will permit. Still greater speed becomes
-a succession of bounds, the propelling foot leaving the ground before
-the advanced foot strikes it. This is running, the highest rate of speed
-attainable, and in every revolution, for a space, the whole body is in
-the air. In the action of the horse, with four legs, we find greater
-complication, which I will try to make clear.
-
-[Illustration: STAR POINTER.
-
-By Brown Hal, strictly pacing bred, record 1:59¼, 1897.]
-
-First, all horses walk, all horses pace or trot, and all horses gallop.
-The walk is easily analyzed, for it is slow and the movement of each
-limb can be followed by the eye. Each foot makes its own stroke upon the
-ground, and we count one, two, three, four in the revolution.
-
-Second, at the gallop, which is a succession of leaps, each limb, as
-shown by the instantaneous photograph, performs its own function, whether
-in rising from the ground, flying through the air, or in striking the
-ground again. There is harmony in all, but there is no unity in any two
-or more of them, and when they strike the ground again you hear the
-impacts, one, two, three, four, in a cluster. The conventional drawing
-of the running horse in action is impossible in nature, and a wretched
-caricature of the action as it is. As in the walk, so in the run, we
-count four impacts in the revolution.
-
-Third, at the pace the horse advances the two feet, on the same side,
-at the same time, and when they reach the ground again there is but one
-impact; then the two feet on the other side are advanced and strike in
-the same way. Thus, the rhythm of the action strikes the ear as that of
-the movement of an animal with two feet instead of four. In this there
-can be no mechanical mistake, for in the revolution of the four-legged
-pacing horse we count one, two, and in the revolution of the two-legged
-man we count one, two. The conclusion, therefore, seems to be inevitable
-that the two legs on the same side of the pacing horse act in perfect
-unison in performing the functions of one leg. At the trot the horse
-advances the two diagonal feet at the same time, and when they reach
-the ground again there is but one impact; then the two other diagonal
-feet are advanced and strike in the same way. Thus, the rhythm of the
-action strikes the ear as that of the movement of an animal with two feet
-instead of four. In this there can be no mechanical mistake, for in the
-revolution of the four-legged trotting horse we count one, two, and in
-the revolution of the two-legged man we count one, two. The conclusion,
-therefore, seems to be inevitable that the two diagonal legs of the
-trotting horse act in perfect unison in performing the function of one
-leg. In the mechanism of the gait then that is midway between the walk
-and the gallop there is no difference in results, nor distinction in the
-economy of motion, except that the pacer uses the lateral legs as one,
-and the trotter the diagonal legs as one. In use, there is a vertical
-distinction, if that term should be allowed, between the gait of the
-pacer and the trotter. The action of the pacer is lower and more gliding
-which fits him for the saddle, while the action of the trotter is higher
-and more bounding which makes him more desirable as a harness horse.
-In the processes of inter-breeding to the fastest, this distinction,
-if it be a distinction, seems to be coming less real, or at least less
-observable.
-
-While the essential oneness of the pace and the trot is indicated above
-from the mechanism and unity of the two gaits, there is a great mountain
-of evidence to be developed when we reach the consideration of breeding
-subjects, in which we will meet multitudes of fast trotters getting fast
-pacers, and fast pacers getting fast trotters; fast pacers changed over
-to fast trotters and fast trotters changed over to fast pacers, and the
-final evidence that speed at the one gait means speed at the other.
-Having briefly explained what a pacer is, it is now in order to take up
-the question of whence he came.
-
-On the summit of the Acropolis, in Athens, stand the ruins of the
-Parthenon, a magnificent temple erected to the goddess Minerva. The
-building was commenced in the year B.C. 437, and was completed five years
-afterward. All the statuary was the work of the famous Phidias and his
-scholars, made from Pentelic marble. This noted building resisted all the
-ravages of time, and had, in turn, been converted into a Christian temple
-and a Turkish mosque. In 1676 it was still entire, but in 1687 Athens was
-besieged by the Venetians, and the Parthenon was hopelessly wrecked. As
-a ruin it became the prey of the Turks and all other devastators, and in
-order to save something of what remained of its precious works of art,
-Lord Elgin, about the year 1800, brought home to England some portions
-of the frieze of the temple, with other works of Phidias, in marble,
-sold them to the government, and they are preserved in the British
-Museum. This frieze is a most interesting subject to study, not only as a
-specimen of Greek art of the period of Pericles, but as a historic record
-of the type and action of the Greek horses of that day. It consists
-of a series of white marble slabs, something over four feet wide, upon
-which are sculptured, in high relief, the heroes and defenders of Athens,
-mounted on horses, and some of these horses are pacing, while others are
-trotting and cantering. This is the first undoubted record we have of the
-pacer, and it is now over two thousand three hundred and thirty years old.
-
-Britain became a Roman province in the reign of Claudius, in the first
-part of the first century of the Christian era, and it continued under
-the Roman yoke until A.D. 426, when the troops were withdrawn to help
-Valentinian against the Huns, and never returned. When Julius Cæsar
-first invaded Britain, in the year B.C. 55, he found the inhabitants
-fierce and warlike and abundantly supplied with horses and war chariots.
-These chariots were driven with great daring and skill, and the fact
-was thus demonstrated that this kind of warfare was not a new thing to
-the Britons, and that they were not to be easily subdued. The next year
-he returned again, but the second seems to have been no more successful
-than the first expedition. But little is known of the extent of territory
-overrun or the result of these invasions beyond the fact that no
-settlement was made then, and none till about ninety years afterward,
-when under the reign of Claudius, a strong military colony was planted
-there and Britain became a Roman province. During these centuries of
-bondage we know practically nothing of the lives of the slaves and but
-little of their masters, except the remnants of military works for
-aggression and defence, and the magnificent roads they constructed
-where-ever they moved their armies. In relation to their horses, I will
-make a few extracts from a work published about the beginning of this
-century, by Mr. John Lawrence, a man of great research and intelligence,
-besides of a wide acquaintance with the practical affairs of the horse,
-and, I may add, altogether the most reliable writer of his period. He
-says:
-
-    “In forming the paces, if the colt was not naturally of a proud
-    and lofty action, like the Spanish or Persian horses, wooden
-    rollers and weights were bound to their pastern joints, which
-    gave them the habit of lifting up their feet. This method,
-    also, was practiced in teaching them the ambulatura, or amble
-    (pace), perhaps universally the common traveling pace of the
-    Romans.
-
-    “That natural and most excellent pace, the trot, seems to
-    have been very little prized or attended to by the ancients,
-    and was, indeed, by the Romans held in a kind of contempt,
-    or aversion, as is demonstrated by the terms which served to
-    describe it. A trotting horse was called by them _succussator_,
-    or shaker, and sometimes _cruciator_, or tormentor, which bad
-    terms, it may be presumed, were applied specially to those
-    which in these days we dignify with the expressive appellation
-    of ‘bone-setters.’”
-
-The statuary of the early ages furnishes some excellent illustrations
-of the gait of the horse at that period of the world’s history. The
-four bronze horses on St. Mark’s in Venice are known throughout the
-world, and they are in the pacing attitude. The forefoot that is
-advanced is possibly a little too much elevated to strike the ground
-the same instant the hinder foot should strike it, but the whole action
-indicated is undoubtedly the lateral action. The date of these horses
-is lost in history, but it is supposed they were cast in Rome, about
-the beginning of the Christian era. Their capture in Rome and transfer
-to Constantinople, then their capture by the Venetians and transfer to
-Venice, next their capture by Napoleon and transfer to Paris, and then
-their restoration to Venice, are all matters of history.
-
-William Stephanides, or Fitz Stephen, as he was called, a monk of
-Canterbury, was born in London, lived in the reigns of King Stephen,
-Henry II., and Richard I., and died 1191. He wrote a description of
-London in Latin, which was afterward translated by John Strype, and
-printed, from which I take the following extract:
-
-    “There is without one of the gates, immediately in the suburb,
-    a certain smooth field (Smithfield) in name and reality. There
-    every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is
-    a noted show of well-bred horses exposed for sale. The earls,
-    barons and knights who are at the time resident in the city,
-    as well as most of the citizens, flock thither either to look
-    or to buy. _It is pleasant to see the nags with their sleek
-    and shining coats, smoothly ambling (pacing) along, raising
-    and setting down, as it were, their feet on either side; in
-    one part (of the field) are horses better adapted to the
-    esquires; those whose pace is rougher, yet expeditious, lift up
-    and set down, as it were, the two opposite fore and hind feet
-    (trotting) together._”
-
-After locating and describing the pacers in one part of the field and
-the trotters in another, Fitz Stephen goes on to take a look at the
-colts, then horses of burden, “strong and stout of limb,” and then
-their chargers in their galloping action. He next gives a very spirited
-description of the race, when the people raise a shout and all the other
-horses, cattle, etc., are cleared away, that the contestants may have
-an unobstructed field. It is a fact worthy of note that every English
-writer on the race horse, for the past century or two, has quoted a part
-of the above paragraph from Fitz Stephen as the first known and recorded
-instance of racing in England, but left one of the most important parts
-out. Even Mr. Whyte, one of the most prominent of modern writers, in his
-“History of the British Turf,” seems to have followed some other writer,
-in the omission; or possibly, as he never had seen a pacer in England, he
-concluded that Fitz Stephen had only imagined that he saw, in one part
-of the field, horses moving at the lateral gait. In the paragraph quoted
-above, I have italicised that part of the description which English
-writers on turf subjects have omitted with remarkable uniformity.
-
-This seems to have been the period in which the pacing horse reached the
-highest point in official and popular appreciation, at least since the
-days of the Roman occupation of Britain. In speaking of this period,
-Mr. Lawrence says: “All descriptions of saddle horses were taught to
-amble” (that did not amble naturally), “and that most excellent and
-useful gait, the trot, was almost entirely disused.” In addition to the
-evidence of Fitz Stephen, we have that furnished by the Great Seals of
-a succession of sovereigns commencing with Richard I., and continuing
-to Elizabeth. These seals represent a knight in armor, mounted on a
-pacing horse in action, and perhaps the most conspicuous, at least the
-clearest, impression that has come down to us is that of King John, used
-at Runnymede, when he yielded to the demands of his barons and granted
-the Magna Charta. This act secured the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon race
-for all time and in all climes.
-
-Mr. Thomas Blundeville was, probably, the first writer on the horse who
-undertook to publish a book in the English language on that subject.
-This book, entitled “The Art of Riding,” was merely a translation from
-the Italian, with some brief observations on English horses added to it.
-The first edition, it is said, was published in London, 1558, the year
-that Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne. The only edition which I have
-been able to find in the British Museum is that of 1580, in old English
-black letter. In quoting from the old authors of that period I will seek
-to avoid confusion by using the modern orthography. In speaking of the
-horses of his day he says:
-
-    “Some men would have a breed of great trotting horses meet for
-    the war and to serve in the field. Some others again would have
-    a breed of ambling horses of a mean stature for to journey and
-    travel by the way. Some, again, would have a race of swift
-    runners to run for wagers or to gallop the buck, or to serve
-    for such like exercise for pleasure. But the plain countryman
-    would have a breed only for draft or burthen.
-
-    “The Irish Hobbie is a pretty fine horse, having a good head
-    and a body indifferently well proportioned, saving that many
-    of them be slender and pin-buttocked. They are tender-mouthed,
-    nimble, pleasant and apt to be taught, and for the most part
-    they be amblers and thus very meet for the saddle and to travel
-    by the way. Yea, and the Irishmen, both with darts and light
-    spears, do use to skirmish with them in the field, and many of
-    them do prove to that use very well, by means they be so light
-    and swift.
-
-    “Let those mares that shall be put to the stallion be of a high
-    stature, strongly made, large and fair, and have a trotting
-    pace as the mares of Flanders and some of our own mares be. For
-    it is not meet, for divers reasons, that horses of [service
-    stallions] should amble. But if any man seeks to have a race
-    of ambling horses, to travel by the way, then I would wish his
-    stallion to be a fair jennet of Spain, or at least a bastard
-    jennet, or else a fair Irish ambling Hobbie; and the mare to be
-    also a bastard jennet, bred here within this realm, having an
-    ambling pace, or else some other of our ambling mares, so that
-    the mare be well proportioned. And if any man desires to have
-    swift runners let him choose a horse of Barbary or a Turk to be
-    his stallion, and let the mare, which shall be put unto him,
-    be like of stature and making unto him, so nigh as may be, for
-    most commonly, such sire and dam such colt.”
-
-It is evident Mr. Blundeville was not much of a friend of the pacer, but
-as an honest writer he considers things as he finds them. Unfortunately
-he throws no light upon just what he means by the term “Spanish Jennet,”
-and a definition of that term, as used in the sixteenth century, would
-throw much light on passages from following writers in later periods.
-Everybody knows he was a small Spanish saddle horse, but nobody knows
-just what gait he took. To use Blundevilles own language, “The pace of
-the jennet of Spain is neither trot nor amble, but a comely kind of going
-like the Turke.”
-
-Mr. Gervaise Markham published several revised and enlarged editions of
-his work on the horse, the last of which I have been able to examine
-being printed in London, 1607, the same year the colony was planted at
-Jamestown, Virginia. In this edition he devotes nine short chapters or
-paragraphs to the pacer. In quoting from him I will again use the modern
-methods of spelling. He says:
-
-    “First to speak of ambling in general. It is that smooth and
-    easy pace which the labor and industry of an ingenious brain
-    hath found out to relieve the aged, sick, impotent and diseased
-    persons, to make women undertake journeying and so by their
-    community to grace society; to make great men try the ease of
-    travel, more willing to thrust themselves into the offices of
-    the commonwealth, and to do the poor both relief and service.
-    It makes them when necessity, or as the proverb is, “when
-    the devil drives,” not to be vexed with the two torments, a
-    troubled mind and a tormented body. To conclude, ambling was
-    found out for the general ease of the whole world, as long as
-    there is either pleasure, commerce or trade amongst the people.
-    Now for the manner of the motion and the difference betwixt
-    it and trotting. It cannot be described more plainly than I
-    have set down in my former treatise; which is that it is the
-    taking up of both legs together upon one side and so carrying
-    them smoothly along to set them down upon the ground even
-    together, and in that motion he must lift and wind up his fore
-    foot somewhat high from the ground, but his hinder foot he must
-    no more than take from the ground, as it were, sweep it close
-    to the earth. Now, by taking up both his legs together on one
-    side, I mean he must take up his right fore foot and his right
-    hinder foot. For, as in the contrary pace, when a horse trots
-    he takes up his feet crosswise, as the left hinder foot and the
-    right fore foot, etc.”
-
-Mr. Markham, in his edition of 1607, then goes on in six or eight
-chapters acknowledging that many foals pace naturally, and to show how
-the foal may be trained to pace. His methods are very cruel, in many
-cases, and very crude throughout; but it clearly demonstrates the fact
-that in the sixteenth century the pace was a very general gait among
-English horses. In these chapters we find the toe weight first introduced
-as well as the trammels or hopples. The most striking fact brought out in
-these chapters is the discovery that more than three hundred years ago
-Englishmen were using the same devices to convert trotters into pacers
-that we are now using to convert pacers into trotters. He takes notice
-that Mr. Blundeville had advised those who wished to breed amblers to
-select a Spanish jennet or an Irish Hobbie, and objects to the former on
-the grounds that their paces are weak and uncertain. From this I conclude
-that the gait of the jennet, whatever it might have been, was not a habit
-of action fixed in the breed, and that its transmission was doubtful.
-
-Mr. Markham then goes on further to explain the mechanism of the trot
-and the pace and incidentally introduces the rack or single-foot action,
-which, I think, is the first time I have found it in any English writer.
-He says:
-
-    “The nearer a horse taketh his limbs from the ground, the
-    opener and evener and the shorter he treadeth, the better will
-    be his pace, and the contrary declares much imperfection. If
-    you buy a horse for pleasure the amble is the best, in which
-    you observe that he moves both his legs on one side together
-    neat with complete deliberation, for if he treads too short
-    he is apt to stumble, if too large to cut and if shuffling or
-    rowling he does it slovenly, and besides rids no ground. If
-    your horse be designed for hunting, a racking pace is most
-    expedient, which little differs from the amble, only is more
-    active and nimble, whereby the horse observes due motion, but
-    you must not force him too eagerly, lest being in confusion he
-    lose all knowledge of what you design him to, and so handle his
-    legs confusedly. The gallop is requisite for race horses....
-    If he gallop round and raise his fore legs he is then said to
-    gallop strongly, but not capable of much speed, and is fitter
-    for the war than racing.”
-
-In 1667 the Duke of Newcastle published his famous work on the horse
-under the title, “A New Method and Extraordinary Invention to Dress
-Horses, and Work them According to Nature and also To Perfect Nature by
-the Subtilty of Art which was Never Found Out, but by the Thrice Noble,
-High, and Puissant Prince, William Cavendish, Duke, Marquess, and Earl of
-Newcastle, etc., etc.,” followed with twelve other titles and offices.
-The book was dedicated to “His Most Sacred Majesty, Charles the Second,”
-and is pretentious and magniloquent in its letter press and its make-up
-as it is in its title. In this work there is a great deal of bad English,
-some sense, and much nonsense, all mixed up with a strut of superiority
-that His Grace, no doubt, felt justified in enjoying after his long
-years of beggary in Antwerp. In giving the _natural_ gaits of the horse
-he places the walk first, then the trot and next the amble, which he
-describes very minutely as follows:
-
-    “For an amble he removes both his legs of a side, as, for
-    example, take the far side, he removes his fore leg and his
-    hinder leg at one time, whilst the other two legs of the near
-    side stand still; and when those legs are on the ground, which
-    he first removed, at the same time they are upon the ground
-    the other side, which is the nearer side, removes fore leg and
-    hinder leg on that side, and the other legs of the far side
-    stand still. Thus an amble removes both his legs of a side and
-    every remove changes sides; two of a side in the air and two
-    upon the ground at the same time. And this is a perfect amble.”
-
-The duke seems to have been somewhat profuse in the use of words, and
-not very happy in his use of them, but after all we know just what he
-means. The description of the movement is that of the clean-cut pace, and
-our object in introducing it here is not only to show that the pace was
-then a well-known and natural gait in England, but also to show that the
-_pace_ and the _amble_ are one. In itself, the word “amble” is a better
-word than “pace,” for the latter is often used in referring to a rate of
-speed without regard to the particular gait taken by the horse, but in
-this country it is now universally understood to apply to the lateral
-motion, and it would not be wise at this day to attempt to change it.
-There is an undefined supposition in the mind of some people that the
-amble is something different from the pace, that it is a slower and
-less pronounced gait, and hence we are often told a given horse did not
-pace, but “he ambled off.” In all that we have found in the writings of
-the past, and in all that I have seen with my own eyes, I have not been
-able to discover that there is any distinction between the amble and the
-pace. The only distinction is not in the gait itself, but in the fact
-that our ancestors, four hundred years ago, used the word “amble” to
-express precisely the same thing that their descendants now express by
-the word “pace.” The only sense in which the word “amble” is used among
-the horsemen of this country is to describe a kind of slow, incipient
-pace that many horses, both runners and trotters, show when recalled for
-a fresh start in scoring for a race. This probably indicates, whether
-in the case of a runner or a trotter, that somewhere, not very far
-removed, there is a pacing inheritance, and this incipient amble, as it
-is sometimes called, comes from that inheritance. It is also possible
-that it may arise from the excitement of the start and the confusion
-consequent upon the contest.
-
-At the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, about the beginning of the
-seventeenth century, the pacing horse of England was at the highest point
-of his utility and fame. He was the horse for the race course, he was
-the horse for the hunting field, and he was the horse for the saddle. He
-was able to beat King James’ Arabian, and with the few Barbs that had
-then been brought in, the historian informs us, he was able to hold his
-own. There were two tribes of his congeners, the Galloway and the Irish
-Hobbie, the former from Southwestern Scotland and the north of England,
-and the latter from Ireland. These tribes were chiefly pacers, and not a
-few of them were distinguished as running horses. The Bald Galloway, as
-he was called, was a grand representative of his tribe. He was simply a
-native pony with a bald face, and he was a capital runner for his day,
-and a number of his get were distinguished runners. True, he is tricked
-out in the Stud Book with a pedigree, wholly fictitious, and that nobody
-ever heard of for a hundred years after he was foaled, but that did
-not prevent his daughter Roxana, when bred to Godolphin Arabian, from
-producing two of his greatest sons, Lath and Cade. This topic, however,
-has already been considered in the chapter on the English Race Horse.
-The Galloways were very famous as pacers in their day, and it seems they
-were about the last remnants of the pacing tribes to be found in England.
-It seems, also, that long after they had ceased to be known on the
-other side their descendants were still known by the same designation in
-Virginia. From the history of the times, it appears that a wealthy Irish
-gentleman invested quite largely in shipping live stock to Virginia, and
-there can hardly be a doubt that his shipments included some of the Irish
-Hobbies.
-
-While the opening of the seventeenth century witnessed the supremacy of
-the English pacer, in the uses and enjoyments of the lives of the people,
-during the whole course of its succeeding years he was battling for his
-existence, and at its close he was nearly extinct. At the close of Queen
-Anne’s reign there were still a few Galloways left, but in the early
-Georges there were no longer any survivors, and Great Britain was without
-a pacer in the whole realm. The extinction of a race of horses that had
-been the delight of the kings, queens, nobility, and gentry of a great
-nation for many centuries is, perhaps, without a precedent in the history
-of any civilized people, and the causes which produced this wonderful
-result are well worthy of careful study. In looking into these causes we
-must consider the facts as we find them.
-
-As we have no guide, either historic, linguistic or ethnographic, by
-which we can certainly determine the blood of the original inhabitants
-of the British Isles, it is not remarkable that we should be in profound
-ignorance as to the blood of their horses. They were, doubtless, like
-their masters, of mixed origin, and through all the centuries their
-appearance would indicate that they have been bred and reared in a
-nomadic or semi-wild state, in which only the toughest and fleetest
-had survived. A good many years ago I met with a theory, advanced by
-somebody, that the original horse stock of Britain came from the North,
-but there were no reasons given to support it. I have no hesitation in
-accepting this theory, as far as it distinguishes between the North
-and the South, for some Northern countries produce vast numbers of
-natural pacers, as Russia, for instance, but I have never learned that
-any Southern country produced pacers. Certainly the shaft horse of
-the Russian drosky has been a flying pacer for generations, and great
-numbers of them are produced in Russia, especially in the eastern part
-of the empire. As these pacers are produced in a natural and semi-wild
-state, it must be conceded that habits of action have been inherited
-from their ancestors in the remote past. Historically, we know that
-the Phœnicians, when they ruled the trade of the world, supplied the
-whole of the northern coast of Africa, from Egypt to Algiers, and the
-southern coast of Spain, with horses, about a thousand years before the
-Christian era. Now, the horses of those regions are the descendants of
-the original stock carried there by the Phœnicians, and we know their
-habit of action is not that of the pacer. Hence the conclusion that the
-English pacer came from the North and not from the South. In speaking of
-the difference in the gaits of Northern and Southern horses, Mr. John
-Lawrence specifies the horses of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, etc., and says:
-“They are round made, but with clean heads and limbs; their best pace
-is the trot (or pace), which indeed is the characteristic pace of the
-Northern, as the gallop is of the Southern horse.” Other writers speak
-of the trot (or pace) as common to Northern horses, but as not common
-to Southern horses. Now, as all Southern horses do trot, and as these
-writers could not fail to know that they trotted, at some rate of speed,
-we must construe their terms so as to be consistent with plain, common
-sense. There was something in the “trot” of the Northern horse altogether
-different from the “trot” of the Southern horse that rendered his habit
-of action more conspicuous, probably by his higher rate of speed, but
-still more probably by the peculiar mechanism of his lateral action. If
-we insert the word “pace” instead of the word “trot,” the meaning of
-these old writers becomes very plain and in harmony with other known
-facts. Neither does it militate against the theory that the inhabitants
-of Britain may have secured their original horse stock from the Phœnician
-merchants; but if they did, it seems quite evident that at a later date
-they supplemented their supply from the pacing element from the North.
-
-At the close of the fifteenth century Polydore Virgil, an Italian
-ecclesiastic, came to England and wrote a descriptive history of the
-British Islands in Latin, which was published about 1509. Part of
-this history was very clumsily translated about the time the English
-language began to assume its present form in literature and learning.
-In speaking of the horses of the country, he seems to have been greatly
-surprised with the pacers, and treats them as a curiosity. He says: “A
-great company of their horses do not trot, but amble, and yet neither
-trotters nor amblers are strongest, as strength is not always incident
-to that which is most gentle or less courageous.” It will be observed
-that these observations were made nearly four hundred years ago, and that
-the surprise of the Italian was not at merely seeing a few pacers which
-he had never seen in his own country, but that “the great company” of
-English horses were pacers. As I have here given an instance showing the
-surprise of an Italian at finding pacers, I will follow it with another
-showing the surprise of an Englishman at not finding any pacers. The
-chaplain of the Earl of Cumberland, on his several voyages of discovery
-in South America and the West India Islands, about 1596, made elaborate
-note of what he saw and learned of the new countries which the English
-then visited for the first time. These notes passed into the hands of
-that wonderfully prolific writer, or rather compiler, Samuel Purchas,
-from whose fourth volume, page 1171, the following paragraph is taken:
-
-    “And I wot not how that kind of beast [speaking of cattle]
-    hath specially a liking to these Southerly parts of the world
-    above their horses, none of which I have seen by much so tall
-    and goodly as ordinarily they are in England; they were well
-    made and well mettled, and good store there are of them, but
-    methinks there are many things wanting in them which are
-    ordinary in our English light horses. They are all trotters,
-    nor do I remember that I have seen above one ambler, and that
-    was a little fiddling nag. But it may be if there were better
-    breeders they would have better and more useful increase, yet
-    they are good enough for hackneys, to which use only almost
-    they are employed.”
-
-The surprise of the Englishman at finding no pacers in South America
-seems to have been as great as that of the Italian at finding so many of
-them in England, one hundred years earlier. These horses were strictly
-Spanish, and probably were descended from those brought from Palos in
-1493 by Columbus, the first horses that ever crossed the Atlantic. The
-“one little fiddling nag” that showed some kind of a pacing gait may have
-been of English blood and captured from some English expedition, several
-of which were unfortunate; or his failure to trot may have been the
-result of an injury. It should not be forgotten that in that period every
-sea captain was out for what he could capture, and this was especially
-the case as between the English and the Spanish. These are the outlines
-of the principal points of evidence that the pacing habit of action came
-from the North and not from the South. That there were pacers in both
-Greece and Rome before the Christian era, and perhaps later, there can be
-no doubt, for they were both overrun and devastated again and again by
-the hordes of Northern Barbarians, bringing their flocks and their herds
-and their families, as well as their horses, with them.
-
-This question naturally suggests itself here: “If the English pacer had
-been the popular favorite of the English people for so many centuries,
-how did it come that he and his habit of action had been so completely
-wiped out in one century, the seventeenth?” This question might be
-answered in very few words, by saying the people thought they were
-getting something better to put in his place. In reaching this conclusion
-I will not pretend to say the judgment of the people was not right, that
-is, if they exercised any judgment in the case. “Jamie the Scotsman”
-when on the throne set the fashion in the direction of foreign blood
-by paying the enormous price of five hundred pounds for the Markham
-Arabian. The Duke of Newcastle, when he was young, had personally seen
-this horse, and while he thought he was a true Arabian, he described him
-as a very ordinary horse in his size and form, and an entire failure as
-a race horse. It seems that any average native pacer could outrun him,
-but he carried the badge of royalty, and that was sufficient to make him
-fashionable, as he was not only the king’s horse, but was himself a royal
-Arabian. The weak place in the character of James I., in addition to his
-intolerable pedantry, was his inordinate ambition to be considered the
-wisest sovereign who ever sat upon a throne since the days of Solomon.
-His courtiers, nobility, and all who approached him understood his
-weakness, and a little quiet praise of the great superiority of the
-Arabian blood in the horse, over all other breeds and varieties, was
-always grateful to the monarch, for he was the original discoverer and
-patentee of that blood. Then and there, in order to praise the wisdom
-of a foolish king, a foolish fashion grew into a foolish notion that
-has afflicted all England from that day to this. No humbug of either
-ancient or modern times has had so long a run and so wide a range as
-the miserable fallacy “that all excellence in the horse comes from the
-Arabian.” Notwithstanding the thousand tests that have been made and the
-thousand failures that have invariably followed, from the time of King
-James to the present day, there are still men writing books and magazine
-articles on the assumption that “all excellence in the horse comes from
-the Arabian,” without ever having devoted an honest hour to the study of
-the question as to whether this is a truth or a fallacy. This craze for
-Arabian blood was the primary cause of the extinction of the pacer, and
-this craze was so strong in its influence that when a foreign horse was
-brought in, no difference from what country, if he were of the lighter
-type he was called an Arabian and so advertised in order to secure
-the patronage of breeders. Horses brought from the African coast were
-invariably classed as Arabians, notwithstanding they and their ancestors
-were in Africa more than a thousand years before there were any horses in
-Arabia; and the same may be said of Spain. But as this line of inquiry
-has already been considered in another chapter, I will get back to the
-immediate topic.
-
-The process of breeding out the pacer did not commence in real earnest
-until the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Stuarts regained
-the sovereignty of Great Britain in the person of Charles II. Released
-from the restraints of Puritan rule, the Restoration brought with it a
-carnival of immorality and vice, for the court and the courtiers set the
-fashion and the people followed. As the breeding interest of the period
-of which we now speak has already been considered in the chapter on the
-English Race Horse, I will not further enlarge upon it. The light, or
-running and hunting, horses of England of that day were not all pacers,
-but they were all of the same type and the same blood, hence when I
-speak of the pacers I include their congeners. They were small—less than
-fourteen hands high—and not generally handsome and attractive. In general
-utility they were ahead of the importations, and doubtless many of them
-could run as fast and as far as the foreign horses, but the foreigners
-had the advantage in size, especially the Turks and the Neapolitans;
-besides this, they were more uniformly handsome and attractive in their
-form and carriage. It is also probable that the outcross from the
-strangers to invigorate the stock was needed and resulted in the increase
-of the size of the progeny. This latter suggestion is inferential and has
-been sustained by many similar experiences, but without this as a start
-it would be exceedingly difficult to account for the rapid increase in
-the height of the English race horse. It is certainly true that the chief
-aim of the English breeder of that day was to increase the size, without
-losing symmetry and style, and if he found that foreign upon native blood
-gave him a start in that direction, he was wise in the commingling.
-Another consideration, growing out of the rural economy of the people,
-doubtless had a very wide influence in the direction of wiping out the
-pacer, in this period of transition. Long journeys in the saddle became
-less frequent, good roads began to appear and vehicles on wheels took
-the place of the saddler and the pack horse. To get greater weight and
-strength for this service, recourse was had to crosses with the larger
-and courser breeds, and through these channels have come the giants and
-the pigmies of the modern race course. Under the changed conditions of
-travel and transportation it is not remarkable that the people should
-have been willing to see their long-time favorites disappear, for it
-is known to every man of experience that the pace is not a desirable
-gait for harness work. No doubt the pacer is as strong as the trotter
-of the same size and make-up, but in his smooth, gliding motion there
-is a suggestion of weakness communicated to his driver that is never
-suggested by the bold, bounding trotter. The antagonism between the
-pacers and the new horses of Saracenic origin was irreconcilable and
-one or the other had to yield. As the management of the contest was in
-the hands of the master the result could be easily foreseen, for if one
-cross failed, another followed and then another, till the Saracenic blood
-was completely dominant in eliminating the lateral and implanting the
-diagonal action in its stead.
-
-As no home-bred pacer, of any type or breed, has been seen in England for
-nearly two hundred years, it is not remarkable that Englishmen of good
-average intelligence, for the past two or three generations, have lived
-and died supposing they knew all about horses, and yet did not know there
-had ever been such a thing in England as a breed of pacing horses. When,
-some eighteen or twenty years ago, I called the attention of Mr. H. F.
-Euren, compiler of the Hackney Stud Book, to the early English pacers as
-a most inviting field in which to look for the origin of the “Norfolk
-Trotters,” he was surprised to learn that such horses had existed in
-England, but he went to work and gathered up many important facts that
-appear in the first volume of the Hackney compilation. Many of these
-facts, but in less detail, had already appeared, from time to time,
-in _Wallace’s Monthly_, but Mr. Euren’s was the first modern English
-publication to place them before English readers. From this prompting,
-Mr. Euren did well, but we must go back a little to see how this subject
-was treated by English writers of horse books, who wrote without any
-promptings from this side.
-
-Mr. William Youatt was a voluminous writer on domestic animals, and at
-one time was looked upon as the highest authority on the horse, both
-in England and in this country. He seems to have been a practitioner of
-veterinary surgery, and from the number of volumes which he published
-successfully, he must have been a man of ability and education. There can
-be no question that he knew a great deal—quite too much to know anything
-well. The first edition of his work on the horse was published in 1831,
-and soon after its appearance several publishing houses in this country
-seized upon it as very valuable, and each one of them soon had an edition
-of it before the public. It purports to have been written at the instance
-of “The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.” This declaration
-was a good thing, in a commercial view, and no doubt it did much in
-extending the circulation of the book. Without tarrying to note several
-minor historical blunders, I will go direct to one relating to the gait
-of the horse, which is now under consideration. In his fourth edition,
-page 535, he incidentally discusses the mechanism of the pace, and after
-speaking of the Elgin Marbles, to which I have referred at the beginning
-of this chapter, and after conceding that two of the four horses are not
-galloping but pacing, he says:
-
-    “Whether this was then the mode of trotting or not, it is
-    certain that it is never seen to occur in nature in the
-    present day; and, indeed, it appears quite inconsistent with
-    the necessary balancing of the body, and was, therefore, more
-    probably an error of the artist.”
-
-This remark is simply amazing in an author who pretentiously undertakes
-to instruct his countrymen in the history of the horse when he knows
-nothing about that history. If he had gone back only twenty-two years,
-“Old John Lawrence,” in his splendid quarto, would have told him about
-the pacer. If he had gone back one hundred and sixty years, the Duke of
-Newcastle would have explained to him the complete and perfect mechanism
-of the pacing gait. If he had gone still further back and examined
-Gervaise Markham, Blundeville, Polydore Virgil, and Fitz Stephen the
-Monk, of the twelfth century, any and all of them would have explained
-to him the pacing habit of action and shown him that for many successive
-centuries the pacing horse was the popular and fashionable horse of
-the realm. If Mr. Youatt had lived to see John R. Gentry pace a mile
-in 2:00½; Robert J. in 2:01½, and dozens of others in less than 2:10,
-he might have changed his mind and concluded that it was possible,
-after all, for a horse to travel at the lateral gait without toppling
-over. From Mr. Youatt and a few other modern English authors, most
-of our American writers on the horse have derived what little mental
-pabulum they thought they needed, and thus an error at the fountain has
-been carried into all the ramifications of our horse literature. Only
-two or three years ago a very intelligent gentleman, who had attained
-great eminence as a veterinary surgeon, especially for his knowledge
-and treatment of the horse’s foot, seriously and in good faith stoutly
-maintained that the pacing habit of action was merely the result of an
-abnormal condition of the foot, and that all pacers would trot just as
-soon as their feet were put in the right shape. We must not laugh at
-this wild notion, for it is really no worse than Mr. Youatt’s doubting
-whether it was possible for a horse to balance himself at the lateral
-motion. Neither gentleman seemed to know anything about the fact that
-it was a matter of inheritance, and that the lateral habit of action
-had come down by transmission through all the generations for a period
-of more than two thousand years. It is hardly necessary to say that the
-gentleman who was so confident that the pace was merely the result of the
-abnormal condition of the feet brought his notions about the pacer from
-across the water. He was an Anglo-American, and could make a pacer into
-a trotter in a jiffy, by using the paring-knife. He was an intelligent
-man and a skillful veterinarian, but there were no pacers in England
-and there should be none here. Toward the close of the chapter on The
-Colonial Horses of Virginia, will be found the observations of an English
-tourist in 1795-96 who is very certain that there is some mistake about
-the pacer, and will not be convinced there are any, unless they are
-artificially created. Having now completed what I had to say about the
-old English pacer, it is next in order to consider his descendants in
-this country and the relations they bear to the American trotter.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-THE AMERICAN PACER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE AMERICAN TROTTER.
-
-    Regulations against stallions at large—American pacers taken
-    to the West Indies—Narragansett pacers; many foolish and
-    groundless theories about their origin—Dr. McSparran on the
-    speed of the pacer—Mr. Updike’s testimony—Mr. Hazard and
-    Mr. Enoch Lewis—Exchanging meetings with Virginia—Watson’s
-    Annals—Matlack and Acrelius—Rip Van Dam’s horse—Cooper’s
-    evidence—Cause of disappearance—Banished to the frontier—First
-    intimation that the pace and the trot were essentially one
-    gait—How it was received—Analysis of the two gaits—Pelham,
-    Highland Maid, Jay-Eye-See, Blue Bull—The pacer forces
-    himself into publicity—Higher rate of speed—Pacing races
-    very early—Quietly and easily developed—Comes to his speed
-    quickly—His present eminence not permanent—The gamblers carried
-    him there—Will he return to his former obscurity?
-
-
-In the several chapters devoted to “Colonial Horse History” will be
-found all the leading facts that I have been able to glean from the
-early sources of information. With the exceptions of the horses brought
-from Utrecht in Holland to New Amsterdam (New York), two shiploads that
-sailed out of the Zuider Zee and landed at Salem, Massachusetts, and
-those brought from Sweden by the colonists that settled on the Delaware,
-all the early importations came from England. As much the larger number
-of those from England and Sweden were pacers, the breeds and habits of
-action were soon mixed up, as those who had no pacers wanted pacers for
-the saddle, and those who wanted more size, regardless of the gait,
-were always ready to supply their want by an exchange of their saddle
-horses for more size. The Dutch horses were certainly something over
-fourteen hands and the English and Swedish horses were perhaps nearer
-thirteen than fourteen hands. The colonists from the first, and from one
-end of the land to the other, seem to have appreciated the importance
-of increasing the size and strength of their horse stock, and this was
-very hard to do under the conditions then prevailing of allowing their
-horses to roam at large. Hence, stringent regulations were adopted in
-all the colonies against permitting immature entire colts and stallions
-under size to wander where they pleased. It is doubtful whether these
-regulations were any more effective than those of Henry VIII., for while
-there was some increase, it was hardly perceptible until after the close
-of the colonial days. The real increase did not commence till the farmers
-had provided themselves with facilities for keeping their breeding stock
-at home.
-
-[Illustration: JOHN R. GENTRY.
-
-By Ashland Wilkes, pacing record 2:00½, 1896.]
-
-It is very evident from the statistics of size and gait, as given in
-the chapters referred to above, that our forefathers wisely selected
-the most compact, strong and hardy animals they could find in England
-as the type best adapted to fight their way against the hardships of a
-life in the wilderness of the new world. There have been some attempts,
-wholly fanciful and baseless, to trace importations from other countries,
-outside of those mentioned above, but all such attempts have proven
-wholly imaginary and worse than futile. In less than twenty years after
-the New England colonies received their first supply they commenced
-shipping horses by the cargo to Barbadoes and other West India Islands.
-This trade was cultivated, extended to all the islands, and continued
-during the remainder of the seventeenth and practically the whole of the
-eighteenth century. The pacers of the American colonies were exceedingly
-popular and sought after by the Spanish as well as the Dutch and English
-islands. Indeed, the planters of Cuba alone carried away at high prices
-nearly all the pacers that New England could produce. They knew nothing
-about pacers for the saddle until they had tried them and then they
-would have nothing else. These continuous raids of the Spaniards of the
-West Indies upon the pacers of New England, and Rhode Island especially,
-has been assigned, by the local historians of that State as one of the
-principal causes of the decadence and practically final disappearance of
-the Narragansett pacer from the seat of his triumphs and his fame. It
-is just to remark here, in passing, that if there had been pacers among
-the horses of Spain, the Spanish dependencies would have secured their
-supplies from the mother country and not have come to Rhode Island and
-paid fabulous prices for them.
-
-As all the pacing traditions of this country to-day point to the
-horses of Narragansett Bay as the source from which our modern pacers
-have derived their speed, we must give some attention to the various
-theories that have been advanced as to the origin of the Narragansett
-horse. In time past, and extending back to a period “whereof the memory
-of man runneth not to the contrary,” the horse world has been cursed
-with a class of men who have always been ready to invent and put in
-circulation the most marvelous and incredible stories about the origin of
-every remarkable horse that has appeared. Some of these wiseacres have
-maintained that the original Narragansett pacer was caught wild in the
-woods by the first settlers on Narragansett Bay, while others (and this
-seems to be of Canadian origin) have insisted that when being brought to
-this country a storm struck the ship and the horse was thrown overboard,
-and after nine days he was found off the coast of Newfoundland quietly
-eating rushes on a sand bar, where he was rescued and brought into
-Narragansett Bay. This story of the marine horse probably had its origin
-in the experiences of Rip Van Dam, which will be narrated further on.
-Another representation, coming this time from a very reputable source,
-has been made as to the origin of the Narragansett horse, and as many, no
-doubt, have accepted it as true, I must give it such consideration as its
-prominence demands. Mr. I. T. Hazard, a representative of the very old
-and prominent Hazard family of Rhode Island, in a letter to the Rev. Mr.
-Updike, makes the following statement:
-
-    “My grandfather, Governor Robinson, introduced the famous
-    saddle horse, the Narragansett pacer, known in the last century
-    over all the civilized parts of North America and the West
-    Indies, from whence they have lately been introduced into
-    England, as a ladies’ saddle horse, under the name of the
-    Spanish Jennet. Governor Robinson imported the original from
-    Andalusia, in Spain, and the raising of them for the West India
-    market was one of the objects of the early planters of this
-    country. My grandfather, Robert Hazard, raised about a hundred
-    of them annually, and often loaded two vessels a year with
-    them, and other products of his farm, which sailed direct from
-    the South Ferry to the West Indies, where they were in great
-    demand.”
-
-This theory of the origin of the Narragansett came down to Mr. Hazard
-as a tradition, no doubt, but like a thousand other traditions it has
-nothing to sustain it. Opposed to it there are two clearly ascertained
-facts, either one of which is wholly fatal to it. In the first place,
-there were no pacers in Andalusia or any other part of Spain, and in the
-second place, these horses, according to official data, were the leading
-item of export from Rhode Island in 1680, and Governor Robinson was not
-born till about 1693. As impossibilities admit of no argument, I will
-not add another word to this “Andalusian” origin tradition, except to
-say that a hundred years later, when the pacing dam of Sherman Morgan
-was taken from Cranston, Rhode Island, up into Vermont, she was called
-a “Spanish mare,” because Mr. Hazard had said the original Narragansett
-had come from Spain. The story of the descendants of the Narragansetts
-having been carried from the West Indies to England, and there introduced
-under the name of the Spanish Jennet as a lady’s saddle horse, is wholly
-imaginative. The Spanish Jennet, whatever its gait may have been, was
-well known in England many years before the first horse was brought to
-any of the American colonies. (See extracts from Blundeville and Markham
-in Chapter XII.)
-
-After several years of fruitless search for some trace of the early
-importations of horses into the colony of Rhode Island, I have reached
-the conclusion that probably no such importations were ever made. The
-colony of Massachusetts Bay commenced importing horses and other live
-stock from England in 1629, and continued to do so for several years
-and until they were fully supplied, as stated above. In 1640 a shipload
-of horses were exported to the Barbadoes, and it was about this time
-that Rhode Island began to assume an organized existence. Her people
-were largely made up of refugees from the religious intolerance of the
-other New England colonies, and they brought their families and effects,
-including their horses, with them. The blood of the Narragansett pacer,
-therefore, was not different from the blood of the pacers of the other
-colonies, but the development of his speed by the establishment of a
-pacing course and the offering of valuable prizes, naturally brought the
-best and the fastest horses to this colony and from the best and fastest
-they built up a breed that became famous throughout all the inhabited
-portions of the Western Hemisphere. The race track, with the valuable
-prizes it offered and the emulation it aroused, was what did it. As the
-question of origin is thus settled in accordance with what is known of
-history and the natural order of things, and as the Narragansett is the
-great tribe representing the lateral action then and since, we must
-consider such details of history as have come down to us.
-
-The Rev. James McSparran, D.D., was sent out by the London Society
-for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to take charge of
-an Episcopal church that had been planted some years before in Rhode
-Island. He arrived in 1721, and lived till 1759. He was an Irishman, and
-appears to have been somewhat haughty and irascible in his temperament
-and was disposed to find fault with the climate, the currency, the
-people, and pretty much everything he came in contact with. He was
-a man of observation, and during the thirty-eight years he spent in
-ministering to the spiritual wants of his flock, he was not unmindful
-of what was passing around him, and made many notes and reflections on
-the various phases of life as they presented themselves to his mind, and
-especially on the products and industries of the colony. These notes and
-observations he wrote out, and they were published in Dublin in 1753,
-under the title of “America Dissected.”
-
-His writings do not discover that he was a man of very ardent piety,
-but he was honored as a good man while he lived, and was buried under
-the altar he had served so long. His duties sometimes called him away
-into Virginia, and, in speaking of the great distance of one parish from
-another, he uses the following language:
-
-    “To remedy this (the distance), as the whole province, between
-    the mountains, two hundred miles up, and the sea, is all a
-    champaign, and without stones, they have plenty of a small
-    sort of horses, the best in the world, like the little Scotch
-    Galloways; and ’tis no extraordinary journey to ride from
-    sixty to seventy miles or more in a day. I have often, but
-    upon larger pacing horses, rode fifty, nay, sixty miles a day,
-    even here in New England, where the roads are rough, stony and
-    uneven.”
-
-The reverend gentleman seems to assume that his readers knew the Scotch
-Galloways were pacers, and with this explanation his observations are
-very plain. He makes no distinction between the Virginia horse and his
-congener of Rhode Island except that of size, in which the latter had the
-advantage. In speaking of the products of Rhode Island he says:
-
-    “The produce of this colony is principally butter and cheese,
-    fat cattle, wool, and fine horses, which are exported to all
-    parts of English America. They are remarkable for fleetness and
-    swift pacing; _and I have seen some of them pace a mile in a
-    little more than two minutes, and a good deal less than three_.”
-
-When I first read this sentence in the reverend doctor’s book I confess
-I was not prepared to accept it in any other light than that of a wild
-enthusiast, who knew but little of the force of the language he used. To
-talk about horses pacing, a hundred and fifty years ago, in a little more
-than two minutes and a good deal less than three, appeared to be simply
-monstrous. The language evidently means, according to all fair rules of
-construction, that the mile was performed nearer two minutes than three,
-or in other words, considerably below two minutes and thirty seconds. I
-doubt not my readers will hesitate, and perhaps refuse, to accept such a
-performance, just as I did myself till I had carefully weighed not only
-the character of the author of the statement, but the circumstances that
-seemed to support it. If the learned divine had known no more of the
-world and its ways than many of his profession, I would have concluded he
-was not a competent judge of speed; but he was a man of affairs, and knew
-perfectly well just what he was saying. The question naturally arises
-here as to what opportunities or facilities the doctor had for timing
-those pacers of a hundred and fifty years ago. In a note appended to the
-above extract by Mr. Updike, the editor of the work, I find the following:
-
-    “The breed of horses called Narragansett pacers, once so
-    celebrated for fleetness, endurance and speed, has become
-    extinct. These horses were highly valued for the saddle, and
-    transported the rider with great pleasantness and sureness of
-    foot. The pure bloods could not trot at all. Formerly they had
-    pace-races. Little Neck Beach, in South Kingston, of one mile
-    in length, was the race course. A silver tankard was the prize,
-    and high bets were otherwise made on speed. Some of these prize
-    tankards were remaining a few years ago. Traditions respecting
-    the swiftness of these horses are almost incredible.”
-
-The facts stated by Mr. Updike in this note are corroborated from other
-sources, and may be accepted as true. These were the opportunities
-and facilities the doctor had for holding his watch, and nobody will
-doubt they were sufficient to enable him to be a competent witness.
-In connection with this subject, and as another footnote, Mr. Updike
-introduces a letter from Mr. I. T. Hazard, which brings out another very
-curious fact in the history of the pacer. The Hazard family was very
-eminent in Rhode Island, and many of its members have occupied positions
-of high honor and responsibility for several generations. The date of
-the letter is not given, and we may infer it may have been written fifty
-years ago, or perhaps more. Mr. Hazard says:
-
-    “Within ten years one of my aged neighbors, Enoch Lewis, since
-    deceased, informed me he had been to Virginia as one of the
-    riding boys, to return a similar visit of the Virginians in
-    that section, in a contest on the turf; and that such visits
-    were common with the racing sportsmen of Narragansett and
-    Virginia, when he was a boy. Like the old English country
-    gentlemen, from whom they were descended, they were a
-    horse-racing, fox-hunting, feasting generation.”
-
-This paragraph from Mr. Hazard’s pen has been the subject of very
-deliberate consideration. The first promptings of my judgment were
-to doubt and reject it, especially on account of the absence of date
-to the letter, and of the remote period in which Mr. Enoch Lewis
-must have visited Virginia. Another question, as to why we have not
-this information from any other source except Mr. Hazard, presented
-itself with no inconsiderable force. After viewing the matter in all
-its bearings I am forced to concede that it is likely to be true.
-These visits must have taken place before the Revolution, and from
-the construction we are able to place upon the dates, this was not
-impossible. It is a fact that I do not hesitate to announce that before
-the Revolution racing in all its forms was more universally indulged in
-as an amusement than it ever has been since. This was before the days of
-newspapers, and all we can possibly know of the sporting events of that
-period we must gather up from the detached fragments that have come down
-to us by tradition. There was a strong bond of sympathy and friendship
-between the followers of Dr. McSparran in Rhode Island, surrounded as
-they were by Puritans, and their co-religionists in Virginia. They were
-accustomed to maritime life, and had abundance of vessels fitted up
-for the shipment of horses and other live stock to foreign ports. To
-take a number of their fastest pacers on board one of their sloops and
-sail for Virginia would not have been considered much of an adventure.
-These visits were not only occasions of pleasure and festivity, with
-the incidental profits of winning purses and bets, but they were a most
-successful means of advertising the Narragansett pacer; and through these
-means alone the market was opened, as Dr. McSparran expresses it, in
-all parts of British America. When we consider the widespread fame of
-these Rhode Island horses, and that there were no other means by which
-they could have achieved it, except by their actual performances, we are
-forced to the conclusion that they were carried long distances, and in
-many directions, for purely sporting purposes. That these visits would
-result in the transfer of a good number of the best and fastest horses
-from Narragansett to Virginia would be a natural sequence, and thus, in
-after years, we might look for a strong infusion of Narragansett blood in
-the Virginian pacing-horse.
-
-It appears to be a law of our civilization that each generation produces
-somebody who, out of pure love for the curious and forgotten, devotes
-the best years of his life to hunting up old things that have well-nigh
-slipped away from the memory of man. In this class Mr. John F. Watson
-stands conspicuous in what he has done for Philadelphia and New York.
-In 1830 he published a work entitled “Annals of Philadelphia and
-Pennsylvania,” in two volumes, and among all the antiquated manners and
-habits that he again brings to our knowledge, he has something to say
-about the horse of an early day:
-
-    “The late very aged T. Matlack, Esq., was passionately fond of
-    races in his youth. He told me of his remembrances about Race
-    Street. In his early days the woods were in commons, having
-    several straggling forest trees still remaining there, and
-    the circular course ranging through those trees. He said all
-    genteel horses were pacers. A trotting-horse was deemed a base
-    breed. These Race Street races were mostly pace-races. His
-    father and others kept pacing stallions for propagating the
-    breed.”
-
-Mr. Watson further remarks, on the same subject: “Thomas Bradford, Esq.,
-in telling me of the recollections of the races, says he was told that
-the earliest races were scrub and pace-races on the ground now used as
-Race Street.”
-
-The Rev. Israel Acrelius, for many years pastor of the Swedish church of
-Philadelphia, wrote a book early in the last century, under the title,
-“History of New Sweden,” which has been translated into English. In
-describing the country and people, in their habits and amusements, he
-thus speaks of the horse:
-
-    “The horses are real ponies, and are seldom found over thirteen
-    hands high. He who has a good riding horse never employs him
-    for draught, which is also the less necessary, as journeys, for
-    the most part, are made on horseback. It must be the result of
-    this, more than to any particular breed in the horses, that the
-    country excels in fast horses, so that horse races are often
-    made for very high stakes.”
-
-It will be noted that Mr. Acrelius does not say that these races were
-pacing-races; but when his remark is taken in connection with what
-Mr. Matlack said about the pacers, and when it is considered that he
-is speaking of the speed of the saddle horses as such, we can easily
-understand his true meaning. In our turf history I supposed I was getting
-well back when I reached the great race between Galloway’s Selim and Old
-England, in 1767, but here we find that race was comparatively modern,
-and that the pacers antedated the gallopers by many, many years.
-
-In 1832 Mr. Watson did the same service for New York that he had done for
-Philadelphia, and published his “Annals of New York,” in which we find
-the piece of horse history embodied in the extract printed on pages 126
-and 127, to which the reader will please turn.
-
-It is hardly possible to be mistaken in assuming that Rip Van Dam’s
-letter was written to some person in Philadelphia, and that Mr. Watson
-saw it there. I would give a great deal for the sight of it; and if it
-has been preserved in any of the public libraries of that city, either
-in type or in manuscript form, I have good hopes of yet inspecting it.
-In one point of view, it is of exceeding value, and that is its date.
-It is fully established by this letter that, as early as 1711, the
-Narragansetts were not only established as a breed or family, but that
-their fame was already widespread. This, of necessity, carries us back
-into the latter part of the seventeenth century, when their exceptional
-characteristics were first developed, or began to manifest themselves. In
-reaching that period we are so near the first importations of horses to
-the colonies that it is no violence to either history or good sense to
-conclude that the original Narragansett was one among the very earliest
-importations. This plays havoc with some Rhode Island traditions, as will
-be seen below; but with 1711 fixed as a point when the breed was famous,
-traditions must stand aside.
-
-While on this matter of dates, it may not be unprofitable to compare the
-advent of the Narragansett with the well-known epochs in horse history.
-Every schoolboy knows that the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian,
-say twenty years after, were the great founders of the English race
-horse. The Narragansetts had reached the very highest pinnacle of fame
-before the Darley Arabian was foaled. Darley Arabian reached England
-about the same year that Rip Van Dam’s Narragansett jumped over the side
-of the sloop and swam ashore, and this was eighty years before there was
-an attempt at publishing an English stud book. When Janus and Othello,
-and Traveller, and Fearnaught, the great founders of the American race
-horse, first reached Virginia, they found the Narragansett pacer had
-been there more than a generation before. On the point of antiquity,
-therefore, the Narragansett is older than what we designate as the
-thoroughbred race horse, and if he has a lineal descendant living to-day
-the pacer has a longer line of speed inheritance, at his gait, than the
-galloper.
-
-The only attempt at a description of this breed that I have met with is
-that given by Cooper, the novelist, in a footnote to “The Last of the
-Mohicans.” This note may be accepted as history, so far as it goes, and
-pretends to be history; but I am not prepared to admit that all the breed
-were sorrels. This color, no doubt, prevailed in those specimens that
-Mr. Cooper had seen or heard of, but I think all colors prevailed, as in
-other breeds. He says:
-
-    “In the State of Rhode Island there is a bay called
-    Narragansett, so named for a strong tribe of Indians that
-    formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of those
-    unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the
-    animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once
-    well known in America by the name of Narragansetts. They were
-    small, commonly of the color called sorrel in America, and
-    distinguished by their habit of pacing. Horses of this race
-    were, and still are, in much request as saddle-horses, on
-    account of their hardiness, and the ease of their movements. As
-    they were also sure of foot, the Narragansetts were much sought
-    for by females who were obliged to travel over the roots and
-    holes in the new countries.”
-
-Without having a minute description of so much as a single individual
-of the race, I can only infer, from general descriptions, as to what
-their family peculiarities of form and shape may have been. It is fully
-established that they were very compact and hardy horses, and that they
-were not large; perhaps averaging about fourteen and a quarter hands in
-height. I have met with no intimation that they were stylish or handsome,
-and we think it is safe to conclude that they were plain in their form,
-and low in their carriage. From my conceptions of the horse I think one
-of the better-shaped Canadian pacers, of fifteen hands or thereabouts,
-might be accepted as a fair representative of the Narragansett of
-a hundred and fifty years ago. He was fleet, hardy, docile, and
-sure-footed, but not beautiful, and it is reasonable to suppose that the
-lack of style and beauty was one of the leading causes of his becoming
-extinct in the land of his nativity.
-
-In considering the causes which resulted in what we may call the
-dispersal of the Narragansett pacers, and their extinction in the seat
-of their early fame, we must be governed by what is reasonable and
-philosophical in the industrial interests of the people, rather than look
-for some great overwhelming disaster, like an earthquake, that ingulfed
-them in a night. In speaking of this dispersal, and the causes which led
-to it, Mr. Hazard says:
-
-    “One of the causes of the loss of that famous breed here was
-    the great demand for them in Cuba, when that island began to
-    cultivate sugar extensively. The planters became suddenly rich,
-    and wanted the pacing-horse for themselves and their wives and
-    daughters to ride, faster than we could supply them, and sent
-    an agent to this country to purchase them on such terms as he
-    could, but to purchase them at all events. I have heard my
-    father say he knew the agent very well, and he made his home
-    at the Rowland Brown House, at Tower Hill, where he commenced
-    purchasing and shipping until all the good ones were sent off.
-    He never let a good one escape him. This, and the fact that
-    they were not so well adapted to draught as other horses, was
-    the cause of their being neglected, and I believe the breed is
-    now extinct in this section. My father described the motion
-    of this horse as differing from others in that his backbone
-    moved through the air in a straight line, without inclining the
-    rider from side to side, as the common racker or pacer of the
-    present day. Hence it was very easy; and being of great power
-    of endurance, they would perform a journey of a hundred miles
-    in a day, without injury to themselves or rider.”
-
-We can understand very well how an enormous and unexpected demand from
-Cuba without restriction as to price, should reduce the numbers of the
-breed very materially. But it is a poor compliment to the intelligence
-and thrift of the good people of Narragansett to say that, because there
-was a lively demand, they killed the goose that laid the golden egg every
-day. It is a slander upon that Yankee smartness which is proverbial to
-conclude that they deprived themselves of the means of supplying a market
-that was making them all rich. We must, therefore, look for other causes
-that were more potent in producing, so marked a result.
-
-After more than a hundred years of faithful service, of great popularity,
-and of profitable returns to their breeders, the little Narragansetts
-began to disappear, just as their ancestors had disappeared a century
-earlier. Rhode Island was no longer a frontier settlement, but had grown
-into a rich and prosperous State. Mere bridle paths through the woods had
-developed into broad, smooth highways, and wheeled vehicles had taken
-the place of the saddle. Under these changed conditions, the little
-pacer was no longer desirable or even tolerable as a harness horse, and
-he was supplanted by a larger and more stylish type of horse, better
-suited to the particular kind of work required of him. This was simply
-the “survival of the fittest,” considering the nature of the services
-required of the animal. The average height of the Narragansett was not
-over fourteen hands and one inch. His neck was not long, even for his
-size; he dropped rapidly on the croup, and his carriage was low, with
-nothing of elegance or style in his appearance. His mane and tail were
-heavy, his hind legs were crooked, his limbs and feet were of the very
-best, but aside from his great speed and the smoothness of his movements
-under the saddle, there was nothing very desirable or attractive about
-him. In a contest with a type of the harness horse, at least one hand
-higher, of high carriage and elegant appearance, there could only be one
-result, and that soon decided.
-
-As in England, so in this country, the blood of the running horse soon
-worked the extermination of the pacer; not because it was stronger in
-reproducing itself, perhaps, but because it had the skill and fancy of
-the breeder enlisted in selecting and mating so as to make the expunging
-process complete. Only a few years ago a pacing horse could hardly be
-found in any of the older settled portions of the country, especially
-where running blood had become fashionable. He was literally banished to
-the frontiers of Canada, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and
-especially in the latter two States, where his blood is still appreciated
-and preserved for the luxurious saddle gaits which it alone transmits.
-In many individual cases he has shown wonderful power in meeting and
-overcoming antagonistic elements, but with the tide of running blood all
-against him, it was only a question of time as to how soon he would be
-totally submerged.
-
-It is only a quarter of a century ago that the first volume of “Wallace’s
-American Trotting Register” was published, and then began the great task
-of bringing order out of chaos. In a historical introduction to that
-work, I inserted the following:
-
-    “So many pacing horses have got fast trotters, so many pacing
-    mares have produced fast trotters, and so many pacers have
-    themselves become fast trotters, and little or nothing known of
-    their breeding, that I confess to a degree of embarrassment,
-    from which no philosophy relieves me. If the facts were limited
-    to a few individual cases we could ignore the phenomena
-    altogether, but, while they are by no means universal, they
-    are too common and apparent to be thus easily disposed of. I
-    am not aware that any writer has ever brought this question
-    to the attention of the public; much less, attempted its
-    discussion and explanation. Indeed, it is possible that the
-    observations of others may not sustain me in the prominence
-    given these phenomena, but all will concede there are some
-    cases coming under this head that are unexplained, and perhaps
-    unexplainable. It is probable trotters from this pacing origin,
-    and that appear to trot, only because their progenitors paced,
-    will not prove reliable producers of trotters. Such an animal
-    being in a great degree phenomenal, should not be too highly
-    prized in the stud, till he has proved himself a trotting sire
-    as well as a trotter.”
-
-This very comprehensive little paragraph, put modestly and tentatively
-rather than positively, contained a germ of thought that is to-day
-exerting a very wide influence. So far as my knowledge goes, this was
-the first time in which the public attention had ever been called to the
-intimate relations between speed at the pace and speed at the trot. Some
-laughed at it as not practical, others sneered at it as a theoretical
-abstraction, a few gave it some thought, while the writers who never
-think left it severely alone. It required the cumulative experiences
-of nearly ten years before horsemen generally began to think about it,
-and then ten more before the germ had matured itself in the minds of
-all intelligent men who were able to divest themselves of their earlier
-prejudices. The great primary truth now stands out in high relief that
-the pace and the trot are simply two forms of one and the same gait,
-that lies midway between the walk and the gallop. At last the truth,
-dimly foreshadowed in the paragraph above, is received and accepted, in
-some form or other, almost if not quite universally. This fact and its
-acceptance are now shown in all the recorded experiences of racing, and
-especially in the origin and habits of action of many of the heads of
-trotting and pacing families, to which the reader is referred.
-
-At the beginning of Chapter XIII. I have labored to make plain the
-proposition that the pace and the trot are simply two forms of one and
-the same gait. This is evident from the fact that this gait, in one form
-or the other, is the intermediate link between the walk and the gallop,
-and this is true among nearly all quadrupeds. I have also there shown,
-and I think beyond cavil, that the mechanism of the pace and the trot is
-the same, and especially in the fact that in both forms two legs are used
-as one leg. That is, if the two legs on the same side move together, we
-call it the pace, and if the diagonal legs move together we call it the
-trot. The rhythm is the same and the sound is the same, and by the ear no
-man can tell whether the movement is at the lateral or diagonal motion.
-In all the varieties of steps that a horse may be taught, and in all the
-methods of progression that he may naturally adopt, there is no step
-or movement in which he uses two legs as one except in the pace or the
-trot. From the place, therefore, which these two forms of the gait hold,
-indifferently, in animal movement, between the walk and the gallop; from
-the unity of action and result in the use of the same mechanism, and from
-the wide disparity between the mechanism of this gait and that of all
-other gaits in the action of the horse, we must conclude that the pace
-and the trot are one and the same gait.
-
-Another evidence of the unity of the two forms of the trot is to be found
-in the great numbers of pacers that have been changed over to trotters
-and the astonishing readiness with which they took to the new form of
-action. To go back no further than the records sustain us, we find that
-the converted pacer Pelham was the first horse that ever trotted in 2:28.
-This was in 1849, and four years later the converted pacer Highland Maid
-trotted in 2:27. Twenty years later, Occident, another, trotted in 2:16¾.
-These were champions of their day, and when we come a little nearer we
-find that Maud S. was a pacer and Sunol was a pacer, although neither
-of them ever paced in public, and the fact that they ever paced at all
-was held as a kind of “home secret.” Since the days of Pelham, literally
-thousands of horses have been changed from pacers to trotters, and some
-hundreds have been changed from trotters to pacers successfully. Then
-there are quite a number, like Jay-Eye-See, 2:10 trotting and 2:06¼
-pacing, that have made fast records at both gaits.
-
-At one time the pacing horse Blue Bull stood at the head of all sires
-of trotters in this country, and it is not known or believed that he
-possessed a single drop of trotting blood. He was a very fast pacer and
-could do nothing else, and a large percentage of the mares bred to him
-were pacers, and practically all the others had more or less pacing
-blood, but his great roll of trotters in the 2:30 list was the wonder of
-all horsemen of that period. Certainly the average of the elements in
-his inheritance would place him very low in theory, but in practice he
-struck back to some ancestor that was strongly prepotent. The trouble in
-his case is practically the same as in all other pacing stallions—the
-inheritance traces back to a period more remote than any of the fast
-trotting stallions, but at intervals it has been neglected and not
-developed until it has become weak and uncertain from lack of use. The
-same may be said of the Copperbottoms, Corbeaus, Flaxtails, Hiatogas,
-Davy Crockets, Pilots, Rainbows, Redbucks, St. Clairs, Tippoos, and Tom
-Hals, as well as other heads of minor families that will be considered in
-their proper places.
-
-The changes that have been wrought in the status of the pacer have
-been truly wonderful. Instead of being hidden away as an outcast
-and a disgrace to the family, condemned to a life of inferiority and
-drudgery, he has been brought out and exhibited to the public as a son
-and heir and the equal of the best. In looking back over the trotting
-records of twenty years ago, any one will be surprised to observe that
-at all the leading meetings of the whole country there were no pacing
-contests. Occasionally at the minor and local meetings of the middle
-Western States, a pacing contest would be given for a small purse, in
-which local and obscure horses only would be engaged. Very naturally
-the owners of pacing horses protested against this practical exclusion
-of their favorites from the trotting meetings, and employed all their
-energies in begging for admission. When they began to be really clamorous
-the managers of trotting tracks argued that there could be no profit to
-them in opening pacing contests, for nobody cared about seeing a pacing
-match, that the entries would not fill, and especially that there would
-be no betting, that, consequently, the pool-sellers would have nothing
-to divide with the management. As the receipts for pool-selling and all
-other gambling privileges were making the track managers rich, they were
-very slow about admitting an untried element that might diminish their
-profits. But gradually and patiently the pacers worked their way into the
-exclusive circle, and when they appeared everybody, especially in the
-Eastern States, was surprised to see what excellent horses they were and
-the terrific speed they showed. Instead of the typical pacer, as formed
-in the popular mind, with the low head, bull neck, low croup, hairy legs,
-exuberant mane and tail, and generally “Canuck” all over, that would stop
-at the end of the first half-mile, here was an array of horses that in
-make-up and gameness would average just as well as the same number of
-trotters. This was a revelation to great multitudes of people, and from
-that time forward the pacer had a fair show, on his merits. For hundreds
-of years the pacer, with very few exceptions, has been able to show a
-little higher rate of speed than the trotter. When Flora Temple smashed
-all records in 1859 by trotting in 2:19¾, Pocahontas had drawn a wagon,
-five years earlier, in 2:17½; and when Maud S. trotted in 1885 in 2:08¾,
-this beat all laterals as well as diagonals, except Johnson, who the year
-before had paced in 2:06¼. In 1894 Alix trotted a mile in 2:03¾, which
-stands the best at this writing, but the same year Robert J. paced in
-2:01½, and John R. Gentry in 2:00½ in 1896.
-
-It is not my purpose here to undertake to discuss the reasons for the
-almost continuous supremacy of the pacer over the trotter, for there is
-no data from which I might frame a conclusion that would really “hold
-water.” At best, therefore, I can only suggest two or three thoughts.
-Speed at the pace is older, and has been longer in the process of
-development, than speed at the trot. In 1747 pacing races had then been
-fashionable in Maryland, and had been carried on in that colony time
-out of mind, but we have no trace of trotting races. One year later
-(1748) “running, pacing and trotting” races had become so numerous and
-so common in the colony of New Jersey that they were declared a nuisance
-and suppressed by the legislative authority. My impression from the
-language of the act is that it was aimed chiefly at the running and the
-pacing races, and that the trotters were not very numerous. It seems to
-be a reasonable conclusion that this racing mania in New Jersey took its
-rise about 1665, when Governor Nicolls established the Newmarket race
-course on Long Island, and if so, it had been growing in strength for
-over eighty years, and if we add the time from then till now we find that
-the speed of the pacer has been going on almost continuously for over two
-hundred years in our own country. There is another fact entering into the
-rural life of colonial times that must not be left out of consideration.
-The pacer was the universal saddle horse, and the trotter never was
-tolerated for that service. Every farmer’s son had his saddle horse, and
-when two of them met what so natural and common as to determine then
-and there which was the faster, if a little stretch of road offered?
-In these neighborhood rivalries, if not in actual racing, the instinct
-of speed at the pace was kept alive and developed, from generation to
-generation. If I am right in this little study of colonial life, we can
-understand that the inheritance of speed at the pace has come down to our
-own time through a great many generations of pacers, and hence the pace
-is the faster gait. There is one fact in our own experience that seems to
-sustain this with great force, and that is the small amount of “pounding”
-that the pacer requires in order to reach the full development of his
-powers. There is no need of driving a pacer to death in order to teach
-him how to pace, for he already knows how to pace, and all that is needed
-in the way of training is to get him into high condition. It may be
-possible that the lateral action is faster than the diagonal because it
-is less complicated, but I can see no anatomical reason for this, as the
-two legs in both gaits act as one leg. The only difference I can see in
-practice is that the trotter has more up-and-down motion than the pacer;
-that is, he bounds in every revolution, describing a series of depressed
-curves with his back as he moves, while the pacer rises less from the
-ground with his hind feet and seems to glide instead of bound; in other
-words, there is less action thrown away by the pacer than the trotter,
-and this may arise from the more complex action in the diagonal than in
-the lateral motion.
-
-The pacer has reached a higher acclivity than the trotter, but he is not
-so well assured in his footing. His present popularity and his upward
-flight are phenomenal, but the causes that have sent him there are
-abnormal and not lasting. In his best individualities he is simply a
-gambling machine when in the hands of unscrupulous men, to be manipulated
-in whatever direction he will make the most money. Racing, at whatever
-gait, is not necessarily demoralizing nor disreputable, but when it
-falls into the control of the “professionals” it becomes both. So long
-as it remains under the control of the breeders it is not only honorable
-and legitimate for them to develop and race their stock, but it is a
-necessary adjunct to their business, for they must thus bring their
-products before the public, if they expect to make their business pay.
-Breeders should not own race tracks, or if they do, they should have no
-part nor lot in the percentage uniformly paid for the gambling privilege.
-
-The history of racing in this country teaches over and over again that
-whenever the breeding and racing interest falls into the control of
-gamblers, down goes the whole interest and honest men suffer with the
-rogues. The grasping track managers are to-day complaining loudly that
-they cannot afford to give trotting meetings unless they are allowed to
-bring in the pool-sellers and make them divide the “swag” with the track.
-Every attempt by legislatures to make gambling on races a felony outside
-the race track and a virtue inside is a most arrant humbug and most
-destructive in its results. It makes the race track a cesspool of every
-vice, and a stench in the nostrils of every honest man and decent woman.
-The moral sense of the people all over this country is being aroused, and
-if public gambling cannot be suppressed on horse races, then history will
-repeat itself and horse racing will be wiped out. The gamblers and their
-friends will sneer at this as “puritanism,” but no difference about the
-name—it will come.
-
-But, destructive and ruinous as gambling on races may be to the life
-and moral character of young men, as well as to the material interests
-of honest and reputable breeders, it hardly comes within my province to
-discuss it further in this place, and therefore I will return to the
-consideration of the pacer. As the historical periodicity is now looming
-in sight when the moral sense of the people will command the suppression
-of racing of every kind, the question becomes exceedingly pertinent as
-to what is to become of the pacer? He will no longer be of any value as
-a gambling machine, the days of the saddle horse are past as a means
-of travel, except by a few about the parks of the cities, and however
-uppish and handsome he may be, he is not and never will be a desirable
-driving horse in harness. We have already used sufficient of his blood to
-create the American Saddle Horse, and if the saddle horse shall produce
-“after his kind” we need no more infusions from the pure pacer. In the
-trotter his blood has leavened everything, and in some lines more than we
-desire or need. He has been a great source of trotting speed, and if, as
-I am inclined to believe, Messenger’s power to transmit trotting speed
-came from the old English pacer, then the pacer is the only source of
-that speed. Under the condition of things as here foreshadowed he will
-probably sink back into the obscurity from which he emerged twenty years
-ago.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE.
-
-    The saddle gaits come only from the pacer—Saddle gaits
-    cultivated three hundred years ago—Markham on the saddle
-    gaits—The military seat the best—The unity of the pace and
-    trot—Gaits analyzed—Saddle Horse Register—Saddle horse
-    progenitors—Denmark not a thoroughbred horse.
-
-
-In the preceding chapters the pacer has been considered from the
-standpoint of his antiquity, history, speed at the pace, and his
-contributions to speed at the trot. We now come to consider him as the
-founder of the best and most delightful type of saddle horses in the
-world. This estimate of his quality and value had a solid foundation
-in the judgment and habits of our ancestors at an early period in our
-history. When our patriotic forbears entered upon the struggle for
-independence, they were fully alive to the necessity of foreign sympathy
-and aid. For this purpose agents were sent abroad to enlist the good
-feelings and, if possible, secure co-operation of foreign governments,
-especially that of France. Mr. Silas Dean was sent to Paris, and in a
-communication to the secret committee of Congress, under date of November
-28, 1776, he writes: “I wish I had here one of your best saddle horses,
-of the American or Rhode Island breed—a present of that kind would be
-money well laid out with a certain personage.” This was probably intended
-as a present to Marie Antoinette, or some other person having great
-influence at court. It further indicates that “the American or Rhode
-Island Saddle Horse” was at that period, in Mr. Dean’s opinion at least,
-the best in the world. (See Dean Papers, New York Historical Society,
-Vol. I., p. 377.)
-
-To the man of average intelligence and candor on horse subjects it
-certainly is not necessary to enter upon an elaborate discussion to
-show that the saddle gaits come from the pacer, but a certain class
-of writers, who neither declare nor attempt to prove their position,
-constantly imply that the saddle gaits came from the “thoroughbred.” As
-it is better, therefore, to make everything plain as we go along, I will
-very briefly consider this point. Twelve years ago, through _Wallace’s
-Monthly_, I presented the following questions to all gentlemen interested
-in saddle-horse affairs and acquainted with saddle-horse history: “Are
-all the tribes and families noted for their saddle qualities descended
-in whole or in part from pacing ancestry?” In order to cover the whole
-question, no difference from what standpoint it might be considered, I
-added the following: “Has any family or subfamily of saddle horses come
-from pure running ancestry and without any admixture of pacing blood?” To
-these questions Major Hord, then editor of the _Spirit of the Farm_, at
-Nashville, Tennessee, a gentleman of very wide and accurate knowledge on
-this subject, but strongly in favor of running blood, made the following
-response through his paper:
-
-    “We can only draw conclusions from established facts in
-    reference to these questions, for we do not think they can
-    be answered otherwise, as the original ancestry of our best
-    saddle families is more or less clouded in obscurity. It is an
-    established fact, demonstrated by experience, that in order to
-    get a saddle horse, the quickest and most successful way is to
-    get in the pacing blood; it matters not how good or bad the
-    other blood may be, a strong dash of pacing blood will almost
-    invariably improve the animal for saddle purposes, and never,
-    under any circumstances, does a pacing cross detract from an
-    animal’s qualities for the saddle. Judging from these facts, we
-    conclude that all our saddle families are descended, at least
-    in part, from pacing ancestry. On the other hand, all our best
-    saddle families have a strong infusion of thoroughbred running
-    blood. This blood, however, is valuable only for the courage,
-    bone, and finish it gives the animal, for it imparts none of
-    the saddle gaits; and while we have secured the best results
-    in breeding the saddle horse by mixing the running and pacing
-    blood, we have observed that too much running blood in the
-    stallion detracts from his success as a sire of saddle stock.
-    As a rule, no trainer’s skill can make a good saddle horse out
-    of a thoroughbred runner, whereas if you mix two or more strong
-    pacing crosses on top of the running blood, a child can gait
-    the produce to the saddle. We have sometimes seen good saddle
-    horses that were thoroughbreds, but have never seen a perfect
-    one. Our observation and experience lead us to the conclusion
-    that the natural saddle gaits come from the pacers, but to the
-    runner we are indebted for the size, style, bone and finish of
-    our saddle stock.”
-
-In this reply, when the author says “all of our saddle families are
-descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry,” and when he adds
-to this that “running blood imparts none of the saddle gaits,” he has
-answered both questions very fully and very satisfactorily. The argument
-that running blood gives bone and finish, and all that, is very well
-as a theory of breeding, but it has nothing to do with the questions
-propounded. As all families of saddle horses have pacing blood, and as
-there is no family without it, it may be taken as settled that the saddle
-gaits come from the pacer.
-
-I notice that at least one of the present saddle gaits was cultivated
-more than three hundred years ago. Mr. Gervaise Markham, a writer of the
-sixteenth century, and probably the second English author on the horse,
-says: “If you buy a horse for pleasure the amble is the best, in which
-you observe that he moves both his legs on one side together, neat with
-complete deliberation, for if he treads too short he is apt to stumble,
-if too large to cut and if shuffling or rowling he does it slovenly and
-besides rids no ground. If your horse be designed for hunting, a racking
-pace is most expedient, which little differs from the amble, only is
-more active and nimble, whereby the horse observes due motion, but you
-must not force him too eagerly, lest being in confusion he lose all
-knowledge of what you design him to, and so handle his legs carelessly.”
-The orthography of the work “rack” as used by Markham is “wrack,” and
-this is the only place I have met with it in any of the old authors.
-Webster defines the word “rack” as “a fast amble,” but Markham uses it
-in contradistinction from the amble. It is worthy of note here that the
-word “rack” is older than the word “pace,” in its use as designating
-the particular gait of the horse, and through all the centuries it has
-been retained. Of all the gaits that are subsidiary to the pace and
-derived from that gait, the rack is probably the most common, and in
-many sections of the country the pacer is called a racker. Racking is
-often designated as “single-footing,” and in this gait as well as in
-the running walk and fox trot, there are four distinct impacts in the
-revolution. It follows, then, that they are not susceptible of a very
-high rate of speed.
-
-In all the services which the horse renders and in all the relations
-which he bears to his master, there is no relation in which they can be
-made to appear to such great mutual advantage as when the one animal is
-carrying the other on his back. There is no occasion on which a beautiful
-horse looks so well as when gracefully mounted and skillfully handled by
-a lady or gentleman. And, I will add, there is no occasion when a lady or
-gentleman, who is at home in the saddle, looks so well as when mounted
-on a beautiful and well-trained American horse. England has no saddle
-horses, and never can have any till she secures American blood and adopts
-American methods. The shortening of the stirrups and the swinging up
-and down like a tilt-hammer is not, with our English friends, a matter
-of choice, but a necessity to avoid being jolted to death. Their very
-silly imitators, on this side, think they can’t afford to be out of the
-fashion, because “it’s English, you know.” For safety, true gentility,
-and comfort the military seat is the only seat, and if you have a horse
-upon which you can’t keep that seat without punishment, he is no saddle
-horse. If your doctor tells you that your liver needs shaking up, mount
-an English trotting horse, but if you ride for pleasure and fresh air,
-get a horse that is bred and trained to the saddle gaits. There is just
-as much difference between the two horses as the difference between a
-springless wagon on a cobble-stone pavement and a richly upholstered
-coach on the asphalt.
-
-The American Saddle Horse has an origin as well as a history. His origin
-dates back thousands of years, and his history has been preserved in art
-and in letters since the beginning of the Christian era. For centuries
-he was the fashionable horse in England, and the only horse ridden by
-the nobility and gentry. Away back in the reign of Elizabeth it was not
-an uncommon thing to use hopples to teach and compel trotters to pace,
-just as in our day hopples are often used to teach and compel pacers to
-trot. In the early settlement of the American colonies pacers were far
-more numerous than trotters, and this continued to be the case till after
-the War of the Revolution. The great influx of running blood after that
-period practically banished the pacer to the western frontiers, where a
-remnant has been preserved for the uses of the saddle; and on account of
-his great speed and gameness he has again returned to popular favor in
-our own day.
-
-The walk and the canter, or short gallop, are gaits that are common to
-all breeds and varieties of horses, but what are known as “the saddle
-gaits” are derived wholly from the pace and are therefore considered
-modifications or variations of the pace. In regions of country where
-the saddle horse is bred and developed these gaits are well known among
-horsemen and riders as the rack (single-footing), the running-walk, and
-the fox-trot. These gaits are not easily described so as to be understood
-without an example before the eye. The rack is the most easily explained
-so as to be comprehended, and it is sometimes called the slow pace. In
-this movement the hind foot strikes the ground an instant before the fore
-foot on the same side, then the other two feet are moved and strike in
-the same way; thus there are four strokes in the revolution, in pairs.
-As each foot has its own stroke we see the appositeness of the phrase
-“single-footing.” The four strokes are in pairs, as one, two—three,
-four, and in many cases as the speed of the horse increases the interval
-between the strokes is lost and the horse is at a clean rapid pace. As
-a matter of course none of these gaits in which the horse makes four
-strokes instead of two in the revolution can be speedy. They are not
-developed nor cultivated for speed alone, but for the comfort and ease of
-the rider and the change from one to another for the rest and ease of the
-horse.
-
-These “saddle gaits” are always derivatives from the pace, and I never
-have seen one that did not possess more or less pacing blood. A careful
-examination of the first and second volumes of “The National Saddle
-Horse Register” establishes this fact beyond all possible contradiction.
-This work is a very valuable contribution to the horse history of the
-country, but it is a misfortune that more care has not been taken in the
-exclusion of fictitious crosses in a great multitude of pedigrees. This
-trouble is specially apparent among the supposed breeding of many of
-the old stallions that are inserted as “Foundation Stock.” The tendency
-throughout seems to be to cover up and hide away the very blood to
-which we are indebted for the saddle horse, and to get in all the blood
-possible that is in direct antagonism to the foundation of the saddle
-gaits. It can be accepted as a fundamental truth in horse lore, that from
-the day the first English race horse was imported into this country to
-the present day, which covers a period of about one hundred and fifty
-years, nobody has ever seen, either in England or in this country, a
-thoroughbred horse that was a pacer. When the old race horse Denmark
-covered the pacing daughter of the pacer Cockspur, the pacing blood of
-the dam controlled the action and instincts of the colt, and in that colt
-we have the greatest of saddle-horse sires, known as Gaines’ Denmark.
-
-As this horse Denmark was by far the greatest of all saddle-horse
-progenitors, and as his superiority has been widely attributed to his
-“thoroughbred” sire Denmark, the son of imported Hedgford, I have taken
-some pains to examine his pedigree. His sire was thoroughbred, his dam
-and grandam were mongrels, and the remoter crosses were impossible
-fictions. The fact that he ran four miles cuts no figure as evidence
-of purity of blood, for horses were running four miles in this country
-before the first “thoroughbred” was born. Of the fourteen stallions that
-are inserted as “Foundation Stock,” it is unfortunate that the choice
-seems to be practically restricted to the State of Kentucky, while the
-States of Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee, to say nothing of Illinois,
-Missouri, etc., have produced numbers of families and tribes that are
-much more prominent and valuable from the true saddle-horse standpoint
-than some that appear in the select list of fourteen. It is doubtless
-true, however, that more attention has been paid to symmetry and style,
-and to the correct development and culture of the true saddle gaits, in
-Kentucky than in any of the other States. With such horses as Gaines’
-Denmark, John Dillard, Tom Hal, Brinker’s Drennon, Texas, Peters’
-Halcorn, and Copperbottom the list is all right, but the other half-dozen
-are mostly young and have hardly been heard of outside of their own
-immediate neighborhoods. It is a notable fact that old Pacing Pilot does
-not appear as the progenitor of a saddle family.
-
-In considering the comparative merits of the leading foundation stallions
-we find that Denmark was not a success in any direction except as the
-sire of handsome and stylish saddle horses. John Dillard may not have
-been the equal of Denmark, in the elegance of his progeny, but he far
-surpassed him in his valuable relations to the trotter. His daughters
-became quite famous as the producers of trotters of a high order, and
-they have over twenty in the 2:30 list. The Tom Hals have developed
-phenomenal speed at the pace, and a great deal of it, interspersed with
-but few trotters.
-
-Of late years many owners of the very best material for saddle stock have
-given their whole attention to the development of speed, either at the
-lateral or diagonal motion, because it has been deemed more profitable.
-In thus selecting, breeding and developing for extreme speed, the
-adaptation to saddle purposes has been lost or bred out. While it is true
-that some colts come into the world endowed with all the saddle gaits, it
-is also true that skill and patience are requisite in teaching the saddle
-horse good manners. There is no imaginable use to which the horse can be
-put where he will show his beautiful form and thorough education to so
-great advantage as under the saddle.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA.
-
-    The romances of fifty years ago—Was the horse indigenous
-    to this country?—The theories of the paleontologists not
-    satisfactory—Pedigrees of over two millions of years too
-    long—Outlines of horses on prehistoric ruins evidently
-    modern—The linguistic test among the oldest tribes of Indians
-    fails to discover any word for “Horse”—The horses abandoned
-    west of the Mississippi by the followers of De Soto about 1541
-    were the progenitors of the wild horses of the plains.
-
-
-Fifty years ago there was much that was romantic and mysterious in our
-conceptions of the real character and origin of the vast herds of wild
-horses that abounded on our Western plains, and the same remark applies
-to their congeners on the pampas of South America. The wild horse and
-the Indian opened up a most inviting field for the writers of romance,
-and current literature was flooded with “Wild Western” stories, with
-the horse and the Indian as the leading characters. We are now one
-generation, at least, this side of the time when stories of this kind are
-either sought or read, but we are not past the period when the origin
-or introduction of the horse on this continent may be considered with
-interest and profit. Before touching upon the wild horse, as known in our
-early history, however, it may be well to consider, briefly, the question
-as to whether he may not have been indigenous to this continent.
-
-In our generation the spade has become a wonderful developer of the
-truths of ancient history. The buried and forgotten cities of the old
-world are being unearthed in Europe, Asia and Africa, and thousands
-of works of art and learning that had vanished from the face of the
-earth are again restored to the knowledge of the human race. In a
-kindred branch of investigation the geologists and paleontologists have
-been delving into the bowels of the earth—not to find what previous
-generations of men had left behind them, but to find what life was
-myriads of ages before man was placed on the earth. Out of the rocks
-they have, literally, quarried many strange examples of animal life
-that lave been buried millions of years, and hundreds of feet below the
-present surface. Among these strange petrefactions that were thus buried
-when the earth was young, there is one that has been widely exploited as
-the “Primal Horse,” that is, the animal from which our present horse was
-finally evolved. There are three or four specimens of this petrefaction
-now on exhibition in this country, the first having been discovered
-by Professor Marsh, of Yale College, and now in the museum of that
-institution. Nearly twenty years ago Professor Huxley, the great English
-naturalist, delivered a lecture in this city on the Marsh petrefaction as
-his text, in which he told us that the “Primal Horse” had, originally,
-five toes on each foot, that after an indeterminate geological period he
-lost the two outside toes on the hind feet, and after another million
-years, more or less, he lost the outside toes of the fore feet, thus
-leaving him ready to go on developing the middle toe into the foot and
-hoof of the horse while the outside toes disappeared. In proof of this
-he offered the fact that horses of this day have splint bones on each
-side of the leg, under the knee, and these bones are the remnants of the
-outside toes. This was the explanation which the learned professor gave
-in disposing of the outside toes when there were but three toes on each
-foot, but he failed to explain what had become of the outside toes when
-there were five on each foot, and there his whole explanation toppled to
-the ground.
-
-In the American Museum of Natural History, in this city, there is a very
-fine representative of this particular type of petrefactions. It is
-about fifteen inches high, with a head that is disproportionately large,
-and a tail that is long and slender, suggesting that of a leopard. On
-each fore foot this animal has four toes, or claws, as we might call
-them, and on each hind foot three claws. With these claws this little
-animal might dig in the ground, or he might climb a tree when necessary
-for either safety or food. Each one of these toes has its own distinct
-column of joints and bone extending to the knee, and there is no material
-difference in the size and strength of these different columns. Now,
-with three toes and three columns only, we can accept or reject, as we
-please, Professor Huxley’s method of getting the two superfluous ones
-out of sight by pointing to the splint bones on the leg of a modern
-horse and saying these are the remnants of the outside toes. But, in the
-meantime, neither Mr. Huxley nor anybody else has told us what became
-of the outside toes and their columns in cases where there were five
-toes. It will not do to chuck these out of sight and say nothing about
-them; they must be accounted for or the theory fails. In the specimen now
-under examination the fore feet are each supplied with four toes, and
-each toe is supported by its own distinct column of bone. Here we meet
-with the same difficulty as in the case of five toes, for we have more
-material than the Huxley theory is able to provide for. This theory has
-been generally accepted among specialists, in this line of investigation,
-and they all point to the splint bones, as already stated, as the
-remnants of the two toes, adhering to the main column. This leaves the
-one superfluous toe wholly unprovided for, and thus the theory discredits
-itself and leaves the question in a shape that is entirely unsatisfactory
-and unacceptable to the understanding.
-
-The teeth of this specimen, in their shape and arrangement, very strongly
-resemble the teeth of the horse. Upon this one fact is placed the chief
-reliance to sustain the claim that this was the “Primal Horse,” but
-this fact, when taken without the support of other facts, simply proves
-that the animal was herbivorous, subsisting on the same kind of food as
-the horse, but it does not prove that he was a horse. The teeth are an
-excellent starting point, and we admit their arrangement and resemblance
-to the teeth of the horse, but the rules of comparative anatomy, as well
-as common sense, require that at some other point or points there should
-be at least a suggestion of resemblance. In this case there is absolutely
-no resemblance, but a very marked and unmistakable divergence. The foot
-of this little animal, fifteen inches high, bears no more resemblance
-to the foot of the horse than the foot of the dog bears to the foot of
-the horse. Indeed, the foot of the specimen before us, whether provided
-with three, four or five claws, very strikingly resembles the foot
-of the dog. The arrangement of the different specimens of the feet,
-commencing with the smallest with four toes and ending with the perfect
-and full-grown foot of the horse as we know him, intended to illustrate
-the process of evolution, is a very interesting study, but when you have
-done with the last foot with claws and reach forward for the first foot
-with a hoof, you find there is an impassable gulf between them, over
-which the theory of Evolution has not been able to construct a bridge.
-But there is another consideration that is final and that cannot be
-overcome by any theory whatever. According to the chronology widely
-accepted among geologists, this little animal was buried in the sand
-more than two millions of years ago, and in a grave more than a hundred
-feet below the general surface of the country in which he was found. In
-some great upheaval or cataclysm of the earth’s surface, this little
-animal, with all his contemporaries, perished, and there perished with
-him all possibility of propagating his race. It is only a waste of time,
-therefore, to speculate upon what a certain race of animals might have
-produced in our day, when they were all cut off two millions of years
-ago. With this disposition of the little animal with the variety of toes,
-quarried from the rocks and by courtesy here called the “Primal Horse,”
-we reach another prehistoric epoch in our inquiry, but much less remote
-than the one just considered.
-
-From the incredible numbers of wild horses on our Western plains and on
-the pampas of South America, at a very early period in history, it became
-a question of some interest with many thinking men as to whether the
-horse was not indigenous on this continent. It is within the knowledge
-of everybody that this continent was inhabited by a mysterious and
-unknown race of people long before it was visited by Europeans. These
-mysterious people seem to have been driven out by the fierce and warlike
-savages who occupied the country at the time of its discovery, and even
-they knew nothing about the people who had preceded them. In very many
-localities the vanished people left behind them marks, numerous and
-unmistakable, that they had made considerable progress in the arts of
-civilized life. Writers have generally designated them as “the Mound
-Builders,” because they heaped great _tumuli_ of earth over the graves of
-their distinguished dead, but the real “Mound Builders” did far more than
-this, for with immense labor they built great, strong defenses for their
-protection against their enemies. When we go further West and South, into
-the fertile valleys among the mountains, we find still later traces of
-these unknown people in the ruins of buildings and dwellings erected,
-with infinite labor, traces of irrigating canals, etc., but we still fail
-to come up with them, or any trace of their history. In that region ruins
-of this type are designated as “Aztec Ruins,” but this title puts us no
-further on the way of who the builders were. In 1877 a correspondent of
-a Colorado newspaper, who seemed to write intelligently and candidly,
-described some of those ruins which he found in the valley of the Las
-Animas, in Southwestern Colorado. He speaks of a valley fifteen miles
-long and seven miles wide, on the Animas River, and says this valley was
-covered with dwellings built of stone, but he gives particular attention
-to a row of buildings built of sandstone laid in adobe mud. These
-buildings are about three hundred feet long and three hundred feet apart,
-as I understand the writer, and extend a distance of six thousand feet.
-The outside walls are four feet thick and the inside ones from one and a
-half to three feet thick; there are rooms still left and walls remaining
-that indicate a building four stories high. In some of the rooms there
-are writings that never have been deciphered, and in one of them there
-are drawings of tarantulas, centipedes, horses and men. The word “horses”
-riveted my attention, and connected with it there were several things
-to be considered. First, were the drawings really intended to represent
-horses? Second, if so might they not have been placed there long after
-the builders had disappeared and in recent years? Third, if placed there
-by the builders, what was their date, and were they before or after the
-introduction of the horse into Mexico by the Spaniards? The possibility
-of ever obtaining any satisfactory information about these drawings and
-their date seemed very remote, but after watching and waiting for about
-eighteen years, I have recently received two letters that settle the
-whole matter so far as these particular ruins are concerned.
-
-Mr. Charles McLoyd, a very intelligent gentleman of Durango, Colorado,
-who has made a special study of the Cliff Dwellers and kindred subjects,
-in that part of the world, writing under date of January 10, 1895, says:
-
-    “I am unable to inform you in regard to the pictures on those
-    particular ruins, but can say that in no other locality have
-    I found pictures of horses or anything to indicate that these
-    prehistoric races had any knowledge of the animal. If such
-    pictures existed we would be unable to determine anything
-    definite from them; or in other words, it would not show that
-    the horse was on this continent before the Spaniards brought
-    him, but rather that the people who constructed the buildings
-    lived here after the Spaniards came. I have often seen pictures
-    of horses on the walls of cañons, but there is no question
-    but they were the work of the present Indians. We often find
-    associated with them pictures of railroad trains, etc., that
-    indicate that some of them are of very recent date. To sum the
-    matter up, would say that, so far, there is no evidence that
-    these races had any knowledge of the horse, or had ever seen
-    the Spaniards.”
-
-Mr. John A. Koontz, of Aztec, New Mexico, writes under date of January
-24, 1895. He knows all about the ruins in question, for he owns the land
-on which they are situated, and puts the whole matter very clearly, as
-follows:
-
-    “I know nothing of the drawings of horses and other animals on
-    the walls of the ‘Aztec Ruins’ here that Mr. Wallace speaks
-    of. I think the drawings were all in the imagination of the
-    correspondent to whom Mr. Wallace refers. I have been familiar
-    with the ruins for fourteen years and this is the first time I
-    have ever heard of any drawings of horses on any of the walls.
-    There are drawings on some rocks some miles from the ruins, but
-    from their nature I have considered them the work of the modern
-    Indians. These ruins were visited by a party of archeologists
-    two years ago, who spent several weeks here, and made a survey,
-    with maps and general drawings of the same. They decided that
-    the main building had, originally, over seven hundred rooms.”
-
-These letters are conclusive, so far as the region of the Las Animas is
-concerned, and with that region knocked out there is not enough left
-to justify further search for evidence that the prehistoric races had
-any knowledge of the horse. Nothing remained then but the linguistic
-test, and in 1885 I had such an opportunity for applying this test as
-may never occur again. This test formulated itself in my mind, in this
-shape: “Did any of the nations or tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants
-of this continent have a word in their language indicating a horse?”
-When in California I applied to Mr. Bancroft, the compiler and publisher
-of the great documentary history of the Pacific coast, who then had a
-large corps of skilled translators at work on his famous compilation, and
-submitted my question. He introduced me to his principal linguist, who
-knew not only Spanish, English and other modern languages, but also the
-language of the Indians of the coast, the mountains and the plains, of
-the period covered by the question. The question did not seem to be new
-to him, and he answered with the candor and conscientiousness of a man
-who knew what he was saying, that there was no word in any of the Indian
-tongues, ancient or modern, that represented the horse. This settled the
-question of the supposed prehistoric character and rank of the horse, and
-we are thus driven to accept the infinitesimally small number left behind
-by Cortez, Nunez and De Soto as the seed from which sprang the countless
-thousands of wild horses that for generations roamed the Western plains.
-
-The story of the Conquest of Mexico is full of blood and cruelty, but
-as we have nothing to do with any part of the story except so much
-of it as relates to the introduction of the horse to the continent of
-North America, it will require but small space to tell it. Cortez sailed
-from Cuba for Yucatan, February, 1519, with an army of six hundred and
-sixty-three men, two hundred Indians and sixteen horses. This wholly
-inadequate supply of cavalry was the weak place in his venture, but the
-horses could not be had in Cuba, without paying an incredible price.
-Those he was able to secure cost from four to five hundred _pesos de oro_
-each. The _peso_ was the Spanish dollar. The expedition was nominally
-fitted out for Yucatan, but its real aim was the heart of Mexico. In
-his first fight with the Indians near the coast, men mounted on horses
-were feared by the natives as monstrous apparitions. This overwhelming
-fear of the horse may seem to some of my readers as overdone by the
-historian, but it seems to have been the common experience of all the
-different nations and tribes of Indians wherever the horse made his first
-appearance in battle. In the first battle two of the horses were killed,
-and in the second another was killed, and all that remained were more or
-less severely wounded. Cortez was afterward joined by Alvarado, at Vera
-Cruz, with twenty horses and one hundred and fifty men. In making his
-official reports directly to the home government in Spain instead of the
-governor of Cuba, Cortez gave mortal offense to that dignitary, and he
-sent out an armada under Narvaez to supersede Cortez and return him in
-chains to Cuba. This armada consisted of eighteen vessels, carrying nine
-hundred men, eighty of whom were cavalry. After some diplomacy, Cortez,
-feeling that with his little handful of men he was wholly unable to meet
-Narvaez, he did all he could to avoid a conflict. Each party knew the
-exact strength of the other, and as Narvaez began to threaten, Cortez
-determined to fight for his rights and his liberty. He then had but five
-men mounted, but he took advantage of the carelessness of his adversary,
-made a night attack in the midst of a tempest, and captured Narvaez and
-his whole army. The private soldiers of that day, like their commanders,
-had no idea or principle to fight for except for plunder, and they
-were always ready to attach themselves to the most successful robber.
-Cortez was their ideal leader, and at once he had a new army of devoted
-followers. He then had eighty-five mounted men, and he felt strong enough
-to hold and rule the great country he had conquered. Mexico was conquered
-in 1521, and the news of the vast amount of treasure captured brought
-a great crowd of emigrants from Spain and from all her dominions.
-The Spaniards, like other nations of Southern Europe, kept their
-horses entire and whenever representatives of both sexes strayed away,
-reproduction would follow. As the country became more tranquil, and as
-the tide of European settlers kept pouring in, we can easily understand
-how the little bands of estrays should grow into larger bands and soon
-become as wild as though they had never seen a human being except to flee
-from him.
-
-The explorer De Soto sailed for Florida in 1539, in search of gold. He
-had in his command five hundred and thirteen men, exclusive of sailors,
-and two hundred and thirty-seven horses, besides some for the purpose of
-bearing burdens, the number not given. In all his weary journey of three
-years he found the Indians active, hostile, and courageous fighters. In
-one of his first battles he lost twelve horses, and had seventy wounded.
-He pursued many phantoms in search of gold, in different directions,
-but his general course was westward and northwestward. He was the first
-European to discover the Mississippi River, not far from the mouth of
-the Arkansas, and there he was buried in the middle of the river, to
-prevent the Indians from discovering he was dead and from desecrating his
-remains. His followers then determined to push on westward to Mexico,
-and reached as far as the borders of Texas, probably, when they became
-discouraged with the magnitude of the difficulties that surrounded
-them, and determined to return and seek an outlet from the wilderness
-by water. On this last journey, west of the Mississippi, they suffered
-their greatest loss of horses. They had not been shod for more than a
-year, and a great many were lame and unable to travel. When the Spaniards
-had completed their boats and were ready to leave the scenes of their
-sufferings and disasters, they turned loose upon the bank of the river
-their four or five remaining horses, which manifested great excitement,
-running up and down the bank neighing for their masters, as they sailed
-away. This alarmed the Indians and they ran into the water for safety.
-
-The Indians were afraid of the horses and the horses were afraid of the
-Indians. It seems to be a fact, observed in all the early intercourse
-of the Spaniards with the Indians, that universally they had a kind of
-superstitious awe of the horse as a superior being, and it is probably
-due to this awe that the Indians did not utterly destroy every horse that
-fell out of the ranks or that escaped in the wilderness. As I understand
-the history of this terrible exploration, when the Spaniards crossed the
-Mississippi they had two hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty
-horses, and when they came back and were ready to sail they had but four
-or five horses left. It is fair, therefore, to conclude that the greater
-portion of these hundred and fifty head was scattered in the wilderness
-as they went out and as they returned. This provides a sufficient
-breeding basis for the countless multitudes of descendants, and places
-that nucleus in the right region to nourish them in a feral state.
-
-While this exploration of De Soto seems to furnish a breeding basis of
-sufficient breadth to account for all the wild horses that have appeared
-on this continent, there is another consideration that we must not
-overlook, and that is the inborn tendency of the domestic horse to become
-wild when in wild associations. By turning to the chapter on the colony
-of Virginia you will see that there were many wild horses there at the
-beginning of the last century. On the frontiers, near the habitat of
-wild horses, they became a great nuisance to the settlers in “coaxing”
-away their domestic horses and making them as wild as the wildest. These
-accretions to their strength from the domestic horse have been going
-on for generations, and thus the wild horse became conglomerate in
-the elements of his blood, with the Spanish traits still predominant.
-Fifty or a hundred years ago the pens of many writers were employed
-in idealizing “The Wild Horse of the Desert.” He was made the leading
-figure in many a romance, and the hero of many a triumph. Tom Thumb,
-the great trotter that was taken to England, astonished all the world
-with his speed and his endurance, and, following the fashion of the day,
-he was represented to have been caught wild on the Western plains. For
-many years the wild horse was the “fad” of American writers, just as the
-Arabian was of English writers, and the writers on one side were just
-about as far from intelligence and truth as those on the other. When,
-forty years ago, great droves of the half-breeds, Mustangs, were brought
-from the plains to the border prairie States, seeking a market, the
-scales began to drop from the eyes of the worshipers of the wild horse.
-They were homely little brutes, and they were as tough as whit-leather.
-But the countless multitudes that roamed at will over their grazing
-grounds, making the earth tremble when they moved, have dwindled down to
-a few insignificant bands, and the whole glamour around the wild horse of
-the desert has vanished.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.
-
-    Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of
-    pedigrees in English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable
-    sources—Messenger’s right male line examined—Flying Guilders’
-    “mile in a minute”—Blaze short of being thoroughbred—Sampson,
-    a good race horse—His size; short in his breeding—Engineer
-    short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at least two pacing
-    crosses: distinguished only as a progenitor of coach horses and
-    fast trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified—
-    Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only
-    one that founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by
-    eminent writers in attempting to find others.
-
-
-Having completed a brief historical sketch of horse history from the
-beginning, and many events connected therewith, we are now ready to
-consider the American Trotting Horse, as the culmination of what has been
-written. Thus far we have met with much pretentious nonsense, claiming to
-be history and written by men who never gave the subject the study of an
-honest hour. The horse is honest enough, but the rule seems to be almost
-universal that whenever men commence to write about him they are guided
-by their imagination and not by the facts. As to what we are to meet in
-the coming chapters, I can only say that, unfortunately, “the fathers
-have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The
-instinct to misrepresent has been transmitted, and I cannot promise that
-we will find any great moral improvement among the horsemen of our own
-country and generation.
-
-For more than three-quarters of a century, and indeed from the first
-trotting experiences of this country that have been preserved, it
-has been the unanimous judgment of all who have given any thought or
-attention to the subject that the imported English horse, Messenger, was
-the great central source of trotting speed. As the years have rolled by
-this opinion has increased in strength until it has become an intelligent
-and demonstrated belief. When, forty years ago, a horse was found able
-to trot a mile in two minutes and thirty seconds, the speed was deemed
-wholly phenomenal, but that speed has been increased, second by second,
-until we are now on the very brink of two minutes. In this process every
-second and fraction of a second that has been cut off has been so much
-additional proof of the universal belief that Messenger was the chief
-progenitor of the American trotter. He is not the only source of trotting
-speed, but he is the chief source. Whence he derived this distinctive
-power to transmit trotting speed will be made more clear as we proceed.
-His blood left no deep nor lasting impress upon the running horses of the
-country, and it is seldom we meet with any trace of it in the running
-horse of to-day, but it is prominent and conspicuous at the winning post
-of every trotting track on this continent. This will be made apparent
-when we come to consider the details and the merits of the mighty tribes
-and families that have descended from him.
-
-Several years ago I promised to write a volume on “Messenger and his
-Descendants,” and I have often been reminded of that unfulfilled
-promise, which I will here try to redeem. When that promise was made I
-had written many things about Messenger, but since then I have secured
-very many valuable facts that, I think, will far more than compensate
-for the delay. There is still much that is unknown and much that is only
-partially known of the origin and history of Messenger and his ancestors,
-and in considering the questions that will arise as the discussion
-progresses, I will not submit to a slavish acceptance of whatever has
-come down in the shape of stallion advertisements, or as unsupported
-traditions, and then recorded as facts by people who knew nothing about
-them, and made no effort to know. I shall look for the facts that are
-known to be facts, or such evidence as is reasonable and commends itself
-to an unbiased judgment, and then reach such conclusions as right reason
-shall dictate. The pedigree of Messenger, or rather the pedigree of
-Messenger’s reputed grandam, appears in the English Stud Book in the
-editions of 1803 and 1827, in the following form:
-
-  REGULUS MARE (Sister to Figurante). Her dam by Starling, out of
-  Snap’s dam.
-    1769, b. f. by Herod (dam of _Alert_).            }
-    1770, bl. c. _Hyacinth_, by Turf.                 } Mr. Vernon.
-    1771, bl. c. _Leviathan_ (aft. Mungo), by Marske.   Lord Abingdon.
-    1773, — f. by Turf.                               }
-    1774, — f. by Ditto (dam of _Messenger_).         }
-    1777, bl. f. by Dux.                              } Lord Grosvenor.
-    1780, b. f. by Justice (dam of _Equity_).         }
-    1782, b. c. Vulcan, by Justice.                     Mr. Panton.
-    1783, b. c. _Savage_, by Sweetbriar.              }
-    1784, b. f. _Ariel_, by Highflyer (dam of Mr.     } Mr. Bullock.
-                  Hamilton’s Swindler, by Bagot).     }
-
-This is all we have of the pedigree of Messenger as recorded in the
-English Stud Book, and this record, on its face, has a very suspicious
-appearance. Messenger had run some races at Newmarket and a place must be
-provided for him in the Stud Book. He always ran as a son of Mambrino,
-and there is no doubt this is correct, as it so appeared in the Racing
-Calendar, long before the days of the Stud Book. But nobody, either then
-or later, seemed to know anything about his dam. Toward the close of this
-chapter I will give an exhaustive review of the many troubles in which
-these two fillies by Turf seem to be involved.
-
-Messenger was by Mambrino, he by Engineer, he by Sampson, he by Blaze, he
-by Flying Childers, and he by the Darley Arabian. We give the right male
-line here for the reason that there can be no doubt as to the accuracy of
-this line, for it has been preserved in contemporaneous racing records.
-The trouble, where any trouble exists, is all with the dams of these
-horses which at best are only matters of the most uncertain tradition. A
-writer in the Edinburgh _Review_ for July, 1864, covers the whole ground
-when he says: “The early pedigrees (in the Stud Book) are but little to
-be relied upon, as they seem for the most part to have been taken from
-traditional accounts in the stable, from descriptions at the back of
-old pictures, and from advertisements, none of which had to pass muster
-at the Herald’s College.” This is in full accordance with our American
-experiences and it is entirely safe to say that the great body of our old
-American pedigrees, especially in their remote extensions, are more or
-less fictitious. The industry of producing great pedigrees out of little
-or nothing has long been pursued on both sides of the water, and it would
-be very difficult to determine which side had the better of it.
-
-Before attempting to analyze the pedigree of Messenger, or rather that
-of his dam, with which the chief difficulty lies, we will go back to
-the head of the male line and consider each successive generation. The
-Darley Arabian, one of the most distinguished of all the founders of the
-English thoroughbred horse, was brought from Aleppo, about the year
-1710. He did not cover many mares except those of his owner in Yorkshire,
-but he was very successful. Childers, commonly called Flying Childers,
-was foaled 1715. He was got by the Darley Arabian out of Betty Leeds,
-a distinguished lightweight runner, by Careless. Childers was the most
-distinguished race horse of his day, and the fabulous story of his having
-run a mile in a minute was circulated, believed and written about for
-generations. He ran a trial against Almanzor and Brown Betty over the
-round course at Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs and ninety-three
-yards) in six minutes and forty seconds, “and it was thought,” says the
-old record, “that he moved eighty-two feet and a half in a second of
-time, which is nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute.” This was the
-basis of the legend “A Mile in a Minute,” and it has lived till our own
-day, just as many a traditional pedigree has lived. If we accept the time
-as given by the old chroniclers, of which we have very grave doubts,
-Childers ran at the rate of one minute and forty-five seconds to the
-mile, and he covered a distance of fifty feet and about two inches to the
-second of time. The pedigree of Childers on the maternal side is one of
-the oldest in the Stud Book, and we are not aware that any charges have
-ever been made against its substantial authenticity.
-
-BLAZE, the son of Childers, was foaled 1733, and was out of a mare known
-as “The Confederate Filly,” by Grey Grantham; her dam was by the Duke of
-Rutland’s Black Barb, and her grandam was a mare of unknown breeding,
-called “Bright’s Roan.” Here the maternal line runs into the woods, but
-this is not the only defect in the pedigree, for the dam of Grey Grantham
-was also unknown. In order to give a clear idea of just how Blaze was
-bred, taking the Stud Book for our authority, we will here tabulate the
-pedigree for a few crosses.
-
-                               { Darley Arabian
-           { Childers          {                 { Careless.
-           {                   { Betty Leeds     { Sister to Leeds.
-  Blaze    {
-  (1733).  {                                     { Browlow Turk.
-           {                   { Grey Grantham   { Blood unknown.
-           { Confederate Filly {
-                               { Daughter of     { Black Barb.
-                                                 { Brights Roan, unknown.
-
-Certainly this horse cannot be ranked as thoroughbred under any
-rule, English or American, that has ever been formulated. Only three
-generations away we find two animals of hopelessly unknown breeding.
-Mr. Henry F. Euren, compiler of the English Hackney Stud Book, has given
-Blaze a new place in horse genealogy, and this new place affects the
-American trotter, remotely, outside of the line through Messenger. Mr.
-Lawrence, the best English authority on horse matters in the latter part
-of the last and the beginning of the present century, had maintained,
-confessedly on tradition only, that Old Shales, the great fountain head
-of the English trotters of a hundred years ago, was a son of Blank, by
-Godolphin Arabian. On this point Mr. Euren has got farther back and found
-earlier evidence in printed form that Blaze and not Blank was the sire of
-Old Shales. We combated this claim for a time, but in the introduction
-to his Stud Book he has made out a very good case, and we have hardly a
-doubt but that he is correct. In speaking of the breeding of Shales, and
-of his dam being a “strong common-bred mare,” he says: “It is of interest
-to examine the pedigree of the sire (Blaze) to determine whether yet
-stronger racing or pacing elements existed on that side.” After giving a
-tabulation of the pedigree he continues: “There would thus appear to have
-been a large proportion of English (native) blood in the dam of Blaze,
-though no one can say what was its character—whether running, trotting,
-or ambling.” In referring to the fact that Bellfounder was a descendant
-of Old Shales, the son of Blaze, Mr. Euren makes this practical
-application of the incident:
-
-    “The fact that in the seventh generation from Blaze, on each
-    side, the reunion of the blood in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, the
-    sire of so many fast American trotting horses, should have
-    proved to be of the most impressive character, would appear to
-    warrant the conclusion that there was a strong latent trotting
-    tendency in the near ancestors, on one, if not on both, sides
-    of Blaze.”
-
-These two points from a very high English authority—that Blaze was
-not thoroughbred and that he was the sire of Shales, a great trotting
-progenitor, must have due weight in reaching sound conclusions.
-
-SAMPSON, the son of Blaze, was foaled 1745, and he has occupied a very
-prominent and at the same time unique place in running-horse history. He
-was not only a great race horse, at heavy weights, but he was considered
-phenomenal in his size and strength, and in his lack of the appearance
-of a race horse. Some of his measurements have come down to us, and as
-they are reliable data as to what was considered a remarkably large and
-strong race horse a hundred and forty years ago, we will reproduce them
-here in order that the curious may compare them with the average race
-horse of this generation:
-
-    Height on the withers, 15 hands 2 inches; dimensions of fore
-    leg from the hair of the hoof to middle of fetlock joint, 4
-    inches; from fetlock joint to bend of the knee, 11 inches; from
-    bend of knee to elbow, 19 inches; round fore leg below knee,
-    narrowest part, 8½ inches; round hind leg, narrowest part, 9
-    inches.
-
-These measurements may not seem to merit any particular attention at this
-day, but a hundred and fifty years ago they were considered phenomenal
-in the race horse. But we are not left to the dry details of a certain
-number of inches and fractions of an inch upon which to base a just
-conception of the strength and substance of this horse. A number of
-historians have told us of the merriment among the grooms and jockeys
-when Sampson made his first appearance on the turf. The question was,
-“Has Mr. Robinson brought a coach horse here to run for the plate?” The
-laugh was on the other side at Malton that day, however, when the “coach
-horse,” carrying one hundred and forty pounds, won the plate in three
-heats. The distance was three miles, and Sampson was then five years old.
-At long distances and at high weights Sampson was a first-class race
-horse for his day. But, notwithstanding all this, we are told that his
-blood never became fashionable, for there was a widespread conviction
-that he was not running-bred on the side of his dam. The historians tell
-us that he transmitted his own coarseness and lack of the true running
-type in a marked degree, which was very evident in his grandson, Mambrino.
-
-His pedigree has been questioned from the day of his first appearance
-to the present time, and we have made a very careful study of all the
-facts at our command. In the first edition of his Stud Book (1803) Mr.
-Weatherby gives his dam as by Hip; g. d. by Spark, son of Honeycomb
-Punch; g. g. d. by Snake and out of Lord D’Arcy’s Queen. This has not
-been materially changed in any of the subsequent editions, and we think
-it may be taken for granted that the horse was advertised under this
-pedigree. Mr. Weatherby commenced work on pedigrees in 1791, and avowedly
-accepted the best information he could get with regard to old pedigrees,
-regardless of the source. We are not aware that he ever investigated
-anything outside of his office work, or if he did he never gave the
-public the benefit of the details of his investigations. John Lawrence
-commenced work on horse history long before Mr. Weatherby commenced
-as a compiler of pedigrees, and he was altogether the ablest writer
-of his day, or perhaps we might add, of any other day. He was a clear
-and independent thinker and a vigorous writer. In his “History of the
-Horse in all His Varieties and Uses,” on page 281, he thus discusses the
-question of Sampson’s pedigree:
-
-    “Nobody yet ever did, or ever could assert positively that
-    Jigg was not thoroughbred, but the case is very different with
-    respect to Sampson; since nobody in the sporting world, either
-    of past or present days, ever supposed him so. Nor was the said
-    world at all surprised at Robinson’s people furnishing their
-    stallion with a good and _true_ pedigree, a thing so much to
-    their advantage. Having seen a number of Sampson’s immediate
-    get, those in the Lord Marquis of Rockingham’s stud and others,
-    and all of them, Bay Malton perhaps less than any other, in
-    their _heads_, size and form, having the appearance of being a
-    degree or two deficient in racing blood, I was convinced that
-    the then universal opinion on that point was well grounded. I
-    was (in 1778) an enthusiast, collecting materials for a book
-    on the horse. It happened that I wanted a trusty and steady
-    man for a particular service, and opportunely for the matter
-    now under discussion, a Yorkshire man about threescore years
-    of age was recommended to me, who had recently been employed
-    in certain stables. I soon found that his early life had been
-    spent in the running stables of the North, and that he had
-    known Sampson, whence he was always afterward named by us ‘Old
-    Sampson.’ He was very intelligent on the subject of racing
-    stock and his report was as follows. He took the mare to Blaze,
-    for the cover which produced Sampson, helped to bit and break
-    the colt, rode him in exercise and afterward took him to Malton
-    for his first start, where, before the race, he was ridiculed
-    for bringing a great coach horse to contend against racers. On
-    the sale of Sampson this man left the service of James Preston,
-    Esq., and went with the colt into that of Mr. Robinson. His
-    account of Sampson’s dam was that she appeared about three
-    parts bred, a hunting figure and by report a daughter of Hip,
-    which, however, could not be authenticated; and the fact was
-    then notorious and not disputed in the Yorkshire stables....
-    Mr. Tattersall lately stowed me a portrait of Sampson in his
-    flesh, in which this defect of blood appears far more obvious
-    than in one which I had of him galloping.”
-
-Again, in his great quarto work, issued 1809, Mr. Lawrence reiterates his
-belief that Sampson was not thoroughbred. He says:
-
-    “I am by no means disposed to retract my opinion concerning
-    Robinson’s Sampson. Not only did the account of the groom
-    appear to me to be entitled to credit, but the internal
-    evidence of the horse’s having had in him a cross of common
-    blood is sufficiently strong by the appearance both of the
-    horse himself and of his stock; an idea in which every
-    sportsman, I believe, who remembers Engineer, Mambrino and
-    others will agree with me.”
-
-Here then, we have the answer to the whole inquiry reduced to its
-simplest form. The groom who coupled the mare with Blaze from which
-came Sampson says the mare was called a Hip mare, but that her pedigree
-was really unknown. For the intelligence and honesty of this groom Mr.
-Lawrence does not hesitate to vouch, and he adds the common belief of
-all the Yorkshire sportsmen of that day, who knew the mare, that she was
-of unknown breeding. This evidence is further supplemented by the family
-characteristics of the stock descended from Sampson, to say nothing
-of the great lack of “blood” in the appearance of Sampson himself. As
-against this we have the dry, unsupported assertion of Mr. Weatherby,
-forty years after the event, and probably copied from an advertisement of
-the horse. In view of all this we must tabulate the pedigree of Sampson
-as follows:
-
-
-                               { Childers          { Darley Arabian.
-                               {                   { Betty Leeds.
-           { Blaze             {
-  Sampson  {                   { Confederate Filly { Grey Grantham.
-  (1745).  {                                       { D. of Black Barb.
-           { Called a Hip Mare
-           { (Unknown).
-
-ENGINEER, son of Sampson, was a brown horse, foaled 1755, and was out
-of Miner’s dam, by Young Greyhound; grandam by Curwen’s Bay Barb, and
-the next dam unknown. This is all the pedigree that has ever been
-even claimed for this horse, and it falls far short of the rank of
-thoroughbred. That the eye may take it all in at a glance we will here
-put it into tabular form. There is a discrepancy of one year between
-Weatherby and Pick in the age of the horse, and we find Pick is right in
-giving his date as 1755.
-
-                               { Blaze             { Childers.
-           { Sampson           {                   { Confederate Filly.
-  Engineer {                   { Unknown.
-  (1755).  {
-           { Miner’s dam       { Young Greyhound   { Greyhound.
-                               {                   { Pet mare.
-                               {
-                               { D. of Bay Barb    { Unknown.
-
-Notwithstanding the absence of Eastern blood, Engineer was a race horse
-of above average ability, although not so good as another son of Sampson
-called Bay Malton. A few of his sons aside from Mambrino ran respectably,
-and his daughters were, at one time, highly prized as brood mares.
-
-MAMBRINO, the son of Engineer, was a great strong-boned grey horse, bred
-by John Atkinson near Leeds in Yorkshire, and was foaled 1768. His dam
-was by Cade, son of the Godolphin Arabian; g. d. by Bolton Little John;
-g. g. d. Favorite by a son of Bald Galloway, etc. The Cade mare produced
-Dulcine, a noted performer, and the mare Favorite was a distinguished
-performer herself. The poverty of this pedigree is all on the side of the
-sire, as will be seen by a brief tabulation.
-
-                                                   { Blaze.
-           { Engineer          { Sampson           { Unknown.
-           {                   {
-           {                   {                   { Young Greyhound.
-  Mambrino {                   { Miner’s dam       { D. of Bay Barb.
-  (1768).  {
-           {                                       { Godolphin Arabian.
-           {                   { Cade              { Roxana.
-           { Daughter of       {
-                               {                   { Bolton Little John.
-                               { Daughter of       { Favorite.
-
-It is worthy of note here, as a curious fact, that Mambrino had two
-pacing crosses. Roxana, the dam of Cade, was by Bald Galloway and
-Favorite was by a son of Bald Galloway. This horse Bald Galloway was a
-distinguished representative of the famous old tribe of pacers known as
-the “Galloways,” from the province of Galloway in Southwestern Scotland.
-
-Mambrino was not put upon the turf till he was five years old, and he
-proved himself a great race horse in the best company and for the largest
-class of stakes. He was on the turf most of the time for five or six
-years and until he was beaten by Woodpecker in 1779, in which race he
-broke down. He was beaten, but four times, and paid four forfeits. He
-went into the stud in the spring of 1777, although he ran after that, at
-10gs. 10s. 6d. to cover thirty mares besides those of his owners. In 1779
-he was again in the stud, in Cambridgeshire as before, at the same price;
-1781 he covered at 50gs. 10. 6d.; 1784 at 15gs. 10. 6d.; 1785 at 25gs.
-10s. 6d.; 1786 he dropped back to 15gs. 10s. 6d.
-
-We give these prices to show the variations in the estimated value of
-his services. As a sire of race horses Mambrino was not successful. Some
-fifteen or twenty of his progeny ran more or less respectably, but none
-of them was at all comparable with himself. While he was a comparative
-failure as a racing sire there was another qualification in which he
-attained great eminence and distinction. In the second volume of Pick’s
-Turf Register, published 1805, on page 266, we find the following
-paragraph appended to the history there given of this horse:
-
-    “Mambrino was likewise sire of a great many excellent hunters
-    and strong, useful road horses. And it has been said that from
-    his blood the breed of horses for the coach was brought nearly
-    to perfection.”
-
-This paragraph, considering its date (1805), the authority from which
-it comes, and the peculiar circumstances which prompted its utterance,
-has a most striking significance. After years of familiarity with Mr.
-Pick’s works we can say freely that we never have been able to find any
-allusion or reference to the qualities of any horse portrayed by him
-other than his running qualities. This reference to the adaptabilities of
-the progeny of Mambrino stands alone. The “blood that brought the breed
-of coach horses nearly to perfection” must have been blood that gave
-the “breed” a long, slinging, road-devouring trot, as well as size and
-strength. The very same qualifications were observed and noted in the
-descendants of Mambrino in this country forty and fifty years ago, and at
-no time in our history have we had such unapproachable coach horses as
-the great-grandsons of Mambrino. What has been said, therefore, by Mr.
-Pick of the “coach-horse” qualities of the descendants of Mambrino in
-England has been fully realized and verified in his descendants, through
-Messenger, in this country.
-
-The question here arises whether Mambrino ever showed any remarkable
-trotting action himself that would seem to justify this estimate of the
-trotting action of his descendants? Several writers, and among them Mr.
-Lawrence, have spoken of this peculiarity of Mambrino’s incidentally,
-but the most tangible account we have of it is furnished by an English
-writer to the _Sporting Magazine_, who dates his letter from the
-“Subscription Rooms, Tattersall’s, 1814.” These “subscription rooms”
-were the very focus of sporting events, and this writer seems to be
-unusually intelligent on this class of subjects. The object and point
-of his communication is to prove that no thoroughbred horse could be
-developed into a fast trotter. “Hence,” he says, “no thoroughbred was
-ever known capable of trotting sixteen miles within the hour, and only
-one stands on record as having trotted fifteen miles within one hour.
-That was Infidel, by Turk, who performed it in the North, carrying
-nine or ten stone. Several race horses have been supposed capable of
-trotting fourteen miles in one hour, and it is reported that the late
-Lord Grosvenor once offered to match Mambrino to do it for a thousand
-guineas.” Now this writer does not say that Lord Grosvenor really made
-such an offer, but only that he was “reported” to have made it. This
-does not prove that the offer was formally made, but it does prove that
-Mambrino had a very remarkable trotting step or such a topic would not
-have been considered at Tattersall’s subscription rooms. As this writer
-seems to refer to Mambrino and Infidel only as exceptional horses for
-their trotting step among thoroughbreds, we may take it for granted that
-Mambrino was considered exceptional, in his day. It is not probable that
-he was ever trained an hour at the trot, and we must conclude, therefore,
-that whatever speed he showed was his natural and undeveloped gait. It
-will be observed that Mr. Pick’s paragraph was dated 1805, and the letter
-from the “subscription rooms” 1814, so that they could not have been mere
-reflections of theories advanced on this side of the Atlantic in relation
-to Messenger being a great source of trotting speed. These two facts
-were on record long before any “Messenger theories” were in existence,
-and those “theories” were formulated long before these two facts were
-known. The conclusions reached on both sides of the water are entirely
-harmonious, but they were reached in complete independence of each other.
-
-MESSENGER, son of Mambrino, was a grey horse about fifteen hands two
-inches high, with strong, heavy bone and a generally coarse appearance
-for a horse represented to be thoroughbred. From the Racing Calendar, and
-not from the Stud Book, we learn that he was foaled 1780, and came out
-of a mare represented to be by Turf, and she out of a mare by Regulus,
-son of Godolphin Arabian, etc., as represented by Mr. Weatherby in his
-Stud Book. By looking back to the beginning of this chapter the form in
-which the entry appears in the Stud Book will be fully comprehended. The
-identity, history, and breeding of the dam of Messenger is the central
-point in this inquiry, and we must do our work carefully and thoroughly.
-From the form of the entry in the Stud Book, it will be understood that
-the breeder of each animal is supposed to appear opposite the foals
-of his own breeding, but this we have found in more than a thousand
-instances to be wholly imaginary on the part of the compiler. If the
-animal ran, the name of the party running him is far more apt to appear
-than the name of the breeder. It will be observed, also, that the Turf
-fillies of 1773 and 1774 appear without their color being known. These
-fillies seem to be put in there to partially fill the gap between 1771
-and 1777. Mr. Pick says the dam of Messenger was black, but he gives no
-account of her further than that. Whether Mr. Pick was indebted to Mr.
-Weatherby, or Weatherby to Pick, I cannot say, but they both give the
-pedigree just as we have given it in this country. I am not inquiring
-whether these authorities agree on this pedigree, but whether they knew
-anything about it, and whether there is such agreement in details between
-them as will support each other.
-
-The first question that arises in every man’s mind is, whether there is
-any further trace of this Turf mare, the reputed dam of Messenger, in
-the Stud Book, by whom was she bred and owned, and by whom was Messenger
-bred? Pick says the Turf mare was bred by Lord Bolingbroke, and Weatherby
-says she was bred by Lord Grosvenor. To test the question whether either
-is right, I have gone through the English Stud Book, page by page, and
-pedigree by pedigree, wherever I found the name of Lord Bolingbroke, or
-Lord Grosvenor, to see if any trace of the Turf mare could be found. I
-found no shadow of trace. The certificate of pedigree that came across
-the ocean with Messenger represents him to have been bred by John
-Pratt, and Mr. Pick, or rather his successor, Mr. Johnson, says he was
-bred and owned by Mr. Bullock. These clear and explicit declarations
-gave new hopes of finding something of the Turf mare, and at it I went
-again, and searched every pedigree that had the name of Mr. Pratt or Mr.
-Bullock attached to it, with no better results than before. Now, Lord
-Bolingbroke, Lord Grosvenor, Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bullock were all breeders,
-and if any of them ever owned the dam of Messenger and bred from her,
-none of her produce was ever recorded or ever started in a race.
-
-Thus, the more we search for the truth about Messenger and his origin,
-the more dense becomes the mystery. When we find an English authority
-that seems clear, we find another that contradicts him, and probably
-neither of them knows anything about it beyond uncertain tradition. When
-we consider these contradictions of authorities in connection with the
-fact that men were just as prone to lie and fix up a bogus pedigree a
-hundred years ago as they are to-day, and that stud-book makers were just
-as liable to be deceived then as now, we must conclude that there is room
-for very serious doubts as to whether Weatherby or Pick knew anything
-about the pedigree of Messenger, or by whom he was bred.
-
-In pushing our inquiries still further in search of this mare, we must
-consider somewhat in detail Mr. Weatherby’s methods and the degree of
-responsibility he assumed for the accuracy of his compilations. In 1791
-he published what he called “An Introduction to a General Stud Book,”
-containing, as he says, “a small collection of pedigrees which he had
-extracted from racing calendars and sale papers, and arranged on a
-new plan.” In May, 1800, he issued a supplement to his “Introduction”
-bringing down the produce of mares to 1799. In 1803 he issued what we
-suppose is the first edition of the first volume of the Stud Book. The
-title-page reads, “The General Stud Book, containing pedigrees of race
-horses, etc., from the Restoration to the present time.” The imprint is,
-“Printed for James Weatherby, 7 Oxenden Street, etc., London, 1803.” The
-volume contains three hundred and eighty-four pages, while the edition
-of 1827 contains four hundred and forty-eight pages. There is no “Volume
-I.” on the title-page, nor is there any indication that this is a
-continuation or revision of any preceding work. It brings down the list
-of produce in many cases to and including 1803, but none later than that
-year, so there can be no mistake as to when it was issued.
-
-I have been thus particular in identifying this first edition of the
-first volume of the English Stud Book, for it gives us an insight into
-the methods employed by Mr. Weatherby in the progress of his work.
-Upon a careful comparison of the editions of 1803 with 1827 extending
-through the letters A, B, and M, we find that he has thrown out more
-than ten per cent. of the entire families in the edition of 1803. By
-“entire families” I mean brood mares, with their lists of produce. In
-making these exclusions he seems to have confined himself to what may be
-considered the historic period, at that day, and did not go back further
-than about twenty years. Beyond that period everything was traditional,
-and he appears to have shrunk from all responsibility of attempting the
-exclusion of families. On and near the border line between these periods
-he seems to have taken the responsibility of cutting off a great many
-individuals of doubtful identity, even though the family was left to
-stand on its uncertain basis of tradition. I cannot say positively that
-the dam of Messenger and her sister were cut off with the multitude
-of others, but I can say that neither of them ever appeared again in
-the Stud Book. Other members of the family of the Regulus mare have
-places for their descendants in subsequent volumes, from which I would
-infer that Mr. Weatherby considered her breeding all right, but the two
-fillies, one of them the dam of Messenger, have been treated as spurious
-and wholly omitted from the records. These are the facts relating to
-these two fillies claimed originally to be by Turf, and there can be no
-moral doubt that they were omitted or excluded because Mr. Weatherby
-deemed them unsustained and probably spurious.
-
-In confirmation of the facts and circumstances already adduced, going to
-show that Messenger was not thoroughbred, we are now ready to consider
-one of the strongest arguments that can be advanced in support of that
-conclusion. This argument is founded on the laws of nature and is not
-dependent upon the mere writing down of uncertain traditions. Messenger
-possessed and transmitted qualities that no thoroughbred horse has ever
-transmitted, from the period when the breed of race horses was formed to
-the present day. It is practically conceded on all hands that Messenger,
-by his own power and by his own right, founded a family of trotting
-horses, and this fact will be fully demonstrated in coming chapters. It
-is equally plain and, with honest and intelligent people, it is accepted
-with equal readiness, that no thoroughbred horse has ever done this. This
-declaration has been much controverted, but always in a general way and
-without specifying any particular thoroughbred horse that had succeeded
-in establishing a family of trotters. In the progress of a discussion of
-this point with the late Charles J. Foster, a very clear and able writer,
-he was directly challenged, in a manner that could not be dodged, to name
-the thoroughbred horse outside of Messenger, that had accomplished this
-feat. Greatly to my surprise, and I might say, gratification, he came
-back at me with _two of Messenger’s sons_—Hambletonian and Mambrino. Thus
-he conceded the whole contention, for out of, literally, thousands he had
-to come back to two sons of Messenger.
-
-In reply to an article in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for December, 1887, going
-to show that Messenger was not a thoroughbred horse, Mr. Joseph Cairn
-Simpson, of California, an able man and a lifelong advocate of more
-running blood in the trotter, wrote a review of the article in question.
-After admitting the full force of the demonstration that Messenger was
-not a thoroughbred horse, there is one sentence to which Mr. Simpson
-cannot subscribe, and he quotes it as follows: “Complete and conclusive
-as these facts may be, there is still another fact equally complete and
-still more convincing. Messenger possessed and transmitted qualities
-that no thoroughbred horse, in the experience of man, ever possessed
-and transmitted.” This was a declaration of Messenger as a progenitor
-against the whole world of thoroughbreds, and Mr. Simpson felt that he
-could not let it pass unchallenged, and after scratching about among
-the thousands of thoroughbreds without finding anything, like poor Mr.
-Foster, he “acknowledges the corn,” and comes back with Mambrino, _the
-son of Messenger_, without, seemingly, once realizing that he was proving
-my contention.
-
-The theory that if any other English race horse had been in Messenger’s
-place and bred upon the same mares and had his progeny developed as
-Messenger’s were developed, he would have produced the same results, has
-always been very popular with the advocates of “more running blood in the
-trotter.” No doubt there are still some honest, but not well-informed
-people, who hold to this view merely because they have never heard of any
-other imported English horses that were contemporaneous with Messenger,
-and hence have concluded there were none. If Messenger had been all
-alone during the twenty years of his stud services, as this theory
-assumes, there might be some reason to doubt whether some other English
-race horses might not have done just as well in establishing a line or
-tribe of trotters. But was he alone? From the close of the Revolutionary
-War to the end of the last century was a period of great activity and
-enterprise in the way of importing running horses from Great Britain. The
-blood of Herod and English Eclipse was in the highest estimate, not only
-in the old but in the new world, and a great many distinguished horses
-were brought over possessing those favorite strains. During that period
-racing was carried on with just as much spirit and _éclat_ on Long Island
-and the river counties of New York, New Jersey, and some of the eastern
-counties of Pennsylvania as it was in Virginia and South Carolina. Horses
-of the most fashionable lineage were sought after and patronized, not by
-a few great breeding establishments, but by the farmers generally, in all
-the region here designated. The following list of imported English race
-horses is made up of animals that were contemporaneous with Messenger,
-covering the same mares and the offspring subjected to precisely the
-same treatment and conditions. The list is limited to what may be called
-the trotting latitudes, and embraces such animals only as were brought
-into New Jersey, New York and Eastern Pennsylvania. We will not only
-give their names, but the blood elements also, so that all can see that
-Messenger not only had competitors but competitors of the highest grade
-of running blood.
-
-  Admiral, by Florizel, son of King Herod.
-  Ancient Pistol, by Ancient Pistol, son of Snap.
-  Arrakooker, by Drone, son of King Herod.
-  Baronet, by Vertumnus, son of Eclipse.
-  Benjamin, by Ruler, son of Young Marske.
-  Creeper, by Tandem, son of Dainty Davy.
-  Deserter, by Lenox, son of Delpini, by Highflyer.
-  Dey of Algiers, Arabian.
-  Diomed (Tate’s), by Phenomenon, son of King Herod.
-  Driver, by Saltram, son of Eclipse.
-  Drone, by King Herod.
-  Dungannon (Young), by Dungannon.
-  Expedition, by Pegasus, son of Eclipse.
-  Express, by Postmaster, son of King Herod.
-  Exton, by Highflyer, son of King Herod.
-  Florizel, by Florizel, son of King Herod.
-  Grand Seignor, Arabian.
-  Highflyer (1782), by Highflyer.
-  Highflyer (1792), by Highflyer.
-  Highlander (Brown), by Paymaster.
-  Highlander (Gray), by Bordeaux.
-  Honest John, by Sir Peter Teazle.
-  Joseph, by Ormond, son of King Fergus.
-  King William, by King Herod.
-  King William, by Paymaster.
-  Light Infantry, by Eclipse.
-  Magnetic Needle, by Magnet.
-  Magnum Bonum, by Matchem.
-  Nimrod, by King Fergus.
-  North Star, by North Star, son of Matchem.
-  Paymaster, by Paymaster.
-  Prince Frederick, by Fortunio.
-  Punch, by King Herod.
-  Revenge, by Achilles.
-  Rodney, by Paymaster.
-  Royal George, by Jupiter, son of Eclipse.
-  Royalist, by Saltram.
-  Slender, by King Herod.
-  Sour Crout, by Highflyer.
-  Venetian, by Doge.
-  Yorkshire, by Jupiter, son of Eclipse.
-
-Here we have forty-one imported English stallions, contemporaneous with
-Messenger, occupying the same territory and covering the same mares that
-he covered. With the exceptions of two or three they were all ranked
-as not only thoroughbred, but they possessed the most fashionable and
-successful blood that England had then produced. A few of them were taken
-southward after a time, but the great body of them lived out their days
-here.
-
-To this great array of imported English running horses we might add
-hundreds of their sons, and yet not find one that claimed to be
-thoroughbred that ever became a trotting progenitor or founded a family
-of trotters. Mr. Foster and Mr. Simpson, by far the two ablest writers on
-the wrong side of the question that this country has produced, with this
-list of forty English stallions before them from which to select their
-proof that Messenger was not the only progenitor of trotters, were at
-last compelled to take two of Messengers sons, as trotting progenitors,
-to prove that their sire was not a trotting progenitor. If the
-intellectual powers of these two gentlemen had enabled them to scratch
-ever so little beneath the glittering surface of the word “thoroughbred,”
-they would have saved themselves from this humiliating exhibition of
-absurdity.
-
-What was true of Messenger’s contemporaries is equally true of all the
-strictly thoroughbred stallions that have lived on the earth from his
-day to the present. No one of them has ever founded a trotting family
-and no one of them has ever got a trotter out of a mare of his own kind.
-Out of the half-dozen instances on record where a thoroughbred horse has
-got a trotter there is no one instance in which the dam did not have
-a strong pacing or trotting inheritance. If we accept the known and
-recorded experiences of the past seventy years, in the trotting world, we
-find two great facts on every page of the record. First, Messenger left
-a family of trotters; second, no other thoroughbred horse did that. It
-follows, then, that if Messenger transmitted capacities different from
-those transmitted by thoroughbred horses, he must have had a different
-inheritance from thoroughbred horses, and if different, then that
-inheritance could not have been thoroughbred. From the facts we have
-developed in the history of his English ancestors; from the ten thousand
-demonstrations of his American descendants, and from the great laws which
-govern the transmission of special capacities, we are forced to the
-conclusion that Messenger was not a thoroughbred horse.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-HISTORY OF MESSENGER.
-
-    Messenger’s racing in England—His breeder unknown—Popular
-    uncertainty about the circumstances and date of
-    his importation—The matter settled by his first
-    advertisement—Uncertainty as to his importer—Description of
-    Messenger by David W. Jones, of Long Island—Careful consensus
-    of descriptions by many who had seen Messenger—His great and
-    lasting popularity as a stock horse—Places and prices of his
-    services for twenty years—Death and burial.
-
-
-Messenger made his first appearance on the turf in October, 1783, then
-three years old, and ran twice, successfully, that year. He continued
-on the turf till November, 1785, winning eight races, losing six and
-receiving forfeits in two. Most of his races were practically matches,
-and all were single dashes but one, in which he was beaten. Two of his
-winnings were less than a mile, five at the distance of a mile and a
-quarter, and one at two miles. These distances are approximate. He was
-beaten at two and a quarter miles, three, and three and a half miles. He
-never appeared in any great racing event, but seemed to be managed with a
-special view to picking up small prizes at short distances. His owner and
-manager, Mr. Bullock, was a very shrewd “professional” at Newmarket, he
-had quite a number of horses in the same stable with Messenger and some
-of them seem to have been selected always to run for the more valuable
-prizes. Considering the short distances he was able to run and the
-unimportant character of the contests in which he was engaged, we must
-conclude that Messenger was a very ordinary race horse.
-
-It is not known by whom Messenger was bred. In his first advertisement in
-this country it is stated that he was bred by John Pratt, of Newmarket,
-but in the fourth volume of Pick’s “Turf Register,” continued by Johnson,
-it is stated explicitly that he “was bred by and the property of Mr.
-Bullock, of Newmarket.” Mr. John Pratt was a breeder as well as a racing
-man of some prominence, in his day, and the certificate of pedigree from
-him and purporting to have been issued by him was probably a fraud, as
-he died May 8, 1785. This was while Messenger was still on the turf,
-and owned and controlled by Mr. Bullock for two years previous to this,
-still no mention is made of the fact, and Mr. Pratt is made to say that
-he sold him to the Prince of Wales, while all the evidence, which must
-necessarily be of a negative character, goes to show that the Prince of
-Wales never owned him. Mr. Pratt was a Yorkshire man, of Askrigg, in the
-North Riding, and although he died at Newmarket we have no trace of any
-of the family from which the dam of Messenger was said to have descended
-ever being in his possession. Besides this, it is not likely that the
-importer of Messenger got a certificate from him two years after his
-death.
-
-The different representations that have been made about Messenger’s
-importation would fill a much larger space than would be profitable.
-About no horse has there been so much written, and about no horse
-has there been so little really known. His character and memory have
-never suffered defamation, for every writer was a eulogist of the
-most enthusiastic type, whether he knew anything of his hero or not.
-As a specimen of the admiration which he excited, it has been told a
-hundred times that when the horse came cavorting down the gangplank
-from the ship, with a groom hanging on to each side of his head,
-literally carrying them for some distance before he could be checked,
-an enthusiastic horseman shouted out, “There, in that horse a million
-dollars strikes American soil.” This story has been told so often, even
-in England, that no doubt many people believe the startling prophecy
-was really uttered. Indeed we have heard the name of the prophet, but
-as he was a distinguished New Yorker and as debarkation took place at
-Philadelphia, we never have been able to fully reconcile the actor with
-the occasion. The reputed prophecy, like the reputed pedigree, seems
-to have been an afterthought, but unlike the pedigree it proved true,
-whether uttered or not. Some said he was imported 1785, while others
-dribble along through the intermediate years till 1800 was fixed upon
-with great positiveness as the precise year. One of these gentlemen, we
-remember very well, was entirely confident he returned to England and
-was brought back again after a number of years. Less than twenty years
-ago the breeding world was favored with scores upon scores of this kind
-of teachers, not one of whom knew what he was talking about. The most
-surprising example of this kind of writing, however, is furnished by Mr.
-C. W. Van Ranst, himself, who was part owner of the horse a number of
-years. In a communication published in Skinner’s “Turf Register,” 1831,
-he says Messenger was imported into New York in 1792, and in the same
-publication for 1834 he says he was imported into New York 1791. As the
-sequel will show, Mr. Van Ranst, although his owner, had no definite
-knowledge of the early history of the horse.
-
-From some slight investigations I became satisfied, years before, that
-Messenger made his first appearance in this country at Philadelphia, and
-that he was imported into that city instead of New York. In that view all
-the writers of the whole country were opposed to me; but, as it became
-more and more evident that those writers were merely copying from one
-another and that none of them had ever made an honest search for the
-truth, I resolved to follow my own convictions and to commence there an
-investigation that would settle the matter one way or the other. In a few
-hours after reaching that city I found a file of the old _Pennsylvania
-Packet_, and in the number dated May 27, 1788, an advertisement of which
-the following is a true copy:
-
-    JUST IMPORTED
-
-    The capital, strong, full blooded, English stallion,
-
-    MESSENGER.
-
-    To cover mares this season at Alexander Clay’s, at the sign of
-    the Black Horse, in Market Street, Philadelphia, at the very
-    low price of three guineas each mare, and one dollar to the
-    groom.
-
-    Messenger was bred by John Pratt, Esq., of Newmarket, who
-    certifies the following pedigree. The grey horse Messenger
-    was bred by me and sold to the Prince of Wales; he was got by
-    Mambrino (who covered at twenty-five guineas a leap). His dam
-    by Turf, his grandam by Regulus; this Regulus mare was sister
-    to Figerant and was the dam of Leviathan. JOHN PRATT.
-
-The performance of Messenger has been so very great that there need only
-be a reference to the racing calendar of the years 1783, 1784 and 1785.
-
-Any mare missing this season shall be served the next gratis, provided
-they continue the same properties, on paying the groom’s fees.
-
-This is a literal copy of the first printed announcement of Messenger in
-this country, and there are two very striking features connected with
-it, namely, its bad grammar and the absence of the name of the importer
-and owner. The former we may attribute to the times, but to the latter
-I have been disposed to attach no trifling significance. It is a fact
-that till this day we have no direct information as to who imported this
-horse. The name “Benger” was developed indirectly as the man, but not
-till years after the horse was dead, and probably the importer too, did I
-learn from an advertisement of a son of his that stood in Jersey that the
-importer’s name was “Thomas Benger.” In 1791 and for two years afterward
-he was advertised to stand at “Mount Benger, two miles from Bristol,
-Pennsylvania.” When I visited Bristol for the purpose of identifying
-“Mount Benger,” which I supposed was the country seat of the owner of
-Messenger, I was greatly surprised to find that none of the “oldest
-inhabitants” had ever heard of such a place, and when I was informed
-that there was no locality within half a dozen miles of Bristol where
-the ground rose to a hundred feet above the level of the Delaware River,
-the name “Mount Benger” assumed the character of an absurdity as well
-as a myth. From a very intelligent man of middle age, who had learned
-the blacksmith trade with his grandfather, I learned that he had often
-heard his grandfather speak of Messenger, and as having put the last set
-of shoes on him when he was taken away to New York the fall the yellow
-fever was so bad in Philadelphia. The tradition was still preserved in
-the family that Messenger reared up in crossing the river in a boat, and
-struck his groom on the head with one of those shoes, from the effects
-of which he died. As our informant was able to name two other horses,
-Governor and Babel, brought over by Mr. Benger, we were ready to accept
-his tradition that he lived at a point known in old times as “China
-Retreat,” two miles below Bristol on the Delaware. This point has been
-known later as “White Hall.”
-
-After all traditions were exhausted, without yielding anything tangible
-or satisfactory, we turned with great confidence to the records of the
-county of Bucks, in which Mr. “Benger” had lived for a number of years.
-After a diligent and protracted search, embracing a number of years
-before and after his known residence in the county, we were not able to
-discover that any person by the name of “Benger” had ever owned a foot of
-real estate in the county or had been in any way publicly connected with
-its affairs or its administration. We had search made in Philadelphia
-with the same fruitless results. There is a faint tradition that Thomas
-Benger, if that was his name, was a fox-hunting Irish baronet, and if
-this was so, it is probable he returned to the old country about the time
-he sold Messenger in 1793. However this may be, the owner is forgotten,
-but his horse will live forever.
-
-Among the many eulogies and word-paintings of Messenger, by writers
-who knew the horse personally, we select the following from the pen
-of the late David W. Jones, of Long Island, as the most striking and
-picturesque. He says:
-
-    “Having scanned in my boyhood the magnificent form and bearing
-    of this noble old horse, and for more than half a century
-    having drawn reins over his descendants, I have for a length of
-    time felt it incumbent to furnish such facts and impressions,
-    as, when considered with those of others, will give the younger
-    portion of the present generation, as well as posterity, a
-    fair knowledge of the general characteristics of the noblest
-    Roman of them all. The first time I ever saw old Messenger
-    my father sent me to the farm of Townsend Cock, Esq., of the
-    County of Queens, L. I., where the horse was then standing,
-    to receive his services. On my arrival at his harem, I found
-    the groom, whom I knew, and he at once placed me with the mare
-    a short distance from the stable, by the side of a barrier
-    erected for security. Having at home heard frequent and long
-    discussions in relation to the wonder I was now to behold, you
-    may suppose I was all eyes. Presently the stalwart groom, James
-    Lingham, with, at the extreme end of the bridle rein, all the
-    blood of all the Howards, turned the angle of the stable and
-    came in full view. The moment the old horse caught sight of
-    the paragon of beauty I had brought to his embrace, he threw
-    himself into an attitude, with the grandeur of which no other
-    animal can compare, and at the same moment opened his mouth,
-    and distending his nostrils, raised his exultant voice to such
-    a pitch as gave unmistakable evidence of the capacity of his
-    lungs and the size of his windpipe. Indeed, if his nostrils
-    were as much larger than ordinary as my boyish vision pictured
-    them, I can almost suppose that Mr. McMann with his little bay
-    mare (Flora Temple), and sulky, could drive in at one, down the
-    windpipe, turn under his immensely long arching loin and out at
-    the other.... At that early day I was only impressed by those
-    extraordinary developments; but in after years as I sit behind
-    his offspring, they invariably remind me of what was then to
-    my youthful judgment less apparent—the extraordinary strength
-    of his loin, the length and beautiful molding of the buttock,
-    the faultless shape of the crupper bone, giving an elegant set
-    to his fine flowing tail, as well as the remarkable swell of
-    his stifle, altogether forming a most perfect and powerful hind
-    quarter.”
-
-A good many years ago I made a special study of all that had been written
-about Messenger, and I was fortunate in being able to supplement this
-information by interviews with a few old gentlemen who knew the horse
-personally. Nearly all that generation of horsemen had passed away before
-I commenced this personal search for them. But a few then remained with
-excellent memories and with characters above suspicion or reproach. From
-these sources I gathered a great many incidents, facts and descriptions
-which I succeeded in harmonizing, to my own mind at least, and thus was
-able, to compile a complete description of the horse at every point. That
-description was written out more than twenty years ago, and in presenting
-it now I will not change a single word. At the time it was written,
-as will be seen from its perusal, I had really no doubt the horse was
-thoroughbred. It will not be charged, therefore, that the coarse traits
-brought out in the description were influenced in any degree by a theory
-of his breeding:
-
-“Messenger was a grey, that became lighter and flea-bitten with age.
-He was fifteen hands three inches high, and for a thoroughbred his
-appearance was coarse. He did not supply the mind with an idea of beauty,
-but he impressed upon it a conception of solidity and power. His head was
-large and bony, with a nose that had a decided Roman tendency, though
-not to a marked degree. His nostrils were unusually large and flexible,
-and when distended they were enormous. His eye was large, full, very
-dark and remarkably brilliant. In this particular he does not appear to
-have inherited the weakness of his great-grandsire, Sampson. His ear was
-larger than usual in the blood horse, but thin and tapering and always
-active and expressive. The windpipe was so unusually large and stood
-out so much as a distinct feature that it marred what otherwise would
-have been a gamelike throat-latch and setting on of the head. His neck
-was very short for a blood horse, but was not coarse and thick like a
-bull’s; neither did it rise into such an enormous crest as that of his
-sire. It was not a bad neck in any sense, but like Lexington’s of our
-own day, it was too short to be handsome. His mane and foretop were thin
-and light. His withers were low and round, which appears to have been
-a family characteristic in the male line, back for three generations
-at least. His shoulders were heavy and altogether too upright for our
-ideas of a race horse. His barrel was perfection itself, both for depth
-and rotundity. His loin was well arched, broad and strong. His hips and
-quarters were ‘incomparably superior to all others.’ The column of the
-vertebra being of unusual depth and strength, gave the setting on of the
-tail a distinctive, but elegant character. The tail was carried in fine
-style; like the mane, it was not in superabundant quantity, but there was
-no such scantiness as to detract from the beauty and grace of the animal.
-His stifles were well spread and swelling, but there appears to have been
-no unusual development at this point. From the stifle to the hock and
-from the elbow to the knee, no writer that we can now recall has given us
-any description of either length or strength. We may, therefore, take it
-for granted that these points had no unusual development of muscle, but
-were in harmony with the general contour and make-up of a great strong
-horse. His hocks and knees were unusually large and bony, with all the
-members strong and clearly defined. The cannon bones were short and flat
-and the ligaments back of them were very large and braced a good way off,
-so that the leg was broad and flat. Mr. Jones says this part of the limb
-was of medium size, but other writers all agree that he had an unusual
-amount of bone at this point. Considering the whole style and character
-of the horse, and especially the character of his ancestors in the male
-line, and of Turf, the [reputed] sire of his dam, all of whom were
-distinguished for their quantity of bone, we are disposed to think Mr.
-Jones’ memory has not served him with entire accuracy in this particular.
-The conviction is reasonable and grows out of evidence that comes from
-every quarter, and we have no disposition to surrender it, that the bones
-of Messenger’s limbs were unusually large and strong for those of a
-thoroughbred. His pasterns and feet were all that could be desired, and
-as an evidence of the excellence and health of his underpinning several
-writers have put it on record that whether in the stable or on the show
-ground he never was known to mopingly rest one leg by standing on the
-other three, but was always prompt and upright. This is our conception
-of the form and appearance of the horse as we have reached it after a
-diligent and careful study of all that has been said by those who saw him
-while he lived. From this description it is a very easy matter to pick
-out the features which gave him his coarse and badly bred appearance.
-His big head, long ears, short neck, low withers, upright shoulders,
-large bones and, possibly, coarse hair, complete the catalogue. From
-these features the purity of his blood has been doubted and denounced,
-just as that of his sire, his grandsire and his great-grandsire had
-been denounced. The coarseness, the cart-horse appearance was in the
-family, but it did not seem to prevent some of them from beating some
-of the best that England produced in successive generations. There are
-many traditions that have been handed down to us concerning his temper,
-some of which, no doubt, have accumulated and gathered strength and
-ferocity in the years through which they have rolled. There have been
-perhaps half a dozen stories about his killing his keepers, but we
-are not able to say whether any one of them is true. It is known with
-certainty, however, that he was willful and vicious and would tolerate no
-familiarity from strangers.”
-
-The ownership of Messenger, after he was transferred from Philadelphia
-to New York, like his earlier history, seems to be very much muddled.
-Henry Astor, a New York butcher, certainly bought him in the fall of
-1793, and located him at Philip Platt’s, four miles from Jamaica, on
-Long Island. In the spring of 1796 Mr. Cornelius W. Van Ranst bought
-one-third interest in him and removed him to Pine Plains in Dutchess
-County, New York, and, without specifying the time, he says he afterward
-purchased the remaining two-thirds, for which he paid two thousand seven
-hundred and fifty dollars. There appears to have been some mistake about
-this, for in 1802 we find Henry Astor, of New York, conveying one-third
-interest in the horse to Benjamin B. Cooper, of Camden, New Jersey. Some
-other parties also claim to have owned an interest in the horse, and I
-heard that there was a lawsuit about him between Astor and Van Ranst.
-The latter claims to have owned an interest in him till the time of his
-death, in 1808. It is not known how much Mr. Astor paid for him when he
-bought him, nor have I any data from which to determine the probable
-market value of the horse except that Mr. Van Ranst says he paid two
-thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for two-thirds of him. If we
-accept this as a basis, he must have been valued at about four thousand
-one hundred and twenty-five dollars. It is true, beyond doubt, that
-for several years he brought to his owners a net annual rental of one
-thousand dollars. This would indicate a very large patronage at very high
-prices for those times. For the twenty years of his stud services in this
-country, we find him located as follows:
-
-1788, at Alexander Clay’s, Market Street, Philadelphia, at $15 the season
-and $1 to the groom, privilege of returning.
-
-1789, at Thomas Clayton’s, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, at $10 the
-season and $1 to the groom.
-
-1790, at Noah Hunt’s, in the Jersies, near Pennington, at $8.
-
-1791, at “Mount Benger,” two miles from Bristol, Bucks Co., Pa., at $16.
-
-1792, at the same place and the same price.
-
-1793, at the same place and the same price.
-
-1794, at Philip Platt’s, fifteen miles from New York and four from
-Jamaica, Long Island, at $25 the season.
-
-1795, at the same place and the same price, when, as Mr. Van Ranst
-expressed it, “he took with our horsemen.”
-
-1796, at Pine Plains, Dutchess County, N. Y., where he covered 106 mares
-at $30 the season.
-
-1797, I have no advertisement for this year, but it is probable he was at
-the same place at the same price.
-
-1798, at Pine Plains, as before, and the terms $30 for the season and $40
-to insure.
-
-1799, I have no definite trace of him this year, but there are some
-indications he was in West Jersey.
-
-1800, for the spring season he is not located, but he made a fall season
-at John Stevens’ in Maidenhead, Hunterdon Co., N. J.
-
-1801, at Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., and I have seen the book account of
-expenses, etc., while he was there.
-
-1802, at Cooper’s Ferry, opposite Philadelphia, Pa., but the price of
-services is not mentioned.
-
-1803, at Townsend Cock’s, near Oyster Bay, Long Island, at $20 the season.
-
-1804, at the same place and the same price.
-
-1805, at Bishop Underhill’s, in Westchester Co., N. Y., fifteen miles
-from Harlem Bridge. Price reduced to $15.
-
-1806, back again at Townsend Cock’s, and the terms fixed at $15 for the
-season, and $25 to insure.
-
-1807, again at Bishop Underhill’s on the same terms as before, and this
-was the last of his twenty years’ stud services. It will be observed
-that the horse is located every year except two, and these locations
-are determined, not by tradition or hearsay, but by copies of his
-advertisements for each year. In giving the prices charged for his
-services I have given the value of the guinea or the pound as five
-dollars.
-
-Messenger died January 28, 1808, in the stable of Townsend Cock, on Long
-Island, in his twenty-eighth year. This date has been as familiar to all
-intelligent horsemen for the last forty years as any prominent event in
-the history of the nation. The news of the death of the old patriarch
-spread with great rapidity, and soon the whole countryside was gathered
-to see the last of the king of horses and to assist at his burial. His
-grave was prepared at the foot of a chestnut-tree some distance in front
-of the house, and there he was deposited in his holiday clothing. In
-response to the consciousness that a hero was there laid away forever
-a military organization was extemporized, and volley after volley by
-platoons was fired over his grave. Some of the young men and boys who
-witnessed and participated in the ceremonies of the occasion were still
-living twenty years ago, and as they related the incidents of the
-occasion to me, their recollections seemed to be as clear and bright as
-though the occurrence had been of yesterday.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-MESSENGER’S SONS.
-
-    Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader
-    R. Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville,
-    N. Y.—Some of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse
-    in appearance—Failure as a runner—Good natural trotter—His
-    most famous sons were Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino
-    Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his pedigree and
-    history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly
-    a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree
-    and description—Noted as the sire of coach horses and
-    trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam
-    thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga,
-    Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander,
-    Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury, Hotspur,
-    Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of the name
-    “Messenger.”
-
-
-It is not my purpose to write a history of all the descendants of
-Messenger, for that would fill several volumes and would be simply
-writing over again the trotting and pacing records of the past twenty
-years. I will, therefore, limit the chapters on this topic to such of
-his descendants as have demonstrated the value and prominence of their
-blood, as a factor, in the make-up of the American Trotter. Naturally,
-the immediate progeny of Messenger will first demand consideration, and
-then will follow the succeeding generations that have written their own
-history in the official records of trotting and pacing. Completeness
-of description and space occupied will be determined, chiefly, by the
-prominence and historic value of the animal under review. In this scope
-and without following any chronological order, I will try to embrace all
-that is known that would be of value to the student of trotting-horse
-history.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN (BISHOP’S), originally called HAMILTONIAN.—This was a
-dark-bay horse about fifteen hands two inches high. He was bred by
-General Nathaniel Coles, of Dosoris, Long Island, and was foaled 1804.
-He was got by Messenger, his dam Pheasant (the Virginia Mare), said
-to be thoroughbred, by imp. Shark and grandam by imp. Medley. I first
-unearthed the pedigree of this “Virginia Mare” in the advertisement of
-Hambletonian for 1814 when he was owned by Townsend Cock and standing
-that year at Goshen, New York. The “Old Turfman,” Cadwallader R. Colden,
-was thoroughly familiar with all turf subjects in the early years of
-this century, and was the best turf writer of his generation. He had no
-patience or tolerance with frauds in pedigrees and always exposed them
-without mercy. He stoutly maintains that the pedigree of the “Virginia
-Mare” was bogus, and, to use his own language, he says:
-
-    “When Hambletonian became a public stallion, his owners were
-    in a dilemma; a _pedigree_ was necessary, so to work they
-    went, and, as many had done before and as many are doing now,
-    _made one_; and in his handbills his dam was given as bred in
-    Virginia, and got by imported Shark, with a train of maternal
-    ancestors, with as much truth, and affording as much ability to
-    trace it or discover the breeder of the dam, as though they had
-    said _hi, cockalorum jig_.”
-
-Mr. Colden goes into the pedigree of this mare and the non-racing
-character of her family at great length, and it cannot be denied that
-he has the whole argument. As a specimen of sharp and interesting turf
-writing of that period and from that pen, I must commend my readers to
-turn to this article, which will be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol.
-II., p. 67.
-
-With the probabilities all against the truthfulness of the pedigree of
-the dam, as given, it is certainly true that he was a running horse and
-attained distinction in his day. I have no full list of his performances
-at hand, but the following may be taken as a fair summary of his
-principal achievements. He ran at Newmarket in the spring of 1807 (then
-three years old), one mile, beating General Coles’ colt Bright Phœbus,
-Mr. Terhune’s bay filly, and distancing two others. He also ran, two days
-after the above race, four heats of a mile each, beating Bright Phœbus
-again and distancing three others. In the fall of 1808 he ran five weeks
-successively, and the three last weeks he won three four-mile purses,
-running the distance in shorter time than it ever had been run in the
-State of New York. I must say here that these races were run on the then
-Harlem course, which was not a full mile in length.
-
-While Hambletonian was on the turf, Tippoo Sultan, a grandson of
-Messenger, beat Bond’s First Consul in a famous four-mile race, and Mr.
-Bond determined that he would find a horse that would be able to lower
-Tippoo Sultan’s colors, and it was thought there was nothing in the
-North able to do it except Miller’s Damsel, so he made a match for four
-thousand dollars a side on condition that Damsel should prove not to be
-in foal. But the mare proving to be in foal the match was off. He then
-took Hambletonian into his stable and offered to match him for the same
-amount against Tippoo Sultan, but he went amiss and the match was off.
-This incident is here introduced to show that whatever his real merits,
-Hambletonian had some reputation as a running horse. It was said that
-the secret of Mr. Colden’s hostility to the “Virginia Mare” and her
-descendants was because those descendants were always able to beat the
-descendants of his fashionably bred mare Matilda. Whatever the motive in
-exposing a pedigree that has never been fully established, there is one
-particular and that the most important of all particulars, in which Mr.
-Colden has done justice to Hambletonian. He says: “_Hambletonian got some
-excellent roadsters, good trotters._”
-
-There seems to be no description of this horse extant that is fully
-satisfactory. For some seasons he was in the hands of Mr. Daniel T.
-Cock, who in 1869 furnished me the following: “He was a dark bay, a
-little heavy about the head and neck, fifteen and a half hands high, and
-rather an upright shoulder. Back, loin and hind quarters as good as were
-ever put on a horse. Fore legs a little light, but hind legs strong and
-good—pretty straight. He was a beautiful saddle horse, notwithstanding
-his head and ear were a little coarse.” Other persons who had seen him
-have described him as “a great strong horse, with bone and substance
-enough to pull the plow or do any other kind of drudgery.” It has been
-said that he had a fine open trotting gait and that, in a cutter with old
-Isaac Bishop behind him, he was able to show the boys the road.
-
-In 1807 he became the property of Townsend Cock, of Long Island, and he
-remained on the turf till 1810, when he was put in the stud. That and the
-following season he was at the stable of his owner; 1812 at Cornwall;
-1813 at Fishkill; 1814 at Goshen; 1815-16 at Fishkill; 1817 at White
-Plains. In the winter of 1819 Mr. Cock sold him to Stephen and Smith
-Germond of Dutchess County, New York, and Isaac Bishop of Granville, New
-York. The latter was probably the real owner, and the horse then became
-known as “Bishop’s Hambletonian.” He made several seasons in the region
-of Granville and was back in Dutchess County 1823 and 1824. The next year
-he was at Granville—1825. He made one season, at least, at Burlington,
-Vermont, and some seasons or parts of seasons at Poultney, Vermont. It is
-said he lived till 1834.
-
-At Wallingford, Vermont, he was bred upon the “Munson Mare,” said to be
-a daughter of imported Messenger, and doubtless either by him or one
-of his earlier sons, and the produce was Harris’ Hambletonian, also
-known as “The Remington Horse” and Bristol Grey, and this son became
-the progenitor of a great tribe of trotters, known as the “Vermont
-Hambletonians,” some of which were very fast pacers, among them the
-famous Hero, the fastest of his generation. Another son of Mr. Bishop’s
-horse was the Judson Hambletonian, that was the sire of the Andrus horse,
-that got the famous Princess, that was pitted against Flora Temple. He
-was also bred on his half-sister, Silvertail, by Messenger, and produced
-One Eye, a very fast mare, the grandam of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, and
-I have always thought that this combination was the very cream of the
-pedigree of that great horse. He was also bred on a daughter of Mr.
-Coffin’s son of Messenger and produced Whalebone, that was the phenomenal
-long-distance trotter of his generation. His son, Sir Peter, out of an
-unknown mare, was also a famous old-time trotter. One of his daughters
-was bred to Coriander, son of Messenger, and the produce was Topgallant,
-the fastest horse of his time. These individual enumerations might be
-extended indefinitely, but I have given enough to show that he was not
-merely a progenitor of trotting speed in remote generations, but that
-speed came directly from his own loins. Another most significant fact is
-here brought to light, namely, that when bred back upon the blood of his
-own sire he achieved his greatest successes.
-
-MAMBRINO.—This great son of Messenger was a bright bay with a star and
-one white ankle. He was fully sixteen hands high, with great length of
-body and generally of coarse appearance. He was foaled 1806, and was
-bred by Mr. Lewis Morris, of Westchester County, New York. His dam was
-by imported Sour Grout, out of a mare by imported Whirligig, and she out
-of the famous Miss Slammerkin, that is a well-known landmark reaching
-beyond the Revolution. The late William T. Porter, of the _Spirit of the
-Times_, stoutly maintained that Mambrino was not a thoroughbred horse,
-and his reasons seemed to rest wholly upon his coarse and cart-horse
-appearance. Technically, Mr. Porter was right, but the trouble did not
-rest with the dam, as he seems to have supposed, for I have seen the
-original certificate of breeding in the handwriting of Mr. Morris, his
-breeder, and there is no slip on that side of the pedigree. Mr. Morris
-was a prominent breeder and racing man for many years and his character
-was without taint. The pedigree is a very long one and I would be very
-far from vouching for the truth of the remote extensions, but back to the
-mare by Cub, imported by Mr. De Lancey, who bred Miss Slammerkin, there
-can be no mistake.
-
-In the spring of 1810, then four years old, he was purchased of his
-breeder by Major William Jones, of Queens County, Long Island, and in the
-autumn of that year he was trained and ran for the two-mile purse at the
-old Newmarket Course, Long Island, and it is said gave some evidence that
-he could run, but after that he was never trained nor started in a race,
-from which we may conclude he was not a race horse, or his owner, who
-bred and ran his horses, would have given him another trial.
-
-In 1811 he was put in the stud and made the season at Huntington, Long
-Island, in charge of Ebenezer Gould. It is not known where he made the
-season of 1812, but probably in Orange or Dutchess County. The years
-1813-14-15 he was in charge of my late highly esteemed and venerable
-correspondent, David W. Jones, on the borders of Queens and Suffolk
-counties, Long Island, where he covered about two hundred and fifty
-mares. In 1816 he was in one of the river counties, in 1817 at Fishkill,
-and 1818 at Townsend Cock’s, Long Island. In later years he changed hands
-many times, at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars, and
-there is no published trace of him till we find that he made the seasons
-of 1825 and 1829 at Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, and he died the
-property of Benjamin Germond, on the farm of Azariah Arnold in Dutchess
-County, about 1831.
-
-He took his beautiful color from his dam and transmitted it with great
-uniformity. His general structure was after the Messenger model,
-especially in the large bones and joints of his limbs. His head was
-long and bony and his ears were large and somewhat heavy. He was too
-high on his legs and his general appearance was coarse, all of which he
-transmitted. In speaking of his offspring Mr. Jones remarks: “When young
-they were somewhat leggy and lathy, but spirited, stylish and slashing
-in action. When matured, he must indeed be fastidious who would crave
-another.” With regard to his gait Mr. Jones uses the following very
-emphatic language: “I have been the breeder of some, and the owner of
-many good horses, and with the best opportunities of judging, having
-ridden him (he was never driven) many, many miles, I say, with entire
-confidence, he was the best natural trotter I ever threw a leg over. His
-walk was free, flinging and elastic; his trot clear, square and distinct,
-with a beautiful roll of the knee and great reach of the hind leg.” In
-the absence of actual training and timing, it is hardly possible to get
-better evidence that Mambrino was a natural trotter that might have been
-developed to a considerable rate of speed. It would be interesting to
-know just why the horse “never was driven.” Did he show an unconquerable
-aversion to harness, and did Abdallah inherit this aversion? This
-description of Mambrino’s gait was written in 1866, and the writer had
-spent a long lifetime in an intimate personal knowledge of many, or
-indeed most, of the best early trotters that this country had produced.
-
-The only one of his immediate progeny that attained distinction as a
-trotter was the famous Betsey Baker. This mare was very prominent among
-the best of her day, and was able, on one occasion at least, to beat
-the great Topgallant, and in tandem with Grey Harry when she was old
-she trotted in 2:41¾-2:43¾. Others of his progeny were trotters of some
-merit, but none of them especially distinguished on the turf. His three
-sons, Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino Paymaster, are the bright links in
-the chain extending from Messenger to the two-minute trotter that will
-keep his memory green as long as there is a trotting horse on the earth.
-Abdallah at the head of the Hambletonians, Almack at the head of the
-Champions, and Mambrino Paymaster at the head of the Mambrino Chiefs
-embrace the major portion of the great trotters of this generation.
-
-WINTHROP, OR MAINE MESSENGER.—Perhaps no son of Messenger, not excepting
-Hambletonian and Mambrino, produced a more marked effect upon the stock
-of any part of the country than this horse did in the State of Maine.
-The impress he there made was not only remarkable at the time, but it is
-still felt and acknowledged in his descendants to this day. There have
-been many conflicting statements made to the public about him and his
-history, but I think I am now able to give, in authentic and reliable
-form, all that is really known of his origin and history. He was foaled
-about 1807 and was among the last colts by the imported horse, but
-unfortunately we know nothing of the blood of his dam. Mr. Alvan Hayward,
-for many years a citizen of Kennebec County, Maine, but more recently of
-York, Livingston County, New York, says his dam possessed some imported
-blood; but as all his records and memoranda were burned up in 1845 he is
-not able to give the pedigree of the mare that produced him.
-
-Mr. Hayward bought the horse about 1817 or 1818, in the village of Paris,
-Oneida County, New York, of a man by the name of Rice or Wright, but
-did not remember which. He took him to Winthrop, Maine, where he was
-first known as “Messenger,” then as “Kennebec Messenger,” or “Winthrop
-Messenger,” and when he became old, as “Old Messenger.” The earliest
-contemporaneous account I have of this horse is his advertisement for the
-season of 1819, which I copy from the Hallowell _Gazette_ of May 12, of
-that year, and is as follows:
-
-    “THE VALUABLE HORSE MESSENGER.
-
-    “The subscriber hereby recommends to the public and all who
-    feel interested to improve in the breed of good and serviceable
-    horses, the good horse Messenger, that stock so well known and
-    approved of on Long Island, New York, and Pennsylvania. Said
-    horse was raised on Long Island, and owned by Mr. Rylander, a
-    gentleman who has taken the greatest pains to import the best
-    breed of horses that came to his knowledge. Said horse is a
-    silver grey, well proportioned, of a large size, and a good
-    traveler. Gentlemen who are desirous of raising good horses
-    will do well to call and see for themselves.
-
-    “The Messenger will stand for the most part of the time in the
-    village at Withrop Mills.
-
-                                                     ALVAN HAYWARD.
-
-    “Winthrop, May 1st, 1819.”
-
-From the foregoing it will be seen that the new element, brought out in
-the history of this horse is the statement that he was owned at one time
-by Mr. Rylander, of Long Island. There were two brothers of this name,
-and they imported a great many horses, but never before had I heard their
-names connected with Winthrop Messenger. This carries us back to a period
-in the history of the horse before he was taken to Oneida County.
-
-Colonel Stanley, a prominent banker of Augusta, and at one time a leading
-horseman and stage proprietor, bought Messenger of his kinsman, Hayward,
-and owned him some seven years. He says the horse was brought to Maine as
-early as 1816, and that his Uncle Hayward had certificates that he was
-got by imported Messenger, out of a mare well-bred and part of imported
-blood.
-
-In a communication from Mr. Sanford Howard, who had been prominently
-connected with the breeding interests of the country for many years, the
-following description is given:
-
-    “I saw him several times, first in 1828. In the latter years of
-    his life he stood mostly at Anson, on the Kennebec River, and I
-    think died there about 1831 [he died at Dixfield]. He appeared
-    like an old horse when I first saw him, older, perhaps, from
-    being much afflicted with grease, which had become chronic,
-    and at length had almost destroyed his hoofs; so that the last
-    time I saw him he was nearly incapable of locomotion. His
-    feet and legs looked like those of an elephant. This trouble
-    was transmitted to his offspring through several generations
-    (though not invariably so), and constituted, perhaps, in
-    connection with, in many cases, a flat foot and low heels,
-    their greatest defect.
-
-    “Mr. Hayward states, in concluding his letter, that he has no
-    doubt the horse he took to Maine was got by imp. Messenger.
-    The remark is probably elicited by intimations that he might
-    have been gotten by a son of Messenger. I presume Mr. Hayward’s
-    belief was well founded. As imported Messenger did not die
-    until the 28th of January, 1808, there is no discrepancy
-    between that event and the age of Mr. H.’s horse. At the same
-    time I must admit that Maine Messenger hardly looked like a
-    half-blood horse. He was pretty large, rather short-legged,
-    thick-set, with heavy mane and tail, very hairy legs, long
-    hair on his jaws, and was heavy coated (in winter) all over
-    his body. These characteristics were sometimes accounted for
-    by saying he was probably out of a Dutch mare, meaning such
-    mares as the Dutch farmers of New York kept. I never heard of
-    any claim being set up for his speed in trotting, and I presume
-    he was never tried at running. He was strong and plucky, and
-    the story was told at Winthrop that on an occasion when all
-    the stallions of the neighborhood were brought out to be
-    shown, they were put to a trot in sleighs for half a mile or
-    so, and Messenger was beaten. Whereupon his owner proposed
-    that the horses should each draw a sled with six men on it up
-    to Winthrop hill, and be timed. It was done, and Messenger
-    beat them all. I think the first of his offspring that became
-    noted for fast trotting was a gelding called Lion, taken to
-    Boston by a well-known horse dealer by the name of Hodges,
-    of Hallowell, Maine. He was sold, I think, for four hundred
-    dollars, which made quite a sensation among the Kennebec
-    farmers who had any stock of the same sort. I do not recollect
-    the rate of speed this horse showed, but a mile in three
-    minutes was then considered wonderful, and probably this was
-    about his rate. Other horses of the stock were soon brought
-    out as fast travelers. I remember a friend of mine showing me
-    some young horses he was training, and I rode with him after
-    several of them. They were _natural trotters_, and would do
-    _nothing but trot_, even under severe applications of the whip.
-    But I think the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse
-    were generally faster trotters than the first. They were also
-    generally handsomer horses, not so rough looking. Nearly all
-    the horses of this stock which have acquired a reputation in
-    Massachusetts, New York, etc., as fast trotters, had not more
-    than a quarter of the blood of the horse that Mr. Hayward took
-    to Maine, and consequently had not more than an eighth of the
-    blood of imported Messenger.
-
-    “The mares that produced these horses were of no particular
-    blood. Various stallions had been kept in that section. Morgans
-    from New Hampshire and Vermont, with an occasional change to
-    the French Canadians, and now and then a quarter or half bred
-    horse from New York or New Jersey.”
-
-This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially valuable,
-as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent observer from a
-personal acquaintance with the original horse and his progeny. There are
-some inferences, however, that may be drawn from Mr. Howard’s letter
-that would be unjust to this distinguished animal. His general coarse
-appearance, in connection with which Mr. H. says, “he hardly looked like
-a half bred horse,” was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino,
-a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the same
-remark was often made about him. The quantity and length of his coat in
-the winter of his old age are not conclusive against his pretensions to
-a large share of good and pure blood. They are the results oftentimes
-of neglect and ill health. It is somewhere stated that the famous Sir
-Archy before he died looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully
-three inches long. Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that “the second
-generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than
-the first.” In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would be
-altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these things if
-development and use did not strengthen and intensify the instinct to trot
-in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is right, and we do not doubt he
-is, the increased capacity did not grow out of the dilution of the blood,
-but out of the strengthening of the instinct by culture and use. At the
-time Mr. Howard made this remark he evidently did not know that the
-famous old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were both
-immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In their day these two
-were classed among the best and fastest trotters that the world had then
-produced. The facts that both these animals were the immediate progeny of
-Winthrop Messenger were never brought to light for many years, and all I
-will say about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or
-suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established.
-
-In a letter written by Mr. Hayward, May 12, 1852, in speaking of the
-useful and everyday qualities of this horse’s progeny, he used the
-following language:
-
-    “The stock produced by that horse I consider superior, as
-    combining more properties useful in a horse than any other
-    stock I have ever been acquainted with, being good for draft,
-    for carriage, for travel, for parade, or any place where
-    horses are required. They had great bottom and strength, and
-    were of hardy constitution. There are some horses in this town
-    twenty-two years old, that were by a son of Winthrop Messenger,
-    which I brought with me when I left Maine. They have always
-    been accustomed to draw the plow and to perform other hard
-    labor, and yet they have the appearance of young horses, and
-    will now do more service than many horses of seven or eight
-    years old.”
-
-Among the several sons of imported Messenger whose names are conspicuous
-as the progenitors of great tribes of the most distinguished trotters I
-know of no one entitled to a higher place on the roll of fame, all things
-considered, than this one that went to Maine, and there laid a foundation
-that has made the State famous throughout the length and breadth of the
-land for the speed and stoutness of its trotting horses.
-
-With such noted performers from his own loins as Fanny Pullen and Daniel.
-D. Tompkins, and in the next generation the famous Zachary Taylor, this
-horse made about the best showing of all the sons of Messenger, but as
-his line failed to produce a Rysdyk’s Hambletonian or a Mambrino Chief,
-it dropped to a place somewhat removed from the front of the procession.
-
-ENGINEER was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high and very elegant in
-his form, style and proportions. The earliest account we have of him is
-in the spring of 1816, when he was advertised in _The Long Island Star_
-to stand at the stable of Daniel Seely, near Suffolk Court House, and
-at Jericho, in Queens County. He was in charge of Thomas Jackson, Jr.,
-generally designated as “Long Tom.” He was then well advanced in years,
-but no attempt was made to give his age. Mr. Daniel T. Cock, in charge
-of Duroc and one or two other stallions, was then in sharp competition
-with Engineer, and he assures me he was a horse of large size, great
-share of bone and sinew, most elegant form, and a fine mover. His elegant
-appearance was so captivating that he was a very troublesome competitor.
-
-The advertisement referred to contains the following very unsatisfactory
-paragraph relating to his pedigree, viz., “The manner he came into
-this country is such that I cannot give an account of his pedigree,
-but his courage and activity show the purity of his blood, which is
-much better than the empty sound of a long pedigree.” This was a most
-unexpected discovery, for I had always understood that Engineer was a
-son of Messenger and never had heard of this mystery before. It is here
-intimated that the horse was imported, and the story that Jackson told
-was that he was brought from England to Canada by a British officer, and
-by some surreptitious means found his way from Canada to Long Island.
-What appears to be the real history of the horse, and the version
-accepted afterward by everybody on the island, will be found in the
-following extract from a letter written by David W. Jones, February 28,
-1870. He says:
-
-    “I can well account for Mr. Cock’s recollections of the history
-    of the first Engineer. Thomas Jackson and George Tappan,
-    noted owners and keepers of stallions on Long Island and in
-    the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the course of their
-    peregrinations met with a person in possession of this horse,
-    who offered him for sale. Impressed with his fine appearance
-    and pedigree, they at once entered into negotiations for
-    his purchase, and finally obtained him at so low a price as
-    to cause strong suspicions that he was not honestly in his
-    vendor’s possession. They, however, determined to take the
-    chances, and at once brought him to Long Island, their place
-    of residence, and determined on what they deemed a harmless
-    representation in regard to his history; for this they had
-    several motives. First, Messenger stallions were then very
-    numerous on Long Island; their blood coursed in the veins of
-    nearly every brood mare. Secondly, imported stallions were much
-    desired, and by a little added fiction they could give him
-    considerable _éclat_, and thirdly, in case of his having been
-    unjustly obtained this would afford the best means of disguise.
-    Accordingly they represented him as having been imported from
-    England to Canada and ridden in the army by Gen. Brock, who,
-    in an engagement with our troops, was shot and killed. The
-    horse, escaping into our lines, was secured by our soldiers and
-    brought to the State of New York. On these representations they
-    claimed to have purchased him. No pedigree, as I recollect,
-    was attempted to be given, and though many doubted the truth
-    of this statement, there was no evidence to controvert it.
-    For a length of time this story was adhered to; but after
-    several years, when all fears of difficulty had subsided,
-    they acknowledged the deception. Mr. Tappan, who resided but
-    a few miles from me, was a man of more than ordinary candor
-    and fairness, for one of his position and employment. I knew
-    him well, and occasionally rendered him a favor by preparing
-    his horse bills. On one of these occasions, at my house, he
-    gave a full and particular statement of the whole affair. Some
-    of the details have escaped me, but the essential facts are
-    distinctly recollected. The owner, with Engineer in possession,
-    was met at some public place and the purchase completed, and
-    this statement then made, ‘that he had become involved in debt,
-    and that his creditor had begun a prosecution, with a view
-    to levy on the horse, the only property he possessed, and he
-    was determined not to lose all.’ This was certainly enough to
-    arouse their suspicions with regard to his history. He declared
-    the horse was bred and raised in Pennsylvania and that he was
-    got by imported Messenger. Whether any further pedigree was
-    given is not recollected. He was at this time (1814) a horse
-    considerably advanced in years and perfectly white. Mr. Tappan
-    also told me that he had afterward traced the horse, and was
-    entirely satisfied of the former owner’s veracity. I will not
-    apologize for the length of this statement, being desirous of
-    giving you all the information here possessed and probably all
-    that can now be obtained.”
-
-I am not aware that in the past sixty years any question has ever been
-raised as to the truth of the universally accepted statement that
-Engineer was a true son of Messenger, and I would not have disturbed
-it now, nor thought of doing so, had it not been for that remarkable
-advertisement discovered in the obscure Long Island paper. That was
-contemporaneous history, however, and it must either be explained or
-accepted. The question has been examined down to the bottom by one of the
-most conscientious and capable men of his generation, in this department
-of knowledge. His verdict has been accepted as the truth by all parties
-of that day, and I cannot reject it.
-
-It is not known that any of his immediate progeny attained distinction
-on the trotting turf. Several of his sons bore his name in the stud and
-while their blood seemed to be helpful in the right direction, only one
-of them made any mark as a sire of speed, and that was the horse known as
-Lewis’ Engineer, the sire of the world beater, Lady Suffolk. Burdick’s
-Engineer, another son, was taken to Washington County, New York, and got
-the dam of the famous Princess, which produced the great Happy Medium.
-In all these instances there was commingling with other strains from
-Messenger.
-
-COMMANDER.—This was a grey horse, fully sixteen hands high and of massive
-proportions. He was a son of imported Messenger and out of a mare by
-imported Rockingham. This Rockingham was not a thoroughbred horse.
-Commander was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and found his way to
-Long Island about 1812, where he was liberally patronized. His name
-frequently occurs among the remote crosses of good pedigrees, but his
-fame rests wholly on the progeny of his son, Young Commander, who was
-the sire of Screwdriver, Screws, Bull Calf and other good ones. This
-horse Young Commander was sometimes called “Bull” and sometimes “American
-Commander.”
-
-MESSENGER, (BUSH’S), generally known as BUSH MESSENGER. This son of
-Messenger was bred by James Dearin, of Dutchess County, New York, and
-was foaled 1807. His dam was a Virginia mare, named Queen Ann, by Celer,
-son of imported Janus, and out of a mare by Skipwith’s Figure, son of
-imported Figure, and she out of a mare imported by Colonel Miland, of
-Virginia. This pedigree was not accepted without some misgivings, but
-as it was possible and as it had been indorsed sixty years ago by
-Cadwallader R. Colden and published before that by Mr. Dearin, I am
-disposed to accept it as reliable.
-
-He was sixteen hands high, a light grey, becoming white with age. He
-was excellent in form and probably the most handsome and attractive
-of all the sons of Messenger. The first public notice we have of him,
-he was advertised at the stable of his breeder, six miles south of
-Poughkeepsie, in 1813. Soon after this he became the property of Philo
-C. Bush, and this was the first horse, he says, that he ever owned. This
-Mr. Bush was a noted “character” in his day. From early manhood, through
-good and evil report, and until he died a very old man in poverty and
-want, he was a habitue of the race track. He knew all about race horses
-and their breeding, and he could prattle pedigrees from morning till
-night. Added to this knowledge which his life pursuits had placed in
-his possession, he was endowed with a most vivid imagination which was
-brought into the most active play whenever he found it necessary. To
-maintain his “reputation” it seemed to be a necessity that he should be
-able to extend all pedigrees laid before him and give the remote crosses,
-whether he knew anything about them or not. He was the author of the
-running pedigree given to the dam of Major Winfield—Edward Everett, son
-of Hambletonian—and on it money was won in a bet. An investigation of
-just two minutes disclosed the facts that by established and known dates
-the whole thing was utterly impossible. He was literally a very “racy”
-_raconteur_, but his reminiscences soon became tedious, notwithstanding
-their brilliancy, and it was always important to have a call to some
-business that cut off further entertainment from his _répertoire_.
-
-Mr. Bush says he paid one thousand seven hundred and forty dollars and
-a silver watch for this horse, and with him he got an elegant suit of
-clothing that had belonged to imported Express. It is said that he never
-ran but one race and that was at Pine Plains, in which he distanced
-all his competitors in the first heat. In 1816 Mr. Bush kept him at
-Kinderhook; 1817 at Kinderhook and Schodack; 1818 at Kinderhook and
-Albany; 1819-20 at Utica. In the autumn of 1820 he was sold to Dr.
-Millington, of Crooked Lake, Herkimer County, and he was kept there
-1821-22. He was then sold to Edward Reynolds, of East Bloomfield, where
-he was kept three or four years, after which he made one or more seasons
-at Le Roy, and he died at East Bloomfield in July, 1829. This horse had
-probably more trotting speed than any of the other sons of Messenger. Mr.
-Bush assured me that he could trot very fast for a horse of that day, and
-when led by the side of another horse he could beat three minutes very
-easily, but as we have to take Mr. Bush’s assertions _cum grano salis_,
-we fortunately have very reliable testimony of contemporaneous date and
-from a source wholly disinterested. I have before me a letter written
-by Judge J. Porter, of East Bloomfield, dated June 4, 1828, in reply to
-inquiries from some correspondent about the horse, his terms, etc. He
-writes as follows:
-
-    “I should think he was a very swift _trotter from what I have
-    seen_, and very sprightly and nearly white. He has got a
-    great number of fine colts in this town which are three years
-    old; and the probability of their drawing on the old horse’s
-    business is the reason of his being removed to Le Roy and
-    Batavia.”
-
-Whether Judge Porter was a horseman or not he certainly reflected, in
-this remark which I have emphasized, the leading quality for which Bush
-Messenger was distinguished in that region _and in that day_.
-
-Although he was certainly a very fast natural trotter, it is not known
-that he was ever trained an hour in his life, neither is it known that
-any fast or trained trotters ever came from his loins. This was the
-period of fast mail coaches running from Albany to Buffalo, and as the
-old proprietors of those great lines were pushed westward from State to
-State until they finally were driven across the Mississippi, I have many
-times heard them talk of the great slashing grey Messenger teams that
-would carry their coaches along at ten miles an hour, and lament that
-there were no such horses nowadays. There were other sons of Messenger
-and many grandsons, all known as “Messengers,” but as a progenitor of
-horses suited to the stage coach this particular one that broke his neck
-in trying to get out of his inclosure was the premier. He probably came
-nearer filling the place in this country that his grandsire filled in
-England—English Mambrino—than any other one of the tribe, for we can
-truly say of him, as Pick said of his grandsire, “from his blood the
-breed of horses for the coach was brought nearly to perfection.”
-
-POTOMAC was a bright bay, fifteen and a half hands high, and was bred by
-Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. He was foaled 1796 and got by
-imported Messenger; dam by imported Figure; grandam by Bashaw. He was
-put on the turf in the spring of 1799 and was a respectable race horse
-at short distances. He ran against and beat some of the best of his day.
-He was on the turf about three years. In the midst of his racing career
-he was purchased by Mr. Van Ranst for five hundred pounds. In 1802 he
-was owned by Major William Jones, of Cold Spring Harbor, and made some
-seasons there. In 1806 he was at New Windsor, Orange County, New York. In
-1808 he was in charge of Thomas Jackson, at Rahway, New Jersey, and 1811
-at Crosswicks, near Trenton, New Jersey. It is probable he died about
-this time, as we find no further trace of him. Most of his stock were
-bays, of good size, and very salable animals. Nothing can now be recalled
-that connects him with any of the trotting strains coming from his sire.
-He was not strictly running-bred on the side of his dam.
-
-TIPPOO SAIB was a bay horse with one white foot and was fully sixteen
-hands high, with plenty of bone. He was foaled 1795, got by imported
-Messenger; dam Mr. Thompson’s imported mare by Northumberland; grandam
-by Snap, etc. His fine size and elegant pedigree made Tippoo Saib a
-very desirable horse to breed to, but for some cause he did not appear
-much on the turf. He ran a few races and went into the stud early, in
-the neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, and in the following year was
-at Goshen, Fishkill, and Pine Plains, New York. My impression is he was
-then returned to West Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was
-probably owned in his latter days. His sons Tippoo Sultan, Financier and
-others, acquired great fame on the turf. His connection with the trotting
-lines of descent is very distinct, but not very prominent.
-
-SIR SOLOMON was got by imported Messenger; dam Camilla by Cephalus;
-grandam Camilla by imported Fearnought and out of imported Calista, etc.
-He was foaled about 1800, bred by General Gunn, of Georgia, who seems
-to have kept Camilla and perhaps others in the North for the purpose
-of breeding. The pedigree on the side of this dam is an excellent one
-and would seem to justify the owner in seeking to get the best crosses
-possible into his stud. When five years old he was sold to Mr. Bond, of
-Philadelphia, for two thousand dollars. His races were numerous and often
-successful, beating some of the best horses of his day, and among them
-the famous Miller’s Damsel, also by Messenger, over the Harlem Course in
-heats of four miles. Not much is known of his stud services, and he seems
-to have been kept several years in Union County, New Jersey. He seems to
-have labored under the disadvantage of having a greater horse of the same
-name—Badger’s Sir Solomon by Tickle Toby—in competition with him, and
-thus the son of Tickle Toby would steal many a chaplet from the brow of
-his namesake, the son of Messenger.
-
-OGDEN MESSENGER was a grey horse, foaled 1806, got by imported Messenger;
-dam Katy Fisher, by imported Highflyer; grandam a mare imported
-by H. N. Cruger in 1786, by Cottager; great-grandam by Trentham;
-great-great-grandam by Henricus; great-great-great-grandam by Regulus.
-The pedigree of this dam is correct, and she was doubtless entitled to
-rank as thoroughbred. This horse was bred by Mr. Cruger, and at three
-years old was sold to David Ogden, and that summer he was pastured on the
-farm of Major William Jones, of Long Island, from whose books we have
-the foregoing facts. Mr. David W. Jones remarks: “I retain a perfect
-recollection of him. He was at that time a large overgrown colt, not
-particularly ugly nor exceedingly coarse, but having no special beauty
-nor finish. I cannot better describe him than to say he was a coarse
-pattern of a fine horse, with marked traits of his lineage.” Mr. Jones
-evidently saw him at his worst age and before he fully reached his
-maturity.
-
-Judge Odgen, his owner, was a large landholder in St. Lawrence County,
-New York, and in the spring of 1810 he removed from New Jersey to an
-island of eight hundred acres in the St. Lawrence river, opposite the
-village of Haddington, and took the horse, then four years old, with him.
-It is not known that he ever ran a race for money, and it is not probable
-he ever did, for it was his owner’s aim and object to improve the stock
-of the country as well as his own, in which he was successful. After five
-or six years he was taken to Lowville in Lewis County, and made several
-seasons there in charge of Charles Bush, and from this fact he came to
-be known there, locally, as Bush Messenger. Thus it happened that there
-were two sons of imported Messenger in the State of New York at the same
-time, and both known as Bush Messenger, and to these we might add a
-grandson and a great-grandson in the State of Maine, and at later date
-both named “Bush Messenger.” It was at one time supposed that Mr. Ogden’s
-horse while at Lowville became the sire of the famous Tippoo of Canada
-that became the head of a very valuable tribe of trotters and pacers,
-but later developments showed that this was a mistake. (He appears to
-have alternated in his services between Lewis and Jefferson counties,
-but whether weekly or yearly I cannot state. He was taken to Lowville as
-early as 1815 and was there five or six years.)
-
-The facts about this horse have been developed from much correspondence
-with different parties, but more especially from Mr. V. Sheldon, of
-Canton, New York, and from Mr. P. F. Daniels, of Prescott, Ontario. Both
-men knew the horse personally, and Mr. Daniels was seventy-five years
-old when he wrote. He still had a very clear recollection of the horse
-in his appearance and style of action. In describing him he says: “He
-was peculiarly marked about his hocks and knees, having a series of dark
-rings about his limbs, continuing at intervals down to his hoofs, and
-many of his sons and daughters were marked the same way.” Having ridden
-him many times he says: “He; had a long flinging step and was a fast
-trotter. His action was high and not easy to the rider, and he could not
-widen behind as some of our modern trotters.”
-
-When Mr. Daniels was a young man he was engaged in carrying the mail,
-and in March, 1821, he believes it was, Judge Ogden gave him an order to
-bring the horse home from Lewis County. He led him all the way behind his
-mail conveyance and delivered him safely to young Mr. Ogden, who gave
-him to an Irish groom named Daley, and Daley remarked he would soon make
-him look like another horse. That night he gave him an overfeed of corn
-and he died of colic. He was never advertised while at home and he was
-not very liberally patronized. The Freemans and the Archibalds, however,
-Mr. Daniels says, bred to him largely. His stock were good and many of
-them excellent, especially those descended through his sons Blossom and
-Freeman’s Messenger.
-
-MAMBRINO (GREY).—This son of Messenger was foaled about 1800, his dam
-was by Pulaski, grandam by Wilkes; great-grandam by True Briton. He was
-bred by Benjamin C. Ridgeway, near Mount Holly, New Jersey. In 1807 he
-stood at Flemington under the name of Fox Hunter. He was purchased by
-Richard Isaac Cooper, who resold him to William Atkinson for about one
-thousand two hundred dollars. He was a flea-bitten grey, mane and tail
-white, handsome and stylish, about sixteen hands high, head medium size,
-and a good, well-formed horse at every point, except his feet, which were
-big and flat. He was probably never harnessed and was a very popular
-stallion in Salem and adjoining counties for many years. Mr. Atkinson was
-a very prominent and influential member of the Society of Friends, and
-“Billy” Atkinson was always a welcome guest as he traveled through Salem,
-Gloucester, and Burlington counties with his horse, and his genial good
-humor made him as popular as his horse. He always claimed great speed
-for his horse; but owing to his position in the society he never could
-gratify his friends by showing it. When his offspring came into service
-they were not only performers of great merit on the road and the course,
-but they had bone and substance that fitted them for every kind of labor
-required of them. All the Quakers had Mambrinos and nothing else, after
-“Billy” Atkinson and his horse had been among them a few years. Some of
-his descendants attained to great local fame as trotters and some did
-well as runners. He was a very valuable horse and left a wonderfully
-numerous and valuable offspring.
-
-BLACK MESSENGER.—Among all the progeny of Messenger, this is the only one
-that I can now recall that was black. He was bred by William Haselton,
-of Burlington County, New Jersey, and out of a mare highly prized in the
-Haselton family, but her blood cannot now be traced. He was foaled in
-1801 and on the death of Mr. Haselton in 1804 he was sold to Charles or
-Richard Wilkins of Evesham, ten miles from Camden, New Jersey, who owned
-him till he died at an advanced age. As the birth of this horse is fixed
-by documentary evidence at 1801 it suggests that Messenger was kept in
-Burlington County, New Jersey, the unplaced season of 1800. Still as he
-was at Lawrenceville in the fall season of 1800 it is possible the mare
-was sent to him there. He was full sixteen hands high and possessed great
-muscular development and strength of bone. He was not handsome, but his
-figure and style were very commanding. In his day he was regarded as one
-of the best natural trotters ever in Burlington or Gloucester counties.
-This was not the claim of his owner merely, but the unprejudiced opinion
-of all the horsemen who knew him. His stock were very highly prized as
-horses suited to all purposes and especially for fast road work. Some of
-them were greatly distinguished locally as fast trotters, and among them
-was Nettle, the dam of the famous Dutchman, that was the greatest trotter
-of his day.
-
-WHYNOT MESSENGER, Pizzant’s Messenger, Austin’s Messenger, and Cousin’s
-Messenger were all sons of Messenger and got by him while he was in West
-Jersey, but as nothing has been developed concerning their maternal
-breeding nor the character of their progeny, I will pass them over with
-this bare record that such horses existed.
-
-SARATOGA.—This son of Messenger was a flea-bitten grey and was foaled
-about 1805. It is believed he was bred on Long Island, but nothing
-is known of the blood of his dam. He was driven in harness and did
-service in several counties in Pennsylvania, and was sold at auction in
-Philadelphia to James Dubois of Salem, New Jersey. He was a great, strong
-horse, and was kept at work on the farm of his owner, covering mares only
-as opportunity offered. He was a slashing trotter, but it was only when
-his owner was away from home and got an extra drink or two that anybody
-ever had an opportunity to see how fast he could go. A number of his
-progeny were fast trotters; among them a mare called Charlotte Gray that
-was the fastest of her day in all that region. Among his sons, one called
-Dove was greatly distinguished in the stud.
-
-NESTOR AND DELIGHT.—These were sons of Messenger, the former bred in
-Orange County, New York, in 1802, and was at Warwick in that county, 1807
-in charge of Nehemiah Finn. The latter was bred in Westchester County
-in 1806, and made the season of 1827 at Warwick, New York, in charge of
-John G. Blauvelt, and is probably the horse that was more widely known as
-Blauvelt’s Messenger. The breeding of the dams of both these horses is
-very uncertain.
-
-MOUNT HOLLY was a grey horse, fifteen and a half hands high. He was
-foaled about 1807 and was bred by Colonel Udell, of Long Island. His dam
-was by Bajazet, and his grandam was by Bashaw. Not much is known of him
-till he was well advanced in years and was taken to Dutchess County.
-Daniel T. Cock knew him well on the island, and he assured me he was a
-trotter in the true sense of the word. The late Mr. Daniel B. Haight, a
-horseman of excellent judgment and knowledge, knew him very well, and he
-describes him as of the true Messenger grey, and a smooth, well-finished
-horse all over. His offspring were smooth, handsome, and remarkably
-tough, and from their kindly tempers they were easily managed and made
-horses fit for any service. The most noted of his get were the famous
-trotters Paul Pry and Mr. Tredwell’s grey mare that went to England.
-His cross appears in the pedigrees of many trotters and is very highly
-prized to this day. In the latter part of his life he was owned by Jacob
-Husted, of Washington Hollow, New York, and made several seasons there.
-His sight failed entirely as he grew old, and he died about 1835. With
-two such performers from his own loins as Paul Pry and the Tredwell mare,
-it cannot be doubted that he inherited and transmitted the true Messenger
-“trotting instinct,” and that without any assistance from the blood of
-his dam.
-
-PLATO was a large brown horse, fully sixteen hands high, and was a full
-brother to Bishop’s Hambletonian, being by Messenger, out of Pheasant.
-He was bred by General Coles, of Long Island, and was foaled 1802. As
-he matured the general judgment was that his limbs were too light for
-his body, and this is the only instance that I can recall where the get
-of Messenger failed at this vital point. He was trained and ran a few
-races, and from a trial with Miller’s Damsel General Coles said he was
-the best horse that ever ran against that famous mare. In a race against
-his half-brother, Sir Solomon, he won the first heat of four miles and
-broke down in the second, which finished him as a race horse. He was a
-larger and a handsomer horse than his full brother Hambletonian, but at
-no other point was he so good. When they stood in the same stable he was
-advertised at a lower price. He was a number of years in the stud on Long
-Island, New Jersey, and the river counties of New York, and after 1816 at
-Pine Plains there is no further trace of him. In his physical structure
-and doubtless, in his mental structure also, he took after his dam, and
-the only link now recalled coupling him with the trotter is the fact that
-he was the sire of the dam of Lewis’ Engineer, that was the sire of the
-great Lady Suffolk.
-
-DOVER MESSENGER was a grey horse, and was got by imported Messenger, but
-the blood of his dam and the year he was foaled are unknown. He was kept
-several seasons at South Dover, Dutchess County, New York, and left a
-very valuable progeny strongly endowed with the instinct to trot. He was
-taken to the town of Russia, in Herkimer County, where he died. There
-was a younger horse bearing practically the same name, a son of Mambrino
-Paymaster, with which this horse has often been confounded.
-
-CORIANDER.—This son of Messenger was a bay horse, about fifteen and a
-half hands high; was foaled in Queens County, New York, about 1796, and
-his dam was by Allen’s Brown Figure; grandam by Rainbow; great-grandam by
-Dauphin. He seems to have been kept on Long Island as long as he lived.
-His progeny was much like their sire, and Mr. D. W. Jones describes them
-as “clean, wiry, and brilliant. In their make-up there seemed nothing
-wasted and nothing wanted.” He ran some races, as did many of his get.
-He was bred upon one of the early daughters of Hambletonian, and she
-produced the great trotter “Old Topgallant,” the sensation of his period
-and one of the most famous of the very early trotters. One of the most
-remarkable facts in the history of this remarkable old gelding is that he
-ran some races before he was trained to trot.
-
-FAGDOWN.—This son of Messenger was bred on the Jersey side of the
-Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, and was foaled, I think, in 1803.
-His dam was represented to be by Diomed, and if this be correct it must
-have been Tate’s imported Diomed that was imported into New Jersey
-and kept there a number of years. This was a bay horse and must not
-be confounded with the chestnut horse of the same name imported into
-Virginia. Fagdown became vicious and dangerous, and from this trait in
-his character he was generally called the “Man Eater.” He was kept in the
-region of Philadelphia and south of there for many years, and left a very
-numerous and very valuable progeny. They were noted for their superior
-qualities as road horses, and some of them were very fast, for their
-day. For a number of years no family of horses were so popular about
-Philadelphia as the Fagdowns. He had a son called Cropped Fagdown that
-was fast, and another son called Jersey Fagdown that trotted some races
-against the great Andrew Jackson. Another son, named after his sire, was
-bred in Northeastern Maryland, and was taken to Eastern Ohio in 1829,
-and he was kept in Columbiana, Mahoning, and Jefferson counties for at
-least ten years. He was never in a race nor never trained, but his Quaker
-patrons all insisted that when led by the side of another horse he could
-trot as fast as a pretty good horse could run. This grandson of Messenger
-was the sire of the grandam of Wapsie, the well-known trotter and sire of
-Iowa.
-
-BRIGHT PHŒBUS was foaled 1804, the same year as Hambletonian. He was out
-of the imported Pot-8-os mare, and his breeder, General Coles, of Long
-Island, sold him to Bond and Hughes, of Philadelphia. His most noted
-achievement was at Washington, D. C., in 1808, when in a sweepstakes he
-more than distanced the great Sir Archy, by catching him when he had the
-distemper. His racing career was respectable, but not brilliant, and when
-that ended it is not known what became of him.
-
-SLASHER, SHAFTSBURY, HOTSPUR.—There was quite a famous brood mare
-owned somewhere in Jersey called Jenny Duter, or Jenny Oiter, as some
-authorities have it. She was got by True Briton; dam Quaker Lass by
-imported Juniper; grandam Molly Pacolet, by imported Pacolet, etc.,
-tracing on six or eight more crosses that are all fudge. This mare was
-bred to Messenger about 1801, and produced Shaftsbury; her daughter by
-Liberty was bred to him about the same time and produced Slasher, and
-about the same time her granddaughter by Slender was also bred to him and
-produced Hotspur. These three sons of Messenger do not seem to have ever
-been trained, and very little of their history can be traced, except that
-they were kept as stallions in different parts of New Jersey. It is not
-known that their blood has had any influence upon the American trotting
-horse.
-
-MESSENGER (HUTCHINSON’S).—This was a large grey horse, foaled in 1792,
-and bred by Mathias Hutchinson, of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. His
-dam was by Hunt’s Grey Figure, son of imported Figure. He was kept in
-Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1797, and it is probable that he was often
-represented as imported Messenger himself. I have no knowledge of this
-horse or his progeny beyond the mere facts here given.
-
-MESSENGER (COOPER’S).—This son of imported Messenger was generally
-known as “Cooper’s Grey” and sometimes as Ringgold. He was sixteen
-hands high and was foaled about 1803. He was bred in Montgomery County,
-Pennsylvania, and was kept about Philadelphia, on both sides of the
-Delaware, till 1821, when he was sold by the administrators of Jacob
-Kirk, and it has been said he was taken to the Wabash by Amos Cooper. He
-ran some races when he was young, and was a horse of a good deal of local
-fame. He was liberally patronized in the stud and left valuable progeny.
-It has been suggested that probably he was the sire of Amazonia, the dam
-of Abdallah; but as there is nothing to support this suggestion except
-the mere matter of location, and as all that has ever been claimed for
-her paternity is that she was by “a son of Messenger,” we must not forget
-that there were plenty of other sons of Messenger in the same locality
-that might have been her sire.
-
-The name “Messenger” was more sadly abused in its duplication in the
-closing of the last and the early decades of the present century than
-that of any other horse, or perhaps of all other horses of that period
-put together. Multitudes of his sons were called “Messenger,” and, in
-the next generation, multitudes of his grandsons gloried in the same
-cognomen, and thus generation after generation perpetuated it, in
-widening circles, till “confusion became worse confounded,” leaving the
-historian in helpless and hopeless ignorance as to what was true and
-what was false. When grey horses in the second, third, or fourth remove
-from the imported horse became old, it required but little “diplomacy”
-to satisfy the public that they were true sons of the original, and this
-became the custom.
-
-[Illustration: ALIX.
-
-By Patronage, record 2:03¾, the fastest to this date.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.
-
-    History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam,
-    Amazonia—Speculations as to her blood—Description of
-    Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion line—Mambrino
-    Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino
-    Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’
-    Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam.
-
-
-ABDALLAH.—This grandson of Messenger has been popularly and justly
-designated as the “king of trotting sires of his generation.” He was bred
-by John Tredwell, of Queens County, Long Island, and was foaled 1823.
-His sire was Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his dam was Amazonia, one
-of the most distinguished trotters of her day. Concerning the breeding
-and origin of Amazonia there has been great diversity of opinion among
-horsemen and a great amount of controversy among writers. It is not my
-purpose to enter into a discussion of the questions raised on this point,
-but I would hardly be doing justice to history to pass it over unnoticed.
-I will, therefore, try to give a brief synopsis of the history and the
-arguments urged, and refer the reader to the first and second volumes of
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ for a more extended consideration of the questions
-raised.
-
-The first representation of her pedigree was that she was a daughter of
-imported Messenger, and the next was that she was by a son of Messenger.
-On the first claim, that she was by Messenger, no argument was possible,
-one way or the other, on account of dates; but against the second claim,
-that she was by a son of Messenger, the arguments were numerous and
-vehement. All these arguments were based wholly upon her coarse external
-conformation and the absence of all resemblance to the Messenger family.
-Among the supporters of this view were many of the most intelligent and
-trustworthy horsemen of the whole country. Indeed, the preponderance of
-intelligence as well as numbers seemed to be on that side. That she had
-“coarse, ragged hips,” that she had a “rat tail,” that she “had hair
-enough on her legs to stuff a mattress,” that she was “a muddy sorrel,”
-etc., were all urged to prove that she was not by a son of Messenger. It
-is true that many entered into this controversy who never saw the mare
-and who knew nothing about her appearance, but there were others who knew
-her perfectly, among them my venerable friend David W. Jones, to whom
-we are all indebted for so many treasures from his storehouse of very
-valuable memories.
-
-On the other side there were some little scraps of history, that at
-the vital point may have been history or may have been fiction. In the
-certificate of sale of Abdallah, April 27, 1830, to Mr. Isaac Snediker,
-his breeder, Mr. John Tredwell, says: “And believe him to be the very
-_best bred_ trotting stallion in this country, and be it enough to know
-that his sire was Mambrino and his dam Amazonia.” It has been argued
-that it would be very inconsistent for a man of Mr. Tredwell’s standing
-to certify that Abdallah “was the very best bred trotting stallion in
-this country,” if he knew nothing of the blood of his dam, drawing the
-inference that he must have known and believed the representations
-of his nephew, B. T. Kissam, from whom he got Amazonia. The story of
-the original purchase of Amazonia by B. T. Kissam and given to me by
-his brother, Timothy T. Kissam, in 1870, is as follows: Amazonia was
-purchased by B. T. Kissam, a dry goods merchant of New York, when on an
-excursion of pleasure in the vicinity of Philadelphia about 1814. She was
-brought out of a team and was then four years old past, his attention
-having been called to her as an animal of much promise. He used her for
-his own driving a short time and sold her to his uncle, John Tredwell.
-“Amazonia was represented to my brother to have been a get of imported
-Messenger.”
-
-Now, in considering whether this scrap of history is probably true, the
-geographical question has been urged with telling effect. Messenger had
-been kept a number of years on both sides of the Delaware, right on the
-way to Philadelphia, his fee had been above that of any other stallion,
-and a large percentage of his colts had been kept entire. In no part of
-the country, perhaps, were there so many sons of Messenger seeking public
-patronage. The geography and the chronology of the question, therefore,
-both sustain the probability of its truthfulness. Whether Mr. Kissam
-crossed the river at Trenton, or Burlington, or Camden he was right in
-the hotbed of the sons of Messenger. “If Amazonia” it has been asked,
-“was as coarse and forbidding as represented in her appearance, what
-induced Mr. Kissam to buy her?” He wanted a carriage horse and he wanted
-one that could not only show good action, but one that had a right of
-inheritance to good action. He knew the Messengers and knew that beauty
-and style were not family traits in that tribe. Many of them were coarse,
-and possibly as coarse as Amazonia. Her very coarseness and lack of style
-is, under the circumstances, a strong argument that in choosing her Mr.
-Kissam had regard for her Messenger blood.
-
-Another argument, resting on “the internal evidences,” has been urged
-with considerable force and it is very hard to answer it. Amazonia was a
-mare of tested and known speed. She was in a number of races to saddle
-and had won several of them in less than three minutes along about
-1816-18, and when Major William Jones, in 1820, accepted the challenge to
-produce a horse that could trot a mile in three minutes for one thousand
-dollars, he knew very well what he was doing, for he had seen Amazonia
-do it a number of times. Her best time was about 2:54, which in that day
-was considered phenomenally fast. If we were to meet a running horse out
-on the plains that could run away from all others, we would naturally
-and justly conclude that he had some of the blood of the race horse in
-his veins. If we have a pacer and we learn he came from a section of the
-country where a certain tribe of pacers abounded, we would naturally
-conclude that he belonged to that tribe, especially if we knew there
-were no other pacers in that section. If we have a trotter that can go
-away from all other trotters, and we know that this trotter came from
-a section abounding in a family of trotters, and in nothing else that
-can trot, we naturally and justly conclude that this trotter came from
-some member of that family of trotters. This argument from the “internal
-evidences” seems almost axiomatic, and when taken in connection with the
-historical argument, unsatisfactory though it be, they together lay the
-foundation for a very strong probability that Amazonia was by a son of
-Messenger.
-
-Abdallah was in color a beautiful bay, about fifteen and a half hands
-high, and there was a measure of coarseness about him that he could not
-well escape, as both his sire and dam were endowed with that undesirable
-quality. The one exception to this was in the character of his coat,
-which was very fine and glossy when in healthy condition. His reputation
-as a great trotting sire was very widely extended during his lifetime,
-but his lack of symmetry and his “rat tail,” which he inherited from his
-dam, so impaired his acceptability with the public that he never was very
-largely patronized. Besides this he had an unconquerable will of his own,
-which he transmitted to his offspring very generally. This willfulness
-was not a desirable quality in a horse for drudgery, and hence most of
-his patrons were such as were seeking for gameness and speed. When he
-was four years old he was not in the stud, and it is understood that Mr.
-Tredwell undertook to break him thoroughly and train him that year. It is
-also understood that when put in harness he kicked everything to pieces
-within his reach and that all thoughts of training were soon abandoned.
-He never was in harness again until, in extreme old age, he was sold for
-five dollars to a fish peddler, and the peddler’s wagon was soon reduced
-to kindling wood.
-
-He was kept at different points on Long Island, and one season in New
-Jersey, till the fall of 1839, when he, with Commodore, another son of
-Mambrino, was sold to Mr. John W. Hunt, of Lexington, Kentucky, where
-they made the season of 1840. Commodore was much the more attractive
-horse of the two, and did a large business, while Abdallah was almost
-wholly neglected, leaving only about half a dozen colts. Meantime
-his progeny on the island began to show their speed and their racing
-qualities; a company was formed and he was brought back from Kentucky and
-made the seasons of 1841 and 1842 at the Union Course, Long Island. He
-was at Goshen, New York, 1843, at Freehold, New Jersey, 1844 and 1845, at
-Chester, New York, 1846-47-48, at Bull’s Head, New York, 1849, and did
-nothing, then at the Union Course and Patchogue, Long Island, and was not
-off the island again. After the period of his usefulness was past his
-inhuman owners turned him out on a bleak, sandy beach on the Long Island
-shore, and there he starved to death in the piercing November winds,
-without a shelter or a friend.
-
-Abdallah was the sire of Hambletonian, 10, the greatest of all trotting
-progenitors and greater than all others combined. This fact alone has
-made his name imperishable in the annals of the trotting horse. A number
-of his other sons were kept for stallions and some of them lived to old
-age, but they were all failures in the stud. His daughters, generally,
-proved to be most valuable brood mares, producing speed to almost any
-and every cross. A pedigree tracing to an “Abdallah mare” has always
-enhanced the value of a family.
-
-ALMACK.—Mr. John Tredwell bred his famous team of driving mares, Amazonia
-and Sophonisba, to Mambrino in the spring of 1822, and the next year
-they each produced a bay horse colt that he named Abdallah and Almack.
-Sophonisba, the dam of Almack, was a superior mare, but she was not fast
-enough for her mate. Almack, however, was a good horse and left some
-trotters. I have no particular description of him at hand and nothing
-can now be given of his history further than that some of his daughters
-produced well and that he seems to have been kept all his life on Long
-Island. His dam Sophonisba was got by a grandson of imported Baronet,
-as represented, but this is so indefinite as to be unsatisfactory and
-suspicious. As none of the Baronets could ever trot, even “a little bit,”
-it is evident that whatever trotting inheritance Almack possessed came
-to him from his sire. Aside from a number of his descendants that were
-recognized trotters of merit there was one in particular that established
-Almack as a progenitor of a great family of trotters. A son of his bred
-by George Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, in 1842, and known as the
-“Raynor Colt,” out of Spirit by Engineer II., sire of Lady Suffolk, was
-led behind a sulky at a fair at Huntington, when he was eighteen months
-old, and he went so fast and showed such a magnificent way of doing it,
-that he was named “Champion” by William T. Porter, editor of the _Spirit
-of the Times_. At three years old he was driven a full mile in 3:05 and
-this was a “world’s record” for colts of that age at that time. In 1846
-he was purchased by William R. Grinnell for two thousand six hundred
-dollars and taken to Cayuga County, where he founded a great tribe of
-trotters that is now known everywhere as the “Champion Family.” A fuller
-account of this horse will be found at another place in this volume.
-
-MAMBRINO PAYMASTER (widely known in later years as Blind Paymaster).—This
-was a large, strong-boned, dark-bay horse, sixteen hands and an inch
-high. When young he was somewhat light and leggy, but with age he spread
-out and became a horse of substance. He was bred by Azariah Arnold, of
-the town of Washington, in Dutchess County, New York. There is some
-uncertainty about the year this horse was foaled, but it was somewhere
-between 1822 and 1826. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his
-dam was represented to be by imported Paymaster. The late Mr. Edwin
-Thorne made a statement a few years ago that in an interview with Azariah
-Arnold he said that he did not know or remember the horse that was the
-sire of the dam. At that time Mr. Arnold was very old, and doubtless his
-mental faculties very much impaired, so it would not be remarkable that
-he should have forgotten all about it. On the other hand, Nelson Haight,
-Daniel B. Haight, Seth P. Hopson, and others of like high character,
-maintain that Mr. Arnold, in his younger days, always represented the
-mare to be by Paymaster, and the name of the horse itself is very strong
-evidence that he did so represent it, and is a standing proclamation to
-that effect. There can be no possible doubt that in earlier life Mr.
-Arnold constantly represented this mare to be by Paymaster; neither can
-there be any reasonable doubt that when his faculties were impaired
-with age he told Mr. Thorne that he did not remember her pedigree. Mr.
-Arnold’s neighbors all agree that he was a man of unblemished character
-and incapable of a willful misrepresentation, when in possession of
-his faculties. Again, that this Paymaster cross was not only possible,
-but probable, is shown by the fact that imported Paymaster was kept by
-Ebenezer Haight, in the year 1807, in the same township with Azariah
-Arnold, and the years 1808 and 1809 in the same part of the county.
-Therefore, Mr. Thorne to the contrary notwithstanding, I have but little
-doubt that the Paymaster cross is correct.
-
-He had a small star in his forehead and a little white on one hind foot.
-His back, loin and hips were altogether superior, and those who knew him
-best say they never saw his equal at these points. His head was large and
-bony, with an ear after the Mambrino model. His neck was of medium length
-and his shoulder good. His hind legs were quite crooked and too much
-cut in below the hock in front, giving the legs at that point a narrow
-and weak appearance; his hocks were large and at the curb place showed
-a fullness. His cannon bones, all round, were short for a horse of his
-size, and his feet were excellent. He was slow in maturing, but when he
-filled out he lost all that narrow, weedy appearance which characterized
-his colthood. He was not beautiful, but powerful.
-
-About 1828 he was sold and taken to Binghamton, New York. Meantime his
-colts came forward and proved to be so valuable that Nelson and Daniel
-B. Haight and Gilbert Jones purchased and brought him back to Dutchess
-County about the year 1840. He was not a sure foal-getter, but his
-stock proved to be of great value. When brought back from Broome County
-he was blind. He made one season on Long Island in charge of George
-Tappan; the other seasons till 1847 he was kept in Dutchess County in the
-neighborhood of his owners. In 1847 he was sold to Mr. Gilbert Holmes and
-taken to Vermont, where he died after getting one colt. Many of his sons
-were kept as stallions, but the most famous of his get were the mares
-Iola and Lady Moore, and last but not least, his famous son Mambrino
-Chief, the founder of a great family of trotters in Kentucky. His stock
-were probably more noted and more highly prized than that of any of the
-sons of Mambrino that stood in Dutchess County. As Abdallah was the
-link by which the greatest of all trotting families are connected with
-Messenger, so Mambrino Paymaster is the link through which the family
-easily entitled to second place reaches the same illustrious original.
-
-MAMBRINO JR. (BONE SWINGER) was a beautiful bay horse, foaled 182-, got
-by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam not traced. He was bred on Long Island
-and was owned by George Tappan, near Jericho, Long Island. About 1833-4
-he made some seasons at Washington Hollow, Dutchess County. He was about
-fifteen hands three inches high and was considered more blood-like and
-handsome than most of his family. He was a strong breeder, giving most of
-his colts his own elegant color.
-
-MAMBRINO MESSENGER (commonly known as the Burton Horse) was foaled
-about 1821. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam by Coffin’s
-Messenger, son of Messenger; grandam by Black and All Black;
-great-grandam by Feather. He was bred by Abram Burton, of Washington
-Hollow, New York. He was a beautiful bay, about fifteen hands three
-inches high, and was the same age as Mambrino Paymaster, and they were
-rivals for a number of years, each having his friends and adherents. He
-was finer in the bone, having more finish and beauty than his rival, and
-what was still more effective with the public, he could out-trot him.
-Many of his offspring proved to be most excellent roadsters and some of
-them were fast. He was probably taken to Western New York, but I have
-not found any trace of his location or history. This name, Mambrino
-Messenger, was borne by several other horses of different degrees of
-affinity to the originals.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN (HARRIS’) (also known as Bristol Grey and Remington
-Horse).—This was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high, and possessed
-great strength and substance. When young he was an iron grey and probably
-pretty dark, but as he advanced in age he became lighter in color. His
-head was large and bony, with great width between the eyes. He was short
-in the back, with long hips, and the rise of the withers commenced far
-back, showing a fine, oblique shoulder. He was a horse of unusually large
-bone formation; his limbs were large, but flat and clean, with a heavy
-growth of hair at the fetlocks. He was of docile and kindly disposition
-and worked well either alone or with another. His gait was open and
-decided and at a walk his long slinging steps carried him over the ground
-unusually fast. His speed as a trotter was never developed, but his
-action at that gait was so free, open and square that those who knew him
-well have insisted that his manner of going indicated the possibility of
-great improvement, if he had been handled with that view. His offspring
-were slow in maturing, and for many years, indeed till toward the end
-of his life, he was not appreciated as a stallion. He was in constant
-competition with the little, plump, trim and trappy Morgans, and at three
-and four years old his long, lathy, plain colts cut but a sorry figure
-against the well formed and fully developed Morgans of their own age.
-With such a rivalry, sustained by the question of profit to the breeder
-by early sales, it is not remarkable that he should have been neglected,
-till it was clearly demonstrated that he transmitted the true Messenger
-trotting instinct in greater strength than any of his competitors.
-
-He was bred by Isaac Munson, of Wallingford, Vermont; foaled 1823, got
-by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam the Munson mare that was
-brought from Boston, 1813. There never has been any question about the
-sire of this horse, but up to 1869 the representation made by Mr. Harris
-that his dam was an imported English mare was generally accepted as the
-truth. I was led to doubt this, and in December of that year I made a
-thorough search of the records of the custom-house in Boston, and found
-the claim was without any foundation whatever. Through the kindness of
-Mr. Henry D. Noble I was enabled to get beyond Mr. Harris, who really
-knew nothing about the mare, back to the Munson family, and to Mr. Joseph
-Tucker, the earliest and best authority living in 1870. In order that
-this evidence may be preserved I will here insert Mr. Tucker’s letter
-entire.
-
-                                    “MILFORD, N. H., May 4th, 1870.
-
-    “MR. J. H. WALLACE, Muscatine, Iowa.
-
-    “DEAR SIR: Yours of 22d of April is duly received and contents
-    noted. I was 24 years old when first acquainted with the dam
-    of the ‘Harris Horse,’ so called, in the fall of 1813. Was
-    then carrying on a farm, now owned by Wm. Randall, Esq., in
-    this town, for Mr. Israel Munson, a commission merchant then
-    doing business on India Street, and afterward on Central
-    Wharf, Boston. I was in Boston in the fall of 1813, as above,
-    and found the dam (of Hambletonian) and mate in Mr. Munson’s
-    possession. He said they had been ‘leaders’ in a stage team,
-    and they acted as if green about holding back, etc. He never
-    said she was imported from England, neither did I hear such
-    a story till two or three years ago. The dam was called ‘a
-    Messenger.’ All the description I can give of her is that she
-    was a strong, well-built, light dapple grey, and would weigh
-    ten hundred, certain. The span was well matched. The nigh one
-    (the dam) was more serviceable than the other. Led them all the
-    way from Boston behind an ox team; kept them till the middle of
-    April and then returned the pair to Boston. Mr. Munson drove
-    them up, only stopping to dinner, when on his way to Vermont
-    in August, 1814, and I didn’t see them again until December. I
-    then drove them from Boston to Vermont, and used them a year on
-    the Munson farm, on Otter Creek, in Wallingford. In June, 1815,
-    I took them to Phœnix Horse (bay, black mane and tail, good
-    looking and smart) in Clarendon Flats. Both stood and had foals
-    the spring after I left Mr. Munson’s employ. The off mare was
-    occasionally a little lame, I think in the off fore foot, when
-    hard drove, but the nigh one was perfectly free from lameness
-    or limping. I left Mr. Munson in the spring of 1816, and know
-    nothing of mares afterward.
-
-                           “Yours truly,
-
-                                                     JOSEPH TUCKER,
-
-                                                “(By Geo. W. Fox).”
-
-I have given this letter entire, with the exception of a few closing
-sentences, that the public may be able to judge of its authenticity.
-That these mares were leaders in a stage team when Mr. Munson bought
-them is confirmed by members of the Munson family, and that the nigh
-mare was represented to be a Messenger at the time of the purchase I
-have not the least doubt. But whether she was really a Messenger is
-quite another question. All I can say is, it was possible in the nature
-of things; and the employment and qualities of the mare, together with
-the representations of Mr. Munson, appear to make it probable. During
-the mare’s lifetime I find she was spoken of in the Munson family and
-about Wallingford as “the imported Messenger mare” and in this phrase, no
-doubt, was the origin of the story that she was herself imported. When
-this phrase, through her son, reached the next outer circle, “imported
-Messenger mare” no longer meant a mare by imported Messenger, but an
-imported mare by Messenger.
-
-At the point where Mr. Tucker’s knowledge of this mare ceases,
-fortunately Mr. Isaac B. Munson, of Wallingford, takes up the history and
-carries it forward, with great particularity, to the time of her death
-about 1826. She produced several foals by different horses, and while
-they were all valuable animals, the only one that is known to history is
-the subject of this sketch. When Hambletonian of Vermont was two years
-old Mr. Munson sold him to Samuel Edgerton and others, of Wallingford,
-and they kept him in the stud till about 1828, when they sold him to Mr.
-Eddy, of Bristol, Vermont, and in the hands of the Eddy family he was
-kept at Bristol, New Haven, and other points in and about Addison County
-till about 1835, when he was kept one or two years again in Wallingford
-and adjacent towns. About 1837 he was sold to Joshua Remington, of
-Huntington, Vermont, and was taken there. He stood in various parts
-of Chittenden County, and became well known as the “Remington Horse.”
-Unfortunately there is no guide to dates in these transfers and it is
-not known just how long Mr. Remington owned him. He next passed into the
-hands of Mr. Russell Harris, New Haven, Connecticut, and remained his
-till he died late in the year 1847.
-
-The location of this horse was unfavorable either to a large or to a
-numerous progeny of trotters. He was surrounded with Morgan blood, trappy
-and stylish and fast growing in popularity on the supposition that they
-were trotters—a most valuable tribe as family horses, but none of them
-were able to trot fast without the introduction of trotting blood from
-the outside. He lived in a period antedating the real development of the
-trotter and the keeping of records of performances, and hence we must
-not judge of his merits as a trotting sire by comparing the list of his
-performers with lists of later generations. Green Mountain Maid was one
-of the best of her day and made a record of 2:28½ in 1853, and the same
-year the famous pacing gelding Hero made a record of 2:20½. Probably
-the best trotter from his loins was Sontag, with a wagon record in 1855
-of 2:31. This mare was originally a pacer, and whether his dam was by
-imported Messenger or not we must conclude that the tendency to the
-lateral action was strong in his progeny. Lady Shannon, Trouble, Vermont,
-Modesty, and True John were all famous performers in their day. The last
-named was kept in the stud a few years and was known as the Hanchett
-Horse. He fell into the hands of Sim D. Hoagland, of this vicinity,
-became ugly and was made a gelding. As a weight puller he had no equal
-in his day. His daughters became the dams of many noted producers and
-performers, and through the doubling of his blood and its predominating
-influence we have the famous General Knox and his tribe. But few of his
-sons were kept as stallions; among them the best known is Hambletonian,
-814, known as the Parris Horse and the sire of the stout campaigner,
-Joker, 2:22½. Vermont Hambletonian (known as the Noble or Harrington
-Horse) was one of his best and best-bred sons. He died in 1865, leaving a
-valuable progeny.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN (JUDSON’S) was a brown horse and resembled his sire
-very much in both size and form. He was foaled 1821, got by Bishop’s
-Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam by Wells’ Magnum Bonum. This Magnum
-Bonum family abounded in that region, and it was a very good one,
-whatever the blood may have been. This horse was bred by Judge Underhill,
-of Dorset, Vermont, and sold, 1829, to Dr. Nathan Judson, of Pawlet,
-Vermont. He was kept in that region till he died about 1841. His progeny
-were very numerous and valuable.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN (ANDRUS’) was a brown horse nearly sixteen hands high.
-He was a well formed and evenly balanced horse, all over, with an
-objectionable lack of bone just below the fore-knee. His head and ear
-were strongly after the Messenger model. I have never been able to
-determine just who bred him, and consequently his blood on the side
-of the dam is not fully established. He was foaled about 1840, got by
-Judson’s Hambletonian, and out of a mare which Mr. B. B. Sherman says
-was by old Magnum Bonum. He seems to have known this mare well and
-speaks of her as a very superior animal. This would indicate inbreeding
-to the Magnum Bonums, and as they were a light-limbed family we may
-account for this horse’s defects in that respect. He was owned a number
-of years by Mr. Andrus, of Pawlet, and passed into the hands of G. A.
-Austin, of Orwell, Vermont. In 1853-4 Mr. Austin sent him to Illinois,
-along with Drury’s Ethan Allen, Black Hawk Prophet, Morgan Tiger and
-some other stallions, in charge of Mr. Wetherbee, for sale. In 1854
-they were removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and several of them sold there,
-among them the Andrus Horse. He was then stiff in his limbs, showing the
-effects of previous neglect and abuse. He died at Muscatine in 1857.
-His progeny there were defective in bone. I am told several of his
-daughters in Vermont have left good stock there and thus perpetuated
-his name in the second and third generations. But his chief title to
-fame has been secured to him by his renowned daughter Princess, the dam
-of the great Happy Medium. In 1851 Mr. L. B. Adams, who then owned her,
-bred the Isaiah Wilcox mare, by Burdick’s Engineer, son of Engineer by
-Messenger, to Andrus’ Hambletonian, and, in a nutshell, the union of this
-great-grandson of Messenger with this great-granddaughter of Messenger
-produced Princess. This pedigree of Princess is incontrovertibly
-established and will be given in fuller detail in the history of her son,
-Happy Medium.
-
-[Illustration: HAMBLETONIAN (RYSDYK’S).
-
-The greatest of all trotting progenitors and the most intensely inbred to
-Messenger.]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.
-
-    The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s
-    description, and comments thereon—An analysis of Hambletonian,
-    structurally considered—His carriage and action—As a
-    three-year-old trotter—Details of his stud service—Statistics
-    of the Hambletonian family—History and ancestry of his dam, the
-    Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson, Green’s Bashaw and his dam.
-
-
-HAMBLETONIAN, 10.—It has been a matter of constant regret that in
-the compilation of the first volume of the Register I attached the
-name “Rysdyk’s” to this horse, and this misstep has served as a kind
-of apparent justification for very many men to seize upon the name
-“Hambletonian,” with their own name as a prefix. This has led to great
-confusion and annoyance to all that body of men who have anything to do
-with records and correct pedigrees. Fortunately, however, the evil has
-become so apparent that many writers are beginning to use the numbers,
-and we now very frequently hear men speak of “Hambletonian, 10,” as the
-true designation of this horse.
-
-As no horse of any blood or period in this or any other country has
-excited an interest so universal, or represented such a vast sum of money
-in his offspring and descendants, I must try to give an account of him
-and his family—ancestors and descendants—as full and accurate as the
-materials at hand will enable me. He was a beautiful bay color, bred by
-Jonas Seely, of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York, foaled 1849, got by
-Abdallah; dam the Kent Mare, by imported Bellfounder; grandam One Eye,
-by Hambletonian, son of Messenger; great-grandam Silvertail, by imported
-Messenger; great-great-grandam Black Jin, breeding unknown. He was sold
-with his dam, when a suckling, to Mr. William M. Rysdyk, of Chester, in
-the same county, and he remained his till he died in March, 1876. He has
-been described by a great many writers, but the most minute and accurate
-description I have ever seen is from the pen of “Hark Comstock” (Peter C.
-Kellogg), which I will here present, and after it note any point upon
-which my own judgment differs from his. It should be remembered that this
-description was made when the horse was breaking down with the weight of
-years:
-
-    Hambletonian, now twenty-six years old, is a rich deep mahogany
-    bay, with black legs, the black extending very high up on the
-    arms and stifles. His mane was originally black, and in his
-    younger days very ornamental; rather light, like that of the
-    blood-horse, and of medium length, never reaching below the
-    lower line of the neck, but uniform throughout. His foretop
-    was always light. At the present time not a vestige of either
-    remains, they having gradually disappeared until crest and
-    crown are bald. His tail is long and full. When we first knew
-    him it was very full, but is also thinning with his advancing
-    years. The hair of both was black as a raven’s wing, and
-    entirely devoid of wave or curl. His marks are a very small
-    star and two white ankles behind, but the coronets being dotted
-    with black spots, the hoofs are mainly dark. Muzzle dark. Head
-    large and bony, with profile inclining to the Roman order; jowl
-    deep; jaws not as wide apart as in some of his descendants, yet
-    not deficient. Eye very large and prominent, and countenance
-    generally animated and expressive of good temper. We found
-    him to measure 10½ inches across the face. Ear large, well
-    set, and lively. Neck rather short and a little heavy at the
-    throatlatch, but thin and clean at the crest. His shoulders are
-    very oblique, deep and strong; withers low and broad; sway very
-    short, and coupling smooth. The great fillets of muscle running
-    back along the spine give extraordinary width and strength to
-    the loin, which threatens to lose the closely-set hip in the
-    wealth of its embrace. But it is back of here that we find
-    lodged the immense and powerful machinery that, imparted to
-    his sons and daughters, has ever placed them in the foremost
-    ranks of trotters. His hip is long and croup high, with great
-    length from hip-point to hock. Thighs and stifles swelling with
-    the sinewy muscle, which extends well down into his large,
-    clean, bony hocks, hung near the ground. Below these the leg is
-    broad, flat, and clean, with the tendons well detached from the
-    bone, and drops at a considerable angle with the upper part of
-    the limb, giving the well-bent rather than the straight hock.
-    Pasterns long, but strong and elastic, and let into hoofs that
-    are perfection. In front his limbs in strength and muscular
-    development comport with the rear formation. His chest is broad
-    and prominent; his forelegs stand wide apart (perhaps in part
-    the result of much covering), and he is deep through the heart;
-    yet notwithstanding this, and the fact of his roundness of
-    barrel, there is no appearance of heaviness or hampered action.
-
-    Taken at a glance, the impressive features of the horse are
-    his immense substance, without a particle of coarseness or
-    grossness. No horse we can recall has so great a volume of
-    bone, with the same apparent firmness of texture and true
-    blood-like quality. Though short-backed, he is very long
-    underneath. Indeed, he is a horse of greater than apparent
-    length. We found his measurement from breast to breeching, in
-    a straight line, greater by four inches than his height at the
-    withers—a very unusual excess. We also found him two inches
-    higher over the rump than at the withers, and the whole rear,
-    or propelling portion of the machinery, would upon measurement
-    seem to have been molded for an animal two sizes larger
-    than the one to which it is attached; yet so beautifully
-    is its connection effected with the whole that there is no
-    disproportion apparent, either in the symmetry or the action
-    of the horse. As an evidence of the immense reach which this
-    admirable rear construction enables him to obtain, it is often
-    noticed by visitors that in his favorite attitude, as he stands
-    in his box, his off hind foot is thrown forward so far under
-    him as to nearly touch the one in front of it—an attitude which
-    few horses of his proportionate length could take without an
-    apparent strain, yet which he assumes at perfect repose. When
-    led out upon the ground his walk strikes one as being different
-    from that of any other horse. It cannot be described further
-    than to say that it shows a true and admirable adjustment of
-    parts, and a perfect pliability and elasticity of mechanism
-    that shows out through every movement. Many have noticed and
-    endeavored to account in different ways for the peculiarity,
-    some crediting it to the pliable pastern, others to surplus of
-    knee and hock action, etc., but the fact is, there seems to be
-    a suppleness of the whole conformation that delights to express
-    itself in every movement and action of the horse. “In his box,”
-    said a Kentucky horseman, who recently looked him over, “I
-    thought him too massive to be active, but the moment he stepped
-    out I saw that he was all action.”
-
-There is so much in the foregoing description that is intelligent and
-just that I hardly feel like reviewing a single phrase. In judging of
-the conformation of a horse and determining whether it is good or bad,
-at different points, we must have in our mind some ideal standard, by
-which we mentally compare one thing with another. The popular conception
-of the perfect horse is the picture of the “Arabian,” painted by artists
-who never saw an Arabian horse. The next approach to perfection is the
-English race horse, but others may insist that the Clydesdale comes
-nearer perfection and that he should be the ideal with which the standard
-of comparison should be made. It is unfortunate that Mr. Kellogg should
-have described Hambletonian as possessing “immense substance, without a
-particle of coarseness, or grossness.” He had a remarkably coarse head
-in its size and outline, but this is greatly softened by saying “with a
-profile inclining to the Roman order.” The ideal muzzle of the English
-race horse is so fine that, figuratively speaking, he can drink out of
-a tin cup, but Hambletonian could not get his muzzle into a vessel of
-much smaller dimensions than a half-bushel measure. “Ear large, well set
-and lively.” This is true as to the size of the ears, but not correct,
-in my judgment, as to the setting on. As they habitually lopped backward
-when in repose, giving a sour and ill-tempered expression, I could not
-concede that they were “well set.” The hocks were good and clean, but
-the abrupt angle at that point was certainly a coarse feature. The
-round meaty withers and the round meaty buttocks were both “coarse and
-gross” when looked at from the point of good breeding. His two great,
-meaty ends, connected with a long and perfect barrel, two or three sizes
-too small for the ends, showed such a marked disproportion that I often
-wondered at it. Not one of these criticisms is made in the sense of a
-criticism of Mr. Kellogg’s description, but merely as the expression of
-a different view on some points, and on those points not mentioned I
-most heartily agree with him. He has omitted to give the height of the
-horse for the reason that he had shrunken from his normal height just one
-inch. When at his best he measured fifteen hands one inch and a quarter.
-This shrinkage, in addition to the ordinary results of great age, is
-thus explained by Mr. Guy Miller, who knew him better than any other
-man except his owner. “His splendid fore hoofs had been ruined by an
-operation whereby the arch was lost and the horse during the remainder of
-his days stood on his frogs.” He was two inches higher on the hips than
-on the withers.
-
-When the horse was led out his movements were so frictionless and
-faultless that he impressed me as the most wonderful horse that I had
-ever seen. He seemed as supple as a cat with the power of an elephant.
-As he walked he kept pushing those crooked hind legs away under him in
-a manner that gave him a motion peculiarly his own, and suggested the
-immense possibilities of his stride when opened out on a trot. Plain and
-indeed homely as he was he was a most interesting and instructive study
-whether in his box or taking his daily walks. The question has been asked
-a thousand times whether the speed of Hambletonian had been developed
-and how fast he could go. This question I considered very important, in
-a philosophical and breeding sense, and in starting in to investigate
-it I found two statements, one that the time made at the Union Course
-was honest and true, and the other that it was a “put up job” to make
-Mr. Rysdyk feel good, and that the time in fact was much slower than
-that announced. Each side had its advocates, and it did not take long
-to discover that the enemies of Mr. Rysdyk were all on one side and the
-more bitter their enmity the more blatant they were in denying the truth
-of the time given out for the performance. This party was headed by
-one “J. M.,” long distinguished, and will be long remembered in Orange
-County, for the virulence of his dislike to Mr. Rysdyk, and as the most
-unreliable of all unreliable horsemen.
-
-In the autumn of 1852 Mr. Rysdyk and Mr. Seely C. Roe, the owner of Roe’s
-Abdallah Chief, then four years old, concluded to exhibit their sons of
-Abdallah at the fair of the American Institute, in New York, and after
-the fair to take their colts, three and four years old respectively, for
-a light training for a few weeks. The programme was carried out, and
-after reaching the course they started the two colts together, and much
-to Mr. Roe’s surprise Hambletonian beat his colt in 3:03. In a short
-time Mr. Roe gave his colt another trial in 2:55½. A few days later Mr.
-Rysdyk drove his colt in 2:48. Believing then he had the making of the
-best trotter in the world and being thoroughly homesick, he packed up
-his traps and started for Orange County, and this was the first and the
-last training that Hambletonian ever had. When we consider the age of the
-colt and how few of that age had then ever reached that mark, the little
-then known by amateurs of the arts of training and driving, and the very
-limited preparation, we must conclude that this was a remarkably good
-performance.
-
-Was it honestly made? Mr. Roe has been dead a good many years, but the
-next day after he returned from Long Island with Mr. Rysdyk he called at
-the house of his brother-in-law, David R. Feagles, a very responsible
-man, and in the course of the conversation he asked Mr. Feagles if he
-had heard the news? “No,” said Mr. Feagles, “what is it?” “Rysdyk’s colt
-trotted the Union Course in 2:48. I held my watch and I know it is true.”
-Mr. Roe was always steadfast and immovable in this declaration while he
-lived. Mr. W. H. Wood, the breeder of Abdallah Chief, says he told him
-the time was 2:48, and he had several times heard it disputed in Mr.
-Roe’s presence and he had always settled the dispute by giving the same
-fact. Mr. David R. Seely said he could not remember the time made, but he
-had heard the matter disputed, and Mr. Roe settled it by saying it was
-true, that he saw it and held the watch on him when he did it. These men
-were as reliable as any in Orange County and their statement of Mr. Roe’s
-assertions cannot be doubted. Considering the circumstances, it will
-occur to any mind that Mr. Roe was the very best witness to the truth of
-this performance that could be produced. He was not only disinterested,
-but in building up the reputation of a rival stallion he was testifying
-to his own hurt.
-
-There are other evidences of Hambletonian’s development and speed, but
-nothing so definite as the foregoing. He was driven in double team
-sometimes with the great trotter Sir Walter. Mr. Kinner, at one time
-owner of Sir Walter and other good ones, a horseman of experience and
-knowledge of trotting affairs, assured me that Sir Walter had shown a
-trial at Centerville track to wagon in 2:32, and this was before he was
-driven double, occasionally, with Hambletonian; and that Hambletonian
-could out-foot Sir Walter for the first half-mile, but as the young horse
-was green and unseasoned, he could not keep up the clip to the finish. He
-did not hesitate to express the belief that the team could have trotted
-the mile in considerably less than 2:40. There is one fact in connection
-with the trial at Union Course that I have omitted in its proper place.
-Mr. Rysdyk was a remarkably careful man and always aimed to be inside of
-the truth rather than beyond it. He advertised his horse as having made
-the trial in 2:48½, as it is probable some of the watches gave that as
-the time, instead of 2:48 flat.
-
-Like all the Abdallah family, Hambletonian matured early, and at three
-years was as well advanced as many colts a year older. His stud services
-commenced early. When two years old he was allowed to cover four mares
-without fee and he got three colts, one of which was afterward known as
-the famous Alexander’s Abdallah. When three years old he was offered
-for public patronage at twenty-five dollars to insure, and he covered
-seventeen mares and got thirteen colts. The next season, at the same
-price, he covered one hundred and one mares and got seventy-eight
-colts. The next season (1854), being then five years old, the price was
-advanced to thirty-five dollars, and he covered eighty-eight mares,
-getting sixty-three foals. The price remained at thirty-five dollars
-till 1863, when it was advanced to seventy-five dollars. At which price
-he covered one hundred and fifty mares. The next season the price was
-advanced to one hundred dollars, and he covered two hundred and seventeen
-mares, getting one hundred and forty-eight foals. In 1865 the price
-was advanced to three hundred dollars and one hundred and ninety-three
-mares were covered. In 1866 the price was put at five hundred dollars
-and one hundred and five mares were covered. At this price his services
-remained ever afterward—one hundred dollars down and the remainder when
-the mare proved in foal. In 1867 he covered seventy-seven mares and got
-only forty-one foals. This large percentage of failure indicated beyond
-question that his procreative powers had been overtaxed and that there
-was a general letting down of his vital energies. In 1868 he was not
-allowed to cover any mares. In 1869 he again manifested his usual vigor
-and he covered twenty-one mares, getting fourteen foals. In 1870 he
-covered twenty-two mares and got thirteen foals. From this time forward
-his procreative powers dwindled, and in 1875, I think, he got but two
-foals, and died the following March.
-
-It has been estimated that he got about one thousand three hundred
-foals, and for several years it was one of the amusing features of horse
-literature to see how many writers were able to demonstrate that as a
-progenitor of speed he was a failure. This item of one thousand three
-hundred foals was taken as the basis of computation, and then with the
-small number of forty trotters out of the one thousand three hundred,
-the percentage of trotters was very small. The next step was to find
-some unknown horse, generally a pacer, that had only two or three foals
-to his credit and one of them had made a record of 2:30, thus showing
-a much larger percentage than Hambletonian, and by that much he was a
-greater sire than Hambletonian. All this foolishness has now subsided in
-the face of the fact that the great mass of the trotters of today have
-more or less of his blood in their veins, and in a very short time that
-blood will abound in greater or less strength in every American trotter.
-The tables which here follows will make this fact evident to all who will
-study them.
-
-    [Prefatory to these tables and to the other statistics
-    concerning the present rank of the trotting families given
-    in the pages following, an explanatory paragraph is in order
-    so that they may not be misunderstood. (1) They are based
-    on the tables given in the Year Book for 1896, and I regret
-    to say that these tables are so emasculated, incomplete,
-    unsatisfactory and in many cases contradictory one of the other
-    that it is literally impossible to compile from them statistics
-    that may be accepted as absolutely correct and letter perfect.
-    However, as this work is not intended as one for statistical
-    reference, the tables being approximately correct serve
-    my purpose, which is merely to show _relatively_ and with
-    substantial accuracy the standing of the sires and families
-    embraced to the close of 1896. (2) By the term “standard
-    performers” is meant horses that have acquired trotting records
-    of 2:30 or better, or pacing records of 2:25 or better. The
-    Year Book no longer gives a 2:30 pacing list, and it should
-    be noted that pacers with records between 2:30 and 2:25 are
-    not credited in these tables. (3) The tables are designed to
-    show (_a_) the number of standard performers got by each sire
-    named. (_b_) The number of his sons that are sires of standard
-    performers. (_c_) The number of his daughters that are dams of
-    standard performers. (_d_) The number of standard performers
-    produced by these sons and daughters, and finally, in the last
-    column, the total number of standard performers produced in the
-    two generations—_i. e._, by the sire himself, and by his sons
-    and daughters. The dates of foaling and death are important in
-    considering the opportunities of the families embraced.]
-
-The first table following gives some idea of the supremacy of the
-Hambletonian family over all others. When we seek a rival to Hambletonian
-as a trotting progenitor we must do so among his sons; and by turning to
-the second table it will be noted that many of these outrank the founders
-of any and all the other great trotting families.
-
-FOUNDERS OF THE GREAT TROTTING FAMILIES.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-                         Total No. Standard performers in two generations.
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------+
-                Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                        Producing daughters. |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                       Producing sons. |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                            Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                                Year died. |     |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-  Hambletonian               | 1849 | 1876 |  40 | 148 |  80 | 1665 | 1705
-  Blue Bull                  | 1858 | 1880 |  60 |  47 |  77 |  211 |  271
-  Mambrino Chief             | 1844 | 1862 |   6 |  23 |  17 |  119 |  125
-  Ethan Allen                | 1849 | 1876 |   6 |  22 |  18 |  118 |  124
-  Pilot Jr.                  | 1858 | 1865 |   8 |   6 |  18 |   72 |   80
-  George M. Patchen          | 1849 | 1864 |   4 |  15 |   4 |   70 |   74
-  Champion (807)             | 1853 | 1874 |   8 |   6 |   7 |   53 |   61
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-
-In this table Ethan Allen is given as the representative of his family
-in preference to his sire, Black Hawk, the real founder, for the reasons
-that he was a far greater horse, and makes a better showing than his
-sire, and further because he was a contemporary of Hambletonian. For
-exactly the same reasons George M. Patchen is given as the representative
-progenitor of the Clay line.
-
-The next table demonstrates what the Hambletonian family has done in the
-second and third generations, and the relative standing of the leading
-sub-families of the greatest trotting line. It embraces separately
-every sire that has to his own credit and to the credit of his sons and
-daughters an aggregate of fifty or more standard performers, twenty-three
-in all, while the totals to the credit of all the other sons of
-Hambletonian are grouped in the last line:
-
-FAMILIES OF HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-                         Total No. Standard performers in two generations.
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------+
-                Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                        Producing daughters. |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                       Producing sons. |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                            Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                                Year died. |     |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-  George Wilkes              | 1856 | 1882 |  83 |  94 |  81 | 1801 | 1884
-  Electioneer                | 1868 | 1890 | 154 |  65 |  43 |  493 |  647
-  Happy Medium               | 1863 | 1888 |  92 |  51 |  47 |  272 |  364
-  Harold                     | 1864 | 1893 |  44 |  43 |  45 |  248 |  292
-  Dictator                   | 1863 | 1893 |  52 |  44 |  42 |  234 |  286
-  Volunteer                  | 1854 | 1888 |  34 |  40 |  48 |  221 |  255
-  Strathmore                 | 1866 | 1895 |  71 |  26 |  54 |  158 |  229
-  Abdallah (15)              | 1852 | 1865 |   5 |  14 |  29 |  199 |  204
-  Aberdeen                   | 1866 | 1892 |  45 |  25 |  19 |  110 |  155
-  Egbert                     | 1875 |  ——  |  75 |  25 |  18 |   74 |  149
-  Messenger Duroc.           | 1865 | 189- |  23 |  24 |  41 |  125 |  148
-  Edward Everett             | 1855 | 1878 |  13 |  12 |  16 |  112 |  125
-  Administrator              | 1863 | 1892 |  14 |  20 |  44 |   93 |  107
-  Jay Gould                  | 1864 | 1894 |  29 |  14 |  28 |   76 |  105
-  Victor Bismarck            | 1867 | 189- |  31 |  13 |  13 |   64 |   95
-  Cuyler                     | 1868 | 1894 |  15 |  15 |  36 |   74 |   89
-  Masterlode                 | 1868 | 189- |  28 |  17 |  16 |   57 |   85
-  Sweepstakes                | 1867 | 189- |  35 |   4 |  20 |   39 |   74
-  Sentinel                   | 1863 | 1873 |   8 |   9 |  14 |   57 |   65
-  Middletown                 | 1860 | 1891 |  14 |   9 |  11 |   49 |   63
-  Squire Talmage             | 1866 | 1891 |  23 |   9 |  14 |   35 |   58
-  Dauntless                  | 1867 | 189- |  31 |   6 |   9 |   20 |   51
-  Echo                       | 1866 | 189- |  16 |   9 |  15 |   34 |   50
-  Other sons (125)           |  ——  |  ——  | 618 | 229 | 412 |  980 | 1600
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-
-This table shows what each horse himself produced, and how his blood is
-breeding on through his sons and daughters; and above all it demonstrates
-the stupendous fact that in three generations the Hambletonian family has
-produced upward of seven thousand standard performers, and all facts and
-all experience now beyond cavil justify what I ventured to declare in
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ many years ago: “The Hambletonian line stands above
-all other lines and must survive because it is the fittest.”
-
-THE CHARLES KENT MARE, dam of Hambletonian, was a bay, fifteen and
-three-quarter hands high, with a star, left forward ankle roan, and
-left hind foot white. Her son was long and round, just the opposite of
-her sire. Hips rather coarse, and might be considered a little ragged.
-Stifles very powerful and well-developed. Her hocks and legs were exactly
-represented in her son Hambletonian. Her neck was fine and bloodlike, but
-not long. Her head was good, and her eyes remarkably full and bright,
-showing considerable white. Her mane was long, but thin, and her tail
-was light. Her shoulders were well-sloped, her withers ran up high, and
-were thin. Jonas Seely, Sr., having given the old mare One Eye to his son
-Charles, she was sold to Josiah S. Jackson, of Oxford, Orange County.
-Mr. Jackson bred her to Bellfounder and the produce was the Kent mare.
-Although the Seely family owned the stock, originally and afterward, Mr.
-Jackson was really the breeder of this mare. Mr. Jonas Seely says she was
-got the year Bellfounder stood at Poughkeepsie (1831), but Mr. Rysdyk
-says she was got in 1832, when Bellfounder stood at Washingtonville. Mr.
-Jackson sold her at three years old to Peter Seely for three hundred
-dollars; Mr. Seely sold her soon after to Mr. Pray, of New York, for four
-hundred dollars; Mr. Pray sold her to William Chivis for five hundred
-dollars; and Mr. Chivis sold her to a gentleman, who was a banker in New
-York—name not remembered—to match another as a fast road team. This team
-ran away after a time, and she was injured, and became lame. Charles
-Kent, a butcher in New York, then bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom
-Thumb, before he came to Orange County. At this juncture, on the earnest
-recommendation of Mr. Pray, who had tested the quality of three or four
-of the family, Mr. Jonas Seely—Jonas, second—bought the mare of Kent for
-one hundred and thirty-five dollars, and took her back to the old place,
-where she was bred and produced as follows:
-
-  1843. Brown filly Belle, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.
-  1845. Black gelding, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.
-  1846. Chestnut filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.
-  1848. Brown filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.
-  1849. Bay colt Hambletonian, by Abdallah (mare and colt sold to
-          William M. Rysdyk, for $125).
-  1850. Brown filly (went to Maryland), by Young Patriot.
-  1851. Lost foal, by L. I. Black Hawk.
-  1852. Brown colt Tippoo Saib, by Brook’s Black Hawk.
-  1853. Chestnut colt (died young), by Fiddler.
-  1856. Brown gelding, by Plato.
-  1859. Bay colt, by Almack, son of Hambletonian.
-
-In the preceding list there are but two fillies that lived to produce
-anything, and one of them is lost from sight. The produce of the first
-will be given below. The Patriot filly that went to Maryland was a brown,
-and of good size, but nothing further is known of her.
-
-The Tom Thumb gelding of 1845 was in 1869 a good road horse, and was
-owned by George S. Conklin. He was showy and stylish without very much
-speed. Her fifth foal, Hambletonian, is known wherever the trotting horse
-is known.
-
-This mare was a trotter of no ordinary merit. She was never in any races,
-so far as known, except they might have been of a private nature, but
-after she passed into the hands of Peter Seely her speed was pretty well
-developed. This is not only shown by the advance in her price from owner
-to owner, but it appears to be a well-established fact that when four
-years old Peter Seely had her at the Union Course, and he there gave
-her two trials to saddle, the first in 2:43 and the second in 2:41. For
-a time I was skeptical about these trials, but they seem to be beyond
-question. This is considerably faster than any other of the get of
-imported Bellfounder ever trotted in this country, and from this we may
-conclude that her inheritance from her dam was the great factor in her
-speed.
-
-ONE EYE, the dam of the Kent mare, was a brown, about fifteen hands and
-an inch high, with two white feet and perhaps a little white in her
-face. With the taste Mr. Seely had of the Messenger blood in Silvertail
-he wanted more of it; and when Townsend Cock sent the famous Bishop’s
-Hambletonian to Goshen in 1814, Mr. Seely bred his daughter of Messenger
-to this son of Messenger and the produce was One Eye. I do not learn
-that this mare was handsome, but she was an animal of most remarkable
-courage and endurance. The load was never too heavy nor the road too
-long. Withal, she had a will of her own and was a little hard to manage
-unless she was worked constantly. One day when on her mettle she got an
-eye knocked out by accident, and, hence, her name; but the great quality
-of this mare was her remarkable trotting action. Those familiar with her
-gait, and entirely competent to judge, are enthusiastic in the opinion
-that no trotter of the present day ever surpassed, her in a grand open
-trotting step. If the patience and skill brought into use in developing
-the modern trotter had been expended on her, she doubtless would have
-surpassed all of her day, not even excepting her near relation, old
-Topgallant. This mare illustrates a point of very great importance. She
-was got by a son of Messenger that was a running horse of merit and
-able to beat some of the best of his day, and her dam was a daughter of
-Messenger. The trotting action of neither sire nor dam had ever been
-developed, but when these two Messengers came together, the clean, open,
-unmistakable trotting gait was the result. Right at this point and in
-this mare, One Eye, we have the incipient cause of all Hambletonian’s
-greatness. This mare was bred by Jonas Seely, Sr.; given to his son
-Charles, who sold her to his brother-in-law, Josiah Jackson, of Oxford in
-Orange County. According the recollection of Mr. Rysdyk, who was entirely
-familiar with the Seely family and their affairs, she produced as follows:
-
-  1829. Bay gelding Crabstick, by Seagull.
-  1830. Bay gelding Pray Colt, by Seagull.
-  1831. Bay filly Young One Eye, by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy.
-  1833. Bay filly Kent Mare, by imp. Bellfounder. Sold to Mr. Pray.
-  1834. Bay filly; sold also to Mr. Pray, by imp. Bellfounder.
-          Perhaps there was another foal that died.
-
-The first of her foals, Crabstick, appears to have been well-named.
-His temper was anything but smooth and pleasant. He was sold early
-to Mr. Ebenezer Pray, of New York, and he soon evinced two traits of
-character that did not elevate him in the estimation of his owner. He
-would throw every one off that dared to mount him, and when they did get
-him under motion he was determined to pace and not trot. On a certain
-occasion Mr. Rysdyk visited Mr. Pray, and he was urged to try his skill
-in riding Crabstick and see if he could make him trot. The attempt was
-long-continued, and embraced up hill, down hill, and level work, but
-all to no purpose, as pace he would. At last Mr. Pray proposed to put
-him over rails and stakes, placed on the road at intervals of a good
-trotting stride, and see if that would make him quit moving one side
-at a time. Mr. Rysdyk went up the road and got under good headway, but
-just before he reached the rails the horse threw him. He was not much
-hurt, mounted again, and then commenced in earnest the fight for the
-mastery between the horse and his rider. The value of a neck was nothing
-when compared with the great question of who should conquer. The next
-attempt was successful, and he went over the rails flying. The intervals
-between them were then extended, and he was kept at that most dangerous
-exercise till he would trot without rails, and until both horse and rider
-were completely exhausted. The horse was conquered, and although always
-willful and hard to manage, ever after, when called on to trot, he would
-do it. Mr. Pray sold him to Mr. Vanderbilt, and, although kept as a
-private driving horse, he was fast for his day, and could go in less than
-three minutes at any time.
-
-Her next foal was sold also to Mr. Pray when five years old, and was
-known as the Pray Colt. He was marked just as his brother Crabstick, and,
-like him, was somewhat vicious and hard to manage.
-
-The third foal, Young One Eye, was by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy,
-whose pedigree is not now known. One of her eyes was knocked out by Peter
-Seely, accidentally, when breaking her, just as her dam had lost an
-eye. She passed out of the hands of the Seely family and her subsequent
-history is unknown. If this mare ever produced anything, her history and
-that of her descendants would be of great interest and value.
-
-The question at once suggests itself, Where did Crabstick get his pacing
-action? It could not have been from his sire, as he was a son of Duroc,
-so said, but it may have come from Seagull’s dam, as we know nothing
-of her breeding; or it may have come from old Black Jin, the dam of
-Silvertail. If from neither of these we must then conclude it came
-from Messenger himself, or rather, through him from some of his pacing
-ancestors. It is altogether probable that the strong infusion of pacing
-blood in Messenger’s veins was the real element that made him a trotting
-progenitor when every other imported English horse failed in that respect.
-
-Silvertail, the great-grandam of Hambletonian, was a dark brown mare
-with white hind feet and a white face. She had a great many white hairs
-in her tail and hence she was called Silvertail. She was foaled in 1802
-and was bred by Mr. Jonas Seely, Sr., of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New
-York. She was got by imported Messenger in 1801, the year he stood at
-Goshen, New York. Her dam was a great, slashing black mare called “Jin”
-that Mr. Seely had used in his business many years, but her origin and
-breeding cannot now be found. She must have been a real good one or Mr.
-Seely would not have taken her to Messenger. In the summer of 1806, as
-was his custom, he was down at New York with a drove of cattle, and his
-son Jonas, then a lad of eight or ten years old, went along to help
-drive the cattle and to see the city. He was detained two or three days
-longer than he expected and it was very important that he should reach
-home at a certain time. On the morning of that day he found himself in
-Hoboken, with his son, and no means of getting home except on Silvertail.
-So he took the boy up behind him and went home that day, seventy-five
-miles, by sundown. She was fully sixteen hands high and of very fine
-style. Her head, neck and ear were bloodlike, and her resolution and will
-were remarkable even in old age. Her step, at the trot, is not known to
-have been much developed, but she could gallop all day long. On several
-occasions she carried her master to Albany in a day. Besides the famous
-One Eye she produced several superior foals that brought high prices, in
-those days, but we have only the one line tracing to her as a producer.
-She died the property of Ebenezer Seely.
-
-In searching for the particulars of this pedigree of Hambletonian and
-in tracing it back to old “Black Jin,” I was necessarily brought into
-contact with a great many people, some of whom were helpful and some were
-not. As a matter of course I met with the usual number who professed to
-“know it all,” but really knew nothing that was reliable. As the whole
-tracing was in the Seely family, the public may wish to know what kind
-of people they were. Jonas Seely, first, of Oxford in Orange County, was
-a large farmer in the last century and an extensive cattle feeder and
-drover. As there were no railroads or steam boats in those days, much
-of his time was given to driving cattle, either in collecting them from
-the interior or in taking them to market in New York. He had use for
-good horses and he had a fancy for the best. His business brought him
-into contact with the butchers of New York, and we find he sold many of
-his horses as well as his cattle to them. These same business relations
-were continued under his successor. He left a large family of sons who
-seemed to take to the horse as a duck takes to water. Jonas, second, was
-one of his younger sons and succeeded to his father’s business as well
-as to the homestead. He was born 1797 at Oxford, and his father removed
-to the farm at Sugar Loaf when he was a child. He was a thrifty and
-successful farmer. For a number of years he was engaged with his partner
-and lifelong friend, Ebenezer Pray, in buying and driving cattle from
-the West to the New York market. In June, 1882, he passed away and there
-ended an acquaintance and a friendship of nearly thirty years. He was a
-strictly conscientious and truthful man, and died in the glorious hope of
-a devoted Christian. His first visit to New York, in 1806, the wonders
-he saw there, and especially the total eclipse that occurred while he
-was there, and how he watched it from the Bull’s Head tavern, through a
-piece of smoked glass, and the ride home the next day behind his father
-on Silvertail, and how he ran down many a hill to rest himself, and how
-tired he was when they reached home, are incidents that were all detailed
-to me with the interest and vigor of yesterday.
-
-When One Eye was about fifteen years old the elder Jonas gave her or
-sold her to his son-in-law, Josiah Jackson, and in due time he bred her
-to imported Bellfounder and she produced the Charles Kent mare. Mr.
-Rysdyk thought the elder Jonas gave this mare to his son Charles and
-that Charles sold her to Mr. Jackson, which is not material. After the
-Kent mare had been battered about in New York for some years and finally
-crippled, Charles Kent, a butcher, bought her and bred her to Webber’s
-Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse that was quite a trotter. On one occasion
-when Jonas II. and Mr. Pray were down in the city, Kent wanted to sell
-the mare, and Mr. Pray urged Jonas very strongly to buy her and take her
-home for a brood mare. He concluded to do so if she were not too badly
-crippled, and they together went over on to the island to see her, when
-she came again into the Seely family. In 1848 he bred her to Abdallah, in
-1849 she produced a bay colt, and in the autumn of that year he sold her
-with her colt to William M. Rysdyk, who had been employed on his farm for
-the year, for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and this colt proved
-to be the great Hambletonian.
-
-As it is now conceded, not only in this country, but throughout the
-world, that Hambletonian, as a trotting progenitor, is far and away the
-greatest horse that has ever been produced, a careful and true analysis
-of the blood elements entering into his inheritance is a most interesting
-and instructive lesson for all breeders. First we have the direct cross
-from Messenger himself in Silvertail; second, we have the cross from a
-son of Messenger on a daughter of Messenger in One Eye, making her equal
-to a daughter of Messenger in blood; third, we have the out-cross from
-Bellfounder, that was a total failure as a trotting progenitor, on this
-double granddaughter of Messenger, and the result is a trotter in the
-Kent mare and practically the only trotter that Bellfounder ever got;
-fourth, we have the cross of a grandson and probably a double grandson
-of Messenger on this trotter, and the produce is Hambletonian himself.
-These crosses show a stronger concentration of Messenger blood than can
-be found in any horse of his generation.
-
-BASHAW (GREEN’S).—This was a black horse, fifteen and a half hands high,
-bred by Jonas Seely, the breeder of Hambletonian; foaled 1855, and
-given when following his dam to his son-in-law, Colonel F. M. Cummins,
-of Muscatine, Iowa. He was got by Vernol’s Black Hawk, then known as
-the Drake colt, son of Long Island Black Hawk, and his dam was Belle,
-the first foal of the Charles Kent mare, that was out of One Eye. In
-the spring of 1857 he was sold to Joseph A. Green, of Muscatine, and he
-remained his till 1864. He had one white hind foot and a large, full
-star in his forehead. He was a smooth, handsome horse in every respect.
-His head, neck, ear and eye were all good, and free from coarseness.
-His back and loin had very few equals even among those that are called
-most perfect at these points. His hip was of great length, and in
-his buttock there was quite a resemblance on a reduced scale to his
-kinsman, Hambletonian. His limbs and feet both in shape and quality were
-admirable, and his disposition docile and kindly. In walking his gait
-was slinging, but loose jointed and slovenly, and he was therefore not a
-pleasant driving horse. But at the trot, whether going slow or fast, his
-style was very taking and his action remarkably perfect. While owned by
-Mr. Green he was handled by good, careful men, but they had no experience
-in developing and driving a trotter, and knew nothing about that kind
-of horsemanship. Under these circumstances many a horse would have been
-spoiled, but his gait was always perfect and his popularity as a trotter
-never waned. He never was started in what might be called regular races,
-but at State fairs and the principal county fairs he was always in
-demand and always won. He was, perhaps, the best natural trotter that
-I have ever seen. He was able to show about 2:28, but I think he never
-won a heat on a half-mile track in better than 2:31, and when sixteen
-years old he was able to win in 2:35. In 1864 Mr. Green sold him to some
-parties in St. Louis, Missouri, and they to Mr. Beckwith of Hartford,
-Connecticut, and while in his hands he was matched against Young Morrill,
-but went amiss and paid forfeit. He made the season of 1865 at Hartford.
-The following winter Mr. Green repurchased him and he was returned to
-Muscatine, where he remained till January, 1877, when he was sold to
-George A. Young, of Leland, Illinois, and died January, 1880.
-
-He left seventeen trotters in the 2:30 list; twenty-four sons that were
-the sires of fifty-nine standard performers, and thirty-four daughters
-that produced forty-four standard performers. As his sire never amounted
-to anything either as a trotter or a getter of trotters, it is fair to
-conclude that whatever merit he possessed was inherited from the same
-source that made Hambletonian greater than all others.
-
-BELLE, the dam of Bashaw, 50, was a brown mare about fifteen and
-three-quarter hands high, with tan muzzle and flanks and some white feet.
-She was rather short in the body and neck, but she was very stoutly built
-and had been a fine road mare. She was bred by Charles Kent, the butcher,
-and I think was following her dam when Mr. Jonas Seely bought her. She
-was foaled 1843 and was got by Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse, and a trotter
-that was brought into Orange County by William Webber and left excellent
-stock. Her dam was the Charles Kent mare, the dam of Hambletonian. She
-produced as follows:
-
-  1848. Bay gelding, by Abdallah.
-  1849. Bay filly Seely Abdallah, by Abdallah.
-  1851. Black colt Seely’s Black Hawk, by Long Island Black Hawk.
-  1853. Bay filly, (taken West) by Hambletonian.
-  1855. Black colt Green’s Bashaw, by Vernol’s Black Hawk.
-  1857. Bay filly by Black Hawk Prophet, son of Vermont Black Hawk,
-          in Iowa. This filly was ringboned, and given away.
-
-Nothing is now known of the gelding by Abdallah. The filly of 1849 by
-Abdallah, called Seely Abdallah, was owned by Mr. Charles Backman, and he
-had her produce for two or three generations.
-
-The black colt by Long Island Black Hawk of 1851 was sold to Ebenezer
-Seely, and kept as a stallion. This Mr. Seely died in Chemung County,
-and the horse died there in the spring of 1859. The filly of 1853 by
-Hambletonian was one of a pair of Hambletonian fillies bought and taken
-to Iowa by Mr. Green in 1855. They developed a very fine rate of speed.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
-HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS AND GRANDSONS.
-
-    Different opinions as to relative merits of
-    Hambletonian’s greater sons—George Wilkes, his history
-    and pedigree—His performing descendants—History and
-    description of Electioneer—His family—Alexander’s
-    Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and
-    Belmont—Dictator—Harold—Happy Medium and his dam—Jay
-    Gould—Strathmore—Egbert—Aberdeen—Masterlode—Sweepstakes—Governor
-    Sprague, grandson of Hambletonian.
-
-
-There is hardly a prominent sire by Hambletonian that has not been
-claimed by his admirers to have been the “greatest son” of the most
-renowned of trotting progenitors, and if a poll of the horsemen of the
-country could be taken to-day as to what horse was the greatest son of
-Hambletonian, probably a dozen names would be found to have thousands
-of supporters each. As with all questions that are largely matters of
-opinion, and that cannot be decided absolutely by figures, the relative
-rank of horses as progenitors must always remain open to disputation
-according as thinkers approach the subject from different points of view
-and of interest. I shall not enter into any discussion as to the relative
-merits of the great sons of Hambletonian with a purpose to reach any
-deduction as to which was or is the greatest; but shall refer the reader
-to the table given in the preceding chapter, and content myself with
-briefly giving the history of the more renowned sires of the Hambletonian
-line, with such statistics as may be necessary to gauge their rank as
-progenitors.
-
-[Illustration: GEORGE WILKES.
-
-A Great Son of Hambletonian.]
-
-GEORGE WILKES was one of the first of Hambletonian’s sons to attract
-attention, by his performances on the turf, to the value of his sire;
-and as a progenitor he must be accorded a place in the first rank of all
-trotting sires. This horse was bred by Colonel Harry Felter, Newburgh,
-New York, was foaled 1856, and was got by Hambletonian out of the fast
-road mare Dolly Spanker. (This mare was afterward registered on what
-seemed excellent evidence as by Henry Clay, out of a daughter of Baker’s
-Highlander, but more recent investigation has thrown serious doubt upon
-this pedigree, the subject being fully discussed in the chapters in
-this work on “The Investigation of Pedigrees.”) After the travail that
-brought the little brown colt into the world, Dolly Spanker died, and
-the orphaned youngster, like Andrew Jackson, owed his life to woman’s
-kindly care. He was fed by the women of the farm on Jamaica rum and
-milk sweetened with sugar, and soon grew lusty, though he was always an
-undersized horse, never much, if any, exceeding fifteen hands in height,
-though he was so stoutly and compactly made that he gave the impression
-of being larger than he really was. He was of that order that has been
-paradoxically described as “a big little horse.” In color he was a very
-dark brown, and his flanks and muzzle shaded into a deep tan, or wine
-color. From a detailed description of him published in the _Spirit of the
-Times_ in 1862, I extract the following:
-
-    “He is about 15.1, but all horse.... His traveling gear is just
-    what it should be—muscular shoulders long strong arms, flat
-    legs, splendid quarters, great length from hip to hock, and
-    very fine back sinews. He stands higher behind than he does
-    forward, a formation we like.... He is very wide between the
-    jaws.... His coat is fine and glows like the rich dark tints of
-    polished rosewood.... His temper is kind. We had the pleasure
-    of seeing him at his work, and unless we are greatly mistaken
-    he will make an amazingly good one. He has a long and easy way
-    of going, striking well out behind and tucking his haunches
-    well under him.”
-
-Though from the fact that this writer stated that Wilkes “was as handsome
-as Ethan Allen,” we might suspect him of a tendency to “paint the lily,”
-it will be noted that this was written before the horse had any great
-reputation to speak of, and it may be accepted as a substantially correct
-description as far as it goes. In describing his action Charles J. Foster
-wrote that “his hind leg when straightened out in action as he went at
-his best pace reminded me of that of a duck swimming.” He was then the
-property of Z. E. Simmons, who had purchased him as a three-year-old for
-$3,000, and another horse.
-
-George Wilkes, or Robert Fillingham, as he was first named, was a trotter
-from colthood. At four years old he was matched against Guy Miller, but
-his party paid forfeit, the reason therefor being afterward alleged
-that they found Fillingham possessed of so much speed that they decided
-to “lay for bigger game.” The late Alden Goldsmith, a most competent
-judge, saw the colt trot at this time and then thought he was the fastest
-horse he had ever seen. He won a race in August of his five-year-old
-year, taking a record of 2:33, and the next year sprang into wide fame
-by defeating the then popular idol, Ethan Allen, in straight heats, over
-the Union Course, the fastest heat being in 2:24¾. In October of that
-year he started in harness against General Butler, under saddle. Though
-Butler was no match for George Wilkes in harness, with a saddle on his
-back, and Dan Mace in the saddle, he was almost unbeatable in his day,
-but it took him four heats to beat Wilkes, who forced him out in the
-first heat in 2:21½, a record he never after surpassed. Then William L.
-Simmons and John Morrissey matched Wilkes against Butler, two-mile heats
-to wagon, the latter having previously beaten the great George M. Patchen
-a heat in record-breaking time under similar conditions. In preparation
-for that match George Wilkes was sent a trial over the Centerville
-Course, concerning which there has been much discussion and probably much
-romance. Charles J. Foster wrote thus:
-
-    “It was a close, sultry day and the stallion was short of
-    work.... He went the two-mile trial and I have no doubt it was
-    faster than trotter ever had before, or has since, in any rig.
-    But it ‘cooked his mutton,’ as the saying is, and for a long
-    time he was George Wilkes no more.”
-
-It is said that ever after this trial, whatever it may have been, George
-Wilkes was inclined to sulk in his races. He raced with fair success
-in 1863 and 1864, and at the beginning of 1865 was classed among the
-very best out. He was sent against Dexter and Lady Thorn, being beaten
-by both; but in 1866 he twice defeated Lady Thorn, the last time in a
-notable wagon race over Union Course in 2:27, 2:25, 2:26¾. Afterward
-in the same year Lady Thorn defeated Wilkes in four successive races,
-and she beat him again in their only meeting the following year, but in
-1868 he defeated the mare in a hard-fought race, she winning the first
-and second heats and making the fourth heat dead. George Wilkes made
-his record of 2:22, October 13, 1868, over the Narragansett Course at
-Providence in a winning race with Rhode Island and Draco. He was kept on
-the turf with indifferent success until 1872, racing frequently against
-Lucy, Lady Thorn, and American Girl, all of whom outclassed him, at least
-in the afternoon of his racing career. Just how fast a trotter George
-Wilkes was it is impossible definitely to determine, so many and varying
-have been the representations on that point. It has been claimed that
-he went a quarter in twenty-nine seconds to an eighty-five pound wagon.
-William L. Simmons some years ago stated that of his own knowledge George
-Wilkes trotted a mile and repeat as a six-year-old at the Centerville
-Course in 2:19¼, 2:18½, and that Sam McLaughlin drove him a half-mile to
-wagon over Union Course in 1:04½. These statements I give for what may
-be deemed their worth, contenting myself with the remark that it is safe
-to conclude that George Wilkes would have trotted well within the 2:20
-mark, if he had been managed with a view to bringing out his highest
-racing capacity, instead of being handled solely for the purpose of smart
-betting and match-making manipulations.
-
-George Wilkes was taken to Lexington, Kentucky, by William L. Simmons,
-his owner, in 1873, and in his declining years made a reputation so great
-in the stud that his brilliant turf career is almost forgotten. After
-having trotted against the best in the country for twelve successive
-years, proving his fitness in the fiery ordeal of turf contest, he, in
-the nine remaining years of his life, fulfilled the purpose of his being,
-and demonstrated the truth of heredity by getting trotters in plenty able
-to do and outdo what he had in his day done.
-
-George Wilkes got a few foals before going to Kentucky, of which the most
-notable was May Bird, 2:21, the first trotter to bring him reputation
-as a sire. Of the others got in the North, Young Wilkes, 2:28¼, a sire
-of some reputation, and Wilkes Spirit, who also figures in the table of
-sires, are the only ones to earn places in the records. Early in the
-eighties George Wilkes began to assume high rank as a sire, May Bird,
-Kentucky Wilkes, Prospect Maid, So So, Joe Bunker and others bringing
-him into prominence. Every year added to his roll of honor and soon
-he was among the leaders. Blue Bull had surpassed Hambletonian in the
-number of trotters to his credit in the 2:30 list, but at the close of
-1886 George Wilkes was even with the Indiana sire, in 1887 he passed
-him, and for some seasons led all sires of 2:30 performers. George
-Wilkes got seventy-two trotters and eleven pacers to acquire standard
-records, of which the most noted were Harry Wilkes, 2:13½, Guy Wilkes,
-2:15¼, and Wilson, 2:16¼; and ninety-four of his sons and eighty-one of
-his daughters have produced, as shown in the table of Hambletonian’s
-sons, 1801 standard performers. The following table embraces the sons
-of George Wilkes that have twenty or more standard performers to their
-credit:
-
-LEADING SONS OF GEORGE WILKES.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------
-                              Total No. produced in two generations.
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+
-         Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  ----------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                 Producing daughters. |      |
-  ----------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                Producing sons. |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                     Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-  Red Wilkes, 2:40           | 1874 | 127 |  62 |  41 |  267 |  394
-  Onward, 2:25¼              | 1875 | 120 |  64 |  32 |  275 |  395
-  Alcantara, 2:23            | 1876 |  98 |  29 |  15 |  115 |  213
-  Bourbon Wilkes             | 1875 |  67 |  14 |  12 |   45 |  112
-  Simmons, 2:28              | 1879 |  64 |  13 |   6 |   35 |   99
-  Wilton, 2:19¼              | 1880 |  61 |   3 |   4 |    8 |   69
-  Jay Bird, 2:31¾            | 1878 |  57 |  10 |  10 |   68 |  125
-  Alcyone, 2:27              | 1877 |  55 |  27 |   9 |  117 |  172
-  Guy Wilkes, 2:15¼          | 1879 |  52 |  10 |   5 |   49 |  101
-  Ambassador, 2:21¼          | 1875 |  48 |   8 |   3 |   33 |   81
-  Gambetta Wilkes, 2:26      | 1881 |  48 |  11 |   6 |   32 |   80
-  Baron Wilkes, 2:18         | 1882 |  47 |   6 |   7 |   18 |   65
-  Adrian Wilkes              | 1878 |  38 |   6 |   7 |   25 |   63
-  Wilkes Boy, 2:24½          | 1880 |  37 |   2 |   3 |    8 |   45
-  Young Jim                  | 1874 |  37 |  11 |  19 |   43 |   80
-  Brown Wilkes, 2:21¾        | 1876 |  32 |   5 |   1 |   39 |   71
-  Young Wilkes, 2:28¼        | 1868 |  29 |   6 |   3 |   12 |   41
-  Favorite Wilkes, 2:24½     | 1877 |  23 |   7 |   6 |   21 |   44
-  Woodford Wilkes            | 1882 |  23 |   1 |   4 |   12 |   35
-  Wilkie Collins             | 1876 |  21 |   5 |   1 |   10 |   31
-  Lumps, 2:21                | 1875 |  20 |   3 |  10 |   16 |   36
-  The King, 2:29¼            | 1874 |  20 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   20
-  Jersey Wilkes              | 1881 |  20 |  —— |   2 |    2 |   22
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-
-Among the other seventy-one producing sons of George Wilkes: that do
-not come within the scope of this table are many most promising sires
-of rapidly growing prominence, and indeed this family is branching out
-wonderfully in every direction. This family is an emphatically improving
-one. In extreme speed, in racing capacity, and in form the third Wilkes
-generation is better than either the second or first. Of trotters, such
-as Beuzetta, 2:06¾, Ralph Wilkes, 2:06¾, Hulda, 2:08½, Allerton, 2:09¼,
-the once sensational Axtell, 2:12, and many others of the first rank
-by sons of George Wilkes sustain this judgment. The pacing instinct is
-rampant in the Wilkes blood, as is attested by the fact that twenty-five
-per cent. of the performing get of George Wilkes’ sons are pacers,
-and frequently pacers of extreme speed, including such as Joe Patchen,
-2:03, and Rubenstein, 2:05, while John R. Gentry, 2:00½, Online, 2:04,
-and Frank Agan, 2:03, are by grandsons of Wilkes. Like his sire, George
-Wilkes got many sons greater than himself—and after all that is the true
-test of greatness in a progenitor.
-
-[Illustration: ELECTIONEER.
-
-A Great Son of Hambletonian.]
-
-ELECTIONEER has for some years led, far and away, all sires of trotters
-in the numbers of performers to his credit in both the 2:20 list and
-2:30 list, and is generally conceded to have had no equal as a producer
-of early speed—that is, of colts and fillies that trotted fast at tender
-ages. In many respects this was the most remarkable horse of any age,
-for besides being phenomenally prolific in transmitting speed at the
-trot, and in getting early trotters, he possessed in a higher degree than
-any sire that has yet lived the ability to control running blood in the
-dam, and to impress his own instinct and action upon his progeny out of
-any and all kinds of mares. In speaking on his pet hobby of producing
-trotters from thoroughbred running mares, Governor Stanford once said
-to me: “None of my stallions but Electioneer can do it;” and of all the
-hundreds of stallions that have been mated with thoroughbred mares in
-the hope of getting a trotter of extreme speed, Electioneer alone was
-able to do it. Palo Alto, 2:08¼, is so far faster than any other trotting
-horse out of a thoroughbred dam—the one solitary instance on record of a
-half-bred trotter of extreme speed—that he is significant in one way, and
-one only, and that is as an evidence of the phenomenal prepotency of the
-blood of his sire in controlling instinct and action.
-
-Electioneer was a dark bay horse, foaled May 2, 1868, bred by Charles
-Backman, at his Stonyford Stud, Orange County, New York. He was got by
-Hambletonian, out of Green Mountain Maid, by Harry Clay, 2:29, grandam
-the fast trotting mare Shanghai Mary, pedigree not established, but in
-all probability a daughter of Iron’s Cadmus, the sire of the famous
-old pacer and brood mare Pocahontas, 2:17½. (In Chapter XXIX., on the
-investigation of pedigrees, the history of Shanghai Mary is fully given.)
-Green Mountain Maid, the dam of Electioneer, has been called by Mr.
-Backman, and with justice, “the great mother of trotters.” In all she
-bore sixteen foals, fourteen of which were by the not remarkable horse
-Messenger Duroc. Electioneer was her second foal and the only one by
-Hambletonian. Of the other fifteen, nine have records of 2:30 and better,
-another has a record of 2:31, another, Paul, was a very fast road
-horse, and two died young. Of her four sons kept entire, Electioneer,
-Mansfield, Antonio, and Lancelot, all are sires of trotters, and her
-daughters already figure as producers. The figures would seem to point to
-the daughter of Shanghai Mary and Harry Clay, 2:29, as perhaps the most
-wonderful of all great trotting brood mares. She was a brown mare, barely
-fifteen hands high, with a star and white hind ankles, and was finely
-formed, with an exceptionally beautifully outlined and expressive head.
-She had very superior trotting action, the trot being her fastest natural
-gait. A writer who made a very close study of her history said, on this
-point, in _Wallace’s Monthly_:
-
-    “Her education was limited to a single lesson when three
-    years old; but previously she had been regularly developed on
-    somewhat the same plan since adopted for early training at
-    Palo Alto, and was probably one of the fastest trotters out of
-    harness that ever lived.”
-
-As a matter of fact Green Mountain Maid, while in no sense vicious,
-was so highly strung, wild and uncontrollable, that her training was
-abandoned with the “one lesson” referred to, and she never wore harness
-again.
-
-Green Mountain Maid was a money producer as well as a speed producer. Mr.
-Backman paid four hundred and fifty dollars for her when she was carrying
-her first foal, and the writer above quoted states that up to that date
-(1889) Mr. Backman had received sixty-eight thousand eight hundred
-and thirty dollars for such of her progeny as he had then sold. This
-remarkable mare died June 6, 1888, and a fitting monument marks her grave
-by the banks of the Walkill.
-
-At maturity Electioneer was of that shade of bay that many might call
-brown, and stood precisely fifteen and one-half hands at the wither
-and an inch higher measured at the quarter. Many of his get, notably
-Sunol, are pronouncedly higher behind than at the wither. In general
-conformation, Electioneer was a stout and muscular horse, standing on
-fairly short legs. His head was well proportioned, of fair size, and
-a model of intelligent beauty. The forehead was broad and brainy, the
-eyes large and softly expressive, and the profile regular, with just
-the faintest suggestion of concavity beneath the line of the eyes.
-Electioneer’s neck was a trifle too short for elegance of proportion,
-but not gross. His shoulder was good, the barrel round, of good depth
-and proportionate in length and well ribbed, and the coupling simply
-faultless. The quarters were marvelous, and Mr. Marvin did not overstate
-the case when he said they were the best he had ever seen on any
-stallion. They were the very incarnation of driving power, and recalled
-Herbert Kittredge’s portrait of Hambletonian, except that there was
-nothing gross or meaty about the buttocks of Electioneer. They were the
-perfection of muscular endowment and development. The arms and gaskins,
-like the quarters, were full with muscle laid on muscle, and the legs and
-feet were naturally excellent. In the last years of his life he went over
-on his knees a bit, but that was not strange considering his age, and the
-fact that he had seen considerable track work. Indeed as long as he was
-at all vigorous he was daily exercised on the track, and in view of his
-great success in the stud, this fact has a special significance.
-
-As a three-year-old Electioneer was worked some on the Stonyford farm
-track to wagon, and Mr. Backman, whose word is good enough authority for
-all who know him, stated that he showed a quarter to wagon in thirty-nine
-seconds in that year. Little else is known of his history at Stonyford.
-He was bred to a few, very few mares, and was evidently not greatly
-esteemed by Mr. Backman. In the autumn of 1876, ex-Governor Stanford, who
-was just establishing his great breeding farm, Palo Alto, in the Santa
-Clara Valley, California, visited Stonyford to purchase stock—principally
-brood mares. The governor was a great believer in what I may call
-horse-physiognomy, or to be more exact, he believed in the importance of
-the right psychical organization, what we commonly call brain force, in
-horses, and was attracted by the physical evidences thereof as indicated
-in the head. Electioneer pleased him in this regard, and in his general
-make-up, and when the governor’s purchase was completed Electioneer went
-along, being put in at twelve thousand five hundred dollars. He with the
-other Stonyford purchases arrived at Palo Alto Christmas Eve, 1876.
-
-Though Electioneer never took a record, he was emphatically a developed
-horse. I do not know whether he was ever driven a full mile or not—Mr.
-Marvin never drove him one—but it has been stated that one of the other
-trainers drove him a mile in time somewhere between 2:20 and 2:25.
-However they may be, Mr. Marvin in his book settles the question as to
-his having been a fast, trained trotter. He says:
-
-    “Electioneer is the most natural trotter I have ever seen.
-    He has free, abundant action; it is a perfect rolling action
-    both in front and behind, and he has not the usual fault of
-    the Hambletonians of going too wide behind. Certain writers
-    have said that Electioneer could not trot, and have cited him
-    as a stallion that was not a trotter yet got trotters.... I
-    have driven, beside Electioneer, a quarter in thirty-five
-    seconds.... He did this, too, hitched to a one hundred and
-    twenty-five-pound wagon, with a two hundred and twenty-pound
-    man, and not a professional driver, either, in the seat. In
-    this rig he could carry Occident right up to his clip, and
-    could always keep right with him; and it was no trick for
-    the famous St. Clair gelding to go a quarter in thirty-four
-    seconds. Without preparation you could take Electioneer out any
-    day and drive him an eighth of a mile at a 2:20 gait. He always
-    had his speed with him.... That Electioneer could have beaten
-    2:20 if given a regular preparation is with me a conviction
-    about which no doubt exists.”
-
-Mr. Marvin is a conservative and reliable man; he knew whereof he wrote,
-and his testimony must be accepted as conclusive both as to Electioneer’s
-having been a naturally fast trotter, and as to his having had his speed
-developed. Undeveloped horses do not trot quarters in thirty-five seconds.
-
-When in 1880 Fred Crocker, one of the seven foals got by Electioneer in
-his first year’s service in California, astonished the world by trotting
-to a two-year-old record of 2:25¾, his sire became instantly famous, and
-that fame has increased rapidly and steadily from that day to this. It
-was not allowed for a moment to wane or lag. After Fred Crocker came an
-ever-surprising procession of young record breakers. In 1881 Hinda Rose
-made a yearling record of 2:36½, and Wildflower a two-year-old record
-of 2:21. In 1883 Hinda Rose lowered the three-year-old record to 2:19½,
-and Bonita the four-year-old record to 2:18¾. In 1886 Manzanita lowered
-the four-year-old record to 2:16; in 1887 Norlaine, granddaughter of
-Electioneer, lowered the yearling record to 2:31½; and in 1888 Sunol
-put the two-year-old record at 2:18, and the year following took a
-three-year-old record of 2:10½, the fastest to that date. Sunol captured
-the four-year-old record in 1889, and the world’s record, 2:08¼, in 1891,
-but what made this the brightest year in all the history of Palo Alto was
-that Arion lowered the two-year-old record to 2:10¾—the most remarkable
-of all trotting performances—Bell Bird the yearling record to 2:26¼,
-and Palo Alto the stallion record to 2:08¾. Electioneer has now to his
-credit one hundred and fifty-four standard performers, and in this and in
-the 2:20 list he has a long lead over all other sires. He died at Palo
-Alto, December 3, 1890, and I am informed that his skeleton has been
-articulated and mounted for the museum of the Stanford University. The
-following table gives the sons of Electioneer that up to the close of
-1896 had ten or more standard performers to their credit:
-
-LEADING SONS OF ELECTIONEER.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------
-                              Total No. produced in two generations.
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+
-         Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  ----------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                 Producing daughters. |      |
-  ----------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                Producing sons. |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                     Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-  Saint Bell, 2:24½          | 1882 |  47 |   1 |  —— |    1 |   48
-  Sphinx, 2:20½              | 1883 |  43 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   43
-  Chimes, 2:30¾              | 1884 |  32 |   3 |  —— |    3 |   35
-  Anteeo, 2:16¼              | 1879 |  28 |   5 |   3 |   12 |   40
-  Norval, 2:14¾              | 1882 |  24 |   1 |  —— |    1 |   25
-  Egotist, 2:22½             | 1885 |  18 |   1 |  —— |    1 |   19
-  Anteros                    | 1882 |  16 |  —— |   2 |    2 |   18
-  Elector (2170), 2:31       | 1879 |  16 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   16
-  Albert W., 2:20            | 1878 |  15 |   1 |  —— |    1 |   16
-  Eros, 2:29¼                | 1879 |  14 |   3 |  —— |    4 |   18
-  Antevolo, 2:19½            | 1881 |  13 |  —— |   1 |   11 |   14
-  *Bell Boy, 2:19¼           | 1885 |  11 |   1 |  —— |    1 |   12
-  Fallis, 2:23               | 1878 |  10 |   1 |  —— |    3 |   13
-  Palo Alto, 2:08¾           | 1882 |  10 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   10
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-
-  * Died at 5 years old.
-
-In considering this table it is necessary to remember that the
-Electioneer family dates from 1878, and that no family of anything
-approaching so late a date makes a showing that will bear comparison with
-this. In considering the rank of families this question of age is always
-vital. Electioneer’s first crop of foals at Palo Alto—1878—numbered
-seven, and of these two are represented above, while another was the
-famous gelding Fred Crocker. The next numbered but twenty-one, and of
-these Eros, Elector, and Anteeo are in the table, and ten are in the
-2:20 list. His third and fourth crops (1880 and 1881) numbered sixteen
-and twenty-three respectively, and the forty of 1882 was the greatest
-number he ever got in one year. I am informed that in all Electioneer
-got less than four hundred foals at Palo Alto; and that, since the first
-one saw light in 1878 this family should in eighteen years make the
-showing it has with nearly fifty per cent. of its members in the 2:30
-list, and four hundred and ninety-three of the second generation also
-there, is certainly remarkable. Electioneer has to his credit in the
-2:15 list the following trotters: Arion, 2:07¾, Sunol, 2:08¼, Palo Alto,
-2:08¾, Helena, 2:12½, Belleflower, 2:12¾, Utility, 2:13, Quality, 2:13¼,
-Conductor, 2:14¼, and Norval, 2:14¾, an “extreme speed list” greater
-than to the credit of any other sire, while among the get of his sons
-are such trotters as Azote, 2:04¾, Fantasy, 2:06, Little Albert, 2:10,
-Lynne Bel, 2:10½, Copeland, 2:11½, Athanio, 2:11¾, Cobwebs, 2:12, etc.,
-etc. Sixty-five of his sons have sired four hundred and thirty-seven
-performers, and forty-three of his daughters have produced fifty-six
-performers. With all these facts kept in view the study of the above
-table will prove interesting and instructive in forming an estimate of
-the merit of Electioneer as a trotting progenitor.
-
-[Illustration: ABDALLAH (ALEXANDER’S).
-
-A Great Son of Hambletonian.]
-
-ALEXANDER’S ABDALLAH was the founder of one of the very greatest of the
-Hambletonian sub-families, and he stands in the records as a progenitor
-of the first rank. This was a stout bay horse, about fifteen and one-half
-hands high. Excepting a right white ankle he was a rich solid bay. The
-only reliable portrait in existence of this horse was a drawing by
-Herbert Kittredge, made from a photograph taken of Abdallah after he went
-to Kentucky. The picture of Abdallah published in this work is a faithful
-reproduction of the Kittredge portrait published in _Wallace’s Monthly_
-for March, 1881, and in the absence of any reliable detailed description
-of the horse this portrait must be taken as the best reflection we now
-have of his individuality. He was bred by Lewis J. Sutton, of Warwick,
-Orange County, New York, and was foaled 1852. Mr. Sutton had in 1851
-a good road mare that he had got at Carl Young’s roadhouse in Third
-Avenue, New York. This mare, Katy Darling, had been quite a trotter,
-and had, it was said, won a match race on Union Course. Her reputation
-as a trotter and her fine form caused Mr. Sutton to buy her when, as he
-describes it, “she was standing on three legs,” in the hope of getting a
-foal from her. He took her home in March, 1851, and in August bred her
-to Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, then a two-year-old colt, and September 22,
-1852, she produced the subject of this sketch. Two years later Mr. Sutton
-sold Katy Darling to James W. Benedict, of Warwick, from whom she was
-purchased by Hezekiah Hoyt, who took her to Muscatine, Iowa, where she
-produced a chestnut colt that was gelded, by Hector, son of La Tourrett’s
-Bellfounder. This gelding was her only foal other than Alexander’s
-Abdallah, and Katy Darling died at Muscatine, the property of a Mr.
-Stewart. A search was long kept up for the pedigree of this mare, and for
-the full details of what is known of her history the reader is referred
-to the different volumes of _Wallace’s Monthly_. The conclusion from all
-the evidence found is that she was probably by a son of Andrew Jackson.
-
-As a foal by his dam’s side Alexander’s Abdallah attracted much favorable
-attention by his fine trotting action, and his persistency in cavorting
-around at that gait. Among those who took great delight in watching the
-little fellow trot was Mr. Hezekiah Hoyt, and when the youngster was
-seventeen months old Mr. Hoyt, acting for, or in partnership with, Major
-Edsall, bought the colt for five hundred dollars, a fine price at that
-time. Major Edsall kept him until he was seven years old, and I am under
-the impression that he won some local races during that time, when he
-was known as Edsall’s Hambletonian. He was accorded a fairly liberal
-patronage in Orange County, and his progeny showed so well that Major
-Edsall sold him for three thousand dollars in 1859 to Joel F. Love and
-James Miller, of Cynthiana, Kentucky. The Hambletonian family was just
-then becoming popular, and the price paid indicates that this horse was
-already regarded by good judges as one of Hambletonian’s best sons.
-That he was regarded, moreover, as quite a trotter is indicated by the
-fact that at the close of his second season in Kentucky—1860—Mr. Miller
-matched him against Albion, a competing stallion, for two hundred and
-fifty dollars a side. The affair caused quite a sensation at the time,
-the Cynthiana horsemen going in crowds to Lexington to back Abdallah.
-The latter was driven by “Jim” Monroe, and Albion by Warren Peabody,
-and Abdallah won in the hollowest fashion, distancing Albion in 2:46.
-As youngsters Abdallah’s first progeny in Kentucky showed very well,
-and in the spring of 1863 he was purchased by R. A. Alexander, and made
-the seasons of 1863 and 1864 at Woodburn. On the evening of February 2,
-1865, Marion’s band of Confederate guerrillas raided Woodburn and took
-away a number of horses, among them Alexander’s Abdallah and the then
-famous young trotter, Bay Chief, by Mambrino Chief. Marion mounted Bay
-Chief and, crossing the Kentucky River, the band encamped on the farm of
-a Mr. Bush, in a rough, hilly region, twelve miles from Woodburn. Here
-the next morning the Federal cavalry, that were sent in pursuit after
-the raid, came up with the raiders, and after a sharp fight routed them.
-Marion, on Bay Chief, was a conspicuous mark for Federal bullets during
-the skirmish. Early in the fray Bay Chief was shot through the muzzle,
-through both thighs, and one hock. In this condition he carried his rider
-two miles in the retreat, when the horse was so weakened by loss of blood
-that a Federal cavalryman overtook them. His piece being empty, the
-soldier aimed a blow at Marion, but missing him, lost his balance, and
-fell from his horse. The guerrilla leader quickly saw his opportunity,
-jumped from Bay Chief, mounted the soldier’s horse, and escaped. Bay
-Chief died about ten days later, despite all efforts made to save him.
-Meanwhile, Alexander’s Abdallah had been found, safe and sound, by a
-Federal soldier in Mr. Bush’s stable. The soldier refused to give him up
-to Mr. Alexander’s men, and declared he would send him North and keep him
-until he got a large reward for his return. The horse was barefooted and
-in no condition for hard usage. And so they rode him off, and after going
-some forty or fifty miles he gave out, and they turned him loose on the
-road. He was found next day in a pitiable condition by the roadside, and
-brought back as far as Lawrenceburg on his way home, where he was taken
-with pneumonia and died a few days later.
-
-Just how great a loss this was to the trotting breed was not realized
-until long after—until in fact Goldsmith Maid had conquered all before
-her, and made a record as a campaigner never equaled, and until his two
-great sons, Almont and Belmont, rose to pre-eminent places in the list of
-great sires. Other sons of this remarkable progenitor have taken rank as
-sires, and his daughters proved of the highest excellence as brood mares;
-but Almont and Belmont have each established such large, important, and
-popular sub-families that this work would be incomplete without some
-brief sketch of each.
-
-Alexander’s Abdallah got Goldsmith Maid, 2:14, Rosalind, 2:21⅔,
-Thorndale, 2:22¼, Major Edsall, 2:29, and St. Elmo, 2:30. Fourteen of
-his sons have produced one hundred and fifty-five standard performers,
-and twenty-nine of his daughters have produced forty-four standard
-performers, among them being the noted campaigners, Favonia, 2:15, and
-Jerome Eddy, 2:16⅔, the latter also a successful sire. The following
-table gives the families of his most prominent sons:
-
-LEADING SONS OF ALEXANDER’S ABDALLAH.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-                                    Total No. produced in two generations.
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------+
-                Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                        Producing daughters. |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                       Producing sons. |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                            Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                                Year died. |     |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-  Almont, 2:39¾              | 1864 | 1884 |  37 |  95 |  72 |  609 |  646
-  Belmont                    | 1864 | 1889 |  58 |  63 |  48 |  560 |  618
-  Hambletonian (Wood’s)      | 1858 | 1885 |  24 |  12 |  13 |   49 |   73
-  Major Edsall, 2:29         | 1859 | 1886 |   3 |   6 |   3 |   87 |   90
-  Thorndale, 2:22¼           | 1865 | 1894 |  10 |   8 |  14 |   47 |   57
-  Jim Munro                  | 1861 | 1882 |   8 |   5 |  17 |   38 |   46
-  Abdallah Pilot             | 1865 | 1881 |   3 |   1 |   1 |   17 |   20
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-
-ALMONT was bred at Woodburn Farm, was foaled 1864, and was by Alexander’s
-Abdallah out of Sally Anderson, by Mambrino Chief; grandam Kate, a
-wonderfully fast pacer by Pilot Jr. Colonel R. P. Pepper informed me
-that he knew Kate as well as any of his own horses, and that her speed
-at the pace was “simply terrific.” Kate, whose dam was called the
-Pope mare, pedigree unknown, had several foals, among them the “catch
-filly” that was the dam of Clay Pilot, sire of The Moor, that got the
-great brood mare Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, and Sultan, 2:24, the sire of
-the world-famous Stamboul, 2:07½. Thus the blood of this pacing Pilot
-Jr. mare figures in three great sub-families, the Almont family, the
-Beautiful Bells family, and the Sultan family. Almont was a beautiful
-cherry bay, very rich in shade, and without any white whatever. He
-was fifteen hands two and one-quarter inches high at the wither,
-somewhat higher behind, and stoutly and symmetrically made all over.
-He could not be called a handsome or highly finished horse, but he was
-emphatically a well-made one. He had very excellent feet and legs,
-and these he reproduced with great uniformity, as well as his very
-intelligent and even disposition. He was trained early at Woodburn,
-and, like his sire, started but once and distanced his competitor in
-2:39¾, this being in his four-year-old form. He soon after showed 2:32
-over the slow Woodburn track, and was sold to the late Colonel Richard
-West for eight thousand dollars and put in the stud. In 1874 the late
-General W. T. Withers, Lexington, Kentucky, bought him for fifteen
-thousand dollars, and a half dozen of years later he was very generally
-regarded as the greatest of living sires, and his prestige made the
-name of Fairlawn Farm of world-wide renown, and made his owner rich.
-The fact that ninety-five of his sons have sired standard performers,
-a greater number of producing sons than is to the credit of any other
-horse, Hambletonian alone excepted, indicates the high rank Almont must
-be accorded as a progenitor. In considering his success it is well for
-breeders particularly to note that good judges considered Almont capable
-of showing a 2:20 gait any day, and that, like Electioneer, he always was
-daily given regular and ample track exercise. His gait has been described
-as bold and open, without an excess of knee action, but with immense
-display of power behind. Almont died of spasmodic colic, July 4, 1884, in
-the fullness of his fame, and at an age when, had he been more discreetly
-used in the stud, he should have been at his prime as a stock horse.
-
-Almont was hardly a sensational horse in his day, the performance of
-Westmont at Chicago in 1884, when he paced a mile with running mate
-in 2:01¾, being the one sensational performance to the credit of his
-progeny. This lightning streak of pacing speed that so often crops
-out in the Almont family can be readily accounted for by the student
-of breeding. As has been noted, his grandam Kate, by Pilot Jr., was a
-phenomenally fast pacer, and, as we have indicated, her blood proved
-potent in more than one line. In addition to this there was a strong
-tendency to pace among the progeny of Alexander’s Abdallah. St. Elmo
-was first shown at fairs in Kentucky under saddle and as a pacer, and
-many others of Abdallah’s get were known to naturally pace. When we
-reflect that in Almont this Alexander’s Abdallah blood with its pacing
-predilection was united with the blood of the old lightning pacer, Kate,
-we need not be surprised at the great number of fast pacers that came
-from Almont and his sons. Belmont, too, has shown a tendency to get the
-pacing gait with great frequency, but not in such frequency or at such
-high rates as his son Nutwood. As there could not be traced any known
-pacing blood in Belmont’s dam, and as the fact that Alexander’s Abdallah
-transmitted an inclination to pace has been generally not known or
-ignored, some writers have been unable to understand why the Belmonts
-paced. He got pacers because he inherited that capacity from his sire,
-and Nutwood got more and faster pacers than Belmont, because in him the
-pacing inclination inherited from Alexander’s Abdallah was reinforced by
-the strong pacing inheritance of his dam, Miss Russell, the granddaughter
-of Old Pacing Pilot.
-
-As shown in the table of Alexander’s Abdallah’s sons, Almont got
-thirty-seven standard performers, ninety-five of his sons sired five
-hundred and three standard performers, and seventy-two of his daughters
-produced one hundred and six standard performers. His most successful
-sons are embraced in the following table:
-
-LEADING SONS OF ALMONT.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------
-                             Performers produced in two generations.
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+
-         Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  ----------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                 Producing daughters. |      |
-  ----------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                Producing sons. |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                     Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-  Almont Jr. (1829), 2:26    | 1872 |  44 |   7 |  20 |   39 |   83
-  Altamont, 2:26¾            | 1875 |  39 |   7 |   1 |   10 |   49
-  Atlantic, 2:21             | 1878 |  24 |   6 |  12 |   22 |   46
-  Piedmont, 2:17¼            | 1871 |  19 |   3 |   8 |   18 |   37
-  Almont Jr. (1764), 2:29    | 1871 |  19 |  11 |  11 |   51 |   70
-  King Almont, 2:21¼         | 1874 |  14 |  —— |   1 |    1 |   15
-  Pasacas, 2:43              | 1870 |  14 |   4 |   6 |   13 |   27
-  Almonarch, 2:24¾           | 1875 |  13 |   2 |   3 |    7 |   20
-  Allie Gaines               | 1875 |  12 |   5 |   8 |   17 |   29
-  Harbinger                  | 1879 |  10 |   1 |   2 |    3 |   13
-  *Allie West, 2:25          | 1870 |   7 |   4 |  10 |   24 |   31
-  Abdallah Mambrino          | 1870 |  13 |   1 |  11 |   24 |   37
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-
-  * Died at 6 years old.
-
-This line is justly regarded with growing favor as one of our very
-best and most productive sub-families, and one that is breeding on
-excellently, generation after generation.
-
-BELMONT was a bay horse of very superior form and finish, bred at
-Woodburn Farm, and foaled there in 1864. He was by Alexander’s Abdallah,
-out of Belle (that also produced McCurdy’s Hambletonian, 2:26½, and
-Bicara, the dam of Pancoast, 2:21¾) by Mambrino Chief; grandam Belle
-Lupe, by Brown’s Bellfounder. Belmont and Almont were of the same age,
-and, perhaps because of his finer appearance, Belmont seems to have been
-the preferred one at Woodburn, and was retained while Almont was sold.
-Though Belmont was a successful horse and established a great family, no
-thinking man can contend that he was the equal of Almont as a sire, when
-all the circumstances are considered. Almont spent almost his entire stud
-career at Fairlawn, where there never were five mares worthy in blood
-to be in a great trotting stud, where there were scores of mares of all
-kinds of poor and freakish pedigrees, even to “Arabs,” and where none of
-the stock was ever trained. Belmont, on the other hand, was all his life
-at the head of the most famous, and, in his younger years, unquestionably
-the best collection of trotting brood mares in the world, and where a
-training department was always maintained. Remembering these conditions,
-and contemplating the statistics of the two families, it is interesting
-to speculate as to how the records would stand had Belmont been at
-Fairlawn, and Almont at Woodburn.
-
-LEADING SONS OF BELMONT.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------
-                             Performers produced in two generations.
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+
-         Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  ----------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                 Producing daughters. |      |
-  ----------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                Producing sons. |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                     Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-  Nutwood, 2:18¾             | 1870 | 136 |  90 |  69 |  432 |  568
-  King Rene, 2:30½           | 1875 |  35 |  17 |  16 |   55 |   90
-  Egmont                     | 1873 |  34 |  13 |  11 |   38 |   72
-  Wedgewood, 2:19            | 1871 |  31 |  12 |   9 |   60 |   91
-  Vatican, 2:29¼             | 1879 |  14 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   14
-  Warlock                    | 1880 |  12 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   12
-  Monaco                     | 1878 |  11 |   1 |   4 |    7 |   18
-  Waterloo, 2:19¼            | 1882 |  10 |  —— |   1 |    1 |   11
-  Meander, 2:26½             | 1879 |  10 |   3 |   1 |    7 |   17
-  Mambritonian, 2:20½        | 1883 |  10 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   10
-  Herschell                  | 1883 |  10 |  —— |  —— |   —— |   10
-  ---------------------------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+------
-
-Belmont, besides having the advantage of excellent individuality was also
-a trotter of no mean speed. He was driven a mile over the working track
-at Woodburn in 2:28½, and was, therefore, a quite well-developed trotter.
-He never appeared in public, and has, therefore, no public history.
-The most successful of his sons has been Nutwood, whose dam was Miss
-Russell, the dam of Maud S. This horse was himself a fast trotter in his
-day, taking a record of 2:18¾, and rose to great popularity and success
-in the stud. Daughters of Belmont, being nearly all out of producing
-mares, are greatly and justly esteemed as brood mares. Belmont died at
-Woodburn November 15, 1889. Belmont got fifty-eight standard performers,
-sixty-three of his sons sired four hundred and eighty-nine standard
-performers, and forty-eight of his daughters produced seventy-one
-standard performers. The rank of his best sons is shown on the preceding
-page; all having ten or more in the list of standard performers being
-included in the table.
-
-VOLUNTEER stands pre-eminent among trotting sires as the one horse
-against not one of whose get the epithet “quitter” was, as far as I am
-aware, ever hurled. He did not get speed with remarkable uniformity, nor
-did his progeny develop speed early or rapidly. They required persistent
-training, but when speed was developed in a Volunteer you had with
-it every other quality of a resolute, enduring race horse. They were
-hardy, rugged, good-limbed horses, and uniformly possessed stamina and
-resolution in the highest degree. Volunteer had the advantage of being
-owned by Alden Goldsmith, an ambitious and experienced horseman, and the
-father of two of the most successful trainers of our day. The Volunteers
-had, therefore, every advantage that training could give, and his rise to
-fame was largely due to Mr. Goldsmith’s constantly developing and racing
-his progeny.
-
-In 1853 Mr. Joseph Hetzel, Florida, Orange County, New York, bred the
-bay mare Lady Patriot to Hambletonian, 10, and Volunteer was foaled
-May 1, 1854. This mare, Lady Patriot, was by a horse called Young
-Patriot, and out of Mr. Lewis Hulse’s trotting mare, and that is all
-that is known of her pedigree. Her sire’s pedigree is wholly unknown.
-She produced a numerous family, among them being Sentinel, 2:29¾, and
-Green’s Hambletonian, brothers of Volunteer, and of some rank as sires,
-and Marksman, by Thorndale, that is also in the table of sires, while her
-daughter Heroine, sister to Volunteer, produced Shawmut, 2:26.
-
-Volunteer was a bay horse, with a little white around the left hind
-coronet, fifteen hands three inches at the wither, and sixteen hands
-measured at the coupling. He has been considered by many good judges to
-have been the handsomest of all the sons of Hambletonian. He was a horse
-of superb form and of great elegance of carriage. With sufficient of
-muscle and substance, he was built on graceful, finished lines, with a
-beautiful head loftily carried, a long and graceful neck, a body stout
-but finely molded, and all set off by a handsome mane and tail. His feet
-and legs were of superb quality, and despite his great age they were, it
-is said, without fault or blemish to the last. His temper and disposition
-were good, though he was very high-spirited, and in harness he was
-especially attractive. As a four-year-old Volunteer was sold to Mr. R.
-C. Underhill, of Brooklyn, after he had won a premium at the Orange
-County fair. In April, 1861, Mr. Underhill sent him to Tim T. Jackson,
-of Jamaica, Long Island, and in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for December, 1880,
-Mr. Jackson gave his experiences with Volunteer, making among others this
-specific statement:
-
-    “I had him at Union Course one day, and met Mr. Alfred M.
-    Tredwell there, and I got him to hold that watch on him. Had
-    him in quite a heavy single-seated wagon, weighing probably one
-    hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and thirty pounds. On
-    the first trial he trotted in 2:33. I said to Mr. Tredwell that
-    he could beat that, and he trotted the next mile in 2:31¼.”
-
-He had previously been trained by William Whelan, at Union Course.
-It was June 26, 1862, while he was in Jackson’s hands, that Alden
-Goldsmith, in partnership with Edwin Thorne, purchased this horse,
-then called Hambletonian Jr., and he soon afterward became the sole
-property of Mr. Goldsmith. Mr. Rysdyk greatly resented his having been
-called Hambletonian Jr., and early regarded him as a possible rival of
-Hambletonian, and there was war from the start between the adherents
-of sire and son. The Civil War was just then at its height, and the
-patriotic and military spirit rampant, and Mr. Goldsmith aptly named
-his horse Volunteer. Mr. H. T. Helm, who wrote a very detailed history
-of Volunteer twenty years ago, credits him with having trotted in 2:36
-to wagon at the Goshen Fair in the fall of 1862, beating Winfield, Grey
-Confidence and others. At Hartford, Connecticut, in August, 1867, he beat
-George M. Patchen Jr., in a single dash in 2:37. He was, like nearly all
-the other great sires, a developed trotter.
-
-It is said that his early stud opportunities were so limited that at ten
-years old he had but eighteen living foals. The first of his get entered
-the 2:30 list in 1871, but from that time on his list rapidly grew, and
-the great campaigners Gloster, Alley, Driver, Bodine, Huntress, the great
-three-miler, and finally St. Julien, 2:11¼, then the fastest trotter in
-the world, so spread the fame of Volunteer that when his sire died in
-1876 he was regarded as the greatest living sire of trotters. In 1882
-Mr. R. S. Veech, probably the most intelligent breeder in all Kentucky,
-while on a visit to New York, telegraphed Mr. Goldsmith to know whether
-it was worth while for him to visit Walnut Grove, with a view to buying
-Volunteer, and Mr. Goldsmith’s answer reveals the regard in which he held
-his horse. The pith of his admirably written letter was in this paragraph:
-
-    “While there is no person that would be more welcome at the
-    farm than yourself, if the only object of your visit would
-    be the purchase of Volunteer, then your trip would not be a
-    profitable or successful one, as no breeder in Kentucky has
-    money enough to buy him.... I have as high a regard for money
-    as the most of men for the uses it may subserve, but there are
-    certain things which money cannot buy, as the Teacher of old
-    taught Simon the Samaritan.”
-
-And so Volunteer remained at Walnut Grove, and “lagged superfluous on the
-stage” long after his owner had passed away, and died December 13, 1888,
-at the extraordinary age of thirty-four years, seven months and twelve
-days.
-
-Volunteer sired thirty-four standard performers, and forty of his sons
-and forty-eight of his daughters produced an aggregate of two hundred
-and twenty-one standard performers. The most successful of his sons
-is the Michigan sire, Louis Napoleon, that was out of the Harry Clay
-mare, Hattie Wood, dam also of Victor Bismarck and Gazelle, 2:21. Louis
-Napoleon has twenty-seven in the standard list, and fourteen of his sons
-and twenty-two of his daughters are producers, his best son being Jerome
-Eddy, 2:16½, sire of Fanny Wilcox, 2:10¼, and twenty-seven other standard
-performers.
-
-DICTATOR very early in his career attracted attention as the full brother
-to the famous Dexter, who was his senior by five years, and who was
-king of the trotting turf, and the most famous trotter in all the world
-just at the time when Dictator was merging from colthood to maturity.
-Dictator had thus from the very start the advantage of splendid stud
-opportunities. He was bred by Jonathan Hawkins, of Walden, Orange County,
-New York, and was foaled in 1863. He was got by Hambletonian out of the
-famous Clara, the dam of Dexter, 2:17¼, Alma, 2:28¾, Astoria, 2:29½,
-etc., by Seely’s American Star; grandam the McKinstry mare, breeding
-unknown, but that produced Shark with a saddle record of 2:27¾. Dictator
-was a seal-brown horse with a white rear ankle, and stood scant fifteen
-hands and one inch. He was made on a small but a fine model, and was,
-all in all, a handsome little horse, and most of his get partook of
-his fine quality of structure, though many were unsound. Shortly after
-Dexter made his _début_ on the turf, Dictator was bought by Mr. Harrison
-Durkee, a wealthy New York gentleman who had an extensive stock farm at
-Flushing, Long Island. The colt was then but eleven months old and was
-left at the Hawkins farm until two years old. Then he was sent to Mr.
-Alden Goldsmith’s place, at Washingtonville, to be broken, after which
-he was taken to Mr. Durkee’s farm. The colt was very fast, but the fame
-of Dexter was already wide, and, no great importance being attached to
-development of stallions in that day, he was considered of more value
-for breeding than for racing. He was worked considerably at Mr. Durkee’s
-farm, and Colonel John W. Conley and H. C. Woodnut, who at different
-times had charge of him, have both declared that they knew him to be
-one of the fastest trotters of his day. In 1874 Colonel Richard West
-sold Almont to General Withers, and to fill his place leased Dictator in
-the autumn of 1875, and he made the seasons of 1876 and 1877 at Colonel
-West’s Edgehill farm, Georgetown, Kentucky. Standing at a higher fee
-than Almont or George Wilkes, he attracted little outside patronage, and
-he was returned to Long Island. It has been stated that when at Colonel
-West’s, George Brasfield drove Dictator quarters as fast as thirty-four
-and one-half seconds. After his return to Flushing he sank from public
-notice until the appearance of Director as a great three-year-old in
-1880. Then a couple of years later came the phenomenal Jay-Eye-See, and
-close after him Phallas, and with these three great trotters on the turf
-at once “the sire of Jay-Eye-See, 2:10, Phallas, 2:13¾, and Director,
-2:17,” came again prominently before the public. In 1883 he was purchased
-by Major H. C. McDowell, and Messrs. David Bonner and A. A. Bonner, for a
-price that was said to have been twenty-five thousand dollars, and taken
-to Ashland farm at Lexington. Eventually he became the sole property of
-Major McDowell, and died May 25, 1893.
-
-Dictator did not get speed uniformly. He was what might be called a
-sporadic sire, but those of his get that raced at all raced well. By
-far his best son as a producer is Director, 2:17, that was out of Dolly
-by Mambrino Chief, and is the sire of sixteen trotters and pacers with
-records in the 2:20 list, including the champion trotting stallion
-Directum, 2:05¼, and the one-time champion pacing stallion, Direct, who
-after being practically crippled in trotting to a four-year-old record of
-2:18¼, carrying great weights to keep him at that gait, was allowed to go
-at his natural gait and paced in 2:05½, and is already a very successful
-sire. Phallas, 2:13¾, of whom high hopes were entertained, and who had
-great opportunities, proved practically a failure in the stud, though his
-son Phallamont, out of an Almont mare, ranks with Direct as the best of
-Dictator’s grandsons. Dictator got fifty standard performers, forty-four
-of his sons have produced one hundred and seventy-three standard
-performers, and forty-two of his daughters have produced sixty-one
-standard performers.
-
-HAROLD became very famous when Maud S. became queen of the turf with
-the then marvelous record of 2:08¾, a record that stood unequaled from
-1885 till 1891. This horse was bred by Charles S. Dole, Crystal Lake,
-Illinois, by whom he was sold, in an exchange of horses, to Woodburn
-Farm, when he was a yearling. He was foaled in 1864, and his dam was
-Enchantress (the dam also of Black Maria and of Lakeland Abdallah), by
-Abdallah. It was long claimed that this mare’s dam was a daughter of
-imported Bellfounder, but investigation exploded this claim. Harold was
-a bay horse, without marks, just fifteen hands high, stoutly made but
-very homely of form. He had a finely made head, but otherwise he was
-exceedingly plain, and when Maud S. came out the late Benjamin Bruce,
-in the _Kentucky Live Stock Record_, expressed wonder that “that little
-bench-legged stud” could have gotten such a mare. Harold’s full brother,
-Lakeland Abdallah, was far superior to him individually, but ranks
-with Hetzel’s Hambletonian, the brother to Volunteer, and Kearsarge,
-by Volunteer out of Dexter’s dams, in the fore front of the well-bred
-failures in trotting history. Largely from his individuality Harold was
-never, even when Maud S. was in the heyday of her renown, a popular
-horse, and the figures given by the Woodburn management say that in his
-entire career he was bred to but five hundred and ninety-four mares, or
-an average of about twenty-five for each of his twenty-three seasons.
-With the exception of Maud S., Harold got nothing of the first class,
-but in the second generation the family holds better rank in respect
-to extreme speed production. Beuzetta, 2:06¾, Early Bird, 2:10, The
-Conqueror, 2:13, and the great three-year-old Impetuous, 2:13, are out
-of daughters of Harold, while Kremlin, 2:07¾, Io, 2:13½, Rizpah, 2:13½,
-Russellmont, 2:12¾, and the great pacer Robert J., 2:01½, are among the
-produce of his sons, and the present queen of the trotting turf, Alix,
-2:03¾, is out of a daughter of Attorney, by Harold. Harold died at
-Woodburn, October 6, 1893. This horse never trotted in public, but he was
-worked some for speed at Woodburn. As a six-year-old he is said to have
-trotted the farm track in 2:40½, in which mile it is stated he “grabbed
-a quarter” and was not worked again. He is the sire of forty-four
-standard performers, forty-three of his sons have produced one hundred
-and eighty-one standard performers, and forty-five of his daughters have
-produced sixty-seven standard performers.
-
-HAPPY MEDIUM was bred by R. P. Galloway, of Sufferen, New York, and was
-foaled 1863. He was by Hambletonian, out of the famous old campaigner
-Princess, 2:30, that trotted ten miles in 29:10¾ and two miles in 5:02,
-and was the great rival of Flora Temple, 2:19¾. Princess was a bay mare,
-foaled 1846, by Andrus’ Hambletonian, son of Judson’s Hambletonian,
-that was by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of imported Messenger; and her
-dam was the Wilcox mare, by Burdick’s Engineer, son of Engineer, by
-imported Messenger. She campaigned from ocean to ocean, and her career
-is perhaps the most remarkable of the earlier trotting days. When young
-she was mixed gaited, alternately pacing and trotting, and was put to
-work hauling logs. Then her owner traded her for a second-hand wagon, and
-finally she reached the hands of D. M. Gage, of Chicago. He put her into
-training, and she trotted some indifferent races as Topsy, was sold, and
-taken across the plains to California. Here in 1858 she beat New York,
-taking her record of 2:30. Then she fell into the hands of the notorious
-“Jim” Eoff, and the next year was matched against the then crack trotter
-of California, Glencoe Chief, at ten miles to wagon. These were golden
-days on the coast, and this race was for the enormous stake of thirty-six
-thousand five hundred dollars. Princess won easily in 29:10¾, but the
-Glencoe Chief party being dissatisfied, another race was trotted the
-next day at the same distance for five thousand dollars, Princess again
-winning. There was after this nothing on the coast to race with Princess,
-and Eoff brought her to New York to try conclusions with Flora Temple.
-Her first race with Flora was at three-mile heats at Eclipse Course,
-Long Island, Flora winning, but at two-mile heats a week later Princess
-won in 5:02, 5:05. In their subsequent races Flora turned the tables,
-though in a stubborn contest at two-mile heats Princess forced the then
-queen of the turf to make the long unbeaten record of 4:50½. She was then
-retired from the turf, and after passing through several hands became the
-property of R. F. Galloway, who in 1862 bred her to Hambletonian.
-
-[Illustration: NANCY HANKS.
-
-By Happy Medium, record 2:04.]
-
-Happy Medium was a bay horse, with star, snip, and two white rear ankles,
-fifteen hands two inches in height, and was a shapely, attractive horse,
-with excellent legs and feet. Some critics have found fault that he was
-light barreled, and perhaps with some degree of reason, but as a whole he
-was structurally much above the average of his time. As a four-year-old
-he started at the Goshen Fair and won, taking a record of 2:54, which he
-lowered to 2:51 in 1868. The next year, 1869, at Paterson, New Jersey,
-he distanced Guy Miller and Honesty in 2:34½, 2:32½, and these three
-performances, all winning ones, comprise his entire turf career. He was
-in 1871 purchased at a very large price—said to have been twenty-five
-thousand dollars—by Mr. Robert Steel, who placed him at the head of
-his Cedar Park Farm, at Philadelphia. In 1879 he was purchased by the
-late General W. T. Withers, and taken to his Fairlawn Farm, Lexington,
-Kentucky, where he remained until he died, January 25, 1888, at which
-time he had more 2:30 performers to his credit than any horse then
-living. The Happy Mediums developed speed easily and quickly, and were
-remarkable for the purity of their gait. The most famous of his get is
-the mare Nancy Hanks, that lowered the world’s record to 2:04 in 1892.
-The mares bred to Happy Medium never were as a whole of good breeding,
-and in his early stud career they were largely of inferior blood and
-quality. His fame has steadily grown, and with ninety-two standard
-performers to his credit, and his sons and daughters breeding on, the
-blood of Happy Medium is justly held in very high esteem as a positive
-speed-producing element. Fifty-one of his sons have produced two hundred
-and thirteen, and forty-seven of his daughters have produced fifty-nine
-standard performers.
-
-JAY GOULD was one of the most famous of all the sons of Hambletonian on
-the turf and the sensational trotting stallion of his day, and he now,
-in turn, takes a high place among producing sons of the great father
-of trotters. This horse was bred by the late Richard Sears, of Orange
-County, New York, was foaled 1864, and was got by Hambletonian, out of
-Lady Sanford, by Seely’s American Star; grandam Old Sorrel, by Exton
-Eclipse; third dam by Lawrence’s Messenger Duroc, etc. At maturity Jay
-Gould was a handsome, blood-like horse, fifteen and one-half hands high,
-and a rich bay in color, with white hind ankles. With his dam he was
-sold while at her side to Charles H. Kerner, of New York, who soon after
-traded them to John Minchin, of Goshen, for the then well-known trotter
-Drift, Mr. Kerner also paying a fair sum in cash. Later the colt came
-into the hands of A. C. Green, of Fall River, and was by him named Judge
-Brigham. It is said that Mr. Green first learned that Judge Brigham was
-a fast trotter through his taking fright at a train one day in 1870 and
-running away with him at a trot. Whatever the facts as to this are, it
-was soon known that Mr. Green had a very fast trotter, and the next
-season (1871) he started for a five-thousand-dollar purse at Buffalo,
-among the other starters being the already famous Judge Fullerton. To
-the general astonishment, Judge Brigham “cut loose” in the second heat,
-winning it in 2:22, thus equaling the stallion record then held by George
-Wilkes, and placing to his credit the fastest heat ever up to that time
-trotted by a horse in his maiden race. He won the race handily, and was
-the sensation of the time. He was at once purchased for, I believe, the
-great price of thirty-five thousand dollars by the late world-famous
-financier, Jay Gould, H. N. Smith, and George C. Hall. Later Mr. Smith
-acquired Mr. Hall’s interest, and Mr. Kerner bought Mr. Gould’s, and
-finally, some years after, Mr. Smith, who had established Fashion Stud
-Farm, at Trenton, New Jersey, and owned the noted mares Goldsmith Maid,
-2:14, Lady Thorn, 2:18¼, and Lucy, 2:18¼, became sole owner of Jay Gould,
-as Judge Brigham was renamed.
-
-The week following his Buffalo race Jay Gould defeated another strong
-field at Kalamazoo, Michigan; and in 1872 started four times, winning in
-all his races, lowering his record to 2:21¼, the then champion stallion
-record. He was kept in the stud in 1873, but being challenged on behalf
-of Bashaw Jr., the following year, was given a hurried fall preparation,
-and met his challenger at Baltimore. Bashaw Jr., broke down in the
-first heat, and Gould of course won an empty victory, but to satisfy
-the audience was driven a public trial in 2:19½. Meanwhile Smuggler had
-lowered the stallion record to 2:20, and Jay Gould was sent against it
-at Boston, trotting under unfavorable circumstances in 2:20½ and 2:21½.
-This practically closed his turf career. He made a number of seasons at
-Fashion Farm, and in his later years at Walnut Hill Farm, near Lexington,
-Kentucky, and died of old age June 10, 1894. Jay Gould’s opportunities
-were never of the best. In his earlier years in the stud General Knox
-was more used at Fashion Farm than Jay Gould, and there was no training
-done at Fashion until 1886. Jay Gould is the sire of twenty-nine standard
-performers, the most noted of which is the great mare Pixley, 2:08¼.
-Fourteen of his sons have produced thirty standard performers, and
-twenty-eight of his daughters have produced forty-six performers, among
-the latter being the great pacer, Robert J., 2:01½, and such trotters as
-Poem, 2:11½, Colonel Kuser, 2:11¼, Mahogany, 2:12¼, Edgardo, 2:13¾, etc.
-His most noted producing daughter is Lucia, whose dam was the famous old
-trotting mare Lucy, 2:18¼, by George M. Patchen, 2:23½. Lucia is the dam
-of Edgardo, 2:13¾, Hurly Burly, 2:16¼, and several others in the 2:30
-list, and her blood is breeding on through both her sons and daughters.
-
-STRATHMORE, taking all things into consideration, must be rated among
-the very greatest sons of Hambletonian. He was a solid bay horse, of the
-substantial Hambletonian type, foaled 1866, bred by Aristides Welch at
-his Chestnut Hill farm, near Philadelphia, and was got by Hambletonian
-out of the quite famous trotting mare Lady Waltermire, by North American,
-and Lady Waltermire’s dam was said to have been by Harris’ Hambletonian.
-This North American sired Whitehall, that got the famous trotter Rhode
-Island, sire of the still more celebrated Governor Sprague, and in
-the section treating of the latter the reader will find particulars
-concerning North American. Lady Waltermire was a noted trotting mare in
-her day, and it has been claimed that she performed faster than 2:30, but
-I have never been able to substantiate this claim. When Strathmore was
-a three-year-old, in 1869, I visited Chestnut Hill. Mr. Welch then had
-three sons of Hambletonian, viz., William Welch, Rysdyk, and Strathmore,
-who was then called Goodwin Watson. The two former were led out to be
-shown, but when I inquired for Goodwin Watson, Mr. Welch’s reply was “Oh,
-he’s a pacer”—except that he used an adjective in connection with “pacer”
-that added emphasis, and betrayed some degree of regret, or indeed
-disgust. The fact that several of Strathmore’s sons have gotten many
-fast pacers need not be marveled at. I am not aware that Strathmore was
-ever trained, and probably his pacing inclination furnishes the reason.
-When he was seven years old he was purchased by Colonel R. G. Stoner,
-of Paris, Kentucky, and named Strathmore, and up to this time, Colonel
-Stoner states, he had but three foals, one of which was afterward known
-as Chestnut Hill, 2:22½, the first of his get to earn a reputation. His
-first two seasons were made in Montgomery County, after which he was
-taken to Paris, in Bourbon County. Colonel Stoner states in one of his
-catalogues that Strathmore’s early opportunities in Kentucky were very
-inferior; that in 1877 and 1878 the service fees earned would not pay for
-his keep; that up to 1879 he never served a mare with a record or the dam
-of an animal with a record, and that it was not until Steinway trotted in
-1878 as a two-year old in 2:31¾, and Santa Claus as a five-year-old in
-2:18 in 1879 that any good mares came to Strathmore. At Colonel Stoner’s
-sale, February 9, 1886, Strathmore was sold for two thousand one hundred
-and fifty dollars to Rockhill & Bro., of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they
-owned him until his death, March 11, 1895. Strathmore has seventy-one in
-the standard list; twenty-six of his sons and fifty-four of his daughters
-have produced one hundred and fifty-eight standard performers.
-
-EGBERT is one of the youngest sons of Hambletonian, and has achieved very
-fair success in the stud. He is closely inbred to the Hambletonian, or
-rather the Abdallah blood, and is possibly the most notable instance of
-a successful sire being very closely inbred. Egbert was bred by Hon. J.
-H. Walker, Worcester, Massachusetts, and was foaled in 1875. He was sold
-at the sale of Mr. Walker’s horses at Worcester in the autumn of 1877,
-when he was purchased for the then great price for a two-year-old of
-three thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars by H. J. Hendryx, of
-Michigan, a representative of Mr. Veech, of Kentucky, being a contending
-bidder. After the sale Mr. Hendryx sold the colt for four thousand
-dollars to George W. Raudenbush, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who I believe
-still owns him. In the spring of 1880 Egbert was taken by Colonel Richard
-West to his farm at Georgetown, Kentucky, and kept there a number of
-years, and indeed the greater part of his stud career has been in
-Kentucky. I am not aware that Egbert was ever trained. He is individually
-a superior horse, but is alleged to have an unkind disposition.
-
-Egbert was got by Hambletonian out of Campdown, by Messenger Duroc
-(son of Hambletonian); grandam Miss McLeod (dam of Lord Nelson, 2:26¼,
-and Polonius), by the Holbert Colt (son of Hambletonian); great-grandam
-May Fly, by Utter Horse, son of Hoyt’s Comet; great-great-grandam
-Virgo, sister to the dam of Messenger Duroc, by Roe’s Abdallah Chief,
-son of Abdallah, the sire of Hambletonian. The Holbert Colt, son of
-Hambletonian, was a pacer, and others in Egbert’s ancestry paced; and in
-commenting on his pedigree, from this point of view, at the time Colonel
-West took him to Kentucky, I remarked in _Wallace’s Monthly_, March,
-1880: “Colonel West need not be surprised if he finds quite a number of
-Egbert’s offspring starting off at a pace.” The facts have borne out the
-prediction, as a glance at Egbert’s long list of fast pacers will show.
-Egbert is the sire of seventy-five standard performers, while twenty-five
-of his sons, and eighteen of his daughters have produced seventy-four
-standard performers.
-
-MASTERLODE, that left a family of some merit in Michigan, was a mammoth
-bay, foaled 1868, got by Hambletonian out of Lady Irwin by Seeley’s
-American Star. He was a gigantic, coarse horse, and was certainly the
-largest horse that ever earned a reputation as a sire of trotters. It
-is said he was quite seventeen hands high and was built on a heavy mold
-even for his height. He was bred by James M. Mills, Orange County, New
-York, and passed to A. C. Fisk, Coldwater, Michigan, who owned him until
-his death in 1892. The most noted of his get was Belle F., 2:15¼, that
-was one of the very best campaigners out in 1886. He has twenty-eight
-to his credit in the list, and seventeen of his sons and sixteen of his
-daughters have produced in all fifty-seven standard performers.
-
-ABERDEEN shares with Dictator such honors as attach to the highest
-success of the “Hambletonian-Star cross” in the stud. This horse was
-bred by the notorious Captain Isaiah Rynders, at Passaic, New Jersey,
-and a full account of the investigation of the pedigree of his dam,
-the noted Widow Machree, 2:29, will be found in Chapter XXIX., on the
-investigation of pedigrees. Widow Machree was altogether the best trotter
-of the American Star family, and was especially noted for her gameness.
-Bred to Hambletonian, it was natural that she should produce a trotter,
-and Aberdeen was quite a trotter in his day. As a three-year-old he
-won a stake at Prospect Park, distancing his field in 2:46, and the
-statement has been published that he later in his career trotted a slow
-New Jersey track in 2:24¼. This horse was foaled in 1866, and was a bay
-fifteen hands three inches high, and very stoutly, indeed coarsely made,
-and was of a dangerously vicious disposition. The good race mare Hattie
-Woodward, that made a record of 2:15½, first attracted attention to
-Aberdeen as a sire, and in 1881 he was purchased by General Withers and
-taken to Fairlawn, and before this his stud opportunities had been very
-limited. He died in 1892. By far the best of his get is the great mare
-Kentucky Union, that made a record of 2:07¼ in 1896. Aberdeen has forty
-in the standard list, fourteen of his sons have produced fifty-seven, and
-seventeen of his daughters have produced nineteen standard performers.
-
-SWEEPSTAKES must be classed among the successful sons of Hambletonian
-as a sire of trotters, though in the second generation his family have
-yet failed of great distinction, nor did Sweepstakes himself get extreme
-speed. This was a bay horse, foaled 1867, by Hambletonian out of Emma
-Mills, that also produced Mott’s Independent, by Seely’s American Star.
-He was bred by the late Harrison Mills, near Goshen, in Orange County,
-New York, and was never, I believe, trained. Indeed it has been stated
-that he never wore harness, and is perhaps the most remarkable example of
-a strictly undeveloped sire of trotters. The most noted of his get is the
-bay horse Captain Lyons, 2:17¼. Sweepstakes sired thirty-three trotters
-and two pacers that are standard performers, four sons have produced
-eight trotters and two pacers, and twenty of his daughters have produced
-twenty-five trotters and four pacers.
-
-GOVERNOR SPRAGUE is one of the few horses not descended in the male line
-from one of the great foundation progenitors, and that yet was a trotter
-of merit and the founder of a trotting family. His dam, however, was a
-producing daughter of Hambletonian, and this must be regarded as the
-probable source of his power, though his sire was a fine trotter for his
-day.
-
-Back in the thirties a Frenchman living at Rouse’s Point, New York, near
-the Canadian boundary line, bred a pacing mare to a horse that was kept
-in the same stable with Sir Walter, thoroughbred son of Hickory, and
-the result was the horse known as North American, or the Bullock Horse.
-It was long claimed that North American was by Sir Walter, but the best
-authenticated version is given in _Wallace’s Monthly_, for 1880. This was
-the statement of a Mr. Ladd, said to be a reliable man, who knew the
-Frenchman who bred North American. Ladd had formerly lived at Rouse’s
-Point, and kept a little hotel at Benson’s Landing on Lake Champlain.
-Ladd’s statement was that the Frenchman had a little pacing mare, from
-which he wanted to raise a foal, but would not pay more than three
-dollars for any horse’s service. Sir Walter’s fee was fifteen dollars,
-but in the same stable was a large stallion that was used to haul water
-from the lake to the hotel, and the Frenchman was permitted to have the
-service of this horse for three dollars, and this is the only reliable
-version I could ever obtain as to the pedigree of North American. Besides
-the line we are now considering, this horse got Lady Waltermire, the dam
-of the great Strathmore, and one of his daughters is the dam of two in
-the 2:30 list, and Vergennes Black Hawk came from another. North America
-was said to have been a natural trotter, and quite fast for a short
-distance. A son of his, named Whitehall, from the name of the place where
-he was bred, was taken to Ohio from New York about 1854 and there got the
-noted Rhode Island, 2:23½, the sire of Governor Sprague. Rhode Island was
-a brown horse, foaled about 1857, and his dam was by a black horse called
-Davy Crockett that was brought from Pennsylvania, and her dam was called
-Bald Hornet. This mare, Mag Taylor, was bred to Whitehall twice, one of
-her foals being Belle Rice, the dam of the stallion Harry Wilkes, sire
-of Rosalind Wilkes, 2:14¼, and the other was Rhode Island. This horse
-trotted many races, and at Fashion Course, New York, October 27, 1868,
-earned his record of 2:23½. He about this time passed into the hands
-of Sprague & Akers, and he died in 1875. At this time Governor Amasa
-Sprague had among his brood mares Belle Brandon, by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian
-out of a daughter of Young Bacchus. This was a bay mare, foaled in 1854
-in Orange County, and was a fast trotter and a mare of great general
-excellence. She was driven as a mate to Sprague’s Hambletonian, and Mr.
-Sprague claimed that he had once driven her a mile in 2:29. Bred to
-Volunteer she produced Amy, 2:20¼, and to Rhode Island, produced in 1872,
-Governor Sprague, 2:20½.
-
-Governor Sprague was a black horse, approximating fifteen hands two
-inches in height, and very substantially built. He is described as having
-been an exceedingly handsome horse, especially in action, his gait having
-been pure and beautiful. In 1873 he was sent to Kansas and trained, and
-so promising was he that he was that year sold to Higbee Brothers and Mr.
-Babcock, of Canton, Illinois, for one thousand five hundred dollars.
-He was shown and known as a very fast four-year-old, trotting public
-exhibitions in about 2:22. With the exception of a three-year-old race
-at Earlville, Illinois, he did not start in a public race until July 20,
-1876, when at Chicago he easily defeated a good field, and so promising
-and attractive did he seem that the late Jerome I. Case, of Racine, paid
-the great price of twenty-seven thousand five hundred dollars for him.
-At Poughkeepsie, New York, that season he lowered his record to 2:20½,
-and a few more races ended his short but brilliant turf career. He died
-at Lexington, Kentucky, May 23, 1883, at the early age of eleven years.
-His stud career was therefore short, and this fact we must remember in
-estimating his rank as a sire. Kate Sprague, 2:18, and Linda Sprague,
-2:19, were about the best of his immediate progeny, and Rounds’ Sprague,
-that has twenty trotters and pacers in the 2:30 list, some of them in
-better than 2:20, seems to be his most successful son. Governor Sprague
-has to his credit thirty-six trotters and two pacers with standard
-records, twenty-two of his sons have sired fifty-four trotters and
-fifteen pacers, and his daughters have produced twenty-three trotters
-and six pacers. There was nothing in the inheritance of Rhode Island to
-justify a supposition that he would transmit speed uniformly, and, like
-Smuggler, the speed-getting power with him was sporadic. But from his
-dam, Belle Brandon, Governor Sprague received the blood of Hambletonian
-through an individual that had speed herself and naturally produced
-speed; and this strain, combined with the blood of a horse that was good
-enough in his day to beat Lucy, American Girl and George Wilkes, gave
-Governor Sprague a right to be all that he was.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIII.
-
-MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY.
-
-    Description and history of Mambrino Chief—The pioneer trotting
-    stallion of Kentucky—Matched against Pilot Jr.—His best
-    sons—Mambrino Patchen, his opportunities and family—Woodford
-    Mambrino, a notable trotter and sire—Princess—Mambrino
-    Pilot—Other sons of Mambrino Chief.
-
-
-Mambrino Chief was a dark bay or brown horse, got by Mambrino Paymaster,
-grandson of imported Messenger, and his dam was a large, coarse mare that
-was brought from the West in a drove, and absolutely nothing was known
-of her blood. The theory was once advanced in print that she must have
-been by Stevens’ Messenger Duroc, but I think it was never repeated.
-The basis of this theory was, that the horse referred to was large and
-coarse, with a long thigh bone, and as the mare was large and coarse,
-with a long thigh bone, she must have been a daughter of his. There are
-some obvious difficulties about accepting this “thigh-bone” pedigree. In
-the first place, the inventor of it never saw either the horse or the
-mare, and how could he have put his tapeline on their “thigh-bones” and
-thus ascertained they were of the same length? In the second place, it is
-not known, nor was it known to the inventor, that the horse ever had been
-within three hundred miles of the dam of this “daughter” of his. It is
-not much wonder that the “horse business” is hardly considered reputable
-when an educated man will advance such senseless gabble as the basis of
-a pedigree. This mare produced another colt called Goliah that developed
-some speed, but this was not the Goliah that was on the trotting turf.
-
-Mambrino Chief was bred by Richard Eldridge, of Dutchess County, New
-York, and was owned by Warren Williams; in the spring of 1851 he passed
-into the hands of James M. Cockroft and G. T. Williams; was kept two or
-three seasons in Ulster County; trotted, under the saddle a trial in
-2:36; sold to James B. Clay of Kentucky, in the winter of 1854, and then
-to Gray & Jones, 1857, for five thousand and twenty dollars, and died
-1861. Soon after his arrival in Kentucky he was matched to trot against
-Pilot Jr., and the match stirred up a great deal of interest among the
-breeders. He was so big and coarse and so far removed from the type of
-the running horse that very few believed he could show any speed at
-any gait, for the distance of a mile and repeat. He was placed in the
-hands of Dr. Herr, who had had some experience in handling trotters, for
-preparation. When the day came there was quite an assemblage to witness
-the race but the Pilot Jr. party came forward and paid forfeit. This was
-a sore disappointment to those who thought the big horse could not trot,
-and to satisfy them that he could trot and trot fast, Dr. Herr drove him
-to show his gait, and notwithstanding his quarter cracks he satisfied
-all that he really was a trotter. This was an auspicious opening of a
-successful career extending through the remaining six years of his life.
-
-In the sense of success, Mambrino Chief was really the pioneer trotting
-stallion of Kentucky. True, “Old” Abdallah had been there fourteen
-years earlier, but he was in bad shape and breeders did not like him.
-He was very plain in his appearance and only left some half-dozen of
-foals behind him when he was brought back to Long Island. The breeders
-all turned to his stable companion, Commodore, that was more after the
-pattern of the running horse, and would not look at Abdallah. This
-Commodore filled the blue-grass fields with his foals, but none of them
-could trot. He was a son of Mambrino, by imported Messenger, and was an
-inbred Messenger, if his pedigree was right, but he was a failure as a
-trotting sire. Mr. Marcus Downing took his horse, Bay Messenger, there
-about the same time and he was a failure also, notwithstanding he was a
-grandson of imported Messenger. Both Commodore and Bay Messenger should
-have been trotting sires, but either one of two reasons was sufficient to
-prevent that consummation. First their blood and physical structure were
-all right, but the mental structure—the instinct to trot—was lacking;
-they inherited from some ancestor that could not and was not inclined
-to trot. Second, Kentuckians of that period knew nothing about trotters
-and they may have lacked in the requisite knowledge, skill and patience
-to develop them. It is true that old Pacing Pilot and some other pacing
-tribes were there that would occasionally throw a pacer with the diagonal
-motion, like Pilot Jr., but there was no other blood there that trotted
-before the arrival of Mambrino Chief. This pacing element was a very
-valuable element upon which to build up the trotter, but unfortunately
-and wherever it was possible, a running pedigree was tacked on to the
-pacer, and thus, in the estimation of Kentuckians it was the running
-blood that did it.
-
-The six years of his services in Kentucky gave sufficient time to
-establish his value as a trotting sire, but not sufficient to build
-up a large family. This limited period must be further restricted, in
-estimating his value, by the fact that the war broke out in 1861, at
-the very time when the larger part of his offspring were just at the
-right age for development. This important fact has been very generally
-overlooked when estimating the true value of this horse. The question has
-often been asked why this horse succeeded in Kentucky when he had not
-succeeded in the North? This is too broad a question to be considered in
-this historical sketch, but will be considered at another place in this
-volume. In passing it, some very intelligent writers have attributed it
-to what is called “the climatic outcross,” and there may be some real
-value in this point, but the great cause, aside from the new surroundings
-and expectations of his progeny, may be found in the fact that his own
-speed was never developed until the very eve of his transfer to Kentucky.
-His instinct to trot and to trot fast had remained dormant, practically,
-during the whole period of his Northern service, and when he reached
-Kentucky he was, in a sense, a new horse and conscious of his powers as a
-trotter. The salutary effects of development, at whatever gait, have been
-shown in ten thousand instances and will continue to be shown as long as
-the interests and ambitions of man shall prompt him to strive to surpass
-his neighbor.
-
-At one time it was maintained right vehemently by the owners of the stock
-of Mambrino Chief, as well as some others, that as a stock horse he was
-not only equal but superior to Hambletonian. In 1867, when the battles
-were raging between Dexter and Lady Thorn, this view showed little
-abatement, and notwithstanding the gelding was beating the mare all the
-time, they still maintained that in the end she would be the conqueror.
-When Lady Thorn was seriously crippled and retired from the turf, there
-were many sad hearts in the Mambrino family and many wonderful stories
-were told, privately, of what Dan Mace had seen her do, and that he was
-keeping very quiet till an opportunity came to show the most wonderful
-flight of speed that the world had ever seen or ever would see. With
-the shroud of what “might have been” about them, they were “of the same
-opinion still.”
-
-Mambrino Chief left six in the 2:30 list; twenty-three sons that put
-ninety-five in the list and seventeen daughters that produced twenty-four
-trotters.
-
-LEADING SONS OF MAMBRINO CHIEF.
-
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-                                   Performers produced in two generations.
-  ------------------------------------------------------------------+
-                Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-  -----------------------------------------------------------+      |
-                                        Producing daughters. |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------------+     |      |
-                                       Producing sons. |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------------+     |     |      |
-                            Standard performers. |     |     |      |
-  -----------------------------------------+     |     |     |      |
-                                Year died. |     |     |     |      |
-  ----------------------------------+      |     |     |     |      |
-                       Year foaled. |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+      |      |     |     |     |      |
-           Name.             |      |      |     |     |     |      |
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-  Mambrino Patchen           | 1862 | 1885 |  25 |  51 |  90 |  259 |  284
-  Woodford Mambrino, 2:21½   | 1863 | 1879 |  13 |  23 |  24 |  172 |  185
-  Mambrino Pilot, 2:34¾      | 1859 | 1885 |   9 |  17 |  15 |   71 |   80
-  Clark Chief                | 1861 | 1871 |   6 |  12 |  25 |   43 |   49
-  Ericsson, 2:30½            | 1856 | 188- |   6 |   4 |  15 |   25 |   31
-  Mambrino Chief Jr. (Fisk’s)| 1861 | 189- |   5 |   6 |  14 |   34 |   39
-  ---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
-
-MAMBRINO PATCHEN was the best son of Mambrino Chief and was brother to
-Lady Thorn, 2:18¼. He was foaled 1862, after the death of his sire, and
-was bred by Levi T. Rodes. His dam was by Gano, a running-bred son of
-American Eclipse; his grandam was a pacing mare by a colt of Sir William,
-but what Sir William is not known; his great-grandam was an inveterate
-pacer and never was known to strike any other gait. Mambrino Patchen
-was so much smoother and handsomer than his sire, and was so much of a
-failure as a trotter, that a very strong conviction prevailed among the
-friends and neighbors of his owner that he was not a son of Mambrino
-Chief, nor a brother of Lady Thorn. To this story that he was a Denmark
-and not a Mambrino Chief I never have given any shadow of credence. The
-attempt of his owner, Dr. Herr, to make him a trotter was patient and
-persistent, extending through several years, but with all his skill and
-experience he failed. Nobody was ever able to “catch” him a mile, but it
-seems to have been conceded that he might go somewhere in the “forties.”
-While this persistent and long-continued training failed in its original
-purpose of giving the horse a record of reputable speed, there can be
-no doubt, under the law that governs, that this development did great
-good to the horse, as a progenitor of trotters. The conditions being a
-handsome horse, with the banner constantly flying over him, “full brother
-to Lady Thorn,” an industrious and very capable owner, in the heart of
-the greatest breeding region in the whole country, it is easy to account
-for a very wide and lucrative patronage. Still, as a getter of speed he
-was not a great success, and as a getter of high speed he was a failure.
-With all the facilities for development, only twenty-five of his progeny
-have found a place in the 2:30 list, the fastest of which has a record of
-2:20½. Of his sons, fifty-one are the sires of one hundred and twenty-six
-trotters, and of his daughters, ninety have produced one hundred and
-twenty-nine standard performers. He has proved himself a very great sire
-of brood mares, and when his daughters are bred to horses of stronger
-inheritance, they stand among the best.
-
-WOODFORD MAMBRINO.—This son of Mambrino Chief was a large brown horse,
-foaled 1862. He was bred by Mr. Mason Henry, of Woodford County,
-Kentucky. His dam was also the dam of other trotters, was got by
-Woodford, son of Kosciusko, and her dam was a farm mare without any known
-breeding. Woodford was a large, strong horse used only for farm work, to
-which he was well suited. After spending a good deal of time and labor on
-his pedigree I am constrained to say that while he may have been a son
-of Kosciusko, his dam’s breeding is worse than unsatisfactory. Woodford
-Mambrino made a record of 2:21½, and placed thirteen of his get in the
-2:30 list. He left twenty-three sons that were the sires of standard
-performers, and twenty-four daughters that produced twenty-seven standard
-performers. His son, Princeps, owned by Mr. R. S. Veech, of Indian Hill
-Farm, near Louisville, Kentucky, was in the stud far and away the best of
-his sons, and although he had no record of his own he placed in the list
-forty-four trotters and four pacers, many of them with fast records.
-
-MAMBRINO PILOT was a very large and very coarse horse. He was a brown,
-got by Mambrino Chief, foaled 1859, dam Juliet, by Pilot Jr.; grandam by
-Webster, son of Medoc; great-grandam by Whip. He was bred by Thomas Hook,
-of Scott County, Kentucky, and after passing through the hands of Dr.
-Herr and others he was sold to C. P. Relf, of Philadelphia, and, I think,
-remained in his family till he died, 1885. He had a record to saddle of
-2:27½. He put nine of his get into the 2:30 list, and seventeen of his
-sons left fifty-one performers and fourteen of his daughters produced
-twenty performers.
-
-Many others of the descendants of Mambrino Chief might be noticed,
-but it is not the purpose of this volume to dwell upon matters that
-are accessible in the current literature of the trotting horse. The
-foundations of breeds and the leading heads of tribes must command my
-labor. The table shows the rank of the other sons of Mambrino Chief that
-achieved any degree of success, and of these clearly the best was Clark
-Chief, that died at ten years old.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIV.
-
-THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.
-
-    The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior
-    individual—His greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter
-    and pacer—His history—His noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island
-    Black Hawk—Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius
-    M. Clay—The various horses named Cassius M. Clay—George M.
-    Patchen—His great turf career—George M. Patchen Jr.—Harry
-    Clay—The Moor, and his son Sultan’s family.
-
-
-This family is no longer prominent in trotting annals and its blood has
-been practically absorbed by other strains that have proved themselves
-more potent in transmitting and more uniform and more speedy in
-performing. The name “Bashaw Family” is a misnomer and it should never
-have been used, but as it has represented, for many years, the oldest
-line of developed speed, it seems a necessity to recognize it here. A
-branch of this family, designated as “The Clay Family” has perpetuated
-itself in some strength and will be considered in this chapter.
-
-GRAND BASHAW, the horse that gave this family its name, was imported from
-Tripoli by Richard B. Jones, who was the American consul at that port.
-Mr. Morgan was associated with him, and they imported at the same time
-two other Barbs, Grand Sultan and Saladin. Grand Bashaw was kept in Lower
-Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, several years; Grand Sultan
-was kept in New Salem, New Jersey, for a time, and Saladin was taken to
-North Carolina and afterward died in Georgia. From these three horses
-nothing has been left to the horse history of the country but one single
-attenuated line. Grand Bashaw was a black horse, fourteen hands and an
-inch high, with a star and a snip on his nose. He was kept all his life
-in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and died at Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1845.
-
-YOUNG BASHAW was a grey horse, about fifteen and one-quarter hands
-high, and is the only descendant of Grand Bashaw through which we can
-trace to that horse. He was foaled 1822 and was bred by Thomas Logan,
-of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His dam was Pearl, by Bond’s First
-Consul, a famous running horse, his grandam Fancy, by imported Messenger,
-and his great-grandam by imported Rockingham. This is the pedigree under
-which he was advertised, but it has never been authenticated in any of
-its crosses. Judging by the horse himself and his progeny there can
-hardly be a doubt that there was a Messenger cross in it, but just where
-cannot be determined.
-
-He made his first season in Salem, New Jersey, 1826. He was then four
-years old and by no means handsome or attractive in his form. His head,
-ear and neck were his worst features; but in addition to these defects
-he was flat on the ribs and habitually carried his tail to one side. His
-limbs and feet were as good as ever were made, but his great redeeming
-quality was his trotting gait. When in Salem he was only a rough, partly
-developed, four-year-old colt, but he showed then a step and a rate of
-speed so remarkable as to induce a few to breed to him, notwithstanding
-his ungainly appearance. He did not cover more than a dozen mares that
-season, and all-told he got eight foals. Out of these eight, seven proved
-to be superior trotters for that day. Andrew Jackson was the best, but
-there was another that could go below 2:40. The common remark was,
-wherever he touched a mare of Messenger blood, there was sure to come
-a trotter. This was the general rule, but the best hit he ever made,
-probably, was when he covered Joseph Hancock’s black pacing mare and got
-Andrew Jackson.
-
-In looking over his blood elements we can see nothing in his pedigree
-to justify these trotting qualities except the grandam, Fancy, by
-Messenger. First Consul was a great race horse, but neither he nor his
-descendants ever evinced a disposition to trot. The horse Rockingham was
-contemporaneous with Messenger and a constant rival while Messenger was
-about Philadelphia. He was not wholly running-bred, as he was by Towser,
-afterward called Counsellor, and out of a hunting mare. As a stock horse
-he was esteemed as only second to Messenger on the Delaware, where he
-stood many years.
-
-The fame of Young Bashaw did not cease nor die out after the exploits of
-Andrew Jackson, Black Bashaw, Charlotte Temple, Washington and others
-from his own loins. The Clays, the Long Island Black Hawks and the
-Patchens have kept spreading it wider and wider until of late years we
-find that only the one great Hambletonian family has overshadowed them
-all. Young Bashaw, after eleven years in the stud along the Delaware
-River, above and below Philadelphia, died at Morrisville, Bucks County,
-Pennsylvania, June, 1837.
-
-ANDREW JACKSON was the most noted son of Young Bashaw. He was a black
-horse, fifteen and a half hands high, with three white feet and a strip
-of white in his face. He was very well formed in every point and was
-strong, compact, short-legged and handsome. He was foaled 1827, and was
-bred by Joseph Hancock, of Salem, New Jersey. His dam was a strong,
-compact black mare that both trotted and paced, and was noted for her
-speed at the latter gait. This mare was brought in a drove from Ohio, in
-the spring of 1820 and on the twenty-first of June of that year she was
-sold to Mr. Hancock, of Salem, New Jersey, for one hundred dollars. He
-kept her a little over six years, and in the spring of 1826 bred her to
-Young Bashaw, and in the fall of that year sold her to Powell Carpenter;
-and soon after he sold her to Daniel Jeffreys, a brickmaker on the
-Germantown road, near Philadelphia. She was then in foal by Young Bashaw,
-and the next spring she dropped the colt that became famous as Andrew
-Jackson.
-
-The incidents connected with the history of this mare are here given,
-perhaps in unnecessary detail, but as Andrew Jackson was very extensively
-advertised under a fraudulent pedigree from about 1834 till the time of
-his death, and as I had at one time accepted it as true, it is better
-that it should be made very plain, especially as I had been severely
-criticised for changing it. The correction made, as above, was founded
-on information received from two separate and distinct sources and both
-thoroughly reliable. The fraudulent pedigree of this mare represented
-her as “by Whynot, son of imported Messenger, and her dam by Messenger”
-himself. This was just such a pedigree as so great a horse should have
-had, but there was no truth in it. The attack was led by quite a large
-breeder in one of the prairie States, who had a number of animals
-remotely descended from Andrew Jackson. He did not even pretend to know
-anything at all about the truth of the matter, but simply urged most
-vehemently that the pedigree should be restored because it was old. The
-fact of the matter was the man wanted the old lie instead of the new
-truth maintained because it would help to sell his stock, which was the
-very object for which the lie was originally invented.
-
-Daniel Jeffreys was very much addicted to trotting horses, and when he
-bought the black mare that was then carrying Andrew Jackson he kept her
-for his own driving and named her “Charcoal Sal.” She was no doubt among
-the fastest of the road horses, but there is no record of her ever being
-in a race. How much Jeffreys drove Charcoal Sal that autumn cannot now be
-determined; probably too much for the physical, but not too much, for the
-mental, organization of the foal she was carrying.
-
-About the break of day, one morning in the following April, somebody was
-passing Jeffreys’ brickyard (my recollection is, it was George Woodruff
-himself), and he heard a splashing in the water accumulated in one of
-the clay pits, and Charcoal Sal circling round in great distress. She
-had dropped her foal, and in its weak efforts to get on its feet, it had
-rolled into the pit. It was at once pulled out and the family aroused,
-and no time was lost in rubbing it dry and wrapping it in warm blankets.
-Some of the mare’s milk was poured into it from time to time, and toward
-noon it was so much revived and strengthened as to manifest a disposition
-to get on its feet. This was due, principally, to the womanly care and
-good nursing of Mrs. Jeffreys. But, when helped up, he appeared to have
-strength enough everywhere but in his pastern joints, and there he had no
-strength at all. In this condition the colt remained a day or two, a most
-pitiable and most helpless object, standing on its pasterns instead of
-its feet. One morning at the breakfast-table Mr. Jeffreys said he would
-give any of the boys a dollar if he would put that colt out of misery
-and bury it out of his sight. Mrs. Jeffreys, whose womanly feelings and
-sympathies were all enlisted, replied to her husband’s remark that “the
-boy who would kill that colt never could eat another mouthful at that
-table.” What a grand exhibition of true womanly instincts! Day by day her
-unremitting care was rewarded by seeing a little more strength gathering
-in the weak places, and at last her kind, motherly heart was gladdened by
-seeing him skip and play, a strong beautiful colt.
-
-Mr. Jeffreys kept the colt till he was some five or six years old! and
-then sold him to John Weaver, whose residence was about half a mile from
-the old Hunting Park Course. He remained the property of Mr. Weaver
-till he died, September 19, 1843. In his stud services he was kept on
-both sides of the Delaware, in the region of Philadelphia, and made one
-season, perhaps two, on Long Island. As a trotter he stood as the first
-of all stallions of his day.
-
-His first race took place October 19, 1832, over the Hunting Park Course
-for a purse of two hundred dollars for green horses, to saddle. He was
-entered under the name of “Brickmaker,” was ridden by George Woodruff
-(“Uncle George”), and beat Jersey Fagdown, son of Fagdown, by Messenger.
-Time 6:30, 6:23.
-
-The next year he beat Jersey Fagdown again for the same purse and over
-the same course.
-
-October, 1834, he again won the same purse, over the same course, at two
-miles to saddle, beating Sally Miller. Time 5:26, 5:25.
-
-The next October, 1835, over the same course, the same conditions, he
-beat Lady Warrenton, by Abdallah, and Daniel D. Tompkins, by a son of
-Winthrop Messenger. Time 5:20, 5:19.
-
-These performances have been extended far enough to give a just
-conception of his speed and his staying qualities. His races seem to
-have been pretty much all to saddle and two-mile heats. In that day most
-races were to saddle. George Woodruff told me he was on his back when he
-made Edwin Forrest trot in 2:31¼ to win, but whether it was in a race or
-a trial I cannot now recall. Mr. George Woodruff was an uncle of Hiram
-Woodruff and a very worthy man. To him I am indebted for all the details
-of the early life of Andrew Jackson, and they were of his own personal
-knowledge.
-
-KEMBLE JACKSON.—About the year 1853, of all the idols of the
-trotting-horse world, perhaps no one had so many worshipers as Kemble
-Jackson. In 1852 he was beaten by O’Blennis, three-mile heats in harness,
-and in April, 1853, he was beaten by both Green Mountain Maid and Lady
-Vernon, mile heats in harness, but in June following he achieved a great
-triumph. The race was on the Union Course and there was a vast concourse
-of people there to see it. The purse and stake was for four thousand
-dollars, three-mile heats to two hundred and fifty-pound wagons. The
-interest was very intense, as O’Blennis, Boston Girl, Pet, Iola and
-Honest John were in it. Each horse in the race made better time than he
-ever made before, and yet Kemble Jackson took the lead and maintained it
-from end to end, without a skip or a break. After the first heat even,
-the friends of O’Blennis would not hedge their money, for they had faith
-that the gallant son of Abdallah would win. The finish of the second heat
-was in the order above given. The time was 8:03, 8:04¾. Faster time has
-since been made to wagon, but probably not with this weight and at this
-distance. As a weight-puller for three miles I believe he still remains
-the champion. He was a very strongly built chestnut horse, and was got by
-Andrew Jackson the last year of his life.
-
-The pedigree of his dam was in confusion for a long time. Her name was
-Fanny Kemble. There were a number of running-bred mares named after
-that very popular actress, and everybody who had anything tracing to
-“Fanny Kemble” was sure that that particular mare was the dam of Kemble
-Jackson. In the first volume of the “Register” he is given as out of
-Fanny Kemble by Sir Archy, and in the second volume there was some
-fairly good evidence that he was out of Fanny Kemble by Hunt’s Eagle,
-tracing on through running lines. It is true he was out of a mare called
-Fanny Kemble, but neither of the two foregoing. Her blood was wholly
-unknown. The Hon. Ely Moore was a member of Congress, and when on his
-way to Washington in 1839 he saw a very fine, stout-looking mare hitched
-to a gig in the city of Baltimore. She was a chestnut and showed such
-ability to handle a great heavy gig with ease and rapidity that he bought
-her. He bought her for what she was herself and not for what her blood
-was. There was no evidence asked or given as to how she was bred. This
-mare produced several foals to Andrew Jackson, the youngest of which
-was Kemble Jackson. While he was still a colt, Mr. Moore presented him
-to his son-in-law, G. U. Reynolds, who still owned him when he died.
-Mr. Reynolds is an intelligent and very reputable man, and this is the
-history of the origin of Kemble Jackson as given to me in person by him.
-Mr. Moore paid two hundred and fifty dollars for this mare Fanny Kemble,
-and she was so handsome and so fast on the road that he considered her a
-very cheap mare. The company never was too hot nor the road too long for
-her.
-
-Everybody has heard of “The Kemble Jackson Check” and nearly everybody,
-until within the last few years at least, has been using it without
-knowing just why or when it can be used with advantage. When in the
-hands of Hiram Woodruff, Kemble Jackson got into the habit of bringing
-his chin back against his breast, and in that shape Hiram could pull
-on him all day without getting control of him. In this dilemma, Mr.
-Reynolds suggested an overdraw check which might prevent the indulgence
-of this bad habit. Hiram took the suggestion, had one made, and it was
-a success, in his case. In twenty-four days after the performance which
-made him a great name from one end of the land to the other he died of
-rupture. As he was only nine years old and as he was just beginning to be
-appreciated as a stallion the breeders of the country sustained a great
-loss. Up to this point in his history he had no reputation, had been
-little patronized and left but few of his progeny to perpetuate his name.
-
-LONG ISLAND BLACK HAWK.—This son of Andrew Jackson was foaled 1837 and
-his dam was the distinguished trotter Sally Miller, by Tippoo Saib, son
-of Tippoo Saib by imported Messenger. This mare was bred in Bucks County,
-Pennsylvania, and trotted as a three-year-old in 1828 on the Hunting Park
-Course, Philadelphia. She was distinguished in her day, beating many of
-the best, and was the first three-year-old trotter of which we have any
-account. She was finally owned on Long Island, but I have never been able
-to learn the name of her owner. Black Hawk trotted some famous races on
-Long Island, the most noted of which, perhaps, was his match with Jenny
-Lind in which he was to pull a two hundred and fifty-pound wagon, and
-the mare the usual weight. In this match he beat her in straight heats.
-Time 2:40, 2:38, 2:43. In 1849 he beat Cassius M. Clay, time 2:41, 2:38,
-2:41. This horse was owned for a time by Jonas Hoover, of Germantown,
-Columbia County, New York, and was there called Andrew Jackson Jr., or
-Young Andrew Jackson. He made some seasons in Orange County, and died at
-Montgomery in that county July, 1850. His progeny were not numerous and
-but two of them from his own loins entered the 2:30 list. His son Jupiter
-put five in the 2:30 list; Andrew Jackson Jr., two; Mohawk, three;
-Nonpareil, two; Plow Boy, one; and Vernol’s Black Hawk, one; to which we
-may add the fact that this last named was the sire of the famous Iowa
-stallion, Green’s Bashaw. Although his life was not long and his stud
-career was probably up to the average, it cannot be said that he was a
-great progenitor of trotters.
-
-HENRY CLAY, the nominal head of the tribe that has taken his name, was a
-black horse, foaled 1837, got by Andrew Jackson, son of Young Bashaw; and
-his dam was Surrey, or Lady Surrey, as she is sometimes called, a pacing
-mare that was brought from Surrey, New Hampshire, to New York, and was
-converted to a trotter, or possibly she may have been double-gaited from
-her birth. It has been generally stated in years past that this mare
-was brought from Canada, and as there have been many disputes about her
-origin, I will try to give what authentic knowledge we have concerning
-her.
-
-Mr. Peter W. Jones, one of the “old-time” horsemen and a very reliable
-man, said that David W. Gilmore, formerly a grocer at City Hall Place
-and Pearl Street, New York, bought a pacing mare, five years old, of
-Mark D. Perkins, of Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, which came from Surrey,
-New Hampshire, and hence her name “Lady Surrey.” Gilmore rode her to
-New York, with a young man named Lovejoy. He gave less than one hundred
-dollars for her. She was a superior saddle mare, and as Mr. Gilmore
-appreciated horseback riding he bought her for that purpose. Frank
-Gilmore, who was a deputy sheriff under Sheriff Orser, of New York, said
-that Lady Surrey was the mare his brother rode from New Hampshire, and
-after he sold her she turned out to be a trotter.
-
-This is the story as told by Mr. Jones, and judging from its source I
-have no doubt it is substantially correct. This leaves us without any
-knowledge whatever of the blood of the mare, but only that she was both
-a pacer and a trotter. She was engaged in some races and was quite well
-known to the trotting men of that day, and she must have been a pretty
-good one to have been owned by such a horseman as George M. Patchen and
-by him bred to Andrew Jackson. It is said Surrey and Sally Miller were
-coupled with Andrew Jackson the same day; they both stood, and the one
-produced Henry Clay and the other Long Island Black Hawk.
-
-While Henry Clay remained the property of his breeder he was trained and
-was looked upon as a promising young horse, but I have not been able to
-determine what rate of speed he was able to show. He certainly did not
-stand anywhere near the fastest, and he does not appear to have ever
-won a race, and perhaps never started in one. Still, he was esteemed as
-one of the best horses on Long Island and was liberally supported while
-there. When about eight years old he was sold for a fine price to General
-Wadsworth, of Livingston County, New York, and he was kept at various
-points in that part of the State till he died of old age and neglect in
-1867. He came into the world when trotters were few and he lived till
-they were many. He left a numerous progeny, but as the sire of trotters
-he was a pronounced failure. In examining the 2:30 list I find a single
-one of his get, before he left Long Island, with a single heat of even
-2:30. And in examining the list of his get during the twenty-odd years
-of his life in Western New York, I find a single representative, with a
-single heat in even 2:30, and this one was out of a mare by old Champion,
-a very noted trotting progenitor. He left three sons that appear as
-sires: Andy Johnson, with three just inside of the 2:30 list, Henry
-Clay Jr., with a single one to his credit, and Cassius M. Clay, with
-one very fast one to his credit. This Cassius M. Clay was the sire of
-the famous George M. Patchen. Three of Henry Clay’s daughters produced
-six 2:30 trotters, and for a time it was held that the dam of the very
-famous George Wilkes was a daughter of his, but that claim has not been
-sustained by later developments.
-
-The name and memory of the horse Henry Clay would have been perpetuated
-in horse history through an attenuated line of descendants, as a fairly
-good horse, though unsuccessful as a trotting progenitor, had his
-bones been left to rest and rot where they were buried. Unfortunately,
-about the time of his death, there sprang up a most voluble enthusiast
-whose special mission on earth seemed to be to extol the superlative
-greatness of Henry Clay, and the contemptible worthlessness of “Bill
-Rysdyk’s bull,” as he designated Hambletonian. He commenced pouring his
-endless contributions into the columns of the breeding press and writing
-interminable letters to as many prominent breeders as would receive them,
-and all about the Clay blood being the only blood from which the trotter
-could be bred. These effusions were written with some skill, abounding
-in great prodigality of fancy and still greater economy of truth. It was
-astonishing how many men believed what he said and how few understood
-that the “old man” was in it as a “business.” He had gathered up all
-the cheap sons of the old horse and wanted to sell them at a handsome
-advance, and for a time the game won.
-
-To keep the interest from falling off and the Clay blood moving, he
-secured access to the purses of two wealthy gentlemen who were possessors
-and admirers of Clay blood, and the bones of the horse were taken up,
-mounted and set up, and presented to the United States National Museum at
-Washington, D. C. The bones are still there, and the inscription on the
-pedestal when last seen was as follows:
-
-    “The progenitor of the entire family of Clay Horses, and the
-    foundation of the American Trotting Horse.”
-
-Then follow the names of the two gentlemen who presented the bones to
-the Museum, but as a kindness to them their names are omitted. The first
-clause of the inscription is true, but the second is not true, and I very
-seriously doubt whether they ever authorized the second clause. Henry
-Clay was not the “foundation” of anything, except the airy fabric of a
-fortune for our enthusiast. The scheme as an advertising dodge was well
-worked, and the schemer could well exclaim, “Where now is Bill Rysdyk’s
-bull?” In the nature of things such shams cannot last; this one had its
-fleeting day, and in the end the sheriff sold its worthless accumulations.
-
-CASSIUS M. CLAY.—This son of Henry Clay was quite a large bay horse,
-taking his color and much of his shape from his dam. He was foaled
-1843, and his dam, Jersey Kate, was the dam of the trotting horse John
-Anderson. Jersey Kate was a bay, about fifteen hands three inches high,
-with a clean, bony head, long neck, well set up, and when in driving
-condition was a little high on her legs. She was used in livery work,
-and when a good and fast driver was wanted, Jersey Kate was always in
-demand. In the same stable a pair of “Canuck” ponies were kept that
-were driven in a delivery wagon. They were duns with white manes and
-tails and about fourteen and one-half hands high, quick steppers with
-no speed. One of them slipped his halter one night and got Jersey Kate
-with foal. While she was carrying this foal she became the property of
-Mr. Z. B. Van Wyck’s father, and when she had dropped her colt and was
-put to farm work it was found that she was too rapid and spirited for
-his other horses, and he sold her to Joseph Oliver, of Brooklyn. The
-colt she dropped was weaned before the sale of the dam and remained in
-the family till he grew up. He was a grey, a little below fifteen hands,
-and as the boy, Z. B. Van Wyck, had broken and ridden him he got it into
-his head that he would make a trotter, so he bought him from his father
-for eighty dollars. He continued to improve and he sold him to Timothy
-T. Jackson and he to Charles Carman, who trotted him in many races. When
-Mr. Oliver, then owner of Jersey Kate, saw her “catch” colt by a “Canuck”
-pony able to beat many of the good ones on the island, he concluded
-to breed her to Mr. Patchen’s horse, Henry Clay, and the produce was
-Cassius M. Clay. From her appearance, form, and especially her action,
-it was the universal opinion she was by Mambrino, son of Messenger, and
-it is probable she was, but in the absence of proof she must be classed
-as “breeding unknown.” Had it not been for the speed of little John
-Anderson, there would not have been any Cassius M. Clay.
-
-When the colt grew up, Mr. Oliver, his breeder, sold him to Mr. George
-M. Patchen, of Brooklyn, and he became a very popular stallion. After
-the death of Kemble Jackson and Long Island Black Hawk he was considered
-the best trotting stallion on Long Island. He was in a good many races,
-some of which were reported, but more that were not, and as against
-stallions, he was with the fastest. In temper he was disposed to be
-vicious and had to be watched. In form he could not be considered
-beautiful, but powerful. When the artist was modeling the equestrian
-statue of Washington that stands in Union Square, he had a great search
-for a horse to serve as a model, and he selected Cassius M. Clay as the
-best representative of majesty and power that he could find. Although the
-bronze is of heroic size, it is, no doubt, a fair representation of the
-outline and structure of the horse. He died at Montgomery, Orange County,
-New York, July, 1854, in the same stable where Long Island Black Hawk
-had died four years before. The three great horses, Long Island Black
-Hawk, Kemble Jackson and Cassius M. Clay, died just as they entered on
-what should have been the period of their greatest usefulness, the first
-at the age of thirteen; the second at the age of nine; and the third at
-the age of eleven. If these horses had lived through the usual period of
-horse life, doubtless the records of performers would bear very different
-relations from what they do to-day, but the _really great sire_ had not
-yet made his appearance.
-
-Considering the short period Cassius M. Clay was in the stud he left
-a numerous progeny, but only one of them, George M. Patchen, achieved
-greatness on the turf. He placed thirty-four heats in 2:30 or better to
-his credit and made a record of 2:23½ in 1860, which was the fastest for
-any stallion of his day. This was the only one in the 2:30 list from the
-loins of Cassius M. Clay. Nine of his sons became the sires of eighteen
-trotters, and more than a dozen of his sons were named “Cassius M. Clay
-Jr.” thus leading to great confusion and oftentimes uncertainty as to
-identity.
-
-CASSIUS M. CLAY JR. (NEAVE’S).—This was a brown horse foaled 1848, got by
-Cassius M. Clay; dam by Chancellor, son of Mambrino; grandam by Engineer,
-sire of Lady Suffolk. He was bred by Charles Mitchell, of Manhasset, Long
-Island, owned by Joseph Godwin, New York; stood in Orange County, 1852,
-in Dutchess, 1853, and was taken to Cincinnati that fall. He was owned by
-Mr. Neave, made a few seasons, broke his leg in the hands of Mr. McKelvy,
-and had to be destroyed. Mr. Godwin represented this horse to me as very
-fast until four years old, when by an accident he was thrown into the
-Harlem River when hot and was stiff ever afterward. He put four of his
-get into the 2:30 list, and four of his sons got ten trotters and one
-pacer. His early death was esteemed a great loss, for he was better bred
-than most of the other sons of his sire.
-
-CLAY PILOT, by Cassius M. Clay (Neave’s), was out of a catch filly,
-whose dam was the famous Kate, the grandam of Almont. From the noted
-old trotting mare Belle of Wabash, whose history will be found in
-Chapter XXX. on the investigation of pedigrees, Clay Pilot got The Moor,
-himself a fast trotter and a successful sire. He died at ten years old,
-leaving among others the famous Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, that, mated with
-Electioneer, produced a remarkable family; and Sultan, 2:24, sire of
-the great Stamboul, 2:07½, and of thirty-eight other performers, and of
-thirteen producing sons and twenty producing daughters. The Moor founded
-an excellent family.
-
-From a sister to Crabtree Bellfounder, by imported Bellfounder, Neave’s
-Cassius M. Clay got the black stallion Harry Clay, 2:29, that was quite a
-reputable trotter in his day, and left five standard performers, sixteen
-producing sons and twenty-three producing daughters, among the latter the
-famous Green Mountain Maid, the dam of Electioneer.
-
-CASSIUS M. CLAY JR. (STRADER’S).—This was a handsome brown horse,
-foaled 1852, by the original Cassius, and his dam was a black mare by
-Abdallah, that passed through the hands of A. Van Cortlandt and afterward
-became the property of Joseph Godwin; grandam by Lawrence’s Eclipse;
-great-grandam the Charles Hadley mare by imported Messenger. This
-pedigree has been questioned without assigning any reasons or facts, but
-as it came to me circumstantially and from unquestionable sources I have
-no reason to doubt it. He was bred by Joseph H. Godwin, of New York, and
-foaled the property of Dr. Spaulding, of Greenupsburg, Kentucky. He made
-some seasons in the hands of Dr. Herr, of Lexington, Kentucky, was bought
-1868 by R. S. Strader, and passed to General W. T. Withers, of Lexington,
-where he died 1882. He was engaged in several races and made a record of
-2:35¼. He put four in the 2:30 list, and he left sixteen sons that were
-the sires of forty-six trotters and seven pacers. His daughters have
-produced well, thirty-four of them having produced forty-two trotters and
-seven pacers. This shows him to have been a better horse than his sire
-and better than any of the other sons of his sire.
-
-GEORGE M. PATCHEN was a large bay horse, fully sixteen hands high and
-heavily proportioned. He was bred by H. F. Sickles, Monmouth County, New
-Jersey, for Richard F. Carman, of New York, the owner of his dam. He was
-got by the original Cassius M. Clay, and his dam was a light chestnut
-mare, owned and driven on the road by Mr. Carman. As the blood and origin
-of this mare was for many years unknown, it is necessary to go into some
-particulars concerning it. From 1835 two brothers, Thomas and Richard
-Tone, were contractors on the streets in the northern part of New York
-City. Two or three years afterward Richard bought or traded for a large,
-strong sorrel mare to work in one of their dirt carts. It was represented
-that she had lost a foal shortly before and she was thin in flesh and
-looked coarse. When she moved out of a walk she always went into a pace,
-and that seemed to be her natural gait. They kept this mare at work in
-the cart for several years and sometimes turned her out to pasture in a
-small field at the foot of “Break-neck” hill, adjoining a pasture owned
-by the Bradhurst family. One morning a two-year-old stallion colt, owned
-by Samuel Bradhurst, was found in the pasture with the big pacing mare.
-He had broken down the fence between the two pastures and gotten the big
-mare with foal. In due time she dropped a light chestnut filly, and when
-weaned, Thomas Tone bought this filly from his brother Richard, and at
-two years old commenced working her to his wagon. She had very severe
-treatment for so young an animal and went amiss, when Thomas sold her
-to James Scanlon, a blacksmith, and after a time he sold her to Richard
-F. Carman for a driving mare. Like her dam, when she started off she
-would pace, but after going some distance she would strike a trot and
-go very fast. Mr. Carman paid one hundred dollars for her and he drove
-her beside another that he paid fifteen hundred for, and his fast daily
-drives from Carmanville down to the city soon tested the respective
-merits of the two mares. The hundred-dollar mare could outlast the other
-and had to help her along toward the end of the drive. In time she was
-foundered and permanently stiffened and that was the reason she was sent
-to Mr. Sickles to be bred.
-
-We must now look after the two-year-old colt that was the sire of this
-mare. Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, owned the famous race mare, Betsey
-Ransom, and with others he bred from her the two fillies, Itasca and
-Frolic. In 1837 these two mares were owned by Samuel Bradhurst, who
-manifested a sporting disposition, very much against the wishes of
-his father. In 1837 he bred these two mares to imported Trustee, then
-standing at Union Course, Long Island, and the produce were Head’em
-and Fanny Ransom. It is not known what became of Fanny Ransom, but he
-continued to own Head’em for some years and ran him in 1841 at the Union
-Course and beat the imported colt Baronet, by Spencer. There seems to
-be no other trace of his running or his stud services. It was in 1840,
-therefore, that he jumped the fence and in 1841 that the dam of George M.
-Patchen was foaled. George Canavan, Mr. Bradhurst’s coachman, says there
-were no other foals of any description bred by Mr. Bradhurst. These facts
-were gleaned personally and separately from Tone and Canavan, and as they
-complement and sustain each other, they must be accepted as the best
-information extant on the breeding of this great horse. His dam was by
-Head’em, a son of Trustee, out of a mare by American Eclipse, a grandson
-of Messenger, and she was a pacer and a trotter. His grandam was a pacer
-of unknown breeding.
-
-In 1851 he was purchased for four hundred dollars from Mr. Sickles by
-John Buckley, of Bordentown, New Jersey, and a few months afterward he
-sold a half interest in him to Dr. Longstreet, of the same place, and he
-remained their joint property till 1858, when Mr. Buckley sold his half
-interest to Mr. Joseph Hall, of Rochester, New York. He commenced his
-remarkable career on the turf in 1855 and it continued till 1863. In 1858
-he was engaged in the first race that gave him a national reputation.
-This was against no less a celebrity than Ethan Allen, and he was
-distanced, leaving Ethan with a clear title to the stallion championship.
-In 1860 he turned the tables on his old rival and beat him in straight
-heats in 2:25, 2:24, 2:29. The next week the contest was renewed and
-Patchen again won in straight heats, and this gave him the unchallenged
-right to the rank of the fastest trotting stallion in the world. His
-triumphs, however, were as wide as the trotting turf and not limited to
-sex. He was able to beat and did beat all the best but the indomitable
-little Flora Temple, and although he beat her twice, she was too fast for
-him and beat him many times. It is not my purpose to give a history of
-his achievements. It is sufficient to say he made a record of 2:23½, with
-thirty-four heats to his credit in 2:30 and less, and two miles in 4:51½.
-
-It cannot be said that he was a very great success in the stud as we now
-measure success. Four of his get were able to enter the 2:30 list, and
-among them was the great Lucy, with her record of 2:18¼. Fifteen of his
-sons became the sires of sixty-two trotters and three pacers, and four
-of his daughters produced five trotters. It is hardly fair to compare
-the stud services of a horse of Patchen’s generation with many of the
-great sons of Hambletonian, but at the same time we must not forget that
-Patchen was foaled the same year as Hambletonian. On the first of May,
-1864, when Dan Pfifer was preparing him for the racing season then about
-to open, he died of a rupture, just as his sire had died.
-
-GEORGE M. PATCHEN JR. (California Patchen) was a bay horse by the
-foregoing; dam Belle by Top Bellfounder, a grandson of imported
-Bellfounder, of which little is known. He was bred by Joseph Regan, Mount
-Holly, New Jersey, and taken to California 1862 by William Hendrickson;
-returned to New York 1866, sold to Messrs. Halstead, Poughkeepsie, 1867,
-and by them to W. A. Matthews in 1869, and taken to San Jose, California;
-then sold to P. A. Finnegan, of San Francisco, and died the property
-of J. B. Haggin, Sacramento, 1887. He was campaigned quite extensively
-during the years 1866 and 1867 in the East, and carried away a good share
-of the winnings from the best. His best record was 2:27. In the stud he
-was more successful than his sire, which may be accounted for by his
-more numerous progeny and his longer life. From his own loins he put ten
-trotters into the 2:30 list, and, although there was no Lucy among them,
-Wells Fargo made a record of 2:18¾; Sam Purdy, 2:20½; Vanderlyn, 2:21,
-etc., showing a better average than the get of his sire. Ten of his sons
-got twenty-three trotters and two pacers, and eleven of his daughters
-produced twenty-five trotters and three pacers.
-
-Several of the other sons of George M. Patchen left valuable and fast
-trotting progeny, and among them I will name Godfrey Patchen, with nine
-trotters to his credit and his descendants breeding on; Henry B. Patchen,
-with seven to his credit; Seneca Patchen, with sixteen trotters and one
-pacer to his credit, perhaps more than he is honestly entitled to; Wild
-Wagoner, with four to his credit; and Tom Patchen with three and his
-family transmitting speed.
-
-In considering the founders of the Clay family, there are two or three
-important facts that should be kept in view, bearing upon the growth, or
-the decadence of the family. In a breeding sense this appears to be the
-longest line of _developed_ speed that we have in any of our trotting
-families. While we know that there were developed trotters and pacers
-many years before Abdallah and Andrew Jackson were foaled, we are not
-able to connect them in lines of descent, generation after generation.
-As Andrew Jackson with his developed speed stands at the head of this
-line, the question naturally arises, Where did he get his ability to
-trot? The only answer we can give is, from the daughter of Messenger that
-was the grandam of his sire, and from the fast pacer, Charcoal Sal, that
-produced him. Even if we accept the pedigree of Young Bashaw, with his
-Messenger grandam, when we get to Andrew Jackson we are a long way from
-the Messenger source of trotting speed; hence, we must look to the pacing
-speed of his dam—Charcoal Sal from Ohio—as the more probable source.
-
-Andrew Jackson was bred upon the converted pacer Surrey, and produced
-Henry Clay, then Henry Clay was bred upon Jersey Kate, of unknown blood,
-but a producer of trotting speed, and produced Cassius M. Clay. Then
-Cassius M. Clay was bred upon a mare “full of Messenger blood” and
-produced Strader’s Cassius M. Clay—the best of the Clay name by the
-record. Cassius M. Clay (the original) was also bred on “Dick Carman’s
-mare” and produced the famous George M. Patchen. This Carman mare was by
-a running-bred son of Trustee. She was both a pacer and a trotter and her
-dam was a natural pacer. George M. Patchen was bred on the Regan mare
-and produced California Patchen. This mare was, practically, of unknown
-breeding. California Patchen was bred on Whiskey Jane and the produce
-was his best son, Sam Purdy. This mare Whiskey Jane was quite a trotter
-and she was undoubtedly pacing bred, but I will not here enter into the
-details of her origin.
-
-We have here before us a condensed view of the trotting inheritance of
-the Clay and the Patchen families from Andrew Jackson to Sam Purdy, and
-its most remarkable feature is its poverty in recognized trotting blood.
-On the maternal side, the pacing habit of action seems to prevail in
-almost every succeeding generation. The second thought is that the tribe
-has not held its vantage ground of the first and the longest line of
-developed trotting speed. The third is that it has failed to transmit
-speed with uniformity, but rather sporadically. This may be accounted
-for by the general character and uncertainty of the maternal side, and
-suggests the question whether animals so bred can be relied upon to
-transmit with uniformity an inheritance received sporadically. From its
-place in the first rank as to time and popularity, this family has not
-been able to hold its own and it has declined to a place among the minor
-families of trotters and bids fair to be absorbed by tribes of stronger
-trotting inheritance.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV.
-
-AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.
-
-    Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding
-    really unknown—A trotter of some merit—His stud career—His
-    daughters noted brood mares— Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing
-    Pilot—History and probable origin —Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training
-    and races—Prepotency—Family statistics summarized—Grinnell’s
-    Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing
-    descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse Horse—
-    Swigert and Blackwood.
-
-
-Of all the hundreds of difficult and obscure pedigrees that I have
-undertaken to investigate and straighten out, I have given more time,
-labor and money to that of Seely’s American Star than to any other
-horse. In 1867 I got his pedigree from a gentleman in Morris County,
-New Jersey, who claimed to have bred him, and this pedigree and the
-history accompanying it embracing several details that were interesting,
-I published it, at full length, in the _Spirit of the Times_. This
-represented the horse as a light chestnut about fifteen hands high, with
-star and snip and two white hind feet. He was represented to have been
-foaled 1837 and to be by a horse called American Star, son of Cock of the
-Rock, by Duroc; dam Sally Slouch by Henry, the race horse; grandam by
-imported Messenger. As there was no horse of that name, so far as I knew,
-by Cock of the Rock, but as there was one of that name by Duroc, I wrote
-to know whether this was not the breeding of the sire, and the answer
-came that it might have been so.
-
-After the appearance of this pedigree in the “Register” I was greatly
-surprised that nobody believed it, and the more a horseman knew of the
-horse and his history the more positive he was that it was a mistake.
-Several years passed away, and while I kept insisting it was true, the
-unbelievers became more persistent than ever in their opposition to the
-pedigree. The consensus of the opinions of horsemen seemed to be that the
-horse was part “Canuck,” and this was the view held by his owner, Edmund
-Seely, as long as he lived. At last the following story came to me from
-different responsible persons, all of whom were personally cognizant
-of the facts they related, as follows: On a certain occasion a street
-contractor had a force at work, grading with shovels and carts, near
-the foot of Twenty-third Street, I think, New York City. Among the cart
-horses there was a Canadian stallion and a frisky, high-strung bay mare
-that wouldn’t work kindly. One day during the noon hour, the “boys” for
-amusement brought this stallion and mare together and in due time the
-mare proved to be with foal, and she was sent over to Jersey the next
-spring. The foal she there dropped was Seely’s American Star. When I
-asked to whom the mare had been sent to be taken care of, the answer came
-back quickly naming the same man whom I had represented as the breeder.
-As the contractor had no use for the colt, as a matter of course, the
-keeper of the mare would take the colt for the keeping. There is nothing
-unnatural nor unreasonable in this story, and it bears a pretty strong
-resemblance to the way the dam of the famous George M. Patchen came into
-the world.
-
-When the horse was four or five years old he began to show a fine
-trotting step and he was sold to John Blauvelt, of New York, for a
-driving horse. His feet not being strong, in the course of a year or two
-he developed a couple of quarter cracks and he was sent back to the man
-who raised him to be cured. In the winter of 1844-5 he was sold to Cyrus
-Dubois, of Ulster County, New York, who kept him in the stud the seasons
-of 1845, 1846 and 1847. His advertisement for the year 1847 reads as
-follows:
-
-    “American Star is a chestnut sorrel, eight years old on the
-    11th day of April, 1847, near 16 hands high, etc.... He was
-    sired by the noted trotting horse Mingo, of Long Island, who
-    was got by old Eclipse. American Star’s dam, Lady Clinton, the
-    well-known trotting mare of New Jersey, was sired by Sir Henry.”
-
-Here we have the third pedigree of this horse, and now the question
-arises, Where did this pedigree come from? Cyrus Dubois is dead, but
-a living brother of his says this is the pedigree that Cyrus brought
-with the horse from New Jersey. As this same quasi-breeder was the man
-who delivered the horse to Dubois, the statement of the living brother
-comes very near proving that the first and the third of the pedigrees
-here given were the work of the same man. Again, in 1844, this same
-quasi-breeder kept this horse at Warwick and New Milford, in Orange
-County, New York, and nobody in that region seems to have ever heard of
-either of these pedigrees. And again, this quasi-breeder wrote me that
-after Edmund Seely had brought the horse to Goshen he went to see him,
-and after fully identifying him as the same horse he had bred he gave the
-pedigree to Mr. Seely as he had given it to me. If this be true it is a
-very strange thing that Mr. Seely never seemed to know anything about
-it, but persisted in giving the pedigree as by a Canadian horse and out
-of a mare by Henry. Upon the whole, I long ago concluded that my first
-and earliest correspondent on the question of American Star’s origin was
-unfortunate in having a mental organization that placed him “long” on the
-ideal, and “short” on the real.
-
-His stud services may be summarized as follows: In 1844 he was kept at
-Warwick and New Milford, Orange County, New York. In 1845, 1846 and 1847
-he was in Ulster County, and on the borders of Orange. In 1848 and 1849
-he was at Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York. In 1850, 1851, 1852 and
-1853 he was at Goshen and other points in Orange County. In 1854 he was
-at Elmira, New York. In 1855, it is said on good authority, he was kept
-ten miles below Hudson. Others say he was at Piermont, Rockland County,
-that year. In 1856 he was at Mendota, Illinois. In 1857, 1859 and 1860 he
-was again in Goshen. In February, 1861, he died at Goshen, the property
-of Theodore Dusenbury. In Orange County his service fee ranged from ten
-to twenty dollars, and at last twenty-five dollars, and he was liberally
-patronized. An unusually large percentage of his foals were fillies, and
-he was essentially a brood-mare sire from the start. Opinions differ very
-widely among horsemen as to his capacity for speed, some maintaining that
-he could trot in 2:35 while others insisted on placing him ten seconds
-slower. In trying to harmonize these conflicting views it is probably
-safe to conclude that, when fit, which seldom occurred in his whole life,
-his speed was about 2:40. He was always a cripple from defective feet
-and limbs, and his whole progeny were more or less subject to the same
-troubles.
-
-He left four trotters that barely managed to get inside the 2:30 list
-and eight sons that put sixteen inside of the list. But his strong point
-was in the producing character of his daughters. Thirty-six of these
-daughters left forty-five of their produce inside of 2:30. The disparity
-in the producing power of the sexes in this family is very remarkable
-and, in a breeding sense, very instructive. In the light of what has
-been developed in this family in the past fifty years, we are certainly
-ready to form a safe estimate of its value as a factor in the combination
-that goes to make up a breed of trotters. Star mares gave us a Dexter
-and a Nettie, and all the world thought that was the blood that was to
-live on and on in the new breed. But, while Hambletonian was able to get
-great trotters from Star mares, he was not able to get, through their
-attenuated trotting inheritance, sons that would be as great as himself.
-To his cover Star mares produced no such great sires as George Wilkes,
-Electioneer, Egbert, Happy Medium, and Strathmore. In the instances of
-Dictator and Aberdeen there was a reasonable measure of success, but all
-the others—and there were many of them—proved comparative failures. There
-is a lesson taught here that any one can interpret.
-
-AMERICAN STAR (CONKLIN’S) was a chestnut horse, foaled 1851, and got
-by Seely’s American Star, and his dam has been variously represented,
-with nothing established as to her blood. He was bred by a Mr. Randall,
-of Orange County, and was among the first from his sire to attract
-attention. He came into the hands of E. K. Conklin when young, and was
-taken by him to Philadelphia, and was owned by him during his lifetime.
-He gave early promise of making a trotter, and from 1865 to 1868 he was
-on the turf, more or less, and left a record of 2:33. His stud services
-were confined to the region of Philadelphia till the year 1872, when he
-was taken back to Orange County and died there. Three of his get entered
-the 2:30 list; two of his sons got one trotter each and four or five of
-his daughters produced one each.
-
-At one time the name “American Star” was very popular, and quite a number
-of stallions were so named that were bogus; but his son Magnolia put
-two in the 2:30 list; one son got three trotters, and three daughters
-produced five performers. His son Star of Catskill got two performers,
-and his son King Pharaoh got four pacers and all of them fast. The family
-has not grown strong either in numbers or in merit. It has been carried,
-so far, by the influences of stronger blood, and it seems destined to
-complete absorption and extinction in more potent strains.
-
-PILOT, the head of the Pilot family, was a black pacing horse, and of
-later years he has been generally designated as “Old Pacing Pilot.” He
-was foaled about 1826, and nothing is known of his origin or his blood.
-From his make-up and appearance he was generally considered a Canadian,
-as was the custom at that time, and I think I have used this term
-myself in referring to the horse, but there is really no foundation for
-crediting him to that source. The earliest information we have of him
-is from an unpublished source, to the effect that he was well known to
-certain sporting men about Covington, Kentucky. He next appears in New
-Orleans, hitched to a peddler’s cart, but really looking for a match as
-a green pacer. To promote this object, Major Dubois, a sporting man, was
-taken into the confidence of his owner, and it is said the horse showed
-him a mile in 2:26 with one hundred and sixty-five pounds on his back,
-and the major bought him for one thousand dollars. In 1832 Dubois sold
-him to Glasgow & Heinsohn, a livery stable firm of Louisville, Kentucky,
-and he remained the property of that firm till he died, about 1855. It
-has been asserted with some semblance of authority that he could trot as
-well as pace, but this seems to be wholly apocryphal, and on this point I
-am prepared to speak without hesitation or doubt. A large breeder in the
-vicinity of Louisville, whom I have learned to trust implicitly, through
-the intercourse of many years, has assured me repeatedly that he knew
-the horse and his master well, and that he had seen him very often, for
-years, that he would not trot, and that his master could not make him
-trot a step. On the occasion of a very deep fall of snow he was taken out
-to see whether that would not compel him to trot, and he went rolling and
-tumbling about with no more gait than a hobbled hog.
-
-He left a numerous progeny, most of them pacers, with some trotters. We
-know but little of their merits, as at that period pacing and trotting
-races were carried on, generally, on guerrilla principles, and no records
-kept, except at a few of the more prominent occasions. His fastest pacer,
-probably, was Bear Grass, and there is a little history here that will
-be interesting further on. My late friend, Edmund Pearce, had always,
-from childhood, been a great admirer of the grand old saddle mare, Nancy
-Taylor. She had been bred to Old Pilot and produced a colt foal, which
-Mr. Pearce bought when young and named him Bear Grass. This was the
-first piece of horseflesh he ever owned, and he didn’t think he had ever
-owned a better one. He was amazingly fast, and could go away from all
-competitors, but unfortunately an accident befell him that ended his
-career before he reached maturity. Bear Grass had a half-sister called
-Nancy Pope, being the daughter of Nancy Taylor, that was afterward bred
-to Old Pilot, and she produced the famous Pilot Jr., that was the fastest
-trotter from the loins of the old pacer. Pilot Jr. took the diagonal form
-of the trot from his dam and never paced. It is worthy of noting that
-Nancy Taylor and Nancy Pope—mother and daughter—produced old Pilot’s
-fastest pacer and fastest trotter.
-
-PILOT JR. (ALEXANDER’S) was a grey horse, foaled 1844, “got by old Pacing
-Pilot; dam Nancy Pope, grandam Nancy Taylor.” This is the literal version
-of his pedigree as given by his first owners and as given by W. J.
-Bradley and others who had him in charge year after year in the region of
-Lexington, according to the different advertisements, and no change ever
-appeared till the horse was bought and taken to Woodburn Farm. Then, for
-the first time we learned that Nancy Pope was got by Havoc, thoroughbred
-son of Sir Charles, and that Nancy Taylor was got by Alfred, an imported
-horse. This was not the work of Mr. R. A. Alexander, an honorable man,
-but the work of the professional pedigree manufacturer, who exploited
-his inventive skill very widely through the early catalogues of that
-great establishment. As a matter of historic fact, Pilot Jr.’s dam was
-Nancy Pope, but nothing is known of her sire, and Nancy Pope was out of
-Nancy Taylor, about whose pedigree nothing whatever is known. But as the
-subject of Pilot Jr.’s pedigree is exhaustively treated in Chapter XXIX.,
-the details need not be further dealt with here.
-
-The training of Pilot Jr. commenced when he was five years old, and after
-the close of his stud seasons he was kept at it, in a moderate way,
-for several years, and it is said he never manifested any inclination
-to strike a pace. He was engaged in some races, and his advertisement
-claims he won several, giving the names of horses he had beaten, but the
-time made seems to be carefully avoided. He could probably trot in about
-2:50 or a little better. He and all his family, so far as I can learn,
-were willful and hard to manage in their training, and were, therefore,
-in danger of becoming unreliable, but they were fast for their day, and
-dead game campaigners. There is one particular in which this horse seemed
-to surpass nearly all others and that was in his power to eliminate the
-running instinct and to plant the trotting instinct in his progeny from
-running-bred mares. It is doubtless true that many of those mares, so
-classed, were only running bred on paper; but the fact still remains,
-and it is supported by a sufficient number of authentic instances, to
-justify the conclusion that his potency in this direction was remarkable.
-
-During the troublous times of the war many of his early progeny were
-lost or destroyed, but from his own loins he put eight performers in the
-2:30 list and others not far away. Six of his sons became the sires of
-forty-one performers, and eighteen of his daughters produced forty-one
-performers. Although the official records do not show that Pilot Jr.
-got any pacers, it is nevertheless true that he did get some very fast
-ones. But when we get past the period when the pacer was considered a
-bastard and kept out of sight, we meet with some astonishing facts. As an
-example, take Miss Russell, the greatest of all the Pilots. First, she
-produced a pacer that was changed to the diagonal instead of the lateral
-step, and then stood for years as the champion trotter of the world.
-Second, her son Nutwood has placed twenty pacers in the 2:30 list; her
-son Mambrino Russell has placed five there, and her son Lord Russell has
-placed five there. This brief and hasty exhibit of what the descendants
-of Miss Russell are doing seems to upset all the laws of heredity,
-provided always that her dam was a thoroughbred mare. The evidence that
-the breeding of this reputed “thoroughbred” mare is wholly unknown is
-considered in another part of this volume.
-
-In a few odd instances, in the male lines of descent from Pilot Jr., the
-trotting and pacing instinct seem to be transmitted in stronger measure
-than in any of the other minor families, but the day of its submersion is
-not far distant. The survival of the fittest is the law of Nature.
-
-CHAMPION, the head of the Champion family, was a beautiful golden
-chestnut, sixteen hands high and without marks. He was bred by George
-Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, and was foaled 1842. He was got by
-Almack, son of Mambrino, by Messenger; dam Spirit, by Engineer Second,
-son of Engineer, by Messenger, and sire of the famous Lady Suffolk. This
-is enough Messenger blood to please the most fastidious, but I think
-there was still more beyond the Engineer mare. When eighteen months old
-this colt showed phenomenal speed when led behind a sulky, and when
-three years old he was driven a full mile to harness in 3:05, a rate of
-speed which, at that time had never been equaled by a colt of that age.
-This made him “champion” as a three-year-old and William T. Porter named
-him Champion. After this performance Mr. John Sniffin, a merchant of
-Brooklyn, bought him, and in June, 1846, Mr. William R. Grinnell paid
-two thousand six hundred dollars for him and took him to Cayuga County,
-New York. After keeping Champion in that county till the close of the
-season of 1849, Mr. Grinnell concluded to sell the horse, as in all that
-time he had not covered one hundred mares. Mr. Grinnell complained that
-the farmers did not appreciate the horse, and many of them failed to pay
-for his services. But the fault was not all on the part of the farmers,
-for the price, to them, was very high, and he was a very uncertain foal
-getter.
-
-In April, 1850, he was sent to New York and kept in the stable of Mr.
-Van Cott, on the Harlem road. He had been very badly handled, and Mr.
-Van Cott says he had been abused and ill-treated, and when he came to
-his place he was as vicious and savage as a wild beast. The horse was
-kept there for sale, and in his daily exercise Mr. Van Cott says he could
-“show considerably better than 2:40 at any time.” In 1851 he was sent
-over to Jersey and kept for public use at a fee of fifty dollars, by
-Samuel Taylor, at Newmarket, Metuchen, Boundbrook and Millstone. After
-making three or four seasons in the region of Boundbrook, in the year
-1854, Mr. Grinnell, who still owned him, sold him to Mr. James Harkness,
-of St. Louis, Missouri, for about seven hundred and fifty dollars. On
-reaching St. Louis he proved to be as dangerous as ever, and no man dared
-to go into his stall, except Mr. Harkness and one assistant. In 1858 Mr.
-Harkness sold him to Thomas T. Smith, of Independence, Missouri, for
-one thousand dollars. He was there stolen by “jayhawkers” and taken to
-Leavenworth, Kansas, where he made two seasons and died 1864. Although he
-lived to be old, he left comparatively few colts, but a large proportion
-of that few were of excellent quality and many of them trotters.
-
-CHAMPION (SCOBEY’S also known as King’s Champion) was the best son of
-Grinnell’s Champion, the son of Almack, and he came out of a mare called
-Bird, by Redbird, son of Billy Duroc. He was foaled 1849, and was bred
-by Jesse M. Davis, then of Cayuga County, New York, and sold to David
-King, of Northville, New York, and by him in 1861 to Mr. Kellogg, of
-Battle Creek, Michigan. He was repurchased by Messrs. Backus, Scobey and
-Burlew in August, 1865, and soon became the property of Mr. C. Scobey
-and died his in May, 1874. It has been claimed this horse had speed and
-a record of 2:42 in 1857, but I have no data to determine how fast he
-was. From his own loins he put eight performers in the 2:30 list, two
-of which were phenomenally fast, although their records do not show it.
-Here I allude to Nettie Burlew and Sorrel Dapper, more generally known as
-“The Auburn Horse.” The latter was a long, leggy, light chestnut, with a
-tremendous stride, and Hiram Woodruff did not hesitate to say he was a
-faster horse than Dexter. This Champion was a sire of excellent quality,
-although but a few of his progeny were developed. He left six sons that
-were the sires of forty-four trotters, and seven daughters that produced
-nine performers.
-
-CHAMPION (GOODING’S) was a bright bay horse with black points, standing
-fifteen and three-quarter hands high. He was got by Scobey’s Champion,
-dam the trotting mare Cynthia, by Bartlett’s Turk, son of Weddle’s
-imported Turk; grandam Fanny, by Scobey’s Black Prince; great-grandam
-Bett, by Rockplanter, son of Duroc; great-great-grandam Kate, represented
-to be a Messenger mare. He was foaled 1853, and was bred by Almeron Ott,
-Cayuga County, New York, and traded to Mr. Stearns, from whom he passed
-to his late owners, T. W. and W. Gooding, Ontario County, New York. He
-died June, 1883. This horse was peddled about in Seneca County at a fee
-of five dollars, and had a very light patronage among the farmers. At
-last he was sold, with difficulty, at Canandaigua, for three hundred
-dollars to the Messrs. Gooding, and he brought them a handsome income as
-long as he lived. As his reputation as a sire of speed spread abroad,
-the quality of the mares brought to him improved, and among them were
-some with good trotting inheritance. Of his progeny, seventeen entered
-the 2:30 list, the fastest in 2:21, and they were good campaigners. It
-is a remarkable fact that only one of his sons proved himself a trotting
-sire, and he left but a single representative. On the female side of the
-house he was more successful, for six of his daughters produced seven
-performers.
-
-CHARLEY B. was a bay horse, sixteen hands high, and was bred by Charles
-Burlew, of Union Springs, New York. He was foaled 1869, and was got by
-Scobey’s Champion, son of Champion, by Almack, and proved himself the
-best son of his sire. He was out of a mare well known as “Old Jane” that
-was the dam of Myrtle with a record of 2:25½. Several pedigrees have
-been provided for this mare that did not prove reliable, and they were
-all careful to endow her with plenty of Messenger blood. After searching
-for the facts through some years, the only version of it that seemed
-to be worthy of credence showed that her sire was a horse called Magnum
-Bonum and there it ended. In his racing career this horse was started
-sometimes under the name of “Lark.” He has six heats to his credit
-in 2:30 and better, and a record of 2:25. From his own loins he has
-twenty-two trotters in the 2:30 list. Considering the respectable number
-this horse shows in the 2:30 list, his great nervous energy, his vigorous
-constitution, and the number of years he was liberally patronized in
-the stud, it is a most notable fact that he has but two sons that are
-producers. Six of his daughters have produced. As a propagator of speed
-in the coming generations, this horse seems to be even a greater failure
-than his half-brother, Gooding’s Champion.
-
-NIGHT HAWK was a chestnut son of Grinnell’s Champion. He was bred by
-John S. Van Kirk, of Newark, New Jersey, and his dam was by Sherman’s
-Young Eclipse, son of American Eclipse. He was foaled 1855-6. In 1862
-Mr. Van Kirk took him to Kalamazoo, Michigan, thence to Paw Paw in 1872,
-and in 1879 he was returned to Kalamazoo, owned by A. T. Tuthill. He
-was something of a trotter, and had a record of 2:36, under the name of
-Champion, when he was controlled by Mr. D. B. Hibbard, I think. He was
-shown at a State fair, held at Lansing, on a poor half-mile track, it is
-said, and trotted a mile in 2:31¼, and for this performance he received
-a piece of plate from the society testifying to this fact. He has but
-two representatives in the 2:30 list, and three of his sons have five
-trotters to their credit, while six of his daughters have produced seven
-performers. He lived to an old age.
-
-The merits and demerits of this family are very marked. The head of it
-seems to have possessed great nerve force and an unmistakable instinct
-to trot, but he was irritable and vicious in his temper. Both these
-qualities—the desirable and the undesirable alike—he seems to have
-transmitted to his offspring. I have seen Gooding’s Champion, and he had
-the temper and disposition of his grandsire. It appears that the original
-Champion was a shy breeder, and I am disposed to think he inherited this
-infirmity from his sire, Almack, and whether the inability of his sons
-and grandsons to get sires of trotters may be accounted for from this
-cause would be a very difficult question to answer. There are several
-others of this family, East and West, that have single representatives in
-the 2:30 list, that I have not enumerated, but from the statistics, as
-they now stand, it seems probable that whatever is good in this family
-will be swallowed up in other tribes that are more prepotent and positive
-in the trotting instinct.
-
-NORMAN, OR THE MORSE HORSE.—This horse was originally named “Norman,” but
-in later years he was more generally and widely known as The Morse Horse.
-His family is not large, but some of his descendants have shown great
-speed and great racing qualities. His origin and breeding as given below
-have resulted from a wide and laborious correspondence, and, I think, can
-be accepted as trustworthy. He was bred by James McNitt, of Hartford,
-Washington County, New York, who was a large farmer and distiller. He
-was foaled 1834, got by European; dam Beck, by Harris’ Hambletonian;
-grandam Mozza, by Peacock, son of imported Messenger. He was fifteen and
-three-quarter hands high, a dark iron grey when young, and became white
-with age. He had plenty of bone, was handsome and a natural trotter.
-Something of the history of the animals entering into this pedigree is
-important and I will try to give it in as brief form as possible.
-
-The breeder, Mr. McNitt, was in the habit of visiting Montreal at least
-once a year with the products of his farm and his distillery. On one
-occasion he brought back three horses with him, two “Canucks” and a very
-elegant grey horse that he called European, that was evidently somewhat
-advanced in years and was a little knee-sprung from the effects of
-hard driving. The two “Canucks” were fast trotters, but European could
-beat either of them. Mr. McNitt represented that this horse had been
-imported into Canada from Normandy in France and doubtless he believed
-it, but there were none of the French characteristics about him. He was
-purchased in Montreal about 1829 and died in Washington County about
-1836. The dam and grandam of the Morse Horse were bred by Mr. Joseph T.
-Mills, of the town of Argyle, in Washington County. Beck, the dam, was
-a bright bay mare about sixteen hands high. At weaning time Mr. Mills
-sold her to Robert Stewart, of Greenwich, and at three years old he sold
-her to Mr. McNitt. She was got by Harris’ Hambletonian, when he was
-kept by John Williams, Jr. This is established quite satisfactorily and
-circumstantially. Mozza, the dam of Beck, was a chestnut mare, without
-marks, and was got by Peacock, a son of imported Messenger that was
-owned by Mr. Emerson in Saratoga County and was afterward burned up in
-his stable. This son of Messenger, called Peacock, was entirely new to
-me when I was investigating this pedigree in 1876 and I was disposed
-to reject it, but Mr. Mills certainly had a horse of that name and he
-represented him to be a son of Messenger, and he probably was, but I do
-not _know_ that he was so bred.
-
-Mr. McNitt sold the colt at three years old to Martin Stover, who lived
-on his place, for eighty dollars; the next year Stover sold him to James
-Mills. In 1840 Mills sold him to Mr. Tefft and Zack Adams, and they sold
-him not long after to Philip Allen and Calvin Morse, of White Creek. Mr.
-Morse had him a number of years and when old sold him to Mr. Grant, and
-he died at Spiegletown in Renssalaer County, New York. He was a very
-perfect, natural trotter, and his speed was developed to some extent. In
-August, 1847 or 1848, Mr. Morse put him into the hands of John Case, of
-Saratoga Springs, the driver of Lady Moscow, to prepare him for the State
-Fair, at which he expected to meet the famous Black Hawk. Mr. J. L. D.
-Eyclesheimer, a very intelligent gentleman, formerly of the region of
-Saratoga, wrote that while the horse was in Case’s hands, he, with Mr.
-Morse, timed him a full mile in 2:40½. At the State Fair he was all out
-of fix and Black Hawk beat him in the second and third heats. He won the
-first heat in 2:52½. In the rivalries between stallions at agricultural
-fairs, however, is a very poor place to look for fair work and fair
-judgment, either from the stand or from the spectators.
-
-GENERAL TAYLOR was a grey horse, foaled 1847, got by the Morse Horse,
-dam the trotting mare Flora, a New York road mare of unknown breeding.
-He was bred by the brothers Eyclesheimer, then of Pittstown, New York.
-He was taken to Janesville, Wisconsin, 1850, and thence to California,
-1854, where he trotted thirty miles against time in one hour forty-seven
-minutes and fifty-nine seconds. He also beat New York a ten-mile race in
-29:41½. This horse has no representative in the 2:30 list, but his blood
-has always been very highly esteemed in California for its speed, but
-more especially for its game qualities. Honest Ance was another son of
-the Morse Horse that did a great deal of racing in California, although
-he has no record in the 2:30 list. He was a chestnut gelding, and was
-managed by the notorious Jim Eoff, who was always ready to win or to lose
-as the money seemed to suggest.
-
-NORMAN (ALEXANDER’S) was a brown horse, foaled about 1846, got by the
-Morse Horse, son of European; dam one of a pair of brown mares purchased
-by John N. Slocum of Samuel Slocum, a Quaker of Leroy, Jefferson County,
-New York, and represented to be by Magnum Bonum. These mares passed to
-Mr. Russell, and from him to Titcomb & Waldron, who bred the better of
-the two to the Morse Horse, and the produce was Alexander’s Norman.
-This colt passed through several hands till he reached Henry L. Barker,
-of Clinton, New York, and about 1860, he sold him to the late R. A.
-Alexander, of Woodburn Farm, Kentucky. He died 1878. The original version
-of this pedigree, as put upon Mr. Alexander and advertised by him, as
-were many others, was wholly fictitious on the side of the dam. He
-was not retained long at Woodburn Farm. He does not seem to have been
-a uniform transmitter of speed, but when it did appear it was apt to
-be of a high order. He left but two representatives in the 2:30 list,
-Lula, 2:15, with fifty-six heats, and May Queen, 2:20, with twenty-five
-heats. He left four sons that became the sires of fifty-eight performers
-and thirteen daughters that produced nineteen performers. Such sons as
-Swigert and Blackwood speak well for his transmitting powers.
-
-SWIGERT was a brown horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s Norman, son of
-the Morse Horse; dam Blandina, by Mambrino Chief; grandam the Burch Mare,
-by Brown Pilot, son of Copper Bottom, pacer. He was bred at Woodburn
-Farm, Kentucky, and when young became the property of Richard Richards,
-of Racine, Wisconsin, where he remained many years and passed to F. J.
-Ayres, of Burlington, Wisconsin. As a prepotent sire this horse stands
-high in the list of great horses. This may be accounted for in great
-part by the speed-producing qualities which he inherited from his dam.
-I am not informed as to the amount of training he may have had, nor of
-the rate of speed he may have been able to show. He placed forty-four
-trotters and two pacers in the 2:30 list. Thirty-three of his sons became
-the sires of sixty-one trotters and fourteen pacers. Twenty-three of his
-daughters produced twenty-one trotters and six pacers. From the number
-of his sons that have already shown their ability to get trotters, it is
-fair to presume that his name will be perpetuated. He died in 1892.
-
-BLACKWOOD was a black horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s Norman, son
-of the Morse Horse; dam by Mambrino Chief; grandam a fast trotting dun
-mare, brought from Ohio, pedigree unknown. He was bred by D. Swigert,
-Spring Station, Kentucky, and foaled the property of Andrew Steele, of
-Scott County, Kentucky. At five years old he was sold to John W. Conley,
-and by him to Harrison Durkee, of New York, and was afterward owned at
-Ticonderoga, New York. He made a record of 2:31 when three years old,
-which, at that day, was considered phenomenal for a colt of that age. His
-opportunities in the stud were not of the best, but nine of his progeny
-entered the 2:30 list; eleven of his sons got twenty performers, and
-twenty-five of his daughters produced thirty-seven performers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVI.
-
-THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.
-
-    Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His
-    family rank— The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom
-    Rolfe—Young Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal family—The various
-    Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin
-    Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas.
-
-
-BLUE BULL, the real head of this family, was one of the most remarkable
-horses that this or any other country has produced. He was a light
-chestnut, just a little over fifteen hands high, with one hind pastern
-white and a star in his forehead. He was strongly built and his limbs
-were excellent, except perhaps a little light just below the knee. He
-was foaled 1858 and died July 11, 1880. He was bred by Elijah Stone, of
-Stone’s Crossing, Johnson County, Indiana. For a time he was owned by
-Lewis Loder and Daniel Dorrel, before he passed into the hands of James
-Wilson, of Rushville, Indiana, who kept him many years and whose property
-he died. At one time he stood at the head of the list of all trotting
-sires in the world, and yet he could not trot a step himself, but he
-could pace amazingly fast, and it was claimed he could pace a quarter in
-thirty seconds. He was the first and only horse that was ever able to
-snatch the scepter from the great Hambletonian family, but after a brief
-reign of a couple of years he had to surrender it again to that family,
-where, from present appearances, it is destined to remain.
-
-The breeding of this horse is very obscure, and after we have told all
-that is known about it we will not have given very much information.
-He was got by a large dun pacing horse that was known as Pruden’s Blue
-Bull, and he by a blue roan horse known as Merring’s Blue Bull, or Ohio
-Farmer. The latter was taken to Butler County, Ohio, from Chester County,
-Pennsylvania, and it has been said, without confirmation, that he was of
-Chester Ball stock. He was a large, strong farm horse, a natural pacer,
-as were many of his progeny, and dun and roan colors were very prevalent
-among them. He died the property of Mr. Merring about 1843. His son,
-Pruden’s Blue Bull, was of a dun color and a natural pacer, but his dam
-has never been traced. He was large, strong, rather coarse, and had some
-reputation as a fast pacer, for a horse of his size, and his color was
-quite prevalent among his progeny. He was bred in Butler County, Ohio,
-and about 1853 was taken to Boone County, Kentucky. In 1861 he became the
-property of G. B. Loder, of the same county, and in 1863 he traded him to
-James Pruden, of Elizabethtown, Ohio.
-
-The pedigree of Wilson’s Blue Bull, the head of the family on the side
-of the dam, is equally unsatisfactory so far as the blood elements are
-concerned. We know that this dam was called Queen, that she was bred by
-Elijah Stone, and that she was got by a horse called Young Selim, but we
-know nothing about Young Selim. We also know that the dam of Queen was
-called Bet, and that Mr. Stone bought her of Mr. Sedan, and there all
-knowledge ends. Since the days of the great racing progenitor, Godolphin
-Arabian, of whose origin and blood nobody, living or dead, had a single
-shadow of knowledge, down to the day of Wilson’s Blue Bull, no horse
-equally obscure in his inheritance has ever been able to prove himself
-really great as a progenitor of speed.
-
-In the days of Blue Bull’s rising fame, and indeed till his death, there
-was developed such a condition of muddled morals as one seldom meets with
-in a lifetime. Whenever a horse of unknown breeding, in any one of three
-or four States, began to show some speed, his owner at once called him
-a Blue Bull, and if he went fast enough to enter the 2:30 list, he was
-at once credited to Blue Bull by his friends, and they were all ready
-to fight for it. If the books of Blue Bull’s services did not show that
-the dam of the “unknown” had ever been within a hundred miles of that
-horse, it was all the worse for the books. With a large number of men
-interested financially in Blue Bull stock, ready to claim everything
-in sight and anxiously looking for something more to appear, it became
-a most laborious task to keep this class of frauds out of the records.
-Another cause of dissent and dissatisfaction among the “boomers” of Blue
-Bull blood was the final discovery of the breeder in Elijah Stone and
-that there was no “thoroughbred” blood in his veins. At that time a very
-large majority of the horsemen of the country honestly believed that all
-speed, whether at the pace or the trot, must come from the gallop. It
-was not the _truth_, therefore, that these people were looking for, but
-something to support that ignorant and stupid theory.
-
-A careful study of the statistics of this horse will teach a valuable
-lesson. He put fifty-six trotters into the 2:30 list, varying in speed
-from 2:30 to 2:17¼, and five of this number in 2:20 or better. He also
-got four pacers with records from 2:24½ to 2:16¼. It thus appears that
-this horse, without any known trotting blood, got fifty-four trotters
-to four pacers, which clearly shows that an inheritance of speed at the
-pace may be transmitted at the trot, as well as the pace. When we come to
-his progeny, we find that forty-seven of his sons have to their credit
-one hundred and four performers, making an average of a little more
-than two each. These sons are all past maturity and some of them dead
-of old age, and not one of them has ever reached mediocrity in merit as
-a sire. He left seventy-seven daughters that have produced one hundred
-and seven performers, and if we had time to trace out these performers
-we would find that they were generally by strains of blood stronger and
-better than the blood of Blue Bull. While, therefore, we can acknowledge
-Blue Bull’s greatness as a getter of speed from his own loins, we must
-acknowledge that his sons and daughters as the producers of speed are
-failures. It is possible that some representative of the tribe may
-spring up and restore the prestige of the family, but as the source is
-sporadic and as the country is filled up with trotting elements that are
-more prepotent, it is more likely to be swallowed up and lose its family
-identity.
-
-CADMUS (known as Irons’ Cadmus) was the head of a very small family that
-occasionally developed phenomenal speed either at the pace or the trot.
-He was a chestnut horse nearly sixteen hands high, strong and active,
-with four white feet. He was foaled 1840 and was got by Cadmus, the
-thoroughbred son of American Eclipse, and was bred by Goldsmith Coffein,
-Red Lion, Warren County, Ohio. His dam was a chestnut pacing mare that
-Mr. Coffein got in a trade, from a traveler, and nothing was ever known
-of her breeding. A pedigree was shaped up for her that seemed to make
-her thoroughbred and her son took a prize on it once, as a thoroughbred,
-but it was wholly untrue. Mr. John Irons of the same county became joint
-owner in this horse, and he became widely known as “Irons’ Cadmus.” To
-close this partnership he was sold, 1850, and taken to Richmond, Indiana;
-then to George Shepher, of Butler County, Ohio, and next to a company in
-Wheeling, West Virginia, where he made two seasons, and was sold to St.
-Louis, Missouri, and died without further service, in 1858. From birth
-he was double-gaited, inclining more to the pace than to the trot. From
-unskillful handling his gaits became mixed up so that it was never known
-whether he might have been able to show any speed or not.
-
-Pocahontas, the pacer, was the most distinguished of his get, and if
-there were no others of merit from her sire this one alone would be
-sufficient to command a place in the volume. She was a large, strong
-chestnut mare with four white legs, a white face, and a splotch of white
-on her belly. She was bred by John C. Dine, of Butler County, Ohio, and
-was foaled 1847. Her dam was a very strong mare got by Probasco’s Big
-Shakespeare, a horse over sixteen hands and very heavily proportioned,
-a very valuable farm horse with good action, many of whose tribe were
-disposed to pace. The grandam was also a descendant of Valerius, that
-was brought to Ohio from New Jersey. Pocahontas passed through several
-hands at very low prices and was used for all kinds of heavy farming and
-hauling until she reached the hands of L. D. Woodmansee, when her speed
-began to be developed. She was soon matched against Ben Higdon, the fast
-pacing son of Abdallah, and beat him in 2:32. In December, 1853, she was
-taken to New Orleans, and beat several celebrities there early the next
-spring. Before her last race it was discovered she was in foal, and some
-two months afterward she dropped Tom Rolfe. In the autumn of 1854 she was
-brought to the Union Course, Long Island, and it was not till June, 1855,
-that her owners and managers could get a match with her. At last Hero,
-the famous son of Harris’ Hambletonian, met her for two thousand dollars,
-he to harness and she to wagon. In the first heat she distanced the
-gelding in 2:17½, and it was maintained by her driver that she could have
-gone at least five seconds faster, if it had been necessary. For racing
-purposes she was no longer of any value, for nothing would start against
-her. She was then sold and became a brood mare at Boston, Massachusetts,
-and produced the sires Tom Rolfe and Strideway, Pocahontas, 2:26¾, and
-the dams of May Morning, 2:30, and Nancy, 2:23½, thus ranking as a great
-brood mare.
-
-Shanghai Mary, that has become so famous as the dam of Green Mountain
-Maid, one of the very greatest of all brood mares, was probably a
-daughter of this same horse, Cadmus. This mare, Shanghai Mary, was a
-trotter of speed, not far from a 2:30 gait, and she won some races, but
-she was hot-headed and unreliable. Notwithstanding continuous searches,
-for years, her origin remained a profound mystery, until of recent date
-certain facts point to Mr. Coffein as her breeder and Cadmus as her sire.
-This has not been established historically, but when the circumstances
-are understood and taken in connection with the internal evidences, which
-are amazingly strong, and had been pointed out and applied to this sire
-long before the recent developments, there remains hardly a moral doubt
-that she was by Cadmus. The fact that this mare is the maternal grandam
-of Electioneer, the greatest of all trotting sires to date, makes her
-pedigree a matter of special interest, and for details of the various
-investigations the reader is referred to _Wallace’s Monthly_, and to
-Chapter XXIX. of this volume.
-
-Pocahontas seems to have produced but five foals that reached maturity:
-1855, Tom Rolfe, of which hereafter; 1859, Young Pocahontas, by Ethan
-Allen, a very fast trotter; 1860, May Queen, by Ethan Allen; 1861, May
-Day, by Miles Standish; 1863 bay colt Strideway, by Black Hawk Telegraph.
-This was a very fast and promising young horse, and doubtless would have
-stood among the fastest stallions of his day, but he died on the very eve
-of his public appearance on the trotting turf.
-
-TOM ROLFE had a checkered existence from his conception. His dam,
-Pocahontas, was bred to Pugh’s Aratus, by Abraham Pierce, her then owner,
-May 10, 1853, and ten days afterward she was sold without her new owner’s
-knowing she had been bred. He was thus carried in his mother’s womb,
-during her training and through her racing campaign in New Orleans, until
-a little over two months of the time he was dropped. During most of this
-period those handling the mare did not know she had been bred, and hence
-the story that Tom was a “catch” colt. He was a bay, about fifteen hands
-two inches high, and came to his speed with very little handling. In
-private trials, it is said, he had frequently shown a mile in 2:23. While
-on exhibition in a small ring at Dayton, Ohio, he met with an accident,
-from which he was ever afterward a cripple. In this condition however,
-he afterward made a record in 2:33½. His sire, Pugh’s Aratus, was a
-large, handsome farm horse, sixteen hands two inches high, and weighing
-one thousand three hundred pounds. He was got by Phares’ Aratus, out
-of a fast pacing mare. There is no evidence whatever going to show that
-Phares’ Aratus was a son of Aratus by Director. The type of the family
-did not indicate the possession of any running blood. Tom Rolfe put four
-trotters and three pacers, all with fast records, into the 2:30 list, and
-three of his sons left twenty-nine performers. In the latter years of his
-life he was sold by Mr. Woodmansee to Mr. Wesley P. Balch, of Boston, and
-died 1877.
-
-YOUNG ROLFE was the best son of Tom Rolfe. He was a bay, foaled 1876, and
-came out of Judith, by Draco, son of Young Morrill, and she out of Lady
-Balch, by Rising Sun. He was bred by Wesley P. Balch, passed to C. H.
-Nelson, of Maine, then back to John Sheppard of Boston, and died 1884,
-when only eight years old. He was one of the best horses of his day, as
-a race horse, and his early death was universally considered a great
-loss to the breeding interests of the country. He has to his credit nine
-representative trotters in the 2:30 list.
-
-NELSON, the great son of Young Rolfe, was bred and owned by G. H.
-Nelson, Waterville, Maine. He is a bay horse, foaled 1882, and out of
-Gretchen, the daughter of Gideon, by Hambletonian, 10, and she out of
-the fast trotting mare Kate, by Vermont Black Hawk. This horse Gideon,
-the son of Hambletonian, was, like his sire, very strongly inbred to old
-Messenger, tracing through mares by Young Engineer and Young Commander,
-both grandsons of Messenger, to the William Hunter mare, that was by
-Messenger himself. When the pedigree of Nelson is compared with the
-pedigree of Hambletonian, according to the rules of arithmetic, it may be
-found to contain nearly or quite as much Messenger blood as Hambletonian
-possessed, but, unfortunately, we know nothing of the trotting capacity
-of the intervening mares. If we had a “One Eye” and a “Charles Kent
-Mare” coming next to the William Hunter mare, we would have much greater
-expectations. But, as it is, when we consider the superlative capacity of
-Nelson himself, with his record of 2:09, and his nineteen trotters and
-seven pacers already to his credit, it is probable he will found a large
-and valuable family.
-
-Through his son Blanco, sire of Smuggler, we have another notable line to
-Irons’ Cadmus. Smuggler was in his day the champion trotting stallion,
-taking a record of 2:15¼ when owned by Colonel Russell, of Boston,
-and driven by Charles Marvin, who after long and painstaking efforts
-converted him from his natural gait, the pace, to the trot. Wearing
-twenty-four ounces on each fore-foot to keep him at the trot, Smuggler
-defeated all the best horses of his day, including Goldsmith Maid. He
-was by Blanco, out of a pacing mare of unknown blood. As might have been
-expected, he failed to found a great family, though fourteen of his get
-are standard performers, and twelve of his sons and seventeen of his
-daughters have produced thirty-eight performers.
-
-TOM HAL.—The original Tom Hal was taken to Kentucky, as early, probably,
-as 1824, and as was the custom in those days, he was called a Canadian,
-like all other pacing horses. The tradition is that Dr. Boswell got
-him in Philadelphia and rode him home to Lexington, Kentucky. Another
-statement is that he was taken to Kentucky by John T. Mason, and this
-statement appears in the advertisement of the horse for the year 1828.
-As the horse was in the hands of William L. Breckenridge that year, and
-as his advertisement was practically a contemporaneous record, we must
-give the preference to the Mason representation. He was a roan horse, as
-I understand, a little over fifteen hands high, stout and stylish. He
-was very smooth and pleasant in his gait and a very fast pacer. He was
-for some time in the hands of Captain West, of Georgetown, Kentucky, and
-then passed to Benjamin N. Shropshire, of Harrison County, and after some
-years he died his property.
-
-BALD STOCKINGS, also known as Lail’s Tom Hal, was a chestnut horse with a
-bald face and four white legs. He was foaled early in the “forties,” and
-was got by the original Tom Hal, and his dam was by Chinn’s Copperbottom.
-He was bred by Higgins Chinn, Harrison County, kept for a time by John
-Lucas, and owned by Mr. Lail, of the same county. He was one of the
-prominent links between the old and the new, and was a fast pacer.
-
-SORREL TOM was a son of Bald Stockings (Lail’s Tom Hal) and bore the same
-color and markings. He was bred and owned by John Shawhan, of Harrison
-County, Kentucky. His dam was a grey mare from Ohio, of unknown breeding.
-He was kept at Falmouth, Indiana, the seasons of 1857 and 1858, and was
-very widely known in that region as “Shawhan’s Tom Hal.” He was quite a
-large horse, and to take the description as given him, “he could pace
-like the wind.” He was then taken back to Kentucky, leaving a multitude
-of good colts behind him, among them the famous pacing gelding, Hoosier
-Tom, 2:19½. One of his Indiana sons passed into the hands of William
-Gray, of Rush County, Indiana, and became known as Gray’s Tom Hal.
-Nothing is known of the dam of this horse. He was the sire of Little
-Gipsey, trotter, 2:22, and Limber Jack, pacer, 2:18½, besides six
-daughters that produced nine performers.
-
-About 1863-4 Mr. Shropshire, Jr., a son of the owner of the original Tom
-Hal, brought a little roan Tom Hal horse to Rushville, Indiana, where
-he stood a number of years and was known as Shropshire’s Tom Hal. This
-horse was probably by Lail’s Tom Hal, as he was too young to be by the
-original of the name. He was a fast pacer, but nothing is known of his
-progeny or history. The locating of this Indiana branch of the family is
-of particular interest, for it shows a concentration of pacing blood that
-was doubtless a strong reinforcement to Blue Bull.
-
-TOM HAL (KITTRELL’S) was a large bay horse and a pacer, bought by Major
-M. B. Kittrell in 1850 of Simeon Kirtly, near Centerville, Bourbon
-County, Kentucky, and taken to Middle Tennessee. His sire was represented
-to have been a large pacing bay horse that was brought from Canada,
-thereby implying that he was the original of the name, brought to
-Kentucky. While it is possible that the original Mason horse may have
-been the sire of Major Kittrell’s horse, the size and color of that horse
-do not correspond with what has been accepted as facts. It is altogether
-more probable that the sire of the Tennessee horse was a son of the
-original Tom Hal, as the roan color seems to be strongly fixed in all
-branches of the family.
-
-TOM HAL JR. (GIBSON’S) was a roan horse, foaled 1860. Got by Kittrell’s
-Tom Hal; dam (bred by John Leonard), by Adam’s Stump, pacer; grandam
-said to be by Cummings’ Whip, pacer. Bred by H. C. Saunders, Nashville,
-Tennessee; kept a number of years by T. D. Moore, Petersburg, Tennessee,
-afterward owned by Polk Bros. and Major Campbell Brown, of Springhill,
-Tennessee. Adams’ Stump was a roan horse and a fast pacer and he
-was not only the sire of Julia Johnson, the dam of this horse, but
-also of the dam of Bonesetter. He died of old age, July, 1890. The
-strong concentration of pacing blood in his veins gave him unusual
-power in transmitting his inherited habit of action. He put fourteen
-representatives in the 2:30 list, and what is unprecedented, they are all
-pacers.
-
-BROWN HAL is a brown horse, as his name indicates, foaled 1879, got by
-Gibson’s Tom Hal; dam the pacing mare Lizzie, the dam of the pacer Little
-Brown Jug, by John Netherland, son of Henry Hal; grandam Blackie, by John
-Hal, son of John Eaton; great-grandam Old March, by Young Conqueror.
-Bred by R. H. Moore, Culleoka, Tennessee, passed to M. C. Campbell and
-Campbell Brown, Springhill, Tennessee. Here we have a still stronger
-intensification of the pacing instinct, for this horse not only has a
-pacing record himself of 2:12½, but he put twenty of his progeny into the
-standard list, and all of them pacers. It is not shown by the Year Book
-that either this horse or his sire has any trotters to his credit, but it
-can hardly be doubted that some of their progeny took naturally to the
-diagonal trot, and not showing encouraging speed, were never developed.
-
-If the question were asked, “What is to result from this intensely pacing
-family?” it would be very difficult to frame a satisfactory answer. At
-present this family shows all the vigor of youth in its new development,
-but, judging by others that have come and gone, it too, in its turn, will
-be submerged in more prepotent strains, that will more nearly meet the
-wants of their masters. The pacer has been lifted from obscurity and made
-the equal of the trotter as a race horse; his blood has contributed to an
-unknown extent in giving speed to the trotter, but he must be as good a
-horse for all uses as the trotter, or nobody will want him.
-
-KENTUCKY HUNTER, the head of the family bearing this name that, at one
-time, was very prominent in Central New York, was foaled 1822, and was
-bred by Louis Sherrill of New Hartford, New York, and was got by Watkins’
-Highlander. His dam was a mare bought from a couple of dealers who were
-passing through New Hartford with some six or seven horses for sale, and
-they represented this mare to have been brought from Kentucky. On this
-representation she was called “a Kentucky mare.” She was a fine saddle
-mare and for this reason she was used chiefly for that service. From
-her superiority as a saddler, I think it is safe to conclude she was
-a pacer and could go the saddle gaits. Kentucky Hunter was a chestnut
-horse, a little above medium size. Mr. Sherrill sold him when young to
-Messrs. Bagg and Goodrich who kept him two years and sold him to William
-Ferguson, of Oriskany Falls, New York, and Mr. Ferguson continued to own
-him till he died in 1838.
-
-During the lifetime of this horse the pacing gait was considered an
-evidence of bad breeding, and this prejudice has continued for many
-years. The saddle was going out of use and wheels were coming in. After
-Flora Temple electrified the trotting world, writers had a great deal
-to say of her origin and family, but no one ever intimated that her
-grandsire was a pacer. From sources that I have no reason to doubt,
-I have been informed he was not only a pacer, but a fast pacer. This
-habit of action was not popular with breeders, and Mr. Ferguson kept it
-concealed as much as possible. When the pacer, Oneida Chief, from his own
-loins, was beating Lady Suffolk, three miles in 7:44, to saddle, and many
-of the other cracks of that day, his sire was dead and nothing was then
-to be made by proclaiming from the housetops that Oneida Chief was by old
-Kentucky Hunter.
-
-Very little is known of Watkins’ Highlander, the sire of this horse.
-He was brought to Whitestown, New York, 1821, by Julius Watkins, from
-Connecticut. Some of the older men who knew the horse insist that Mr.
-Watkins represented him to be by a son of imported Messenger, and out
-of Nancy Dawson by imported Brown Highlander. This is possible, indeed
-probable, but it is not established.
-
-BOGUS HUNTER was one of the younger sons of Kentucky Hunter. He was a
-chestnut horse of good size and came out of a mare by Bogus. But little
-is known of this horse, and that little is rendered still more uncertain
-by the unreliable character of his owners, the Loomis brothers, of
-Sangerfield, New York. It is certain, however, that a horse owned by the
-Loomises and called by this name was the sire of the famous world beater,
-Flora Temple. This fact rests upon the testimony of Mr. Samuel Welch,
-a reputable and trustworthy man who owned the dam of Flora and had her
-coupled with this horse, under his own eye.
-
-EDWIN FORREST, the most prominent representative of this family, was a
-large and rather loosely made bay horse, foaled 1851, got by Young Bay
-Kentucky Hunter, son of Bay Kentucky Hunter, that was by the original
-Kentucky Hunter. His dam, Doll, bred by Mrs. Crane, of Whitestown, Oneida
-County, New York, was by Watkins’ Highlander; grandam a chestnut mare
-owned in the Crane family, by Black River Messenger, son of Ogden’s
-Messenger. The identification of this grandson of imported Messenger was
-secured after the appearance of the fifth volume of the “Register.” This
-same mare, Doll, the next year produced Wamock’s Highland Messenger,
-that was taken to Kentucky, and was a valuable element in the road-horse
-blood of that State. Edwin Forrest was bred by Barnes Davis, Oneida,
-Madison County; owned two years by H. L. Barker, of Clinton, New York,
-sold to Marcus Downing, of Kentucky, by him to Woodburn Farm, and after
-a time he passed to a company at Keokuk, Iowa, and then to George W.
-Ferguson, of Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was burned up in 1874.
-
-It has been said this horse was a pacer and converted to a trotter,
-but this does not seem to be sustained by the facts. He was shown as
-a three-year-old at the Oneida County Fair, and he was then a square
-natural trotter and was considered very fast, for he was fully able to
-distance all the other colts of his age. The story of his being a pacer
-probably grew out of the fact that there was a strong pacing strain in
-the family, as the original Kentucky Hunter was undoubtedly a pacer. Many
-of the Kentucky Hunters were speedy travelers and a few of them were
-fast. Black River Messenger was a horse of very wide local reputation
-for the superiority of his progeny as rapid travelers. The union of the
-Messenger blood with pacing blood produced excellent results in this, as
-well as in thousands of other cases. As was the common usage before the
-establishment of the “Trotting Register,” this horse was advertised with
-two fictitious crosses added to his pedigree—his grandam was given as
-by Duroc, and his great-grandam as by imported Messenger. Only two from
-his loins were able to enter the 2:30 list; six of his sons got seven
-performers and twelve of his daughters produced fifteen trotters.
-
-SKENANDOAH (afterward called Kentucky Hunter) was a bay horse, foaled
-1854, got by Brokenlegged Hunter, son of the original Kentucky Hunter;
-dam not clearly established. He was bred by Mr. Sykes, near Canastota,
-and passed through several hands to Henry Dewey, of Morrisville, New
-York, who trotted him in a number of races in Central New York and then
-took him to California, where he was kept in the stud a number of years
-under the name of Kentucky Hunter, and died there 1871. He got one
-trotter; one son that left two performers and seven daughters that left
-nine performers.
-
-DREW HORSE, commonly called “Old Drew,” was a brown bay horse, foaled
-1842, and was about fifteen and one-quarter hands high and well-formed.
-He was bred, or rather raised, by Hiram Drew, then of Exeter, Maine,
-who kept him all his life. The story of his supposed sire was one of
-those weakly devised fictions, so common in that day, and especially
-where the Canadian border could be made effective in rounding it out.
-To show that the mysterious colt that became the sire of Drew Horse was
-“thoroughbred,” the stereotyped “British Army officer” is made available,
-for the hundredth time, as having brought a mare from England in foal to
-a thoroughbred horse, the foal was dropped and at three years old he was
-traded by the aforesaid “officer” to the party that brought the colt to
-Maine. Unfortunately for the story, the party who made the trade and the
-story had a bad memory, and sometimes he located the trade at St. Johns
-and sometimes at Fredericton, New Brunswick. But the fiction served its
-generation and was not exposed till long after the Drew Horse was dead.
-The facts in the matter seem to be simply these: a stallion colt was
-running in a pasture adjoining Mr. Drew’s pasture, and that colt got over
-the fence, was found with Mr. Drew’s mare, and in due time she dropped
-the colt known as the “Drew Horse.” The fence-breaker was soon after made
-a gelding and sold, and nothing is known of him, either before or after
-this escapade. The dam of the Drew Horse was a bay mare about fifteen
-and one-half hands high, foaled about 1836, and bred by Mark Pease, of
-Jackson, Maine. Her sire was called Sir Henry and was represented to be
-by a son of American Eclipse, that was taken to Maine from Connecticut
-by Dr. Brewster and sold to General F. W. Lander. She was known as Grace
-Darling and afterward as Boston Girl. She was on the turf and was quite
-a trotter, and it is claimed she made a record of 2:37, and her dam was
-Lady Jane by Winthrop Messenger. While I don’t know what the inheritance
-of this horse was on the side of his sire, I do know that he had a
-trotting inheritance on the side of his dam. He lived till 1866 and then
-had to be destroyed on account of a broken leg.
-
-This horse was never trained, and it is not known what he might have been
-able to do as a trotter. He put two of his sons in the 2:30 list, Dirigo
-and General McClellan. Of his sons, two put five trotters and three
-pacers in the list, and of his daughters left six representatives there.
-Besides these he left a number of others with records a little short of
-the limit of speed, and many without records that were fast and very game
-roadsters.
-
-DIRIGO, at first called George B. McClellan, under which name he made
-his record, was the best son of Drew Horse. He was a brown horse, and in
-appearance much like his sire. He was foaled 1856 and came out of a mare
-that has not been traced, but was doubtless a pacing mare. He was bred by
-Horace McKinney, Monroe, Maine, and passed to David Quimby, of Corinna,
-Maine, and died 1884. He made his record of 2:29 in a single heat and
-never was on the track again. Four trotters and two pacers by him entered
-the 2:30 list. Two of his sons became the sires of three trotters, and
-five of his daughters each produced a performer. He left others with and
-without records that were fast and stylish drivers.
-
-HIRAM DREW, at first called Bay Morgan, was a son of Old Drew, and
-his dam was a small bay mare, owned near Bangor and said to be of
-Morgan blood. This horse was on the turf some years and was engaged in
-some locally important contests, but never was able to make himself
-standard either by his own or the performances of his progeny. His best
-performance, I believe, was 2:31½.
-
-WINTHROP was a bay horse, foaled 1864, got by Drew Horse; dam by the Eton
-Horse and grandam by Stone or Simpson’s Messenger. He was bred by E. J.
-Greene, Newport, Maine; taken to California 1870, and there owned by
-Judge W. E. Greens and L. E. Yates, of Stockton. It does not appear that
-he ever was trained, and consequently has no record. His opportunities,
-probably, were not very great, but whether or not, he was not successful
-in the stud. He left one trotter and one pacer and the dams of one
-trotter and one pacer.
-
-This family never was large, and its popularity was up and down just as
-a few individuals might be successful or unsuccessful on the turf. To
-start with, it had a very weak inheritance of trotting instinct, and
-that weakness did not strengthen in succeeding generations. Of late
-years it has failed to maintain itself as a trotting family, and is now
-practically out of the reckoning of trotters.
-
-HIATOGA, generally known as Rice’s Hiatoga, was a bay pacing horse and
-was bred in Rockingham County, Virginia, and taken to Fairfield County,
-Ohio, by Edward Rice, some time about 1836. He had the reputation of
-being a fast pacer, and was sold to William Shiruo, of the same county,
-and by him to William Munger, in whose possession he died. He was got by
-a horse known in Virginia as Hiatoga, and also American Hiatoga, but
-nothing is known of the blood of his dam. Nothing is known of his speed
-or his progeny except through the two sons here given.
-
-Hiatoga, generally designated as “Old Togue,” was got by Rice’s Hiatoga;
-dam by Thunderbolt, grandam by Black or Bold Rover. He was foaled 1843
-and was bred by David W. Brown, of Perry County, Ohio; sold 1849 to John
-Joseph, Kirkersville, Ohio, where he made some seasons and was sold 1855
-to Alvah Perry, Lancaster, where he remained till 1863, and was sold to
-Harvey Wilson, and two years later to William McDonald, Columbus, Ohio,
-where he died 1871. This horse left excellent stock and many of them fast
-pacers, but they never cut much figure on the turf.
-
-HIATOGA (HANLEY’S) was a bay pacing horse of good size and quality and
-was very popular as a sire. He was foaled 1849, got by Rice’s Hiatoga;
-dam an elegant bay mare sixteen hands high and represented to be of “Sir
-Peter and Eclipse blood.” This mare was formerly given as by Firetail,
-but the present rendering, whatever it may mean, comes from sources with
-opportunities to know. He was bred by John Bright, of Fairfield County,
-sold to Joseph Watt, and taken to Harrison County and then to Jefferson
-County, and sold to James Davis Tweed. He next passed through the hands
-of David Rittenhouse and Moses Hanley, of Hopedale, Ohio, and after three
-or four years in the stud Mr. Hanley sold him to David Rittenhouse,
-John Wiley and Samuel Hanley for two thousand five hundred dollars, and
-he died the property of Mr. Rittenhouse near Hopedale, Ohio, 1858. Two
-of his progeny entered the 2:30 list; three of his sons left thirteen
-performers, and three daughters produced five.
-
-HIATOGA (SCOTT’S) was a bay pacer foaled 1858, got by Hanley’s Hiatoga;
-dam by Blind Tuckahoe (pacer); grandam by Consul. This horse was quite
-fast and paced under the name of Tuscarawas Chief. He was the best of
-the family and was bred and owned by Samuel Scott, East Springfield,
-Jefferson County, Ohio. He put five trotters and four pacers in the 2:30
-list; seven of his sons and seventeen of his daughters were producers.
-
-The Hiatoga family seems to have no trotting inheritance except from the
-pacer. It is a useful family and still has vitality.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVII.
-
-THE BLACK HAWK OR MORGAN FAMILY.
-
-    Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original
-    Morgan—The fabled pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin
-    Morgan’s breeding hopelessly unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black
-    Hawk—His disputed paternity—His dam called a Narragansett—Ethan
-    Allen—His great beauty, speed and popularity—The Flying Morgan
-    claim baseless—His dam of unknown blood—His great race with
-    Dexter—Daniel Lambert, the only successful sire of the Black
-    Hawk line.
-
-
-Fifty years ago there was no family of horses so popular as the
-“Morgans.” They were carried into all parts of the country at high prices
-and they gave their purchasers general satisfaction. They were small,
-perhaps not averaging over fourteen and a half hands high, but compact,
-trappy movers and had most excellent dispositions. Many of them were
-ideal roadsters, where speed was not in great demand, for they were
-kindly, tractable and always on their courage. Many of them carried
-themselves in excellent style, and notwithstanding their diminutive size,
-it is not probable we will ever again see a better tribe of every-day,
-family horses. In all their outline and in every lineament they were the
-very opposite of the blood horse, and when bred on any strain outside
-of their own family, they almost universally failed to impress their
-own characteristics on their progeny. This failure I observed with deep
-regret more than forty years ago. The step could be extended and the
-speed increased by crossing with the long striders, but in securing this
-we lost the Morgan. In advance of their general distribution they had
-the misfortune to be heralded as great trotters, and in this respect,
-at least, they failed of meeting expectations. They went, largely, into
-the hands of inexperienced men, who knew nothing about how to cultivate
-speed, and the little, short, quick steps of their new trotters gave
-them all the sensations of going fast, without the danger incident
-to rapid traveling. In regard to the matter of speed, through the
-overzealous and not too conscientious editors and others to say nothing
-of the advertisements of those who had them for sale, they suffered
-greatly by too much praise. The result is that the original type has
-been extinguished, and it is doubtful whether a fair specimen could be
-found, even among the mountains of New England. Next to the injury which
-the family sustained from the exaggerated claims of speed put forward
-by its too sanguine friends, there was another and even greater injury
-from the absurd and foolish claims made for his blood. It is impossible
-to make a thinking and sensible man believe that a little hairy-legged
-“nubbin” of a pony, weighing eight hundred and fifty pounds, hired for
-fifteen dollars a year to drag logs together in a clearing, at which
-employment he was a great success, had the blood of the race horse in his
-veins. This was always a stumbling block to my immature enthusiasm for
-the Morgan horse. From an experience of a great many years and from the
-developments of horse history during that time, I find the “stumbling
-block” no longer worries me, for it has rotted away and disappeared.
-Although the family has ceased to exist as a factor in current horse
-history, it had a history in the past; and, as a historian, I must
-consider its origin as well as the deeds it has accomplished or failed to
-accomplish.
-
-Mr. Justin Morgan, the central figure in this investigation, was born
-in West Springfield, 1747, where he married and lived till 1788, when
-he removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died, March, 1798. He was a
-reputable citizen, fairly well educated for his time, and taught school
-for a living. He owned a house and lot in his native town, where he kept
-a wayside house of entertainment, and during the early summer he usually
-had a stallion to keep on the shares. In the spring of 1785 he had charge
-of the horse True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, and I will here add that
-three years later, John Morgan, Jr., had charge of the same horse at
-Springfield, for the seasons of 1788 and 1789. This John Morgan, Jr.,
-removed to Lima, New York, late in 1790 or early in 1791. Justin had sold
-his place in West Springfield to Abner Morgan, on long payments, and in
-the summer of 1795 he came back to West Springfield to collect some money
-that was due him, presumably on the price of his former home, but he
-failed to get money and took two colts instead. One was a three-year-old
-gelding and the other was a two-year-old bay colt, entire. He led the
-three-year-old with a halter and the two-year-old followed. The date
-of this visit to the old home is the key to the main question to be
-settled, and it is fixed by Justin Morgan, Jr., then a lad of the right
-age to remember such things, and by Soloman Steele and Judge Griswold,
-who fix the date in the late summer of 1795. The horse was sold and
-resold and sold again, as a foal of 1793, and that date never left him
-till he died in 1821. I look upon this date as perfectly immovable, and
-every attempt that has been made to overthrow it has not been based on
-any reasonable evidence, nor prompted by a desire to get at the truth,
-but only to make a fictitious sire a possibility. This was the original
-Morgan Horse, and this date was thoroughly fixed by Linsley, without
-knowing that it upset the pedigree he had labored so hard to establish.
-After a lapse of fifty years an attempt was made to fix up a pedigree for
-the “Original Morgan Horse,” claiming that he was got by True Briton or
-Beautiful Bay—represented to be a great race horse, stolen from the great
-race horse man, Colonel De Lancey, in the Revolutionary War. I must,
-therefore, consider, briefly, this part of the fiction.
-
-First—As a starting point in the pedigree, it is assumed that the
-race-horse in question was stolen, during the War of the Revolution, from
-James De Lancey, perhaps the largest and most widely known of all the
-colonial horsemen of that day. He was the first man to import race horses
-into this colony, and his name and the fame of his horses were discussed
-everywhere. He was very rich, in politics a Tory, and on the eve of
-hostilities he sold out every horse he owned, of whatever description,
-went back to England and never returned. This disposes of the false
-assumption that the sire of the original Morgan horse was stolen from him.
-
-Second—There was another James De Lancey, cousin to the preceding, and
-not a rich man, who was colonel of a body of Tory cavalry operating in
-Westchester County from 1777 to the close of the war in 1782. It is not
-known whether he ever owned a race horse in his life, but it is certain
-he was a dashing fighter, and at the head of the cowboys he was known to
-the inhabitants of all that region. His name is not to be found anywhere
-in connection with horses. He bore, in full, the same name as the
-distinguished horseman, and was mistaken for him, although he was on the
-other side of the ocean.
-
-Third—It is claimed that “one Smith” stole the horse in question from
-Colonel De Lancey and sold him to Mr. Ward, of Hartford, Connecticut, who
-kept him a few years and sold him to Selah Norton, of the same place,
-and remained his till he died. Who was this “one Smith” and where did he
-belong? Where is the evidence that this “one Smith” stole a horse from
-Colonel De Lancey?
-
-Fourth—In the New York _Packet_, then published at Fishkill, under date
-of October 19, 1780, we find the following: “Last week Lieutenant Wright
-Carpenter and two others went down to Colonel James De Lancey’s quarters
-and lay in wait for his appearance. He accordingly came and having tied
-his horse at the door, went into the house; upon which Carpenter seized
-the horse and mounted. When De Lancey discovered him, he immediately
-alarmed his men, who pursued him to White Plains, but in vain,” etc.,
-etc. This Lieutenant Carpenter was a dashing young fellow and was
-promoted next month to the position of first lieutenant in Captain Lyons’
-company, of the Second Regiment of New York Militia, of Westchester
-County, and still commanded by Colonel Thomas. This is the man who stole
-the horse, this is the contemporaneous evidence of it, and “one Smith”
-had nothing to do with it.
-
-In these four points we have what may be considered the first chapter
-of this investigation and, as will be readily seen, each of them must
-be fatal to the pretentious claim that has been maintained for about a
-hundred years. Avoiding all circumlocution, I think it is safe to say
-that this so-called pedigree did not originate this side of Hartford. The
-Second Regiment of New York Militia, called “The Skinners,” was made up
-of Westchester County men, and as Colonel De Lancey had been sheriff of
-that county, everybody knew him and knew that he was not the race horse
-James. We must, therefore, look further on for the time when and the
-person by whom this pedigree was manufactured.
-
-In 1784 this horse was advertised at Lanesboro, Massachusetts, under the
-name of Beautiful Bay, and no attempt was made to give a pedigree or
-origin of the horse.
-
-In 1785 he was at West Springfield, Massachusetts, in charge of Justin
-Morgan, still called Beautiful Bay, and still no pedigree.
-
-In 1788 and 1789 he was in charge of John Morgan, Jr., of Springfield,
-Massachusetts, and here, for the first time, he is designated as “the
-famous full-blooded English horse, called True Briton or Beautiful Bay,”
-but no pedigree is given.
-
-In 1791 he was advertised at East Hartford, Connecticut, by his owner,
-Selah Norton, and his pedigree is here given for the first time as
-follows: “True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, got by imported Traveler, dam De
-Lancey’s racer.” After advertising the horse for seven years without a
-pedigree, at last Mr. Selah Norton manufactures one and gives it over his
-own signature.
-
-In 1793 he is again called Beautiful Bay, but no pedigree, at South
-Hadley, Massachusetts.
-
-In 1794 and 1795 he was kept at Ashfield, Massachusetts, by Mr. Norton
-himself, and called Traveler, and his pedigree is again given in amended
-form as follows: “Sired by the famous old Traveler, imported from
-Ireland, dam Colonel De Lancey’s imported racer.”
-
-This is the last trace we have of the horse Beautiful Bay, for that
-seems to be his honest name, and now I must ask some questions. These
-advertisements cover a period of eleven years and they are worthy of
-careful study. From 1784 to 1791 there is no attempt at giving any
-pedigree at all. With the exception of three seasons he seems to have
-been let, probably on shares, to different keepers, in different parts
-of the country. From first to last Selah Norton seems to have been his
-owner. If he had received the pedigree, and the romantic story of his
-theft, from “one Smith,” as claimed, is it conceivable that he would have
-concealed that story from the public when it would have added so much to
-the patronage of his horse? How does it come that not a single man having
-this stallion in charge, except Selah Norton himself, ever gave his
-pedigree? What prompted Selah Norton to withdraw the horse from public
-service, in Hartford, immediately after he first gave his pedigree? Was
-it because everybody there knew it was a fraud? When the horse was taken
-to South Hadley in 1793, why did his keeper there refuse to accept either
-the name True Briton or the new pedigree? It will be observed he was
-advertised there simply as Beautiful Bay and no pedigree given. The next
-two years we find him at Ashfield, Massachusetts, to which point it would
-seem his owner had removed from Hartford. For some reason that can be
-better imagined than explained, the names Beautiful Bay and True Briton
-are there dropped and he is rechristened as Traveler. To this change of
-name the old pedigree is attached, with a very important change in that
-also, as follows: “Sired by famous old Traveler, imported from Ireland,
-dam Colonel De Lancey’s imported racer.” These three words, “imported
-from Ireland,” are very important in two particulars, for they not only
-knock out the “featherheads” who have been always maintaining that the
-imported Traveler meant Lloyd’s Traveler of New Jersey, son of Morton’s
-Traveler, that was imported from Yorkshire into Virginia about 1750,
-but it convicts Selah Norton of inventing this pedigree, for there was
-no such horse brought from Ireland. It is certainly unnecessary to say
-another word in illustration of Selah Norton’s character. When we study
-these advertisements it becomes as clear as the light of day that nobody
-believed him or the story that “one Smith” stole the horse from Colonel
-De Lancey. The crimes of horse stealing and desertion were exceedingly
-common during the period of the revolution and it is quite possible that
-“one Smith” may have stolen a horse out of somebody’s stable and sold him
-to Mr. Ward or Mr. Norton as the same horse that Lieutenant Carpenter
-stole from Colonel De Lancey, but neither “one Smith” nor “one Norton”
-knew anything more about his pedigree than he did about the man in the
-moon, and I will here end the second chapter of this investigation.
-
-I am clearly of the opinion that Justin Morgan was an honest man and that
-he would not tell a lie, even if he knew it might accrue to his present
-and personal advantage. He was poor, feeble in health, and had hard
-scuffling to get along. As a means of livelihood, in part at least, it
-seems to have been his business for a good many years to keep stallions
-on shares for different owners. As late as 1795 he had a horse from
-Hartford, Connecticut, called Figure, to which we will refer later on.
-In 1788 he sold his little place in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and
-removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died in March, 1798 In the autumn
-of 1795 he visited West Springfield again, for the purpose of collecting
-some money that was still due him there, probably some deferred payments
-of his former home, and as he was not able to get the money he took two
-horses in lieu thereof. One was a three-year-old gelding, and the other
-was a two-year-old bay colt, entire. He led the gelding beside the horse
-he was riding and the colt followed all the way. The evidence that fixes
-the date of this trip in the autumn of 1795 and the age of the colt that
-followed seems to me to be completely bomb-proof. This evidence not only
-embraces the recollections of Justin Morgan’s neighbors, but when he died
-the colt, in 1798, was sold by his administrators as a five-year-old. In
-all the changes of ownership that took place through his life and at his
-death, in 1821, he was represented as foaled in 1793. He died from the
-effects of a kick that was neglected, and not from old age.
-
-The only serious attempt that has been made to controvert the date
-of 1793 was that made in the name of John Morgan, of Lima, New York,
-in 1842, he being then eighty years old, in the Albany _Cultivator_.
-Unfortunately the editor fails to publish the letter he professes to
-have received from John Morgan and only gives his construction of it,
-which any child knows is no evidence at all. The editor represents him
-to say “that the two-year-old stud which he (Justin) took with him to
-Vermont was sired by a horse owned by Selah Norton, of East Hartford,
-Connecticut, called True Briton or Beautiful Bay.” Justin Morgan removed
-to Randolph, Vermont, in the spring of 1788, and this John Morgan removed
-to Lima, New York, about February, 1790. They were not brothers, but
-distant relatives. If John means to say that Justin “took with him” when
-he removed to Vermont a two-year-old son of Beautiful Bay, that colt must
-have been foaled in 1786, which would make him twelve years old instead
-of five when he was sold upon the death of his owner, and thirty-six
-years old instead of twenty-nine when he died from a kick. Now, if we
-concede that Justin did take with him a two-year-old son of Beautiful
-Bay, the dates render it impossible that he should have been the founder
-of the Morgan horse family and we have no trace of him whatever.
-
-Another authority has very recently come to the front, and in order to
-avoid the difficulty of dates and still retain the possibility of the
-horse being by Beautiful Bay, insists that he was foaled 1789 and bred
-by Justin Morgan himself. Under this new light he was foaled in Vermont
-and didn’t have to travel there at all. He insists further that he named
-the horse Figure and kept him in the stud till his death in March, 1798,
-when the horse was sold and his name changed to Justin Morgan. It is
-true that Justin Morgan, still seeking to make a living, kept a stallion
-two or three years owned in Hartford, Connecticut, and advertised him as
-“the famous horse Figure, from Hartford.” Now, if this horse was foaled
-the property of Justin Morgan and owned by him as long as he lived, why
-should he advertise him as “from Hartford?” All these efforts to fix
-dates by shifting about so as to make it possible for the bogus stolen
-horse to come in as a sire, have already received more attention than
-their importance demands and I will therefore call this the close of the
-third chapter.
-
-There are several incidents connected with the life of the colt of 1793
-that fixed his identity and age upon the recollections of the neighbors
-and friends of Justin Morgan. Solomon Steele, Evans, Rice and others who
-knew the colt well, all agree that the colt followed his companion and
-playmate from West Springfield to Randolph in the autumn of 1795 and
-that he was not then halter broken. They all agree that Evans hired him
-for fifteen dollars a year to draw logs in his clearing, in the place of
-a yoke of oxen. They all agree that Justin Morgan died in March, 1798,
-and that the colt was then sold as a five-year-old. The death was an
-immovable date fixer around which everything in connection with these
-events must be determined. And when the horse died in 1821 nobody had
-ever doubted that he was foaled 1793.
-
-Justin Morgan, Jr., was in his tenth year when the colt was brought home,
-and he was twelve years old when his father died. In 1842 Justin Morgan,
-Jr., in a communication to the Albany _Cultivator_, says: “One was a
-three-year-old gelding colt, which he led; and the other a two-year-old
-stud colt, which followed all the way from Springfield. The said
-two-year-old colt was the same that has since been known all over New
-England by the name of the Morgan Horse. I know that my father always,
-while he lived, called him a Dutch horse. I have a perfect recollection
-of the horse when my father owned him and afterward, and well remember
-that my father always spoke of him as of the best blood.”
-
-When he made these clean-cut and emphatic declarations Justin Morgan,
-Jr., was fifty-six years old, and it has been suggested that he was too
-young, at the time, to have remembered about the colt. This is a grave
-mistake, for farmer’s boys remember a thousand things better then than
-they ever do afterward. I don’t think that my own memory is remarkable,
-but today, at over three score and ten, I can, with the utmost
-distinctness, recall the names, color, markings, size, peculiarities
-and, in some cases, the history of most of the horses that were on the
-farm when I was eight years old. I can, therefore, have no hesitation in
-accepting Justin Morgan’s evidence on account of his youthfulness, at the
-time of which he speaks.
-
-Did Justin Morgan know what he was saying when he “always, while he
-lived, called his horse a Dutch horse?” And did he understand the
-historical meaning of his words when “he always spoke of him as of the
-best blood?” To answer these questions we must make some reference to
-history. The Dutch horses were a breed wholly distinct from the horses
-of the other colonies. The colony of New Netherlands (New York) received
-its supply from Utrecht, in Holland, commencing in 1624 and a few years
-following. In forty years they had so increased that the colony was well
-supplied. These horses were about fourteen hands and one inch high,
-which was about one hand higher than the horses supplied to the English
-colonies. They were not only higher, but they had more bone and muscle,
-and, I think, more shapely necks. In every respect they were better,
-except that they were not so good for the saddle, for the reason, as I
-think, that they were not pacers. The standard that determined their
-superiority was the higher prices at which they were bought and sold,
-over the New England horses, as shown by the official reports of the
-colony. When the colony passed under British rule, the first governor
-immediately established a race course on Hempstead Plains, Long Island,
-and there in 1665 the first organized race in this country took place.
-This was long before the English race horse had reached the character of
-a breed, and a round hundred years before the first representative of
-that breed reached New York. The horses that ran at Hempstead Plains were
-undoubtedly Dutch horses, for the inhabitants of New York and Long Island
-attended these annual meetings in great numbers, and as they were nearly
-all Dutch they would not have gone a stone’s throw to see an English
-horse run. These annual race meetings were kept up a great many years by
-the successive governors.
-
-In 1635 two shiploads of Dutch horses, from the same quarter, chiefly
-mares, reached Salem, Massachusetts, and were sold at prices enormously
-high as compared with the prices of those sent from England to the same
-colony. These two shiploads added materially to the average size of
-the horses of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as shown by statistics,
-as well as the other colonies getting their foundation stock from that
-source. We may safely conclude, I think, that some of the descendants of
-these shiploads were taken to the valley of the Connecticut when Hartford
-was planted, for we not infrequently meet with the term “Dutch horse”
-in the old prints of that valley. Besides this source the valley of the
-Hudson was full of them. They retained their distinctive appellation
-till about the beginning of this century.
-
-Mr. O. W. Cook, of Springfield, Massachusetts, did a great deal of
-fundamental investigation on the origin of this family, away back in
-1878-9, etc., and I am under special obligations to him for being the
-first man to open my eyes to the great confidence game that has been
-played for a hundred years, and all originating in the fabulous story of
-“one Smith.” Among other important things he unearths an advertisement
-of Young Bulrock that was advertised to stand at Springfield, 1792, as
-follows: “Young Bulrock is a horse of the Dutch breed, of a large size,
-and a bright bay color, etc.” In speaking of his pedigree, Mr. Cook most
-pithily remarks: “In view of the three-fold concurrence of time and place
-and breed, it fits into the vacuum in the Morgan’s lineage as a fragment
-of pottery fits into its complement.” There was another horse advertised
-in Springfield that year, but he had neither name nor breed and in color
-he was gray. The advertisement of Young Bulrock fits in time, fits in
-color and fits in breed; and thus removes all reasonable doubt that
-he was the sire of the original Morgan horse. This is the reason why
-Justin Morgan “always, while he lived, called him a Dutch horse;” and
-the little scrap of history given above will show why he always spoke of
-him as “of the best blood.” He was right in the former and he was right
-in the latter declaration. It is not possible, at this day, to prove,
-technically, these matters of a hundred years ago, but after considering
-all the facts in the case, we must conclude that they are satisfying to
-the human understanding, and that Justin Morgan told the truth.
-
-For the past fifty or sixty years the breeding of the original Morgan
-horse has been a subject of apparently unending controversy. The real
-facts concerning his origin, however, have never been brought to light
-and fully developed until within the last few years, and it is probable
-that nothing of material value will ever be added to the foregoing
-tracing. We have found from contemporaneous history that Lieutenant
-Wright Carpenter stole a horse from Colonel James De Lancey and was
-successful in carrying him into the camp of the patriots at Fishkill, and
-that is all we know about that particular horse. After the war was over
-it is stated that “one Smith” sold a horse to Mr. Ward, of Hartford, and
-represented that he had stolen the horse from Colonel De Lancey, and Mr.
-Ward sold that horse to Selah Norton, who seems to have owned him as
-long as he lived. It must be accepted as true that Lieutenant Carpenter
-captured a horse from Colonel De Lancey, but we cannot accept it as true
-that this was the same horse owned by Norton. We must first know how and
-where “one Smith” got him. Norton had this horse and advertised him in
-different parts of the country for public service seven or eight years
-before the romance of his history and pedigree was given to the world.
-As this romance would have been a grand feature in an advertisement of a
-stallion, Mr. Norton was too slow in evolving it, and when he did bring
-it out nobody believed it. At that period many portions of New England
-abounded in stallions with bogus pedigrees and histories, and if we judge
-Norton by his acts in giving his horse three different names at different
-times and places, we must conclude he was ready to conceal or invent
-anything that would add to his horse’s popularity and patronage.
-
-SHERMAN MORGAN.—In his history of the Morgan Horse, Mr. Linsley names
-this and three or four other sons of the original, that were kept for
-stock purposes, but none of them seems to have attained any eminence,
-except Sherman. As he never made any pretensions to being a trotter,
-he would have been forgotten long ago, had it not been for the lucky
-circumstances that he was the sire of Black Hawk, and thus his name
-has been preserved. He was scant fourteen hands high, with heavy body
-on short legs, and carried his head well up. He was a chestnut and
-foaled about 1809. There has always been a doubt in the minds of many
-as to whether he was the sire of Black Hawk, but that question will
-be considered when we reach that horse. His dam was a very handsome
-mare, brought from Narragansett, a pacer, and a very desirable saddle
-mare. In the trotting “Register,” three representations are given as to
-the breeding of this mare, namely, that she was of the Spanish breed;
-that she was an imported English mare; and that she was brought from
-Virginia on account of her beauty and speed. The first claim seemed to
-have the best historical support, and besides this she was brought from
-Providence, Rhode Island, and was a very fine pacer. The theory was then
-prevalent that the Narragansett pacers were of the “Spanish breed.” The
-elimination of that foolish notion from the history of the pacers does
-not affect the plain statement that she was a Narragansett pacer. It is
-not known that this mare ever produced anything else, either by the
-original Morgan or by any other horse.
-
-BLACK HAWK.—As his name indicates, this horse was a jet black, and was
-something over fifteen hands high. He was foaled 1833, was got by Sherman
-Morgan, and was bred by Benjamin Kelly, of Durham, New Hampshire. As the
-question of his paternity has been the subject of a great deal of bitter
-controversy, continued through many years, and participated in by men of
-intelligence, on both sides, I must give the history, as I understand it.
-Mr. Kelly kept a tavern at Durham and Mr. Bellows, the owner of Sherman
-Morgan, made this house one of his points of stopping as he traveled his
-horse, in his circuit of the season. Along with Sherman he had another
-horse called Paddy, black as a raven, that did some service at seven
-dollars, while the price for Sherman was fourteen dollars. On one of
-his visits, Mr. Kelly’s black mare, called “Old Narragansett” was bred
-to Sherman and proved to be in foal. Not long after this Mr. Kelly sold
-the mare to Mr. Shade Twombly, living about two miles from Durham, and a
-part of the agreement was that if the mare should prove to be with foal,
-Mr. Twombly was to pay for the services of the horse. The next spring
-the mare dropped a fine black horse colt, and Mr. Twombly claimed the
-colt was by Paddy and not by Sherman, hence, he refused to pay fourteen
-dollars for the services of Sherman, but was willing to pay seven dollars
-for the services of Paddy. This resulted in a lawsuit in which it was
-proved that Sherman was the sire of the colt, and Mr. Twombly’s estate
-had to pay the money. The colt was kept by Mr. Twombly’s heirs, at
-pasture in Greenland, New Hampshire, till he was about two years old,
-when he was sold at auction to Albert Mathes, of Durham, for seventy
-dollars and from him he passed to Benjamin Thurston, of Lowell, for two
-hundred dollars. In Thurston’s hands he became quite noted, locally, as a
-trotter, and in 1844 he became the property of David Hill, of Bridport,
-Vermont, where he became altogether the most popular stallion in the
-United States, and died there November, 1856. He was the first horse to
-command one hundred dollars for his services; and many of the great mares
-of the country were sent to his embrace, among them the world-renowned
-Lady Suffolk, but unfortunately she failed to produce.
-
-To understand why the fight against the Sherman Morgan paternity of this
-horse should have been so bitter and so persistent, we must consider the
-condition of the horse interests in New England at that time. When Black
-Hawk came to the front the Morgans of the real Morgan type had already
-attained some degree of popularity and here came a horse overtopping
-them all, with no trace of the Morgan type about him. He and his family
-attracted the attention of purchasers and threw a shadow of doubt over
-the little punchy, hairy-legged fellows that knocked out many a sale.
-Besides this, it was a serious and real question in the minds of a great
-many honest and intelligent men, as to whether Sherman Morgan, so typical
-of his family, could possibly have been the sire of a horse so completely
-outside of the family, not only in appearance and formation, but in his
-ability to trot. In 1847 Black Hawk was pitted against the Morse Horse,
-mile heats, best two in three, at the Saratoga State Fair. He won the
-first heat in 2:50½ and the second in 2:43½. He was then fourteen years
-old and this was very fast, for a stallion of that period. It is but
-justice to say that the Morse Horse contingent claimed that Black Hawk
-was set back in the first heat for running and that the heat was given to
-the Morse Horse in 2:52½ and that the second and third heats were won by
-Black Hawk in 2:54½ and 2:56. Just what the truth is in this disagreement
-I am not able to determine. As we look at this horse, so distinct from
-all his tribe; and as we consider the very indistinct knowledge of the
-laws of generation as held by the masses in that day, we cannot wonder
-that the paternity was so vehemently disputed. Neither can we wonder, as
-his descendants pass in review before us, that this dispute has never
-been settled to the satisfaction of the contending parties. The old
-Morgan type never reappears in the descendants of this family.
-
-But, we must not forget that we have considered only half of the
-inheritance of this horse. He had a dam as well as a sire. To that
-half of his pedigree we must now give some attention. The story of the
-“half-bred English mare, brought from New Brunswick” has had its day
-and we may as well lay it aside as a humbug. Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of
-Woodstock, Vermont, has brought out the facts with regard to this mare in
-a form that is very clear and satisfactory. In 1876 Mr. Thomson visited
-Albany for the purpose of examining everything that had been said in _The
-Country Gentleman_ newspaper touching on the paternity of Black Hawk. In
-this search for the sire he would necessarily find many references to
-the dam and among these references he was greatly surprised to find she
-had been described as “a pacing mare.” He goes on to say: “In our visit
-the same fall to Durham, Dover, Portsmouth and Greenland to learn more
-of her, we found a number that knew her when owned in Durham, and they
-said she was then known as the ‘Old Narragansett Mare.’ They said that
-Benjamin Kelly, deceased, brought the mare into Durham, that he had a
-son John L. living in Manchester, New Hampshire, and that he would know
-more about her, etc.” After learning that Mr. John L. Kelly was a very
-intelligent and responsible man, having been city marshal and mayor of
-Manchester, and known as “Honest John,” he wrote him and received the
-following reply:
-
-    “In answer to your inquiries about the dam of Black Hawk, I
-    will give you my best recollections, aided somewhat by a diary
-    which I kept at that time. I returned to Durham from a sea
-    voyage in the fall of 1830. In the following spring I went to
-    Boston with my father with a lot of horses. We stopped over
-    night at Brown’s Hotel, at Haverhill, Mass., where we met a
-    teamster from Portsmouth, N. H., with a team of four horses. In
-    the hind span was a large gray horse and a dark bay mare. Among
-    father’s horses was one which was a good match for the gray
-    horse. The man noticed it and told father that the mare was too
-    fast for the horse, was worth two of him for speed and bottom,
-    yet he would trade with father for his gray horse. After a good
-    deal of talk, with the aid of Mr. Brown, the trade was made
-    and we drove the mare in the carriage to Boston, leading the
-    others. We found her to be a splendid roadster, and as she was
-    not in good condition to sell, we took her back to Durham. At
-    this time she was chafed and bruised up very badly with the
-    heavy harness, yet in a few months she came out of it, with no
-    traces of it, except a few white spots on her back and breast.
-    The teamster said she was a Narragansett mare. She would weigh
-    1,000 pounds. Father kept her as one of his stable horses. She
-    was found to have great speed as a trotter, and father was
-    always bragging about her. One day, late in the season, Israel
-    Esty, of Dover, drove up to Durham with a trotter, and bantered
-    father for a trot, mile heats on Madbury Plains, between Durham
-    and Dover. I had great faith in the mare and pleaded with
-    father to accept his offer, and he did, and fifty dollars was
-    staked on the race. John Speed was father’s hostler at the
-    time, and he commenced getting the mare ready for the race.
-    He had only three weeks to do it in. At the time specified, a
-    large collection of people from Dover and Durham collected to
-    witness the race. Dr. Reuben Steele was one of the judges. The
-    Esty horse won the first heat, the Kelly mare won the next two,
-    distancing the horse in the last one. In the spring of 1832
-    John Bellows came to Durham with the old Sherman Morgan, and
-    I persuaded father to have the mare bred to him. He did, as I
-    saw the horse cover her. I was 21 in 1832; went to sea again
-    that fall. My recollection of the dam of Black Hawk is she was
-    a very fine pointed dark mare, with a nostril so large, when
-    excited, that one could put his fist into it.
-
-                                                     JOHN L. KELLY.
-
-    “Manchester, N. H., August 25, 1876.”
-
-The only “trip” in this letter is where Mr. Kelly speaks of the mare as
-“a dark bay,” but as the identity of the mare is fully maintained by
-other witnesses, this shade of color is not material and is, doubtless
-a slip of the pen. We don’t know she was a Narragansett mare, but we
-do know that she was called a Narragansett. It is wholly possible she
-may have been a bastard Narragansett, or she may have been called a
-Narragansett merely because she was a pacer. At that date there were
-still many descendants of the old Narragansetts to be found, of greater
-or less degree of purity in their breeding. Among Mr. Thomson’s gleanings
-from persons who knew the mare there are some bearing upon her color
-and gait that are in order at this point of our inquisition. Mr. John
-Bellows, the owner of Sherman Morgan, says: “She was a good-sized black
-mare, a fast trotter, with a swinging gait, and resembled in appearance
-the Messenger stock of horses.” The following description was gathered
-from several persons who knew the mare well and among them Mr. Wingate
-Twombly, son of her former owner. “She was a large, rangy mare, a little
-coarse and brawny, did not carry much flesh, might have weighed some over
-one thousand pounds and was a trifle over fifteen and one-half hands
-high. Head and ears rather large, neck long and straight, withers low and
-thin, medium mane and tail, had more hair on the fetlocks than her son,
-was called black a little way off, but close to one could see her grey
-hairs mingled with her coat and close to she was called a steel mixed.
-She had a white strip in her face and some say a little white on one hind
-foot. She was smart to go, but her gait was not a smooth, square trot.
-Some called it a sort of a pace, others that she single-footed. She went
-with her head low when trotting fast. One person said it was about a
-straight line from her back to her head when she was going fast.” She was
-called the Narragansett Mare when Mr. Kelly owned her. From other sources
-and from men who personally knew the mare and had ridden beside her, we
-have undoubted evidence that she was very fast, but all through there is
-some confusion about the character of her gait. Mr. Bellows, who ought to
-know something about the gait of a horse, says: “She was a fast trotter,
-with a _swinging gait_.” Now just what he means by the phrase “swinging
-gait” is hard to determine. Putting all these bits of evidence together,
-the reasonable conclusion seems to be that she was double-gaited, and
-when speeded she would go from the trot to the pace or from the pace to
-the trot as the case might be.
-
-[Illustration: ETHAN ALLEN.
-
-Son of Vermont Black Hawk.]
-
-From this synopsis of all that has been developed in the blood lines
-of Black Hawk, there can be no longer any mystery about where he
-got the characteristics making him so intensely different from the
-representatives of the typical Morgan. His sire was out of a high-class
-Narragansett pacer, and his dam was probably a fast Narragansett pacer,
-thus giving him presumably seventy-five per cent. of Narragansett
-blood and twenty-five per cent. of Morgan blood. The fight that was
-made against him all his life, as not being a genuine Morgan, had its
-foundation in justice and truth. He was not a Morgan in either blood or
-character. He founded a very valuable line of trotters, something that
-no other branch of the Morgan family has ever accomplished, and of right
-his descendants should be designated as “the Black Hawk Family,” and
-not jumbled up with the heterogeneous mass of nondescripts still called
-“the Morgan Family.” Black Hawk’s gait was spluttery and uneven, rather
-than square and mechanical. A few of his progeny were very perfectly
-gaited, but a great many of them manifested their evil inheritance,
-which, together with unskillful handling, destroyed all possible value
-as trotters. He placed three in the 2:30 list; fourteen of his sons were
-sires of 2:30 performers, six of them with two or more, and two daughters
-produced 2:30 performers. He died November, 1856.
-
-ETHAN ALLEN, 43.—This was a handsome, bright bay horse, less than fifteen
-hands high, with three white feet and a star. He was foaled 1849, got by
-Black Hawk, 5; dam, a fast trotting grey mare of unknown pedigree. With a
-list of all the celebrated American horses before him, it would be very
-difficult, if not impossible, for the best informed horseman to select
-an animal that has been so great a favorite with the American people,
-and for so long a time, as the famous Ethan Allen. When four years old
-he gave the world a sensation by eclipsing everything that had appeared
-before him at that age; and again when he was eighteen years old he
-renewed and intensified the sensation by trotting in 2:15 with a running
-mate. These sensations of his youth and his old age, did much to give
-him a standing with the people; but his wonderful beauty and remarkable
-docility and kindness, with the elegance and ease of his action, made him
-the favorite of everybody. His trotting gait was recognized by the best
-judges and experts as probably more perfect than that of any horse of his
-day. Others have gone faster singly, but no one has done it in greater
-perfection of motion. In his great flights of speed he was not bounding
-in the air, but down close to the ground, with a gliding motion that
-steals from quarter-pole to quarter-pole with inconceivable rapidity. He
-was bred by Joel W. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York, and as the result
-of a practical joke he played, for the purpose of annoying his uncle,
-David Hill, the owner of Black Hawk, against whom he had some pique just
-at that time, many well-meaning and no doubt honest people once believed,
-and possibly still believe, that Ethan Allen was by Flying Morgan and not
-by Black Hawk. The fact that Ethan Allen was the same color as Flying
-Morgan and that there was some resemblance in size and style of action
-of the two horses, lent a strong suggestion to the joke as a truth. I am
-indebted to Mr. I. V. Baker, Jr., of Comstock’s Landing, S. B. Woodward,
-then of Ticonderoga, and B. H. Baldwin, of Whitehall, New York, for the
-details of the way the Flying Morgan story started, and need only say the
-narrator was an eye-witness to the whole affair. In the spring of 1852,
-in the barroom of S. B. Woodward’s hotel, at Ticonderoga, quite a number
-of the villagers being present, Mr. Joel W. Holcomb came in and said
-he was going to write a letter to R. M. Adams, of Burlington, Vermont,
-the owner of Flying Morgan, and he was going to have some fun with him;
-and, going to the desk in the room, he wrote, substantially as follows:
-“I don’t know but I have made all the reputation for David Hill and old
-Black Hawk that I care to. I am willing to have the credit go where it
-belongs, and desire to let yourself and the public know that my colt
-Ethan Allen is got by your horse Flying Morgan.”
-
-“There,” he said, “you will see this in all the Vermont papers next week.
-Won’t Uncle David be mad?”
-
-“What!” exclaimed some of his neighbors, after hearing it read, “you
-won’t put your name to such a falsehood as that? It’s a shame.”
-
-“Well, well,” said Holcomb, “I’ll add a postscript.” And going to the
-desk he wrote below his signature, leaving a good wide space between his
-signature and the following words:
-
-“Flying Morgan never covered the dam of Ethan Allen, never smelt of her
-and never saw her, consequently Ethan Allen was not by Flying Morgan,
-but he can beat Flying Morgan or any other stallion in the State of
-Vermont.”
-
-The next fall Mr. Adams visited many of the fairs with his horse and
-showed Holcomb’s letter, and, it is said, with the postscript torn off.
-Every man in Ticonderoga knew as well as Mr. Holcomb how Ethan Allen
-was bred, and this letter created much indignation. But Holcomb was a
-reckless man and cared for nothing more than what he called a good joke,
-and the more it hurt any one’s feelings the better it suited him.
-
-This account of the “joke” was written down by Mr. Baker, at the
-dictation of Mr. Woodward, April 22, 1875, and I have implicit confidence
-in its substantial accuracy. It has been said that the reason Holcomb did
-this was out of ill feeling toward Mr. David Hill, the owner of Black
-Hawk, and Holcomb’s uncle, because he dunned him for payment of the
-horse’s services in getting Ethan Allen. One day at the Fashion Course,
-in the spring of 1867, as I was looking at Ethan while he was taking
-his daily exercise, either Mr. Holcomb or Mr. Roe, his partner—I knew
-them both by sight as the owners of Ethan Allen, but not well enough to
-distinguish one from the other, but I think it was Mr. Holcomb—came up to
-me and expressed a good deal of solicitude to know how I was registering
-the horse. He appeared gratified when I assured him I had no doubt he
-was a son of old Black Hawk and would so enter him. He remarked “that
-was right,” and said the Flying Morgan story originated in a practical
-joke and should not be permitted to go into history as a fact. This is
-the full history of the basis of the controversy, and certainly, to a
-reasonable man, it does not leave a single peg on which to hang a hope
-for the Flying Morgan story.
-
-But, the paternity of Ethan Allen is not left to the uncertainties of
-recollection nor to be trifled with by practical jokers. The books of
-Black Hawk’s services show that the dam of Ethan Allen was bred to him
-on a certain day or days of the season of 1848, and was taken away
-believed to be in foal. This fact is conceded on all hands as wholly
-indisputable, but it is claimed that Flying Morgan was kept in Holcomb’s
-stable one night, after the mare returned from Bridport, and the two
-were there surreptitiously coupled. I have studied this claim in all its
-details, I have examined every detail minutely, and I do not hesitate to
-say there is not a single shadow of evidence to support the claim. In
-Vermont, as in Kentucky, there are many people who can remember things
-that never occurred, but in the former State these people are at a great
-disadvantage, for they are not able to get so many to agree with and
-support their remarkable memories. The Vermonters are very far from being
-all honest, but they are very much disposed to make up their own minds,
-whether right or wrong.
-
-In searching for the breeding of the little flea-bitten grey mare,
-“called a Messenger,” that produced Ethan Allen, I have not been sparing
-of either time or labor. I have assiduously followed every clew that
-presented itself, and waded through “sloppy” correspondence “knee deep,”
-but I never have been able to reach a single point that was relevant and
-tangible. From the first that is known of her at Hague, New York, her
-identity has been maintained by a spavin on one leg and one hip knocked
-down, and thus she has been traced through the hands of many owners till
-she reaches Mr. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York. A pretence has been
-set up that she was by some Morgan horse, but this was only a wish of the
-originator, and not a fact founded on reasonable evidence. It is said
-she was quite a fast trotter, in her younger days, and that she could
-beat all the farmers’ horses against which she was started. That she had
-a trotting inheritance, and probably from Messenger, there can be no
-reasonable doubt.
-
-Ethan Allen made his first appearance as a trotter at the Clinton County
-Fair, as a three-year-old, and made a record, over a very bad track, of
-3:20-3:21. In May following, then four years old, at the Union Course,
-he beat Rose of Washington in 2:36-2:39-2:42. This was then the fastest
-time ever made by a four-year-old. He then retired to the stud and did
-not again appear till October, 1855, when, over the Cambridge Park
-Course, he beat Columbus, Sherman Black Hawk, and Stockbridge Chief for
-the stallion purse in 2:34½-2:37. Three of the contestants here were sons
-of Black Hawk. The next season he defeated Hiram Drew twice, to wagon,
-making a record of 2:32¾. October 15, 1858, at Boston, he beat Columbus
-Jr., and Hiram Drew, 2:37-2:35-2:33. The same month, on the Union Course,
-he beat George M. Patchen, to wagons, distancing him the first heat in
-2:28. At the Union Course, Long Island, July 12, 1860, he beat Princess,
-distancing her the second heat in 2:29½-2:25½. This is his fastest
-record. He was frequently beaten by George M. Patchen, Flora Temple,
-etc., and it was thought by many that he could not take up the weight
-and “hold the clip” for the full mile out. His most famous performance
-was made in 1867, and as I had the pleasure of witnessing it, from a very
-eligible position, I will here repeat the description as then made:
-
-“On the 21st of June, 1867, on the Fashion Course, it was my good fortune
-to witness the crowning event of his life. Some three weeks before, with
-running mate, he had beaten Brown George and running mate, in very fast
-time, scoring one heat in 2:19. This made horsemen open their eyes, and
-there at once arose a difference of opinion, about the advantage to
-the trotter of having a runner hitched with him, to pull the weight.
-This resulted in a match for two thousand five hundred dollars to trot
-Ethan Allen and running mate against Dexter, who was then considered
-invincible. As the day approached the betting was about even; but the
-evening before the race, word came from the course that Ethan’s running
-mate had fallen lame and could not go, but they would try to get Brown
-George’s running mate, then in Connecticut, to take the place of the
-lame runner. As the horses were strangers to each other, it was justly
-concluded that the change gave Dexter a great advantage and the betting
-at once changed from even to two to one on Dexter. Long before noon the
-crowd began to assemble; the sporting men everywhere were shaking rolls
-of greenbacks over their heads, shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I met a
-friend from Chicago, who sometimes speculated a little, and when he told
-me he was betting two to one on Dexter, I took the liberty of advising
-him to be cautious, for I thought the team would win the race, and that
-its backers knew what they were doing. Before the hour arrived I secured
-a seat on the ladies’ stand, from which every foot of the course, and
-the countless multitudes of people, could be taken in at a glance. The
-vehicles in numbers were simply incalculable, and the multitudes were
-estimated at forty thousand people. Upon the arrival of the hour, the
-judges ascended the stand and rang up the horses, when the backers of the
-team came forward, explained the mishap that had befallen the runner,
-that they had Brown George’s mate on the ground, but, as he and Ethan
-had never been hitched together, they were unwilling to risk so large a
-sum, and closed the race by paying one thousand two hundred and fifty
-forfeit. When this announcement was made there was a general murmur
-that spread, step by step, through all that vast multitude. The betting
-fraternity were just where they started and every spectator realized a
-feeling of disgust at the whole management. As soon as this had time to
-exert its intended effect upon the crowd, the backers of the team came
-forward again and expressed their unwillingness to have the people go
-away dissatisfied, and proposed a little match of two hundred and fifty
-a side, which was promptly accepted by the Dexter party; and when it was
-known there would be a race after all the shout of the multitudes was
-like the voice of many waters.
-
-“This being a new race, the betting men had to commence _de novo_. The
-surroundings of the pool stands were packed with an eager and excited
-crowd, anxious to get on their money at two, and rather than miss, at
-three to one on Dexter. The work of the auctioneers was short, sharp and
-decisive, and the tickets were away up in the hundreds and oftentimes
-thousands. But the pool-stands did not seem to accommodate more than a
-small fraction of those anxious to invest, and in all directions in the
-surging crowd, hands were in the air, filled with rolls of greenbacks,
-and shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I was curious to note what became
-of these noisy offers, and I soon observed that a quiet-looking man came
-along, took all the party had to invest and then went quietly to another
-of the shouters, and then another and so on, till I think that every one
-who had money to invest, at that rate, was accommodated. The amount of
-money bet was enormous, no doubt aggregating a quarter of a million, in a
-few minutes.
-
-“When the horses appeared on the track to warm up for the race, Dexter,
-driven by the accomplished reinsman Budd Doble, was greeted with a shout
-of applause. Soon the team appeared, and behind it sat the great master
-of trotting tactics, Dan Mace. His face, which has so often been a puzzle
-to thousands, had no mask over it on this occasion. It spoke only that
-intense earnestness that indicates the near approach of a supreme moment.
-The team was hitched to a light skeleton wagon; Ethan wore breeching, and
-beside him was a great strong race horse, fit to run for a man’s life.
-His traces were long enough to allow him to fully extend himself, but
-they were so much shorter than Ethan’s that he had to take the weight.
-Dexter drew the inside, and on the first trial they got the send off
-without either one having six inches the advantage. When they got the
-word, the flight of speed was absolutely terrific, so far beyond anything
-I had ever witnessed in a trotting horse, that I felt the hair rising
-on my head. The running horse was next to me, and notwithstanding my
-elevation, Ethan was stretched out so near the ground that I could see
-nothing of him but his ears. I fully believed that, for several rods at
-this point, they were going at a two-minute gait.
-
-“It was impossible that this terrible pace could be maintained long, and
-just before reaching the first turn Dexter’s head began to swim and the
-team passed him and took the track, reaching the first quarter-pole in
-thirty-two seconds, with Dexter three or four lengths behind. The same
-lightning speed was kept up through the second quarter, reaching the
-half-mile pole in 1:04, with Dexter still farther in the rear. Mace then
-took a pull on his team, and came home a winner by six or eight lengths,
-in 2:15. When this time was put on the blackboard, the response of the
-multitude was like the roar of the ocean. Although some distance away,
-through the second quarter of this heat I had a fair, unobstructed side
-view of the stallion and of his action, when going at the lightning rate
-of 2:08 to the mile. I could not observe that he received the slightest
-degree of propulsion from the running horse; and my conviction was then,
-and is now, that any such propulsion would have interfered with his own
-unapproachable action, and would have retarded rather than helped him.
-The most noticeable feature in his style of movement was the remarkable
-lowness to which he dropped his body and the straight, gliding line it
-maintained at that elevation.
-
-“The team now had the inside, and in the first attempt they were started
-for the second heat, but they did not appear to me to be going so fast as
-in the first heat. Before they had gone many rods Ethan lost his stride
-and Dexter took the track at the very spot where he had lost it in the
-first heat. The team soon got to work, and near the beginning of the
-second quarter collared Dexter, but the stallion broke soon after and
-fell back, not yards, nor lengths, but rods before he caught. Incredible
-as it may seem, when he again got his feet, he put on such a burst of
-speed as to overhaul Dexter in the third quarter, when he broke again and
-Mace had to pull him nearly to a standstill before he recovered. Dexter
-was now a full distance ahead and the heat appeared to be his beyond all
-peradventure. I was watching the team in its troubles very closely and
-my idea of the distance lost was the result of a deliberate and careful
-estimate at the moment; and the query in my mind then was whether the
-team could save its distance. At last the old horse struck his gait, and
-it was like a dart out of a catapult, or a ball from a rifle. The team
-not only saved its distance, but beat Dexter home five or six lengths in
-2:16.
-
-“In the third heat Mace had it all his own way throughout, coming home
-the winner of the race in 2:19. The backers of Dexter, up to the very
-last, placed great reliance on his well-known staying qualities; but
-the last heat showed that the terrible struggle told upon him more
-distressingly than upon the team. It is said by those who timed Dexter
-privately that he trotted the three heats in 2:17, 2:18, and 2:21. As
-an opinion, I will say that if ever there was an honest race trotted
-this was one, but there was such an exhibition of sharp diplomacy, of
-the “diamond cut diamond” order, as is seldom witnessed, even among the
-sharp practices of the turf. It is not probable that Ethan’s running mate
-fell amiss at all, the evening before, as represented; and if she did,
-it was not possible to send to Connecticut for another horse and have
-him there early in the morning as was pretended. This was a mere ruse
-put out to get the advantage of the long odds. The managers of the team
-knew just how the horses would work and knew they had speed enough to
-beat any horse on earth. When the race was called and they came forward
-and paid forfeit, it was merely to give the ‘two to one on Dexter’ money
-encouragement to come out. It did come out most vociferously and was all
-quietly taken. It was said John Morrissey was the manager in chief, and
-that his share of the winnings amounted to about forty thousand dollars.”
-
-I have here given my personal impressions of this race, not because the
-performance was of any special value, as a test of speed, but because
-the time was then phenomenal, even with this kind of hitch, and as an
-illustration of what certain horses can do when relieved of all weight.
-This was among the first of the contests of this kind, and although
-some effort was made to introduce this plan by which a poor horse could
-beat a good one, it never has received much encouragement. With all his
-perfection of gait and wide popularity, extending from early life to old
-age, Ethan Allen was not a success as a progenitor of speed. He placed
-but six in the 2:30 list, and the best—Billy Barr—with a record of 2:23¾.
-He left but one son equal to himself as a sire, and several daughters
-that became the producers of single performers. He was kept several
-seasons in Kansas and died there September, 1876.
-
-DANIEL LAMBERT, 102, was a chestnut horse, foaled 1858; got by Ethan
-Allen, 43; dam Fanny Cook, by Abdallah; grandam by Stockholm’s American
-Star, etc. His color was a light chestnut, and his mane and tail were of
-the yellow, flaxen shade. He was about fifteen hands high and long and
-light in the body, with no indications of Morgan blood about him unless
-it was in the kinkiness of his mane and tail. But why should he not
-resemble almost anything else than the little nondescript Morgan, when he
-had only one-sixteenth of his blood in his veins? He had more Messenger
-than Morgan blood, and according to the rules of arithmetic it is a
-misnomer to call him a Morgan. More than this, his dam was a daughter
-of the great Abdallah, far and away the greatest trotting sire of his
-generation. When we consider that he had four times as much of the blood
-of Abdallah as he had of the original Morgan, we can see the absurdity
-of sticking to the right male line after that line has been wiped out by
-other lines far more potential. Lambert was bred by Mr. John Porter of
-Ticonderoga, New York, and as a colt he showed great promise on the ice,
-and was thought to be the fastest and best of the get of Ethan Allen. He
-was known far and wide as the “Porter Colt,” and he was the popular heir
-to very great expectations. To have created so much enthusiasm he must
-have shown great speed for a youngster, and he is credited with a record
-of 2:42 as a three-year-old. As a sire of trotters he stood very high at
-one time and was even with Blue Bull in his number of representatives in
-the 2:30 list, but in the end the little “plebeian” pacer outstripped him
-a long way. Lambert put thirty-seven trotters into the 2:30 list, but
-when we come to study this list we are not very favorably impressed, for
-about one-third of the animals have but a single heat inside of the mark,
-with only five or six reputable campaigners and a single one—Comee—that
-ranked among the real good ones. Comee had seventy-one heats to his
-credit and a record of 2:21¼. Thirty-three of Daniel Lambert’s sons
-have put one hundred and thirty-six in the list, and forty-four of his
-daughters have produced seventy-four performers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVIII.
-
-THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER, AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.
-
-    Orloffs the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis
-    Orloff, founder of the breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff
-    began breeding in 1770—Smetanka, Polkan, and Polkan’s son,
-    Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire—The Russian
-    pacers—Their great speed—Imported Bellfounder—His history
-    and characteristics—Got little speed—His descendants—The
-    English Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The old Norfolk
-    trotters—Hackney experiments in America—Superiority of the
-    trotting-bred horse demonstrated in show-ring contests.
-
-
-It may be a little outside of the field of our discussion to include the
-Orloff Trotter, but as a few of them have been brought to this country,
-and as that is the only organized and recognized _breed_ of trotters in
-all the world beside our own, it seems to be necessary to give a brief
-synopsis of the origin and history of that breed, so far as we may be
-able. An additional and probably a more cogent reason for making this
-foreign detour is the fact that there are now many American trotters on
-the turf in Europe, and practically their only competitors, whether on
-the turf or in the breeding studs, are the Orloffs of Russia.
-
-“Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” the first volume of which was
-issued in 1871, was an individual enterprise. Two years afterward the
-director-in-chief of the Russian Imperial Studs submitted a series of
-questions to different scientific gentlemen, whose studies were in
-the right direction, soliciting their views, on the practicability
-and advisability of establishing a governmental standard by which the
-Orloff trotters should be classed and officially registered. The report
-was favorable and the Russian trotting register was established under
-governmental direction. This was the second movement toward establishing
-a _breed_; not merely by writing a lot of names in a book, but by writing
-those names on the turf of two continents. A delegation from France once
-visited me to consult about establishing a Register in that country,
-and to learn how to commence such an enterprise. When I asked them what
-strains of blood they had that could trot, they did not seem to know of
-any particular strains, or any one strain better than another, to serve
-as a foundation, but they were sure they had plenty of trotters. This was
-the first I ever had heard of French-bred trotters, and it was the last I
-ever heard of the French trotting register.
-
-The stalwart Alexis Orloff took a very active part in making Catherine
-II. Empress of Russia—for which he was loaded with honors as well as
-lucrative offices. In the war with the Turks in 1772 he was given command
-of the Russian fleet, and with the assistance of the English fleet
-under Admiral Elphinstone, he achieved a great victory and captured the
-pasha in command of the Turkish fleet. Owing to some unusual kindness
-Count Orloff was able to extend to the captured Turkish commander, or
-his family, he presented the count with a pure white stallion, said
-to be a Barb, which he took home with him and placed in his stud of
-horses, that he had established but a short time before. Another story
-is that the count bought this white horse, which he called Smetanka,
-while he was in Greece and paid a large price for him. I am not able to
-say which representation is the more probable, and it is not material
-to our history, as there is no dispute about the identity of Smetanka
-as the nominal head of the Orloff breed of horses, and neither story
-gives any information about his blood. No doubt he was a Turk. Count
-Alexis commenced his breeding stud in 1770, and there appears to have
-been a good deal of system about it or else a large amount of very free
-guessing. When first established, the horse breeders say, it consisted of
-stallions and mares as follows: Arabs, 12 stallions, 10 mares; Turkish,
-1 stallion, 2 mares; English, 20 stallions, 32 mares; Dutch, 1 stallion,
-8 mares; Persian, 3 stallions, 2 mares; Danish, 1 stallion, 3 mares;
-Mecklenburg, 1 stallion, 5 mares. From this it will be seen that he had
-more English running blood than all the other varieties put together,
-and yet no trotters came from that source. From this great variety of
-composite material the count had free rein in his grand experiment of
-producing the type of horse that best pleased his fancy. As a matter of
-course the indiscriminate commingling of these different strains and
-types would produce a mongrel lot, from which a few superior animals
-might be selected, and doubtless were selected, for breeding purposes.
-
-The different writers who have discussed the result of this experiment
-seem to agree, substantially, that two distinct types were the
-result—the galloper for the saddle and the trotter for harness—but they
-assume what appears to me to be a very unreasonable conclusion that both
-these types were indebted to the super-excellence of Smetanka. The count
-was one of the most prominent sporting men of his day, an inveterate
-horse-racer and cock-fighter, and under this kind of management it is
-hardly credible that the twenty English thoroughbred stallions should
-have been put aside for the little white horse of positively unknown
-origin. But whatever may have been the predominating blood in the saddle
-department, it is certain that the trotter is lineally descended from
-Smetanka. He was bred on a Danish mare and produced Polkan (Volcan),
-without anything new or striking in his characteristics. Polkan was bred
-on a Dutch mare and produced Barss, and this was the first to manifest a
-disposition to extend himself to his utmost at the trot and to stick to
-it. Barss became a great favorite with his master; for, although stumbled
-upon, he was a new creation and is the real progenitor of all the horses
-that bear the name Orloff. His component elements are easily expressed.
-He had twenty-five per cent. of the blood of Smetanka; twenty-five per
-cent. of the blood of the Danish mare, and fifty per cent. of the blood
-of the Dutch mare, it seems to be reasonable to conclude, therefore, that
-the trotting instinct must be found in the unknown elements of the Dutch
-mare.
-
-Some years ago Prof. —— (the name I cannot now recall), from the Imperial
-Agricultural College, near Moscow, Russia, paid me several visits for
-the purpose of gathering up what information he could obtain about the
-origin and history of the American Trotter. He was very intelligent and
-thorough in his methods of obtaining information, and each succeeding day
-he came back to me with a new series of questions hinging upon previous
-interviews, and all carefully prepared. These questions were so admirably
-shaped to reach the vital points of the subject that I became greatly
-interested in the man. When it came my turn to ask questions, my first
-one was, What was the origin and lineage of the Dutch mare that produced
-Barss? He replied, “Ah, the scientific men of Russia would give a great
-deal to be able to answer that question.” We both agreed, perfectly, that
-the living instinct of the trotter came from that mare, but he was not
-able to tell me anything of her history or habits of action. He told me
-there were many pacers in Russia and that the best ones came from the
-province of Viatka and from the region of the Volga River.
-
-As the true source from which the Russian trotters have drawn their
-ability to trot fast has not been developed nor determined by history, we
-must consider the problem in the light of the surrounding conditions, and
-possibly our American experiences may lead to its solution. In 1873 Prof.
-Von Mittendorf, at the request of the director-in-chief of the imperial
-stud, prepared a very able paper on the scientific questions involved
-in the establishment of a Government Register for the Orloff trotters.
-In this paper he discusses the pace and the trot as both original and
-natural gaits and insists that there are no outward indications in form
-or shape by which the animal, when at rest, can be decided to be a pacer
-or a trotter. In his own words he says:
-
-    “In answer to the question whether, from the form of a horse
-    at rest, it can be ascertained what gait would be easiest
-    assumed by it, viz., trotting or pacing, I must confess that
-    I have never seen, read or heard of such marks, and, indeed,
-    there never are any symptoms or signs of inclination for pacing
-    in the proportions of any horse with the single negative
-    exception, viz., that great speed in one-sided motion does not
-    agree with a large frame, which is more adapted to leaping, and
-    hence fast pacers are never found among large horses.”
-
-This is the view as taken by a Russian scientist of the distinction, or
-rather lack of distinction, between the trotter and the pacer. I have
-not quoted this paragraph from Prof. Mittendorf because it contained
-anything new in the economy of breeding, but to prove that there were
-pacers in Russia and that their relation to the trotter was considered in
-the formation of the rules of admission to the Orloff trotting register.
-A very intelligent writer, evidently a Russian and one who knew what he
-was talking about, contributed an interesting article to the New York
-_Sun_ of July 9, 1877, from which we get a clear and strong light on the
-practical side of the Russian pacer, and I will here again quote:
-
-    “Up to the middle of the last century horses in Russia were
-    not scientifically bred; they ran wild in many parts of the
-    country. Those caught on the steppes of the river Don, and
-    in the wilderness of the district of Viatka, obtained early
-    celebrity, which they still maintain. The Don horses are those
-    famous Cossack steeds about which so much has been written of
-    late. The Viatka horses, or Bitugues, as they are called are
-    the genuine trotters of Russia. They are all pacers, equally
-    remarkable for their speed and their endurance. But since
-    the Orloff breed has been introduced, the Bitugues have been
-    excluded from all matches, on the ground that their pacing is
-    not orthodox.
-
-    “It is with these Bitugues that the peculiar troika team, of
-    which a specimen was shown in Fleetwood Park, on Saturday,
-    originated. A fast, sturdy Bitugue is put in shafts, and a
-    light running horse from the steppes harnessed on each side of
-    him. A good Bitugue trots so fast that the wild steppe runners
-    have to be whipped all the time to force them to keep up with
-    him. The idea of putting an Orloff trotter in the place of a
-    Bitugue is very queer, as no square trotter can equal the speed
-    of those famous pacers of Viatka, and keep abreast with side
-    runners.”
-
-From these three several sources we learn a number of facts that may
-have a more or less important bearing upon the true origin of the Orloff
-trotter. (1) That there are now, and have been for generations past,
-plenty of pacers in Russia. (2) That these pacers have a common habitat,
-north and east of the Don. (3) That they are a very old race, running
-back in the centuries away beyond the knowledge of man or the records of
-history. (4) That they are a very fast and very enduring race, and that
-they have been trained for generations as the shaft horses of the troika
-and their speed so well developed as to require good running horses
-to keep abreast with them. (5) That they are of smaller size than the
-average and lack symmetry, and thus, notwithstanding their great speed
-and bottom, they and their blood are excluded from registration with the
-Orloffs. (6) That they are also excluded from competing for any prizes
-that may be offered, and no other reason is suggested than that they
-would be sure to win.
-
-Russia and America both have pacers and they are both carrying forward
-the breeding and development of the trotter with great intelligence and
-success. No other nation has been able to make even a beginning in this
-field of animal economy except by the introduction of the foundation
-stock from one or other of these two countries. It may be taken as
-historically true, and as applying to every nation on the face of the
-earth, that where there are no pacers there are no trotters. Hundreds of
-unmistakable experiences in this country go to show that the pacer is a
-great source of trotting speed. At one time a pacing stallion of obscure
-pacing origin stood at the head of the list of all stallions as the sire
-of the greatest number of trotters with fast records. A great multitude
-of our fastest trotters at maturity were foaled pacers from trotting
-parents. It is no longer a matter of wonder or surprise that with two
-animals from the same parents one of them should be a fast trotter and
-the other a fast pacer. Neither is it any longer remarkable that a fast
-trotter with a very fast record should turn around and make just as fast
-a record at the pace. The American people are just beginning to realize,
-in its full force, the declaration of more than twenty years ago; that
-the trot and the pace are simply two forms of the same gait, in the
-economy of motion. The only difference that has been observed as between
-two brothers, the one a pacer and the other a trotter, is that with the
-same skill in handling the pacer will come to his speed much quicker than
-the trotter, which is of itself a strong suggestion at least that the
-pace is the more natural and easier form of the one gait.
-
-Now, in view of the fact that Smetanka was of Saracenic origin—a strain
-of blood that has always been antagonistic to the pacer, and never
-produced a pacer or a trotter; and in view of the fact that his grandson,
-Barss, is accepted as the first of all Orloff trotters; and in view of
-the further fact that in thousands of American experiences the trotter
-has come from the pacer, it seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the
-“Dutch Mare” that produced Barss had a strong pacing inheritance, and
-possibly had her speed fully developed, as the Bitugue in the count’s own
-team.
-
-Among all the pleasures which Count Orloff derived from his experiments
-in breeding, whether of gamecocks, or race horses, or saddlers, or
-trotters, Barss was his greatest favorite because he was his highest
-achievement in the art of breeding. This judgment of his master has been
-confirmed in the experiences and history of all succeeding generations
-for a hundred years, and the name of Barss will be known through the
-coming centuries as the founder of a mighty breed of trotters. I once
-possessed a fine picture of Barss hitched to a sleigh and driven by his
-breeder, Count Orloff, himself; and I have seen it stated somewhere that
-this picture was a copy of a bronze statue erected to the memory of the
-Count Orloff and the greatest horse of Russia.
-
-It has been stated by some writers, but with what measure of authority
-I do not know, that for about thirty years after the appearance of
-Barss his daughters were bred to English thoroughbreds, to Arabs, to
-Anglo-Arabs, and, indeed, to all the highly bred crosses that the great
-establishment was able to furnish, and there was no improvement in either
-the quality or the speed of the produce. From this it is evident that
-the count and his managers were at that period entangled in the same
-foolish notions that befogged the minds of so many very worthy gentlemen
-in this country some years ago, viz., that the way to improve the trotter
-was to go to the runner—the horse that never could trot. This foolish
-notion, that never had a spark of reason in it, naturally and necessarily
-weakened the trotting instinct of the descendants of Barss, and would
-have wiped it all out if it had been followed persistently, and there
-would have been no Orloff trotters to-day.
-
-After this narrow escape from the annihilation of much of the good that
-Barss had done, the management then began to look for the same blood and
-the same habit of action that the “Dutch Mare” transmitted to her son,
-and, with this element to the front, progression was resumed. Out of his
-great variety of forms and of strains of blood the count and his managers
-could pick and choose for the size, shape and forms they wanted, but they
-were not able to transfer with the size, shape and form the instincts and
-psychical nature of the horse. The count seems to have carried forward
-his great enterprise rather with a view to experimentation than its
-commercial possibilities. Smetanka lived but a year or two, and when
-he stumbled upon the production of Barss, a magnificent individual and
-a great trotter, his head seems to have been turned, as he evidently
-supposed that he could breed any kind of horse he wished to breed, and
-be able to do anything he wished him to do. At his death, in 1808, he
-left no male heir to succeed him, but he provided in his will that his
-stud should not be dispersed. It was kept intact till about 1845, when it
-was purchased by the government, and finally divided among a number of
-prominent breeders in different portions of the empire.
-
-Without having any knowledge on the subject that is definite and
-specific, I am led to infer that the rules on registration and racing in
-Russia are a hindrance to the breeding and development of the trotter.
-As I understand it, no horse can be registered unless he is purely
-descended from Barss. And I understand further, that he must possess
-the same requirements in order to enter and start in a public race
-against the Orloffs. If it be true that these restrictions are really in
-existence and are enforced, we can understand why the American trotter is
-so far ahead of the Orloff in speed and in the markets of Europe. The
-Orloff is restricted to certain lines of blood and is protected against
-competition from others that might beat him. The American is free from
-all restrictions of blood and gathers up all that is best and fastest. He
-neither asks nor accepts protection from any quarter, but throws down the
-glove to all comers.
-
-BELLFOUNDER was imported from England, July, 1822, by James Boott, of
-Boston, Mass. He was placed in the hands of Samuel Jaques, Jr.—a very
-shrewd manager who understood the use of printer’s ink and did not
-hesitate about employing it liberally. In his advertisement for 1823 he
-says: “This celebrated horse is a bright bay with black legs, standing
-fifteen hands high.” From this we are safe in concluding he was not
-more than fifteen hands, and from another contemporaneous source it
-is learned that he was a little below that measurement. On this point
-the recollections, or perhaps impressions, of Orange County horsemen
-are not very trustworthy, as one of them places his height at sixteen
-hands and others at fifteen and a half. His pedigree was given on the
-card which was distributed by his groom in the form following: “Got
-by old Bellfounder, out of Velocity by Haphazard, by Sir Peter out
-of Miss Hervey by Eclipse.” “Velocity trotted on the Norwich road in
-1806, sixteen miles in one hour, and although she broke five times
-into a gallop, and as often turned round, she won her match.” Although
-after diligent search I have not been able to find this performance
-of Velocity, it may be true that a mare so named may have trotted as
-represented, but she was not a daughter of Haphazard. The dates make this
-utterly impossible, and Mr. Jaques was smart enough never to put this
-humbug pedigree in his elaborate advertisements that appeared in the
-leading agricultural papers of the country, year after year.
-
-As the great mass of people of that day knew nothing and cared but little
-about pedigrees, the astute manager of the horse struck an expedient in
-the way of advertising that was very effective. He had a cut made of a
-horse trotting loose on the road, at the rate of a hurricane, and in
-the background was an entablature with the legend “Seventeen and a half
-miles an hour,” which anybody and everybody would interpret to mean that
-this was a record made by imported Bellfounder, and there he was doing
-it. This cut in reduced form went the rounds of the agricultural press,
-and in 1831 made its appearance in the “Family Encyclopedia of Useful
-Knowledge.” This dodge was exceedingly effective, and as it appeared in
-a book it must be true. Thousands of people interpreted the picture to
-mean that imported Bellfounder had trotted seventeen and a half miles
-in an hour. Mr. Jaques did not say this in letters and figures, but he
-said it even more plainly in a picture. The basis of this deception is
-found in the advertisement itself, where, in speaking of the speed of old
-Bellfounder in England, he says: “His owner challenged to perform with
-him seventeen miles and a half in one hour, but it was not accepted.”
-Here we have a possible challenge of the sire transmuted into an actual
-performance of the son, for the sole purpose of securing public patronage.
-
-There can be no doubt that this horse was a true representative of what
-was then known as the Norfolk Trotters and at this time designated as
-Hackneys or Cobs. Bellfounder was of a quiet, docile disposition, with a
-display of great nervous energy in his movements when aroused. His knee
-and hock action was high and showy, giving the impression of a great
-trotter, without much speed. At several points his form was measurably
-reproduced in Hambletonian, especially in his low, round withers and his
-great, meaty buttocks. In seeing these points so plainly developed in his
-idol it is not remarkable that Mr. Rysdyk should have placed too high an
-estimate on Bellfounder blood as a factor in the American trotting horse.
-If he had thoughtfully asked himself the question, What has Bellfounder
-blood done in its own right in the way of getting trotters? the illusion
-would have vanished.
-
-Bellfounder was in the control of Mr. Jaques for six years, and never
-in my knowledge of trotting stallions have I known one so widely and
-successfully advertised. The name “Bellfounder” was heard and known
-everywhere. From 1829 to 1833, inclusive, he was under the control of
-Mr. T. T. Kissam, of Long Island. After that time he seems to have gone
-“a-begging” wherever there seemed to be a chance to earn his oats. At
-last, at Jamaica, Long Island, he died, having made twenty-one seasons
-in this country—one more than Messenger. The question was once raised
-as to where Hambletonian got his aversion to the chestnut color, and it
-was flippantly assigned to Bellfounder. The truth is, quite a number of
-Bellfounder’s get were chestnuts, perhaps as large a percentage as would
-naturally come from the average stallion.
-
-It is the testimony of several gentlemen who were familiar with trotting
-affairs in the time of the Bellfounders, that a number of them were
-skillfully and persistently trained and none of them could trot faster
-than about 2:50. The one exception to this fact so widely established
-is the case of the dam of Hambletonian. After this filly passed into
-the hands of Peter Seely he gave some attention irregularly to the
-development of her speed, and before he sold her he gave her two trials
-to saddle on the Union Course and she trotted in 2:43 and 2:41. As she
-was then but four years old it is safe to conclude that she would have
-made a trotter, beyond all doubt. This is the only one, old or young,
-from the loins of Bellfounder that ever trotted so fast. I once put the
-question directly to Mr. Rysdyk as to whether the Kent Mare was as good
-and as fast as her dam, One Eye, and he promptly replied that One Eye was
-much the faster and greater mare. To this answer he added that One Eye,
-under the same circumstances, would have been the equal of Lady Thorn or
-any other that ever lived. This may account for the superiority of the
-Kent Mare over all the other Bellfounders, and it may account for the
-superiority of Hambletonian over all other stallions.
-
-BELLFOUNDER (BROWN’S OR KISSAM’S), was a bay horse, foaled 1830, got by
-imported Bellfounder; dam Lady Alport, by Mambrino, son of Messenger;
-grandam by Tippoo, son of Messenger; great-grandam by imported Messenger.
-With such breeding he should have been a great horse. He was bred by
-Timothy T. Kissam, of Long Island, and sold along with a full brother one
-year younger, named Bellport, about 1834-5, to L. F. and A. B. Allen,
-of Buffalo, New York. Bellfounder was a bay horse, sixteen hands high,
-and Bellport was sixteen and one-half hands, but was poisoned and died
-at four years old. Bellfounder passed into the hands of some parties at
-Cleveland and then to Mr. Brown, of Columbus, Ohio, made most of his
-seasons in that portion of the State, and died September, 1860. This was
-altogether the most valuable son the imported horse left—indeed the only
-one that made any mark in the world. He was not much of a trotter and did
-not get trotters, but got colts that were excellent types of the coach
-horse, and for that purpose was very highly esteemed. Some of his sons
-and daughters, especially the latter, are met with sometimes in trotting
-records as having produced something that had more or less speed.
-
-CONQUEROR was a bay gelding, foaled 1842, and got by La Tourrett’s
-Bellfounder, a grandson of the imported horse, and out of Lady McClain by
-imported Bellfounder, and she out of Lady Webber by Mambrino, and she out
-of a mare brought from Dutchess County and represented to be a daughter
-of imported Messenger. This gelding had been pounded about in slow races
-for years and had the reputation of being a stayer. In 1853 a match
-was made with him to trot a hundred miles in nine hours. The race was
-started and the horse won in 8h. 55m. and 53s., and he died three or four
-days afterward. This is the only instance that I know of in which the
-advocates of Hackney blood can point to a trotting record made in this or
-indeed in any other country.
-
-In closing the account of this family—for out of courtesy we have called
-it a “family”—we find we have nothing left but a name with nothing in it.
-The name that was more widely known than that of any other horse of his
-generation has now practically ceased from the earth, with nobody so poor
-as to do it reverence.
-
-The type of horse now known as the “Hackney” is found chiefly in the
-shires bordering the northeastern coast of England—Norfolk, Lincoln and
-Yorkshire. The name now given is not only new but it is appropriate and
-applies to any one part of England as well as another, and applies to any
-one horse, suited to the general use of a Hack, as well as another, no
-difference what his blood or what his country. The name “Norfolk Trotter”
-fifty or a hundred years ago was often applied to horses of this type
-coming from that part of the country, but it did not follow that they
-were “trotters.” In the discussions of the association preceding the
-adoption of a name it was urged that the qualifying word “trotter” would
-imply the ability to trot fast, and as the material to be registered
-could not do this, it would subject the whole movement to ridicule and
-contempt. It was also urged that the name “Norfolk” would give that
-particular region an advantage over all other parts of England in the
-prospective sales of registered stock, and thus the old title was fully
-disposed of. When the name “cob” was suggested, it was conceded that it
-represented just what they had, but it was too common, as everybody in
-all England, rich and poor, had “cobs.” Then came the term “Hackney,”
-which meant the same kind of a horse as the cob, but as it was not in
-such universal use it was adopted. On this point it must be admitted
-that it is an honest name.
-
-The Hackney is a good horse for all the uses to which he is adapted. He
-is short on his legs and stout, with a good share of nervous energy. He
-is symmetrical, and, we might say, handsome, if we can use that word
-without any show of fine breeding, for he is far short of the ideal blood
-horse. But he is not a saddle horse, he is not a hunter, he is not a
-runner, and he is not a trotter. As against these desirable and useful
-qualifications, he has been bred and trained when in action to jerk up
-his limbs to the highest point anatomically possible, and put them down
-again with a thud at a point but little removed from where he started. In
-this showy, undesirable action he exhausts his nervous energy, pounding
-the earth without covering much of the distance. In this excessive knee
-action every element of easy, graceful and rapid progression is wanting.
-This fad will have its day and then along with the barbarous excision of
-the caudal appendage they will disappear together as they came, and we
-will know them no more forever.
-
-There are two points in advocating the merits of the Hackney with which
-every Englishman is thoroughly familiar and which he will call to your
-attention on the slightest provocation: (1) Bellfounder was a Hackney and
-it was his blood that gave us the greatest trotting sire that the world
-has ever produced. This is the Englishman’s estimate of Bellfounder when
-he has a Hackney for sale, and especially if the prospective purchaser
-be an American. (2) He is descended from a long line of distinguished
-trotters. To the first of these reiterated and parrot-like claims an
-answer will be found in the chapter relating to that horse, where his
-twenty-one years of stud service have been carefully considered, and
-where he is shown to have been a monumental failure. In the second claim
-there is some truth and we must consider it very briefly.
-
-Of all the elements entering into the families of horses locally and
-indefinitely called Norfolk Trotters, there were two that might be looked
-upon as the founders—Useful Cub and Shales—for they were more conspicuous
-and valuable than any others. Mr. John Lawrence was not only a practical
-horseman, but he was the most intelligent and reliable of all the writers
-on the horse in the latter part of the last century. He was the only one
-who gave any attention to the trotter and trotting affairs. He says: “To
-old Shales and Useful Cub the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk are
-indebted for their fame in the production of capital Hackneys.” Useful
-Cub was bred by Thomas Jenkinson, of Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, and
-was foaled about 1865-70, and was got by a Suffolk cart horse, doubtless
-a light weight, and his dam was by Golden Farmer, a son of the famous
-half-bred Sampson, that was the great-grandsire of Messenger and beat
-most of the best horses of his day. Mr. Lawrence knew Useful Cub well,
-and was beaten by him in Hyde Park. We have no details of this horse’s
-performances, but it seems to be conceded that he trotted fifteen,
-sixteen and seventeen miles in the hour. Old Shales, or Scott’s Shales,
-as he is sometimes called, is described by Lawrence as “the bastard son
-of Blank,” son of Godolphin Arabian, but Mr. Euren, the compiler of the
-Hackney Stud Book maintains that he was the son of Blaze and not the
-son of Blank. The reasons given for this change I do not remember, but
-they would have to be well founded before I could throw overboard the
-contemporaneous evidence of Mr. Lawrence. It will not do to say that Mr.
-Lawrence mistook the name Blaze for Blank and so wrote it by mistake,
-for he knew all about both horses. This distinction, however, is of but
-little practical value. The horses Shales and Useful Cub were both fast
-and successful trotters, in their day, and they both became distinguished
-sires of trotters. By this I do not mean that they were the sires of
-all the trotters, for there were many that were wholly unknown in their
-breeding.
-
-Judging from the numbers of leading contests that were reported in
-the _Sporting Magazine_ and other publications, we must conclude that
-trotting contests reached their height as well in numbers as in public
-interest about the last decade in the last century. The contests were all
-to saddle, on the road, and the leading ones were made under the watch
-and over a long distance of ground, specifying such or such a distance
-to be made inside of an hour. To form a correct estimate of the speed of
-those horses, I will copy one paragraph, entire, from the description
-given by Mr. Lawrence concerning his own mare Betty Bloss:
-
-    “My own brown mare, known by the name of Betty Bloss, was the
-    slowest of all the capital trotters, but at five years old
-    trotted fifteen miles in one hour, carrying fourteen stone,
-    although fairly mistress of no more than ten. She afterward
-    trotted sixteen miles within the hour, with ten stone, with
-    much ease to herself and her rider. She was nearly broken down
-    at four years old, had bad feet, and, besides, too much blood
-    for a trotter, having been got by Sir Hale’s Commoner, out of a
-    three-part-bred daughter of Rattle, son of Snip.”
-
-In this paragraph, from the best-informed man of his generation, it
-will be noted incidentally that the cry, “no more running blood in
-the trotter,” is not new, but more than a hundred years old. The best
-performances were about sixteen miles in the hour, but there was an
-occasional one that reached sixteen and a half. A black gelding called
-Archer was recognized as the fastest of that period, and on one occasion
-under a stop watch he trotted the second one of two miles in a little
-less than three minutes. From my gleanings I find but a single instance
-from which we might be able to approximate the money value of trotting
-horses of that day, and this is given as a phenomenal price, viz.,
-Marshland Shales, a paternal grandson of the original Shales and out
-of a mare by Hue and Cry. He had beaten Reed’s Driver in a match of
-seventeen miles for 200 guineas. He was foaled 1802 and in 1812 he
-was sold at auction for 3,051 guineas—$15,255. He was a great horse,
-but this price was just as startling to Englishmen of that day as the
-$105,000 was in our own day, when Axtell was sold. This seems to have
-been the culmination of the “boom” in Norfolk Trotters, and from then
-till the present there has been a steady deterioration in the trotting
-step of the Norfolk horse. In the earlier part of this period of eighty
-or ninety years, possibly some exceptions may be found, but they are
-only individual exceptions and do not controvert the broad fact that
-must be apparent to all observers. They had been breeding and training
-their horses to strike their chins with their knees—the up-and-down
-motion—instead of getting away and covering some ground in their action.
-I have stood and watched scores of them in the show-ring, on their native
-heath, with their grooms at the ends of long lines running and yelling
-like wild Indians to rouse up their horses, and they called this training
-the trotters. When I privately expressed the wish that saddles might
-be put on a few of the best and the ring cleared so that the trotting
-action might be studied, I was very kindly and politely assured that
-they did not show their trotters that way in England. Thus with the
-taut check-rein, the long leading-line and the whoops of the groom they
-got the up-and-down action upon the perfection of which the prizes were
-awarded. This explained why the splendid foundation of a breed had been
-lost by non-use and why England had produced no trotters in the past
-fifty or eighty years.
-
-While our English cousins know they have no trotting horses of their own
-they seem to be exceedingly anxious, possibly for commercial reasons, to
-make it appear that the American trotting horse is the lineal descendant
-of the Norfolk Trotter. This effort is not restricted to the idle
-twaddle about Bellfounder, which everybody on this side of the Atlantic
-estimates at its true value, but it has taken an official and wider
-range, which, trifling though it be, my duty as a historian impels me
-to expose. Mr. Henry P. Euren, the compiler of the Hackney Stud Book,
-wrote to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C., in 1888,
-taking exceptions to some conclusions reached in an article written by
-Mr. Leslie E. Macleod, in my office, on “The National Horse of America,”
-and published in the report of the Department of Agriculture for 1887;
-Mr. Euren claiming that the American trotting horse came originally from
-Norfolk, in England. In proof of this he says: “I beg to inclose you
-a cutting which confirms my idea.” And now for the “cutting” which he
-offers as proof:
-
-    “It appears from an Act of Parliament, passed December 6, 1748,
-    in the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, America, that on
-    and after the publication of this Act, all Norfolk pacing or
-    trotting of horses for lucre or gain, or for any sum or sums
-    of money at any time (excepting such times as are hereafter
-    expressly provided for by this Act), shall be and are hereby
-    declared public nuisances, provided always that at all fairs
-    that are or may be held within this province, and that on the
-    first working day after the three great festivals of Christmas,
-    Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc.”
-
-The act passed by the provincial legislature of the colony of New Jersey
-in 1748 embraced very stringent regulations against dice, lotteries,
-etc., as well as horse racing. It is divided into several sections, and
-at Section 4 we reach the provision against racing as follows:
-
-    “And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that
-    after the publication of this Act, all horse racing, pacing or
-    trotting of horses for lucre or gain, or for any sum or sums
-    of money at any time (excepting such times as are hereafter
-    expressly provided for and allowed by this Act), shall be and
-    are hereby declared public nuisances, and shall be prosecuted
-    as public nuisances, in manner hereinbefore directed. Provided
-    always, and it is the true intent and meaning of this Act, that
-    at all fairs that are or may be held within this province, and
-    that on the first working day after the three grand festivals
-    of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc.”
-
-These quotations are sufficiently extended to afford an unmistakable
-comparison, and on their face evidence that cannot be doubted for one
-moment that they both purport to be copied from the same act of the
-Jersey Colonial legislature. In the official printed copy which is
-before me as I write, the mandate is against “all horse racing, pacing
-or trotting of horses for lucre or gain.” In Mr. Euren’s “cutting” the
-mandate is against “all Norfolk pacing or trotting of horses for lucre
-or gain,” etc. The substitution of the word “Norfolk” instead of “horse
-racing,” is in the nature of a forgery, and I cannot believe that Mr.
-Euren would be guilty of any such execrable piece of trickery. It must
-have been conceived and written by some horse sharp who was trying to
-sell a Hackney to an American with a pocket full of money, and after he
-had effected his sale he could mutter quietly, when at a safe distance
-from his victim, the couplet from “Hudibras:”
-
-    “The paltry story is untrue
-    And forged to cheat such gulls as you.”
-
-Unfortunately, however, for Mr. Euren, he indorsed the trick, and not
-only indorsed it, but sent it to the Commissioner of Agriculture with the
-hope and possible expectation that it would receive public recognition
-and become part of the horse history of this country. Did he not know
-that somebody would be nosing round among the old laws and expose the
-dirty deception? But, on the basis that Mr. Euren was deceived by this
-wretched interpolation of a fraud into the law, could he not see that the
-date of the law—1748—was before old Shales or Useful Cub was foaled, and
-long before the very first “Norfolk trotter” was ever heard of either in
-Norfolk or in any other part of England?
-
-The exposure of this foolish attempt, wherever it originated, to
-incorporate into an old New Jersey statute a fiction, or a forgery, as
-it may be called, carries with it a punishment that should be felt by
-the most unscrupulous of horse sharps; but when we find it unequivocally
-indorsed and given to the world as true by the compiler of the Hackney
-Stud Book, it destroys all confidence in the accuracy and reliability
-of that work. This is a misfortune that the friends of the Hackney in
-England as well as in this country must feel as a blow at the value of
-the whole interest. Opinions may change with new light, and opposing
-conclusions may be honestly reached from different standpoints, but
-running against a fixed and certain date, as in this case, is like
-running against a two-edged sword.
-
-In conclusion, the Hackney is merely the dear-bought and far-fetched
-fashion of the hour. A few years ago he was “something new in horses,”
-just as the modiste has “something new in dresses.” He was found in
-England, where there are no flies, without a tail, and as that was
-the fashion in England we must have horses in America without tails,
-notwithstanding the millions of torments they have to endure without
-the natural means of defense. As hack-a-bouts they are good horses, but
-their “churn-dasher” style of action will never become acceptable to the
-American people.
-
-A few years since a quite persistent attempt, backed by unlimited
-wealth and all the prestige that metropolitan “fashion” and “society”
-could bestow, was made, particularly in New York, to create a Hackney
-“boom” in America. All that element in the social life of our great
-cities that affects a disdain for things distinctively American, and
-particularly for American horses, and that glories in the stultifying
-habit of aping things “English, ye know,” took up the Hackney fad with
-unbounded enthusiasm. As a park and road horse the American horse—the
-incomparable trotting-bred driver—was to be incontinently crowded out
-of the driveways, the markets and the shows. The National Horse Show
-Association, whose annual show at Madison Square Garden is the great
-social _fête_ of the year in New York, lent all its powerful influence
-to forward the Hackney “boom,” which was, it must in fairness be said,
-consistent; for the miscalled National Horse Show has always catered more
-to foreign horses and foreign customs in horsemanship than to American
-horses and horsemen. Men of great wealth and prominence established
-extensive Hackney studs, imported famous prize-winning stallions and
-mares, and there was only one thing left to be done, and that was to
-convert the American people to the belief that the driving horse they had
-been breeding and developing with a special purpose and care—the fleetest
-and most versatile harness horse in the world—was inferior to an imported
-nondescript. In that attempt the Hackney advocates have failed in America
-as completely as did Mr. Blunt and others in England, when they sought to
-make racing men believe that the Arab was a better race horse than the
-English thoroughbred.
-
-Perhaps nothing illustrates better what I have called the versatility
-of the trotter than this contest with the Hackney in the latter’s own
-especial field—if he may be said to have any. Of course there could be
-no contest between the horse of a special breed and the nondescript as a
-harness horse for speed or usefulness on the road, whether the distance
-were half a mile or a hundred miles; but in the show-ring the Hackney
-men claimed absolute pre-eminence for their “high-acting” horses. They
-did not dare contest with the trotter in the matter of road speed, so
-to have any contest at all the trotting horse men had to “carry the war
-into Africa.” This they have done with a vengeance. They have taken the
-pure-bred trotting horse, dressed him in the fashion dictated by the
-Hackney “faddists,” taught him the Hackney tricks, the preposterous
-Hackney action and all that, and have beaten the Hackneys not once but
-time and again right on their own ground, viz., at the National Horse
-Show in Madison Square Garden. In almost all cases in classes where
-trotters have been admitted to compete with Hackneys, the former have
-carried off the honors within the past two years. Many notable instances
-might be cited, but one will suffice. At the National Horse Show, 1896, a
-class was offered for “half-bred Hackneys,” sires to be shown with four
-of their get. The Hackney end of the argument was upheld by Mr. A. J.
-Cassatt’s renowned prize-winner, imported Cadet, with four of his get.
-Against him was entered the well-known trotting sire Almont Jr., 2:26,
-with four of his get, and though the judges were gentlemen identified
-more or less with the Hackney interest, so superior in form, action and
-style were the four youngsters by the trotting sire that they carried
-away the honors from the chosen progeny of one of the most noted Hackney
-show horses in the world.
-
-In the sale ring this verdict has been corroborated. The highest
-prices—the record figures—paid in the fashionable New York market for
-park horses, “high steppers,” or by whatever name the merely spectacular
-harness horse may from time to time be called, have been paid for
-trotting-bred horses: and in advertised sales of “Hackneys” it has become
-somewhat common to encounter half-trotting-bred and full-trotting-bred
-horses.
-
-While no genuine American and horseman can without regret see a typical
-American horse mutilated and his action perverted in the manner required
-to bring him into “Hackney” classes at the National Horse Show, or in
-the markets where New York society people buy their stub-tailed horses,
-it is some compensation to know that these experiments have demonstrated
-the superiority of the American-bred horse even in the field claimed as
-especially that of the Hackney. And the Hackney “fad” in America, while
-it lasted, accomplished a good end in so far as it directed the attention
-of American breeders more to the importance of form and style, and taught
-them that in their own trotting families they have the material from
-which may best be produced, in form and style and quality as well as in
-speed, pre-eminently the most excellent park horses in the world.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIX.
-
-INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.
-
-    Tendency to misrepresentation—The Bald Galloway and
-    Darley Arabian— Godolphin Arabian—Early experiences with
-    trotting pedigrees—Mr. Backman’s honest methods—Shanghai
-    Mary—Capt. Rynders and Widow Machree—Woodburn Farm and
-    its pedigree methods—Victimized by “horse sharps” and
-    pedigree makers—Alleged pedigree of Pilot Jr. conclusively
-    overthrown—Pedigrees of Edwin Forrest, Norman, Bay Chief and
-    Black Rose—Maud S.’s pedigree exhaustively considered—Captain
-    John W. Russell never owned the mare Maria Russell—The deadly
-    parallel columns settle it.
-
-
-A few years more than forty have slipped away since I first began to
-give serious attention to the subject of horse history and to contribute
-an occasional article to the press on that subject. Among my very
-earliest observations, or I might say, experiences, was the realization
-of the fact that exaggeration as a habit of thought and utterance was
-practically universal among horsemen. Sometimes I have thought this
-tendency to the untrue resulted from the ammoniacal exhalations of the
-stable, but this thought is not a satisfactory solution, for some of the
-greatest liars about horses have never known anything about stables.
-Then, again, I have thought that a really skillful metaphysician might
-write a learned disquisition of the question and satisfy himself as
-to the cause of this moral delinquency, but nobody would be able to
-understand him when he had completed it. This wretched vice, so prevalent
-everywhere, was not restricted to the professional country “hoss jockey,”
-ready to “swap” with every man he met on the road, but it reached up
-to men of otherwise excellent character, and these men would “stretch
-the blanket” tremendously about the blood and other qualities of the
-horses they were selling. The only way we can account for an otherwise
-honest and truthful man exaggerating the merits and blood of his horses
-must be (1) in the fact that he has become attached to him and thinks
-him better than he is, or it may be (2) that he bought with a false
-pedigree and without examining it, he assumes it is true and represents
-it accordingly. But underlying all this, the representation cannot be
-disproved, and (3) it may add to the market value of the horse.
-
-This weakness of human nature, so pervasive of all interests connected
-with the horse, did not originate in this country, but came from the
-old world. We inherit it from our ancestors. “The fathers have eaten
-a sour grape and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Take the case
-of the little bald-faced, pacing-bred horse known in the old records
-as “The Bald Galloway” and while it is not probable he had a single
-drop of Saracenic blood in his veins, he is fitted out with a grand
-pedigree, full of that blood. Although I have already referred to this
-horse as an exemplification of the dishonesty of the early records of
-English pedigrees, I will again look at it in a more specific manner.
-He was nothing more nor less than a little native horse, belonging to a
-tribe of noted pacers in the southwestern part of Scotland and in the
-northern part of England. These Galloways were probably the very last
-remnant of pacers to be found in Great Britain. He is represented in
-the books to have been by a horse called “St. Victor’s Barb;” dam by
-Whynot; grandam a Royal Mare. The Bald Galloway was foaled not later than
-1708, and it was probably a few years earlier. His reputed sire, “St.
-Victor’s Barb,” is not to be found anywhere and was probably fictitious.
-His dam was represented to be by Whynot, and this horse was not foaled
-till 1744—thirty-six years _after_ his grandson was foaled. The grandam
-is given as a “Royal Mare,” which in that day was a convenient way of
-rounding out a pedigree, just as we now attempt to round them out when
-we know nothing of the blood by saying “dam thoroughbred.” “The Bald
-Galloway” was one of the most successful stallions of his day, and yet
-he was nothing in the world but a good representative of the old pacing
-Galloways of that portion of Scotland then called Galloway. He was low
-in stature, but he was esteemed as one of the greatest and most valuable
-racing sires of his generation. One of his sons—the Carlisle Gelding—was
-still a race horse when he was eighteen years old.
-
-“The Darley Arabian” was contemporaneous with the Bald Galloway, and
-they commenced service in England about the same year. It is said he was
-brought from Aleppo, in Syria, or, perhaps I had better say Asia Minor.
-Aleppo is but a short distance from the borders of ancient Cappadocia and
-Cilicia, countries that were famous in history for the great numbers
-of fine horses that they produced far more than a thousand years before
-the first horse was taken to Arabia. This horse is called an “Arabian,”
-and in the brief record of his importation we have the same venerable
-“chestnut” served up to us that has served so many generations of
-speculators in “Arabian blood.” The record says that Mr. Darley had a
-brother who was an agent for merchandise abroad, who “became a member
-of a hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure this
-horse.” This “gag” has been played too often to give _éclat_ to horses
-claimed to be brought from Arabia, in the past two hundred years, to
-have much effect on the minds of people who have any sense. That it
-required great social or political influence to induce the old Arab
-sheik to part with him, was intended merely to secure the attention of
-prospective customers to his superlative excellence in order to obtain
-their patronage. This horse probably never was within five hundred miles
-of the nearest part of Arabia, and to call him an Arabian is a misnomer
-wholly unjustifiable. He came from a country where horses were abundant
-and cheap on all sides, and of a quality far superior to any Arabian. He
-was simply a Turk, he was for sale, and it required no influence to buy
-him except the contents of the purchaser’s purse. This horse has always
-been classed as one of the two great founders of the English race horse.
-His progeny from well-bred mares were not numerous, and his greatest
-distinction is in the fact that he was the sire of Flying Childers. In
-accordance with the truth, he should be known in the records as “Darley’s
-Turk.”
-
-The horse bearing the dishonest misnomer of “Godolphin Arabian” was
-really the greatest regenerator and upbuilder of the running horse that
-England ever possessed. There seems to be no historical doubt that he
-was brought from France, and that is all we know about his origin and
-early history. It may be laid down, therefore, as a safe proposition,
-that the odds are as a thousand to one that he was a French horse. The
-only evidence that can ever be furnished as to the strain of blood that
-he may have possessed must be found and studied in his portrait, which
-appears in this volume. I believe this portrait to be a correct and
-true delineation of the horse, and there is not a single lineament in
-or about it that indicates the blood of either the Arabian or the Barb.
-His pedigree is in his picture, and, from what is known in history and
-from what has been preserved in art, instead of “Godolphin Arabian” his
-true title should be “Godolphin Frenchman.” But this subject has been
-discussed at greater length in the chapter on the English Race Horse, to
-which my reader is here referred.
-
-In the chapter on the American Race Horse, I think sufficient attention
-has been given to the frauds and impossibilities that are to be found
-everywhere in the extended pedigrees of our own running horses to satisfy
-any one that the remote extensions of pedigrees are a great mass of
-dishonest rubbish, with scarcely a speck of truth to be found. I will,
-therefore, pass along to the consideration of some of the difficulties,
-of the same nature, that have been developed in investigating and
-recording the pedigrees of the American Trotting Horse. In entering the
-untrodden wilderness of trotting-horse history it became the ambition
-of my life to reach the truth in every possible instance and to cut
-off and reject all frauds wherever they showed their heads. This meant
-war from the beginning with a great many horsemen, but it also meant
-the enthusiastic support of a great many honest men. The trouble, at
-this point, was in the fact that a number of prominent, wealthy and
-influential breeders insisted upon their right to state their pedigrees
-in their own way and thus compel me to indorse them by inserting them in
-the Trotting Register. When at work on the early volumes of the Register,
-especially the first, if a man of unblemished reputation and intelligence
-sent me a list of his stock to be registered, I assumed that he had too
-much regard for his reputation and standing as a breeder to print a lot
-of pedigrees in his catalogue that he did not _know_ to be correct, and
-hence I accepted many a pedigree that was based upon fiction. In course
-of time it began to dawn upon my understanding that there were many
-men in the world of unsullied reputation, as they were known in their
-business relations, who would stand up boldly for a fiction or a fraud in
-the pedigrees of their stock. It is but just to say that all the men who
-uttered fraudulent pedigrees were not equally guilty, for in some cases
-the owners had been victimized by unscrupulous rogues from whom they
-had purchased, and in others they had been betrayed by the still more
-unscrupulous rogues whom they had employed to make up their catalogues on
-the supposition that they were capable and honest. This state of things
-soon developed another line of thought and observation in my mind which
-evolved a rule by which I could determine the difference between the
-degrees of honesty among horsemen. One man, when a fiction in a pedigree
-was pointed out, would go to work and carefully investigate it; while
-another would hang and higgle about it and finally investigate, not to
-find the truth, but to find how many old rummies, swipes and negroes he
-could get together, who would support his claim and swear to it for a
-half-dollar each. The first man investigates to find the truth wherever
-it may lead; while the second man investigates merely, not to find the
-truth, but to find some kind of evidence to sustain the untruth. In the
-everyday affairs of life these two men may stand on the same plane, but,
-at heart, the one is honest and the other a rogue.
-
-When Mr. Charles Backman founded the great Stonyford breeding farm in
-Orange County, New York, he was an excellent horseman, in a general
-sense, although he did not pretend to know much about pedigrees. About
-1869 he placed all his pedigrees in my hands with the request that I
-would give them a careful examination, strike out everything that was
-wrong and note everything that was doubtful or uncertain, that it might
-be investigated and the truth fully determined, no difference where it
-might lead. Many investigations followed which were conducted by his
-secretary, Mr. Shipman, either by mail or by personal visitation—so
-many, indeed, that Mr. Shipman became quite an expert in this kind of
-difficult work. As an illustration of the methods pursued, one instance
-will serve to show how it was done, and more than this, it is a very
-interesting history in itself. In the first volume of the Register I had
-entered Green Mountain Maid, the dam of the famous Electioneer and all
-that family, as “by Harry Clay, dam said to be by Lexington.” This was
-the form in which Mr. Backman had received the pedigree, except that it
-was stated positively and without any “said to be” that the dam was by
-Lexington, the great running horse. After a time I called Mr. Backman’s
-attention to this “said to be” and suggested that if the mare was really
-a daughter of Lexington she could certainly be traced and established.
-The next day, Mr. Shipman started to Western New York and to Ohio. On
-his trip he found the mare had been known in Western New York as the
-“Angelica Mare” and afterward as “Shanghai Mary,” that she was a trotter,
-well known locally, and that she had trotted a race and won at a State
-fair, in very fast time for that day. She had been brought from Ohio by
-some sheep-dealers, who were able to give her exact age, and it was thus
-found that she was older than her reputed sire. Several expert horsemen,
-from a picture secured by Mr. Shipman on his trip, have not hesitated to
-give it as a strong conviction that she belonged to the Cadmus family,
-in Southern Ohio. In the last two or three years a correspondent of the
-Chicago _Horse Review_ brings out some local facts that make it almost
-morally certain that she was bred by Goldsmith Coffein, of Red Lion,
-Ohio, and that she was got by Iron’s Cadmus, the sire of the great
-Pocahontas. The final nail has not been clinched in establishing this
-pedigree, and probably never will be, but the circumstances are so fully
-detailed as to scarcely leave room for a doubt that she was a half-sister
-to the famous Pocahontas.
-
-From what has here been said about the methods of Mr. Backman, the
-leading breeder of that period, in the North, it should not be inferred
-that all Northern breeders were like him. The first real battle I ever
-had against fraudulent pedigrees originated in Orange County, New York,
-with the notorious Captain Rynders, in which the pedigree of the once
-famous Widow Machree, the dam of Aberdeen, was involved. The pedigree of
-this mare had been registered as obtained from Mr. James W. Hoyt, who
-once owned her, and her dam was given as by Durland’s Messenger Duroc.
-When Aberdeen came before the public for patronage, his owner, Rynders,
-advertised him as out of Widow Machree and she out of a mare by Abdallah.
-This was challenged as untrue by Mr. Guy Miller and Mr. Joseph Gavin, of
-Orange County, and I was called upon to demand the evidence upon which
-the change had been made from Messenger Duroc to Abdallah. As a matter
-of course “the fat was in the fire” at once, and out came Rynders with
-a terrific explosion of anger, abounding in threats and denunciations
-against anybody and everybody who attempted to interfere with his
-“business.” The good names of Guy Miller and Joseph Gavin carried too
-much weight as against that of Isaiah Rynders, and, as his last card, he
-brought out a duly and formally executed affidavit, sworn to by a man
-whose name I will not here mention, stating that he bred the Abdallah
-mare; all of which was the very rankest perjury, which was so easily
-exposed that it did Rynders far more harm than good. At last the whole
-truth came out in a form that was complete and conclusive, showing that
-the mare in question was bred by Garrett Duryea, of Bethel, Sullivan
-County, New York, and was got by a horse known as Pintler’s Bolivar.
-Rynders had been a leader in New York politics so long that he knew just
-how to manage things where the truth must be suppressed. He was a liberal
-advertiser, the two sporting papers were needy for patronage in that
-line, and their columns were closed to any and all communications against
-his side of the question. But all this failed to suppress the truth and
-uphold a fraud, and I doubt whether there is a man living to-day who does
-not believe that the fight was fairly and honestly won. This contest
-taught me a very important lesson, and that was, that if I expected
-to fight bogus pedigrees I must have a channel of communication of my
-own. Hence _Wallace’s Monthly_, which, in its day, was not only able to
-expose bogus pedigrees, but lead intelligent thought and experience on
-all breeding subjects, till it fell into the hands of an unscrupulous
-neocracy, where it soon died for want of brains.
-
-Having given a very brief illustration of the methods which governed Mr.
-Backman in ascertaining and determining the blood elements which entered
-into the foundation of his great breeding establishment, and the care and
-promptness with which errors were eliminated, it is now in order to take
-a glance at the methods pursued at the great Woodburn Farm, founded by
-R. A. Alexander in Kentucky. These were the two earliest establishments,
-of any prominence, for breeding the trotter, in the whole country. The
-one was the northern center of the interest and the other the southern,
-and they together may be considered as representative of both sections.
-Mr. Alexander, I think, was reared and educated in Scotland, and there
-inherited a large estate. Upon coming into this inheritance he determined
-to transfer his interests to Kentucky, where he bought up a cluster
-of farms and shaped them for the purpose of building up a mammoth
-establishment for the breeding of all varieties of domestic animals of
-the highest type and excellence. I think his fancy ran more to Short Horn
-cattle than to any other line of breeding, probably because he knew more
-about the value and merit of the different tribes of that breed than he
-did of any other variety. The founding of an establishment so immense,
-and for the grand purpose of the breeding and improving the varieties
-of domestic animals, was the agricultural sensation of the period, and
-everybody, from one end of the land to the other, soon knew of and
-applauded the great enterprise. There had been great enterprises on
-similar lines before, and there have been even greater ones since, but
-Mr. Alexander’s Woodburn Farm, of Kentucky, may always be looked upon as
-the real pioneer in stock breeding on a large and methodical scale, and
-without limit as to resources. A university education in Scotland, with
-all its training in the refinements of logical distinctions, did not
-bring to Mr. Alexander a knowledge of the pedigrees of Kentucky horses,
-nor did it train him in the detection of the tricks of Kentucky horse
-dealers, and thus as a purchaser of his breeding stock he was looked upon
-by the “sharps” as a fat goose, ready to be plucked. After these “sharps”
-had secured their pluckings, Mr. Alexander called in a professional
-pedigreeist to put the lines of the blood he had purchased in order and
-print a catalogue. This “professional” was not a pedigree _tracer_,
-for he never traced anything in his life, but a pedigree _maker_, and
-wherever he thought that anything was needed he added it, whether true or
-not, and it went to the world in that form. This is more conspicuously
-true in the department of trotting pedigrees, as will appear below.
-Thus the acts of an incapable and dishonest employee were given the
-indorsement of an honorable and eminent name; falsehoods were made to
-appear as truths; counterfeits were put in circulation that are still
-circulating as genuine coin, with many people. Under the circumstances,
-Mr. Alexander could hardly be blamed, for, knowing nothing of such
-matters of his own knowledge, he employed what he supposed was the best
-authority then to be found. For my own part, when I came to register the
-Woodburn stock, I was ready to accept as true whatever I found in the
-catalogue, believing that Mr. Alexander was incapable of publishing to
-the world a misrepresentation. In this estimate of his character I was
-right, and I have never changed my opinion on that point, but when I came
-to examine the structure of his catalogue I found there was rotten wood
-all through it. A few examples that have been carefully investigated will
-serve to show the value of the work done by the “pedigree maker” for Mr.
-Alexander.
-
-Pilot Jr. was a gray horse, foaled 1844, was got by Old Pacing Pilot and
-attained the distinction of being the head of a well-known family of
-trotters. He was foaled 1844, bred by Angereau Gray, and owned a number
-of years by Glasgow & Heinsohn, of Louisville, Kentucky. He was kept
-a number of years about Lexington, Kentucky, by Dr. Herr, Mr. Bradley,
-and perhaps others, and always advertised as “by Pilot (the pacer), dam
-Nancy Pope, grandam Nancy Taylor.” Nobody then ever pretended to know
-what horse was the sire of either Nancy Pope or Nancy Taylor. He was
-then owned by the parties who afterward sold him to Mr. Alexander, and
-it is evident they did not then know anything about the sires of these
-mares. Mr. Alexander bought him in 1858, and immediately his “pedigree
-maker” furnished the sires of these two mares; Nancy Pope was given as
-by Havoc, son of Sir Charles, and Nancy Taylor as by imported Alfred.
-The controversy about this pedigree was long and sharp, the one side,
-headed by the modern management at Woodburn, as usual laboring to sustain
-the infallibility of the Woodburn catalogues, and the other to reach the
-exact truth, whatever it might be. The Board of Censors of the National
-Breeders’ Association sent out a call for information on certain abstract
-points and finally reached a decision as follows: (1) That Havoc, the
-reputed sire of Nancy Pope, the dam of Pilot Jr., died in 1828. (2) That
-Nancy Pope was not foaled till 1832. (3) That the breeding of Nancy
-Taylor, the dam of Nancy Pope, was unknown. These dates were fixed by
-undoubted evidence, and, as afterward developed, another might have
-been added with equal authenticity. Imported Alfred, the reputed sire
-of Nancy Taylor, was not imported till several years after Nancy Taylor
-was foaled, and thus it was clearly shown by the absolutely insuperable
-difficulties of dates that both the sires inserted in the pedigree were
-nothing more than very stupid fictions.
-
-Edwin Forrest seems to have held second place in the list of stallions
-in the Woodburn Stud at that period, and the remote extensions of his
-pedigree were also fictitious. His grandam was represented to be by
-Duroc, the famous son of imported Diomed, and his great-grandam by
-imported Messenger. The first two crosses were technically inaccurately
-stated, but the second two, as given here, were purely fictitious.
-
-Norman, the third stallion in the catalogue, had his sire correctly given
-as the Morse Horse, but his dam was given as by Jersey Highlander and
-his grandam as by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger, both of which
-were wholly fictitious. His dam was by a horse called Magnum Bonum, a
-representative of a family of that name, and that is all that is known
-of his pedigree. A full showing of this pedigree will be found in the
-“Trotting Register,” Vol. III.
-
-Bay Chief was a bay son of Mambrino Chief, with a bald face, and was
-often called Bald Chief. He was the sensational trotter of the whole
-Mambrino Chief family, and I believe it is true that when four years old
-he showed a half-mile on Mr. Alexander’s track in 1:08 and repeated in
-1:08½. In the catalogue he is given as foaled in 1859, got by Mambrino
-Chief, dam by Keokuk, son of imported Truffle; grandam a thoroughbred
-mare by Stamboul Arabian. As this was found in Mr. Alexander’s catalogue
-I took it for granted it must be true, but I never had heard of a
-running horse called Keokuk before, and I kept hunting for ever so many
-years without finding hide nor hair of him, until 1885, when the whole
-mystery was developed. Mr. Richard Johnson, of Scott County, Kentucky,
-had business interests in Keokuk, Iowa, in the early fifties, probably
-locating land warrants, and he bought a pair of mares in Keokuk to travel
-over the prairies, and when he was through with his work he brought the
-team home with him to Scott County. He knew nothing whatever of the
-breeding of those mares, but they were a good pair of drivers and one of
-them was quite a smart roadster that he called “Old Keokuk.” He bred this
-mare, Keokuk, in 1858 to Mambrino Chief, and in 1859 she produced the
-colt called Bay Chief. In 1862 he was bred to some sixteen or eighteen
-mares, and the fall of that year Mr. Alexander bought the colt at public
-auction, paying one thousand dollars for him. He was taken to Woodburn,
-put in training and never covered any more mares. In the spring of
-1865 he was killed in a raid of Southern troops upon the horse stock
-at Woodburn. (For further particulars of this little sketch the reader
-is referred to _Wallace’s Monthly_ for 1885, page 285.) To fix up a
-pedigree for the maternal side of this colt was no easy matter, but Mr.
-Alexander’s “pedigree maker” proved himself fully equal to the occasion.
-There was the nasty name Keokuk fastened to the old mare, and it would
-stick as tight as wax to the end of her days, coming from a region where
-there was no drop of running blood; so he made a “thoroughbred” horse,
-right on the spot, and gave him the name of Keokuk, which would account
-for the name of the mare, and pronounced him a son of imported Truffle.
-To supply a “thoroughbred” grandam was comparatively easy, for Mr.
-Johnson had long been a resident of Scott County, and the horse Stamboul
-had been kept in that county, hence there could be no doubt that she
-was a “thoroughbred” daughter of that horse. With this review of the
-misfortunes of Mr. Alexander in placing the arrangement and, I might say,
-care of his pedigrees, in dishonest hands, we will pass whatever may
-remain of his early stallions, and take a glance at some of the pedigrees
-of his brood mares.
-
-Black Rose proved to be one of the best brood mares ever owned at
-Woodburn. I am told she was a pacer, and certainly all that is known of
-her blood was pacing blood. She was sought after and procured by Mr.
-Alexander because she had produced several trotters, and it can be read
-all through his purchases for the trotting stud, that he had undoubting
-confidence in the theory that trotters must come from trotters. When this
-mare first appeared in the Woodburn catalogue no dam was given to her,
-but meantime the “pedigree maker” had come around, and the next year she
-was fitted out with the following, in fine style.
-
-    “Black Rose, bl. m., foaled about 1847; got by Tom Teemer; dam
-    by Cannon’s Whip; g. d. by Robin Gray, son of imp. Royalist.”
-
-The pedigree stood in this form a number of years, and probably would
-still be so standing had it not been that in trying to learn something
-more about the sire, Tom Teemer, I received some intimations that made
-me doubtful about the maternal side. On a certain occasion I asked Mr.
-R. S. Veech, of Kentucky, what he knew about it, and he replied that
-he had made a trip to Clark County for no other purpose than to trace
-and investigate the pedigree of Black Rose, and he was not able to get
-a single syllable of information about her dam, any more than if she
-never had a dam. Some time afterward I wrote to Mr. Brodhead, manager
-at Woodburn, inquiring where the pedigree of Black Rose as given and
-perpetuated in the Woodburn catalogues came from and on what basis it
-rested. He replied promptly and briefly that Mr. Veech had made a trip
-to Clark County in search of this pedigree and the result of that search
-was what appeared in the catalogue. These are the facts, substantially,
-as given me by these two gentlemen, and this is the first time I have
-ever given them to the public. I have known Mr. Veech intimately and
-trustingly for twenty-eight years and I know him to be eminently
-truthful. I have not known Mr. Brodhead so long, and if he had not
-published the fraudulent extension of this pedigree in his catalogues
-every year for more than ten years, before Mr. Veech made his trip to
-Clark County, I might at least express my sympathy with him in having so
-bad a memory. Mr. Brodhead had nothing to do with either the original
-construction or utterance of this fraud, for he was not then connected
-with the management of Woodburn. My readers can employ their own terms
-in characterizing, as it deserves, the fraudulent act of manufacturing a
-pedigree out of whole cloth; and they can also exercise their own ethical
-discrimination in determining whether the man who executes the fraud is
-any worse than the man who maintains and supports it after he knows it is
-fraudulent.
-
-We pass on to Sally Russell, the grandam of Maud S. It is not a pleasant
-task to review an old controversy, whatever it might bring to light;
-but a controversy which involves the true lines of descent of so great
-a family as that of Maud S., Nutwood, Lord Russell, etc., is worth
-preserving for the enlightenment of future generations. It all turns
-upon the breeding of Sally Russell and the identity of her breeder. She
-was a little chestnut mare, represented to have been foaled 1850, got
-by Boston and out of Maria Russell, by Rattler, and so on, claimed to
-be thoroughbred. She was bought by Mr. Alexander from the foreman on
-Captain John W. Russell’s farm, with the pedigree given as above. The
-name of her breeder was not given to Mr. Alexander, I think, but Bruce
-has it that her dam, Maria Russell, and this mare Sally Russell were both
-bred by Benjamin Luckett. In 1863 this mare was offered, with others, to
-the highest bidder, at Mr. Alexander’s annual sale, being then thirteen
-years, old according to the records of the establishment, and the
-auctioneer was not able to coax a bid of ten dollars on her and she was
-led out unsold. Five years later—1868—I attended the Woodburn sale, and
-a little scrubby-looking old mare was brought into the ring, represented
-to have been stinted to imported Australian, and when this was announced
-a subdued whisper went round the ring, “She’ll never raise another foal.”
-The auctioneer was eloquent upon the value of the Australian blood on
-the Boston blood, and the possibilities of the coming foal, but all to
-no purpose, as the mare was led out of the ring the second time, with
-no person willing to bid a dollar. I was astonished that such an animal
-should have been put up at auction, for she had all the appearance of
-being twenty-eight instead of eighteen. She died that summer, apparently
-of old age, and I have no shadow of doubt that she sank under the weight
-of years. On two separate occasions great crowds of practical horsemen
-had, in this manner, proclaimed that Mr. Alexander had been victimized in
-the age of the mare, and fifteen years later I determined to settle the
-question as to whether this judgment was right.
-
-As the supposed age and breeding of Sally Russell has been made to turn
-and rest upon the ownership of her dam, Maria Russell, it is important
-that we should have the antecedent circumstances set out in the plainest
-possible manner. Captain John A. Holton and Captain John W. Russell
-were farmers in Kentucky, living a few miles apart, and I think they
-were both river men at one time or another; certainly Russell was in
-command of a snag boat on the Ohio and Mississippi along about 1836-40.
-Like many other Kentucky farmers, they both bred a few running horses,
-but not enough, singly, to justify the expense of separate training
-establishments, so they united their strings in one stable, sharing the
-expense and dividing the profits, if any, equally. The partnership did
-not extend to the joint ownership of any of the horses, but simply to the
-losses or profits of training and racing, and Major Benjamin Luckett was
-in their employ as trainer.
-
-Before going to work in earnest on this investigation, I learned that
-Mr. Llewellyn Holton, a son of Captain John A. Holton, still resided on
-the old farm and that he was old enough to know all about the origin and
-history of Maria Russell, as well as the other stock belonging to his
-father at that time. This was very encouraging, but I wanted to know
-whether he was a man who could be relied upon to tell the truth. On
-this point I addressed an inquiry to the late Colonel R. P. Pepper, and
-his reply is as follows: “Your letter of the 29th received. I regard L.
-Holton, of this county, as a man of honor, integrity and intelligence,
-and the peer of any gentleman of my acquaintance. In my opinion any
-statement he will make upon any subject, as to his own knowledge, will
-be accepted in this community as readily as that of any gentleman in it.
-He is a man who sometimes gets on sprees from intoxicating liquors, but
-I have never heard of it affecting his intelligence, honor or integrity,
-and, as above stated, his word will be accepted in this community at this
-time as soon as the word of any gentleman in this county or community.”
-
-With this very high indorsement I did not hesitate to send a commissioner
-to interview Mr. Holton and get from him the exact facts in the case,
-without any leading questions and without any shading of the truth or
-bias on either side. What this commissioner learned will be given further
-on.
-
-Let us now turn to the other side and see how Mr. Brodhead manages to get
-Maria Russell into the ownership of Captain John W. Russell. Under date
-of April 30, 1883, he wrote to the _Turf, Field and Farm_ as follows:
-
-    “A Colonel Shepherd, of the South—New Orleans, I think—gave
-    or sold to Captain J. W. Russell and Captain J. A. Holton a
-    Stockholder mare, out of Miranda, by Topgallant, etc. This mare
-    was called Miss Shepherd. They owned and bred this mare in
-    partnership. Among the produce thus owned were Maria Russell
-    by Rattler, Mary Bell by Sea Gull, and Swiss Boy by imported
-    Swiss. Captain Russell sold his half of Swiss Boy to Mr.
-    Taylor, son-in-law of Ben Luckett, for $750. Maria Russell was
-    owned and run as a partnership mare by Holton and Russell, but
-    was trained by Major Ben Luckett.”
-
-Then follows a lot of stuff, without any relevancy whatever, going
-to show that Ben Luckett trained her at three years old, but had no
-connection whatever with the family, all of which is known to everybody,
-and then he again asserts that “in the division of the partnership
-property, Maria Russell fell to Captain Russell.” The next dash that
-Mr. Brodhead makes is for a negro seventy-five years old, who had been
-in the Russell family from his birth, named Jesse Dillon. Jesse was no
-exception to his race, or indeed to many of the white race, for whenever
-any information is wanted from them they are always ready to give it, as
-they expect at least one half-dollar, and if they tell the story “right
-up to what is wanted” they expect two. Jesse was sharp enough to discover
-just what his interviewers were after, and he was ready to supply “the
-long-felt want.” Jesse was able to tell just how the mare got her eye
-knocked out and just how he took her to Blackburn’s and had her bred
-to Boston. In all this, including the loss of the eye and the trip to
-Blackburn’s, Jesse may have had in his mind Captain Russell’s one-eyed
-mare, Mary Churchill, while his interviewers were thinking about Maria
-Russell. It is no uncommon thing for white people as well as black, at
-seventy-five, to get names of forty or fifty years past confused.
-
-This is all of Mr. Brodhead’s case so far as what he presents has any
-relevancy to the point at issue, namely, the identity and ownership
-of the mare Maria Russell. The pedigree was not made at Woodburn; Mr.
-Alexander in this case as in many others was simply the victim of the
-sharper. The only shadow of evidence that has been presented that the
-pedigree might be true is the evidence of a superannuated negro, Jesse
-Dillon. For the Woodburn side of the case the reader is referred to
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ for June, 1883, page 366. In replying to this case I
-will try to summarize the different considerations as briefly as possible.
-
-_First._ The case is opened with the assumption that Colonel Shepherd
-presented the mare Miss Shepherd, by Stockholder, to Captain J. W.
-Russell and Captain J. A. Holton. We might laugh at this by asking
-which half he gave to Russell and which half to Holton? This is
-merely constructing a theory by which the ownership of Russell might
-be maintained. It is safe to say the mare was given to Holton and to
-Holton alone, and here is the proof of it. There is a silver cup, now in
-possession of Mr. Bowen, grandson of J. A. Holton, with this inscription:
-“J. A. Holton, awarded by Franklyn Agricultural Society, 1836, for filly
-Maria Russell.” Where is Captain J. W. Russell’s ownership at that date?
-
-_Second._ When S. D. Bruce was compiling his Stud Book, Captain John W.
-Russell had his thoroughbred stock entered there. There were several
-brood mares with their produce under them, but where were Maria Russell
-and her daughter Sally Russell? They appear as the property of Ben
-Luckett, when everybody knows he had nothing to do with them. As Captain
-Russell did not have them entered when he was entering his other stock, I
-must take it as _prima facie_ evidence that he did not own them at that
-time.
-
-_Third._ It is now in imperishable evidence that John W. Russell did
-not own Maria Russell in 1836, and that he did not own her at the time
-Bruce was compiling his Stud Book, and now the question is, was there
-ever a time when he did own her? To answer this question we must turn to
-Llewellyn Holton, the only man then living who knew and had a right to
-know all about the history of this mare. His statement is as follows:
-
-                                   “FORKS OF ELKHORN. May 24, 1883.
-
-    “This is to certify that my father, Captain John A. Holton,
-    was, for a number of years, interested with Captain John W.
-    Russell in a number of thoroughbreds, and they raced them in
-    partnership. When they dissolved and divided the stock, I am
-    positively certain that my father retained all the descendants
-    of the Stockholder mare—among them Maria Russell, and all
-    her produce—and I know to my certain knowledge that Captain
-    Russell never owned or had in his possession the mare Maria
-    Russell, or any of her produce; and I further know to my
-    certain knowledge that said mare, Maria Russell, had two good
-    eyes from the time of her foaling until the day of her death.
-    If my father bred a mare to Boston in 1848, I incline to the
-    opinion that it was a bay mare called Limber, for the reason
-    that she, Limber, was very uncertain, having missed several
-    seasons. There is one point, however, that I feel very certain
-    upon, and that is that neither my father nor Captain Russell,
-    during their racing or breeding career, ever owned a Boston
-    filly. As Boston was the most famous horse of his time, it is
-    not at all possible that there could have been a Boston colt
-    or filly on my father’s farm and I not knowing of the fact. I
-    was born in the old homestead the 15th of November, 1820, and
-    have resided either there or adjoining all my life; therefore I
-    had constant opportunity to know all about my father’s stock of
-    horses.
-
-                                                         L. HOLTON.
-
-    “I hereby attest that the above is my father’s signature.—J. A.
-    HOLTON, son of Llewellyn Holton.”
-
-_Fourth._ With the foregoing clear and decisive statement before us, it
-is not necessary to determine whether the partnership between Holton and
-Russell embraced the joint ownership of the racing stock or whether the
-running colts of the two farms were brought together from year to year,
-and as a matter of economy and profit, trained and raced as one stable.
-This latter view of the question seems to be made plain. In his interview
-with Mr. Holton my commissioner reported as follows: “The horses were
-always trained by Captain Holton at his private track at the Forks of
-Elkhorn. That he, Llewellyn Holton, always went after the colts that
-were on the Russell farm when the training season commenced, and at the
-close of the racing campaign of the year he always took those back that
-came from the Russell stock, while those from Captain Holton’s stock were
-kept on the home farm. When the partnership between Captain Holton and
-Captain Russell was dissolved, Mr. Llewellyn Holton is positively certain
-that Captain Russell retained his own stock and Captain Holton his own,
-the latter consisting of the produce of the Stockholder mare, among them
-Maria Russell, and all her produce. And he is still more positively
-certain that neither the mare, Maria Russell, nor any of her produce was
-ever in the hands of Captain Russell.” At the close of each season the
-owners, respectively, took their own stock home till the next spring, and
-after a series of years each owner took his own stock home, and that was
-the end of the arrangement.
-
-_Fifth._ In the summer of 1883 I met Mr. John W. Russell, son of Captain
-Russell, at the house of Mr. R. S. Veech, near Louisville, Kentucky,
-and we had some conversation on the question of the pedigree of Sally
-Russell, which had then been in hot controversy for some months. The
-subject was not a pleasant one to him and he either parried or negatived
-the few questions I asked. A year or two after this I met him at the
-Galt House in Louisville, and we had a very pleasant conversation. The
-controversy about Sally Russell had then subsided, and I asked him if
-he remembered his father’s thoroughbred mare Mary Churchill. “Oh, yes,”
-he said, “she was the first horse I ever rode, and my folks were very
-much afraid I would fall off and get hurt.” I then asked him if Mary
-Churchill was blind of one eye, and he answered he “could not remember.”
-My next question was, whether he recollected anything about Maria
-Russell, and his reply was: “Nothing that is definite.” Then followed
-the inquiry, “whether there were any traditions in the household going
-to show that his father ever owned Maria Russell,” and he replied:
-“There are no traditions that are reliable.” These replies were a most
-grateful surprise to me, and if I have not given the precise words used I
-certainly have given the precise meaning.
-
-_Sixth._ Llewellyn Holton was sixty-three years old in 1883 and he was
-afflicted with physical paralysis, but his mind seems to have been
-perfectly sound and memory good for a man of his age. Before he had the
-slightest intimation that a pedigree was being investigated that might
-call him into controversy, he was asked about Maria Russell by one of the
-most prominent and distinguished of all the breeders of Kentucky, and
-that breeder wrote me as follows:
-
-    “I have seen Mr. L. Holton, the son of Captain John A.
-    Holton, of this county, and he says his father bred and owned
-    Maria Russell; that she was by Rattler, and out of a mare by
-    Stockholder, and was foaled 1834. He says he thinks a man by
-    the name of William Duvall can give some information about
-    these mares. I will see him to-morrow, and write you.”
-
-As this information about Maria Russell was elicited from Mr. Holton
-on the spur of the moment, and as he gave her pedigree correctly, and
-not only this, but gave the year in which she was foaled correctly, his
-memory, at least so far as this mare is concerned seems to have been
-remarkably good.
-
-_Seventh._ My correspondent wrote a few days later: “I have just
-learned from William Duvall, who trained for Captain J. A. Holton in
-1842, that he remembers the mare Maria Russell, and he thinks she was
-by Seagull, and out of Limber, by Whipster; he also remembers a mare
-owned by Holton that was by Rattler, but cannot remember any more about
-her.” This confirms Mr. Holton’s recollections in a very striking and
-satisfactory manner. As a trainer Mr. Duvall did not handle the brood
-mares, but only their produce. He recalled a Seagull mare and a Rattler
-mare, that Captain Holton owned, but he attached the name “Maria Russell”
-to the wrong one. This kind of impromptu inaccuracy is almost always an
-element of strength, for it goes to prove that the witness has not been
-“coached.” He remembered there was a mare by Rattler in the field, and
-as there was no other Rattler mare owned by either Holton or Russell,
-the identity of Maria Russell is clearly established as the property of
-Captain Holton in 1842.
-
-_Eighth._ With the high indorsement of Mr. Llewellyn Holton as a man of
-truth and honor, given on page 421 of this chapter; and with the evidence
-before me of his clear and unclouded memory in giving correctly not only
-the pedigrees but the year in which Maria Russell was foaled, and all
-this before there was any pressure or suspicion on his part as to where
-his disclosure might lead, I cannot, as an honest man, fail to believe
-that he told the truth. Thus, after leaving out all the minor evidences,
-we have the three major points fully and clearly established, namely, (1)
-the inscription on the silver cup that Captain Holton owned her in 1836;
-(2) the evidence of William Duvall that he owned her in 1842; and (3) the
-statement of Llewellyn Holton that he owned her always and that she died
-his.
-
-_Ninth._ At the Woodburn sale of 1863 and 1868 there were certainly at
-least two hundred experienced horsemen and breeders present who were able
-to discriminate concerning a mare represented to be thirteen years old
-when she looked ten years more; or concerning a mare represented to be
-eighteen years old when she looked as if she were twenty-eight. Hence,
-no man was willing to bid five dollars on her. This I take it, was the
-personal judgment of every man who thought anything about it, and when
-she died a few weeks after the last sale, nobody could doubt that she
-died of old age, and nobody could doubt that Mr. Alexander represented
-her to the public just as she had been represented to him, both in age
-and breeding, by the rogue who victimized him.
-
-The mare Sally Russell, the grandam of Maud S., had been sold to Mr.
-Alexander by the foreman of Captain Russell’s farm, and it does not
-appear that he represented her as having been bred by Captain Russell.
-Indeed, it was not claimed at Woodburn that Captain Russell bred her
-until a representative of that establishment called at my office to
-examine the service books of Boston and there found that “John Russell’s
-one-eyed mare” had been bred in 1849. If a fraud, therefore, was
-established the Russell family must bear the odium. Hence all evidence
-from that source must be considered in the light of the fact that
-every member of the family is deeply interested. But notwithstanding
-the efforts of the Russell family to preserve the father’s name from
-obloquy, and notwithstanding the trip in search of some superannuated
-darkey who could remember anything and everything in consideration of
-the _pour-boire_ that would be forthcoming, there stood that terrible
-statement of Llewellyn Holton that could not be met by evidence. The
-whole matter was against him, and Mr. Brodhead was not happy. He knew
-he could not prove him wrong, and the only course left open was to get
-him to take back certain things that he had said on the ground that his
-memory had failed and that the fight was between “Old Kaintuck” and
-outside parties who had no business to interfere with Kentucky affairs.
-On an appointed day, therefore, all who were supposed to have any
-influence with Mr. Holton, in the whole countryside, met Mr. Brodhead,
-and they came down on “the poor old paralytic” hammer and tongs. They
-asked him what he remembered about all the horses, each in his turn, in
-the whole neighborhood, whether he had ever heard of them before or not.
-This was kept up a long time, but they could not prevail on him to take
-back a single specific statement he had made. He had said Captain Russell
-had never owned Maria Russell or any of her produce, and he would not
-take it back. He had said Maria Russell had two good eyes when she died,
-and he would not take it back. At last when the poor old invalid was
-worn out they sprung the patriotic dodge of “Kentucky against the world”
-upon him and this had some effect, but not enough to save the anxious
-“bulldozers” from a feeling of great depression. At last Mr. Brodhead
-seized a pen and indited a letter for him to sign, addressed to me,
-with the request that I would publish it. I am not able to say how many
-attempts were made to get such a letter as he would be willing to sign,
-but several different drafts were made, and sick and worried, and in
-order to get rid of his tormentors, he signed, and the letter came to me,
-and I published it as follows:
-
-                                  “FORKS OF ELKHORN, June 12, 1883.
-
-    “Mr. J. H. WALLACE.
-
-    “DEAR SIR: In answer to your letter to my son, of May 21, 1883,
-    there are three points suggested. First, in regard to her
-    produce (Maria Russell’s). I have no recollection any further.
-    I have no data from which I could find out concerning them.
-    Second, I have no remembrance of her death nor the manner of
-    it. Now, in regard to the statement I made to Mr. John K.
-    Stringfield. I think he has made it too strong, for I told him
-    my statement was from memory only, and that I could not nor
-    would not swear to it. Since that time I have had sufficient
-    proof to overbalance my memory, and circumstances called to
-    mind that have convinced me I was in error. I simply stated
-    what I believed to be true at that time. I have no interest in
-    the matter whatever—only want to be understood. I trust that
-    you will oblige me by publishing the above letter.
-
-                           Yours truly,
-
-                                                       “L. HOLTON.”
-
-It must have been a most pitiful sight to see six or eight able-bodied
-men, headed by the stalwart Brodhead, acting as chief inquisitor,
-circling round the reclining form of a poor old invalid, trying to
-convince him that he had no memory and that he was a liar, prodding
-him with questions about horses that he never had heard of, and when
-he failed to tell them, torturing him with remarks that if he couldn’t
-answer that question how could he know so well about Maria Russell? But
-with all their tortures they couldn’t force him to say his father did not
-own Maria Russell all her life and that she did not die with two good
-eyes. It was simply a little Spanish Inquisition on the waters of the
-Elkhorn from which came the cry, “Recant, Recant,” dinged into the ears
-of the helpless paralytic. Still, helpless as he was against so many, he
-obeyed his conscience and maintained his integrity, notwithstanding all
-the satanic arts of Torquemada. When all else had failed the war-cry was
-shouted in his ear: “New York is trying to destroy the breeding interests
-of Kentucky, and all true Kentuckians must stand by each other or we all
-go under.” The old man brightened up and said: “I’m a Kentuckian, but you
-mustn’t try to make me a self-convicted liar.” The piece of patchwork
-given above, in the shape of a letter, was then shaped up by his
-tormentors, for the old man was not able to write a line, and dispatched
-to the office of _Wallace’s Monthly_, where it was printed just as it was
-received. Each one of the tormentors made a copy of it, and no one of
-them was satisfied with it; even the inquisitor-general said it fell far
-short of what they wanted, but that by industriously speaking of it as a
-recantation, the public would soon come to treat it as a recantation.
-
-When, after years of fruitless effort, Mr. Brodhead, manager at Woodburn
-Farm, got control of registration, he made an early move to have the
-cloud removed from the pedigree of the stallion Lord Russell, and brought
-the matter before the neocracy of his own creation, of which he was
-himself the head and brains, and the action thereon was published in
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ for February, 1893. The presentation is imposing
-in length and abounds in many things that have no possible bearing on
-the question at issue. Unfortunately I have no means of determining the
-extent to which the crime of the interpolation or excision has been made
-manifest except in two of the exhibits which I will give. In Exhibit
-1 (Holton’s letter above) the following words are interpolated: “and
-in justice to all I correct my statement.” These words are not very
-important to the meaning, but they are very important as indicating
-the accuracy, and hence reliability, of a witness. In the same exhibit
-Mr. Brodhead says: “I insist that you will oblige me,” etc., while the
-original uses the word “trust” instead of “insist.” Again, Mr. Brodhead
-has his letter dated June 11, 1893, instead of June 12, 1883, as it is
-in the original. The variation of the dates here seems to have had a
-purpose, whatever it may have been. This letter must have been a great
-trouble, for I have seen three or four copies of it, so called, and no
-two of them alike.
-
-I was duly notified that the question of Sally Russell’s pedigree would
-be brought up at that meeting, and requested to be there to sustain my
-view of that question. The court and the jury were made up of Brodhead’s
-creatures, and organized simply to register his edicts. The wise man
-said, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” The
-bird looked on, from a safe distance, and saw the fowler impaled in his
-own snare, by his own act, and his true character revealed to the world.
-It is very difficult to understand just why it should have been deemed
-necessary to cut out the very pith and heart of Mr. Holton’s letter, when
-he knew that it would make no difference with his court whether there was
-any evidence at all. Under the law of retribution, a man’s character may
-be determined by his own acts.
-
-
-HOLTON’S TRUE STATEMENT.
-
-“FORKS OF ELKHORN, May 24, 1883.
-
-“This is to certify that my father, Captain John A. Holton, was for a
-number of years interested with Captain John Russell in a number of
-thoroughbreds, and they raced them in partnership. When they dissolved
-and divided the stock, I am positively certain that my father retained
-all the descendants of the Stockholder mare—among them Maria Russell
-and all of her produce AND I KNOW TO MY CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE THAT CAPTAIN
-RUSSELL NEVER OWNED OR HAD IN HIS POSSESSION THE MARE MARIA RUSSELL,
-OR ANY OF HER PRODUCE. And I further know to my certain knowledge that
-said mare, Maria Russell, had two good eyes from the time of her foaling
-until the day of her death. If my father bred a mare to Boston in 1848, I
-incline to the opinion that it was a bay mare we owned called Limber, for
-the reason that she, Limber, was very uncertain, having missed several
-seasons. There is one point, however, that I feel very certain upon, and
-that is, that neither my father nor Captain Russell, during their racing
-or breeding career, ever owned a Boston filly. As Boston was the most
-famous horse of his time, it is not at all possible that there could
-have been a Boston colt or filly on my father’s farm and I not knowing
-of the fact. I was born in the old homestead the 15th of November, 1820,
-and have resided either there or adjoining all my life; therefore I had
-constant opportunity to know all about my father’s stock of horses.
-
-                                                              L. HOLTON.
-
-“I hereby attest that the above is my father’s signature.—J. A. HOLTON,
-son of Llewellyn Holton.”
-
-
-BRODHEAD’S REPRESENTATION OF IT.
-
-“FORKS, ELKHORN, May 24, 1883.
-
-“This is to certify that my father, Captain John A. Holton, was for a
-number of years interested with Captain John Russell in a number of
-thoroughbreds, and they raced them in partnership. When they dissolved,
-and divided the stock, I am positively certain that my father retained
-all the descendants of the Stockholder mare, among them Maria Russell
-and all her produce, and I know to my certain knowledge that said Maria
-Russell had two good eyes from the time of her foaling until the day of
-her death. If my father bred a mare to Boston in 1848, I incline to the
-opinion that it was a bay mare he owned called Limber, for the reason
-that she, Limber, was very uncertain, having missed several seasons.
-There is one point, however, that I feel very certain upon, and that
-is that neither my father nor Captain Russell during their racing or
-breeding career ever owned a Boston filly. As Boston was the most famous
-horse of his time, it is not at all possible that there could have been a
-Boston colt or filly on my father’s farm and I not knowing of the fact.
-I was born in the old homestead the 15th of November, 1820, and have
-resided either there or adjoining all my life; therefore I had constant
-opportunity to know all about my father’s stock of horses.
-
-                                                              L. HOLTON.
-
-“I hereby attest that the above is my father’s signature.—J. A. HOLTON,
-son of L. Holton.”
-
-The deadly parallel columns tell the whole story. The central and most
-important fact in Mr. Holton’s statement has been deliberately and
-carefully cut out by Mr. Brodhead, and the evidence that he did so cannot
-be wiped out either by money or by the torture of invalids. The testimony
-of cold type remains forever. Has Mr. Brodhead, it is asked, professed to
-have given the whole of Mr. Holton’s statement, and suppressed a vital
-part of it? He has given every word and letter of the statement, from
-the date line to the signature, except the one sentence that is the life
-and soul of the whole statement, and that sentence I have printed above
-in capital letters, so that it may be easily distinguished and compared.
-For years I have known that Mr. Brodhead possessed most remarkable visual
-powers. When he wanted to see a thing he could see it through a stone
-wall and without any assistance from the “X-rays,” and when he didn’t
-want to see a thing he couldn’t see it even when held up to his very
-nose under an arc light. The deception practiced here might justly be
-designated by a harder name, for it was deliberately planned and carried
-out in order to gain an end by suppressing the truth. Why did he not
-free himself from his marvelous powers of vision, and looking out of the
-natural eyes of his mind, see the imminent danger of a terrible exposure?
-In keeping back part of the truth with the pretension that he had given
-it all, how could he avoid recalling the fate of Annanias and Sapphira
-for keeping back part of the price with the pretension that they had
-given it all?
-
-As an exercise in ethical athletics I will submit the following abstract
-question to the debating clubs, especially in Kentucky, viz., “Is the man
-who suppresses the truth in order to sustain a fraudulent pedigree any
-more worthy of belief than the man who made the pedigree and sold the
-horse upon it?”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXX.
-
-INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.—(_Continued_.)
-
-    How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree
-    making in that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas
-    Jefferson—True origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts
-    about the old-time gelding Prince—The truth about Waxy, the
-    grandam of Sunol—Remarkable attempts to make a pedigree out
-    of nothing—How “Jim” Eoff worked a “tenderfoot”—Pedigree of
-    American Eclipse—Pedigree of Boston—Tom Bowling and Aaron
-    Pennington—Chenery’s Gray Eagle—Pedigree of George Wilkes in
-    doubt.
-
-
-At Louisville, Kentucky, October, 1860, a ten-mile race was trotted which
-excited a good deal of local interest and comment. The contestants in
-this race were entered as follows:
-
-  “Captain Magowan, by imp. Sovereign, dam by American Eclipse.”
-  “Gipsy Queen, by Wagner, dam by imp. Glencoe.”
-  “Belle of Wabash (Indiana Belle), by Bassinger, dam by imp. William.”
-
-The names of the parties making the entries are given in the entries of
-the first and second, and the Louisville _Journal_ of the week before
-remarks that “J. J. Alexander will represent his State honorably with the
-Belle of Indiana.” Captain Magowan held the lead from start to finish,
-and at the end of the eighth mile, some say the seventh, Belle of Wabash
-was drawn. It will be observed that, so far as given, each one of these
-animals was furnished with a first-class race-horse pedigree; for it
-was then held as firmly as any religious tenet that no horse could go
-that distance at any gait unless he was strictly thoroughbred, and, in
-Kentucky, if he did not have such a pedigree they gave him one on the
-spot. At that time they never bothered their heads hunting up the breeder
-of an animal to learn how it was bred. They simply wanted to see the
-performance and then make the pedigree to suit it. These three pedigrees
-were all bogus in all their elements, and I knew so little of the ways
-of the horse world, at that time, that I accepted and recorded them as
-genuine.
-
-Captain Magowan was a roan gelding, willful and bad tempered, and all
-that seems to be known about his origin is the conceded fact that he was
-bred in Kentucky and that he was probably descended from the tribe of
-Copperbottoms, or possibly the Tom Hals. The roan color prevailed in both
-tribes and the horse himself looked like the Copperbottoms.
-
-Gipsy Queen, at the time of the above race in 1860, was owned by a
-“sporting man” named George Bidwell, of Chicago, or at least she raced
-under his direction. About the time of this race, Mr. Thomas J. Vail
-bought the mare and took her to Hartford, Connecticut. He bred her to
-Toronto Chief and she produced a black colt. The mare and colt afterward
-passed into the hands of Mr. William B. Smith, and this colt grew up to
-be the famous Thomas Jefferson—“The Whirlwind of the East.” In connection
-with Mr. Smith I devoted a good deal of labor to a futile search for the
-origin and pedigree of this mare, and the result of our search amounted
-to nothing more than a reasonable probability that she was bred at
-Rochester, New York; was got by a son or grandson of Vermont Black Hawk
-and was taken from there to Chicago. This latter point of the transfer to
-Chicago seemed to be quite circumstantially fixed in Mr. Smith’s mind.
-
-Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of Woodstock, Vermont—a man of great industry and a
-lover of the truth for the truth’s sake—also made an exhaustive search,
-and from a recent contribution to the press he evidently thinks he has
-found it, and possibly he has; but while I generally agree with Mr.
-Thomson’s conclusions, and prize them as honest and carefully reached,
-I am forced to dissent in this case. Without going into details, he
-brings the mare from Williamstown, Vermont, and takes her to Woodstock,
-Illinois, where she is paired with another black mare, and after passing
-through two or three hands they at last land in a public livery stable
-in Chicago, and there the identity of the suppositious Gipsy Queen is
-lost, and so far as known she never came out of that stable. One or
-two years afterward a black mare from Chicago, in possession of George
-Bidwell, appeared in some public races, notably the one given above, and
-the conclusion is at once reached that this black mare, Gipsy Queen,
-was the black filly brought from Williamstown, Vermont. To this all the
-intermediate owners between Williamstown and Behrens’ livery stable were
-ready to insist that this black mare was the Williamstown filly, but not
-one of them had ever seen the mare that George Bidwell was handling, and
-some of them evidently were not worthy of belief if they had seen her.
-There is the “missing link” between Behrens’ stable and George Bidwell,
-that has not been supplied and probably never can be supplied. The
-chances that the Williamstown filly was the real Gipsy Queen, all things
-considered, seem to stand as about one to a thousand. We must, therefore,
-conclude that we have no satisfactory information as to how or where this
-mare was bred.
-
-BELLE OF WABASH.—My first inquiry about this mare was made more than
-twenty-five years ago, and I did not then suppose that her pedigree would
-ever become a question of any general interest. In the first volume of
-the Register I had entered her as a black mare, foaled 1852, got by
-Bassinger, son of Lieutenant Bassinger, and dam said to be by imported
-William IV. She was then owned by George C. Stevens of Milwaukee,
-Wisconsin. After her son—The Moor—proved himself a great sire of trotters
-in getting Beautiful Bells, Sultan, and other good ones, her pedigree
-became a question of very great importance. As the search for it would
-occupy more space, in detail, than I can give to it in these pages, I
-will here give the references in _Wallace’s Monthly_, where the principal
-correspondence may be found: Vol. XIV., p. 510; XV., p. 441; XVI., p. 43;
-and for a complete understanding of the matter the references here given
-should be carefully examined.
-
-Mr. S. D. Puett, of Indiana, was the first to give me a starting point in
-the investigation of the pedigree of this mare. In all that had been said
-about her I never was able to find a man who really knew anything about
-her origin, until Mr. Puett gave me the address of Cyrus Romaine, who had
-owned her when very young and handled her for speed. He says “she was
-sired by a colt from her own dam, that was got by a Copperbottom stallion
-from Kentucky.” He was not able to give any information about the sire of
-the dam, and as to the gait of the dam he says: “Her dam was a natural
-pacer. I cannot say as to her sire, as he was unbroken at the time.” He
-bought the mare at three years old, handled her one year and sold her to
-Mr. J. J. Alexander, of Montezuma, of the same county (Parke), in 1856.
-Mr. Alexander still owned her in 1860 when she trotted in Louisville,
-and after his death Williams, his trainer, married his widow and still
-controlled the mare. Mr. Romaine failed to give the name of the breeder
-of the mare, which will be explained further on. Soon after he wrote,
-April 26, 1880, he removed to Nebraska and I have not heard from him
-since. In 1857 she was trained for Mr. Alexander by John Williams on
-Stroue’s track at Rockville, Indiana, the county seat of Parke County.
-In 1860 she was entered by Williams in several races at Indianapolis
-and at other points, and made a record of 2:40. About 1865, or perhaps
-a year or two earlier, she became the property of George C. Stevens. In
-his catalogue for 1868 she is entered merely as “Old Belle,” and he know
-nothing of her origin or history till I gave it to him, along with the
-humbug pedigree that I had copied from the entries at the Louisville
-ten-mile race.
-
-Through the kindness of Mr. Puett I received the following letter from
-Mr. Henry C. Brown, a very reputable business man and a grain dealer
-in Rockville, Parke County, Indiana. This letter from Mr. Brown has in
-it such evidence of candor and intelligence that I will here insert it
-entire:
-
-    “DEAR SIR: In reply to your inquiry of the 23d ult., as to what
-    I know of the ‘origin and history of the mare called Belle of
-    Wabash,’ I will give you the following _facts_:
-
-    “In the year 1855, or ’56, I am not positive which, this mare,
-    when a three-year-old, was purchased by Cyrus Romaine, then a
-    resident of this county, of an old farmer in Clay County, this
-    State, paying $85 for her. This farmer lived at that time about
-    a mile and a half north of Brazil, the present county-seat of
-    Clay County.
-
-    “As to this farmer’s name, neither myself nor Romaine can tell.
-    He was an old man at that time, and undoubtedly has gone to his
-    reward long ago. _Neither do we know anything at all about the
-    pedigree of the mare._
-
-    “There is no person living, so far as I or Romaine know, that
-    can tell anything about her ancestors, and in my opinion it
-    would be impossible, at this late day, to find any one in Clay
-    County that could give us any information in regard to her.
-
-    “The country around Brazil at that time was almost a
-    wilderness; now the city is spread out, and covers, no doubt,
-    the farm where the mare was foaled. Clay County is now the
-    center of the Indiana coal-fields, and, of course, the entire
-    face of the country about there is changed wonderfully since
-    1856; consequently it would be almost if not quite impossible
-    to find the exact location.
-
-    “After keeping the mare eight or nine months, Romaine sold
-    her to John Alexander, of Montezuma, this county, for $160.
-    Alexander soon after commenced training her, and in about one
-    year I think he, or his trainer, John Williams, took her to
-    Kentucky, and entered her there in some kind of races. Since
-    then you know her history much better than I do.
-
-    “At the time Romaine bought the mare he and I were trading in
-    stock together, boarding at the same house and sleeping in the
-    same bed. I mention, this only that you may understand that I
-    know what I am writing about.
-
-    “I am truly sorry that I cannot give you the true pedigree
-    of the mare, but it cannot be done. There is no man here or
-    anywhere else that can tell you anything more than I have
-    stated herein.
-
-    “You will no doubt think that there is considerable of
-    superfluous matter in this letter, but I do not see how I could
-    tell you what I wanted to in fewer words.
-
-    “Everything stated herein is _truth_, and, if necessary, I am
-    willing to make affidavit to the same at any time.
-
-                         Very truly yours,
-
-                                                  “HENRY C. BROWN.”
-
-Mr. Romaine’s representation amounted to nothing definite or satisfactory
-about the pedigree of Belle of Wabash, because he failed to give the name
-and location of her breeder, but Mr. Brown’s letter clears this all up
-on the grounds that Mr. Romaine really did not know the breeder’s name.
-Whatever her sire and whatever her dam, we may feel sure they were not
-trotting-bred, although she was a trotter. We are left, therefore, to
-conclude that, as in a thousand other cases, this mare was a pacing-bred
-trotter. The one point that is vital is settled by Mr. Brown, as he
-was with Mr. Romaine when he bought the mare and knew all about the
-transaction. He cannot remember the breeder’s name, but he locates him
-as “living a mile and a half north of Brazil,” and that it is now all
-cut up into residence and mining lots. This seems to fix the location
-of the breeder beyond all doubt. This old man seems to have been a
-pioneer in a very poor county and still a comparative wilderness when
-this transaction took place. At that time the coal fields had not been
-touched, and it is wholly beyond belief that he took his unknown old mare
-out of his own county, across the adjoining county of Parke and into
-Vermilion County, wherever in it Mr. Weisiger lived, to have her bred
-to his part-bred stallion Bassinger. And then when he came to sell the
-foal at three years old for $85, when horses were high, can we believe
-he would do so without ever mentioning how the filly was bred? The chain
-of ownership is complete, as she passed from her unnamed breeder to Mr.
-Romaine, from him to Mr. Alexander, in whose hands she did her trotting,
-and then to Mr. Williams, and there is no place for the Louisville humbug
-pedigree to come in. She got her bogus pedigree at the same time and in
-the same way that Magowan and Gipsy Queen got theirs, and there was not a
-single shadow of truth in any one of them. The tenacity with which some
-people hold on to a “thoroughbred” origin for their trotters when the
-evidence is all against them has long been a mystery to honest folks,
-who are able to look at things as they are; but it is not difficult to
-understand the phenomenon when we analyze the reasons for it. First,
-the owner is anxious to hold on to all he can possibly claim in the way
-of aristocratic descent with the hope that it may help his sales; and
-second, there are always a few “featherheads” with golden pockets ready
-to buy that kind of stuff, because they have never gone far enough in
-horse history to be able to kick themselves loose from the swaddling
-clothes of their infantile prejudices.
-
-PRINCE.—The chestnut gelding Prince was one of the great trotters in
-the early “fifties.” He was pitted against Hero, the pacing son of
-Harris’ Hambletonian, Lantern and others. As usual at that time he was
-given a thoroughbred pedigree, which I was then led to accept, without
-really knowing anything about his origin. He was represented to have
-been bred in Kentucky, and owned by R. Ten Broeck of that State. Then
-would naturally follow a thoroughbred pedigree coming from that State,
-and nobody doubted it for a long time. He was represented to be by
-Woodpecker, son of Bertrand; dam by imported Sarpedon; grandam said to be
-thoroughbred. When he started in his ten-mile race against Hero, William
-T. Porter said he was by Woodpecker, and out of that grew the pedigree
-above. In the old _Spirit of the Times_, of October 11, 1856, there is a
-short communication signed “Hiram,” in which is the only circumstantial
-account of the origin of Prince that I have ever seen. It is implied by
-the writer that he was bred by a Mr. Dey, of Chautauqua. County, New
-York, for he says he was got by “an old chestnut horse called Duroc,
-from Long Island,” and came of the Dey Mare. It seems that Dey sold the
-colt to a young man named Worden, and he was first known as “the Worden
-colt.” He was then sold to Manley Griswold, and from Griswold to Daniel
-Vanvliet, who sold him in Buffalo to Bennett & Jones (or Thomas), for one
-thousand dollars, and they sold him to William Whelan, of Long Island,
-for fifteen hundred dollars. “Hiram” carries the history of the horse
-no further, as he had then placed him in the hands of the great artists
-of the trotting world. Of his sire, “Old Duroc,” he says he was taken
-from Long Island to Villenova, in Chautauqua County, by a merchant of
-that place, named George Hopkins, and after getting about twenty colts
-he died. Among these twenty we find Prince and another afterward known
-as the Walker Horse, which achieved a high local reputation as a sire
-of trotters and I have frequently met with his cross in the pedigrees
-of good animals. This showing is not absolutely complete, but it is
-infinitely better than any other that has over been given to the public.
-
-WAXY, the grandam of Sunol. When the two-year-old filly Sunol in 1888
-came out and trotted a mile in 2:18, it fairly took one’s breath away,
-and the first question on every tongue was, “How is she bred?” She was
-represented to be by Electioneer, out of Waxana by General Benton, and
-she out of Waxy by Lexington, and “thoroughbred.” When asked who bred her
-and how it was known that Waxy was by Lexington, the answer came back
-that the breeder was not known—that she had been taken across the plains
-by a man who died on the way. The search then commenced for the breeder
-of Waxy and the identification of her dam. As the search progressed there
-were some very curious things developed. When it started in the spring
-it was a yearling stallion colt, and when it reached California, in
-the fall, it was a two-year-old filly. More than this, it was shown by
-indubitable proofs, such as they were, that she had two dams, and then
-shown that she had no dam at all. With such a Kentucky muddle on hand
-there was an excellent opportunity for a controversy that might possibly
-become somewhat heated. This controversy is famous in the history of the
-exposures of untruthful pedigrees, and I will give a brief outline of it,
-with some specimens of the evidence adduced to sustain it.
-
-Early in the spring of 1864 Mr. John P. Welch, an intelligent man,
-trained to the profession of civil engineer, reached the blue grass
-region of Kentucky for the purpose of securing and taking across the
-plains a band of well-bred horses to California. In this venture he was
-backed by Mr. John Anderson, a wealthy gentleman of the latter State. Mr.
-Welch was successful in perfecting his arrangements, and when on the very
-eve of starting he sent forward a complete inventory of all the animals
-he had in his band and sent this inventory to the _California Spirit
-of the Times_, in which paper it was published May 14, 1864, and is as
-follows:
-
-   1. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Glencoe, g. d.
-        Ann Merry.
-   2. Bay filly, 3 years, by Vandal, dam Miss Singleton by Old
-        Denmark, g. d. Bellamira by Monarch.
-   3. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Commodore.
-   4. Bay horse, 3 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Gray Eagle.
-   5. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam (dam of
-        Capitola) by Margrave.
-   6. Bay mare, 9 years old, by imp. Glencoe, dam by Rudolph, g. d.
-        Belle Anderson.
-   7. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Revenue, dam Sally Morgan by
-        Emancipation.
-   8. Chestnut filly, 4 years old, by Vandal, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d.
-        Churchill.
-   9. Chestnut mare by Wagner (dam of No. 11).
-  10. Bay mare by Sovereign.
-  11. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam No. 9, by
-        Wagner.
-  12. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Jack Gamble, dam Betty King by
-        Boston.
-  13. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Mirabeau, g. d.
-        Arabella.
-  14. Captain Beard, b. s., 9 years old, by imp. Yorkshire, dam by imp.
-        Glencoe, g. d. by imp. Leviathan, g. g. d. by Stockholder.
-  15. Gray mare by Gray Eagle, dam Mary Morris, by Medoc.
-  16. Hope, ch. m. by Glencoe, dam Susette by Aratus.
-  17. Bay mare by Sovereign, dam by Gray Eagle.
-  18. Chestnut filly, 2 years old, by Bob Johnson, dam by Brawner’s
-        Eclipse.
-  19. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam by Gray
-        Eagle.
-  20. Bay colt, one year old, by Lexington, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d.
-        Mary Morris.
-  21. Ch. c., 2 years old by Ringgold, dam Hope by Glencoe.
-  22 and 23. Pair 3:00 six-year-old trotting mares.
-  24. Black mare, trotter, 8 years old; time, 2:50.
-  25. Bay gelding, trotter, 5 years old; time, near 3:00.
-  26. Bay mare for show, but not to go.
-
-From this inventory we must conclude that Mr. Welch was a careful and
-methodical man. He knew he had twenty-six animals ready to start,
-and after he had written off the descriptions and pedigrees of these
-twenty-six animals he verified his work by numbering them from one to
-twenty-six inclusive, and then he knew he had not omitted any one. This
-inventory is the basis of the whole truth in this matter, and is the
-only evidence in the wide world of what animals Mr. Welch started with
-to California. As this is the vital and only starting point to reach the
-truth, I trust my readers will examine it again carefully and see whether
-it includes any filly or mare by Lexington, of any age. When you ask any
-of these “more-running-blood-in-the-trotter” people who took Waxy, the
-phantom daughter of Lexington, to California, you will get an evasive
-answer, and when pressed they will at last say, John P. Welch. Now, as to
-John P. Welch, “he being dead yet speaketh.” From his unknown grave he
-tells these people they are trying to establish what is not true, and
-with his ghostly finger points to the inventory and demands, “Where is
-the Lexington filly in that list? You are trying to displace the truth
-with a falsehood,” and he drives this charge home to the heart of each
-one of them.
-
-Here we might close this case and leave it to the enlightened judgment
-of all intelligent and honest people, for there is not a scintilla
-of evidence that any two-year-old daughter of Lexington was taken to
-California in 1864. Until this evidence is adduced, no attempt to
-overthrow the contents of John P. Welch’s inventory has a single peg to
-stand on. But I am not yet done with some of the peculiarities that have
-been developed in this case, for long ago I learned in this pedigree
-business,
-
-    “That for ways that are dark,
-    And for tricks that are vain,
-    The heathen Chinee is peculiar.”
-
-At this point the case bifurcates, one fork leading to the Grey Eagle
-mare as the dam of Waxy, and the other to the Brawner’s Eclipse mare, and
-I think my language will not be wholly unparliamentary when I pronounce
-them both frauds. Mr. Levi S. Gould, a worthy business man of Boston,
-whom I have always esteemed as honest, was the first to dig up this whole
-matter in the columns of the _California Spirit of the Times_, and the
-first to give the above inventory to the public. He traveled thousands
-of miles and claimed to have traced Waxy to the stable of her breeder,
-Philip Swigert, of Frankfort, Kentucky. The full account of his laborious
-trip was published in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for March, 1889, p. 17. In the
-inventory he found one animal got by Lexington, but this was a bay colt
-of 1863, and out of the Grey Eagle mare, but he wanted a chestnut filly.
-After studying the matter over, he concluded that this “bay colt” was a
-typographical error for “chestnut filly” and that this established the
-pedigree of Waxy. He interviewed a number of people who had known of, or
-had been in some way connected with, the Welch venture, and they were
-all able to confirm his discovery of the typographical error, and could
-recount to a nicety their distinct recollections of the sorrel filly by
-Lexington, out of the Grey Eagle mare. These people seemed to possess
-the most astonishing memories, and the color, breeding and age of a
-filly they had not seen nor heard of for a quarter of a century all came
-back to them with as much freshness as though the events had occurred
-yesterday. Then there was a peculiar element in their memories, for they
-could recall everything about this one filly and nothing about any of the
-others. At last Mr. Gould reached Mr. Brodhead, of Kentucky, where the
-“finishing touches” were put upon the pedigree of Waxy. Mr. Satterwhite
-did not reach Woodburn till after Mr. Gould had left, but that did not
-prevent him from making a “statement” that exactly fitted the theory
-of the pedigree as matured by Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead. He had been
-Mr. Philip Swigert’s foreman in 1864, and had a right to know something
-of the transfer of some eight or ten head of stock from Mr. Swigert to
-Mr. Welch in the spring of that year. Satterwhite was quite too good a
-witness, as he disclosed his cramming frightfully. He remembered “the
-light chestnut filly, by Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare,” with
-great distinctness and was sure she was foaled in 1863. In no single case
-was he certain except in the filly by Lexington, and in no single case
-was he able to give the ages of the other young things correctly. After
-Satterwhite made his visit to Woodburn, Mr. Brodhead wrote Mr. Gould as
-follows:
-
-    “Satterwhite says Dick Jackson was with Welch. I think, with
-    what you have, the pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved, and
-    you can get your article ready. The sooner it is published the
-    better. I forwarded some letters to you, and I hope they gave
-    you additional information.”
-
-It will be remembered that Mr. Gould started out on the assumption that,
-as there was but one animal in the inventory by Lexington and that was
-a bay colt of 1863, that “colt,” he argued, was a typographical error,
-and instead of “bay colt” it should read “sorrel filly.” On this very
-uncertain basis he worked throughout. On this basis he collected all his
-futile statements. On this basis, and to lend a helping hand, Satterwhite
-testified; and on this basis Brodhead wrote, “With what you have, the
-pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved.” Now that Mr. Brodhead is
-satisfied and that Mr. Bruce promptly entered Waxy in his Stud Book as by
-Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare, we must drop the whimsical idea
-of the “typographical error” and consider whether the bay colt of 1863,
-by Lexington, did really become a sorrel filly of 1862 when he reached
-California a few months later.
-
-1. The bay colt, No. 20, of the inventory, was the only animal in the
-band by Lexington. He was a foal of 1863, and was a year younger than any
-of the others.
-
-2. In speaking of the losses, by death on the route, of some of the more
-noted animals, Mr. Anderson enumerates the noted stallion Captain Beard,
-and a very fine yearling colt by Lexington, called Frank. Here perished
-the only foal by Lexington in the band, and we may as well bury Mr.
-Gould’s and Mr. Brodhead’s “typographical error” with him, for the colt
-kicked it to death before he died.
-
-3. When the band reached California there were several additions smuggled
-into it as being part of the originals from Kentucky, and among these
-additions was the light chestnut filly that has been since known as Waxy,
-given as a foal of 1862, and got by Lexington, dam unknown.
-
-4. As Mr. Brodhead had proved conclusively, from the records at Woodburn,
-that Mr. Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the “typographical
-error” parties found themselves placed “between the devil and the deep
-sea.”
-
-This outside filly that had been smuggled into the band of Kentuckians
-was advertised along with them, as a foal of 1862, in the fall of 1864;
-she was sold as a foal of 1862; she was entered in a sweepstake for
-three-year-olds as a foal of 1862; she was exhibited at a horse show as
-a foal of 1862; she started to run the only race she ever attempted as a
-foal of 1862, and proving herself utterly worthless as a race mare, she
-was given away on the spot as a foal of 1862.
-
-As the only representative of Lexington in the band was “the yearling bay
-colt Frank,” as shown by Mr. Anderson, the partner of Mr. Welch; and as
-the records at Woodburn had clearly and distinctly shown that Swigert’s
-Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the bottom was out of the conspiracy
-and it was abandoned. There was a little fussing about the possibility
-that there might have been a mistake and that Waxy might have been a foal
-of 1863 after all, but it amounted to nothing more than the enfeebled
-squeak of an asthmatic mouse and then all was quiet.
-
-Before passing to the other branch of the investigation, this seems to be
-the proper place to speak of the incidents of the sale and its sequences
-at the Fair Grounds at San Jose, January 3, 1865. There were some twelve
-or fifteen head, that had been previously advertised, offered at public
-sale, and a number of those were sold, all indeed in which this inquiry
-has any interest. When the stock arrived at San Jose, there was a good
-deal of confusion, and it is just possible that some of them were not
-correctly placed. The only discrepancy which I have found between Mr.
-Welch’s inventory and the facts is in the color of the filly No. 18, that
-appears in the inventory as a chestnut, but is advertised and sold as a
-bay. This mistake in color is not infrequent in the spring of the year
-before the old coat is shed, and I think it may be reasonably accounted
-for on this ground. James L. Eoff, well known from ocean to ocean as the
-king of all “horse sharps,” seems to have taken a good deal of interest
-in assorting the animals and in picking up scraps of information from
-the boys who had come with them. At the same time he was an excellent
-judge of racing stock, and as silent as the grave to the victims whom
-he sought to mislead and then beat. In this way he soon knew more about
-the breeding of the animals than those in charge of them. Mr. William
-Woodward seems to have been his friend (?) with plenty of money, but a
-perfect “tenderfoot” in the mysteries of the race horse. No doubt he
-pointed out to Mr. Woodward the so-called Lexington filly and advised
-him to buy her, assuring him that he wanted her himself, but if he
-wanted to take a little fly in racing he would not bid against him. The
-sale came off, and Eoff ran up the Revenue filly, out of Sally Morgan,
-to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and got her, it is said, for
-Theodore Winters. When they came to the filly by Bob Johnson, out of
-the mare by Brawner’s Eclipse, Eoff bought her at two hundred and fifty
-dollars for himself, and named her Lilly Hitchcock. The next animal sold
-was the filly by Lexington, dam unknown, and she was bought by William
-Woodward at two hundred and fifty dollars, and he named her Waxy. The
-sale was slimly attended and much of the stock was bid in for the owner,
-Mr. John Anderson. That night the wine flowed very freely, as it was
-the initiation of the “tenderfoot,” Mr. Woodward, into the ranks of
-running-horse men. After they all “got hot” (except Eoff), a sweepstakes
-was opened for the three fillies, Ada C. (the Revenue filly), Lilly
-Hitchcock and Waxy, at two hundred and fifty dollars each, and Eoff was
-careful to see that it was made “play or pay.” The race was a dash of
-a mile and a quarter, and it took place nearly twelve months after the
-match was made. Eoff won easily with Lilly Hitchcock, and Waxy was so
-badly beaten that Woodward gave her away on the spot and “swore off”
-ever owning another running horse. Thus Eoff’s cunning carried his plot
-through, without a break at any point. From the hour he bought this filly
-he stoutly maintained she was by Lexington and out of the Brawner’s
-Eclipse mare. She ran all her races under this pedigree and never was
-challenged, and if ever there was a mare in California bred in this way,
-this is likely to be the mare. We can understand just how he could have
-discovered where Waxy came from, and that she never saw Kentucky, and on
-this knowledge he based the game he played on poor Woodward.
-
-After the failure to establish the claim that Waxy came out of Philip
-Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare and publicly confessing that the evidence upon
-which Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead based their conclusions was fallacious
-and the conclusions themselves incorrect, the advocates of “more running
-blood in the trotter” pulled themselves together for another bout. What
-purported to be an old document was dug up somewhere—indeed I am told
-there were two of them dug up, one in Kentucky and the other somewhere
-on the Pacific coast—purporting to be duplicates of an agreement entered
-into, in March, 1864, between John P. Welch, of California and Philip
-Swigert, of Kentucky, by which Welch agreed to take certain blood horses
-to California and sell or breed them on the shares, etc. This document
-possessed all the paraphernalia of authenticity, with government stamp,
-witnesses to the signatures of the contracting parties, etc. This
-document (I don’t know which “duplicate”) was shown to me in April, 1891,
-and at the first glance, and without reading a word except the date, it
-astounded me. There was a paper purporting to be twenty-seven years old,
-and it looked as bright and fresh as though it had been written within
-twenty-seven hours. There was no fading of the luster of the ink and
-there was no ageing in the color of the paper. Having devoted a great
-deal of time to the examination of writings, varying in age from one day
-to a hundred years and more, and this experience extending through many
-years, I ought to be a fairly competent judge of the effects of age on
-ink and paper. Here was a paper purporting to be over a quarter of a
-century old with all the newness of yesterday, and when Mr. J. C. Simpson
-showed it to me I was impressed with the belief, on this one point of
-evidence alone, that it was spurious, and that Mr. Simpson had been made
-a victim by some rascally scrivener. With so much for the appearance of
-the paper, on its face, we will now examine the contents and see whether
-any evidence can there be found that will throw further light on the
-question of its authenticity. Unfortunately I have not what purports to
-be the original of this document before me, and I must therefore depend
-upon my memory and upon what Judge Halsey, as attorney for Mr. Brodhead,
-has printed as the contents. In giving the list of animals I will follow
-the order of the “document” and place before each one, for convenience
-of reference, the number attached to that animal in Mr. Welch’s original
-inventory.
-
-  15. One gray mare, by Grey Eagle, out of Mary Morris.
-  16. One sorrel mare, Hope, by Glencoe.
-  17. Sovereign filly, out of Grey Eagle mare, four years old.
-   8. Vandal filly, out of bay Grey Eagle mare, four years old.
-  18. One two-year-old filly, by Bob Johnson, out of bay Grey Eagle mare.
-  19. One two-year-old filly by Lexington.
-  20. One yearling colt, by Lexington, out of Grey Eagle mare.
-  21. One two-year-old filly, by Ringgold, out of Hope.
-
-In looking over this list there are several points suggested for remark
-and they all have a bearing, more or less direct, on the question at
-issue. The list seems to have been prepared, if prepared by Mr. Swigert,
-very hurriedly and without sufficient regard to completeness or accuracy.
-He started off, possibly to make a careful list, as he gave the color
-of the two-year-old mares at the head and then dropped all purpose of
-completeness and gave no colors nor descriptions to those that followed.
-He gives No. 21 as a filly when it was a colt, and so appears in the
-inventory, was sold as a colt with pedigree at San Jose, January, 1865,
-and again, with the same pedigree, at The Willows, February, 1866. Under
-ordinary conditions the statement of the breeder should be conclusive
-against all others, but in this case the evident hurry and absence of
-descriptions have destroyed the value of the whole list, in great degree,
-as evidence that could be accepted with safety. We must, therefore, look
-for something in the way of evidence more deliberative and descriptive
-in its preparation, and this we find in the joint work of Mr. Swigert
-and Mr. Welch, as embodied in the inventory. When the descriptions of
-the animals were taken, both men were equally interested in accuracy and
-completeness, both were present, and probably the animals were before
-them. Hence my infinitely greater confidence in the deliberative work of
-the two, as found in the inventory.
-
-The one point about which all this hubbub has been raised is the
-so-called “Lexington filly,” that appears as the sixth in the above
-list. She has no number attached to her name, and this means that she
-was not in the inventory, and it means more than this; for it is, in a
-manner, the dying testimony of an honest man that he took no Lexington
-filly to California, and fortunately this testimony has been preserved.
-The methods introduced to prove that Welch did take her are the methods
-of the imbecile. Let us admit, for the moment, that Swigert had a
-Lexington filly and that she was in a contract with Welch to be taken to
-California; does that prove that Welch took her, when he says he did not?
-There are hundreds and hundreds of people every year who buy steamship
-tickets to go to Europe who fail to go. The records of Mr. Swigert’s
-ticket office show that the ticket was bought, but they fail to show
-that the purchaser went aboard the ship. You must go to Purser Welch and
-get a list of passengers actually on board in order to determine who did
-and who did not go. Accidents, sickness and death are all factors in the
-movements, of horses just as they are in the movements of human beings.
-It is the observation of a long lifetime that horsemen are never so
-near their best as fools as when they attempt to establish a fraudulent
-pedigree by evidence that utterly fails to cover the case. They claim
-to have found a ticket that would carry Waxy to California, and whether
-genuine or counterfeit they rely wholly on this ticket as evidence that
-she went. The master of the vessel affirms she was not aboard his vessel,
-and in support of this he shows a complete list and description of the
-passengers numbered from one to twenty-six inclusive. This is the whole
-thing in a nutshell. The proof is clear and conclusive that Mr. Welch did
-not take any daughter of Lexington to California. Now, will the prominent
-and active supporters of Waxy’s pedigree, as a daughter of Lexington,
-come forward and in a manly way answer this question of five words? “_Who
-took Waxy to California?_” If Welch, prove it. If anybody else, prove it.
-We may be able to catch a few gulls with chaff, the first attempt, but we
-can’t repeat it. If the question can be answered, it is well, and if not,
-honest people will form their own conclusions that it is not sustained
-and is no more worthy of belief than the “Grey Eagle mare” form of the
-same pedigree, which is now universally conceded to be a fiction.
-
-AMERICAN ECLIPSE.—It is not my purpose to frighten people by overthrowing
-landmarks that have stood for years, but it is my purpose to tell the
-truth and expose falsehood in pedigrees wherever I meet it. As a
-satisfaction and guide to breeders in the future it is important to know
-just how the early stock were bred, although they may have belonged to
-past generations. A breeder never can know too much of the lines in
-which he is operating. This great horse was a good chestnut, with a star
-and left hind foot white. He was stout, with heavy limbs, and somewhat
-coarse, and not of the best quality, but possibly better than the
-average of the Durocs. He was a fraction of an inch below fifteen two.
-He was foaled 1814, got by Duroc, son of imported Diomed; dam Miller’s
-Damsel, by imported Messenger; grandam a mare by Pot8os, imported by Mr.
-Constable along with the horse Baronet, in 1795. This is just as far as
-we can go with any certainty, and this leaves the greatest race horse of
-his day far short of being thoroughbred. When Mr. Constable bought the
-Pot8os mare in England he got no certificate of pedigree, but he was told
-there she was out of a mare by Gimcrack. Mr. Cadwallader R. Colden was
-the best-informed man of his day on the history, blood, and performances
-of the blood-horse, was a very intimate and warm friend of Mr. Constable,
-and he did everything that could be done to straighten out and extend
-this pedigree, but he utterly failed. He thought it probable that the
-mare was thoroughbred, but he believed the Gimcrack cross was a fiction.
-Some eighteen or twenty years ago, when in London, Mr. Tattersall
-suggested to me that if Lord Grosvenor bred a filly by Pot8os in 1792
-that was thoroughbred, there could hardly be a doubt that she was entered
-in some of the stakes for three-year-olds. Then and there we searched the
-old records, but nothing could be found to support the supposed pedigree.
-It was not till 1832 that any special effort was made to establish the
-pedigree through the press, and in January of that year the famous
-Patrick Nesbit Edgar, of North Carolina, wrote as follows to Mr. Skinner,
-editor of the _American Turf Register_:
-
-    “The authority I had for sending the remote pedigree of
-    American Eclipse for publication was that it was furnished me
-    lately by a gentleman in England, who put himself to uncommon
-    pains to procure it. He resides near Bath, in that country. All
-    the authority requisite I have at this time in my possession.
-    The Pot8os mare was got by Pot8os; her dam, foaled in 1778, by
-    Gimcrack, out of Snap-Dragon, sister to Angelica by Snap. (See
-    English Stud Book.)”
-
-Mr. Edgar wrote more on the same subject, after he was pressed to it by
-Mr. Colden, but he failed to produce any evidence whatever that he was
-telling the truth. According to his representations his correspondence on
-the subject had been very extensive, and he complained that he had paid
-out forty shillings in postage.
-
-It will be observed how cleverly Mr. Edgar conceals the sources of
-his information while he pretends to give them, and that has been the
-favorite “dodge” of all rascally “pedigree makers” from that day till
-the present. Mr. Constable always insisted that the mare was bred by
-Lord Grosvenor, and that she was by Pot8os, but he did not insist that
-she was out of a mare by Gimcrack. As Lord Grosvenor was one of the
-most prominent of all breeders of race horses in his day, and as he
-evidently kept the records of his stud with more care than most of his
-contemporaries, we might reasonably expect to find some trace of this
-mare if she was thoroughbred. After a careful and diligent search of all
-the records of that period, it is found that Lord Grosvenor never bred a
-Gimcrack filly to Pot8os. This disposes of Mr. Edgar’s humbug story, and
-when we state the pedigree of American Eclipse we can simply say he was
-got by Duroc; dam Miller’s Damsel by Messenger, and grandam the imported
-Pot8os mare, and there we must stop.
-
-For years past I have observed that the less a man knows about horse
-history and horse achievements, the more importance he attaches to
-the word “thoroughbred;” and of all the millions and millions of lies
-that have been told about pedigrees nine-tenths have been concocted
-and circulated for the one purpose of enhancing the supposed value of
-the animal by claiming “thoroughbred” blood. The “instinct” to lie
-about pedigrees, so common among certain classes of horsemen, seems to
-be “the sum of inherited habits” that has come down from generation
-to generation. If you ask one of these mendacious gentlemen whether
-American Eclipse was a thoroughbred he will answer, with a strong marked
-expression of contempt and pity for your ignorance on his countenance,
-“Certainly he was thoroughbred.” If you then ask him about his pedigree
-he will answer, “I don’t know anything about his pedigree.” Then you
-venture to ask how he knows he was thoroughbred if he does not know
-anything about his pedigree, and he will squelch you completely by
-saying, “No horse not thoroughbred could ever have done what American
-Eclipse did.” Here we get at the real basis of the universal mendacity
-on this subject. The preacher wrote a great book called “The Perfect
-Horse” in which he maintained that the Morgan Horse was thoroughbred.
-The lawyer wrote another great book on “The American Roadster” in which
-he maintained that Dexter was a thoroughbred. With two gentlemen of
-intelligence and education writing such miserable stuff, what are we to
-expect from the masses?
-
-Now here is the horse American Eclipse, the greatest horse of his day
-in his racing achievements, that in his blood is very far from being
-“thoroughbred,” under any rule that has ever been suggested or devised.
-Now, with this taint on his escutcheon, it follows that no one of his
-descendants for at least five generations can be classed as thoroughbred.
-As a progenitor, Eclipse cannot be considered a great horse, either in
-his immediate or more remote descendants. Medoc was about his best, and
-he was better than his sire. Another son, called Monmouth Eclipse, was
-grandly bred on the side of his dam, was sold, it was said, for fifteen
-thousand dollars for stock purposes, and proved a most lamentable
-failure, never having got a colt that was worth fifteen dollars as a
-race horse. The great fame of American Eclipse, therefore, rested upon
-what were then designated as “his mighty achievements upon the turf.”
-A reasonably complete history of this horse may be found in _Wallace’s
-Monthly_ for March, 1877, p. 160. His great race against Henry, in which
-he represented the North as against the South, was doubtless the most
-memorable turf event that ever took place on this continent, and a very
-brilliant description of it will be found at the reference given above.
-This race of four-mile heats took place on the Union Course, Long Island,
-May, 1823, for twenty thousand dollars a side, and it was, in effect,
-Eclipse against the world. Eclipse, fit or not fit, must start, while his
-opponents had several prepared to start against him and all they had to
-determine was to select the fastest and best of the whole party. At the
-last hour Henry was chosen as the champion of the South, and he won the
-first heat by about a length in 7:37½. A change was made in the rider
-of Eclipse and he won the second heat by about two lengths in 7:49. In
-the third heat the instructions to the rider of Henry were not to hurry
-the gait, but to trail to near the finish and then pull out and win in
-a rush. The rider of Eclipse understood the tactics of the enemy and he
-hurried the pace every step of the way, in order to tire out his younger
-opponent. When near the finish Henry made his dash and covered Eclipse’s
-quarter with his head, but he could get no further and abandoned the
-contest. Eclipse had been punished unmercifully from start to finish, and
-the time of the heat was 8:24. This shows an average rate of speed in the
-third heat of two minutes and six seconds to the mile, a rate which half
-a dozen trotters and a round dozen of pacers have beaten for a single
-mile. It shows also the cruelty, to say nothing of the absurdity, of heat
-racing at the distance of four miles. Still American Eclipse was the
-greatest running horse of his generation.
-
-BOSTON was a chestnut horse, foaled 1833, and bred by Mr. John Wickham,
-the very eminent jurist, of Richmond, Virginia. He succeeded to the
-great fame of American Eclipse, and although about two generations, in
-a racing sense, after him there was no horse between them that was the
-equal of either of them. He was a terror to all competitors whether of
-the North or the South. But it is only my purpose here to put on record
-the real facts about his pedigree and to expose a glaring fraud that has
-been propagated concerning his breeding for many years. Mr. Wickham, the
-breeder of Boston, bought a mare by imported Alderman (1802 or 1803) from
-John Randolph, of Tuckahoe (not “Roanoke” as sometimes stated). This mare
-was out of a mare by imported Clockfast, and here, to sum it up and give
-Mr. Wickham’s exact language, as he wrote in 1827: “This mare, a dark
-bay, foaled about 1799, was got by Alderman, her dam by Clockfast, out
-of a mare said to be full-blooded, of the Wildair blood.” This Alderman
-mare he bred to Florizel, and she produced the race horse Tuckahoe, and
-a filly that was bred to Timoleon and produced Boston. Then Boston’s
-pedigree stands; Got by Timoleon; dam by Florizel; grandam by imported
-Alderman; great-grandam by imported Clockfast; great-great-grandam “said
-to be of the Wildair blood.” This is down to “hard pan,” and there is
-no authority in the wide world to add anything to it. If we admit the
-Wildair mare to be genuine and authentic we are still one degree short
-of the thoroughbred standard. The six additional crosses that have been
-added to this pedigree are entirely fictitious. They were copied from the
-advertisement of a stallion descended from this maternal line, that had
-neither indorsement nor name attached to it. This was seized upon by the
-late Benjamin Bruce, and boasted of as a “discovery” of the extension
-of Boston’s pedigree. After the appearance of this advertisement Mr.
-Wickham prepared and published a full list of his stock, with their
-pedigrees, from the first of his breeding operations, and when he
-reached the Wildair mare he stopped, just as I have stopped at that
-point. Here we have the two authorities—Mr. John Wickham, distinguished
-for his eminent character as a man and a jurist; or a nameless stallion
-advertisement without any shadow of truth or responsibility.
-
-Timoleon, the sire of Boston, was one of the most distinguished sons of
-the great Sir Archy, his dam was by imported Saltram, and his grandam by
-Wildair, but beyond that the pedigree is a hopeless muddle, embracing
-some features that are absolutely impossible.
-
-TOM BOWLING AND AARON PENNINGTON.—The first of these horses was by
-Lexington, the second was by Tipperary, son of Ringgold, and they
-were both out of Lucy Fowler, by imported Albion, grandam-by imported
-Leviathan, great-grandam by Top Gallant, great-great-grandam Eli Odom’s
-saddle mare, which means, in that country, she was a pacer. Tom Bowling
-was probably the best race horse of his year, and Pennington may be
-classed as mediocre, but as the latter is credited with some pacers or
-trotters that have come within the 2:30 list, his pedigree becomes of
-interest on this account. I will, therefore, give the facts in some
-detail, which go to show the truth about what the pedigree contains and
-what it does not contain.
-
-In 1869 the late William R. Elliston, of Nashville, Tennessee, furnished
-me the following facts, which he obtained personally from Mr. Eli Odom.
-It was very fortunate that Mr. Elliston obtained these facts when he
-did, for Mr. Odom was advanced in years and died not long afterward.
-He was a brother-in-law of the once very famous breeder and race horse
-man, Colonel Elliott, of Tennessee, and in early life had charge of his
-establishment and knew more about Colonel Elliott’s stock than he did
-himself. He lived to old age, highly respected by all who knew him, and
-was a man of truth. He kept for his own use a pacing saddle mare whose
-blood he knew nothing about, and he bred her to Top Gallant, son of
-Gallatin, and the produce was a filly. This filly he bred to imported
-Leviathan, and in due time there came another filly which he bred to
-imported Albion, and the next filly was Lucy Fowler. This filly passed
-through the hands of a Mr. Fowler and perhaps one or two others, and at
-last became the property of Price McGrath, of Lexington, Kentucky, and
-was the dam of Tom Bowling, Aaron Pennington and others. Starting in
-with the pacing mare, Mr. Odom bred all that followed until we reach
-Lucy Fowler, and there we find she had seven parts of running blood and
-one part of pacing blood. While an animal bred in this way is certainly
-not “thoroughbred,” nobody can deny that he is “running-bred,” for
-there are hundreds of instances on record where animals of even shorter
-pedigrees than Tom Bowling have been noted race horses. But there is
-another fact connected with this family that is very interesting. When
-the running qualities of Pennington were exhausted, McGrath presented
-him to a kinsman of his, somewhere in Western Missouri. After awhile I
-began to hear of an occasional trotter from this horse and I wrote his
-owner (whose name I cannot now recall), and he replied that “he went all
-the saddle gaits and was a pacer.” Here was a tidbit that I thought well
-worth looking after, and I wrote the owner again for specific information
-of the character of his pace and whether it was a clean and pronounced
-side action, but for some reason or other I never was able to get a reply
-to my questions. There can be no mistake about his going the “saddle
-gaits,” but whether this was the result of training or whether he took to
-them naturally as inherited from Mr. Odom’s old pacing mare, is a point
-about which I have never been fully satisfied.
-
-GREY EAGLE (CHENERY’S).—When Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery, of Boston, bought
-this horse, about 1866, he got with him the following pedigree.
-
-    “Got by Grey Eagle; dam by imp. Trustee; g. d. by Columbus; g.
-    g. d. by Stockholder; g. g. g. d. by Pacolet. Bred in Kentucky,
-    and passed through many vicissitudes, both as a runner and a
-    trotter, beating his competitors at both gaits; owned for a
-    time in Ohio, now the property of Winthrop W. Chenery & Co.,
-    Boston.”
-
-This was a correct type of the pedigrees of that time, lacking date,
-location, breeder and all other things necessary to trace and determine
-its value. The horse had certainly trotted in 2:31, and he had trotted
-two miles to wagon in 5:09½, and to this evidence of his trotting ability
-it was claimed that he had run and won many races at all distances. This
-was such a combination of abilities as I never had heard of before, and
-in attempting to solve the riddle I became deeply interested. The search
-then instituted has been kept up ever since, and I must say that after
-all these years I know absolutely nothing about the breeding of this
-horse. His first known owner was a petty gambler and general outlaw in
-the neighborhood of Portsmouth, Ohio, and the story he told will be found
-in _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol. I., p. 53, and Vol. VII., p. 597, besides
-other references. The search has been so barren that I have not even the
-shadow of a theory as to what his blood may have been. He got two or
-three trotters and one or two pacers, I think, and here we have to leave
-him as the most completely unknown horse in all my experience.
-
-GEORGE WILKES.—It is a grievous misfortune that the pedigree of this
-great progenitor should be in doubt. The misfortune is not in the fact
-that his descendants lose the supposed Clay cross in his dam, for that
-was not of very great value, but in the fact that we should not know just
-what belongs in its place. In December, 1877, I had the good fortune to
-meet with Mr. Harry Felter and Mr. William L. Simmons at a breeders’
-banquet, and it was not long until we were in conversation about the
-blood of the dam of George Wilkes. I knew that the breeding of that horse
-had never been established, but I was greatly surprised that these two
-gentlemen—one the breeder and the other the owner of Wilkes—had never
-made any effort to trace and establish so important a fact. Mr. Felter
-stated that he had bought the mare from Mr. W. A. Delevan, and that Mr.
-Delevan had bought her from Mr. Joseph S. Lewis, of Geneva, New York.
-Thereupon I wrote to Mr. Lewis and the following is his response:
-
-    “Some twenty-six years since I bought a brown mare from a
-    gentleman by the name of James Gilbert, then living in the town
-    of Phelps, in this county, for a friend, and very soon after
-    sold her to W. A. Delevan, of New York. She was then about five
-    years old, a fine roadster, and could speed in about 3:30. He
-    took her to New York, and after driving her some time sold
-    her to my esteemed friend, Harry Felter. I think she passed
-    into the hands of his father, and met with an accident. She
-    was put to breeding, and had a colt by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian,
-    that grew up to be the famous George Wilkes. For the benefit
-    of many persons in New York I lost no time in looking about to
-    learn the pedigree of the mare and of the horse that got her.
-    On seeing Gilbert I learned that he got the mare of an old man
-    who is now dead, by the name of Josiah Philips, of Bristol,
-    in this county. I lost no time in sending a man, who lived
-    with us at the time, by the name of John S. Dey, to Bristol,
-    to get all the facts in the mare’s pedigree that he could get
-    hold of. He learned through Philips that the father of this
-    mare was the old Wadsworth Henry Clay, owned for many years by
-    General Wadsworth, of Genesee. There is no mistake about this,
-    as I have since learned from his neighbors that she was a Clay
-    colt. Philips further stated that the mother of the mare was
-    got by a horse called Highlander, a good horse, and owned in
-    that section of country. I have no doubt about this, as there
-    was such a horse in that section about that time. When I go
-    to Buffalo, where Gilbert now lives, I may be able to get at
-    more facts in regard to your inquiry, and if I can get hold of
-    anything that will give more light on the subject before I am
-    down in New York, I will drop into your office to see you.
-
-                      Very truly yours, etc.
-
-                                                     “J. S. LEWIS.”
-
-The receipt of this letter, so straightforward and clean-cut in its
-statements, developed a mystery that was incomprehensible to me. Dates,
-names, places, circumstances, all stand out as evidences of the truth
-of the representations, and also as evidences that Mr. Lewis had fully
-investigated the matter, and given the results of his investigations
-to his friends in this city; still, those friends had never heard the
-facts, or had entirely forgotten them. As there was a strong prejudice
-against Clay blood in certain quarters, it occurred to me that possibly
-that cross had been left in abeyance so long that it really had been
-forgotten. This did not clear up the mystery, however, and I determined
-to have the whole matter investigated from a different starting point. I
-submitted the matter to Mr. John P. Ray, a very capable and very honest
-man, and he kindly and without reward undertook the investigation. The
-Philips family lived in the vicinity of Bristol, and the first of the
-family met by Mr. Ray was Mr. E. V. Philips, nephew and adopted son of
-Joshua Philips (not Josiah, as Mr. Lewis had it), and he enumerated
-several head of Clays that had been owned by his uncle Joshua, among them
-a mare that was bred by Mr. Clark Philips, bought of him when a yearling
-by E. V. Philips, sold as a four-year-old to his uncle Joshua, and by him
-the next year to “some man from the eastern part of the country.” He next
-met Mr. Clark Philips, who fully confirmed E. V. Philips about the Clay
-filly already referred to and said she was got when old Henry Clay was
-owned by Kent and Bailey of Bristol, and that her dam was “Old Telegraph”
-by Highlander, etc. In his original report to me of his investigation Mr.
-Ray uses the following language:
-
-    “When Henry Clay was being brought from the East to his home in
-    Western New York, he stopped one night at the hotel then kept
-    in Bristol by Dr. Durgan, deceased (the breeder of Castle Boy),
-    and made a season at this place the following year, when he
-    became the property of Kent & Bailey. He was kept in that town
-    for several years, etc.”
-
-Now, as between the original and voluntary statement of Captain Lewis
-and the investigation carried through by Mr. Ray, there is no conflict
-and all is smooth sailing, and upon the information derived from these
-two sources the pedigree of George Wilkes was decided as established
-by the Board of Censors. But more recent discoveries made by Mr. Ray,
-in which I have no doubt he is thoroughly conscientious and possibly
-thoroughly right, have raised a conflict that is irrepressible, for dates
-are involved and insisted upon that make the pedigree impossible. In his
-original statement Mr. Ray says that Henry Clay made the season of 1846
-at Bristol, “when he became the property of Kent & Bailey. He was kept in
-that town for some years.” Up to this point there is no contradiction and
-no impossibility; Ray agrees with Lewis and Lewis agrees with Ray. But in
-the past two or three years Mr. Ray believes he has secured additional
-information, and this places Captain Lewis in a very unenviable position.
-The whole point of Clark Philips’ evidence is that he bred his mare “Old
-Telegraph” to Henry Clay when that horse was owned by Bailey Brothers,
-of Bristol, and I suppose they were the successors of Kent & Bailey of
-an earlier date. Now, as Mr. Ray told us in his first investigation that
-Henry Clay passed into the hands of Kent & Bailey in 1847, and as he
-tells us later that he did not pass into their hands till nine or ten
-years after that date and then fails to fix the precise year, it must
-be conceded by all that his information is not wholly satisfactory.
-Recollections may be ever so honest, but they are of various degrees
-of reliability. The best and final evidence is the service book of the
-horse. My best judgment of the whole matter is that Mr. Ray’s later
-information is probably correct, but until all doubt is removed by the
-production of some contemporaneous record covering the case there must
-remain an element of uncertainty attaching to the pedigree.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXI.
-
-HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED.
-
-    Early trotting and pacing races—Strains of blood in the
-    first known trotters —The lesson of Maud S.—The genesis of
-    trotting-horse literature—The simple study of inheritance—The
-    different forms of heredity—The famous quagga story not
-    sustained—Illustrations in dogs—Heredity of acquired characters
-    and instincts—Development of successive generations necessary
-    —Unequaled collections of statistics—Acquired injuries and
-    unsoundness transmitted.
-
-
-As preparatory to taking up the consideration of the breeding problem,
-it may be well to look back a little and see what had transpired in the
-trotting-horse world, leading up to the serious consideration of how
-he was bred. It has been generally accepted as true that there were no
-trotting contests in this country till about the second decade of the
-present century, but this impression has grown out of the fact that the
-newspapers, down to that period, failed to report such contests. It
-is historically true that pacing races were a common amusement among
-the people of different portions of the colonies nearly two hundred
-years ago. This is established by the legislative action of some of
-the colonies, in the first half of the last century, in suppressing
-all “pacing and trotting races.” It is well to note, in passing, that
-pacers and trotters of that early period were commingled, just as they
-are to-day, with the former the more prominent, and the more highly
-prized. Of that hundred years of silence we have no details and but few
-historical references that were contemporaneous with the events. Hence we
-are practically dependent upon the legislative action of the colonies to
-establish the truth beyond question.
-
-When we reach the period when the newspapers began to report some of the
-more conspicuous and important trotting events about Philadelphia and New
-York, we find a condition of things for which we are hardly prepared. The
-pacer has lost his prominence and is but little in evidence, and all the
-best trotters seem to be descended from the imported horse Messenger.
-The best performers of that period were as follows:
-
-  Topgallant
-  Paul Pry
-  Dutchman
-  Jersey Fagdown
-  Commander (Bull)
-  Gipsy
-  Bull Calf
-  Lady Warrenton
-  Betsy Baker
-  Sir Peter
-  Screwdriver
-  Chancellor
-  Whalebone
-  Lady Suffolk
-  Andrew Jackson
-  Fanny Pullen
-  Washington
-  Sally Miller
-  Greenwich Maid
-  Charlotte Temple
-  Confidence
-  Rattler
-  Lady Salisbury
-  Modesty
-
-These were all descended from Messenger, and with the exception of Edwin
-Forrest and one or two others, believed to be descended from pacing
-blood, they were the leading performers of their day. All of the above
-animals were not equally strong in Messenger blood as three of them
-were by sons and out of daughters of Messenger, five were by sons of
-Messenger, and all the others had more or less of his blood. More than
-eighty years ago the descendants of Messenger, wherever known, were
-recognized as a family of trotters and this broad fact became a kind
-of universal belief among horsemen. This belief, being founded on a
-truth, was all right, but a plausible deduction from it, which was not
-a truth, inflicted a terrible penalty upon the pockets of otherwise
-intelligent men for a period of more than fifty years before they
-discovered their error. The postulate was in this form: “Messenger was
-a thoroughbred horse and founded a great family of trotters, hence,
-any other thoroughbred horse, under the same conditions, would have
-accomplished the same results.” This “stock” form of the argument was
-plausible and it was in everybody’s mouth from one end of the land to
-the other. Every stable boy, every breeder, every editor believed the
-deduction was sound, and, I may as well own it, I believed it myself
-until I had gathered together all the accessible trotting statistics of
-this country and reduced them to order and method, so that they might be
-studied and their true teachings be drawn from them. As an illustration
-of the ignorant intolerance and dishonesty with which certain editors and
-their followers maintained, less than twenty years ago, that all that
-was of any value in the trotter was inherited from the runner, take the
-following: In the autumn of 1878 the famous Maud S., then four years old,
-came out and trotted a mile in 2:17½, which was then a world’s wonder.
-She was a pacer of the plastic type, but she had to wear toe-weights
-through all her brilliant career to keep her on her gait as a trotter.
-Everybody was astounded at this phenomenal performance and went wild over
-it as something that had never been done before, by a four-year-old,
-and probably never would be done again. On this performance I simply
-remarked, in the _Monthly_:
-
-    “Her trotting inheritance is very strong and well defined on
-    both sides of the house, and she has a right to trot, and trot
-    fast, and her 2:17½ shows that she trots instinctively, and
-    without much training; and in this she is phenomenal. She is
-    simply a little in advance of her time; for no truth is more
-    fully sustained by analogy and reason than that, in a few
-    generation of judicious selections, such mares will not be
-    phenomenal.”
-
-From this four-year-old record of 2:17½ in 1878, we pass on to the
-two-year-old record of 2:10¾ in 1891. A four-year-old now trotting
-in 2:17½ is only commonplace. It was not a gift of “prophecy” nor an
-overwrought enthusiasm, therefore, that enabled me to determine that
-2:17½ for a four-year-old would become commonplace, but a study of the
-laws of breeding in the light of all past trotting experiences. When
-this performance was made the late B. G. Bruce, of Lexington, Kentucky,
-then editor of a sporting paper, went into ecstasies over it and was at
-once able to show, to his own mind, that it was all owing to the running
-blood in Maud S. that enabled her to show phenomenal speed. He figured
-this all out and showed that she possessed eleven-sixteenths of what he
-called “pure blood,” to five-sixteenths of what he called “cold blood.”
-In winding up his article, he says:
-
-    “In conclusion we deem it evident from her form and action that
-    the great power of Maud S. comes from her pure blood; that her
-    breeding back on the form and action, courage and endurance
-    of the blood horse is the very reason why she is so superior
-    to all four-year-olds that have ever appeared. And another
-    point is obvious: the pure blood matures so much earlier than
-    the cold blood that years are gained in development over the
-    cold-blooded trotter.”
-
-Now instead of Maud S. possessing eleven-sixteenths of “pure blood,” as
-claimed by Mr. Bruce, it has never been shown and never can be shown that
-she possessed one single drop of “pure blood.” When Sally Russell, the
-grandam of Maud S., was sold to Mr. R. A. Alexander, she was sold under
-a fraudulent pedigree, and when Pilot Jr. was sold to Mr. Alexander an
-utterly impossible pedigree was manufactured for him. In both cases he
-was the victim of sharpers, for in his life and character he stood away
-above all suspicion. The pedigrees of Pilot Jr. and Sally Russell have
-been fully considered in Chapter XXIX. of this volume.
-
-After publishing “The American Stud Book” in 1867, and the first volume
-of the “Trotting Register” in 1871, and having carefully compiled all
-past trotting races and trotting experiences, up to the close of 1872,
-it began to dawn upon me that possibly I had been handling a great many
-fictions and thereby given them an indorsement to the world as truths.
-This “gave me pause,” as well as many a sleepless night and anxious day.
-The old adage, “What everybody says must be true,” gave me no comfort,
-for I had just found that Mr. “Everybody” was a great liar. Then a higher
-and purer maxim suggested itself to my mind, “One, with the truth on his
-side, is a majority,” and under this banner I enlisted for the war which
-I knew was coming. Having compiled the pedigrees of all running horses
-and all trotting horses, so far as known, up to 1870, and more especially
-having gathered up all past trotting experiences and statistics, I felt
-that I was equipped to enter the lists with everybody against me. I knew
-I was liable to meet antagonists on every side, and some of them of
-great ability, but at the same time I knew they had neither the armor
-of truth nor the weapons of facts at their command. Mere prejudices and
-the limping opinions that spring from them have no force in an earnest
-combat. The platform upon which I stood was aggressive, but simple and
-easily comprehended, viz., “The English horse Messenger, in his own right
-and by his own power, founded a family of trotters—something which no
-other English horse had ever been able to take the first step toward
-accomplishing.” This was the central point around which the battle
-raged, and to it I added the pacer as a subsidiary or minor source of
-speed, equally certain in fact, but not equally well defined in lines
-of descent, nor equally important in numbers and value. From these
-major and minor sources it is literally true that all our trotters have
-descended. In confirmation of this, a very capable and careful writer in
-the New York _Sun_, within the past few months, has said: “Hambletonian
-is the progenitor of ninety per cent. of the fast trotters now on the
-turf.” When we start with Hambletonian, the triple great-grandson of
-Messenger, we are safely within the period of records of both blood and
-performances, and we are relieved from some possible uncertainties in
-the earlier period of Messenger himself, hence the writer quoted above
-is at bed-rock in the sources of his information. This makes my major
-proposition so plain and so triumphantly sustained that it is doubtful
-whether there is now living an intelligent horseman who would even think
-of disputing it.
-
-In the spring of 1872 I wrote a series of articles under the caption
-of “How shall we breed the Trotting Horse?” which was published in the
-_Spirit of the Times_ in February and March of that year. These papers
-were revised and enlarged and published, as an introductory treatise on
-breeding the trotter, in the second volume of the “American Trotting
-Register.” This treatise is the genesis of all discussions in which the
-laws governing the breeding of the trotter are considered. Up to that
-period contributions to the press on breeding subjects were generally
-transient and confined to the writer’s own experience. If he was trying
-to breed trotters a comparison of his material always corresponded with
-his arguments, and the only thing he demonstrated was his own inability
-to see over the fence surrounding his own paddocks. I love a man who
-loves his horse, and, as a man, I cannot dislike him because he thinks
-his horse is the very acme of all equine perfection, although he may be
-a worthless, brute; but when a man spends a whole lifetime in trying to
-breed trotters from blood that cannot trot, I lose all respect for his
-mental operations. The man who cannot widen out and take profit from
-the demonstrated experiences of the whole trotting world, had better
-turn his attention to some business suited to his capacity. Not a single
-thought advanced nor a position taken in the article referred to has ever
-been successfully controverted, although they excited much opposition.
-An attempt was made to laugh the phrase “trotting instinct” out of
-court, but that little phrase not only held the fortress, but became,
-as it were, the basis of the whole system of thought represented in the
-treatise. It had a meaning and a fitness in what it meant that put it in
-everybody’s mouth, and there it stays for all time. Instinct is “the sum
-of inherited habits;” and these five words express the best practical
-definition of its meaning that I have ever met with.
-
-THE LAWS THAT GOVERN.—In all animal life the resemblance of the offspring
-to the parents is the universal law. The law is not only true in the
-physical conformation of the offspring, but it is also true in the
-mentality and instinctivity of the offspring. In former years it was
-very aptly termed the law of inheritance, but the more general usage is
-now the law of heredity. In casting about for a definition of this newly
-coined word, I have not been able to find anything more comprehensive and
-expressive than that given by Ribot, in the opening sentence of his work
-on this subject. He says:
-
-    “Heredity is that biological law by which all beings endowed
-    with life tend to repeat themselves in their descendants; it is
-    for the species what personal identity is for the individual.
-    By it a groundwork remains unchanged amid incessant variation;
-    by it Nature ever copies and imitates herself.”
-
-This has been the law ever since the command went forth, “Let the earth
-bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing
-and beast of the earth after his kind.” Hence sprang the varieties,
-species, genera and orders into which naturalists have sought to classify
-the animal kingdom. In generations long past our ancestors used such
-phrases as “Like father, like son,” “Trot father, trot mother, trot
-colt,” “Like begets like,” etc., meaning just what we mean to-day by the
-word “heredity.” While heredity is a universal law of animal life, it
-must be remembered that its results cannot be pre-determined by any rule
-of arithmetic. Every colt has a sire and a dam, four grandparents, eight
-great-grandparents, and then sixteen, and next thirty-two progenitors.
-Here we have five generations embracing sixty-two different animals, and
-the experiences of many years have gone to show that if these sixty-two
-animals are all purely bred in the breed which you are seeking to secure
-there is a reasonable certainty that your prospective colt will be a
-good representative of that breed. By this I mean that with this number
-of generations there is but little danger of your colt following some
-undesirable type outside of and beyond these five generations. The only
-way to study this problem intelligently and with satisfaction is to
-tabulate the pedigrees of the two animals you propose to couple and then
-study each individual of the different generations and see what each one
-has done in the direction you are breeding. If you are breeding for a
-Derby winner you want every one of the sixty-two to have proved himself
-or herself a first-class runner, and you don’t want a single drop of
-outside blood in any of them. If you are breeding for the two-minute
-trotter, you don’t want any blood but the fastest trotting blood. If you
-are breeding for the two-minute pacer you want nothing but the fastest
-pacing blood. But, possibly you may be breeding for size, style, and
-beauty, and in that case you must be particularly careful to have your
-tabulation full of animals possessing these qualifications. In times past
-many breeders have been led to their own hurt in making ill-considered
-attempts at improvement by mating animals of antagonistic instincts. The
-fast runner and the fast trotter have nothing in common between them in
-the way of gait. In physical structure there may be no antagonism that we
-can see, but in mental or psychical structure there is nothing but what
-is inharmonious. Each animal and each line of blood must be considered
-as it stands separate from the other, and the question must be not only
-asked but answered: “What has this line of blood done in its own right
-and by its own power?”
-
-In studying these tabulations it certainly is not necessary to remind any
-thinking man of the comparative value of near and remote individuals.
-The first and second generations are the important factors in the
-character and value of the proposed colt, and, as a rule, the four
-grandparents are not given that weight in making up a sound judgment
-to which they are entitled. A tabulated pedigree may show a general
-equality or average goodness all over, in the direction we are looking;
-although it may embrace but few stars it is not a pedigree that should
-be hastily rejected. The student should never lose sight of the truth
-that bad qualities are just as certain to be transmitted as good ones.
-Bad feet, bad limbs, bad eyes and bad respiration should be sufficient
-cause for prompt rejection. Derangement or unhealthiness of the internal
-viscera or any of them is just as likely to be transmitted as an external
-malformation or disease.
-
-In some instances the qualities sought seem to emanate entirely from the
-sire or the dam, and this prepotency seems to appear more frequently as
-the work of the sire than of the dam, perhaps because the opportunities
-are greater in the number of services. Thousands of stallions have failed
-to get trotters out of running-bred mares, but as many as you could count
-on the fingers of one hand, probably, have succeeded in a few instances.
-Of these Pilot Jr., Almont and Electioneer occur to me at this time as
-the most prominent. These horses, so far as we know the lines of their
-blood, were strictly trotting and pacing bred, with no tincture of
-running blood in their veins. On a certain occasion Senator Stanford
-wished to demonstrate to the writer that Electioneer could get trotters
-out of running-bred mares, and after showing the step of the famous Palo
-Alto, he remarked: “None of my other stallions can do that. Electioneer
-alone has the power to get trotters out of some thoroughbred mares, but
-not all.” This ability to get a trotter out of a running mare is the
-highest test to which the prepotency of a trotting sire can be put, as is
-shown by the very small number that have ever succeeded.
-
-DIRECT HEREDITY.—While it is true that all inheritance must come through
-the parents, it is also true that phenomena of form, character and
-quality are not infrequently presented that the parents do not seem to
-possess, and upon looking further we find those phenomena in some of the
-more remote ancestors. When we find the character of the offspring a
-practical reproduction of one or both the parents, we designate this as a
-case of “direct heredity” merely for the convenience of description and
-elucidation. Ideal or perfect heredity never has been reached and never
-will be. There are two sources to the life of the new being, and each
-of these sources is made up of never-ending variations. There may seem
-to be a very complete coalescence of the elements of the sire and dam
-in the foal, but it is not like either of them and yet it may resemble
-both. A mere physical resemblance to a great sire is no evidence that the
-colt will be equally great. I have seen many of the sons of the great
-Hambletonian, and among them all the one that bore the strongest physical
-resemblance to him was of the least value, either as a performer or a
-progenitor. Hambletonian left many great sons behind him, some of them
-even greater than himself, and while they all possessed certain family
-characteristics, I cannot recall a single one that strikingly resembled
-him in his physical conformation. From this incident, as well as a
-thousand other similar ones, we cannot avoid the conclusion that heredity
-controls the whole animal, man or beast, in his mental as well as in his
-physical constitution.
-
-CROSS HEREDITY is one of the forms of direct heredity, and is not very
-well exemplified in trotting experiences, nor very valuable in the
-lessons it is supposed to teach. In its first form it embraces instances
-where the character of the sire is transmitted to his daughters and the
-character of the dam is transmitted to her sons. Long ago I established
-a table in the “Year Book” to embrace the sires of mares that produced
-two or more animals in the 2:30 list, but had failed to place any
-representative there from their own loins. The development of this table
-simply showed an array of sires that were not able to get 2:30 trotters,
-but when their daughters were bred to horses of stronger inheritance,
-horses indeed that were able to get trotters from almost any kind of
-mares, they produced foals that came within the circle. This was a
-grandsire’s table and depended upon second causes, that is, the horses
-that gave it life occupied secondary positions in it, and it presented
-but little that was of value to the student of horse history. In the
-discussion of this particular form of heredity the books are filled up
-with instances of vicious fathers begetting vicious daughters and vicious
-mothers producing vicious sons, with more or less uncertainty as to the
-individual origin of the parties in question.
-
-INDIRECT AND COLLATERAL HEREDITY.—When a child or a colt does not
-resemble its parents, but “takes after” the grandfather or some more
-remote ancestor, it is said to be a case of atavism, or indirect or
-collateral heredity. Twenty years ago I visited, by appointment, a
-branch of my family at the old homestead of my great-grandfather, on
-the maternal side. There never had been any knowledge of each other or
-intercourse between these two branches of the family. On arriving at my
-destination I was warmly greeted by a gentleman who came forward from
-the crowd and named me. As there were a good number of people alighting
-from the train at the same time I asked my cousin how he knew me, and he
-replied that I bore such a striking resemblance to my grandfather that
-at a single glance he could have picked me out of a hundred men. This
-grandfather was the father of my mother and he died when I was a small
-boy. But there was a still greater surprise awaiting me. My kinsman was
-an intelligent man of excellent sense, and during the few days I spent
-in his family he was to me a most interesting study. In a hundred ways
-he reminded me of my brother, not in resemblance of face, for there was,
-practically, no resemblance; but in the action of his mind, in his way of
-putting things, and especially in his unstudied and peculiar gestures of
-his hands in conversation, the one seemed to be a perfect reproduction
-of the other. They were both born and reared on farms, they were both
-heads of families, and they were both elders in the Presbyterian church.
-The one was the third and the other the fourth remove from their common
-progenitor. I have read carefully descriptions of many cases of mental
-heredity, but this case, coming under my own observation and deliberate
-study, seemed to be more thoroughly convincing than any or all others.
-
-The fact that certain qualities may lie dormant through several
-generations and then be unexpectedly developed was well known to the
-ancients more than two thousand years ago. Plutarch mentions a Greek
-woman who gave birth to a negro child and was brought to trial for
-adultery, but it was discovered that she was descended in the fourth
-degree from an Ethiopian. Montaigne expresses his astonishment at this,
-and remarks:
-
-    “Is it not marvelous that this drop of seed from which we are
-    produced should bear the impression, not only of the bodily
-    form, but even the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers?
-    Where does this drop of water keep its infinite number of
-    forms? How does it bear these likenesses through a progress
-    so haphazard and so irregular that the great-grandson shall
-    resemble the great-grandfather, the nephew the uncle?”
-
-The most prolific and satisfactory sources of evidence in support of
-indirect or reversionary heredity are to be found in the crosses between
-the white and the black races. They abound in all quarters wherever the
-two races are to be found, and many a proud family has been humbled
-to the dust when the long-concealed “black drop” makes its unexpected
-appearance. There are hundreds of such cases in the world, and it is
-impossible to make even an approximation of the number of generations
-that would be required to wash out the stain.
-
-HEREDITY OF INFLUENCE.—When the subject of “How to Breed the Trotting
-Horse” was in its infancy there was a wonderful amount of mystery
-about it. Nobody could understand why one horse of the same general
-conformation should not trot just as fast as another. When it was found
-that this way of looking at the problem would not meet the facts, one
-thought it was owing to the length of certain bones, another that it
-was all in the hind quarters, another that it was “the trotting pitch,”
-another that it was “a happy nick,” etc. When it was all made plain that
-a horse was able to trot fast because his ancestors were able to trot
-fast, the seekers for the mysterious had nothing left that suited their
-taste but the effects of first impregnations, resting on Lord Morton’s
-story of the quagga and the mare, which is here dignified with the title
-“Heredity of Influence.” Now, just how “influence,” two or three years
-after the event, should become a controlling factor in the paternity of
-a colt, is a mystery sufficiently profound to satisfy our friends of
-earlier years, so intent upon finding something mysterious. For about
-three-quarters of a century the story, coming from so reputable a source,
-has been cited in many scientific bodies and accepted by many scientific
-men and writers without a question or doubt. No writer, so far as I know,
-has ever attempted to controvert it, and if the facts be well founded
-it demolishes in its conclusions all the laws of generation, to say
-nothing of the universal law of heredity. The point to be considered is,
-whether the first impregnation influences the offspring of subsequent
-and different impregnations. In other words, whether the children of a
-widow by her second husband will partake of the characteristics of her
-first husband. Ribot says “that from the psychological point of view, we
-are skeptical in regard to this form of heredity. The fact seems to be
-perfectly out of the order of things.” He then goes on to consider it as
-though it might be true, and cites any number of the veriest fables in
-support of it, without ever stopping to inquire whether they have any
-foundation of truth. In every assemblage of breeders brought together for
-the purpose of discussing how best to breed and rear our domestic animals
-at a profit, there is always somebody to bring in the everlasting story
-of the mare and the quagga, not because it may have any relevancy to the
-subject, but it is an opportunity not to be lost to show one’s learning.
-As this story has served the purpose of showing off the learning of so
-many thousands who never saw it, I will here give it in its original
-and official form. A communication from the Earl of Morton was read
-before the Royal Society of London, November 23, 1820, and published in
-“Philosophical Transactions” for 1821, p. 20, and is as follows:
-
-    “I yesterday had an opportunity of observing a singular fact in
-    natural history, which you may, perhaps, deem not unworthy of
-    being communicated to the Royal Society.
-
-    “Some years ago I was desirous of trying the experiment of
-    domesticating the quagga, and endeavored to procure some
-    individuals of that species. I obtained a male; but being
-    disappointed of a female, I tried to breed from the male quagga
-    and a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, and
-    which had never been bred from; the result was the production
-    of a female hybrid, now five years old, and bearing both in her
-    form and in her color very decided indications of her mixed
-    origin. I subsequently parted with the seven-eighths Arabian
-    mare to Sir Gore Ousley, who has bred from her, by a very fine
-    black Arabian horse. I yesterday morning examined the produce,
-    namely, a two-year-old filly and a year-old colt. They have the
-    character of the Arabian breed as decidedly as can be expected,
-    where fifteen-sixteenths of the blood are Arabian; and they
-    are fine specimens of that breed; but both in their color and
-    in the hair of their manes they have a striking resemblance to
-    the quagga. Their color is bay, marked more or less like the
-    quagga, in a darker tint. Both are distinguished by the dark
-    line along the ridge of the back, the dark stripes across the
-    forehand, and the dark bars across the back part of the legs.
-    The stripes across the forehand of the colt are confined to
-    the withers, and the part of the neck next to them. Those on
-    the filly cover nearly the whole of the neck and the back as
-    far as the flanks. The color of her coat on the neck adjoining
-    the mane is pale, and approaching a dun, rendering the stripes
-    there more conspicuous than those on the colt. The same
-    pale tint appears in a less degree on the rump; and in this
-    circumstance of the dun tint also she resembles the quagga.
-
-    “The colt and filly were taken up from grass for my inspection,
-    and owing to the present state of their coats I could not
-    ascertain whether they bear any indications of spots on the
-    rump, the dark pasterns, or the narrow strips on the forehead,
-    with which the quagga is marked. They have no appearance of
-    the dark lines along the belly or the white tufts on the side
-    of the mane. Both their manes are black; that of the filly is
-    short and stiff, and stands upright; and Sir Gore Ousley’s
-    stud groom alleged it never was otherwise; that of the colt is
-    long, but so stiff as to arch upward, and to hang clear of the
-    side of the neck, in which circumstance it resembles that of a
-    hybrid. This is the more remarkable, as the mane of the Arabian
-    breed hangs lank and closer to the neck than those of most
-    others. The bars across the legs, both of the hybrid and of the
-    colt and filly, are more strongly defined and darker than those
-    on the legs of the quagga, which are very slightly marked; and
-    though the hybrid has several quagga marks which the colt and
-    filly have not, yet the most striking, namely, the stripes on
-    the forehand, are fewer and less apparent than those on the
-    colt and filly. These circumstances may appear singular, but
-    I think you will agree with me that they are trifles compared
-    with the extraordinary fact of so many striking features which
-    do not belong to the dam, being in two successive instances
-    communicated through her to the progeny not only of another
-    sire, who also had them not, but to a sire probably of another
-    species; for such we have very strong reasons for supposing the
-    quagga to be”
-
-This is Lord Morton’s original quagga story without abridgement, the
-substance of which has been quoted and printed millions of times, but I
-never have seen anything like an analysis of it, either for or against
-its value as determining any fact or principle in breeding. The elements
-are: a young chestnut mare, “seven-eighths Arabian blood,” was bred to a
-quagga and produced a hybrid. She was afterward bred to a black “Arabian”
-and produced a colt and a filly that were supposed to be marked like the
-quagga; hence, first impregnations influence all subsequent foals; and
-hence “the heredity of influence,” as called by some scientists. Lord
-Morton has given an intelligent and, no doubt, faithful description of
-the colt and the filly that came out of the mare that had previously
-produced the hybrid quagga; but he has failed to show that none of the
-near-by ancestors of the sire and dam of this colt and filly were of a
-dun color and were marked just as the colt and filly were marked. Until
-it is shown that the peculiar markings of this colt and filly could not
-have been inherited from their natural ancestors, the half-formed theory
-that they were the result of the coupling with the quagga, years before,
-wholly fails to satisfy the human understanding. When Lord Morton tells
-us that the dam was seven-eighths, and the sire full Arabian, he seems
-to think he has covered that point; but he has not, for he has not shown
-that there was a single drop of Arabian blood in either of them. It
-must not be forgotten that at the period here referred to all Eastern
-and Southern horses were called Arabians, when not one in fifty of them
-ever saw Arabia either through his own eyes or through the eyes of any
-of his ancestors. The composite material out of which the English race
-horse was built up was of all colors, including the dun, with the dark
-stripe on his back, the short stripes or patches on his shoulders, and
-the transverse bars on his legs. A horse of this color, I am told, once
-won the Derby. The Kattywar horses of Northwestern India, Mr. Darwin
-informs us, are from fifteen to sixteen hands high, of all colors, with
-the several shades of dun the most common, and when one of them fails of
-having the spinal stripe, the shoulder stripes, and the leg stripes the
-purity of his breeding is doubted. This is the type of horse the British
-officers ride, and when their term of service expires sometimes bring
-home with them. There are many duns in Persia and in Eastern Asia Minor,
-I am informed, and the stripes seem to belong to the color. In Norway the
-color of the native horse is dun and the stripes are considered evidence
-of pure breeding. Many of the mountain horses of Spain are duns, with
-the stripes. The dun color prevailed, to a greater or less extent, among
-the native English horses of three hundred years ago, and some of them
-were brought to this country in the early colonial period. Mr. Darwin,
-in his “Animals and Plants under Domestication,” fully describes the dun
-horses of Devonshire, and in order to be clearly understood he figures
-one of them showing the dark stripes on the shoulder and the transverse
-bars upon the legs. I have seen numbers of dun horses so marked, in this
-country, the most conspicuous that I can now recall being Wapsie, the
-distinguished son of Green’s Bashaw. The fact that horses of this color
-and marking are to be found in all parts of the globe, has led many
-thoughtful writers to the conclusion that these characteristics are among
-the very earliest in the history of the horse. To bring this instance to
-a close, I must say:
-
-1. Beyond the color alone of the sire and dam of this colt and filly,
-there is no evidence whatever that they might not have inherited, by
-ordinary generation, the color and markings from some of their ancestors.
-
-2. The miscegenous breeding of the ass upon the mare has been practiced,
-we know, for more than three thousand years, and yet in all that time,
-and down to our own day and experiences, there has been no established
-indication that the first impregnation of the filly by the ass had any
-influence whatever upon her subsequent produce by the horse.
-
-This theory of the first impregnation having an influence on all
-subsequent produce is probably more generally maintained among dog
-fanciers than any other class of breeders. In some instances when a
-valuable maiden bitch gets astray she is banished from the kennel and
-either destroyed or given away. For this foolish notion some antique
-authority might be cited. Burdach, a French writer on physiology, says:
-
-    “If a bitch be once put to a dog of another race, every litter
-    of puppies afterward will include one belonging to that other
-    breed, except the first time she be put only to dogs of her own
-    breed.”
-
-This is a kind of pseudo science that is only calculated to mislead,
-for the vital facts are omitted. What was the pedigree of the bitch?
-She may have looked like a well-bred pointer and a high price may have
-been paid for her, but her sire may have been a mongrel, or, possibly, a
-miserable cur. No dog breeder or dog dealer has ever been known to drown
-the results of a _mésalliance_ if it was a fairly good-looking puppy. It
-goes into the records as a thoroughbred and finds a market. When a dog
-and a bitch, seeming to be well-bred and costing a high price, bring into
-the world a litter of puppies showing a mixed inheritance, the fancier at
-once jumps to the conclusion that there is something mysterious about it,
-and as he has heard of the evil results of first impregnations, he thinks
-he has discovered the source of the trouble and straightway this is
-another example resulting from first impregnation. He then goes back on
-the dealer, or possibly the breeder, and there to conceal the fact that
-the blood of his kennel was not pure, he would naturally play the rogue
-and admit that the young bitch might have got astray. This satisfies the
-unsophisticated owner, and another trick of an unscrupulous “dog jockey”
-goes on record as a case of “heredity of influence,” when in fact it was
-nothing more nor less than a dirty fraud in the breeding of the dog or
-bitch, or both.
-
-Some of the early French writers on scientific subjects, as Burdach,
-Michelet, etc., advanced the theory more than a hundred years ago
-that the children of a second marriage, in some cases, inherited the
-resemblance and character of the first husband. In the nature of things
-this theory could have but very feeble support and that chiefly among
-scandalmongers. In connection with this phase of “heredity of influence”
-I will give a little instance of my personal experience. Twenty years
-ago, or more, I was making an address before an association, in a New
-England city, on the subject of “How to Breed the Trotting Horse.” The
-audience was very large and composed exclusively of gentlemen. At the
-opening it was announced that at the close of each specific topic an
-opportunity would be given to any one in the audience to ask questions
-on the thoughts presented. The signal had hardly been given when a
-gentleman arose in the audience and raised the question whether I had not
-omitted an important fact in heredity? He then went on to rehearse the
-everlasting quagga story, with a most confident flourish of his learning
-and a sure grasp on a triumph.
-
-“The quagga story,” I remarked, “is well known to everybody, but there
-are some facts about it that are not known to anybody. The mare herself
-may have been from a dun tribe of horses, or the horse to which she was
-afterward bred may have been from such a tribe, hundreds of which have
-stripes on the back, the shoulders and the legs, and thus the stripes
-might be accounted for by indirect heredity; not because the quagga had
-stripes, but because the dun horse ancestry had stripes. Most people,
-probably, look upon it as a freak of nature, and as the case has never
-duplicated itself, in all the years before or since, it fails to be a
-practical question, and in our personal experiences as breeders, we need
-not be afraid of suffering harm from it.”
-
-“Your explanation,” replied my interlocutor, “fails to cover the case, I
-think, for I have seen, with my own eyes, instances of it in the human
-family and I will relate one. A dozen years ago, or more, a friend of
-mine married a lady who was a brunette in complexion, with black eyes and
-black hair. He was of florid complexion, with blue eyes and sandy hair,
-just about the color of my own. After three or four years the husband
-died leaving two children of his own complexion and color of eyes and
-hair. In course of time the widow married a man with black hair and
-black eyes, and there came a second set of children that were as perfect
-reproductions of the first husband as his own children were in complexion
-and color of hair.”
-
-“How long have you personally known this family, and have you ever seen
-these two sets of children?”
-
-“I have known the family intimately ever since the first marriage and I
-have seen both sets of children very often.”
-
-“You certainly have had abundant opportunity to know whereof you affirm,
-and the facts seem so plain that it would be a refinement on folly to
-undertake to contradict them; but there is one element in this case that
-has not been explained, and it is a vital one. How are we to know whether
-some man of ‘sandy complexion’ and with ‘hair and eyes just the color of
-yours,’ is not the father of this second set of children?”
-
-This ended the colloquy in a “roof-raising” shout, and I never have
-been called upon since, in a public meeting, to even allude to the
-“heredity of influence.” With the experiences of thousands of years of
-miscegnatious breeding between the ass and the mare and no indication
-among the writers of the ancients as to the evil and abiding effects of
-first impregnations; and with the experiences of more than a century in
-this country, with the same results, we are compelled to throw over all
-claims of this kind until furnished with full and complete pedigrees of
-the sire and dam, showing the color and markings of each individual for a
-number of generations.
-
-HEREDITY OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS AND INSTINCTS.—On this point there
-is a lack of unanimity among the promoters of the “primordial germ”
-theory, and the principal advocate of the negative side of this question
-appears to be Professor Weismann. Mere opinions of men, no difference
-how profound their learning, cannot be of any value, unless they are
-sustained by actual experiences, on questions of this kind. To determine
-this matter we are not dependent upon any of the explanations of the
-central Darwinian hypothesis of creation without a Creator, for we have
-all around us, safely within the historic period of human observation
-and experience, mountains of evidence, so to speak, heaped upon us, going
-to show that “acquired character and instincts” are transmitted and
-become hereditary.
-
-Dr. Pritchard, in his “Natural History of Man,” gives the following
-illustration on this point:
-
-    “Two other very important observations made by M. Roulin, in
-    South America, were pointed out by M. Geoffrey St. Hillaire, in
-    his report to the Academy of Sciences. They refer to the fact
-    of the hereditary transmission of habits originally impressed
-    with care and art upon the ancestors. Of this fact I will
-    adduce other examples in the sequel; at present I only advert
-    to M. Roulin’s observations. The horses bred on the grazing
-    farms of the table-lands of the Cordillera are carefully taught
-    a peculiar pace, which is a sort of running amble. This is
-    not their natural mode of progression, but they are inured to
-    it very early, and the greatest pains are taken to prevent
-    them from moving in any other gait; in this way the acquired
-    habit becomes a second nature. It happens occasionally that
-    such horses becoming lame, or no longer fit for use, it is
-    then customary to let them loose, if they happen to be well
-    grown stallions, into the pasture grounds. It is constantly
-    observed that these horses become the sires of a race to which
-    the ambling pace is natural, and which requires no teaching.
-    The fact is so well known that such colts have received a
-    particular name; they are termed ‘aguilillas.’”
-
-The fact that there were some pacers in South America came to me from
-many sources, and especially from gentlemen of intelligence and character
-who had spent years in that country, and was for a long time a puzzle
-to me. All the evidences of history went to show that the horse stock
-of South America was Spanish, and no evidence could be found that the
-Spanish horse was a pacer, or that there was any tendency to pace in
-the blood of the Spanish horse. This report to the French Academy of
-Sciences was made in the early part of this century and is really the
-first information I have ever had of Spanish horses pacing. Dr. Pritchard
-was one of the earlier modern writers on natural history and stands very
-high as a man of conscience as well as learning. The surprising feature
-in this South American experience is the wide and, apparently, immediate
-measure of success that seems to have followed the training to the pacing
-gait in its transmission. It may be taken as a rule that the changing of
-the gait from the diagonal to the lateral, or _vice versa_, is a slow
-process, and it seems to me that with few exceptions it would require
-several generations before the new habit of action would become fixed
-in the breed. It is just possible, however, that there may have been a
-tincture of pacing blood in the Spanish horses of the sixteenth century.
-The Visigoths, one of the early Asiatic hordes that overran Europe, first
-settled in Scandinavia, and the southern part of Sweden is still called
-“Gothland.” After a long stay in that country they became dissatisfied
-with soil and climate and determined to seek another. According to the
-historians, they first migrated in a southeastward direction and from
-there in a southwestward till they reached the southern part of France,
-from which they soon passed over into Spain, which they subdued, and
-established there a dynasty which lasted two hundred years. In A.D. 711
-the Saracens from Africa crossed over, and after a very bloody battle
-lasting two days, defeated Rhoderic, the last of the dynasty, and cut his
-army to pieces. In Scandinavia, and especially in Norway and Sweden, we
-find plenty of dun horses that are pacers, and they are recognized as a
-very old breed. In the mountains of Spain we also find small dun horses,
-and it is, perhaps, not an unreasonable possibility that the Visigoths
-may have carried some of their horse stock with them in their migration
-from the North to the South of Europe, and thus this habit of action
-that may have remained for centuries latent in the breed may have been
-unusually plastic in its restoration. This, however, is a mere surmise as
-to a possibility and cannot displace the historic observations reported
-by M. Roulin and presented before the French Academy. The gait of the
-South American pacers, as I understand it, is not that of the pure pace,
-with two strokes completing the revolution, but is more like the “saddle
-gaits” that we find in the West and Southwest of our own country. The
-true pace seems to be exceptional, because that is not a saddle gait. It
-is a fact often observed in this country that foals from parents trained
-to the saddle gaits will take to those gaits naturally and as soon as
-they are dropped. In a preceding part of this work I have given some
-consideration to the fact that three or four hundred years ago the horses
-of our English ancestors were largely pacers, and to the methods adopted
-in that day for changing the action from the diagonal to the lateral
-gait—the hopples, rattles, weights, etc. The descendants of those horses,
-brought to this country by the colonists, as will be seen at another
-place, were nearly all pacers.
-
-The following letter, addressed by Dr. William Huggins to Charles
-Darwin and by him published in “Nature” twenty years ago, very strongly
-illustrates the heredity of instincts, and as it is authentic and true
-beyond question I will here insert it. Dr. Huggins says:
-
-    “I wish to communicate to you a curious case of mental
-    peculiarity. I possess an English mastiff, by name Kepler, a
-    son of the celebrated Turk out of Venus. I brought the dog,
-    when six weeks old, from the stable in which he was born. The
-    first time I took him out he started back in alarm at the
-    first butcher’s shop he had ever seen. I soon found he had a
-    violent antipathy to butchers and butchers’ shops. When six
-    months old a servant took him with her on an errand. At a short
-    distance before coming to the house she had to pass a butcher’s
-    shop; the dog threw himself down (being led by a string), and
-    neither coaxing nor threats would make him pass the shop. The
-    dog was too heavy to be carried, and as a crowd collected,
-    the servant had to return with the dog more than a mile, and
-    then go without him. This occurred about two years ago. The
-    antipathy still continues, but the dog will pass nearer to a
-    shop than he formerly would. About two months ago, in a little
-    book on dogs, published by Dean, I discovered that the same
-    strange antipathy is shown in the father, Turk. I then wrote
-    to Mr. Nichols, the former owner of Turk, to ask him for any
-    information he might have on the point. He replied: ‘I can say
-    that the same antipathy exists in King, the sire of Turk, in
-    Turk, in Punch (son of Turk), out of Meg, and in Paris (son
-    of Turk out of Juno). Paris has the greatest antipathy, as he
-    would hardly go into a street where a butcher’s shop is, and
-    would run away after passing it. When a cart with a butcher’s
-    man came into the place where the dogs were kept, although they
-    could not see him, they all were ready to break their chains. A
-    master butcher, dressed privately, called one evening on Paris’
-    master to see the dog. He had hardly entered the house before
-    the dog (though shut in) was so much excited that he had to be
-    put into a shed, and the butcher was forced to leave before
-    seeing the dog. The same dog, at Hastings, made a spring at a
-    gentleman who came into the hotel. The owner caught the dog and
-    apologized, and said he never knew him to do so before, except
-    when a butcher came to his house. The gentleman at once said
-    that was his business. So you see that they inherited these
-    antipathies, and show a great deal of breed.’”
-
-Some ancestor, not far removed, of these three generations of dogs
-must have suffered a life of oppression and cruelty at the hands of an
-unfeeling master, and that master must have been a butcher. We fail to
-understand and appreciate the mentality of the dog and the horse, and
-as they are above the average of the brute creation we fail of a word
-midway between instinct and reason to express that mentality. We call it
-“instinct,” and correctly, too, but this grade of instinct requires a
-more expressive word to represent it. That a feeling of antipathy should
-have been so deeply seated in the nature and life of a dog that the
-resentment and hatred should have been transmitted to his descendants
-for three generations in succession is a very remarkable instance of
-the heredity of instinct. As a companion piece to the foregoing and as
-showing the difference between the hatred of one dog and the gratitude
-and love of another, I will relate an instance that came under my own
-observation and knowledge more than forty years ago. General John G.
-Gordon was a merchant in Muscatine, Iowa, and Dr. George Reeder was a
-physician of great skill and very large practice. These two gentlemen
-were among my most intimate personal friends. On a certain occasion one
-of Gordon’s well-to-do farmer customers brought him a puppy a few months
-old as a present. He had no use for a dog and didn’t want one, but he was
-not willing to forfeit either the good wishes or the custom of his farmer
-friend, so he accepted the gift with thanks. When he took the puppy home
-in the evening there was consternation in the household, and in a family
-conference it was decided that he should not be allowed to run through
-the house with his dirty feet, and thereupon he was consigned to the cow
-stable, and that became his home as long as he lived. Every night and
-morning he got a liberal ration of milk fresh from the cow and they soon
-became inseparable friends. In cold nights, as if by mutual agreement, he
-always slept cuddled up close to the cow. At that time in the history of
-the town, the country was open and pasture abundant in every direction,
-and everybody kept a cow. In the mornings these cows would start out to
-their grazing grounds, in bands, radiating in every direction, and in
-the evenings could be seen “the lowing herds wind slowly o’er the lea.”
-Gordon’s dog never missed a day for years in going with his friend the
-cow and returning with her in the evening.
-
-Dr. Reeder used two or three horses in his practice, and his stable was
-on the same alley, and some ten or twelve rods distant from Gordon’s
-cow stable. One day in winter time he was having his bins filled with
-corn in the ear, and to make room for it all he had to fill up a large
-dry-goods box that stood in one corner of the stable. While he was
-supervising the delivery of the corn Gordon’s dog came in, reared up on
-his hind legs, seized an ear of corn and made off with it. The doctor
-was very much surprised at this act of the dog as he never had seen or
-heard of a dog eating corn. While he was thinking about this strange
-act of the dog, he came back again and seized another ear and made off
-with it. This time the doctor watched him, and he carried it direct
-to his friend the cow, dropped it before her, and she soon made away
-with it. This phenomenal exhibition of the attachment of one animal to
-another of entirely different nature aroused the doctor’s desire for a
-further confirmation of what he had seen. Concealing himself behind the
-door he awaited further developments and in a little while the dog came
-back, seized the third ear, and whipping past some other cows, carried
-it safely to his friend. I have seen this dog a hundred times, and he
-was a mongrel nondescript, about the size of the average pointer, with
-nothing remarkable about his appearance; but in all the illustrations of
-all the naturalists I have not met with any authenticated instance where
-character in a dumb animal was so beautifully exhibited. In history we
-have many touching examples of the attachment of the dog to his master
-and of his heroism in defending the weak against the strong, but this
-case seems to be unique. Here is a character developed that is far more
-than “the sum of inherited habits.” We may call it instinct, but that
-word fails to express it. In whatever light we view this character, it
-has in it an element of reason and we have no word that expresses it.
-
-The oldest written evidence we have of the origin of the setter dog dates
-back about two hundred years, in which we find John Harris agreeing to
-teach Henry Herbert’s “spaniel bitch Quand” to set game. Allusions are
-made in the old writers to dogs used for this purpose long before, but
-the setter certainly has an ancestry dating back at least two hundred
-years. The pointer is of much more recent origin and seems to have come
-from an ancestry wholly distinct from that of the setter, and yet, in the
-field, it would be very difficult for the most competent jury to decide
-which stands to his game with the greater steadiness. It is agreed, I
-think, among experienced sportsmen and breeders that the best dogs are
-the result of couplings made in the midst of the hunting season when the
-instincts of the parents are aroused and active under the gun. Puppies
-so bred are already half-trained when they are whelped. The instinct to
-point the game instead of rushing upon it is an instinct acquired at an
-earlier or later date, well within the historic period, and we know that
-it is transmitted and inherited under the laws of heredity. We know also
-that this instinct is strengthened and improved by training and use;
-and at the same time it is weakened, if not obliterated, by neglect and
-non-use for a few generations.
-
-The Scotch collie, with plenty to do, is altogether the most useful, and
-hence, in a utilitarian sense, the most valuable of all the varieties of
-the canine race. In understanding his master’s commands and the motions
-of his hand in the management of the flock, he evinces an intelligence,
-an instinct, that is almost human. There is a marked distinction between
-the instinct of the pointer and the collie. The former acts chiefly
-by his innate mental endowments, while the latter is at his best when
-carrying out the will of his master. In both cases the instinct was
-acquired in comparatively recent years, and it is now fixed in the breeds
-and is transmitted with great certainty.
-
-The most remarkable results in the development and use of an instinct
-that was practically latent, or never developed, are to be found in the
-history of the American Trotting Horse. Fifty-one years ago Lady Suffolk
-was the first trotter to cover the mile in 2:29½. Four years later
-Pelham, a converted pacer, trotted in 2:28, and four years still later
-Highland Maid, a converted pacer, trotted in 2:27. In 1859 Flora Temple
-trotted in 2:19¾; in 1874 Goldsmith Maid trotted in 2:14; in 1885 Maud
-S. trotted in 2:08¾; in 1892 Nancy Hanks trotted in 2:04; and in 1894
-Alix trotted in 2:03¾. But a greater performance than any of these was
-that of the two-year-old colt, Arion, when in 1891 he covered the mile in
-2:10¾. I have no hesitation in pronouncing this the greatest performance
-ever made, to this date, not because it was the fastest, as shown by
-the watch, but because it was made by a two-year-old, and from this
-fact there had been no time for prolonged and skillful training. He was
-essentially the product of heredity and not the result of education.
-
-Fifty-one years ago there was but one animal in the 2:30 list, and at the
-close of 1896 there were over fifteen thousand within that limit and far
-more than fifteen thousand others hovering on its border. This astounding
-result must be attributed primarily to a trotting inheritance, but this
-inheritance has been constantly strengthened, reinforced, fortified by
-the acquired capacities resulting from the development of the trotting
-speed of succeeding generations. This is not a mere estimate of what has
-resulted from acquired characters and instincts, for if we put all the
-observations of all the writers on subjects of natural history, large and
-small, together, they make but a meager and unsatisfactory showing when
-compared with the fifteen thousand actual experiences, officially noted
-and recorded on the spot and printed in “Wallace’s Year Book.” In all the
-world there is no other collection of statistics so vast, so accurate
-and so valuable as is there to be found, touching the question we are
-considering.
-
-While the heredity of acquired characters and instincts is thus clearly
-and fully established, there is another truth intimately connected with
-it that should not be forgotten. In an inheritance springing from recent
-acquisitions there seems to be less of adhesive strength than in one
-that has come down through many generations. This being true, it follows
-that whether the lines of inheritance be long or short there must be
-an intelligent and constant exercise of good judgment in strengthening
-them by bringing the best and strongest together and uniting them in
-the prospective foal. When this has been done it is possible that the
-foal may not be of much value, but the chances of success are in exact
-proportion to the strength of all the lines of inheritance that are
-united in the foal. Beyond the chance of failure and beyond the average
-chance of an average production, there is a chance for something better
-than any of the ancestors. This latter hope always has been and always
-will be the inspiration of the breeder. In his structure and form he
-may be an improvement on his parents, but his value as a trotter can
-only be determined by the development of his instincts and speed as a
-trotter. Without such development he may transmit what he inherits,
-but he adds nothing to his inheritance except by the development of
-his own powers. These accretions, growing out of the development of
-succeeding generations, are the material cause that has placed the
-American Trotter at the very edge of two minutes to the mile, and with
-wise management will eventually carry him away beyond that rate of speed.
-This whole topic may be summed up in a single sentence: every acquisition
-of eminence and superiority adds something to the value of what is
-transmitted.
-
-HEREDITY OF BAD QUALITIES, UNSOUNDNESS, ETC.—Under the laws of
-inheritance no distinction can be made between the desirable and the
-undesirable, nor between the earlier or later acquisitions, as they
-are all liable to be transmitted and to become hereditary. The bitter
-must go with the sweet. Dropping below is just as liable to occur as
-rising above what might be considered the average inheritance of the
-immediate parents. This may result from following or throwing back to
-some undesirable or unsound cross that may exist in some of the lines
-of inheritance which possibly may be distant several generations. As a
-practical consideration it makes but little difference whether a tendency
-to, or a fully developed, unsoundness has been in the inheritance for
-generations, or whether it may be the result of some recent accident or
-injury, it is liable to be transmitted. It is known to everybody that
-the great running horse Lexington was blind, and it was urged that his
-blindness was not congenital, but the result of an accident; hence it
-was argued by those interested that it would not be unsafe to breed to
-him. It was stated and repeated a hundred times that while in training
-he got loose in his stable and stuffed himself at the oats bin, and
-without knowing this his trainer took him out next morning and ran him
-a trial of four miles, from the effects of which he lost his sight.
-Without giving full credence to this as the cause of his blindness, it is
-nevertheless true that he filled the country with blind horses. If, for
-example, a joint or a ligament or a muscle of the hind leg be sprained by
-overexertion or by a misstep, a spavin or a curb may develop, or possibly
-something still worse, and this is a blemish and generally an unsoundness
-that is likely to be transmitted, if not in a developed form, then in an
-unmistakable tendency in that direction, which, in turn, will make its
-appearance in succeeding generations. The horse world, and I might say,
-the whole animal kingdom under domestication, abounds in examples, seen
-and unseen, of unsoundness originating in injuries to the parents.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXII.
-
-HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (_Continued_).
-
-    Trotting speed first supposed to be an accident—Then, that it
-    came from the runner—William Wheelan’s views—Test of powers of
-    endurance—The term “thoroughbred” much abused—Definition of
-    “thoroughbred”—How trotters may be made “thoroughly bred”—How
-    to study pedigrees—Reward offered for the production of a
-    thoroughbred horse that was a natural pacer—The trotter
-    more lasting than the runner—The dam of Palo Alto—Arion as
-    a two-year-old—Only three stallions have been able to get
-    trotters from running-bred mares—“Structural incongruity”—The
-    pacer and trotter inseparable—How to save the trot and reduce
-    the ratio of pacers—Development a necessity—Table proving this
-    proposition—The “tin cup” policy a failure—Woodburn at the
-    wrong end of the procession.
-
-
-Before the question of speed in the trotter began to be considered,
-either from a historical or a philosophical standpoint, or, in other
-words, a question involving scientific truths, there was a universal
-concurrence in the idea that speed at the trot was an accident and
-that there was nothing of inheritance or heredity about it. This idea
-was greatly strengthened by the performances of such horses as Boston
-Horse, Rattler, Edwin Forrest, Dutchman, Confidence, Moscow, Pelham,
-Flora Temple, Tacony, etc., whose origin and blood were wholly unknown,
-while they were on the turf. Contemporaneous with these there were such
-splendid performers as Topgallant, Screwdriver, Lady Suffolk, Sally
-Miller, O’Blennis and many others that were known to be descended from
-Messenger, a horse that was looked upon by everybody as a “thoroughbred.”
-Hence, the conclusion that the flying trotter was either an accident in
-breeding, or his speed qualities came from the English running horse.
-The fact that such champion trotters, in their day, as Pelham, Highland
-Maid, etc., had originally been pacers and changed from the lateral
-to the diagonal gait was sedulously concealed from the public, during
-their day, and only after they had passed away was this bar-sinister
-in their origin brought to light. Doubtless this same fact might have
-been developed in the origin of Edwin Forrest and others, if action had
-been taken in time. In that day—say the first half of this century—it
-is not remarkable that the plebeian origin of some of our most famous
-early trotters was concealed, for everybody was claiming a thoroughbred
-ancestry, and the more famous the performer the more certain he was to be
-furnished with a thoroughbred pedigree.
-
-“Whatever is of value in the trotter must come from the runner, and
-whatever is of value in the runner must come from the Arab,” was the
-view that was universally accepted when I was a boy. And yet there were
-thousands of fast trotters and fast pacers in this country long before
-the first running horse was brought from England, and England itself was
-abundantly supplied with horses several hundred years before there was
-a horse in Arabia. These two facts are historical, and the dates make
-them incontrovertible. Some forty or fifty years ago William Wheelan,
-a successful trainer and driver of trotting horses in this country,
-took some trotters over to England, to try his “luck,” as others had
-done before him, in making matches and winning stakes. He was quite
-successful, and when he came home he was kept busy answering questions
-about English horses and why they did not have more trotters there. He
-replied that “there were plenty of horses that could trot as well or
-better than our American horses, if they were trained; they had plenty of
-blood and most of them good limbs and feet, with all the substance that
-was needed.” This made William Wheelan an authority, and his opinion was
-quoted all over the land; which went to prove that the way to breed the
-trotter was to get plenty of running blood into his veins. About this
-time the English running horse Trustee was bred on a famous trotting
-mare, Fanny Pullen, a daughter of Winthrop Messenger, of Maine, and the
-produce was the gelding Trustee, the first to trot twenty miles within
-the hour, or at least the first to make that distance regularly and to
-rule. This gave a tremendous “boost” to running blood, as everybody
-except Hiram Woodruff ascribed the result to the great powers of the
-imported running horse. All subsequent experiences fully demonstrated
-that Hiram Woodruff, although alone, was right; for although Trustee’s
-blood commingled more kindly with trotting blood than most of the other
-running horses, he left no trotters but this one. The highest rate of
-speed of which this gelding was capable was about 2:40, and at last, in
-a race of mile heats with some fifth-rate old pelter, at Cincinnati,
-Ohio, on a very hot day, he fell exhausted on the track and died from
-the effects of the heat. But the great fame of being the only horse able
-to trot twenty miles within the hour did not long remain with this son
-of imported Trustee. Five others have done the same thing, viz., Captain
-Magowan, Controller, John Stewart, Mattie Howard, and Lady Fulton, all of
-whom went faster than Trustee, except Lady Fulton.
-
-There have been many crucial tests of the “staying qualities” of running
-blood in the trotter, as against the trotter without any running blood,
-in which the running blood has uniformly been worsted. The last of these
-which I now recall was a match for two thousand dollars between Scotland,
-a half-bred son of imported Bonnie Scotland, and Lizzie M., by Thomas
-Jefferson, and out of a pacing mare. The race was two-mile heats, best
-three in five—a very unusual race, and admirably adapted to test the
-staying powers of the contestants. Scotland was a fast and well-seasoned
-trotter; while the mare had, probably, a little higher flight of speed
-she never had been tried at such a distance, and in her breeding she was
-short, and had not a single drop of running blood in her inheritance. The
-mare won the first and second heats in 4:56—5:03, and the gelding the
-third heat in 4:55½, the fastest in the race, but he was not able to come
-again, and the last heat was won by the mare in 4:58½. This race took
-place at Philadelphia in 1883, and if, at that time, there still remained
-any advocates of “more running blood in the trotter,” they have not since
-been in evidence, with two or three addle-pated exceptions.
-
-In looking back over the many years I have devoted to the literature of
-the horse, and especially to the breeding of the trotting horse, I can
-find no word in the English language that has been so much abused as the
-word “thoroughbred.” A minister wrote a great, pretentious book on the
-horse in which he maintained that the Morgan horse was a “thoroughbred.”
-A lawyer wrote another pretentious book in which he maintained that the
-trotting horse Dexter was a “thoroughbred.” With these two shining lights
-in the learned professions writing books on the horse and pronouncing
-this family or that individual “thoroughbred” without knowing the meaning
-of the term, we should not deal too severely with uneducated men for
-following their example. The minister and the lawyer evidently had
-always heard the term “thoroughbred” applied to what men considered the
-best, and when they were discussing their favorites which they considered
-the best, they naturally called them “thoroughbreds” without knowing what
-they were saying. This was more than twenty years ago, and was really
-the popular conception of the meaning of the term at that time. Not one
-man in a thousand then knew that the term had any other meaning than
-the individual superiority of the animal, and that it applied only to
-the pedigree, or concentration of blood in the veins of the animal, was
-quite foreign to the popular conception. After the founding of _Wallace’s
-Monthly_ the light began to dawn on this as well as on many other
-questions, and to-day the true meaning of the term is very generally
-understood.
-
-To constitute a “thoroughbred” of whatever variety or species the animal
-must possess a certain number of uncontaminated crosses of his own
-breed, and this applies to all kinds of domestic animals that are bred
-for special uses or qualities. There is no law determining the number of
-these uncontaminated crosses, except the law of usage. The cattle men,
-I think, were the first to establish a rule on this subject, in this
-country, and they did it on enlightened and scientific principles. It was
-found in experience that the danger of atavism, or throwing back to some
-undesirable ancestor, was diminished in the ratio of the number of pure
-crosses through which the animal was descended. At two crosses it was
-found that there were many reversions to some type outside of the breed;
-at three crosses there were not so many; at four there were very few,
-and at five reversions had practically disappeared. While some required
-another cross the majority drove the stake at the fifth generation,
-proclaiming thereby that an animal bred through five uncontaminated
-generations of ancestors was free from the dangers of reversion, and
-hence was “thoroughly bred.” This is the formula and this is the
-principle, and it applies with equal propriety to the colt, the calf, the
-pig, the puppy, the chick, or the birdling. In this phrase “thoroughly
-bred” we have the origin, reason and meaning of the term “thoroughbred.”
-The formula of this rule, if tabulated, would show two parents: next,
-four grandparents; next eight great-grandparents; next sixteen ancestors
-and next thirty-two, making in all sixty-two ancestors, all of which
-must be “thoroughly bred.” This rule of breeding is not limited to the
-running horse alone, but applies to all the varieties of our domestic
-animals; and whenever the point is reached at which the danger of
-reversion has been overcome the animal is “thoroughly bred,” and the term
-“thoroughbred” applied just as properly to one kind of domestic animal as
-to another.
-
-The question here arises as to whether the American Trotting Horse can
-be so thoroughly bred as to be entitled to be ranked as a thoroughbred
-trotter? This question is already affirmatively answered when we say the
-rule “applies to all the varieties of our domestic animals.” This is
-the general fact, but the trotting horse has a qualification, already
-determined, that serves as a fixed starting point in giving him rank. The
-standard as originally adopted and honestly administered was the mighty
-engine that wrought the revolution in breeding the trotter. It fixed a
-certain qualification that had to be complied with before an animal could
-be admitted to standard rank, and that qualification was in brief to
-either perform or produce a performer that could cover a mile in 2:30.
-It excluded no strains of blood, but it admitted the animals only that
-had fully demonstrated the ability to trot or to produce trotters. The
-standard is now antiquated, and far behind the speed of the trotters,
-which is a clear demonstration of the wisdom of its construction and
-adoption, but to this topic I will refer at another place more at length.
-With the standard, then, and the unmistakable evidence it furnished of
-the possession of what we will call “trotting blood,” we have a more
-definite and satisfactory starting point than can be claimed for any
-kind or variety of domestic animal. With this demonstrated ability to
-trot fully established, we can commence to count the generations of
-standard animals in a trotting pedigree, and if we find five generations
-of ancestors, with every animal standard bred, we can safely and
-intelligently say the animal is “thoroughly bred” as a trotting horse.
-With those sixty-two progenitors all legally established as standard
-animals, who will say this is not a thoroughbred trotting horse? He
-is not only thoroughbred, but he is more distinctly and completely
-thoroughbred than any other domestic animal, because the fifth generation
-of his ancestors, and the fourth and the third and the second and the
-first have all proved that they are either trotters or the producers
-of trotters. No other breed has ever been established on so good a
-foundation, for they have fairly won their initial honors by what they
-have done. But this is one degree higher and embraces one generation
-more than the formula usually prescribed as necessary to constitute the
-rank of thoroughbred. Five “generations of ancestors” do not include the
-representative product of those generations. The product would be the
-sixth generation, which is one more than the generally accepted usage
-requires. An animal representing five generations of standard trotting
-blood, complete and without contamination, is “thoroughly bred” and is
-justly entitled to be classified as a “thoroughbred trotting horse.” At
-this point of breeding it is considered that the danger of reversion is
-practically eliminated, and hence this distinctive classification. At the
-time of this writing (1897) there should be, in this country, quite a
-number of youngsters fully entitled to rank as thoroughbreds.
-
-All intelligent breeders have long been aiming at this point, not merely
-for the name “thoroughbred,” but for the greater certainty of uniformity
-in producing what they want—the ability to perform; and the quality
-of these thoroughbred trotters must be determined by the ability to
-perform and the quality of each and every one of the ancestors. If each
-and every one of the four or five generations of ancestors was able to
-go out and win himself or herself, there could hardly be a doubt that
-the colt could do the same, but some of those ancestors may be in the
-standard merely from reflected honors, which are good, but not a crucial
-test of superiority in the individual. There is nothing like the animal
-that “has gone out and done it” himself, over and over again, and when
-we sit down to the study and comparison of pedigrees in the thoroughbred
-rank we find great differences in the quality of the lines of descent.
-The reflected honors of an uncle or an aunt are of much less value than
-the honor of a direct ancestor. While the blood of all the ancestors is
-tested blood, the individuals may not all have been tested, and hence
-are less certain in transmitting the true trotting instinct. While the
-standard has done wonders in teaching the true art of breeding, like
-all other human devices it has its imperfections. Just like the runner,
-the trotter may be strictly thoroughbred, and yet in taking after some
-of the imperfections of one or more of his ancestors, he may be of but
-little value as a performer. This truth has been verified in a thousand
-experiences in the runner, and it is just as liable to be verified in the
-trotter. Hence the supreme importance of looking well to the qualities
-and capacities of every animal in the inheritance.
-
-At the very inception of the idea that the trotting horse could be bred
-and developed into a breed, an opinion prevailed everywhere that it
-could not be done. The theory that speed at the trot came from speed at
-the gallop was universally held and advocated. In 1868 I made a tour
-among the breeders and horsemen of Tennessee and Kentucky, for the
-purpose of gathering information about both runners and trotters. Those
-States were then beginning to pull themselves together after the war.
-At General Harding’s, among others, I was shown a large, heavy-boned
-colt, and the General remarked that if he did not make a race horse he
-would make a capital stallion to take to the West and breed on trotting
-mares. At Balie Peyton’s I was shown a great big, coarse horse that had
-run some races and won in very slow time, and that was unsound at many
-points. He was over sixteen hands high, and had very bad limbs. Mr.
-Peyton remarked that “he was too big for a race horse, but he would do
-well in the West as a trotting sire.” This was the remark everywhere as
-applied to big colts that couldn’t run. About the same time Mr. Joseph
-Cairn Simpson, then in the employ of a sporting paper in New York, as an
-editorial writer, expressed his sorrow that Hambletonian did not have a
-thoroughbred cross, close up, and his opinion that such a cross would
-have made him a much greater sire. Thus, East and West, North and South,
-the opinion prevailed everywhere that the way to breed the trotter was
-to go to the runner. This universal belief, wholly without foundation,
-soon generated the cry, “more running blood in the trotter,” and the
-instincts of all the rogues in the country were quickened to make their
-pedigrees conform to the popular belief of what was best. This resulted
-in a period of fictitious claims, for when a man had a colt out of a
-mare of unknown breeding the rule was to say, “dam thoroughbred,” and
-if the owner was unusually conscientious and knew the breeding for one
-or two crosses, he would give them correctly, but seldom failed to
-tack on two or three thoroughbred crosses that were wholly fictitious.
-After all my years of experience with the pedigrees of horses, it is my
-deliberate and candid opinion that no word in the English language has
-been so much abused as the word “thoroughbred.” It has been the medium
-of more deceptions and downright falsehoods than any other word in the
-vocabulary. For many years it was the word above all other words that the
-unscrupulous jockey employed to defraud his inexperienced victim. And if
-there had been no strong hand to take the improper and dishonest use of
-the word by the throat there would be no breed of trotters, and the whole
-business of breeding and developing the trotting horse would be to-day
-just where it was thirty years ago. The old, threadbare stock argument
-was in everybody’s mouth, to the effect that “Messenger was an English
-thoroughbred and he founded a family of trotters, hence any other English
-thoroughbred could do the same thing under the same circumstances.” When
-this ancient formula was submitted to the test it was found to be fatally
-unsound at both ends, as has been shown in another chapter. Messenger
-was found to be far short of being thoroughbred in his inheritance;
-forty other English thoroughbreds had been in competition with him and
-bred upon the same mares, yet no other English thoroughbred, in the
-experiences of a hundred and fifty years, ever founded a family of
-trotters. The two ablest advocates of “more running blood in the trotter”
-that this country has produced, Mr. Charles J. Foster and Mr. Joseph
-Cairn Simpson, when challenged to produce an English thoroughbred horse
-that had founded a family of trotters, conceded the whole contention by
-naming Bishop’s Hambletonian and Mambrino, both sons of Messenger and
-the principal channels through which Messenger had founded his family
-of trotters. This knocked all the noise out of the famous formula, and
-instead of the braying of an ass we have heard nothing since on this
-subject but an occasional and very feeble squeak of a mouse.
-
-In the earlier portion of the period when the American Trotter was
-beginning to assume the shape and character of a breed, the term
-“thoroughbred,” meaning English racing blood, was adhered to with
-astonishing tenacity, as an indispensable element in the breeding of the
-trotter. A few men of clear and independent minds commenced to study
-the question in the light of experiences, and they were not long in
-reaching the truth; but, as a rule, the less a man knew of the question,
-whether a breeder or a writer, the more blatant and vociferous he was
-in maintaining that all trotters were dependent for their speed on the
-blood of the “thoroughbred English race horse.” When Maud S. made her
-four-year-old record and astonished the world, the acclamations of this
-class went up in tremendous volume pointing to the Boston blood of her
-grandam as the element that did it. Now, it never has been shown, and it
-never can be shown, that there was a single drop of Boston’s blood in
-her veins. Besides all this, Boston was not a thoroughbred horse, for
-neither his sire nor his grandam was thoroughbred. A curious phase of
-the interest attached to the mere word “thoroughbred” was brought out
-by a Catholic priest, in New Jersey, in a very cranky and ill-natured
-letter addressed to the editor of _Wallace’s Monthly_ protesting against
-the frequent use of the term “running-bred” instead of “thoroughbred.”
-Priests are generally educated men, but this poor man struck out into a
-field where he was entirely ignorant. A horse with two or three immediate
-and direct running crosses may be properly and truthfully called “running
-bred,” because that blood predominates in his veins, but to be justly
-and truthfully called “thoroughly bred” he must have at least five
-direct and distinct crosses, and each and every one of them pure and
-without any contamination from any other blood. As an illustration of
-what results from this definition of the word “thoroughbred,” we may
-take the very cream of our old American racing families and not one in
-fifty is “thoroughly bred.” American Eclipse was far short of being
-thoroughbred, even if we admit that Messenger was thoroughbred. Timoleon,
-the greatest son of Sir Archy, had an impossible and untruthful pedigree
-on the side of his dam. His great son Boston was short and deficient on
-both sides, and with these taints how could he get the great blind horse
-Lexington and make him a thoroughbred? These horses were distinctively
-“running bred,” but not technically “thoroughbred.” It is not to be
-presumed the priest was angry because I preferred not to use a word that
-conveyed an untruth and to use one that told the exact truth, for he was
-not qualified to judge which was true and which was not true, but like
-hundreds of others he feared the value of his property might be affected
-by the refusal to apply the term “thoroughbred” to some supposable cross
-in some of his pedigrees.
-
-“More running blood in the trotter” was a “fad” that has been completely
-extinguished by all the experiences of later years. It was a freak that
-never had any foundation either in nature or in reason. No animal can
-transmit to his posterity qualities and capacities which he has not
-inherited, or which he does not possess by acquirement. This is a rule
-which seems to be perfectly plain to the comprehension of everybody, and
-in observation and experience it proves itself true every day of the
-year. To breed a horse that can go fast at the trotting or pacing gait
-we must go to the horse and the blood that has gone fast at one or the
-other of these gaits. It seems like a needless work to expend any time
-or space on what is self-evident in all human experiences. A few years
-ago I offered a money reward, of sufficient amount to justify some labor
-in a search, to any one who would report to me any thoroughbred running
-horse, with the proofs, that had ever made a trotting record of a mile in
-three minutes, and there was no response. Some years later I renewed the
-offer, doubling the amount of the former offer, and still there came no
-response. I regret now that I did not make the offer for a mile in four
-minutes instead of three, for I very much doubt whether there ever was a
-thoroughbred horse able to trot a mile in four minutes. What is the use,
-then, of giving further attention to the consideration of the value of
-thoroughbred running blood in the trotter?
-
-But after conceding that the instinct to stick to the trot and the step
-of the trotter must come from the trotter, the advocates of “more running
-blood in the trotter” plant all their heavy guns on the proposition that
-running blood is needed to give the trotter more courage, endurance,
-and beauty of form. In all the past years we have had so many grand
-panegyrics on the will power and undying courage of the “courser of
-the desert” that they have become threadbare and have an “ancient and
-fish-like smell,” and we would prefer to exchange them for something
-more recent and practical. When we go to a race meeting and see so many
-contests at various distances less than a mile, a few at something over
-a mile, and all these merely single dashes, we naturally and justly
-conclude that the distance of ground to be covered in each contest is
-adjusted to the courage and stamina of the racers. I cannot conceive of
-any fairer criterion by which to determine the measure of gameness and
-pluck of running horses than simply to consider the distance chosen, and
-that for a single dash. Trainers and owners know just where each horse
-will quit, if hard pressed, and they will not enter him in any distance
-beyond the point where they know his courage will fail. With the data of
-distances for these single dashes already fixed for the accommodation of
-horses with different degrees of staying qualities, and after making a
-liberal allowance for age and lack of condition, we seem to have a solid
-foundation for a safe conclusion that the crucial test of the speed of
-the average race horse fails him before he reaches the first mile-post.
-
-When the trotter starts out for his summer’s campaign he has no choice
-as to the length of his races, and he is not looking about for single
-dashes of four, five, six or seven furlongs, but enters the field
-boldly and throws down the glove to all the best strains of trotting
-and pacing blood. Every race will be mile heats, best two in three or
-three in five, and it often requires six, seven or eight heats before
-the victor is declared. This experience is repeated, week after week,
-during the whole season. Such a weekly experience as this, continued
-through twenty consecutive weeks, would probably destroy the best and
-stoutest running horse now living. This is the test to which the trotter
-is subjected, and no man can say it lacks in severity in determining his
-qualities as a race horse, in his stamina, his courage and his gameness.
-In touching this point I will here take the liberty of entering my
-protest against what I consider the unnecessary severity of this test. We
-want all these tests, and from the standpoint of the breeder we cannot
-progress without them, but we want them to stop short of injury to the
-animal. When a contest is drawn out to six, eight or ten heats, it not
-only becomes cruel as a sport, but it is liable to inflict irreparable
-injury to the soundness of the animal. Unsoundness, either external or
-internal, is liable to result from all such abuses. This is a dominant
-fact, and while we may not be able to see the injury with the eye, we
-are likely to see the evil results in the progeny. Animals of the kind
-most likely to be subjected to this over-severity of test are the hope
-of the future as producers, and by all means wise and possible we should
-seek to preserve them in their pristine soundness and vigor. As breeders
-we cannot afford to let them go without development and test, neither
-can we afford to impair or destroy their producing qualities, in the
-test. This can be done only by shortening the race; not the distance of
-ground, but the number of heats that can be trotted. With an inflexible
-rule that not more than five heats should be trotted in any race, and
-that at the conclusion of the fifth heat the money should be divided
-according to the places of the contestants, I would not be particular as
-to whether the race was for the best two in three, or the best three in
-five. The invariable results have been that in long-drawn-out contests
-of many heats there have been bargains and combinations for or against
-certain horses, and all managed by and in the interest of the so-called
-“speculators.” If this were done the combinations of the gamblers would
-be checkmated, the cruelty of the sport would be eliminated, and our best
-horses would come through the campaigns ready and fit to propagate their
-species.
-
-In breeding for a particular purpose or qualification all experience
-goes to show that the elements entering into the new creature must be
-carefully selected as possessing the quality that we seek to propagate.
-Nobody would think of breeding a running mare to a trotting horse if
-he was seeking to breed a running colt. No thoughtful and intelligent
-man would think of breeding a running horse upon a trotting mare if he
-were seeking to breed a trotting colt. The runner to the runner and the
-trotter to the trotter has been demonstrated ten thousand times as the
-right way. The cross-bred or half-and-half-bred animal may be something
-of a trotter or something of a runner, doing neither well; and this
-uncertainty never can become a certainty as to which it may be till
-you try him. The evil of half-and-half breeding does not cease with
-the life of the animal, for the division in his own inheritance will
-manifest itself in his progeny for generations, or till it is bred out.
-But, strange as it may seem, there are still a few old men living who,
-from pride of opinion advanced in their younger days, still maintain
-that trotting speed must come from the “thoroughbred” and “point with
-pride” to the great horse Palo Alto as the complete illustration of
-their belief. In relation to the breeding of Palo Alto I will here tell
-a little story, premising that I neither accept it as true nor reject it
-as false, for I know nothing about it. The late Mr. William H. Wilson,
-of Cynthiana, Kentucky, was in many respects a remarkable man. He was
-full of energy and push, and his brain seemed to teem with formidable
-ideas, chiefly relating to his prospects, and the management of his own
-business. He was intelligent in horse matters, and very well informed
-on local horse history. He did a great deal of work for me in the way
-of straightening out tangled skeins, and in tracing obscure pedigrees.
-In this way I came to know Mr. Wilson very well, and as I never found
-him wrong on these questions I came to place great confidence in his
-word and his judgment in all pedigree matters that he had investigated.
-Some time about 1889, probably, he asked me to investigate the pedigree
-of Dame Winnie, the dam of Palo Alto, for, he said, he had every reason
-to believe she was not by Planet, but by a trotting-bred horse that
-he named, but that name has escaped me. I replied that I had not time
-then, but I would think about it. Some months afterward he was again
-in my office and he again urged the investigation. My reply was that
-there were some very upright and honest men in Kentucky as well as some
-great rogues, and if I were to undertake to investigate this pedigree
-the rogues could get forty men, if so many were necessary, for a bottle
-of whisky or a half-dollar a head, who could remember just what it was
-necessary to remember, and forget just what it was necessary to forget
-in order to prove that the mare was by Planet. I recalled my experience
-with suborned evidence in the past, and knew just what I might expect
-in the future, and so I had concluded to make no more investigations in
-certain portions of Kentucky until I had an opportunity to cross-examine
-the witnesses. Dame Winnie was a plain, common-looking mare, with
-nothing about her to indicate high breeding, and if we lay aside Mr.
-Wilson’s story and accept the pedigree as usually given she was strongly
-running bred, but at several points in her pedigree she fails of being
-thoroughbred. The internal evidence as to the breeding of this mare,
-brought to light in the performance of her produce, suggests very
-strongly the probability that she possessed some trotting blood, from
-some source not far removed. She has five representatives in the 2:30
-list, and this of itself strongly supports Mr. Wilson’s untold story,
-that I would not listen to. In passing I will say I would be glad to
-listen to it now; for this solid foundation of experience is so stoutly
-corroborative of what he suggested as to justify an effort to reach the
-exact truth. When it was known in Kentucky that Senator Stanford had sent
-his representative down there to gather up a lot of “thoroughbred” mares
-from which to breed trotters in California, every dealer in the State had
-just what he wanted. He was looking for pedigrees, and it was a very easy
-matter to shape up the pedigrees just to suit him.
-
-Whatever may have been the breeding of his dam, Palo Alto was a great
-horse, but he came to his speed slowly, and this would seem to indicate
-that if his dam had any trotting inheritance it was weak in the direction
-of attaining a high rate of speed. From the day he was weaned till the
-day he died he was Senator Stanford’s idol, and with this horse as an
-object lesson he was going to teach the world how to breed the trotter.
-At two years old he was driven a mile privately in 2:22¾, and his owner,
-feeling that his dream was realized in breeding the greatest horse the
-world had produced, named him “Palo Alto,” as he deemed him worthy of
-being at the head of the greatest breeding establishment of the world.
-He was in the hands of the most skillful and careful of all trainers,
-and the training went on without respite, year after year. When four
-years old he went through the Eastern circuits, winning the larger share
-of his purses, and making a record of 2:20¼. Now let us consider for a
-moment whether the Senator did not make a great mistake and select the
-wrong horse as the typical representative of his great establishment. In
-1888 he bred a colt by Electioneer out of Lula Wilkes, grandam the famous
-trotting mare Lula, 2:15, by Norman, etc., intensely trotting bred, and
-when he was three years old he made a record of 2:16. This is better than
-2:20¼ as a four-year-old, for this fellow had not to take one-half the
-training that Palo Alto was subjected to. The next year he bred another
-colt by Electioneer called Arion, out of a mare by Nutwood; she out of a
-sister to Voltaire, 2:20¼, by Tattler, 2:26; and she out of the famous
-trotting brood mare Young Portia, by Mambrino Chief; and the next dam
-Portia by the pacer Roebuck. This colt came out and trotted a mile in
-2:10¾ as a two-year-old. The four-year-old had a great “boom” and was
-considered by many as the phenomenal colt of his year, but when we place
-his record of 2:20¼ beside the 2:16 of the three-year-old, it looks very
-sickly, and when we compare it with the 2:10¾ of the two-year-old it is
-shaded into a deathly pallor. The four-year-old is largely the result of
-skill and art; the two-year-old is the result of nature. Arion is the
-best horse, by the record, that the world has ever produced, and the
-Senator was mistaken in his dream. We must judge of the value of a fast
-performance by the degree of naturalness which it represents and the
-measure of its freedom from the arts of the trainer. The “born trotter”
-is what we want, and at two years old Arion, or any other colt, was at
-the right age to determine whether a fast performance was the result of
-nature or of art.
-
-It is a fact well known to everybody that some trotting-bred stallions
-have shown greater power in controlling the action of their progeny than
-others that seemed to be equally well bred. If out of the great mass of
-stallions, past and present, that have been more or less successful as
-trotting progenitors, we pick out thirty of the very best, as shown by
-their progeny, it will probably surprise many of my readers to learn
-that only three of that number have been able to triumph in the supreme
-test of getting trotters out of running-bred mares. Of these three
-Electioneer stands first, Almont second, and Pilot Jr. third. After
-making all allowance for the anxiety of certain Californians and certain
-Kentuckians to prove the need of “more running blood in the trotter,”
-and their manifest willingness to help along with pedigrees in that
-direction, I am fully convinced that these three horses, in some cases,
-were able to meet and overcome the hostile elements of the galloper.
-Not in every case, certainly, nor in a majority of cases. When Senator
-Stanford was showing me the step of Palo Alto, on his own track, as
-a three-year-old, I remarked, “Well, Electioneer certainly triumphed
-in that case,” and the Senator replied, “Yes, but none of my other
-stallions can do it, and there are some thoroughbred mares upon which
-Electioneer can’t do it.” When approached by others on this subject in
-the riper years of his experience, he was in the habit of replying:
-“There are thoroughbreds and thoroughbreds; some of them will produce
-trotters to Electioneer, and some will not.” He accepted everything
-as thoroughbred that had been bought by his agents as thoroughbred,
-whether in Kentucky or California, and he claimed to be able to pick out
-those that would produce trotters by their appearance. When pressed to
-give the characteristics by which he was able to make his selections,
-he spoke of the shape of the animal, in a general way, and especially
-by the head and the expression of countenance. In selecting his mares
-to put in the trotting stud by their “appearance” he would naturally
-select such as had the “appearance” of trotters, and as he personally
-knew no more about their pedigrees or the inheritance of the animals
-than the mares knew themselves, he was very liable to be deceived in
-the breeding of the animals as he selected them. In selecting a mare by
-“appearance” as indicating that she might throw trotters to Electioneer,
-there is a strong suggestion that this “appearance” may have been a
-legitimate “inheritance” sought to be covered up by that sadly abused
-term “thoroughbred.” Whether this suggestion ever entered the Senator’s
-mind I have no means of determining. But whether some of the mares called
-“thoroughbred” had really a mixed inheritance or not, the fact remains
-that the three horses named above did succeed in getting some trotters
-from mares that were strongly running bred. Then the question arises: Why
-did these three horses succeed where all others failed? We are not able
-to give an answer to this question that is complete and irrefutable,
-for there is so much in the laws of generation that we do not and cannot
-know. Take two brothers, for example, and one is a great success and the
-other a great failure, and often the failure is the better formed and
-the better looking horse of the two. All that science teaches us here is
-that one took after some ancestor, near or remote, that was good, and
-the other after some ancestor that was not good. Electioneer, Almont
-and Pilot Jr. all had short pedigrees composed exclusively of trotting
-and pacing blood, except possibly a few drops of running blood that may
-have trickled down from the runner through trotting or pacing channels.
-Their instincts to stick to the trot had been encouraged and more or
-less completely developed. Electioneer and Almont both had pacing blood
-some distance away, and Pilot Jr., so far as we know, had nothing but
-pacing blood, and yet he never paced a step in his life. This embraces
-all we know of the three horses that proved themselves the most prepotent
-in overcoming all antagonisms of race or blood. Others equally great,
-no doubt, have come up since their day, but as breeding is now better
-understood and as the laws of nature are now more carefully followed,
-tests of this kind are not often made.
-
-After all the “wiring in and wiring out” of the tortuous advocates of
-“more running blood in the trotter” had found that their efforts had
-borne no fruit and that all intelligent breeders had left their theories
-away behind, a remarkably brilliant genius struck out a new line of
-thought and argument, which unfortunately died “a bornin’” just as
-the attention of all intelligent breeders was turning away from “more
-running blood in the trotter” as a senseless “fad,” and looking to the
-pacer as a possible source of increased trotting speed. In formulating
-and exploiting his idea, our genius seems to have reasoned after this
-manner: “The crisis is here, the breeders are all turning away from the
-thoroughbred as a source of trotting speed and considering the pacer, and
-now if I can convince them that the pacer is at least half-thoroughbred
-I will beat the standard and win the day.” Here we have the motive and
-the subject, and now we are ready for the manipulation. In due time
-the article appeared, and I must do the writer the justice of saying
-I never have been fully satisfied that he believed a single word of
-it himself. He starts out to show that the pace is not the result of
-hereditary transmission but the result of “structural incongruity.” He
-declared that this “structural incongruity” is the result of breeding
-the thoroughbred horse on the slab-sided, ill-shapen mares of the West
-and Southwest. From the inheritance, part of the animal is structurally
-formed to run and the other part structurally formed to trot, and
-between the two a compromise is made on the pace. In this “structural
-incongruity,” between the two parts the pacing gait originated, and hence
-whatever speed the pacer may possess comes from the “thoroughbred;” and,
-therefore, of necessity, whatever speed the trotter gets from the pacer
-comes from the “thoroughbred.” There are many humbugs in the literature
-of the horse, but this is the craziest humbug I have ever met with.
-What a pity he left his work unfinished, and failed to tell us which
-end of the horse was running bred and which end trotting bred, so that
-we might locate the “incongruity” and cut it out! But to look at this
-“structural incongruity” seriously, it lacks but little of a scandal on
-the intelligence and honesty of American writers on the horse. Here is
-a gentleman of reputed intelligence, who wields a facile pen and has
-been writing on breeding subjects for about thirty years, and much of
-his work was well done; and now at the close of the nineteenth century
-he undertakes to tell us how the pacer originated in this country. The
-veriest tyro in horse history knows that pacers abounded in England in
-the twelfth century, and indeed long before that. Every colony in this
-country was full of pacers a hundred years before the first thoroughbred
-crossed the Atlantic. But wild and absurd theories can safely be left to
-the public judgment.
-
-It required several years of labor and iteration to convince the breeding
-public that the trot and the pace were simply two forms of one and the
-same gait. When first advanced it was received by the more intelligent
-breeders as an abstraction that had nothing practical in it, while those
-of less ability to think for themselves only laughed at it. Since then
-the inevitable processes of experience have demonstrated its truth,
-and the question of today is how to separate these two forms of the
-same gait and to breed either form, as we may desire, as a distinct and
-certainly transmissible gait. With a few it will still remain a matter of
-indifference whether the colt comes a pacer or a trotter, but with the
-great mass of breeders the question of profit in breeding the harness
-horse must be considered. Everybody knows that in the market for road
-horses the clean-stepping trotter is worth more than the smooth-gliding
-pacer. This is not a question to be determined by fashion, but a fact
-of universal experience that the trotting action is better suited to
-harness and the pacing action better suited to the saddle. Fashions may
-change, but these two facts are unchangeable, for they are founded in
-the nature and mechanism of the two forms of action. The difficulties
-in the way of separating the diagonal from the lateral form of the trot
-are very great, and there is no use or wisdom in attempting to blink
-this fact. Speed at both forms of the gait comes from the same source,
-the same blood, the same inheritance; and source, blood and inheritance,
-in a breeding sense, are the hardest things in nature to overcome. So
-far as experience teaches there is but one method or treatment that has
-ever been successful in wiping out the pacer. In the first half of the
-seventeenth century England was full of pacers, and about a hundred
-years later she did not have one. The trouble about this remedy is that
-the trotters were wiped out also, and today England has neither a pacer
-nor a trotter. When she now wants a trotter she has to send to this
-country and get some of the blood of the little despised pacer that was
-shipped from her own shores in the early colonial days. The blood of the
-Saracenic horse has not lost its potency as a pacing expunger, as shown
-by modern experiments, and all our breeders have to do is to use it in
-copious effusions, and we will soon be rid of the pacer, and the trotter
-along with him. The pacer and the trotter are never found separate from
-each other, so far as my information goes. In Russia they breed trotters
-methodically, and they have a full supply of very fast pacers that are
-used as shaft horses in their droskies. As in the past, so in the future,
-we never need expect to see the two forms of the gait entirely separated.
-
-Our people, however, are not ready, and as long as the horse is used for
-business and pleasure never will be ready to dispense with the trotter;
-and even though some considerable number might deplore the presence and
-prominence of the pacer, every one of them would welcome him with great
-joy if they knew he was a necessary adjunct of the trotter. When we
-consider the problem of reducing the ratio of pacers and increasing the
-ratio of trotters in what we produce, there is so much that is old and
-still imperfectly known in what we incorrectly call our “earlier” period
-of trotting that we find nothing encouraging in the study. The origin
-of the principal trotters of the early part of this century, except
-the direct descendants of Messenger, was so sedulously concealed that
-it was entirely natural for so many men to conclude that the trotter
-was not bred, but made by the trainer. When Flora Temple was the queen
-nobody knew that her speed came from a pacer. Old Kentucky Hunter was a
-very fast pacer. When Pelham was king nobody knew he had been a pacer.
-When Highland Maid eclipsed all records nobody knew she was pacing bred
-and had been a pacer herself. When Vermont Black Hawk was the most
-popular sire of his day nobody knew that his dam was “Old Narragansett,”
-a pacer. When Ethan Allen stood at the head of all young trotters the
-old grey mare, his dam, was, and still remains, entirely unknown, but
-everybody believes that a large share of his speed came from that mare.
-Andrew Jackson, the head of the great Clay family, was out of a fast
-pacing mare. And thus we might extend the list indefinitely. But away
-back, more than a hundred years before the period of which we are here
-speaking, pacing and trotting races had become so numerous that they had
-to be suppressed by legislative enactment. More than two hundred years
-ago there were pacing races and trotting races in this country, and then
-as now it seems evident that the form of the action of the prospective
-colt, whether lateral or diagonal, was uncertain until it appeared. This
-condition of uncertainty about the secrets of the womb has existed for
-centuries, as it exists today; and if we were furnished a complete list
-of all the great trotters of the last two decades that were born pacers
-we would hardly be willing to believe our own senses. The following short
-list of such animals as have gone fast at both forms of the gait will
-serve to illustrate the oneness of the two forms:
-
-                                           PACING. TROTTING.
-  Jay-Eye-See, bl. g. by Dictator           2:06¼   2:10
-  Direct, bl. h. by Director                2:05¼   2:18¼
-  Monbars, b. h. by Eagle Bird              2:16¾   2:11¾
-  George St. Clair, b. h. by Betterton      2:10¼   2:15¼
-  Heir-at-Law, bl. h. by Mambrino King      2:07½   2:12
-  Ottinger, br. g. by Dorsey’s Nephew       2:11½   2:09¾
-  Bert Oliver, b. h. by Ashland Wilkes      2:08¾   2:19¼
-  Vassar, gr. h. by Vatican                 2:07    2:21¾
-  Pilgrim, br. h. by Acolyte                2:10½   2:20¾
-  San Pedro, bl. g. by Del Sur              2:10¾   2:14½
-  Wardwell, b. g. by Almont Jr.             2:16¼   2:14¼
-  Gazette, b. h. by Onward                  2:09¾   2:23¾
-  Welcome, b. h. by Arthur Wilkes           2:10½   2:27¼
-  Story’s Clay, b. b. by Everett Clay       2:14¾   2:18¼
-  Captain Crouch, ch. h. by General Smith   2:13    2:25
-  Red Bud, ch. h. by Redfern                2:12½   2:14½
-  Cleveland S., b. h. by Montgomery         2:10    2:24
-  Connor, bl. h. by C. F. Clay              2:14    2:13¼
-  Babette, b. m. by Sir John                2:12¼   2:22¼
-
-This exhibit might be further extended, but the foregoing will suffice
-for the purpose intended. The only remark that seems needed by way of
-explanation is that all the animals named, except two (San Pedro and
-Wardwell), made their records first as trotters.
-
-In surveying the whole situation there is but little encouragement in
-attempting to solve the problem of how to reduce the ratio of the pacers
-and at the same time avoid the reduction of the speed of the trotters.
-The central point in the problem is the development of speed; and so
-long as the pacer comes to his speed so much quicker and easier than the
-trotter, and so long as the best pacer is a little faster, as he has
-always been, than the best trotter, there is no probability that his
-speed will not be developed. All efforts at repression or exclusion of
-the pacer from contesting for prizes at public meetings would be futile
-and, in a sense, unjust. Moreover, this would not be in the province of
-the breeder and he must work out his plans within the boundaries of his
-own domain. The laws of heredity apply to either of the two forms of the
-trot—the lateral and the diagonal—just as certainly as they apply to the
-two forms united. This is the breeder’s opportunity, and if he grasps it
-he will make progress slowly but surely. In his breeding selections he
-must lay it down as an inviolable rule that all pacers, especially pacers
-with their speed developed, must be excluded, no difference how strongly
-they may be bred in the best trotting lines. If a horse produces some
-fillies that, like Maud S., Sunol and hundreds of others, are halfway,
-or more than halfway, inclined to pace, he must rigorously keep them at
-the trot and nothing but the trot, unless he sells them. He must study
-intelligently the pedigrees and produce of the generations away back,
-and make such selections as are most likely to promote his object and
-least likely to violate the rule laid down. Of all the varieties of
-the horse on the face of the globe the American trotter is the typical
-harness horse. Our civilization no longer requires the saddle to climb
-through mountain passes, and to follow seldom-trodden paths through the
-wilderness. For either business or pleasure we travel on wheels, and we
-want the bold, bounding trotter to propel us. The pacer is the early and
-only saddle horse in the world, but he is not a harness horse. Aside from
-the few that will be used as gambling machines, his value will recede
-while that of the trotter will always advance. In the hands of a man of
-intelligent and fixed purpose it is certainly possible to breed a family
-of trotters in which the appearance of a pacer from birth would be of
-rare occurrence, and the longer such careful selections and purposes are
-continued the more rare will be the recurrence of the lateral habit of
-action.
-
-That the development of the speed of the parents was very important, if
-not necessary to the increased speed of the progeny, was a proposition
-that was long disputed. Generally, as on other questions, each man
-argued it from the standpoint of his own stable, but not a few men of
-clear minds took that side of the question without regard to the potency
-of the law of heredity. In the early stages of the discussion of this
-question it was a difficult one to handle effectively. At that time very
-few sires, and still a less proportion of dams, had ever been regularly
-developed as trotters, hence the field for generalization was narrow
-and many of the instances quoted were disputed. For a time the battle
-raged quite fiercely around Hambletonian, as he was the most prominent
-stallion of that period, and if a man was trying to build up another
-family he would rave till he got black in the face against “Bill Rysdyk’s
-bull.” It is but just to say that the man who led in all this froth and
-fury against Hambletonian was engaged in breeding what he called “Clay
-Arabs,” and after dodging his creditors for a number of years his last
-hoof was sold from him by the sheriff. On the other hand, Hambletonian
-made his master a rich man, and he left a large estate. Hambletonian was
-only partially developed, but sufficient to show he was a fast colt for
-his period. (For full particulars see his history in another chapter.)
-Abdallah was a very great sire of speed and he was not a developed
-trotter, but his dam, old Amazonia, was quite fully developed. She won
-many races and was the fastest trotter of her day. Whether her speed came
-from a fast pacing ancestry, or whether it came from the reputed “son of
-Messenger,” as stated when she was bought near Philadelphia, never can be
-determined. The “son of Messenger” story seemed to be straight, but her
-form was coarse and plain, and her legs were so hairy that many who knew
-her best condemned the story; hence, all we can say about her is simply
-that she was a fast developed trotter. Andrew Jackson had but little
-trotting inheritance from his sire, and his dam was a fast pacing mare of
-unknown breeding, but his speed was very fully developed as a trotter,
-and he became the progenitor of the Clay and the Long Island Black Hawk
-families, that became famous in trotting history. While this reasoning
-was true in experience and sound under the canons of science, it was not
-strong and convincing, for the one and only reason that the basis of the
-generalization was too narrow and lacked in a sufficient number of cases
-to convince the understanding of the skeptical. We have had to wait for
-the accumulation of the experiences of a number of years, and now we have
-the evidence that is so complete as to be really startling and which no
-man can gainsay. The following little table embraces all the breeding
-farms in this country that have produced three or more trotters with
-records of 2:15 or better, and here the rate of speed is certainly high
-enough and the foundation is certainly broad enough to furnish just and
-safe conclusions:
-
-  Leland Stanford             18
-  Fashion Stud Farm           13
-  William Corbitt              9
-  Wm. H. Wilson                8
-  C. J. Hamlin                 7
-  Glenview Farm                6
-  Timothy Anglin               5
-  Henry C. Jewett              4
-  Wm. C. France                4
-  Woodburn Farm                4
-  Robert G. Stoner             4
-  R. S. Veech                  3
-  C. W. Williams               3
-  Highland Farm (Lee, Mass.)   3
-  Fairlawn Farm                3
-  E. W. Ayers                  3
-  Charles Backman              3
-  George H. Ely                3
-  Mrs. S. L. Stout             3
-  Monroe Salisbury             3
-
-Quite a number of other breeders have produced one or two that have made
-records in 2:15 or better, but I think the above list embraces all that
-have bred three or more with trotting records of 2:15 or better. The
-table will be a surprise to everybody, but I doubt whether it will be a
-greater surprise to anybody than it is to myself. At the head of the list
-stands the late Senator Stanford’s great establishment with eighteen to
-its credit, but this is not a fair basis of comparison with any other
-establishment in the whole country, for he had about three hundred mares
-in the trotting department of his breeding stud—about six times as large
-as the average of the larger studs of the country. The average number
-of horses in training, the year round, was about eighty, exclusive of
-yearlings and the kindergarten. In attempting to institute a comparison,
-therefore, with the average breeders of the country, we might as well
-compare the daily receipts of John Wanamaker’s store with those of the
-little green-grocer on the corner. But at the head of this establishment
-stood the great Electioneer with his strong breeding and trotting speed
-well developed, and indeed, in many respects the greatest horse of his
-generation. He was the sire of eleven in the list, and the remainder were
-either by his sons or out of his daughters.
-
-Mr. Henry N. Smith, of New York, a prominent Wall Street man, became
-greatly interested in trotting sport, and in 1868 he organized a trotting
-stable of his own, which contained some remarkable animals, as will be
-seen below. His stable was very successful, and this success naturally
-increased his attachment to the trotting interests. He then determined
-to establish a breeding farm, and about the year 1869 he purchased the
-famous old Fashion Course adjoining Trenton, New Jersey, embracing one
-hundred and forty-five acres of land and provided with an excellent
-mile track and much stabling that had been constructed years before for
-running horses. This property he very appropriately named the “Fashion
-Stud Farm,” and on it he placed the grandest assemblage of developed
-trotters, for breeding purposes only, that had ever been brought together
-in this or any other country. His stallions were Jay Gould, 2:20½,
-Tattler, 2:26, and Gen. Knox, 2:31½. This was Knox’s fastest record, but
-it was known he had trotted miles, in races, faster than this. The speed
-of all three horses was developed, and it is evident at a glance that
-there was only one first-class horse among them. But the great strength
-of the establishment was in the grand galaxy of mares, some of which I
-will enumerate, namely. Goldsmith Maid, 2:14, Lady Thorn, 2:18¼, Lucy,
-2:18¼, Lady Maud, 2:18¼, Rosalind, 2:21¾, Belle Strickland, 2:26, Western
-Girl, 2:27, Idol, 2:27, Big Mary, 2:28½, Daisy Burns, 2:28, Music’s Dam
-(that had produced 2:21½ speed), besides others with slower records or
-known to have had their speed developed as fast road mares, making in all
-about thirty mares on the farm, and Mr. Smith claimed that every one of
-them had shown more or less speed as trotters.
-
-Mr. Smith neither knew nor cared much about pedigrees, in a general
-sense, and when you came to talk to him about “nicks” and “trotting
-pitch” and all that kind of tomfoolery, his mind simply recurred to
-the old adage uttered generations ago: “Trot father, trot mother, trot
-colt.” His whole philosophy was wrapped up in the one central truth that
-the horse that could go out and trot fast, when bred on the mare that
-could go out and trot fast, would produce a colt that would go out and
-trot fast. This was sufficient for him or indeed for anybody else, for
-it contains and expresses the whole substance of the laws of heredity.
-Mr. Smith’s great mares acquired in their training and development new
-characters and new capacities which they never would have possessed had
-it not been for the care and skill expended in their training. Here we
-touch the very marrow of a question around which the scientists of today
-are warring. Darwin taught that such acquisitions were transmissible,
-of the truth of which I have no doubt, but a post-Darwinian school has
-arisen which controverts this position, and claims that it weakens and
-destroys the whole evolution theory of creation. But it matters not
-about the hypothesis of evolution concerning things we know, for it
-is simply an attempt to show how all things might have been created
-without a Creator. I have read a great deal about evolution and the
-transmissibility of acquired characters, but in all I have read I never
-have met with a lesson so broad and so strong as that furnished by Henry
-N. Smith’s great mares, proving that acquired characters are transmitted.
-
-In instituting a comparison between the high-class products of the Palo
-Alto and the Fashion Stud Farms, it seems to be necessary to place the
-premier stallions of the two side and side. They were half-brothers on
-the side of the sire, but Electioneer had the greatest speed-producing
-dam of her generation. She was a fast natural trotter herself, and was
-out of a fast and fully developed trotter. Jay Gould was out of a good
-road mare by American Star, but nobody has ever said she had any speed,
-and she was out of a nondescript mare that we know nothing about. Gould’s
-dam never produced any other trotter with a reputable rate of speed, so
-far as I have been able to learn. Electioneer was trained and developed
-by Mr. Backman, but he never was in a race, and consequently he has no
-official record. After he was taken to Palo Alto he was given quite
-regular work, and it is beyond all doubt that when in stud condition he
-could show a quarter in a little better than a 2:20 gait. The difference
-in the rate of speed, therefore, as between the two horses was not very
-great, but whatever it was must go to the credit of Jay Gould. But the
-offspring of Electioneer had a very great advantage over those of Jay
-Gould in the methodical and skillful development of their speed. In his
-maternal inheritance as a trotter, as already indicated, Electioneer
-had a marked superiority, and on an equally high class of developed
-mares he would have far outstripped his rival. Now, with this attempt
-at a clean-cut description of the two horses, we are ready to consider
-the question in its arithmetical elements, and it will be found a plain
-question of “simple proportion” which anybody can solve in a minute, as
-follows: “If the Fashion Stud Farm from thirty mares produced thirteen
-trotters with public records of 2:15 or better, how many of equal
-capacity should the Palo Alto Farm have produced from three hundred
-mares?” The answer is one hundred and thirty, but the facts, up to the
-close of 1896, furnish us with the beggarly number of eighteen.
-
-The grand assemblage of so many great trotters at the Fashion Stud Farm,
-and all for the purpose of breeding, was the subject of much comment
-among breeders from one end of the land to the other, and not a few
-pronounced it all wrong and that it would be succeeded by failure. Mr.
-Smith lacked some of the elements that go toward making a man popular,
-and hence, in many cases, there was not much sympathy between him and
-his brother breeders, but he held tenaciously to the central truth that
-the way to breed high-class trotters was to mate high-class trotters.
-His experience has clearly demonstrated the soundness of this canon of
-breeding, and it has just as clearly demonstrated the unsoundness of
-the notion that high-class trotters can be bred from animals that never
-trotted and never could be made to trot. The law, as we have taught it
-for years, has been vindicated, and that by experiences so wide and so
-complete that it can no longer be controverted. Mr. Smith has achieved a
-great honor, and as a producer of high-class speed he stands at the head
-of all American trotting-horse breeders.
-
-As we have now considered a great triumph, with the causes that led up
-to it and the lesson it has taught, it seems to be in order to give an
-example of a great failure and the causes which have produced it. For
-more than forty years Woodburn Farm, in Kentucky, has been breeding
-trotters, and up to the close of 1896 just four with records of 2:15
-or better have hailed from that great establishment. During all these
-years, and until Palo Alto Farm was established, Woodburn was the largest
-establishment in this country. With thousands of broad acres of the most
-productive soil, with the possession and control of money without limit,
-and with the experiences of forty years in which to select and breed only
-to the best, it is the natural and reasonable expectation of everybody
-interested in the question of breeding the trotter to look to Woodburn as
-leading all other establishments in the whole world in the production of
-first-class trotters. And what has Woodburn done? With her experiences
-of forty years, with all her broad acres and boundless wealth, up to the
-close of 1896 she has produced just four trotters with records of 2:15
-or better. Instead of leading all others, she is at the wrong end of the
-procession, and if we consider the proportional advantages involved, we
-find that “all others,” little and big, are leading her. By referring to
-the above list of breeders that have produced three or more with records
-of 2:15 or better, we find that Henry N. Smith has produced thirteen,
-that William Corbett, from his little stud in California, has produced
-nine, and that the late William H. Wilson, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, from
-his little band of mares, and without either broad acres or money, has
-produced eight within the past twelve or fifteen years, and all except
-one by the same horse. This places Mr. Wilson first among all Kentucky
-breeders. In the short period of its existence Glenview Farm produced
-six, and the quite unpretentious farmer, Mr. Timothy Anglin, produced
-five; W. C. France and Colonel R. G. Stoner produced four each—the same
-number as Woodburn—but they did not require forty years to accomplish
-it. Thus the breeding world, with “the little fellows” on top, has
-gone away ahead and left Woodburn to mumble over her “tin cups,” and
-exult in the many triumphs she has won against the watch in 2:30. The
-policy of Woodburn for years past seems to have been to hold the lead of
-Kentucky breeders in the production of 2:30 trotters, and to this end
-the youngsters are put in training in the early spring and kept at it
-till the frosts come, when such of them as are sure to win are brought
-out and started against the watch, for a “tin cup,” and these are the
-victories that Woodburn wins. Nobody has ever heard of Woodburn entering
-a youngster in a stake where he would have to win on his merits. That
-would be bringing him down to an equality with the colts of such people
-as William H. Wilson, Colonel R. G. Stoner, Farmer Timothy Anglin, and
-all the other “little fellows.” Woodburn has made a great deal of money
-out of these humbug tin-cup records, and as registration and the standard
-are now absolutely under the control of her manager, the 2:30-tin-cup
-still remains the evidence of a fast trotter, worthy of standard rank.
-True, everybody nowadays laughs at the idea that 2:30, with the “tin
-cup,” is any evidence of even reputable speed, but as they have given a
-certain kind of pre-eminence and made money in the past, the twins will
-not be separated, but will hold their places just as long as the standard
-is under the present control.
-
-From this brief examination of the symptoms I think a safe diagnosis can
-be made. The trouble seems to be twofold, or it may be said there are
-two troubles, either one of which is dangerous, but the two together may
-prove fatal in the end. It is a well-known fact in veterinary science
-that there are certain diseases among horses that may be communicated to
-the men who have them in charge. There is one disease, vulgarly called
-“big-head,” that comes creeping upon its victim before he is aware of its
-existence or approach, and against the insidious steps of this destroyer
-the manager at Woodburn should be affectionately warned. Sham records
-of 2:30 for standard rank are no longer welcomed with enthusiasm in
-this country. The other trouble is not so much with the manager as with
-the material which he manages, which seems to be affected with what may
-be called “dry-rot.” This view of the non-productive character of the
-Woodburn breeding stock, when measured by first-class performers, seems
-to be borne out by the fact that the names of those gentlemen who have
-depended most largely on Woodburn blood do not appear on the foregoing
-list as the producers of first-class trotters. For about forty years
-the fame of Woodburn as the greatest of all our breeding establishments
-has been as wide as the boundaries of the nation. But notwithstanding
-the weight and influence which great wealth and an unblemished name may
-have secured, the records up to the close of the year 1896 have deposed
-her from the first rank as a breeder of trotting horses, and sent her
-away to the rear, where she now occupies her true place in the eighth
-rank. It is well known to everybody that, since the days of the first
-Mr. Alexander, Woodburn has never entered a colt in a stake nor started
-one against other people’s colts, prize or no prize. This air of assumed
-superiority is sought to be explained on high moral grounds against the
-evils of horse-racing. This is like the man who never tasted whisky for
-conscience’ sake, in view of the great evil it was doing in the world,
-and yet he was the chief owner in a large distillery. At the great local
-meetings in Kentucky practically all the breeding establishments of that
-region, except Woodburn, are represented in the stakes, and while they
-are being contested Woodburn will come in with a string of youngsters,
-between the heats, and win sham records in 2:30 for “tin cups.” Depending
-on this kind of test and this kind of development, it is not remarkable
-that all the small breeders of the State have left Woodburn in the rear.
-This shining example of failure teaches unmistakably the necessity
-of honest and full development of breeding stock in order to produce
-high-class trotters.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIII.
-
-HOW THE TROTTING HOUSE IS BRED (_Continued_).
-
-    Breeding the trotter intelligently an industry of modern
-    development—Plethora of turf papers, and their timidity of
-    the truth—The accepted theories, old and new—Failure of
-    the “thoroughbred blood in the trotter” idea—“Thoroughbred
-    foundations,” and the Register—“Like begets like,” the great
-    central truth—Long-continued efforts to breed trotters from
-    runners —New York the original source of supply of trotting
-    blood to all the States—Kentucky’s beginning in breeding
-    trotters—R. A. Alexander, and the founding of Woodburn—The
-    “infallibility” of Woodburn pedigrees—Refusal to enter
-    fictitious crosses in the Register and the results—The
-    genesis and history of the standard—Its objects, effects and
-    influence —Establishing the breed of trotters—The Kentucky
-    or “Pinafore” standard —Its purposes analyzed—The “Breeders’
-    Trotting Stud Book” and how it was compiled—Failure and
-    collapse of the Kentucky project—Another unsuccessful attempt
-    to capture the Register—How honest administration of the
-    Register made enemies—The National Breeder’s Association
-    and the Chicago Convention—Detailed history of the sale and
-    transfer of the Register, the events that led up to it, and the
-    results—Personal satisfaction and benefits from the transfer,
-    and the years of rest and congenial study in preparing this
-    book—The end.
-
-
-All that American breeders know about producing the trotting horse they
-have learned in the past twenty-five years. In that short period this
-interest has developed from practically nothing into a great national
-industry that has placed this country in front of all the nations of the
-earth in the character, quality and speed of the light harness horse.
-It is true we had the “raw material” out of which to build up this new
-breed, and this had been in our possession we may say for generations,
-but we didn’t know how to use it. There may be some apparent indelicacy
-in making the remark, but I think every intelligent man who is acquainted
-with the subject will sustain me in saying that, had it not been for the
-compilation of the “Trotting Register” and _Wallace’s Monthly_, with the
-facts, statistics and reasonings which were developed through them, we
-would know no more about the trotter today than we did thirty years ago.
-The trotting horse, therefore, as we contemplate him in his position
-of superiority to all others of his kind, is simply the result of great
-labor in collecting the facts and sound reasoning from the lessons taught
-by those facts. With all the facts placed in his hand, any breeder of
-intelligence, if he were honest, could not fail to reach the truth; but,
-unfortunately, all breeders have never learned to divest themselves of
-their prejudices, and to accept the plain teachings of the facts, just as
-they are.
-
-To be able to think intelligently and honestly and to reason soundly, is
-the first requisite to success in breeding the trotter. It is a seeming
-paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that many men who are able to think
-a little are not able to think honestly. It is easy to understand why a
-man may act dishonestly, for there is the hope of gain to impel him; but
-why he should think dishonestly is not so apparent. Let us illustrate
-this matter of thinking dishonestly. On an occasion a correspondent asked
-a breeding journal to give a list of the thoroughbred horses that had
-sired trotters. A list of horses, represented as thoroughbred in the
-reply, was given, embracing some ten or twelve, about half of which were
-either unknown or dependent upon the most flimsy kind of representation
-as to their blood. It is not with the actual misrepresentation of the
-blood of most of the animals named, but with the use that was made of the
-list that I will now speak. After accepting the list as true and genuine,
-the correspondent comes before the public with his conclusions. He shows
-that these dozen performers from about as many horses made an average
-record of 2:24 and a fraction, and then triumphantly raises the question
-whether any single trotting-bred sire can show as many performers with as
-low an average record. Having satisfied himself that all the running-bred
-sires, real and imaginary, put together could more than equal any one
-trotting-bred sire in the average high rate of speed, he reaches the
-profound conclusion that the way to breed the trotter is to go to the
-runner. This is a real and not an imaginary instance of a few years
-ago. No doubt this man thought he was thinking when he reached this
-conclusion, and that he had solved the problem of breeding the trotter;
-but, poor man, he was simply trying to advertise a half-and-half-bred
-stallion he had in his stable.
-
-I have no old scores to pay off against the breeding and sporting press,
-for I generally managed to pay them off as we went along, and the triumph
-of the views I advanced and sustained has become sufficiently complete
-to satisfy the most fastidious. It seems to be a real misfortune that
-there are so many weekly journals in this field and most of them leading
-a precarious existence. It may be observed in most directions that the
-management of these journals is hesitating and timid, as though afraid
-that somebody might be offended and a five or ten-dollar advertisement
-lost thereby. It is all right to make the advertising patronage
-remunerative, but it is all wrong when that department is placed in
-control of all the others, from the fear that somebody may be offended
-if the truth be told. In the present depressed condition of the breeding
-interests, and indeed of all interests, the horsemen of the whole country
-feel that they are carrying too heavy a burden in supporting so many
-papers, and the question of the “survival of the fittest” is already
-imminent. But, whatever the present financial and intellectual condition
-of the breeding and sporting publications of the country may be, a number
-of them have had their part in the discussions and wrangles that were
-naturally coincident with the progress of the revolution on the question
-of breeding the trotter, which finally brushed everything out of its way
-and fully established the truth of the laws of inheritance. Twenty-five
-years ago there was a good number of intelligent and capable writers
-on the horse, and they were either engaged in editing horse papers or
-contributed to them, and one and all they were handicapped with the idea,
-inherited from their fathers, that whatever of excellence that was found
-in the American horse came from the English race horse, and that all the
-speed, at any gait, that he was able to show came from the same source.
-From this absurd fallacy, it naturally followed that speed at the trot
-was merely the result of accident or of the persistent skill of the
-trainer. This was, substantially, the view of the general public at that
-date.
-
-When, therefore, it was announced that the horse was far more than a
-mere machine, that he had a mental as well as a physical organization,
-that these were both equally matters of inheritance, that one horse ran
-fast because his ancestors ran fast and that another horse trotted fast
-because his ancestors were able to trot fast, and that no fast runner
-was ever a fast trotter, there was a tremendous hubbub. This was a new
-gospel, and it threatened to annihilate the stupid Anglo-Arabian fetish
-that all that was good in horsedom must of necessity come from that
-source. For generations the belief had been universal that the only way
-to improve the horse for any purpose under the sun was to “breed up” to
-the running horse and thus get back to the blood of the pure Arabian.
-On the other hand, and as opposed to this ancient fallacy that the way
-to breed the trotter was to go to the runner, it was urged, with a
-thousand proofs at the back of it, that the way to breed the runner was
-to go to the horse that could run, and the way to breed the trotter was
-to go to the horse that could trot. Here was a direct issue squarely
-made, and it was not to be expected that such men as Charles J. Foster,
-Peter C. Kellogg, Joseph O. Simpson, etc., all writers of ability, would
-quietly surrender without a battle. They had committed themselves to
-the running-blood traditions, some rich men had shaped their breeding
-studs in that direction, and without deciding whether a rich man had
-necessarily more sense than a poor one, they knew instinctively that
-a rich man could be more liberal in advertising, and that he could
-be more generous in properly recognizing the little courtesies that
-might be extended in the way of keeping his establishment before the
-public in an approving light. Thus, with an eye to the weather-gauge,
-the editors were able to maintain their own consistency. As the
-experiences of every succeeding year added thousands of proofs to the
-plain proposition that the trotter inherits his speed from a trotting
-ancestry, the “irreconcilables” began to shift their ground, conceding
-that there must be trotting blood to give the action, but that there
-must be “speed-sustaining” blood from the thoroughbred to give courage
-and endurance. This was the second position, and in a commercial sense
-it was shrewdly chosen for the advantage of certain localities. This
-position furnished the “thoroughbred foundation” argument, and for a time
-it had its supporters. This theory also furnished its promised commercial
-advantages to such localities as had formerly bred running horses, and
-it was but a week till everybody in those localities had “thoroughbred
-foundations” for their trotting pedigrees, and those who did not have
-them could easily procure them. This brought an avalanche of pedigrees,
-especially from Kentucky, with “thoroughbred foundations,” consisting
-of long strings of dams by famous horses, but without names, dates,
-breeders or histories, and many of them impossible. To checkmate this
-inundation of manufactured foundations, in the office of the Register,
-a rule was adopted requiring satisfactory identification and history
-of each dam, and where that could not be given the pedigree would be
-cut off. This rule saved the “Trotting Register” from becoming the mere
-dumping place for countless frauds, but it aroused such a feeling of
-antagonism on the part of the manager of Woodburn Farm that he, at once,
-started an opposition Register to be compiled at the farm, under his own
-personal direction. Of this, and what came of it, I will speak further
-on. It is but just that I should say here, that from a wide knowledge of
-men and from a study of their moral fiber extending through many years
-in connection with horse affairs, I have found many Kentuckians that
-were thoroughly truthful and reliable in pedigree matters; but at the
-same time it must be admitted that the conditions there for generations
-past have not been favorable, among horsemen, for the cultivation of
-the highest type of truthfulness. Many of them have been making their
-own pedigrees for so long, and padding them out with nameless dams by
-suppositious sires, to suit themselves—and the market—that they don’t
-take kindly to any restraint in what they consider their own business.
-
-The great central truth in reproduction, whether of animals or plants,
-is summed up in the homely but axiomatic phrase, “like begets like.”
-With the rank and file of intelligent breeders who were able to think,
-this axiom was soon accepted as a fundamental and basic truth. The
-phrase “trotting instinct” was soon in everybody’s mouth, and the broad,
-plain distinction between that and “running instinct” was so palpable
-and easy of practical comprehension that the fallacy of a “thoroughbred
-foundation” was buried out of sight. When it was considered that the
-instinct of the one was to put forth his supreme effort at the trot,
-and of the other to put forth his supreme effort at the gallop, the
-irreconcilable antagonism between the two gaits was apparent. The
-cumulative evidences furnished year after year by the official records
-of performances on the tracks, and all going to show that the trotting
-horse must have a trotting inheritance, soon became so overwhelming in
-the uniformity of their teachings, and so completely unanswerable in
-the force of numbers, that no man able to observe and think could any
-longer doubt the truth of the position taken. But, unfortunately, some
-men can neither observe nor think, and, what is still more unfortunate,
-they not infrequently undertake to fill the rôle of public teachers
-and leaders of public thought. We can understand how a man of average
-intelligence may be wise in many things and foolish in others. When
-we come to study the phenomena he presents, we find he has studied the
-subjects on which he is wise, and he is ignorant on the subjects on which
-he is foolish. Like “Brother Jasper,” the negro preacher, he is ready
-to maintain against all comers that “the sun do move.” Another class of
-men in the writing fraternity, but fortunately they are restricted in
-numbers, have brains enough to apprehend the facts surrounding them and
-their teachings, but they have not conscience enough to lift them above
-their toadying instincts, for fear they might miss the crumbs from a
-rich patron’s table. Another type of man, generally a beginner in the
-breeding business, has a half-and-half-bred stallion at the head of his
-little stud, and he is uniformly an enthusiast for the “thoroughbred
-foundation.” As might be expected, he fills the columns of all the papers
-accessible with his “views of breeding,” which are always shaped to fit
-his own stallion and bring him patronage. We might here go on and point
-out other types of would-be “teachers” that would be entertaining, but
-certainly not profitable or instructive. We might follow the vagaries
-of different writers and show the origin and reason for those vagaries,
-but as the breeding world has become far more intelligent, and I think
-more honest, than it was twenty-five years ago, one vagary after another
-has disappeared and been buried out of sight. All such trumpery as, “to
-breed the trotter you must go to the runner,” “more running blood in the
-trotter,” “thoroughbred foundation,” etc., are phrases that are never
-heard in our day among intelligent breeders. A mile in two minutes and
-thirty seconds is “played out” as an evidence of trotting speed, but it
-is still held in its place as such evidence to suit the blood and methods
-of development at one particular establishment, and to gather in the
-money for registration from the little fellows.
-
-Anything slower than “two-twenty” is no longer looked upon as of any
-value in a trotting sense.
-
-This astonishing increase of speed has come hand in hand with a closer
-and more careful observance of the law of inheritance, or heredity. If
-we breed the merino ram upon a merino ewe, we know that the produce
-will be a merino. If we breed the cotswold on the cotswold we know the
-produce will be a cotswold, but if we breed the merino on the cotswold
-the produce will be a mongrel. The physical inheritance is destroyed,
-and in propagating from this mongrel confusion, uncertainty and
-disappointment always follow. If we go a step higher and consider those
-types of domestic animals endowed with a species of mentality that we
-call instinct, we find the illustrations still more marked and effective.
-The finely bred greyhound coupled with the finely bred pointer produces
-neither a greyhound nor a pointer, but only a nondescript cur. Sometimes
-the instincts of the greyhound and sometimes the instincts of the pointer
-may be the more masterful, but the inheritance is broken and divided, and
-the mongrel should never be used for propagation. If we couple the very
-best specimen of the English race horse with the very best and fastest
-American trotting mare, the produce would be literally half-and-half
-bred. The sire never could trot a mile in four minutes and the dam never
-could run a mile in two minutes, and what is the produce good for? Once
-in a hundred times the running instinct might predominate and develop
-something of a runner, and once in a hundred times the trotting instinct
-might predominate, as in the case of Bonnie Scotland and Waterwitch, and
-produce something of a trotter, but of what value would the half-and-half
-progeny be for breeding purposes? Whatever might be the characteristics
-of their progeny, physically, they would undoubtedly and invariably
-inherit and transmit not only divided, but antagonistic, instincts that
-would require generations of careful selection and training to get rid
-of. While the “featherheads” may, for the sake of personal consistency,
-which is a very weighty matter of public concern, still advocate “more
-running blood in the trotter;” and while one great concern may still look
-one way, on this question, and row the other, it being literally true
-that she has not added a single drop of running blood to her trotting
-stud in a quarter of a century, it is safe to say that the whole body of
-intelligent breeders of this country have come to accept and obey the
-great central truth that the American trotter has reached his present
-state of perfection by the development of his unbroken and undivided
-trotting inheritances. These inheritances have been cumulative and thus
-made stronger in each developed generation of ancestors, and if this high
-development of speed is kept up for a series of successive generations
-the speed of the American trotter will be placed at a point of which we
-have never yet dreamed. The inherited and developed instinct to stick to
-the trot as the fastest gait of which the horse is conscious, coupled
-with skillful preparation and handling, are the two factors that will
-always put the American trotting horse in the front rank and keep him
-there.
-
-In the early chapters of this work we have considered the horse in his
-original habitat and his distribution among the different peoples of
-the then known world, but we have not considered the distribution of
-the trotter through the different regions of our own country. Fifty or
-sixty years ago the trotting horse was hardly known outside of a limited
-territory embracing the cities of New York and Philadelphia. In the New
-England States the trappy little Morgan filled the place of the driving
-horse with very great acceptance, but he had no speed as a trotter. We
-then began to see and hear something of the “Maine Messengers,” that
-were trotters in reality and able to demonstrate their speed and courage
-on the track. Occasionally a converted pacer would strike a trot and
-show speed that was phenomenal in that day, but it was uniformly treated
-as “accidental.” There was a great deal of high-class trotting blood
-in the region of Philadelphia, and for a time that was the leading
-center of the trotting interest, but it did not receive that measure of
-encouragement and support that was necessary to its permanent growth,
-and the seat of empire was transferred to Long Island and Orange County,
-New York. South of Mason and Dixon’s line the trotter was tabooed, as a
-mongrel nondescript, and “not worthy of the attention of a gentleman,
-sah.” They had runners and they had pacers, and as all excellence in the
-shape of a horse, at whatever gait, as they argued, must come from the
-running horse or his progenitor, the Arabian, they had already the very
-best material in the world for the production of the fast trotter. The
-belief as expressed in their motto, “Speed at the gallop was a guarantee
-of speed at any other gait required,” pervaded all minds and directed
-all action in matters of breeding. Thus they worked away for years
-trying to breed trotters from blood that never could and that never did
-trot, and, strange as it may seem, there are still some people in that
-region, at the close of the nineteenth century, trying to breed trotters
-from runners. From New York as a common center all the breeding States
-obtained their supplies of trotting blood, and they in time became
-sources of supply. The only exception to this is that of the pacer, which
-eventually developed into a trotting element of some prominence and
-value, especially in the West and South.
-
-The prominence of Kentucky as a breeding center is wholly due to the
-trotting blood she obtained from New York. She had plenty of pacing
-blood that was good, of its kind, but it was so uncertain and sporadic
-that it did not commend itself to the breeders of that section as a
-source of trotting speed. From an early period in the history of the
-State the habits and fancies of the people, in the richer portions, had
-been “horsey,” from their knowledge and familiarity with running races
-for many years, and thus when the demand came for trotters they struck
-out vigorously to meet that demand. When Mr. R. A. Alexander organized
-the great Woodburn Farm he established a department of trotters, which
-was among the very first of any magnitude in the State. As he had been
-reared abroad he knew nothing about American pedigrees, and in making
-his purchases of breeding stock he was victimized by every sharper who
-came along with a brood mare to sell. He was a man of honest purpose and
-excellent natural judgment which told him to buy such breeding animals
-as could trot themselves or had produced trotters, and if he had been
-content to stop with what little he knew of their breeding he would
-have been all right; but, meantime, the professional pedigree-maker—the
-successor to the famous Patrick Nesbitt Edgar—came along and tricked them
-out in an excellent quality of pinchbeck pedigrees containing plenty of
-running blood that had never trotted nor produced a trotter. When the
-first Mr. Alexander died he was succeeded in the proprietorship of the
-great estate by his brother, a very worthy gentleman who made it a law to
-the establishment that none of his horses should ever start in a race.
-His fancy and knowledge were all in the line of cattle, and he seemed
-to neither know nor care anything about horses. Soon after this change
-in the ownership of the estate a new manager was placed in charge, and
-it was soon manifest that however absurd and untruthful the pedigrees
-of breeding stock might be, they must not be questioned nor corrected
-by any authority whatever. This doctrine of infallibility as applied to
-Woodburn pedigrees was wholly incompatible with what I conceived to be
-my duty to the breeding public. I had accepted the Woodburn pedigrees,
-at the start, as trustworthy, on the grounds of the eminence and high
-character of the first Mr. Alexander, and it was far more than a surprise
-to me when I discovered something of the extent to which the pedigrees
-of the whole establishment had been honeycombed with the dishonesty
-of “sharpers” and “pedigree-makers.” These fictions antedated any
-compilation or known authority of trotting pedigrees, and there can be
-no doubt they were accepted as honest statements of the blood of the
-animals in question, while many of them were wholly fictitious and all of
-them contained crosses on the maternal side that were merely imaginary.
-These embellishments, to call them by no harder name, were uniformly in
-one and the same direction, all stretching out to embrace as much of the
-blood of the running horse as possible, and often a great deal that was
-impossible. Here I may state the general fact that all Kentuckians had
-claimed and exercised the right so long to shape up their pedigrees to
-suit themselves and to bring the most money in the market that a number
-of them still claimed that as a right and became somewhat restive when
-told that their pedigrees would be recorded just as far as they were
-proved, and no further. Two or three breeders expostulated against this
-rule, and in reply they were assured that they had a perfect right to
-shape their pedigrees as they pleased, but that insertion in the Register
-was the same as my personal indorsement, and that this indorsement could
-not be given to any pedigree that I did not know or believe to be honest
-and true. This ended all doubts about the position and character of the
-Register, and I think that every breeder of any standing in Kentucky
-submitted to the rule, with the solitary exception of Woodburn Farm.
-The manager of that establishment was not only unwilling to have the
-infallibility of Woodburn pedigrees called in question, but he aspired to
-the control of the pedigrees of all other breeders in the whole country.
-When the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders was organized in
-December, 1876, he was not only asked, but pressed, to become a member
-and take part in its management and control. But no, he would be “boss,”
-or he would be nothing. New York was not the right place to organize it.
-It should be organized in Kentucky, and with the manager of Woodburn
-at the head of it. The arrogance of this young manager was something
-amazing, his intrigues to get control of registration were continued for
-a number of years, and the means employed to accomplish his ends were of
-such a character as clearly to demonstrate that of all the men in the
-world he was the last one who should be placed in the control of such a
-trust. As this controversy extended through the period of building up the
-breed of trotters, it is of necessity a part of the literature of the
-formation of that breed, and as some of the more salient points seem to
-be of sufficient importance to hand down to future generations, I will
-here consider them very briefly. In doing this I am conscious of some
-feeling of embarrassment on account of the personal matters that must
-enter into the recital, but it is a part of the trotting history of the
-times, and I prefer that the truth may be preserved, whatever may be the
-teachings of the canons of taste.
-
-In the collection and registration of pedigrees that seemed to be more
-or less closely allied to trotting blood, embracing all contained in the
-first, second and third volumes of the “Trotting Register,” there was no
-guide or rule to determine what was worthy of registration, in a trotting
-sense, and what was unworthy. I had a general conception of the families
-that had produced trotters and those that had not, but I had no rule by
-which I could decide what to admit and what to reject, except that all
-actual performers of reputable speed must be admitted. To undertake,
-on individual responsibility, to determine what amount of trotting
-blood should be requisite to admission, and how that amount should
-be measured, was quite too hazardous, except when backed by a strong
-moral and numerical force of breeders. Hence my active interest in the
-organization of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and
-my earnest desire that it might be composed of breeders of high standing
-and character from all parts of the country. Upon the organization of
-the association, its character was so entirely acceptable to me that I
-did not hesitate to place in its hands the supervisory control of the
-registration of pedigrees for the “Trotting Register,” to be exercised
-by a Board of Censors to be appointed annually. The first board was
-appointed and entered on its functions January 15, 1877, by formulating
-the first set of rules relating to the requisites necessary to the
-acceptance of pedigrees, in their form and completeness. The third volume
-was then approaching completion and the Board of Censors commenced their
-supervisory duties on that volume.
-
-The members of the Breeders’ Association were generally men of
-intelligence, and capable of thinking, and every suitable opportunity was
-improved to get their individual views on the question as to whether a
-set of rules could be adopted by the association that would distinguish
-between animals that had trotted themselves or produced trotters in say
-2:30, and animals that had not. Not many had ever thought of the subject,
-but all were ready to think of it more. The only objection urged was
-that such a scheme would certainly reduce the fees for registration in
-large degree. To this I assented as doubtless true for the time being,
-though in the end it would largely increase them, but declared that it
-was not for the fees I was working, but to establish a breed of trotting
-horses. When satisfied that a good number of the leading breeders were
-thinking favorably of the subject, it was presented to the public in
-a very modest and unpretentious way. In discussing “The Future of the
-Breeders’ Association,” in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for April, 1878, the
-following language occurs:
-
-    “In addition to the thought and labor necessary to secure such
-    an organization as the interest demands, there is another topic
-    that will require great deliberation and wisdom, in the near
-    future. The association must fix a standard of admission to the
-    official record of pedigrees. Up to the present time there has
-    been no standard of blood requisite to secure a place in the
-    Register. This matter has been left wholly to the compiler,
-    without even so much as advice on the subject. The Register,
-    therefore, has no value as a classification of blood, but
-    only as a reliable record of the pedigrees of the animals it
-    contains, whatever their blood may be.”
-
-This is the first intimation ever given to the public, so far as I
-know, that any body of men ever contemplated the construction of a
-standard to control the admission of trotting horses to specific rank
-and registration. The question was thus placed openly before the public
-and it was looked upon favorably by those most immediately interested.
-In due time, at a meeting of the Breeders’ Association, a committee was
-appointed to whom was referred all the suggestions that had been made for
-the proposed scheme. Soon afterward (November 19, 1879) the committee
-reported the standard to a large, enthusiastic and harmonious meeting of
-the Association, and it was unanimously adopted as follows:
-
-    THE STANDARD OF ADMISSION TO REGISTRATION.
-
-    (Established by the National Association of Trotting-Horse
-    Breeders, November 19, 1879.)
-
-    In order to define what constitutes a trotting-bred horse, and
-    to establish a BREED of trotters on a more intelligent basis,
-    the following rules are adopted to control admission to the
-    records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the requirements of
-    admission and is duly registered, it shall be accepted as a
-    standard trotting-bred animal.
-
-    FIRST.—Any stallion that has, himself, a record of two minutes
-    and thirty seconds (2:30) or better; provided any of his get
-    has a record of 2:40 or better; or provided his sire or his
-    dam, his grandsire or his grandam, is already a standard animal.
-
-    SECOND.—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.
-
-    THIRD.—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record
-    of 2:30 or better.
-
-    FOURTH.—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record
-    of 2:30 or better; provided he has either of the following
-    additional qualifications:
-
-    1.—A record himself of 2:40 or better.
-
-    2.—Is the sire of two other animals with a record of 2:40 or
-    better.
-
-    3.—Has a sire or dam, grandsire or grandam that is already a
-    standard animal.
-
-    FIFTH.—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of
-    2:30 or better.
-
-    SIXTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard
-    mare.
-
-    SEVENTH.—The progeny of a standard horse out of a mare by a
-    standard horse.
-
-    EIGHTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare
-    whose dam is a standard mare.
-
-    NINTH.—Any mare that has a record of 2:40 or better, and whose
-    sire or dam, grandsire or grandam is a standard animal.
-
-    TENTH.—A record to wagon of 2:35 or better shall be regarded as
-    equal to a 2:30 record.
-
-In this, its original form, the standard was administered successfully
-and smoothly through the period of the compilation of volumes four, five,
-six, and seven of the “Trotting Register,” when it was revised by the
-Breeders’ Association as follows:
-
-    THE STANDARD.
-
-    (AS REVISED AND ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
-    TROTTING-HORSE BREEDERS, DECEMBER 14, 1887.)
-
-    In order to define what constitutes a trotting bred horse and
-    to establish a BREED of trotters on a more intelligent basis,
-    the following rules are adopted to control admission to the
-    records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the requirements
-    of admission and is duly registered it shall be accepted as a
-    standard trotting-bred animal.
-
-    FIRST.—Any stallion that has himself a record of two minutes
-    and thirty seconds (2:30) or better, provided any of his get
-    has a record of 2:35 or better, or provided his sire or his dam
-    is already a standard animal.
-
-    SECOND.—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.
-
-    THIRD.—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record
-    of 2:30 or better.
-
-    FOURTH.—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record
-    of 2:30 or better, provided he has either of the following
-    additional qualifications: (1) A record himself of 2:35 or
-    better. (2) Is the sire of two other animals with a record
-    of 2:35 or better. (3) Has a sire or dam that is already a
-    standard animal.
-
-    FIFTH.—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of
-    2:30 or better.
-
-    SIXTH.—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard
-    mare.
-
-    SEVENTH.—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a
-    mare by a standard horse.
-
-    EIGHTH.—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a
-    mare whose dam is a standard mare.
-
-    NINTH.—Any mare that has a record of 2:35 or better, and whose
-    sire or dam is a standard animal.
-
-From the indefinite and unsatisfactory starting point, and without
-any rule or guide as to what should be admitted, except the pointless
-phrase, “well related to trotting blood,” it soon became evident that
-the Register would soon contain as much chaff as wheat. Through the
-_Monthly_, which was established for that purpose, I did not despair of
-the success of my aim in leading the intelligent breeders of the country
-up to the point of recognizing and establishing the American trotting
-horse as a BREED. The road was long, steep, rough in places, and beset
-with prejudices on all sides, but labor conquers all things, and we
-have in the standard and its revision, as given above, the culmination
-and perfection of the implements that were to effect this purpose. To
-reject a horse from registration merely because he was running bred would
-have been “flying in the face” of the prejudices of nearly everybody,
-but to reject him because neither he nor any of his tribe had ever been
-able to trot, was philosophical and just; and as it gave no section
-of the country an advantage over any other section, and no theory an
-advantage over a fact, no man could gainsay or criticise its justice or
-its truthfulness. This was the wedge that split the rock of ignorance
-and prejudice, and thus exploded the theories of generations as to the
-value of running blood in the trotter. As I look at it to-day, the
-undertaking to gather up a great lot of fragments and convert them into
-a breed was a tremendous one, and although it was backed up with brains
-and influence, it is doubtful whether many of its promoters had any very
-clear conception of the results that would follow—either its success
-or its failure. It assumed to direct and control the trotting-horse
-breeding interest of the whole country, and to leave its impress for
-all time. It required no gift of prophecy to see this as the result of
-success, and neither did it require any gift of prophecy to foresee
-that failure would wipe out the work already done in both the Register
-and the _Monthly_. It was the crucial period in the history of these
-publications. A misstep or an unwise provision would have brought a
-disastrous end. To found a breed of horses resting primarily and wholly
-upon performance and the blood descended directly from performers, or the
-producers of performers, was something that never had been attempted in
-the world. The basis was wholly unique, but it commended itself to the
-public judgment as a just one, and as the only foundation upon which the
-proposed breed could be successfully established. The basis was wisely
-chosen and the superstructure erected thereon was equally wise in all its
-provisions. Never have we known a set of men to work more earnestly or
-more unselfishly for the common purpose.
-
-After very careful consideration in a large and intelligent committee,
-the finished labors of that committee was reported to the Association on
-November 19, 1879, at the Everett House, in this city, and the standard
-was then and there adopted without so much as a question and without a
-voice or a vote being raised against it. Thus the standard was launched
-in unity and wisdom, and from that day it went forward on its mission
-of educating the people. The “Trotting Register” has done much and the
-_Monthly_ has done something in the way of education, but the standard
-has been the special formula through which all these teachings have been
-brought home to the breeder, great and small, in a manner that educated
-both his mind and his pocket. If we could conceive of the brightest mind
-directing the most pointed pen for the period of a hundred years in the
-special department of how to breed the trotting horse, we feel sure he
-would fail to accomplish as much as this little, practical formula called
-the “Standard” accomplished in the first dozen years of its existence.
-
-When the standard was adopted and put in operation there was a material
-advance in the market value of all animals registered under its
-requirements, and it thus became not only a matter of honor, but of
-profit, to breed only in the standard ranks. Everybody was willing to
-pay more for a good horse that was standard in his breeding than for
-one equally good that was not standard in his breeding. A record of
-2:30 was then accepted as evidence of a high rate of speed, everywhere.
-There was a grand rush for standard rank and the number of fraudulent
-performances sent forward in order to secure such classification was
-overwhelming. This led to many rejections of performances, adroitly
-shaped up to deceive, and every rejection made a batch of enemies. But
-great as this evil was, there was another that began to manifest itself
-very strongly. The Register was rapidly filling up with colts under rules
-seven and eight, and everyone of them, as soon as he was able to stand
-up, wanted his number, for he was to be kept as a standard stallion. The
-public attention was urgently called to the preponderating numbers of
-these feebly bred colts, as a menace to the hitherto unimpeded progress
-of the grand purpose of establishing a breed. The Breeders’ Association
-thereupon took up the standard and revised it, wholly in the direction
-of higher qualifications and more stringent requirements. By comparing
-the revised standard with the original, above, it will be observed that
-rule ten was stricken out, and that rules seven and eight were restricted
-to fillies only, thus cutting off the source of danger altogether. The
-rates of subsidiary speed were advanced and there was a tightening up
-of the requirements in other directions. This revision did not suit all
-interests, especially beginners who were just starting to breed their
-first colt by a standard horse, but as every one knew there would never
-be a time when there would not be just such groundless complaints, the
-action received the hearty indorsement and support of all breeders who
-kept in view the central object of the standard in building up a breed of
-trotters.
-
-When fast horses began to multiply by the thousand, annually, say about
-1890-91, we began to hear an increasing number of gibes at the standard
-as “a slow coach,” “away behind the times,” “a 2:30 horse was no longer
-considered a trotter,” etc., and every one of these taunts had an element
-of truth in it. The standard, as the teacher of the breeders of the
-country, had not only produced trotters, but _great_ trotters, with
-marvelous rapidity. At one time it was the ambition of all breeders to
-place their stock inside of the limits of the standard, not only because
-it was an honor, but because it added materially to the bank account and
-to the value of every animal, so bred, in the establishment. But breeders
-both great and small are no longer stimulated to enter a standard with
-the antiquated 2:30 rate of speed that is everywhere received with a
-sneer. When the standard was formed on the basis of 2:30, it was within
-about fifteen seconds of the fastest performance, and if the same ratio
-were now preserved, “2:30” would be stricken out and “2:20” inserted
-instead. The breeders would again be stimulated to look forward with
-hope, and not backward with regret.
-
-Of the numerous criticisms of the standard after its adoption, there
-were none of any special force or practicability, but from one source
-there was a persistent war made upon it, not because it was unfair in
-its principles or administration, nor because it lacked vigor in its
-support, but evidently because it was not controlled in Kentucky, and
-that the pivotal authority of that control was not placed in the hands of
-the manager at Woodburn. It is but just that I should say here that many
-of the stanchest and most enthusiastic supporters of the standard and
-the Register were Kentuckians, and with the exceptions of two or three
-breeders who stood well in their community, and a few others who were
-bankrupt in character and morals, there were no enemies to engage in this
-war. I would gladly skip over this period, for it is of necessity more
-or less personal, but to omit it would leave the history of the times
-and of the formation of the breed of trotters incomplete, and liable to
-misrepresentation by those who may come after us.
-
-The first public suggestion or demand for a standard, and the first use
-of the word “standard” in connection with rules for registration, was
-addressed to the Breeders’ Association, in the paragraph quoted above,
-from the _Monthly_ for April, 1878. In that paragraph, while no specific
-rules were formulated, the whole scope of such rules was foreshadowed.
-
-In the course of correspondence with breeders all over the country as to
-their views about the provisions of the proposed standard, I received
-from Mr. Henry C. McDowell, of Kentucky, a little slip of paper, perhaps
-as large as your hand, marked “copyrighted,” on which were printed a
-number of rules that purported to be rules for the admission of certain
-animals, trotters and runners, to some book that was not named or
-described. This little paper was courteously received and commended as a
-step in the right direction.
-
-The idea of inserting the word “copyrighted” seemed to be that it
-might serve as a “scare head” and thus deter all makers of books from
-attempting to make a book under the provisions of these rules. These
-rules were strictly tentative, and they were peddled about for months,
-and changed several times to see whether they would be acceptable or
-not, and every revised and corrected edition was marked “copyrighted.”
-
-Some of the rules that were, we might say, self-evident, were not very
-objectionable, but others again were simply intended to give Woodburn
-and those who had their breeding stock from that establishment a great
-advantage over all other breeders. The selfish object of the fourth rule
-is palpable, as follows: “Any mare, the dam of any mare or stallion that
-has produced or sired a horse, mare or gelding, with a record of two
-minutes and thirty seconds or better.”
-
-To the original draft of six rules, “rule seven” was afterward added,
-which reads: “The full sister of any animal entered under rules one,
-two, three, and four.” This was the capsheaf of absurdity, for it not
-only made the grandams of trotters standard trotting brood mares, but
-all their sisters also. This not only embraced a large number of running
-mares, genuine and bogus alike, in Kentucky, but it reached across the
-Atlantic and made one of the greatest of English dams of running horses,
-and all her famous sisters, standard trotting brood mares in America.
-Bonnie Scotland, the great racing sire, never was able to get a trotter
-except from old Waterwitch, and upon the strength of that scratch, his
-sisters and his mother and his aunts were all made standard trotters.
-No wonder this marvelously stupid production came to be known as the
-“Pinafore Standard.” [A more extended review of the “Pinafore Standard”
-may be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for December, 1879, page 831.]
-
-But when we come to consider the ultimate result intended to be reached,
-the scheme was not “marvelously stupid”—it was not the work of a fool,
-but of the other kind of fellow. The admission of the grandmothers and
-all their sisters was not specially intended to bring in the great
-English racing mare and all her sisters as standard-bred American
-trotters, but it was intended to bring in a great host of Kentucky
-running-bred mares that never could trot a mile in four minutes, and
-place them on an exact equality of rank with mares that had records of
-2:20 or less. This would not only place Kentucky away ahead of the North
-in the length of her lines of inheritance, but would place Woodburn away
-above all competitors, either North or South, and with a little help of
-the Edgar-Bruce type, we would soon have had “twelfth dam, fifteenth
-dam,” etc., not one of them named and not one of them honest. Great
-local, and especially personal, advantages were to accrue, and the
-theory that Kentucky running blood was not the best trotting blood in the
-world was to be smashed, and here we reach “the milk in the cocoanut.”
-So far as we can understand the conditions as they then existed and
-so far as we can analyze the facts developed, this seems to be a fair
-interpretation of the impelling motive. In an unfortunate hour I took
-up this buntling of the young manager and exposed its absurdities,
-addressing the exposure to a highly esteemed personal friend whose name
-was connected with the movement, and just as soon as the gentlemen
-interested could be got together, every vestige of the “Pinafore”
-features was eliminated, the poor old grandmothers and their sisters
-being ruthlessly turned out in the cold. This was the first set-back
-which Mr. Brodhead received in his enterprise, which was to accomplish so
-much for Woodburn, and which ended so disastrously.
-
-There was another feature embraced in the “Pinafore,” and protected by
-the same “copyright,” that was of special significance. It was provided
-that time made in a public trial, against the watch, should be accepted
-as of equal value with time made in a race with other horses. It is
-not worth while to stop to consider the question as to whether these
-two kinds of performance are of equal merit, and should receive equal
-honor, for every honest man will call such a claim a bald absurdity on
-its face. Then why has Woodburn, from time immemorial, it will be asked,
-always refused to enter a colt in a stake or start one against others? If
-you ask the manager he will tell you that Mr. Alexander, the owner, is
-opposed to racing in all its forms. Then why does Woodburn, in one form
-or other, hold so much stock in the Kentucky Breeders’ Association, one
-of the most notorious gambling concerns in the whole country? We will
-not press this question too closely. There can be no shadow of doubt,
-therefore, that this feature of the “Pinafore” was the special product of
-the mind of the manager at Woodburn, for no one of the other gentlemen
-would be willing to own it.
-
-The quasi-organization from which, nominally, the “Pinafore Standard”
-emanated consisted of the five gentlemen following: Lucas Brodhead,
-Henry C. McDowell, Richard S. Veech, James C. McFerran, and Colonel
-Richard West. The names of these five gentlemen when appended to any
-matter connected with their enterprise and given to the public had no
-rank assigned to them, except “Committee on Rules.” This implied that
-there was an organization behind them that had appointed them to this
-duty, but there never was even a shadow of such an organization. Mr.
-Brodhead was manager at Woodburn and ambitious to control the trotting
-pedigrees of the whole country, and for the methods employed the reader
-is referred to page 430 of this volume. Mr. McDowell is simply Mr.
-Brodhead’s echo. In December, 1877, he attended the annual meeting of the
-National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and out of compliment
-to Kentucky he was elected president. He was about the city two or three
-days, and before he left for home he resigned without ever intimating any
-reason why he resigned. Mr. Veech is a man of undoubted integrity and
-plenty of brains, and was identified with the Breeders’ Association from
-the start. Mr. McFerran and Colonel West are both dead, and while it was
-not my privilege to know them intimately, I knew enough of them to trust
-them as honorable and honest men. Not long after the appearance of the
-original suggestion in the _Monthly_, as given above, that a standard of
-qualifications for admission to registration was of paramount importance,
-and that the preparation of such a standard was in the special province
-of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, Manager Brodhead
-caught the idea and the situation, and with Mr. McDowell hurried away to
-spend a night with Mr. Veech, near Louisville, and thus forestall the
-action the Breeders’ Association might take in the premises. They were
-all of one mind as to the importance of keeping Kentucky in the foremost
-position as a breeding State, but they were not all of one mind as to the
-means best adapted to that end. Mr. Veech was very clear and pronounced
-in his views that the way to breed the trotter was to go to the trotter
-and not to the runner, but what Brodhead said McDowell said, and that
-left him in the minority. Seated around a table, each with a copy of
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ containing the table of 2:30 trotters under their
-sires, they commenced forming some rules. With “The Great Table” before
-them they could not fail to strike the self-evident requirements of a
-standard, and two or three of their rules were very good, but as a matter
-of course the scheme of the majority to get in all the running-bred mares
-possible and enter them as standard trotting mares had to prevail. Hence
-the provision for admitting the grandams. Imported Bonnie Scotland was
-kept many years in the trotting latitudes, and just got one trotter and
-no more at any rate of speed, hence he was a standard horse according
-to this scheme, and his dam, Queen Mary, in England, was a standard
-trotting brood mare. Now if the dam thus became a standard trotting mare,
-why should not Iago, his sire, become a standard trotting sire? This
-would have been too glaring and open, and would have been ridiculed as
-an absurdity by everybody. The trick had to be carried through quietly
-or it could not succeed. At a later period the sisters of all the
-standard mares were made standard, and then came the very appropriate
-and expressive title of the “Pinafore Standard,” for it literally
-embraced “his sisters and his mother and his aunts.” This scheme would
-have admitted a vast herd of so-called trotting mares in Kentucky that
-had no trotting inheritance, had never trotted themselves, and never
-produced a trotter. This part of the scheme was certainly not the work of
-the “Committee on Rules,” but the work of an individual for the purpose
-of carrying out a selfish and inadmissible scheme to promote local and
-personal interests. When the exposure of this scheme came out Woodburn,
-with all its influence in Kentucky, could not stand against it an hour,
-and every “Pinafore” feature was promptly eliminated.
-
-When the processes of emendation and change in the “Pinafore,” and each
-change “copyrighted,” were going forward, the views of the different
-members of the “Committee on Rules” did not always harmonize, and when
-it came to the selection of a man to do the work, part of the committee
-insisted the work should be placed in the hands of John H. Wallace, and
-after some discussion a committee consisting of Mr. Brodhead and Mr.
-McDowell was deputed to tender this work to Mr. Wallace on such terms as
-would be equitable and just. In due time a communication was received
-from these gentlemen, informing me of the business upon which they had
-been appointed and wishing to know for what compensation I would engage
-to compile the book, laying down the conditions upon which it must be
-done. Without having a copy of this correspondence before me I can only
-give the substance from memory. First, the copyright was to be in the
-committee or some member of it; second, the compilations were to be
-as the committee directed; and third, the book was to be the property
-of the committee when completed. This was a stunner, but I concluded
-to play out the rôle they had assigned me and see what they would do.
-In my reply I put the case substantially as follows: “Your proposed
-book, if ever made, must be made almost, if not quite wholly, from the
-first three volumes of the “Trotting Register,” and these volumes are
-carefully protected by copyright. I have spent several years of hard
-labor in compiling them, and a large amount of money in traveling over
-the country tracing and verifying the facts which they contain. You ask
-me, in effect, to take my three volumes and to skim all the cream out of
-them to make one volume for you. Now, before going an inch further, we
-must understand what you are willing to pay for my property, before I can
-entertain any proposition to dump it into the lap of your committee.”
-Sometimes I have been disposed to lament my hard fate in coming so near
-the exalted position of “hired-man” to two such distinguished characters
-as Henry C. McDowell and Lucas Brodhead, but I missed it. To this letter
-I never received any reply, nor did these gentlemen ever make any report
-of their negotiations with me to the “Committee on Rules.”
-
-The next news we had from the “Pinafore” was the announcement that the
-book would be compiled at Woodburn, by LeGrand Lucas, and on inquiry
-as to his capacity and knowledge of the subject it was learned that he
-was a young kinsman of Brodhead’s, perhaps still in his “teens,” who
-was employed there as a kind of clerk or bookkeeper. He was evidently
-an innocent lad, for he had been installed in his new office only a
-very few days when he wrote me for certain numbers of the _Monthly_, in
-duplicate. In reply I wrote him that each volume of the “Register” and
-each number of the _Monthly_ was legally covered by copyright and that
-I could not consent to his taking my property to make up his new book,
-and that he must do as I had done—commence at the beginning and hunt for
-himself. Poor boy, what could he do? If he were debarred from the use of
-the Wallace publications, where on the face of the globe could he get the
-information? If cribbing had to be done in order to carry out the scheme,
-it would be very indiscreet to do it under the very roof of Woodburn
-and under the supervision of its manager. Thus the work languished for
-months, and little or no progress was made.
-
-In Chicago there was one James H. Sanders, publishing a paper, whom I had
-known for years. He never had an idea of his own in the world, but he
-was one of the most notorious and shameless plagiarists that I have ever
-known. As an illustration of what I knew about him in this department of
-industry and thought, I will give a single example that will honestly
-represent many others in my own experience. At one time he was employed
-several months as editor of _Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times_, and during
-that time I wrote an article for that paper that had some pith and point
-in it, but I was afraid to send it for fear Sanders would steal it, so I
-called in a capable friend and told him the situation, had him read it
-carefully and make some notes of the order of thought that he might know
-it if he ever saw it again. The paper was then signed and sent forward.
-In two or three days I received an acknowledgment of the communication
-effusively thankful for the favor, remarking that by a singular
-coincidence our minds had been running in the same channel and that when
-my communication was received he already had an article in type taking
-the same view of the subject. When the paper came my friend looked it
-over and remarked “that man is nothing more than a shameless plagiarist.”
-
-In a short time work on the book, if it were ever begun, came practically
-to an end for want of material, and this was probably brought about by
-a hint from the proprietor, Mr. Alexander, that Woodburn, with all its
-strength, could not afford to sacrifice its good name for honesty, by
-taking the property of another man, without his consent. At this juncture
-J. H. Sanders, of Chicago, wanted a job, for ready money, and knowing
-the situation in Kentucky, published an editorial going to prove that
-pedigrees could not be copyrighted, for they belonged to the owners of
-the horses, or some other such brainless argument as this. Brodhead and
-his echo saw in this the opportunity of their lives, for Sanders wanted
-the job, and if my work were to be appropriated they could blame it
-all on him. So they hied away to Chicago, and the three worthies, all
-fully inspired with the _animus furandi_, were not long in reaching an
-agreement. Sanders did not want any share in the book or in the profits
-it might yield, but he was ready to do the work for a fixed compensation,
-in cash, and to be free from all responsibility for damages or loss. The
-compensation, as represented by Sanders, was three thousand dollars.
-The negotiations were consummated, announced through the press with
-a brilliant flourish of trumpets, and the two gentlemen returned to
-Kentucky in high feather. Work on the compilation (?) was soon commenced,
-and, as related by an eyewitness, the methods were very simple and
-expeditious. Mr. Sanders sat at one side of a table with the three
-volumes of “Wallace’s Trotting Register,” and _Wallace’s Monthly_ open
-before him, and as he read out the pedigrees in their alphabetical order,
-his clerk, on the opposite side of the table, wrote them down. In a very
-few weeks the work was done and Sanders put his three thousand dollars in
-his pocket. Thus the clerk was paid, his employers were in possession of
-his dishonest work, and J. H. Wallace was robbed of the labor of years,
-but the instinctive honesty of the public conscience had not yet been
-reckoned with.
-
-The book was published under the title of “The Breeder’s Trotting Stud
-Book.” The clerical work was well done, closely following the copyrighted
-sources from which it was drawn, so closely indeed as to furnish
-strong _prima facie_ evidence that it was copied. But this feature of
-excellence, if that word can be applied to theft in any form, furnished
-literally hundreds of evidences, clear, unmistakable and conclusive,
-that from beginning to end it had been copied from the “Register” and
-the _Monthly_. Like all works of the kind, those volumes were not free
-from errors, the spelling of a name might be wrong, the initials of a
-name might have been misplaced or reversed, a date or a location may
-have been incorrect, and as all these errors were copied and not one
-of them corrected, and there were hundreds of them, each one stood up
-as a competent and undisputed witness and told the story of the theft.
-But, knowing the character of the people with whom I had to deal, I was
-prompted to adopt the methods of the detective in using marked bills,
-and then finding those bills on the person of the culprit. Fortunately
-there was a very easy way of applying this effective and conclusive
-method and I adopted it. Instead of marking bills, I marked pedigrees,
-by inserting imaginary crosses. As an illustration, there was a horse
-in Delaware called Frank Pierce Jr. Nobody ever knew anything about the
-blood of his dam, and I supplied the place with “dam by Tom Titmouse,
-pacer,” and then waited for my marked pedigrees to make their appearance.
-Nobody ever heard of a horse called “Tom Titmouse” in Delaware or any
-other country. In due time the book appeared and there my “marked bills”
-came to light in the possession of Lucas Brodhead and Henry C. McDowell.
-The piracy was a clean sweep and the evidence of it was just as complete
-as the depredation itself. As a matter of course I did not delay in
-raising the shout “stop thief,” and after one or two broadsides from the
-_Monthly_ giving the extent of the theft and examples of the evidence
-to sustain the charge, the moral sense of the breeders of the whole
-country, including Kentucky, was aroused, and I was really surprised at
-the sudden death of the bantling and its burial out of sight, but still
-more surprised that no man opened his head in explanation or defense of
-the piracy, and thus was practically confessed the truth of all that
-was charged against them. It is said that Mr. Alexander, the proprietor
-of Woodburn, tightened the reins on his over-ambitious manager, at this
-point, and admonished him that his course had done great injury to the
-good name of Woodburn, and that he must change it, and not attempt any
-defense of what he had done. Whether this really occurred or not I am not
-able to say, but it was just such a course as any wise employer would
-adopt toward a reckless employee whose course was destroying the good
-name of an establishment. It then appeared to be my duty to go forward
-and under a decree of the courts have this stolen property confiscated
-and destroyed, according to law, but as the bantling was already very
-dead and growing deader every day, with nothing left of it but a trace of
-its putrescence in the nostrils of all honest men, I concluded that the
-game was not worth the candle.
-
-Among the amusing things that were developed in the progress of this
-controversy was Mr. Brodhead’s peculiar views as to what “copyright”
-really meant. He got the idea of restricting admission to the “Register”
-to animals possessing certain qualifications from the _Monthly_, and
-he formulated this idea into five or six rules, expressed in eight or
-ten short printed lines and, as he claimed, copyrighted this idea. He
-evidently seemed to think he had invented a rat-trap and got his patent
-on it, and that no man dare make any rules restricting registration,
-so long as he safely held the patent on his rat-trap. He could see no
-difference between a patent right and a copyright. An “idea” cannot be
-copyrighted, no difference whether it be expressed in one printed line,
-or in a dozen. The copyright law is constructed for the special and only
-purpose of protecting the author in the results and products of his
-labor. The work of seeking, tracing and establishing the pedigrees of
-trotting horses had been pushed forward persistently, laboriously and
-expensively for more than twelve years, and it had grown into a vast
-accumulation of facts of imperishable value to the whole horse world, and
-every line of it was protected under the copyright law; but because it
-didn’t conform to his “rat-trap” idea he seems to have persuaded himself
-that it would be justifiable to hire and pay a man to transfer it from my
-possession to his own.
-
-During its very short life and while the memory of the book was retained
-in the recollections of the horsemen of that period, it was very
-generally, if not invariably, spoken of as “The Tom Titmouse Stud Book.”
-It has already been suggested how this name would aptly fit in among my
-“marked bills,” but the reason for it has not been made apparent. In
-Warren’s romance called “Ten Thousand a Year,” his “delectable,” or to
-speak soberly, his “detestable” hero was named “Tittlebat Titmouse,” and
-as one of the gentlemen involved in this controversy strongly reminded me
-of Warren’s hero, by his arrogance and ignorance, I involuntarily wrote
-in the “marked bill” “dam by Tittlebat Titmouse;” but upon looking at it
-I concluded it was not good bait, for it was doubtful whether any man in
-the world who ever owned a horse would name him after so contemptible
-a character. Hence, to make it less conspicuous it was changed to read
-“dam by Tom Titmouse, pacer,” and the bait was swallowed in a twinkling.
-The Kentucky scheme, from its very inception, had its motive in securing
-a local and personal advantage over the breeders of every other section
-of the country and hence the provisions of the “Pinafore” standard, from
-which the promoters were only driven by exposure and ridicule. The piracy
-was consummated as proved by a hundred witnesses that will never die, and
-of which the “marked bill” element, such as “Tom Titmouse, pacer,” is an
-unmistakable representative. With the inception and consummation both
-understood and named, how could we find another name so fit as “The Tom
-Titmouse Stud Book?” To this might be added, on an amended title-page:
-“Edited by a clerk employed by Lucas Brodhead and Henry C. McDowell of
-Kentucky.”
-
-Some three or four years after the death and burial of the “Tom Titmouse”
-book and when its odoriferous memory had become less offensive, another
-effort was made to get control of the registration business, by the same
-parties in Kentucky. Mr. Brodhead did not appear prominently in this
-move, but worked through his echo, McDowell. The plan was to present a
-monster petition to the National Trotting Association, composed chiefly
-of track owners and track followers, to establish a trotting register.
-This petition purported to be from breeders, but in fact it embraced
-all the “swipes” and stable-boys about Lexington and Woodburn, I was
-told, and there were very few actual breeders in the list, and that few
-were men who were trying to breed trotters from runners. The movement
-was inspired and engineered in good degree from Woodburn, and Brodhead’s
-friends were at work in all directions securing the names of the “rag,
-tag and bobtail” whose names appeared on the petition, and a very
-great noise was raised about what was going to be done. Whether the
-association took any action on the petition, or what it was, I have no
-recollection, but whatever the disposition made of the petition, it never
-was heard of again. To the reader not familiar with the condition of
-things in Kentucky at that time, these persistent and renewed attempts
-to get control of the registration of trotting horses can hardly be
-comprehended. They did not grow out of ruffled tempers merely, as the
-result of friction, but out of strictly _business_ considerations.
-Kentucky had a great variety of brood mares from which they were trying
-to breed trotters, and practically every one of them was tricked out
-with more or less running blood as tail-pieces to their pedigrees, while
-others were paraded with pedigrees showing a dozen or more successive
-crosses by thoroughbred horses, and not one of them with a name, a
-history or a breeder. There were many purchasers flocking to Kentucky
-with more money than knowledge for the purpose of buying a few animals
-to serve as the nucleus for a breeding stud, and it was no uncommon
-thing for such purchasers to estimate the value of a pedigree by its
-length. When the purchaser got home with his stock, his next step was
-to send them to me for registration, and here came in the “business”
-consideration. The pedigree having reached the office of the “Register,”
-unless it were already known to me, every cross had to be established
-circumstantially and specifically before it could be accepted, and at the
-precise point where reasonable information failed the pedigree was cut
-off. The purchaser then goes back upon the seller, and there the trouble
-begins. He writes me an indignant letter. “You’re interfering with my
-business, sah; that pedigree is just as I got it from Colonel Jones,
-sah; and he’s a gentleman, sah.” It was very seldom, indeed, that a man
-of this type could be mollified by assuring him that all pedigrees were
-judged by the same rule and requirement, whether they came from Maine or
-California or Kentucky. He generally remained an enemy to the “Register”
-because “it interfered with his business.” From early in the century,
-three or four counties out of about one hundred and twenty in Kentucky
-bred running horses and grades and raced them, but no records were kept
-of their breeding and nobody knows with certainty to-day anything about
-the more remote crosses. For a time the union of two or three trotting
-horses upon the top of a line of nameless dams extending ten or fifteen
-generations was looked upon as the perfection of a trotting pedigree.
-This notion, foolish as it was, gave Kentucky a great advantage over
-the breeders of all other sections of the country, and every exposure,
-with the evidence, that in nine cases out of ten these lines of nameless
-dams were in whole or in part pure fictions, was cutting the ground from
-under their supposed superiority in the breeding of their trotters.
-Under the arguments and illustrations of the _Monthly_, supported by
-the incontrovertible statistics of the “Year Book,” the Kentucky cry
-for “more running blood in the trotter,” was silenced as the child of
-ignorance and prejudice, and instead of looking for pedigrees tracing
-back to Godolphin Arabian, everybody began to look for pedigrees that
-traced to individuals and families distinguished for producing trotters,
-no difference what blood they possessed. Here the public mind reached
-the truth, and in grasping it the boasted predominance of Kentucky was
-crushed, and producing trotting blood was again placed on an equality in
-all parts of the land. The loss of the pretensions of one section could
-not be of any specific pecuniary advantage to any other section, but the
-establishing of the truth was of inestimable advantage to all. The loss
-of mere “pretentions” would not, in ordinary affairs, be considered a
-very great loss, but in this instance it was looked upon as a grievous
-wrong, because it interfered with their “business.” Every slippery fellow
-who failed to pass a bogus pedigree complained that it interfered with
-his “business.” Every gang of cheats that got together and hired the use
-of a track for a few days for the purpose of giving their horses bogus
-records, when detected, cried out vigorously that this was interfering
-with their “business.” Besides these, there were scores, perhaps
-hundreds, of others, ready for some such game to cheat the public, but
-when they learned the ordeal was severe, their courage failed and they
-contented themselves by threatening the “Register” for interfering with
-their “business.” Here was an army of jockeys and cheats, and all they
-needed to make their numbers formidable was a leader with courage and
-money, and whose “business” was their own, to seize registration and
-thus recoup the losses they had sustained in their “business.”
-
-In considering the conspiracy that resulted in the sale and transfer of
-the Wallace publications to the American Trotting Register Association,
-which means simply Lucas Brodhead, there are some antecedent conditions
-connected with these publications that need a brief explanation. The
-first volume of “Wallace’s American Trotting Register” was published in
-this city in 1871 and the second in 1874. An office was opened in this
-city in 1875 and the first number of _Wallace’s Monthly_ was issued in
-October of that year. The National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders
-was organized December 20, 1876. The attendance was large and many of the
-States were represented by men of influence and standing. Mr. Charles
-Backman was elected president, and L. D. Packer secretary. From the favor
-with which the idea of a national organization was received and from
-the character of the men participating in it, I voluntarily and without
-judicial advice placed in the association the authority to appoint
-annually a Board of Censors to examine and decide all questions relating
-to disputed pedigrees sent for registration. The plan worked smoothly
-and satisfactorily for several years, in some of which there was not a
-single case to be examined. My publications were soon past the critical
-point, and they seemed to grow from their inherent strength, and not from
-pushing or advertising. The Breeders’ Association seemed to take the
-opposite chute, and after three or four years it became merely a name.
-At first there was trouble in finding a man to take the presidency, but
-at last a rich dry goods merchant was found who was willing to take the
-presidency, and add five hundred dollars a year to some stake for the
-honor conferred; and the secretary, L. D. Packer, was the mere satellite
-of the president, and was willing to give two weeks’ work every year for
-the privilege of drawing a thousand dollars a year from the treasury. The
-annual meetings became a mere formality, with an attendance of three or
-four and the two officers, who seemed to re-elect each other year after
-year, until the association was finally buried somewhere out in Michigan,
-I think, and the money that had accumulated in the treasury was, on his
-petition, donated to the secretary in consideration of his valuable
-services for so many years in carrying the association from the cradle to
-the tomb.
-
-Owing to my relations to the Breeders’ Association, I felt that I was
-in honor bound to maintain its good name in the minds of the people,
-while every publication in the whole country was laughing at it, and that
-this was my duty as well as my interest until the time came for a final
-separation from it. True, when I made these efforts to uphold it I had to
-put my tongue in my cheek, for I knew that its management, like “the Old
-Man of the Sea,” was riding it to death. As my business continued to grow
-and prosper, I began to consider the propriety of forming a joint stock
-company of breeders, to own and control the property absolutely when I
-was ready to retire. Greatly to my surprise this proposition gave offense
-to the two gentlemen who managed the association, for I had not alluded
-to that in any possible manner. When explained to me it became perfectly
-plain that the offense was in the fact that making a legal corporation to
-own and control the property would leave no “position” for the president,
-no salary for the secretary and no further need for the N. A. of T. H. B.
-
-The Wallace Trotting Register Company, in due time, was incorporated
-under the laws of the State of New York, and commenced business October
-1, 1889. The publications of the company were the “Register,” the
-_Monthly_ and the “Year Book.” The capital stock of the company was fixed
-at one hundred thousand dollars, and as work came pouring in upon us
-more rapidly than we could handle it, labor became a burden and I had no
-time to distribute this stock among the breeders of every State, as I
-intended. This was the condition of things in the office in the following
-spring when, to my horror, I discovered I had been robbed of something
-over fifty-four thousand dollars and the thief escaped to Cuba. The
-blow was a stunner, and messages of sympathy came pouring in from all
-quarters, with many tenders of pecuniary assistance all of which were
-thankfully acknowledged, but all tenders of assistance were declined.
-
-The capitalization at one hundred thousand dollars, and the robbery of
-fifty-four thousand dollars, and the company still not crushed, gave Mr.
-Brodhead a new view of the possibilities of the future, and inspired him
-with a new hope that he might yet reach the ambition of his life and
-gain control of the registration of all the trotting pedigrees of the
-country. Without much violence to the processes of Brodhead’s mind we can
-imagine the way in which he reasoned out the problem. “This has become a
-valuable property and is bound to be still more valuable,” he doubtless
-reasoned, “and it is possible it can be bought, but if bought it must be
-done before that stock is scattered among the breeders of the different
-States. There are Russell Allen and Malcolm Forbes and a whole lot of
-rich fellows just coming into the trotting horse business and I can show
-them that this property would be a good investment. With the money in
-one hand and the bluff of starting an opposition Register in the other,
-it is possible the property might be got for something like its value.”
-He next probably reasoned: “The first thing to consider here, is how to
-make that bluff sufficiently imposing and effective, in an authoritative
-way; and shall it be a mass meeting or a delegate meeting, and where
-shall it be held? I have seen Packer and he evidently wants to know what
-there is in it for him and Mali, in case they agree to call a National
-convention. They want to perpetuate their offices in their present
-so-called National Association. If it should be a mass convention, and
-held at Chicago, I could send up a few carloads of farmers’ sons from
-around here and every one of them would swear he was a breeder. If it
-should be a delegate convention from State Breeders’ Associations, there
-are several States that have no such associations, but I could get a
-few friends to organize for the purpose of sending delegates. The horse
-papers would be a unit on our side, for they have been ‘set on’ so often
-and so hard that they would like to see the old bear superseded. Beside
-this, every one of those papers has at least the one man who is competent
-to succeed Wallace, and every editor who has been in the business six
-months thinks he is fully qualified for that place. But the real roar of
-the shouting would come from the angry men whom Wallace has disappointed
-in refusing to accept their pedigrees or their performances because they
-were irregular. These men are very numerous and we must have as many of
-them present as possible. I think this plan will work,” he doubtless
-reasoned with himself, “if we can only keep Wallace in the dark till we
-get things fixed, and to throw him off his guard I will send him three or
-four pedigrees to register.”
-
-Thus the plan of the conspiracy, with all the elements to be employed,
-were evidently matured in Mr. Brodhead’s mind. There were two points
-about which he was specially solicitous. The first was that I should
-be kept wholly in the dark as to his movements and purposes, and the
-second was some apparently official authority for calling a convention at
-Chicago that would be of a nominally “national” character. On invitation
-Secretary Packer visited Woodburn, and for a promised consideration it
-was all arranged that the President and Secretary of the N. A. of T. H.
-B. would call a convention. With the initial step thus safely provided
-for, Mr. Brodhead was everywhere, east and west, north and south, beating
-up recruits. In a short time, evidently by preconcerted arrangement,
-there was an unusual number of horsemen in town, some of them very rich
-men, while the greater number were blowers of the Dr. Day type with a
-grievance. The horsemen were hustled together by Secretary Packer, in
-what was called an impromptu meeting, and there President Mali, after
-some apparent hesitation, fulfilled his part of the agreement and called
-the convention at Chicago, and thus Mr. Brodhead secured his share—and we
-will see how the other side fared further on.
-
-When the convention assembled at Chicago it was indeed a motley mass.
-President Mali took his place as president, and called the convention
-to order, and Secretary Packer took his place as secretary. This, as I
-understand, was not by the choice of the convention, but by virtue of
-their positions in the N. A. of T. H. B. It was eventually determined
-that the meeting should be composed of delegates from State associations,
-and when the associations were called, several of them had never been
-heard of before and never have been heard of since. They were bogus
-associations, and were gotten up especially for the occasion. Some of the
-delegates bore names that never had been heard of in the office of the
-“Register,” and it may be inferred they never bred a standard horse. The
-names of others, again, were well known in the office from their efforts
-to get spurious and unknown crosses accepted. All these men were anxious
-for a new management. One man whom I had discharged from my office a few
-weeks before represented a New England State. He was guilty of a flagrant
-attempt at deception. He was a fawning sycophant, always laughing at his
-own supposed wit, and he was known in the office as “Uriah Heep.” The man
-who dominated the convention from beginning to end had not been appointed
-a delegate by his own association. The whole thing, as a convention,
-was about as hollow a sham as was ever enacted in Chicago. Next behind
-the gentlemen who by courtesy may be designated as delegates, sat the
-moneyed men who were anxiously looking for a good investment for some
-of their loose funds, and Brodhead had told them this property was
-paying twenty-five per cent. on a capitalization of one hundred thousand
-dollars, and he thought it could be made to pay more. Like many other
-fools, they thought it was a machine that when fired up in the morning
-would run itself. Next to the rich men sat a good sprinkling of farmers’
-sons, some carloads of whom had been brought from Kentucky, and all ready
-to swear they were breeders. As Brodhead explained this incident to a
-gentleman who stated it to me: “If there was any attempt to pack the
-convention he was ready to do some packing himself, with these young men
-he had brought from Kentucky.”
-
-On the outside circle there was a large number of young men and some
-older ones watching the proceedings with great intensity. They were
-restless, and some of them looked hungry, and every one of them was
-looking for a place if the purchase went through. One had a copy of the
-Bungtown _Bugle_ in his pocket containing a report of the racing at the
-last county fair, written by him, and he thought that was sufficient
-evidence that he was qualified to take charge of the _Monthly_. Another
-had made, with his own hands, as he asserted, a tabulated pedigree on
-a large scale and shaded the letters beautifully and artistically with
-pokeberry juice; and what evidence could be more satisfactory that he was
-qualified to take charge of the department of registration? Every one of
-them seemed to think that there would be a good place for him in the new
-deal, and hence his enthusiasm at every incident that seemed to point in
-that direction. Thus the little cormorants as well as the big cormorants
-were all anxious for the prey.
-
-While the soreheads were wrangling over how best to get hold of my
-property, and what they would do with it when they got it, I had several
-hours in the privacy of my own apartments to look over all the conditions
-of the situation, and the conclusions I then reached I have never had
-reason to change. It, therefore, may be of interest to all to know just
-what I thought at that crucial period, and I will give these thoughts as
-contemporaneous with the event:
-
-“This meeting is a miserable sham, but the action of Mali and Packer
-has given it a pseudo-type of regularity as a national convention of
-horsemen, and this idea of ‘regularity’ will carry weight with many who
-know nothing of the bottom facts.
-
-“The members of the press will, substantially, be a unit against me, and
-ring all the changes on ‘the National convention’ at Chicago, and labor
-to make it appear as an uprising of the horsemen of the whole country
-against me.
-
-“The meeting is packed by Brodhead with his own satellites whose expenses
-he has paid, and embraces a good many rogues who have failed in passing
-upon me dishonest pedigrees and spurious records. Besides these there are
-several men here, and very active, whose names have never been heard of
-before in the horse world.
-
-“Taking these elements together, they are in numbers more formidable than
-dangerous, but when led by Brodhead, with what they consider a fair price
-in one hand and a club in the other, with the demand ‘take the price or
-we’ll take the property,’ the occasion becomes serious.
-
-“The latter alternative means a battle that may last ten years. Ten years
-ago these same people employed a man who purloined my literary property
-and it was found in their possession. The evidence of the piracy was so
-clear that it never was denied.
-
-“Have I time enough, am I strong enough, am I young enough to enter upon
-this long battle? Ten years ago I was robbed of my property, but I was
-then vigorous and strong; one year ago another thief robbed me of my
-money and it was a terrific and lasting strain upon my vitality.
-
-“The days of my years number nearly threescore and ten, so there is no
-time to enter upon the uncertainties ‘of the law’s delays.’ From overwork
-and the anxieties growing out of family afflictions and the robbery, my
-health is shattered. It is time, therefore, that I should seek to rest
-rather than to struggle.
-
-“And what about the work to which I have devoted the best years of a
-long life? Will it be attacked? Certainly it will be attacked for the
-reason that it does not suit Woodburn. Will it be overthrown? No, the
-laws of nature cannot be overthrown. The trotter can come only from the
-trotter and nobody but an ignoramus or a fool can doubt the truth of this
-declaration. The experiences of every year, of every track, and in every
-race confirm this central truth and will continue to do so as long as the
-world stands.”
-
-From the above reasonings and conclusions, when the offer of one hundred
-and thirty thousand dollars was made, in a business form, it was accepted.
-
-When the property was transferred it was on the individual and joint
-responsibility of some half a dozen rich men, and they were as gleeful
-and happy over their investment as though they had obtained a gold mine
-for a song. But, while these men were rejoicing over their acquisition,
-there were many others cursing the deception that had been practiced upon
-them by promising them places and perquisites and, in short, whatever
-they wanted in order to secure their adherence to the conspiracy. Of
-all this numerous class, Messrs. Mali and Packer had so little sense as
-to make the nature and terms of their agreement public, namely, that
-they were to be clothed with the power to annually appoint the Board of
-Censors for the new organization. Poor fools! they didn’t know Brodhead.
-For a consideration of place they had betrayed a trust to him that as
-honorable men they should have sacredly guarded, and the more they
-complained the more bitterly they were condemned by all right-thinking
-men. Hence, after they had served his purpose he kicked them aside as
-he would an old shoe, and thus he punished the traitors with whom he
-had dealt. When the multitude of writers, statisticians, etc., who had
-received private assurances of “something equally as good” in the new
-deal, saw the fate of Mali and Packer, they had sense enough to keep
-their mouths shut. A man who knew anything about the trotting families
-and their lines of descent was not the kind of man that Mr. Brodhead
-wanted to put in charge of registration. The only man who could suit
-Mr. Brodhead was the man who would implicitly and without doubt follow
-his instructions, right or wrong. When Mr. J. H. Steiner was appointed
-Registrar it was wholly evident that this was the purpose of the
-proprietor, for of all the men in my knowledge, in any way connected with
-trotting horse interests, Mr. Steiner seems to be the most profoundly
-ignorant of horse history and horse lineage, and till this day he does
-not seem to have learned anything thereof.
-
-At this point the public confidence received a shock from which it has
-never recovered, and never will recover. From that day till the present
-the estimate of value of the publications of the company, in the minds
-of breeders, has been on the “down grade,” and coupled with this is the
-ever-obtruding doubt as to whether these publications are managed for
-the advantage of the general breeding public, or for the little clique
-of which Woodburn is the center. The lack of knowledge displayed has
-resulted in a profound disgust. This has been shown most conclusively in
-the fate of the poor old _Monthly_. It started out under its new owners
-to controvert breeding history and breeding law in which the public had
-been thoroughly and conscientiously indoctrinated. The sham pretense
-of using the title _Wallace’s Monthly_ instead of _Brodhead’s Monthly_
-was “too thin” to deceive any one except the most ignorant. The labored
-productions of the weaklings hired to overthrow the truth only tended to
-deepen the disgust. The price was lowered as an inducement to support,
-but nobody wanted the miserable thing about his house, and thus it died
-without a tear except from the eyes of the rich fools who put their money
-into it supposing it would live and prosper in the hands of ignorant and
-incompetent men.
-
-It is natural for the rich men who put their money so gleefully into this
-publishing enterprise, at the instigation of Mr. Brodhead, to try to
-get some of it back before the final smash, which is evidently not far
-removed, and hence the ignorant and blundering emasculation of the Year
-Book, in order to reduce its cost. “The Great Table,” as it was called
-for years, embraces all others, and all others are merely subsidiary to
-that. This table should be restored in its entirety, for it is worth the
-whole of them and double as many more. With every other table thrown
-out and this one restored, complete, the breeders would be content. The
-Year Book—the great instructor of the past—I have just learned is no
-longer published for the breeders or for the press, but for the tracks.
-The operation is explained as follows: Every year the secretaries of the
-National and the American Trotting Associations send out by express a
-lot of blank books, blanks, etc., to each track in good standing and in
-this outfit for the year is a copy of the Year Book, which is charged
-at the long price. The tables of fastest records, I am told, are quite
-carefully made in the offices of these associations themselves, and the
-book is thus made a convenience for the tracks. Thus, by this system of
-forced loans on the tracks, the Year Book is kept alive. This method of
-financing the company will not last long.
-
-A different method has been adopted in order to secure funds from
-registration. Money for registration must come from the breeders
-themselves directly, and there is no way of forcing them to put up
-through the manipulation of intermediary officials. Hence the plan has
-been tried of scaring them into it, but with what success I am not
-informed. At the annual meeting in April, 1895, I think it was, a
-committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Brodhead and Boyle, if I
-remember, to consider and report to the next meeting amendments to the
-standard advancing the requirements for registration, and everybody was
-advised to hurry in their pedigrees or they might be excluded. At the
-meeting in 1896 the committee did not report, but Mr. Brodhead reported
-in a series of resolutions, in which the number of standard dams was
-advanced, which suited Woodburn exactly, but there was no advance in
-the time to be made, and the tin-cup record against time was carefully
-protected. The resolutions were adopted unanimously, and went before the
-breeding public as the new advanced standard that would be decided at the
-next annual meeting. From time to time the breeders were duly informed
-of the proposed advance and cautioned many times to get in while they
-could. The annual meeting in April, 1897, came, and instead of a rush of
-breeders interested one way or another in the proposed advance, the same
-stereotyped half a dozen men were there who had been manipulating the
-scare for two years, and not one of them, even Brodhead himself, voted
-for the advance. This is no advance at all, in a practical sense, and
-would accomplish nothing, and would do no good to anybody except Woodburn
-or some other establishment that like her has been breeding trotters for
-forty years. It was merely intended for a scare, and it failed under such
-circumstances as to fully disclose the object in placing it before the
-breeders. The scare is all out of this kind of humbug and deception, and
-now what? When the standard was adopted on the basis of 2:30 that rate
-of speed was sixteen seconds behind the fastest record then made. To-day
-if the standard were placed at 2:20 it would be about sixteen seconds
-slower than the fastest time now on record. But this real advance,
-which is imperatively demanded by all the considerations of philosophy
-and progress, will never be made so long as the standard is under the
-control of Woodburn. The reason for this is made obvious by reference to
-page 504, etc. Mr. Brodhead’s ambition has been fully gratified, he is
-in full and absolute control of the registration of the country, he has
-completely demonstrated his incompetency for such a position, and he has
-the satisfaction of knowing, if it be a satisfaction, that no sensible
-business man on the face of the globe would be willing to pay ten per
-cent. of the cost for the property he now controls. And who will say
-this is not a righteous retribution for the disreputable means employed,
-first and last, to obtain this control?
-
-My life-work in building up a breed of trotting horses and thereby adding
-many millions to the value of the horse stock of the country had been
-more effective than I had even hoped for. I knew that I had laid the
-foundation on the bed-rock of truth, and I knew that the superstructure
-had been honestly erected, but I did not know what a deep root my
-teachings had taken in the minds of all intelligent and thinking men. In
-transferring the property the chief source of my unhappiness was in the
-thought that heaven and earth would be moved to destroy what I had done
-and overthrow what I had taught. But I had builded wiser and stronger
-than I knew, and when the “feather-weights” were hired to pull the house
-down and tear up the very roots of the seed I had planted, the people
-would not listen to them and nobody would read their vapid utterances.
-And thus the effort ended in the death of the _Monthly_. The harvest
-of thought was much nearer the reaping time when the transfer was made
-than I had supposed, and since then it has been ripening and ripening,
-and to-day if any man were heard advocating more running blood in the
-trotter, he would with very great unanimity be pronounced either an
-ignoramus or a fool, on that question at least.
-
-But, much as I disliked to surrender my life-work to a man whose moral
-fiber I had tested and found brittle, the transfer was really “a
-blessing in disguise.” It gave me rest, it gave me health, and it gave
-me leisure to prosecute the study of the horse of history in fields
-hitherto untrodden. The years thus employed in digging after the very
-roots of history in the libraries, at home and abroad, have glided by,
-affording a continuous enjoyment in the discovery of many things that are
-very old and yet entirely new to this generation. Very often, when the
-work went slowly, I thought I could again hear the quiet, sympathetic
-voice of a Pennsylvania Friend gently prompting me with the remark,
-“Thee should remember that thee is no longer a young man.” And now that
-my long-promised and pleasant undertaking is completed, it is my very
-earnest wish that the thousand friends who have been waiting for it may
-enjoy the pleasant surprises it will furnish them as much as I have
-enjoyed their exhumation from the archives of long-buried centuries.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX
-
-HISTORY OF THE WALLACE PUBLICATIONS.
-
-BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.
-
-    Mr. Wallace’s early life and education—Removal to Iowa,
-    1845—Secretary Iowa State Board of Agriculture—Begins work,
-    1856, on “Wallace’s American Stud Book,” published 1867—Method
-    of gathering pedigrees—Trotting Supplement—Abandons Stud
-    Book, 1870, and devotes exclusive attention to trotting
-    literature—“American Trotting Register,” Vol. I., published in
-    1871—Vol. II. follows in 1874—The valuable essay on breeding
-    the forerunner of present ideas—Standard adopted 1879—Its
-    history—Battles for control of the “Register”—_Wallace’s
-    Monthly_ founded 1875—Its character, purposes, history,
-    writers, and artists—“Wallace’s Year Book” founded 1885—Great
-    popularity and value—Transfer of the Wallace publications, and
-    their degeneration.
-
-
-The history of the series of works known as the Wallace publications,
-even in the brief form here contemplated, involves in a large degree the
-biography of Mr. Wallace. It is indeed more than the sketch of a long and
-indefatigably industrious life-work. It involves as well, in the forty
-years of creative labor, the development of a great productive industry,
-and of a distinct branch of literature. Mr. Wallace’s labors in the
-field of gathering and systematizing American horse history began at a
-day when there was no breed of trotters, or no trotting literature. When
-he laid aside active work there were both, well established and clearly
-defined factors in the nation’s progress, and in all the years from the
-commencement he was the central figure in the work of establishing a
-breed of trotters, and incomparably the clearest and strongest force in
-the direction and upbuilding of a trotting literature. That is the simple
-truth of history, which the verdict of time will render it puerile to
-deny.
-
-JOHN H. WALLACE was born August 16, 1823, and reared on a farm in
-Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. As a boy he evinced no particular liking
-for farm work, but had a great fondness for reading. He was educated
-chiefly at the Frankfort Springs Academy, where he was prepared to
-enter the junior class at college. There occurred a little incident at
-this time that illustrates how seemingly slight a thing may change the
-current of a life. The then member of Congress for that district, Mr.
-Dickey, a scholarly man, advised Professor Nicholson, of the Academy,
-that if he had a young man in his institution whom he could recommend,
-he (Mr. Dickey) would appoint him a cadet to West Point. Mr. Wallace
-was selected, provided his father’s consent was forthcoming. When Mr.
-Wallace, Sr., was approached on the subject his reply was, “John, I
-think there is some better employment in the world for you than studying
-the most approved methods of killing men”—and that ended the West Point
-incident. Young Mr. Wallace, about this time, became alarmed, however,
-at his then persistently delicate health, and decided to seek an outdoor
-life rather than one of study. In 1845 he married Miss Ellen Ewing (who
-died in 1891), of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and settled on a farm at
-Muscatine, Iowa. Iowa was then a new country, and Mr. Wallace did much
-in the way of organizing the industrial and educational interests of the
-State. There, as related below, he began work in the line in which he
-became famous. With an invalid wife he returned to Allegheny in 1872; and
-in 1875 in company with the late Benjamin Singerly, of Pittsburg, started
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ at New York, which has been his home ever since. Mr.
-Wallace in 1893 married Miss Ellen Wallace Veech, a niece of the first
-Mrs. Wallace; and since his retirement from active business he has spent
-his time, at home and abroad, chiefly in prosecuting investigations into
-the horse history of the remote periods, the results of which are seen in
-this, his crowning life-work.
-
-We will endeavor here to sketch, in the abstract, the history of Mr.
-Wallace’s publications to as great a degree as possible separately,
-though they cannot be entirely separated. The “Trotting Register” was an
-outgrowth of the “Stud Book,” and _Wallace’s Monthly_ and the “Year Book”
-outgrowths of the “Register,” and both auxiliary thereto. The career
-and usefulness of all were intertwined, yet each had its own peculiar
-mission, and to that extent their histories will be kept distinct.
-
-
-“WALLACE’S AMERICAN STUD BOOK.”
-
-During the early “fifties” Mr. Wallace, then in the prime of early
-manhood, was Secretary of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture, and as
-such had much to do with the management of State fairs. He was thus
-frequently called upon for information about the pedigrees of animals,
-and the need of an authority on horse pedigrees was pointedly and
-constantly forced upon his attention. If the pedigree of a cow was asked
-for he had only to turn to the “American Herd Book” to find it, but when
-the breeding of a horse was wanted there was no authority to which to
-turn. Mr. Wallace had been dabbling more or less in such horse literature
-as there was at that day, and in 1856 began collecting information with
-the ultimate purpose of publishing a stud book of thoroughbred horses—for
-the thoroughbred was then here, as in England, supreme as the only horse
-of literature. He already possessed certain of the publications that
-were the best horse authorities of the day—a file of the _Spirit of the
-Times_, Skinner’s _American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine_, and
-a number of volumes of the “English Stud Book,” and English _Sporting
-Magazine_. Added to these, later, were other sources of information and
-misinformation most notable in this latter class being the alleged “Stud
-Book” published by Patrick Nesbitt Edgar, of North Carolina, in 1833—an
-utterly unreliable work, but the only American stud book in existence
-prior to Wallace’s. From these, and every other available source, Mr.
-Wallace began to glean and systematically compile the pedigrees of
-thoroughbred and so-called thoroughbred horses. Of these sources by far
-the most valuable was Skinner’s periodical, begun in Baltimore in 1829.
-Novice as he was at the time, Edgar’s work was regarded with more than
-suspicion by Mr. Wallace, and, as a matter of caution as well as of
-honesty, whenever he borrowed pedigrees from Edgar they were so credited.
-
-Modern methods of investigating pedigrees were not dreamed of by our
-compiler then. His principal aim seems to have been to get as large
-a collection as possible, and whatever was found in print, whether
-newspaper, book, or hand-bill, was taken for granted; and pedigrees
-gathered from private sources were, like the others, submitted to
-little scrutiny. Neither men’s motives nor their knowledge of what
-they represented to know were questioned, and in this way, after years
-of labor, a great mass of pedigrees was gathered, written in new form
-and order, and the thoroughbred stallions numbered—which was the first
-instance of numbering horses in registration. While compiling the
-thoroughbred pedigrees, Mr. Wallace also incidentally seized upon such
-information as he found about trotting pedigrees and records, and these
-he arranged as an appendix to his work. Finally, in 1867, “Wallace’s
-American Stud Book,” a great, handsome volume of 1,017 pages, bound
-pretentiously in green and gold, was published in New York.
-
-The trotting supplement embraced about 100 pages, and that the editor was
-pretty well satisfied with it is shown by a sentence in the preface: “It
-is believed that this compilation of trotting horses, embracing over 700
-animals, is very nearly perfect, but it is not claimed to be entirely
-so.” Of course, from the method of its compilation it was decidedly
-imperfect, but it was the best and only compilation of trotting pedigrees
-up to that time.
-
-Meanwhile Mr. Wallace was pushing forward the compilation of the second
-volume of the “Stud Book,” and in this traveled much, making personal
-investigations. In 1870 this was completed, all the ground up to that
-year having been gone over, but in the course of the work “a great light”
-began to dawn upon the compiler. He found that he had been proceeding on
-a wrong plan entirely. Experience in compiling and investigating taught
-him that a pedigree may be printed in a newspaper, or even in a book, and
-still not be true. He discovered that the sources from which he had drawn
-were largely unreliable, that hundreds of pedigrees, through ignorance or
-dishonesty, or both, were fabrications and frauds, especially in their
-extensions in the maternal lines, and with the realization in full force
-of this knowledge came the determination, even though the last page of
-the manuscript for the second volume of the “Stud Book” was complete,
-that it should never see the light.
-
-At the same time Mr. Wallace had discovered that the trotting supplement
-was the part of his “Stud Book” most used and appreciated. He saw that
-the trotter was coming to be the horse of the American people, and that
-there was a great and new field opening in which a literature had yet
-to be formed. His experience with the “Stud Book” gave him the training
-necessary for the work before him, and thus equipped, with little capital
-outside of his newly acquired knowledge, and marvelous natural industry
-and perseverance, with an unusual capacity for hard work, he turned in
-1870 to the work before him—the literature of the trotter.
-
-
-“WALLACE’S AMERICAN TROTTING REGISTER.”
-
-He had as a nucleus the supplement to Volume I. of the “Stud Book,”
-added to which was the work done and knowledge gained in compiling the
-second volume, together with an increasing library and written data.
-Thus in incidentally adding a few pages of trotting pedigrees to his
-“Stud Book,” Mr. Wallace had builded better than he knew, but he even
-now had little conception of the extent and richness of his new field
-of exploration. He traveled all over the country, levying upon every
-source of information for his “Trotting Register;” but, taught in the
-dear school of experience, depended chiefly upon personal investigation,
-taking monthly and yearly less and less for granted. He gradually became
-more trained in meeting the natural human fondness for embellishing,
-extending and completing pedigrees without reference to fact or evidence,
-and the equally common predilection for stating as known facts those
-things concerning pedigrees that were only of common report. This work
-was excellent training for the more extended duties of the future, and
-it gave Mr. Wallace an insight into methods of the olden time, and a
-knowledge of men and horses that later made him, backed by uncompromising
-honesty, absolute fearlessness, and a quite unusual disregard for
-“policy,” a “terror to evil-doers” in the realm of manufacturing in whole
-or in part fraudulent pedigrees.
-
-Still the knowledge, the caution, the system that made it almost
-impossible in the last years of Mr. Wallace’s administration to impose
-a fraud upon the “Register” were of slow, gradual, but constant growth.
-The work improved with every volume, with every year of experience, and
-the evidence that would be accepted in the compilation of the early
-volumes would not suffice later. Mr. Wallace had also the quality of just
-as remorselessly overthrowing his own errors as those of others, and
-thus a system of correction was continually going along, in which work
-_Wallace’s Monthly_, founded in 1875, was a particularly effective agency.
-
-The first volume of the “Trotting Register” was published in 1871,
-and was a neat book of 504 pages. It contained, besides the pedigrees
-gathered, tables of all trotting and pacing performances up to the close
-of 1870, and this was the first time in which the records of the trotting
-turf were collected and published. This part of the work entailed a
-vast amount of research, including a thorough review of all sporting
-papers, annuals and other sources where contemporaneous record of racing
-would be liable to be made, but it was a very valuable feature; and,
-besides serving as a basis for Mr. Wallace’s future compilations, was
-unscrupulously seized upon by imitators who, from time to time, sought to
-publish “record books.”
-
-There was also an introduction to the volume entitled, “An Essay on
-the True Origin of the American Trotter,” which showed a glimmering of
-understanding of the truths of history and of breeding as now understood
-by students well grounded in the subject. In the second volume, however,
-was an essay that marks an epoch in the literature of breeding. Written
-less than three years after the introduction to Volume I., it betrays
-the fact that in the intervening years the author had risen suddenly
-and broadened infinitely in his study of the science of breeding, and
-his understanding of the application thereto of the facts of trotting
-history. It advanced then entirely new views, and it was the first
-article published, as far as the writer is aware, that rose to an
-appreciation of the supremacy of biological laws in horse breeding,
-and suggested such a thing as psychical heredity in the transmission
-of habits of action. It originated the term “trotting instinct,” so
-generally used thereafter, began the discussion of the problem of the
-increasing number of fast trotters from pacing ancestors, and wound
-up with ten sound propositions or conclusions based throughout on
-the law that like begets like. It opened up new and endless lines of
-investigation and thought, and at once elevated the discussion to a
-scientific plane. This article, written by Mr. Wallace originally for
-the _Spirit of the Times_, marked the advent of the school of thought on
-breeding now almost universal.
-
-The second volume of the “Register” was published in 1874, and the third
-in 1879. The first three volumes of the “Register” contained about 10,000
-pedigrees, and the statistical tables in the second and third volumes
-were greatly improved and amplified over those in the first. Volume II.
-gave a table of sires of 2:30 horses, with the number to the credit of
-each sire, and the number of heats to the credit of each performer—a sort
-of vague foreshadowing of the famous “Great Table of Trotters under their
-Sires,” later to be conceived and developed by Mr. Wallace, and destined
-to become the most valuable single trotting compilation yet designed, and
-the one now universally used, adopted and imitated. This volume also gave
-a table of 2:25 trotters to the close of 1873, arranged in the order of
-their speed. The first table of trotters under their sires was published
-in _Wallace’s Monthly_, covering the statistics to the end of 1877.
-
-The third volume was much larger than its predecessors. The industry
-of breeding trotting and pacing horses was, under the stimulus of the
-“Register” and _Wallace’s Monthly_, and other agencies with which Mr.
-Wallace was identified, and of a general era of prosperity then dawning,
-advancing and extending now at rapid strides, and about this time
-certain events of almost inestimable influence on the future of the
-business transpired.
-
-In the autumn of 1876 there was formed at New York the National
-Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, an organization in which Mr.
-Wallace’s influence predominated from its inception until a short time
-before its dissolution, for lack of an excuse for existence. This
-organization was broadly representative of the best elements in the
-breeding business in its virile and useful days, and accepted a sort
-of advisory and supervisory control over the “Trotting Register;” and
-Volume III. and subsequent volumes were compiled under its authority.
-Questions of disputed pedigrees and other such issues affecting breeding
-and the record of pedigrees were decided by a Board of Censors appointed
-by this association; and, aside from its usefulness in connection with
-the “Trotting Register,” it contributed largely to the advancement and
-encouragement of breeding by inaugurating colt stakes, and other stakes
-designed more especially to attract the breeder than the professional
-campaigner.
-
-Before the third volume was through the press the need of some measure
-for restricting registration became apparent to Mr. Wallace. The
-economics of the “Register” demanded it, but beyond this the need
-of systematizing and establishing a specific breed called for some
-definition as to what rightfully belonged to that breed. Up to this time
-the only rule was the indefinite provision that “anything well related
-to trotting blood” might be acceptable as eligible by the compiler of
-the “Register.” The problem that confronted those who took a broad
-and comprehensive view was to educate public opinion up to that point
-where the possibility of establishing a breed of trotters would be
-appreciated. As early as April, 1878, _Wallace’s Monthly_ strongly urged
-the necessity of a standard, and this was the first suggestion of one
-that had been made. At the November meeting of the National Association
-of Trotting Horse Breeders that year the Board of Censors in their report
-presented a letter from Mr. Wallace advising the adoption of a standard,
-a recommendation which the Board indorsed. Meanwhile the matter was
-being agitated and discussed in _Wallace’s Monthly_, and affairs were
-gradually shaping for action. In the March, 1879, number of the _Monthly_
-a standard formulated by certain Kentucky breeders and forwarded by Major
-H. C. McDowell was printed and commented upon. It was fair on its face,
-but under discussion its weak points were made clear. For instance, its
-fourth rule made standard “Any mare the dam of any mare or stallion
-that has produced or sired a horse, mare, or gelding with a record of
-2:30.” It was pointed out that under this rule the celebrated English
-thoroughbred mare Queen Mary would become a standard trotter, for her
-son, the race horse Bonnie Scotland, had sired the trotter Scotland.
-As other provisions made the sisters and brothers of standard animals
-standard, the defects of the Kentucky standard were made patent, and the
-Breeders’ Association failed to approve it. Instead, at a meeting at the
-Everett House, New York, November 19, 1879, the standard as printed on
-pages 519-20, in the framing of which Mr. Wallace and General B. F. Tracy
-did the active work, was unanimously adopted.
-
-Under this standard the work of compiling Volume IV., which involved
-bringing forward animals registered in preceding volumes, that met its
-requirements, and numbering stallions, was carried on.
-
-Meanwhile, some Kentucky gentlemen failed to acquiesce in the standard
-decision, and had, or believed they had, other grievances against
-the compiler of the “Register.” They proceeded to plan to control
-the “Register.” but as in the last chapter of this work Mr. Wallace
-gives full details of this and subsequent battles for the control of
-registration, this history need not be here repeated.
-
-In the meantime the breeding interest was enjoying remarkable prosperity,
-and this was reflected upon and through the “Trotting Register” and
-_Wallace’s Monthly_. In 1882 Volume IV. was published, Volume V. in 1886,
-and Volume VI. in 1887, these containing about 6,000 pedigrees each.
-Volume VII. appeared in 1888, Volume VIII. in 1890, and Volume IX., the
-last published by Mr. Wallace, appeared in 1891.
-
-While an adequate discussion of the standard is neither necessary or
-possible in this article, it was so obviously part and parcel of the
-“Trotting Register” that its history must be briefly outlined. The
-standard formulated in 1879 served its purpose well, but it was but an
-initial step, and it was fully recognized by Mr. Wallace at the time that
-it would have to be revised and strengthened from time to time so as to
-keep pace with the progress of the breeders. If the standard to-day is
-held in slight esteem, or even in contempt, it is clearly because it has
-been allowed to lag far behind the progress of the breed.
-
-Evils grew out of the standard, even in its early years, simply through
-a quite general misunderstanding of its purposes and its full meaning.
-Standard rank became instantly so popular and so sought after that
-thousands of breeders aimed solely to breed into the standard, without
-much regard for other necessary qualifications. They seemed to forget
-that it was merely a definition of the blood that was eligible to
-the “Register,” and not, nor ever intended, to be taken as a general
-measuring stick of value. Soon after its adoption an era of great
-prosperity came in trotting affairs, with recklessly high prices for
-standard animals. With an apparently insatiable market there came an
-abnormal expansion of the industry. Thousands of men began breeding
-without knowing anything, either practically or theoretically, about the
-industry, except how to get into the standard. Hence the overproduction
-of not only standard trotting horses, but all kinds of trotting horses
-of inferior breeding and little excellence, and the subsequent break in
-prices, for all of which the standard has been by inconsiderate persons
-blamed.
-
-Not long after its adoption Mr. Wallace saw these dangerous tendencies,
-and in the _Monthly_ warned the breeders against them, and early began
-agitating for a revision of the rules. But nothing could stem that
-rising tide, and at first the opposition to any change in the rules was
-vehement and general. The obviously easy gateway into the standard was
-through rule seven, and this became the storm center of the discussion.
-Mr. Wallace led in the call for the abolition of this rule, and did
-it so persistently and well that gradually the leading breeders and
-thinkers were won over, but the outcry against a change was so earnest
-and so general among the smaller breeders that the National Association
-hesitated long. Though a Committee on Revision was appointed as early as
-December, 1885, it was not until December 14, 1887, that a revision was
-finally effected, the standard being then adopted as printed on pages
-520-21.
-
-Every reader can observe, by comparison with the previous standard,
-that there was a wise and conservative strengthening of the rules all
-along the line. The next step contemplated by Mr. Wallace was not only
-a further restricting revision on blood lines, but also an increase in
-the speed rate required, an advance from 2:30 to 2:25, then ultimately
-to 2:20, his purpose being that the standard should keep pace with the
-progress of the breed. But before any of these steps were made the
-“Register” passed into other hands—and other theories and practices have
-prevailed, with the result that the standard is to-day held in derision
-and the value of the “Register” has sunk to the vanishing point. But
-before reaching this phase of our history some account of Mr. Wallace’s
-other publications is in order.
-
-
-“WALLACE’S MONTHLY.”
-
-At a very early period in the history of the “Trotting Register”
-Mr. Wallace perceived the necessity of there being some medium of
-communication with the breeders which he could control. This was one of
-several reasons, which need not here be detailed, the outcome of which
-was the establishment of the publication which has played a greater part
-than any other in developing the trotting literature of to-day, and in
-leading American thought on the science of breeding—_Wallace’s Monthly_.
-The first number came out in October, 1875, with Benjamin Singerly,
-publisher, and John H. Wallace, editor. Mr. Singerly was an uncle of Hon.
-William M. Singerly, of the Philadelphia _Record_, and had large printing
-establishments in Harrisburg and Pittsburg, Pa. The first twelve numbers
-of _Wallace’s Monthly_ were printed in Harrisburg, though published from
-the outset from New York. Benjamin Singerly died in August, 1876, from
-which time Mr. Wallace carried on the publication himself, from the
-little office at 170 Fulton Street, overlooking St. Paul’s churchyard.
-
-In accordance with the time-honored custom in journalism, the first
-number of _Wallace’s Monthly_ contained a salutatory outlining its
-purposes and its policy, and in almost every detail that policy was
-honestly lived up to while Mr. Wallace controlled the magazine. The horse
-was to be made the leading, but not the exclusive feature; full trotting
-and running summaries with indexes were to be published; correspondence
-was invited; and, as a cardinal principle of policy, gambling in any and
-all forms was to be uncompromisingly fought against. This last detail
-of policy Mr. Wallace rigidly adhered to always. He opposed public
-betting in any form and under any pretense, and believed, and acted up
-to the belief, that if racing could not be maintained without betting it
-were better that grass should grow on the tracks. The first number of
-the _Monthly_ contained a descriptive article by “Hark Comstock,” and
-some selected matter, but was chiefly the editor’s work—mostly concise
-historical matter, dealing with the early progenitors of the trotting
-breed.
-
-With each number the _Monthly_ strengthened, until soon it had gathered
-around it the brightest writers in the country. Notwithstanding this,
-however, the editorial department was always its strongest feature, and
-it rapidly became a power in the land. Among the earliest contributors
-were “Hark Comstock” (Peter C. Kellogg), always a fluent writer, and one
-of the most versatile special pleaders on horse topics known to the turf
-press; Charles J. Foster, the gifted “Privateer,” whose work, from a
-literary standpoint, was oftentimes a model of finish; “Yah Amerikanski”
-(Spencer Borden), and “S. T. H.” (S. T. Harris), both brilliant,
-especially in controversy; H. T. Helm, Levi S. Gould, and many others
-prominently known in turf literature a quarter of a century ago.
-
-Spirited controversy early became a feature of the _Monthly_, and in
-these passages-at-arms the editor was generally found taking a leading
-hand. As a writer Mr. Wallace was always above all things forceful. He
-fortified himself in theory and fact amply, and his style was so direct,
-yet comprehensive, that every shot told, and even those who disagreed
-with him were forced to read and admire these spirited discussions. Mr.
-Wallace moreover early impressed the public with his uncompromising
-honesty, and with the fact that, above all things, he had the courage of
-his convictions. There was no dodging issues, no dallying or compromising
-with humbug of any sort; a spade was called a spade, and no consideration
-of “policy” brought a note of indirection into the _Monthly’s_ editorial
-pages. The personality of the editor was ineffaceably stamped on his
-magazine, and its influence became potent for good far beyond the
-limitations of mere circulation.
-
-The magazine became quickly the leader in thought on breeding subjects,
-and hardly an advanced idea that to-day prevails in this field of
-literature but can be found first suggested in the _Monthly_. The first
-table of trotters under their sires was published in _Wallace’s Monthly_
-for 1877; the standard was first suggested in its pages; the pacer as an
-origin of trotting speed was first advanced in February and March, 1883;
-it was the first to formulate and advocate and put to the test a scale of
-points for judging horses; and above all it was the power that educated
-breeders to an understanding of breeding on truly scientific principles,
-and brought about an acceptance and appreciation of the laws of heredity
-as applied to breeding the trotter. And, interspersed with this
-continual seeking for the light and the right, there was an amount of
-historical matter published that would make the compilation of a valuable
-book on the American trotter possible from the _Monthly_ alone. It was,
-moreover, continually exposing frauds of history and of pedigrees, and
-was as potent in guarding as it was in discovering the truth. It was the
-recognized enemy of fraud, of humbug, of false pretense everywhere, and
-attacked them in high places as well as low, and that its editor incurred
-the enmity of many whose designs attracted the _Monthly’s_ searchlight,
-and were thwarted by it, is a fact known of all men.
-
-This, in brief, was the character of the _Monthly_ from its foundation,
-until it passed out of Mr. Wallace’s hands. To follow its detailed
-history through the nearly sixteen years of Mr. Wallace’s editorship is
-not the purpose of this article, but the rather to group the salient
-factors that made it what it was, and that have secured for it an
-enduring place in trotting history.
-
-The _Monthly_ was from the first illustrated, and the progress in
-horse art is well demonstrated by tracing through its pages. Its first
-drawings were made by James C. Beard, who came of a race of artists, but
-whose attempts at horse portraits were wretched caricatures, one and
-all. Still, they seemed to be the best, or rather the least bad, then
-obtainable. Mr. Wallace, however, was painfully cognizant of the lack of
-truthful portraits of horses, and was not less delighted than surprised
-when, one September day in 1878, a young man came into his office, and
-exhibited drawings that were so obviously truthful portraitures that
-they were a revelation in horse art. A rapid questioning as to whether
-he had drawn them, and where he had hidden his light so long, developed
-that the young genius was Herbert S. Kittredge, of Pennsylvania. He
-was immediately engaged, and his work in the _Monthly_ was the first
-reputable horse portraiture in American literature. This gifted,
-self-educated genius died in May, 1881, long before his prime, and when
-his powers were daily developing. He was the forerunner of Whitney,
-Dickey, Morris, and others whose ability to faithfully portray horses is
-acknowledged to-day. He had not the mechanical aids—notably the camera—or
-processes which they so freely call into play, but in true artistic
-ability to draw faithfully, it is doubtful whether this undeveloped
-master was the inferior of any artist who has yet made horse portraiture
-a specialty in any country.
-
-From year to year the contributory staff of _Wallace’s Monthly_
-increased, and always had in its membership a number of the leading
-breeders and students. For many years Mr. Wallace did practically all the
-editorial work himself, as in fact he did the registration work. But this
-gradually outgrew him, and soon his office staff began to increase. First
-he removed the office to 212 Broadway, not far from its first location.
-Then in May, 1887, the final move was made to commodious offices in the
-Stewart Building, at Broadway and Chambers Street, when the office staff
-had grown until more than a dozen assistants were employed on all the
-publications.
-
-Among the earliest editorial assistants on the _Monthly_ was C. T.
-Harris, later trotting editor of the _Spirit of the Times_, and still
-more recently of _The Horse Review_, a faithful and conscientious worker.
-Later Gurney O. Gue, a clever writer, and exceptionally well grounded in
-facts of pedigree and record, occupied a desk with the _Monthly_, and is
-now one of Mr. Dana’s “bright young men” on the _Sun_. In 1886 Leslie E.
-Macleod became associate editor, and continued in that capacity until
-1890. He subsequently became managing editor of _The Horseman_, and later
-editorial writer of _The Horse Review_.
-
-Of contributors, among the best known may be named, in addition to those
-enumerated as identified with the _Monthly_ at the start, General B.
-F. Tracy, Allen W. Thompson, Samuel Hough Terry, “Mark Field” (Jas. M.
-Hiatt), “O. W. C.” (O. W. Cook), Thos. B. Armitage, “Mambrino” (H. D.
-McKinney), Otto Holstein, “Bill Arp,” “Aurelius” (Rev. T. A. Hendrick),
-A. B. Allen, “Fidelis,” Harvey W. Peck, Benjamin W. Hunt, “Roland”
-(Leslie E. Macleod), Major Campbell Brown, F. G. Smith, Judge M. W.
-Oliver, Prof. Chas. T. Luthy, Colonel F. G. Buford, John P. Ray, “Vision”
-(W. H. Marrett), H. C. Goodspeed, and others.
-
-The last number of _Wallace’s Monthly_ issued under Mr. Wallace’s
-editorship was published in July, 1891. It then passed to the American
-Trotting Register Company, at Chicago, and its degeneration was rapid,
-and in a few months it died for lack of brains. Robbed of its virility
-and of its purpose, without editorial direction, and aiming only to lead
-a _harmless_ existence, and to say or do nothing to offend any one of a
-score of directors and hundreds of stockholders, it soon began to lead a
-_useless_ existence, and dropped out of the notice of thinking men. It
-became the antithesis of all that it had been, and its end was a pitiable
-one for a publication with a history of sixteen years of fearless,
-honest, able direction.
-
-
-“WALLACE’S YEAR BOOK.”
-
-Early in the history of the _Monthly_ Mr. Wallace decided to drop
-running summaries, and give exclusive attention to trotting and pacing
-statistics. These grew so rapidly that they soon became burdensome,
-and an outlet became inevitable. Furthermore the adoption of the
-standard, depending as it did on records of performances, necessitated
-for its application a bureau of statistics, and these considerations
-and others—not the least of which was the recognition of “a long-felt
-want”—prompted Mr. Wallace to start “Wallace’s Year Book.” The first
-volume of this valuable annual was published in May, 1886, covering the
-performances for 1885, and contained, besides summaries of all races in
-which a heat was trotted in 2:50 or less, a 2:30 list for the year, and
-the Great Table of Trotters under their sires. The book contained 273
-pages, was bound in flexible cloth, and sold at $1.
-
-An improvement of the greatest value and importance was made in the Great
-Table in the first volume of the “Year Book.” This was the addition after
-the list of performers under each sire of the names of his sons that
-had sired performers, with the number to the credit of each, and of the
-performers out of his daughters. It furnished at a glance what a horse
-had done, not only of himself, but through his sons and daughters, and
-the Great Table thus improved became at once the gauge of trotting blood
-by which breeders everywhere estimated the comparative values of the
-different families and different sires. It was the most clear, condensed,
-yet comprehensive and perfect summing up of all the facts and experiences
-of trotting history imaginable, and so apparent is this fact that nothing
-original has ever been attempted to replace it, while all compilers,
-without exception, imitate it. The Great Table of itself would have
-carried any book to success.
-
-The second volume of the “Year Book,” 330 pages, contained in addition to
-the same class of matter as its predecessor, tables of sires and dams,
-great brood mares, and fastest records. Still further improvements were
-made in every year. Volume VI., published for 1890, was a handsomely
-bound book of 642 pages, with summaries of all races in which heats were
-trotted or paced in 2:40 or better, list of best records slower than
-2:40, complete 2:30 lists with extended pedigrees, the Great Table with
-the pedigrees of the sires extended, list of 2:20 trotters according to
-records, list of 2:20 trotters under their sires, list of great brood
-mares, sires of dams, mares the dams of producing sons or daughters,
-tables of fastest records, champion trotters from 1845 to 1890, champions
-at all ages from yearlings to five-year-olds, champion stallions, table
-of 2:20 pacers, and of 2:30 pacers under sires. No such comprehensive and
-valuable mass of statistics was ever arranged, and this volume was in
-itself a perfect encyclopedia of trotting literature.
-
-No eulogy of the “Year Book” is necessary, for every farmer’s boy knew
-before it was three years old that it was indispensable to all horsemen.
-It instantly bounded into a place of authority, and to thousands who
-felt the “Register” out of reach it was at once “Stud Book” and “Racing
-Calendar,” and none of Mr. Wallace’s creations performed a wider public
-service, or attained a popularity so broadcast and sudden. The new work
-was peculiarly fortunate in having back of it the authority of the
-“Register,” and the prestige of a name that had already become world-wide
-as rendering everything it bore authoritative—but even allowing for
-these advantages the quick popular indorsement of the “Year Book” was an
-eloquent testimony to the wisdom of its plan.
-
-
-CONCLUSION.
-
-The Wallace Trotting Register Company, with a capital of $100,000, was
-organized in 1889, and October 1, of that year, all the publications
-became the property of this company. The last chapter of this book
-details the final transfer to the American Trotting Register Association
-in 1891.
-
-With the fortunes of the Wallace publications since that transfer it
-may be, perhaps, questioned whether this sketch has anything to do, and
-yet it would seem incomplete without the sequel. As already stated,
-_Wallace’s Monthly_ degenerated to nothing and died. The “Year Book” has
-been emasculated until it is but a shadow, incomplete and unsatisfactory,
-of what it was, and is notoriously published at a loss. Its once great
-tables are cut from their complete state to be merely the tables of
-a single year, and where one complete “Year Book” was in the Wallace
-_régime_ the only hand-book necessary, now the student must rummage
-through half a dozen, more or less, to ascertain the simplest series of
-facts. The standard has been mismanaged, revisions have been made and
-rescinded, and no advance has been made in the speed qualifications,
-though 2:20 trotters are as common to-day as 2:30 trotters were in 1891.
-In consequence, registration has fallen away, and from being a good
-purchase at $130,000 in 1891, the “Register” properties to-day are rated
-so dubiously far below par as to make the expression of their value in
-figures hardly possible. That a period of “hard times” came shortly after
-the purchase of the “Register” is true—but the practical wrecking of the
-Wallace publications cannot be accounted for solely on the theory of
-business depression.
-
-Such in brief outline has been the story of the founding of these works,
-which in their own upbuilding helped incalculably to upbuild one of
-the nation’s great industries. The present works may be destroyed or
-pass away, but the true Wallace works cannot. Mr. Wallace’s works have
-a place in horse history, secure, unique, alone. Created, we might say
-from nothing, they each and all grew and prospered in his care and
-guidance, and became powers for good and auxiliaries of industry. If he
-is a benefactor who causes two blades of grass to grow where one grew
-before, how much the more is he whose labor and genius have enriched ten
-thousand farms, and been the most potent single influence in developing
-a productive industry the extent of which can only be estimated in
-millions. Mr. Wallace’s works will live after him. In speaking once on
-the transient nature of fame, a distinguished lawyer, a man of national
-reputation, said: “After I am gone I will be remembered as a successful
-lawyer among many other successful lawyers, but Mr. Wallace’s name
-will live as long as a horse exists on the earth.” We rarely judge
-contemporaries justly. It needs the softening perspective of time in
-which to lose the dimming prejudices of the present; and however much
-these works may be appreciated to-day, their true worth, what they
-accomplished, and the productive genius, purposeful industry, and plain,
-consistent honesty from which they were evolved will only be clearly seen
-and fully conceded by the historian of the future.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-    A
-
-    Aaron Pennington, 451, 452.
-
-    Abdallah, 20, 237, 261, 267, 275, 311, 316, 332, 336, 389, 414.
-
-    Abdallah (Alexander’s), History of, 272, 294, 296, 297, 298,
-    299.
-
-    Abdallah Chief (Roe’s), 311.
-
-    Abdallah, History of, 255, 261.
-
-    Abdallah Mambrino, 299.
-
-    Abdallah Pilot, 297.
-
-    Aberdeen, 275, 311, 414.
-
-    Abiri (strong horses), 39.
-
-    Abraham in Egypt, 36.
-
-    Acquired Characters and Instincts, 471.
-
-    Acrelius, Rev. I., Colonial Writer, 137, 179.
-
-    Ada C., 443.
-
-    Adams, L. B., 266.
-
-    Adams, R. M., 382, 383.
-
-    Adams’ Stump, 359.
-
-    Adams, Zach., 349.
-
-    Administrator, 275.
-
-    Adrian Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Adval, Johannes, 28.
-
-    Advance of Standard, 523, 524.
-
-    Advertiser, 493.
-
-    Aguilillas, 472.
-
-    Albert W., 293.
-
-    Albion, 295, 451.
-
-    Alcantara, 288.
-
-    Alcyone, 288.
-
-    Alderman, 450.
-
-    Aleppo, 59, 410.
-
-    Alexander, A. J., 526, 530, 532.
-
-    Alexander, R. A., 295, 296, 343, 350, 415, 416, 417, 420, 421,
-    422, 458, 506, 516.
-
-    Alexander, J. J., 432, 434, 436.
-
-    Alexander’s Abdallah. (See Abdallah, Alexander’s.)
-
-    Alexander’s Edwin Forrest. (See Edwin Forrest.)
-
-    Alexander’s Norman. (See Norman.)
-
-    Alexander’s Pilot Jr. (See Pilot Jr.)
-
-    Alfred (Imported), 343. 417.
-
-    Algeria, 44.
-
-    Alix, 306, 477.
-
-    Allen, A. B., 557.
-
-    Allen, A. B. & L. B., 399.
-
-    Allen, Philip, 349.
-
-    Allen, William Russell, 538.
-
-    Allerton, 288.
-
-    Allerton, Isaac, 110, 121.
-
-    Allie Gaines, 299.
-
-    Allie West, 299.
-
-    Alley, 302.
-
-    Almack, 20, 237, 259, 344.
-
-    Almonarch, 299.
-
-    Almont, 304, 463.
-
-    Almont, History of, 297.
-
-    Almont Jr. (1764), 299.
-
-    Almont Jr. (1829), 299, 407.
-
-    Almont’s Leading Sons, 299.
-
-    Altamont, 299.
-
-    Ambassador, 288.
-
-    Amble, The, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 192.
-
-    Ambling Horses, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 192.
-
-    Ambulatura, The, 157.
-
-    “America Dissected.” Extract from, 176.
-
-    American Commander, 243.
-
-    American Eclipse, 318, 334, 363, 432, 446, 447, 448, 449, 450,
-    488.
-
-    American Eclipse. Pedigree of, 446-450.
-
-    American Girl, 286.
-
-    American Hiatoga, 365.
-
-    American Native Race Horses, 96, 105.
-
-    American Pacer and Relation to American Trotter, 172-189.
-
-    American Race Horse, Origin of, 92, 96-105, 106.
-
-    American Race Horse, The, 8, 42, 90-107.
-
-    American Saddle Horse, 190-195.
-
-    American Star (Seely’s), 303, 308, 311, 312, 338, 339, 340,
-    341, 503.
-
-    American Star (Conklin’s), 341.
-
-    American Star Family, 338-341.
-
-    American Star (Seely’s), History of, 338-341.
-
-    American Star’s Services, 340.
-
-    American Stud Book (Bruce’s), 104.
-
-    American Stud Book. (See also Wallace’s American Stud Book.)
-
-    American Stud Book (Wallace’s), 101-104, 459.
-
-    American Trotting Register, 390, 412, 459, 460.
-
-    American Trotting Register Association, 536-545, 557-559.
-
-    American Turf Register, 97.
-
-    American Wild Horses, 196-204.
-
-    Amy, 313.
-
-    Ancestors of Messenger, 205-221.
-
-    Anderson, John, 438, 439, 443.
-
-    Andrew Jackson, 327, 329, 336, 498.
-
-    Andrew Jackson, History of, 323-325.
-
-    Andrew Jackson, Jr., 327.
-
-    Andrus Horse, 265.
-
-    Andrus, Mr., 265.
-
-    Andy Johnson, 329.
-
-    Angelica Mare, 413.
-
-    Anglin, Timothy, 501, 505.
-
-    Anteeo, 293.
-
-    Anteros, 293.
-
-    Antevolo, 293.
-
-    Antiquity of American Racing, 90.
-
-    Antiquity of Narragansett Pacers, 180.
-
-    Antiquity of the Pacing Horse, 16, 154-171, 180, 481.
-
-    Antiquity of Trotters and Pacers, 481.
-
-    Arab Barb, 93.
-
-    Arabia (see also Arabia Felix, Arabia Deserta, and Yemen), 2,
-    5, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44-95.
-
-    Arabia (no horses at Christian era), 27-42.
-
-    Arabia Deserta (see also Arabia), 4, 40, 55.
-
-    Arabia Felix (see also Arabia, Arabia Deserta, and Yemen), 2,
-    4, 42, 43, 55.
-
-    Arabia, First Horses in, 28.
-
-    Arabian Blood (see also Arabia, etc.), 167, 168.
-
-    Arabian Horse, The, 51-66.
-
-    “Arabians,” so-called (imported), 93, 94, 95.
-
-    Arabian Horse. (See Arabia, Arabia Deserta, Yemen, Arabs, etc.)
-
-    Arabian (Lindsay’s). (See Lindsay’s Arabian.)
-
-    Arab Horses, A. Keene Richards’, 64, 65, 66.
-
-    Arabian Traditions, 5, 455.
-
-    Arab Horses, President Grant’s, 64.
-
-    Arab Horses in America, 64, 65, 66.
-
-    Arabs (English Foundation Stock), 68-72.
-
-    Arabia, Wild Horses of, 26.
-
-    Ararat, Mt., 28, 32.
-
-    Aratus (by Director), 357.
-
-    Aratus (Phare’s), 357.
-
-    Aratus (Pugh’s), 356.
-
-    Archer, 402.
-
-    Argyll, Captain, Raids Port Royal, 142.
-
-    Arion, 292, 294, 477, 493.
-
-    Armenia, 2, 3, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 39.
-
-    Armenian Kings, 29.
-
-    Armitage, Thomas B., 557.
-
-    Arnold, Azariah, 236, 260.
-
-    Art in Portraying Horses, 556.
-
-    Amazonia, 20, 257, 259.
-
-    Appendix: History of the Wallace Publications, 547-559.
-
-    Ashford, W. H., 151.
-
-    Asia Minor, Eastern, 30.
-
-    Asia, Western, 32.
-
-    Assyria, 39.
-
-    Astor, Henry, 229.
-
-    Athanio, 294.
-
-    Atkinson, William, 248.
-
-    Atlantic, 299.
-
-    Auburn Horse, 346.
-
-    “Aurelius,” 557.
-
-    Australian (Imported), 420.
-
-    Austin, G. A., 265.
-
-    Ayers, E. W., 501.
-
-    Ayres, F. J., 350.
-
-    Axtell, 288.
-
-    Azote, 294.
-
-
-    B
-
-    Babcock, Mr., 313.
-
-    Backus, Scobey & Burlew, 345.
-
-    Backman, Charles, 283, 289, 290, 291, 413, 414, 415, 501, 503.
-
-    Badger (Imported), 95.
-
-    Bad Qualities, Heredity of, 478.
-
-    Bagg & Goodrich, 360.
-
-    Bailey Brothers’ English Racing Register, 83.
-
-    Baker, I. V., Jr., 382.
-
-    Balch, Wesley P., 357.
-
-    Bald Chief. (See Bay Chief.)
-
-    Bald Galloway, 84, 85, 163, 213, 410.
-
-    Bald Stockings (Tom Hal), 358. 359.
-
-    Baldwin, B. H., 382.
-
-    Bancroft, Historian, on Wild Horse, 201.
-
-    Barbs (English Foundation Stock), 68, 72, 80.
-
-    Barbs, 81, 82, 85.
-
-    Barker, Henry L., 350, 362.
-
-    Baronet (Imported), 334, 447.
-
-    Baronet, 259.
-
-    Baron Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Barnes, Mr., 150.
-
-    Barss, 392, 395, 396.
-
-    Bartlett’s Turk, 346.
-
-    Bashaws, 21.
-
-    Bashaw (Imported), 92.
-
-    Bashaw (Green’s), 282, 283, 327, 469.
-
-    Bashaw Jr., 308.
-
-    Bashaws and Clays, 321-337.
-
-    Bassinger, 432, 436.
-
-    Bathgate, A., 151.
-
-    Bay Chief, 295.
-
-    Bay Chief, Pedigree of, 418.
-
-    Bay Kentucky Hunter, 362.
-
-    Bay Messenger (Downing’s), 316.
-
-    Bay Morgan, 364.
-
-    Beard, James C., Artist, 556.
-
-    Bear Grass, 342.
-
-    Beautiful Bay (True Briton or Traveler), 367-763.
-
-    Beautiful Bells, 297, 332.
-
-    Beck, 348.
-
-    Beckwith, Mr., 282.
-
-    Belgrade Turk, 69.
-
-    Bell Bird, 292.
-
-    Bell Boy, 293.
-
-    Belle (dam of Green’s Bashaw), 276, 283.
-
-    Belle (dam of Belmont), 299.
-
-    Belle (by Top Bellfounder), 335.
-
-    Belle Brandon, 313, 314.
-
-    Belle F., 311.
-
-    Belle Lupe, 299.
-
-    Belle Rice, 313.
-
-    Belle Strickland, 502.
-
-    Belle of Wabash, 432, 434, 435, 436, 437.
-
-    Belleflower, 294.
-
-    Bellfounder (Imported), 282, 335.
-
-    Bellfounder Family, 396, 397, 400, 401.
-
-    Bellfounder (Brown’s), 299, 399.
-
-    Bellfounder (Kissam’s), 399.
-
-    Bellfounder (La Tourrett’s), 400.
-
-    Bellows, John, 377, 380.
-
-    Belmont, 297, 298, 299.
-
-    Belmont’s Leading Sons, 300.
-
-    Benedict, James W., 294.
-
-    Benger, Thomas, 224, 225.
-
-    Ben Higdon, 355.
-
-    Ben Hur, Famous Pen Picture from, 66.
-
-    Bennett & Jones, 437.
-
-    Bertrand, 437.
-
-    Bet, 353.
-
-    Bett, 346.
-
-    Betty Bloss, 402.
-
-    Betsy Baker, 237.
-
-    Betsy Ransom, 334.
-
-    Beuzetta, 288, 305.
-
-    Beverley’s History of Virginia, 111.
-
-    Bidwell, George, 433.
-
-    Big Mary, 502.
-
-    Big Shakespeare (Probasco’s), 355.
-
-    “Bill Arp,” 557.
-
-    Billington, Mr., 150.
-
-    Billy Duroc, 345.
-
-    Bird, 345.
-
-    Bishop, Isaac, 234.
-
-    Bishop’s Hambletonian. (See Hambletonian.)
-
-    Bitugue Horses (Russian), 393, 394.
-
-    Black and All Black, 261.
-
-    Black Arab Barb, 93.
-
-    Black Bashaw, 322.
-
-    Black Hawk, 349, 376, 377, 381, 433, 498.
-
-    Black Hawk Family, 366, 389.
-
-    Black Hawk (Vernol’s), 282, 327.
-
-    Black Hawk (Seely’s), 283.
-
-    Black Hawk Prophet, 265.
-
-    Blackie, 360.
-
-    Black Jin, 279, 280.
-
-    Black Messenger, 249.
-
-    Black River Messenger, 361, 362.
-
-    Black Prince (Scobey’s), 346.
-
-    Black Rose, Pedigree of, 419.
-
-    Black Warrior (Warrior), 149, 150.
-
-    Blackwood, 350.
-
-    Blanco, 357, 358.
-
-    Blandina, 350.
-
-    Blank, 70, 402.
-
-    Blauvelt, John G., 250, 339.
-
-    Blaze, 208, 209, 211, 402.
-
-    Blessing, The, Voyage of, 109.
-
-    Blind Tuckahoe, 365.
-
-    Bloody Buttocks, 70.
-
-    Blue Bull (Wilson’s), 352, 353, 354.
-
-    Blue Bull, 274.
-
-    Blue Bull Family, 352, 354.
-
-    Blundeville, Thomas, Early English Writer, 159, 160, 161, 170,
-    175.
-
-    Blunt, Wilfred S., Experiences of, with Arabian Horses, 5, 6,
-    7, 61, 62, 63.
-
-    Board of Censors, 518, 552.
-
-    Bob Johnson, 439, 443.
-
-    Bodine, 302.
-
-    Bogus, 361.
-
-    Bogus Hunter, 361.
-
-    Bolingbroke, Lord, 216.
-
-    Bolivar (Pintler’s), 415.
-
-    Bonesetter, 359.
-
-    Bone Swinger, 261.
-
-    Bonita, 292.
-
-    Bonner, A. A., 304.
-
-    Bonner, David, 304.
-
-    Bonnie Scotland, 482, 514, 525, 527, 552.
-
-    Boott, James, 397.
-
-    Borden, Spencer, 156, 555.
-
-    Boston, 420, 422, 424, 450, 451, 487, 488.
-
-    Boston Girl, 325, 363.
-
-    Boswell, Dr., 358
-
-    Bourbon Wilkes, 288
-
-    Bradhurst, Samuel, 333.
-
-    Bradley, W. J., 343.
-
-    Brasfield, George, 304.
-
-    Brawner’s Eclipse, 439, 443.
-
-    Breckenridge, William L., 358.
-
-    Breeders Association, National. (See National A. T. H. B.)
-
-    Breeding the Trotter a New Industry, 508.
-
-    Breeding the Trotting Horse, 456.
-
-    Breeding from Developed Parents, 499, 507.
-
-    Breeders of 2:15 Trotters, 501.
-
-    Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book. 528, 533.
-
-    Brewster. Dr., 363.
-
-    Brickmaker (Andrew Jackson), 325.
-
-    Bright John, 365.
-
-    Bright Phœbus, 233, 252.
-
-    Bristol Horse, 150.
-
-    Bristol Grey, 261.
-
-    Britain, Early Horses, 48, 49.
-
-    Britain, First Horses of, 157-171.
-
-    Britain, Time of Julius Cæsar, 157.
-
-    British Horses, Early, 164, 165, 166.
-
-    Brodhead, Lucas, 419, 420, 422, 427, 428, 429, 431, 441, 444,
-    526, _et seq_.
-
-    Brokenlegged Hunter, 362.
-
-    Brown, Mr., 399.
-
-    Brown, David W., 365.
-
-    Brown, Henry C., 435, 436.
-
-    Brown, Major Campbell, 359, 557.
-
-    Brown’s Bellfounder. (See Bellfounder.)
-
-    Brown George, 385.
-
-    Brown Hal, 359.
-
-    Brown Highlander (Imported), 361.
-
-    Brown Pilot, 350.
-
-    Brown Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Bruce (traveler), 31.
-
-    Bruce, G. Benjamin, 305, 450, 458.
-
-    Bruce’s Stud Book, 104.
-
-    Bruce, Sanders D., 100, 104, 420, 423, 441.
-
-    Buckley, John, 334.
-
-    Buffon, 26
-
-    Buford, Col. F. G., 557.
-
-    Bull Calf, 243.
-
-    Bullock, Mr., 216, 222, 223.
-
-    Bunbury, Sir Charles, 76.
-
-    Burch Mare, 350.
-
-    Burckhardt (traveler in Arabia), 54.
-
-    Burdach, 469
-
-    Burlew, Charles, 346.
-
-    Burlew, Scobey & Backus, 345.
-
-    Burton, Abram, 261.
-
-    Burton Horse, 261.
-
-    Burtsell, Dr. Alex, 59.
-
-    Bush, Charles, 247.
-
-    Bush, Philo C., 244, 245.
-
-    Bush Messenger, 20.
-
-    Bush Messenger. (See Ogden Messenger.)
-
-    Bush Messenger. (See Messenger, Bush’s.)
-
-    Byerly Turk, 68.
-
-
-    C
-
-    Cade, 70, 84, 163, 213.
-
-    Cadet, 407.
-
-    Cadiz (Gades), 44.
-
-    Cadmus (by American Eclipse), 354.
-
-    Cadmus (Iron’s), 354, 358, 414.
-
-    California Patchen. (See George M. Patchen Jr.)
-
-    Camel (“the ship of the desert”), 52.
-
-    Camilla, 246.
-
-    Campbell, M. C., 360.
-
-    Campdown, 310.
-
-    Canada, 13, 15, 16.
-
-    Canada, Early Horse History, 142, 143.
-
-    Canadian Maritime Provinces, 152.
-
-    Canadian Pacer, Origin of the, 142, 143, 151, 152, 153.
-
-    Canavan, George, 334.
-
-    Cannon’s Whip, 419.
-
-    Cappadocia. (See Cappadocian Horses.)
-
-    Cappadocian Horses, 2, 28, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 42.
-
-    Captain Beard, 439.
-
-    Captain Lyons, 312.
-
-    Captain Magowan, 432, 433, 482.
-
-    Carlisle Gelding, 410.
-
-    Carman, Charles, 330.
-
-    Carman Mare, 333-336.
-
-    Carman, R. F., 333, 334.
-
-    Carpenter, Lieutenant, 369, 375, 376.
-
-    Carpenter, Powell, 323.
-
-    Carthage, Horses of, 44, 45, 48.
-
-    Case, Jerome I., 314.
-
-    Case, John, 349.
-
-    Cassius M. Clay, 327.
-
-    Cassius M. Clay, history of, 330-333.
-
-    Cassius M. Clay, 329, 333.
-
-    Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Neave’s), 332.
-
-    Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Strader’s), 332, 333, 336.
-
-    Cedar Park (Estate), 74.
-
-    Celtæ and Iberi (Spanish tribes), 46.
-
-    Centaur, False Pedigree Given, 100, 101.
-
-    Central Truth in Breeding, 512.
-
-    Chamich, Rev. M., 28
-
-    Champion (Grinnell’s), 259, 344, 347.
-
-    Champion (807), 274.
-
-    Champion Family, 344-348.
-
-    Champion (Gooding’s), 346, 347, 348.
-
-    Champion (Nighthawk), 347.
-
-    Champion (Scobey’s or King’s), 345.
-
-    Charcoal Sal, 324, 336.
-
-    Charles Hadley Mare, 332.
-
-    Charles Kent Mare. (See Kent Mare.)
-
-    Charles II., King, 7, 14, 57, 58, 68, 135, 162, 168.
-
-    Charley B., 346.
-
-    Charlotte Gray, 250.
-
-    Charlotte Temple, 322.
-
-    Chenery, W. W., 452.
-
-    Chenery’s Grey Eagle. (See Grey Eagle.)
-
-    Chestnut Arabians, 70.
-
-    Chestnut Hill, 310.
-
-    Chestnut Hill Farm, 309.
-
-    Childers (Imported), 95.
-
-    Childers. (See Flying Childers.)
-
-    Chimes, 293.
-
-    Chincoteague Ponies, The, 111.
-
-    Chincoteague Wild Horses, 10, 11.
-
-    Chinn, Higgins, 358.
-
-    Cholmondeley, Marquis of, 76.
-
-    Cilicia, 30, 410.
-
-    Clara (Crazy Jane), 149.
-
-    Clara (Dexter’s dam), 303.
-
-    Clark Chief, 318, 320.
-
-    Clays and Bashaws, 21, 321-337.
-
-    Clay, James B., 315.
-
-    Clay Pilot, 297, 332.
-
-    Cliff Dwellers, 199.
-
-    Clockfast, 450.
-
-    Cobs, 398, 400.
-
-    Cobwebs, 294.
-
-    Cock, Daniel T., 234, 241, 251.
-
-    Cock, Townsend, 234, 236.
-
-    Cock of the Rock, 338.
-
-    Cockroft, James M., 315.
-
-    Coffein, Goldsmith, 354, 356, 414.
-
-    Coke, Mr., 70-73.
-
-    Colden, Cadwallader R., 98, 233, 234, 244, 247.
-
-    Colden’s Magazine, 98.
-
-    Coles, Gen. Nathaniel, 232, 233, 251, 252.
-
-    Collateral and Indirect Heredity, 464.
-
-    Colonial Horses, 9, 11, 108-141.
-
-    Colonial Horse History, 108-141.
-
-    Colonial Running-Stock, 96.
-
-    Columbus (Old), 151.
-
-    Commander, 243.
-
-    Commissioner of Agriculture, 404, 405.
-
-    “Committee on Rules,” The Kentucky, 526, 527, 528, 529.
-
-    Commodore, 316.
-
-    Compton Barb, 70.
-
-    Conductor, 294.
-
-    Conestoga Horses, 136.
-
-    Conklin, E. K., 341.
-
-    Conley, John W., 304, 351.
-
-    Connecticut, Colonial Horse History, 131-133.
-
-    Conqueror, 399.
-
-    Constable, Mr., 447, 448.
-
-    Constantius, Emperor, Sends Horses to Arabia, 2, 28, 31, 42,
-    43, 55.
-
-    Consul, 365.
-
-    Contemporaries (Runningbred) of Messenger, 220.
-
-    Controller, 482.
-
-    Copperbottom, 195.
-
-    Copperbottom (Chinn’s), 358.
-
-    Copperbottoms, 433.
-
-    Copeland, 294.
-
-    Cook, O. W., 132, 375, 557.
-
-    Coomb Arabian, 70.
-
-    Cooper, Amos, 253.
-
-    Cooper, Benjamin B., 229.
-
-    Cooper, J. F., Describes Narragansett Pacers, 181.
-
-    Cooper, Richard Isaac, 248.
-
-    Cooper’s Gray, 253.
-
-    Corbitt, William, 501, 505.
-
-    Cossack Horses, 393.
-
-    Cortez Expedition and Horses, 18, 202.
-
-    Coriander, 251.
-
-    Count Byram, 69.
-
-    Count Thoulouse, 69.
-
-    Crabstick, 278, 279.
-
-    Crabtree Bellfounder, 332.
-
-    Crane, Mrs., 361.
-
-    Crazy Jane (Clara), 149.
-
-    Croft’s Bay Barb, 69.
-
-    Cropped Fagdown, 252.
-
-    Cross Heredity, 464.
-
-    Cruger, H. N., 247.
-
-    Cuba, Pacers Exported to, 173, 182.
-
-    Cullen Arabian, 70.
-
-    Cumberland, Duke of, 77, 166.
-
-    Cumming’s Whip, 359.
-
-    Cummins, Col. F. M., 282.
-
-    Curwen’s Bay Barb, 69, 84.
-
-    Cuyler, 275.
-
-    Cynthia, 346.
-
-
-    D
-
-    Dabster (Imported), 95.
-
-    Daisy Burns, 502.
-
-    Dame Winnie, 491, 492.
-
-    Dam of Ethan Allen, 384.
-
-    Dam of Jay Gould, 503.
-
-    Dam of Messenger. (See Messenger.)
-
-    Daniel Lambert, History of, 389.
-
-    Daniel D. Tompkins, 241, 325.
-
-    Daniels, P. F., 248.
-
-    Danish Horses, 165, 391.
-
-    D’Arcy White Turk, 68.
-
-    D’Arcy Yellow Turk, 69.
-
-    Darius, the Mede, 30, 50.
-
-    Darley, Mr., 58, 59, 69.
-
-    Darley Arabian, 58, 59, 69, 72, 106, 208, 410.
-
-    Darwin, Charles, 468, 471, 503.
-
-    Dauntless, 275.
-
-    Davis, Jesse M., 345.
-
-    Davis, Barnes, 362.
-
-    Dean, Silas, on American Saddle-Horse, 190.
-
-    Dearing, Jas., 243.
-
-    DeLancey, Mr., Early Turfman, 125, 126.
-
-    DeLancey, James. 368, 369, 370, 371, 375, 376.
-
-    Delevan, W. A., 453.
-
-    Delight, 250.
-
-    Denmark (Gaines’), 194, 195, 318.
-
-    Descendants of Messenger, 255.
-
-    Description of Electioneer, 290.
-
-    Description of George Wilkes, 285.
-
-    Description of Hambletonian (10), 268-270.
-
-    Description of Messenger, 226-228.
-
-    De Soto, Ferdinand, 18.
-
-    De Soto, Expedition and Horses, 202.
-
-    Developed Speed, Breeding from, 499-507.
-
-    Development, Value of, 499-507.
-
-    Dewey, Henry, 362.
-
-    Dexter, 303, 317, 482.
-
-    Dexter’s Race with Ethan Allen, 385-389.
-
-    Dey, Mr., 437.
-
-    Deyr, Syrian Horse Market, 5, 62, 63.
-
-    Dickey, Robert L., Artist, 556.
-
-    Dictator, 275, 311.
-
-    Dictator, History of, 303, 304.
-
-    Dillon, Jesse, 422, 423.
-
-    Dine, John C., 355.
-
-    Diomed (imported), 417, 447.
-
-    Direct Heredity, 464.
-
-    Direct, 305.
-
-    Directum, 305.
-
-    Dirigo, 363.
-
-    Disputed Pedigrees, Investigation of, 409-455.
-
-    Distribution of Horses, Early, 36-50.
-
-    Distribution of Trotters in United States, 515.
-
-    Doble, Budd, 386.
-
-    Dodsworth, 68.
-
-    Doherty, Mr. (see Royal George), 150.
-
-    Dole, Charles S., 305.
-
-    Doll, 361.
-
-    Dolly, 304.
-
-    Dolly Spanker, 284, 285.
-
-    Don Horses, 393.
-
-    Dorrel, Daniel, 352.
-
-    Dover Messenger, 251.
-
-    Downing, Marcus, 316, 362.
-
-    Draco, 286, 357.
-
-    Draft Horses of Pennsylvania, 136.
-
-    Drennon (Brinker’s), 195.
-
-    Drew Horse, 362, 363, 364.
-
-    Drift, 308
-
-    Driver, 302.
-
-    Driver (Reed’s), 403.
-
-    Dubois, Cyrus, 339.
-
-    Dubois, James, 250.
-
-    Dubois, Major, 342.
-
-    Duke of Cumberland, 77.
-
-    Duke of Leeds, 76.
-
-    Duke of Newcastle, 57, 58, 70, 80, 81, 87, 162, 167, 170.
-
-    Duke of Newcastle. (See Newcastle).
-
-    Durgan, Dr., 454.
-
-    Durkee, Harrison, 304, 351.
-
-    Duroc, 338, 362, 417, 447.
-
-    Duryea, Garrett, 415.
-
-    Dusenbury, Theodore, 340.
-
-    Dutch Horses, 11, 12, 129, 172, 374, 375, 391, 392, 396.
-
-    Dutch Horses in America, 91, 120, 121, 123.
-
-    Dutch Horses in New England, 128, 129.
-
-    Duvall, William, 425, 426.
-
-
-    E
-
-    Eagle (Hunt’s), 326.
-
-    Earl of Cumberland, 166.
-
-    Early Bird, 305.
-
-    Early Distribution of Horses, 36, 50.
-
-    Early English Racing, 83.
-
-    Early British Horses, 79, 157, 171, 164, 165, 166.
-
-    Early English Pacers, 158-171.
-
-    Early Exportations of Pacers, 173, 182.
-
-    Early Colonial Pacing Races, 177, 178.
-
-    Early Pacing, Philadelphia, 179.
-
-    Early Thoroughbred Importations, 220.
-
-    Early American Trotters, 456, 457, 515.
-
-    Early Horse History, Canada, 142, 153.
-
-    Eastern Asia Minor, 30.
-
-    Echo, 275.
-
-    Eclipse (Lawrence’s), 332.
-
-    Eclipse (Brawner’s), 439.
-
-    Edgar’s Stud Book, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 447, 448, 516, 548,
-    549.
-
-    Edsall, Major, 295.
-
-    Edsall’s Hambletonian, 295.
-
-    Edward Everett, 275.
-
-    Edwin Forrest, 325, 361, 362, 417, 457.
-
-    Egbert, 275, 310.
-
-    Egmont, 300.
-
-    Egotist, 293.
-
-    Egypt, First Horses of, 2, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43.
-
-    Eldridge, Richard, 315.
-
-    Electioneer, History of, 289-294.
-
-    Electioneer, 275, 356, 413, 438, 463, 464, 503, 504.
-
-    Electioneer’s Leading Sons, 293.
-
-    Elector, 293.
-
-    Elgin Marbles, 156.
-
-    Elliot, Colonel, 451.
-
-    Ellzey, Prof. M. C., 74.
-
-    Elphinstone, Admiral, 391.
-
-    Ely, George H., 501.
-
-    Emerson, Mr., 349.
-
-    Emma Mills, 312.
-
-    Emperor Constantius, 79, 95.
-
-    Enchantress, 305.
-
-    Enemies Made by Honest Methods, 511, 512, 534, 535.
-
-    Engineer (English), 212.
-
-    Engineer, History of, 241-243.
-
-    Engineer II., 251, 259, 344.
-
-    Engineer (Burdick’s), 243, 266, 306.
-
-    England, First Horses of, 157-171.
-
-    English Foundation Stock, 8, 68-72-106.
-
-    English Race Horse, The, 67-89.
-
-    English Race Horses, Native, 82, 86-92, 105, 106.
-
-    English Stud Book, 83, 84, 87, 88, 106, 207, 216, 217, 218, 548.
-
-    English Pacers, 84, 85, 86, 192, 193, 473.
-
-    English Race Horses, First Importation of, 95.
-
-    English Trotters, 89.
-
-    English Hackney, The, 400, 408.
-
-    Eoff, James L., 306, 349, 443.
-
-    Ericsson, 318.
-
-    Eros, 293.
-
-    Escape, 146.
-
-    “Esopus Horses,” 122.
-
-    Ethan Allen, History of, 381-389.
-
-    Ethan Allen, 20, 274, 286, 334, 489.
-
-    Ethan Allen’s Race with Dexter, 385-389.
-
-    Ethan Allen (Drury’s), 265.
-
-    Eton Horse, 364.
-
-    Euren, Henry F., 169, 209, 402, 404, 405.
-
-    European, 348.
-
-    Exportation of Pacers, Early, 173, 182.
-
-    Extreme Speed, Breeders of, 501.
-
-    Eyclesheimer, J. L. B., 349.
-
-    Ezekiel, Prophet, 4, 32.
-
-
-    F
-
-    Fagdown, 252.
-
-    Fairlawn Farm, 300, 501.
-
-    Fallis, 293.
-
-    Family of Mambrino Chief, 315-320.
-
-    Fancy (by Messenger), 322.
-
-    Fanny, 346.
-
-    Fanny Cook, 389.
-
-    Fanny Kemble, 326.
-
-    Fanny Pullen, 241, 481.
-
-    Fanny Ransom, 334.
-
-    Fantasy, 294.
-
-    Fashion Stud Farm, 308, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505.
-
-    Favorite Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Feagles, David R., 271.
-
-    Felter, Col. Harry, 284, 453.
-
-    Ferguson, George W., 362.
-
-    Ferguson, William, 360.
-
-    Fictions in Early Pedigrees, 104, 105.
-
-    Fictitious Pedigrees, 511, 512, 534, 535.
-
-    “Fidelis,” 557.
-
-    Finnegan, P. A., 335.
-
-    Firetail, 365.
-
-    First Horses in Arabia, 28-31.
-
-    First Horses Brought to America, 142.
-
-    First Importations in New York, 120, 121, 122, 123.
-
-    First Horses in New England, 128, 129, 130.
-
-    First American Racing, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 134.
-
-    First American Race Course, 90.
-
-    First Racing in Virginia, 109, 110, 113.
-
-    First American Horse Advertisement, 130.
-
-    First Race-Horses in South Carolina, 140.
-
-    First Trotting Races, 456, 457.
-
-    First Importations of Thoroughbreds, 95, 96.
-
-    First Impregnations, Influence of, 465.
-
-    First Consul (Bond’s), 233, 322.
-
-    Fisk, A. C., 311.
-
-    Fitz, Stephen, Early English Writer, 158, 159, 170.
-
-    Flanders Horses, 81.
-
-    Flanders Mares, 160.
-
-    Flora, 306.
-
-    Flora Temple, 235-306, 335, 361, 477, 498.
-
-    Florizel, 450.
-
-    Flying Childers, 59, 208.
-
-    Flying Morgan, 382, 383.
-
-    Forbes, J. Malcolm, 538.
-
-    Forshee Horse, 150.
-
-    Foster, Charles J., 99, 218, 219, 221, 285, 286, 487, 511, 555.
-
-    Foundation Stock of England, 68-72, 106.
-
-    Foundation Saddle Stock, 194, 195.
-
-    Founders of Trotting Families, 274.
-
-    France, Early Horses of, 143.
-
-    France, William C., 501, 505.
-
-    Frank, 442.
-
-    Franklin, Benjamin, 136.
-
-    Frauds in Early Pedigrees, 96-97, 100, 101.
-
-    Fred Crocker, 292, 293.
-
-    Frolic, 334.
-
-
-    G
-
-    Gades (Cadiz), 44.
-
-    Gage, D. M., 306.
-
-    Gaits of Saddle Horses, 192, 193, 194.
-
-    Gaits, Mechanism of, 154-156, 184, 185-186.
-
-    Gait, The Ambling, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 192.
-
-    Gaits of Colonial Horses, 116, 131.
-
-    Gait, The Pacing, 157-163.
-
-    Gallatin, 451.
-
-    Galloway, Samuel, 74.
-
-    Galloway, R. F., 307.
-
-    “Galloways” in Virginia, 113.
-
-    Galloway Breed, 84, 85, 91, 163, 164, 176.
-
-    Gambetta Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Gameness, Trotter and Runner, 482, 489, 491.
-
-    Gano, 318.
-
-    Gavin, Joseph, 414.
-
-    General Benton, 438.
-
-    General Butler, 286.
-
-    General Knox, 265, 309, 502.
-
-    General McClellan, 363.
-
-    General Taylor, 349.
-
-    Gentry, John R., 17.
-
-    George B. McClellan, 363.
-
-    George M. Patchen, 274, 329, 331, 339.
-
-    George M. Patchen, History of, 333-336.
-
-    George M. Patchen, Jr., 302, 335-336.
-
-    George Wilkes, 275, 308.
-
-    George Wilkes, History of, 284-289.
-
-    George Wilkes, Pedigree of, 453.
-
-    George Wilkes’ Sons, Table of, 288.
-
-    Gibson’s Tom Hal, 359, 360.
-
-    Gideon, 357.
-
-    Gilbert, James, 453.
-
-    Gilmore, David W., 328.
-
-    Gilmore, Frank, 328.
-
-    Gimcrack, 447.
-
-    Gipsey Queen, 432, 433, 434.
-
-    Glasgow and Heinsohn, 342.
-
-    Glencoe (imported), 432.
-
-    Glencoe Chief, 306.
-
-    Glenview Farm, 501, 505.
-
-    Gloster, 302.
-
-    Godfrey Patchen, 336.
-
-    Godwin, Joseph H., 332, 333.
-
-    Godolphin Arabian, 8, 58, 59, 60, 70, 71, 73-78, 84, 106, 353,
-    402, 411, 412.
-
-    Godolphin Arabian, History of, 72-78.
-
-    Godolphin Arabian, Pictures of, 73-78.
-
-    Godolphin, Lord, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78.
-
-    Gog Magog (Estate), 70, 73, 76, 77.
-
-    Golden Farmer, 402.
-
-    Goldsmith, Alden, 286, 301, 302, 303, 304.
-
-    Goldsmith Maid, 308, 358, 477, 502.
-
-    Gomer, 28, 29, 32.
-
-    Gooding’s Champion. (See Champion.)
-
-    Gooding, T. W. & W., 346.
-
-    Goodspeed, H. C., 557.
-
-    Goodwin Watson (Strathmore), 309.
-
-    Gordon, Gen. John G., 475.
-
-    Gould, Ebenezer, 236.
-
-    Gould, Jay, 308.
-
-    Gould, Levi S., 440, 442, 444, 555.
-
-    Governor Nicolls Establishes Racing, 90.
-
-    Governor Sprague, History of, 312-314.
-
-    Grace Darling, 363.
-
-    Grand Bashaw, 321.
-
-    Grandsons of Hambletonian, 284-314.
-
-    Grand Sultan, 321.
-
-    Grant’s (General) Arabs, 64.
-
-    Grant, Mr., 349.
-
-    Gray, Angereau, 416.
-
-    Gray, William, 359.
-
-    Gray’s Tom Hal, 359.
-
-    Great Table of Trotters, 542, 551, 558, 559.
-
-    Great Table of Trotting Families, 274.
-
-    Green, A. C., 308.
-
-    Greene, E. J., 364.
-
-    Green, Joseph A., 282, 283.
-
-    Greene, Judge W. E., 364.
-
-    Green, Roger, Pioneer of North Carolina, 139.
-
-    Green’s Bashaw. (See Bashaw.)
-
-    Green Mountain Maid (by Harris’ Hambletonian), 264, 325.
-
-    Green Mountain Maid, 289, 290, 355, 413.
-
-    Gretchen (by Gideon), 357.
-
-    Grey Eagle (Chenery’s), 452.
-
-    Grey Eagle Mare, 439, 440, 441, 442, 444.
-
-    Grey Figure, 253.
-
-    Grey Harry, 237.
-
-    Greyhound, 68.
-
-    Grey Mambrino, 248.
-
-    Grinnell, William R., 259, 345.
-
-    Grinnell’s Champion. (See Champion.)
-
-    Griswold, Judge, 368.
-
-    Griswold, Manley, 437.
-
-    Grosvenor, Lord, 207, 214, 215, 216.
-
-    Growth of 2:30 List, 477.
-
-    Gue, Gurney C., 557.
-
-    Gunn, General, 246.
-
-    Guy Miller, 285, 288, 307.
-
-
-    H
-
-    Hackney, The English, 398, 400-408.
-
-    Hackney Stud-Book, 169, 209, 402, 404.
-
-    Haggin, J. B., 335.
-
-    Haic (Haicus), 3, 29, 32.
-
-    Haight, Daniel B., 250, 260.
-
-    Haight, Nelson, 260.
-
-    Halcorn (Peters’), 195.
-
-    Hall, George C., 308.
-
-    Hall, Joseph, 334.
-
-    Halstead, Messrs., 335.
-
-    Hambletonian (Bishop’s), 20, 21, 232, 235, 251, 262, 265, 267,
-    306, 487.
-
-    Hambletonian (Bishop’s) Stud Services, 234, 235.
-
-    Hambletonian (Harris’), 20, 150, 235, 261, 309, 348, 437.
-
-    Hambletonian (10), History of, 267-283.
-
-    Hambletonian Speed and Training, 271, 272.
-
-    Hambletonian (10), 20, 21, 258, 303, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313,
-    314, 323-329, 398, 399, 453, 459.
-
-    Hambletonian (Green’s), 301.
-
-    Hambletonian Jr., 302.
-
-    Hambletonian (Andrus’), 265, 306.
-
-    Hambletonian’s Sons and Grandsons, 284-314.
-
-    Hambletonian’s Sons (table), 275.
-
-    Hambletonian (Wood’s), 297.
-
-    Hambletonian (Judson’s), 235, 265, 306.
-
-    Hambletonian (Parris’), 265.
-
-    Hambletonian (Sprague’s), 313.
-
-    Hamlin, C. J., 501.
-
-    Hanchett Horse, 264.
-
-    Hancock, Joseph, 322, 323.
-
-    Hanley, Moses, 365.
-
-    Hanley, Samuel, 365.
-
-    Hanley’s Hiatoga. (See Hiatoga.)
-
-    Hannibal’s Cavalry, 45, 47.
-
-    Haphazard, 397.
-
-    Happy Medium, 243, 266, 275, 306.
-
-    Harbinger, 299.
-
-    Harding, General, 486.
-
-    “Hark Comstock” (Peter C. Kellogg), 267, 555.
-
-    Harkness, James, 345.
-
-    Harmor, Mr., Colonial Writer, 109.
-
-    Harold, History of, 275, 305.
-
-    Harris, Charles T., 557.
-
-    Harris, S. T., 555.
-
-    Harris’ Hambletonian. (See Hambletonian.)
-
-    Harris, Russell, 263.
-
-    Harrison, Benjamin, 111.
-
-    Harry Clay, 289, 332, 413.
-
-    Harry Wilkes (Conn’s), 313.
-
-    Hartford, First Settlement, 13, 132.
-
-    Harvey, Dr. Elwood, 111.
-
-    Haselton, William, 249.
-
-    Hattie Woodward, 312.
-
-    Havoc, 343, 417.
-
-    Hawkins, Jonathan, 303.
-
-    Hayward, Alvan, 238, 239, 240.
-
-    Hazard, I. T., 174, 175, 177, 178, 181.
-
-    Hazard, Robert, 174.
-
-    Head’em, 334.
-
-    Helena, 294.
-
-    Helm, H. T., 302, 555.
-
-    Helmsley Turk, 68.
-
-    Hempstead Plains Race Course, 12, 90, 122.
-
-    Hendrick, Rev. T. A., 557.
-
-    Hendrickson, William, 335.
-
-    Hendryx, H. J., 310.
-
-    Henry, 338, 449, 450.
-
-    Henry Clay, 285, 336, 454, 455.
-
-    Henry Clay, History of, 327-330.
-
-    Henry Clay Jr., 329.
-
-    Henry Hal, 360.
-
-    Henry, Mason, 319.
-
-    Henry B. Patchen, 336.
-
-    Henry VIII., Law of, 81.
-
-    Heredity, 461.
-
-    Heredity of Acquired Habits and Instincts, 471.
-
-    Heredity of Bad Qualities, 478.
-
-    Heredity of Influence, 465.
-
-    Herbert, Henry, 476.
-
-    Hero, 235, 355, 437.
-
-    Heroine, 301.
-
-    Herr, Dr. Levi, 316, 318, 319, 333, 417.
-
-    Herschell, 300.
-
-    Hetzel, Joseph, 301.
-
-    Hiatoga (“Old Togue”), 365.
-
-    Hiatoga (Rice’s), 364.
-
-    Hiatoga (Hanley’s), 365.
-
-    Hiatoga (Scott’s), 365.
-
-    Hiatt, James M., 557.
-
-    Hibbard, D. B., 347.
-
-    Higbee Brothers, 313.
-
-    High Asia Not Original Habitat of Horse, 24.
-
-    Highland Farm, 501.
-
-    Highland Maid, 477-498.
-
-    Highland Messenger (Wamock’s), 362.
-
-    Highlander (Watkin’s), 360, 361.
-
-    Hill, David, 377, 382, 383.
-
-    Hill’s Black Hawk. (See Black Hawk.)
-
-    Hinda Rose, 292.
-
-    “Hiram,” 437.
-
-    Hiram Drew, 364.
-
-    Hiram, King of Tyre, 35, 41, 48.
-
-    History, Colonial Horse, 108-141.
-
-    History of Abdallah, 255-261.
-
-    History of Alexander’s Abdallah, 294.
-
-    History of Almont, 297.
-
-    History of Andrew Jackson, 323-325.
-
-    History of Imported Bellfounder, 397-400.
-
-    History of Belmont, 299.
-
-    History of Black Hawk, 377-381.
-
-    History of Cassius M. Clay, 330-332.
-
-    History of Daniel Lambert, 389.
-
-    History of Dictator, 303.
-
-    History of Electioneer, 289-294.
-
-    History of Ethan Allen, 381-389.
-
-    History of George M. Patchen, 333-335.
-
-    History of George Wilkes, 284-289.
-
-    History of Governor Sprague, 312-314.
-
-    History of Hambletonian (10), 267-283.
-
-    History of Happy Medium, 306.
-
-    History of Harold, 305.
-
-    History of Henry Clay, 327-330.
-
-    History of Jay Gould, 307-309.
-
-    History of Justin Morgan, 367-376.
-
-    History of Kemble Jackson, 325-327.
-
-    History of Long Island Black Hawk, 327.
-
-    History of Mambrino Chief, 315-317.
-
-    History of Messenger, 222-231.
-
-    History of the Orloff Trotter, 390-397.
-
-    History of the Pacing Horse, 154-171.
-
-    History of Pilot Jr., 343, 344.
-
-    History of the Standard, 518-524.
-
-    History of Strathmore, 309.
-
-    History of Tippo, 145-147.
-
-    History of Volunteer, 301.
-
-    History of Wallace’s Monthly, 554-557.
-
-    History of the Wallace Publications, 547-559.
-
-    Hoagland, Sim D., 264.
-
-    Hobbie, The Irish, 80, 85, 113, 160, 161, 163.
-
-    Hobgoblin, 70.
-
-    Holbert Colt, 311.
-
-    Holcomb, Joel W., 382, 383.
-
-    Holstein, Otto, 557.
-
-    Holton, John A., 421-431.
-
-    Holton, Llewellyn, 421, 423, 424, 426, 428, 429, 430, 431.
-
-    Honest Ance, 349.
-
-    Honest John, 325.
-
-    Honesty, 307.
-
-    Honeywood Arabian, 69.
-
-    Hook, Thomas, 319.
-
-    Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 131.
-
-    Hoosier Tom, 359.
-
-    Hoover, Jonas, 327.
-
-    Hopkins, George, 437.
-
-    Hopples, 157, 473.
-
-    Hopson, Seth P., 260.
-
-    Horse Advertisement, First American, 130.
-
-    Horseman, The, 557.
-
-    Horse Portraiture, Improvement in, 556.
-
-    Horse Racing, First in Virginia, 109, 110, 113.
-
-    “Horse Review, The,” 414, 557.
-
-    Hotspur, 253.
-
-    Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Eng., 76, 77.
-
-    How the Trotting Horse is Bred, 456, 460.
-
-    Howard, Rev. Erastus, 146, 148, 149.
-
-    Howard, James, 94.
-
-    Howard, Sanford, on Winthrop Messenger, 238, 239.
-
-    Hoyt, Hezekiah, 294, 295.
-
-    Hoyt, James W., 414.
-
-    Hudson, Henry, Explorer, 120.
-
-    Huggins, Dr., 474.
-
-    Hulda, 288.
-
-    Hulse Mare, 301.
-
-    Hunt, Benjamin W., 557.
-
-    Hunt, John W., 258.
-
-    Hunt’s Eagle, 326.
-
-    Hunter Mare, 357.
-
-    Huntress, 302.
-
-    Husted, Jacob, 251.
-
-    Hutchinson, Mathias, 253.
-
-    Huxley, Professor, on Primal Horse, 197.
-
-    Hyksos. (See Shepherd Kings.)
-
-
-    I
-
-    Iberi and Celtæ (Spanish tribes), 46.
-
-    Idol, 502.
-
-    Importation of Messenger, 223.
-
-    Importations, Early, 220.
-
-    Importations, First, 8-16.
-
-    Importations, First to Virginia, 109, 110, 116, 117.
-
-    Importations of Race Horses, 117, 118.
-
-    Importations of Thoroughbreds, First, 95, 96.
-
-    Impetuous, 306.
-
-    Independent (Mott’s), 312.
-
-    Indiana Belle, 432.
-
-    Indian Hill Farm, 319.
-
-    Indirect and Collateral Heredity, 464.
-
-    Infidel, English Trotter, 214.
-
-    Influence of First Impregnations, 465.
-
-    Inheritance, Laws of, 462, 463.
-
-    Instincts and Characters, Acquired, 471.
-
-    Investigating Pedigrees, 22.
-
-    Investigation of Disputed Pedigrees, 409-455.
-
-    Iola, 261, 325.
-
-    Irish Hobbies, 160, 161, 163, 164.
-
-    Irons, John, 354.
-
-    Irons’ Cadmus. (See Cadmus.)
-
-    Isaiah Wilcox Mare, 266.
-
-    Itasca, 334.
-
-
-    J
-
-    Jackson, Josiah, 278, 281.
-
-    Jackson, Tim T., 302, 330.
-
-    Jackson, Thomas, 247.
-
-    Jackson, Thomas, Jr., 241.
-
-    James I. King, 7, 70, 163, 167.
-
-    Janus (Imported), 95, 243.
-
-    Japheth, 3.
-
-    Jaques, Samuel, Jr., 397, 398.
-
-    Jay Bird, 288.
-
-    Jay Gould, History of, 275, 307-309.
-
-    Jay Gould’s dam, 503, 504.
-
-    Jefferson, President, 64, 111.
-
-    Jeffries, Daniel, 323, 324.
-
-    Jenkinson, Thomas, 402.
-
-    Jennet, The Spanish, 160, 161, 174, 175.
-
-    Jenny Duter, 253.
-
-    Jenny Lind, 327.
-
-    Jerome Eddy, 303.
-
-    Jersey Fagdown, 252, 325.
-
-    Jersey Highlander, 417.
-
-    Jersey Kate, 330, 336.
-
-    Jersey Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Jewett, H. C., 501.
-
-    Jigg, 211.
-
-    Jim Munro, 297.
-
-    “J. M.,” 270.
-
-    Job, the Patriarch, 39, 40.
-
-    John Anderson, 330.
-
-    John Dillard, 195.
-
-    John Hal, 360.
-
-    John Netherland, 360.
-
-    John Stewart, 482.
-
-    Johnson, Dick, 84, 418, 441.
-
-    Johnston, Mr., 150.
-
-    Jolly Roger (Imported), 96.
-
-    Jones, Hugh, Colonial Writer, 112.
-
-    Jones, Major William, 236, 246, 247, 256.
-
-    Jones, David W., 226, 236, 237, 241, 247, 252, 256.
-
-    Jones, Gilbert, 260.
-
-    Jones, Peter W., 328.
-
-    Jones, Richard B., 321.
-
-    Joseph (Patriarch), 29, 36, 38, 41, 43.
-
-    Joseph, John, 365.
-
-    Joshua, 40.
-
-    Judge Brigham (Jay Gould), 308.
-
-    Judge Fullerton, 308.
-
-    Judith, 357.
-
-    Judson, Dr. Nathan, 265.
-
-    Julia Johnson, 359.
-
-    Juliet (by Pilot Jr.), 319.
-
-    Julius Cæsar’s Invasion of Britain, 157.
-
-    Justin Morgan, 367-376.
-
-
-    K
-
-    Kate (by Pilot Jr.), 297, 298.
-
-    Katy Darling, 294, 295.
-
-    Kattywar Horses of India, 468.
-
-    Kellogg, Peter C., 267, 269, 511, 555.
-
-    Kellogg, Mr. (Battle Creek), 345.
-
-    Kelly, Benjamin, 377-379.
-
-    Kelly, John L., 379.
-
-    Kemble Jackson, History of, 325-327, 331.
-
-    Kemble Jackson Check, 326.
-
-    Kennebec Messenger, 238.
-
-    Kent, Charles, 281.
-
-    Kent & Bailey, 455.
-
-    Kent Mare, History of, 267, 276, 277, 399.
-
-    Kentucky Hunter, 360, 361, 498.
-
-    Kentucky Hunter. (See Skenandoah.)
-
-    Kentucky Methods, Early, 511, 512, 534, 535.
-
-    Kentucky Stud-Book. (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book.)
-
-    Kentucky Standard, The, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528.
-
-    Kentucky Trotting Pedigrees, Early, 516, 517.
-
-    Kentucky Union, 312.
-
-    Keokuk, 418.
-
-    Kerner, Charles H., 308.
-
-    King Almont, 299.
-
-    King, David, 345.
-
-    King James Arabian. (See Markham Arabian.)
-
-    King Pharaoh, 341.
-
-    King Rene, 300.
-
-    Kings of Armenia, 29.
-
-    King’s Champion. (See Champion.)
-
-    Kirk, Jacob, 253.
-
-    Kissam, B. T., 256.
-
-    Kissam, T. T., 256, 398, 399.
-
-    Kittredge, Herbert S., Artist, 291, 294, 556.
-
-    Kittrell, M. B., 359.
-
-    Kittrell’s Tom Hal, 359.
-
-    Koontz, John A., on the Wild Horse, 200.
-
-    Kosciusko, 319.
-
-    Kremlin, 306.
-
-
-    L
-
-    Lady Alport, 399.
-
-    Lady Balch, 357.
-
-    Lady Clinton, 339.
-
-    Lady Fulton, 482.
-
-    Lady Irwin, 311.
-
-    Lady Jane, 363.
-
-    Lady McClain, 400.
-
-    Lady Maud, 502.
-
-    Lady Moscow, 349.
-
-    Lady Moore, 261.
-
-    Lady Patriot, 301.
-
-    Lady Sanford, 308.
-
-    Lady Shannon, 264.
-
-    Lady Suffolk, 243, 251, 344, 361, 377, 477.
-
-    Lady Surrey, 327.
-
-    Lady Thorn, 286, 308, 317, 318, 319, 399, 502.
-
-    Lady Vernon, 325.
-
-    Lady Waltermire, 309, 313.
-
-    Lady Warrenton, 325.
-
-    Lady Webber, 400.
-
-    Ladd, Mr., 312.
-
-    Lakeland Abdallah, 305.
-
-    Land of Uz, 40.
-
-    Lander, Gen. F. W., 363.
-
-    Lantern, 437.
-
-    Lark. (See Charley B.)
-
-    Last Pacers in Britain, 410.
-
-    Lath, 70, 84, 163.
-
-    Laurence’s Eclipse, 332.
-
-    Lawrence, John, 157, 159, 165, 170, 209, 211, 212, 214, 401,
-    402.
-
-    Laws of Breeding, 512-514.
-
-    Laws that Govern, The, 460.
-
-    Law of Heredity, 462.
-
-    Leading Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah, 297.
-
-    Leading Sons of Almont, 299.
-
-    Leading Sons of Belmont, 300.
-
-    Leading Sons of Electioneer, 293.
-
-    Leading Sons of George Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Leavens, Louis T., 146, 147.
-
-    Leedes’ Hobby, 85.
-
-    Leonard, John, 359.
-
-    Leviathan, 451.
-
-    Lewis, Enoch, 177, 178.
-
-    Lewis, Joseph S., 453, 454.
-
-    Lewis, Mr., 112.
-
-    Lexington, 413, 439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 444, 445, 446, 451,
-    479, 488.
-
-    Like Begets Like, 512, 513, 514.
-
-    Lilly Hitchcock, 443.
-
-    Limber, 424, 426.
-
-    Limber Jack, 359.
-
-    Lincoln, President, 64.
-
-    Lindsay’s Arabian, 93, 94, 132.
-
-    Lindsay, Captain, 94.
-
-    Linsley, Mr., 368, 376.
-
-    Little Albert, 294.
-
-    Little Brown Jug, 360.
-
-    Little Gipsey, 359.
-
-    Lizzie (by John Netherland), 360.
-
-    Lizzie M., 482.
-
-    Loder, G. B., 352.
-
-    Loder, Lewis, 352.
-
-    Logan, Thomas, 322.
-
-    Long Island Black Hawk, History of, 282, 327, 331.
-
-    Longstreet, Dr., 334.
-
-    Loomis Brothers, 361.
-
-    Lord Grosvenor, 448.
-
-    Lord Nelson, 311.
-
-    Lord Russell, Pedigree of, 420-431, 434.
-
-    Lord Russell, 344, 429.
-
-    Louis Napoleon, 303.
-
-    Love, Joel F., 295.
-
-    Lovejoy, Mr., 328.
-
-    Lovelace, Governor, 122.
-
-    Lucas, John, 358.
-
-    Lucas, Le Grand, 529.
-
-    Lucia, 309.
-
-    Luckett, Benjamin, 420, 421, 422, 423.
-
-    Lucy, 286, 308, 309, 335, 502.
-
-    Lucy Fowler, 451, 452.
-
-    Lula, 350, 493.
-
-    Lula Wilkes, 493.
-
-    Lumps, 288.
-
-    Luthy, Prof. Charles T., 557.
-
-    Lynne Belle, 294.
-
-    Lyons, Captain, 369.
-
-
-    M
-
-    McDonald, William, 365.
-
-    McDowell, H. C., 304, 524, 526, 527, 528, 529, 531, 533, 552.
-
-    Mace, Dan, 286, 317, 386, 387.
-
-    McFerran, J. C., 526, 527.
-
-    McGrath, Price, 451.
-
-    McKinney, H. D., 557.
-
-    McKinney, Horace, 364.
-
-    McKinstry Mare, 303.
-
-    McLaughlin, Sam, 287.
-
-    Macleod, Leslie E., 404, 557.
-
-    McLoyd, Charles, on the Wild Horse, 200.
-
-    McNitt, Mr., 348, 349.
-
-    McSparran, Rev. Dr., 112, 134, 175, 176, 177, 178.
-
-    Magog Hills (Estate), 73.
-
-    Magnolia, 341.
-
-    Magnum Bonum, 347, 350.
-
-    Mag Taylor, 313.
-
-    Maine Messengers, 515.
-
-    Maine Messenger. (See Winthrop Messenger.)
-
-    Major Edsall, 297.
-
-    Mali, H. W. T., 538, 539, 542.
-
-    Mambrino, 316, 344, 399, 400, 487, 557.
-
-    Mambrino Chief, 20, 21, 261, 350, 418.
-
-    Mambrino Chief and His Family, 315-320.
-
-    Mambrino Chief Jr., 318.
-
-    Mambrino (English), 19, 20, 213, 214, 215.
-
-    Mambrino (Grey), 248.
-
-    Mambrino, History of, 235-237.
-
-    Mambrino Jr., 261.
-
-    Mambrino Messenger, 261.
-
-    Mambrino Patchen, 318, 319.
-
-    Mambrino Paymaster, 20, 237, 251, 259, 261, 315.
-
-    Mambrino Pilot, 318, 319.
-
-    Mambrino Russell, 344.
-
-    Mambritonian, 300.
-
-    Manetho, Egyptian Historian, 37.
-
-    Mannol, 26.
-
-    Manzanita, 292.
-
-    Maria Russell, 420-431.
-
-    Marion’s Guerrillas, 295, 296.
-
-    Maritime Provinces (Canada), 152.
-
-    “Mark Field,” 557.
-
-    Markham Arabian, 57-70, 80, 163, 167.
-
-    Markham, John, 57, 70, 80.
-
-    Markham, Gervaise, 80, 160, 161, 170, 175, 192.
-
-    Marksman, 301.
-
-    Marquis of Cholmondeley, 76.
-
-    Marrett, W. H., 557.
-
-    Marsh’s Primal Horse, 197.
-
-    Marsh, Professor, of Yale, 197.
-
-    Marshall or Selaby Turk, 69.
-
-    Marshall, Mr., Studmaster, etc., 69.
-
-    Marshland Shales, 403.
-
-    Marvin, Charles, 291, 292, 357.
-
-    Mary Bell, 422.
-
-    Mary Churchill, 422, 425.
-
-    Mary Gray (Imported), 96.
-
-    Mary Morris, 439.
-
-    Maryland, 15.
-
-    Maryland, Colonial Horse History, 139.
-
-    Maryland, Racing Prohibited, 15, 139.
-
-    Mason, John T., 358.
-
-    Maspero, Professor, 37, 39.
-
-    Massachusetts, Colonial Horse History, 128-131.
-
-    Masterlode, 275-311.
-
-    Mathes, Albert, 377.
-
-    Matthews, W. A., 335.
-
-    Matlack, T., 179.
-
-    Mattie Howard, 482.
-
-    Maud S., 300, 305, 457, 458, 477, 487, 499.
-
-    Maud S., Pedigree of, 420-431.
-
-    May Day (by Miles Standish), 356.
-
-    May Fly, 311.
-
-    May Morning, 355.
-
-    May Queen, 350, 356.
-
-    Meander, 300.
-
-    Mecklenburg Horses, 391.
-
-    Media, 2, 30, 32.
-
-    Median Horses, 29, 30, 33, 34.
-
-    Medoc, 449.
-
-    Merring, Mr., 352.
-
-    Messenger (Imported), History of, 222-231.
-
-    Messenger and His Ancestors, 205-221.
-
-    Messenger’s Descendants, 255.
-
-    Messenger, Description of, 226, 227.
-
-    Messenger as a Race-Horse, 222.
-
-    Messenger’s Stud Services, 229, 230.
-
-    Messenger’s Sons, 232-254.
-
-    Messenger, (Imported), Reference to, 18, 19, 316, 323, 327,
-    332, 338, 344, 348, 349, 357, 361, 362, 399, 417, 457, 459.
-
-    “Messenger,” (the name abused), 254.
-
-    Messenger (Austin’s), 249.
-
-    Messenger (Blauvelt’s), 250.
-
-    Messenger (Bush’s), History of, 243-245.
-
-    Messenger (Coffin’s), 261.
-
-    Messenger (Cooper’s), 253.
-
-    Messenger (Cousins’), 250.
-
-    Messenger (Hutchinson’s), 253.
-
-    Messenger (Nesthall’s), 146.
-
-    Messenger (Ogden’s), 361.
-
-    Messenger (Pizzant’s), 249.
-
-    Messenger (Simpson’s), 364.
-
-    Messenger (Stone’s), 364.
-
-    Messenger’s Runningbred Contemporaries, 220.
-
-    Messenger Duroc, 275-289.
-
-    Messenger Duroc (Backman’s), 310, 311.
-
-    Messenger Duroc (Durland’s), 414.
-
-    Messenger Duroc (Laurence’s), 308.
-
-    Messenger Duroc (Stevens’), 315.
-
-    Middletown, 275.
-
-    Miland, Colonel, 243.
-
-    Miller, Guy, 270, 414.
-
-    Miller, James, 295.
-
-    Miller’s Damsel, 233, 246, 248, 251.
-
-    Millington, Dr., 244.
-
-    Mills, James M., 311, 349.
-
-    Mills, Joseph T., 348.
-
-    Minchin, John, 308.
-
-    Mingo, 339.
-
-    Minor Families, 21.
-
-    Miss Hervey, 397.
-
-    Miss McLeod, 311.
-
-    Miss Russell, 299, 300, 344, 420, 431.
-
-    Miss Shepherd, 423.
-
-    Mittendorf, Prof. Von, 393.
-
-    Modesty, 264.
-
-    Mohammed, 4.
-
-    Mohammed, Flight from Mecca, etc., 53, 54, 55, 56, 57.
-
-    Mohammed’s Mares, 54.
-
-    Mohammedanism in Northern Africa, 47.
-
-    Mohawk, 327.
-
-    Monaco, 300.
-
-    Monkey (Imported), 95.
-
-    Monroe, “Jim,” 295.
-
-    Montaigne, 465.
-
-    Moore, Hon. Ely, 326.
-
-    Moore, R. H., 360.
-
-    Moore, T. D., 359.
-
-    Moors, 46.
-
-    Morden, Isaac, 146, 147, 149.
-
-    Morgan Family, 366-389.
-
-    Morgan Horse, The, 482, 515.
-
-    Morgan Tiger, 265.
-
-    Morgan, Abner, 367.
-
-    Morgan, John, 372.
-
-    Morgan, John, Jr., 367, 369.
-
-    Morgan, Mr., 321.
-
-    Morris, Lewis, 235, 236.
-
-    Morris Family, Turfmen, 125.
-
-    Morris, George F., Artist, 556.
-
-    Morrissey, John, 286, 388.
-
-    Morse, Calvin, 349.
-
-    Morse Horse (Norman), 348, 350, 378.
-
-    Morton, Earl of, 465, 466, 467, 468.
-
-    Mound Builders, 199.
-
-    Mount Ararat, 28, 32.
-
-    Mount Holly, 250.
-
-    Mozza, 348.
-
-    Muley, Ishmael, King of Morocco, 69.
-
-    Munger, Frank. (See Royal George.)
-
-    Munger, William, 364.
-
-    Munson, Isaac, 262, 263, 264.
-
-    Munson Mare, 235.
-
-    Muir, William, Historian, 53.
-
-    Murray, Dr. J. H., 74.
-
-    Murrier, D., English Artist, 77, 78.
-
-    Music’s Dam, 502.
-
-    Mustang, The, 204.
-
-
-    N
-
-    Nancy, 355.
-
-    Nancy Dawson, 361.
-
-    Nancy Hanks, 247, 307.
-
-    Nancy Pope, 342, 343, 417.
-
-    Nancy Taylor, 342, 343, 417.
-
-    Narragansett Pacers, 12, 13, 14, 126, 127, 133, 134, 173-182.
-
-    National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, 517, 518, 519,
-    520, 527, 552, 553, 554.
-
-    National Horse Show, 406, 407, 408.
-
-    National Trotting Association, 533, 534.
-
-    Native British Horses, 164, 165, 166.
-
-    Native English Race Horses, 82, 86, 96, 105, 106.
-
-    “Natural History of Man,” 472.
-
-    Neapolitan Horses, 81-168.
-
-    Nelson, 357.
-
-    Nelson, C. H., 357.
-
-    Nestor, 250.
-
-    Nettie Burlew, 346.
-
-    New Amsterdam (New York), 122.
-
-    New Brunswick, 153.
-
-    Newcastle, Duke of, 57, 58, 70, 80, 81, 87, 92, 162, 167, 170.
-
-    New England, Colonial Horse History, 12, 128-134.
-
-    New Jersey, Colonial Horse History, 138, 139.
-
-    New Jersey, Racing Prohibited, 14, 15.
-
-    Newmarket, The American, 90, 91, 122.
-
-    New Netherlands, 11.
-
-    New York, Colonial Horse History, 120-127.
-
-    New York, First Horses of, 120, 121, 123.
-
-    New York the Source of Supply of Trotting Blood, 515.
-
-    Nicolls, Governor, Establishes Racing, 12, 122.
-
-    Nichols, Mr., 474.
-
-    Night Hawk, 347.
-
-    Niles, Stephen, 148, 149.
-
-    Nissæum, Horses of, 30, 34, 50.
-
-    Noble, Henry D., 262.
-
-    Nonpareil, 327.
-
-    Norfolk Trotters, 76, 169, 398, 400.
-
-    Norlaine, 292.
-
-    Norman (Alexander’s), 350, 417, 418.
-
-    Norman Family, 348-351.
-
-    Norman. (See Morse Horse.)
-
-    Norseman, 79.
-
-    North American, 309, 312, 313.
-
-    North Carolina, Colonial Horse History, 139, 140.
-
-    Northern Africans, 46, 47.
-
-    “Northern Kings,” Horses of, 29, 30.
-
-    Northern Syria, 38, 39.
-
-    Norton, Selah, 369, 370, 371, 375.
-
-    Norval, 293, 294.
-
-    Nova Scotia, 153.
-
-    Norwegian Horses, 165, 473.
-
-    Nubian Horses, 31.
-
-    Numidian Cavalry, Hannibal’s, 45.
-
-    Nutwood, 298, 300, 344, 493.
-
-    Nutwood, Pedigree of, 420-431.
-
-
-    O
-
-    O’Blennis, 325.
-
-    Odom, Eli, 451, 452.
-
-    Ogden, Judge David, 247, 248.
-
-    Ogden Messenger, 247.
-
-    Ohio Farmer, 352.
-
-    Old Columbus, 151.
-
-    Old Drew. (See Drew Horse.)
-
-    “Old Duroc,” 437.
-
-    Old Jane, 346.
-
-    “Old Keokuk.” (See Keokuk.)
-
-    Old March, 360.
-
-    “Old Narragansett,” 498.
-
-    Old Pilot. (See Pacing Pilot.)
-
-    Old St. Lawrence, 151.
-
-    Old Shales. (See Shales.)
-
-    Old Sorrel. 308.
-
-    “Old” Spirit of the Times, 99-101.
-
-    Old Telegraph, 454, 455.
-
-    Old Theories of Breeding, 510.
-
-    Old Togue. (See Hiatoga.)
-
-    “Old Turfman” (C. R. Colden), 98.
-
-    Oliver, Joseph, 330, 331.
-
-    Oliver, Judge M. W., 557.
-
-    One Eye, 21, 235, 267, 277, 278, 281, 399.
-
-    Oneida Chief, 361.
-
-    Oneness of Trotting and Pacing Gaits, 498, 499.
-
-    Oneness of Trot and Pace, 155,156,184,185, 186.
-
-    Onward, 288.
-
-    Origin of American Race Horse, 92, 96, 105, 106.
-
-    Origin of English Race Horse, 86-92, 105, 106.
-
-    Origin and History of the Standard, 518-524.
-
-    Original Habitat of the Horse, 2, 24-35.
-
-    Orloff, Count Alexis, 391, 395.
-
-    Orloff Trotter, The, 390-397.
-
-    Orser, Sheriff, 328.
-
-    Osborne, Lord Francis Godolphin, 76.
-
-    Ott, Almeron, 346.
-
-    “O. W. C.,” 557.
-
-
-    P
-
-    Pace, The, 161-189.
-
-    Pace and Trot, Varieties of One-Gait, 155, 156, 184, 185, 186.
-
-    Pacer of Canada, 142, 143, 151, 152, 153.
-
-    Pacer, The, in Relation to Trotter, 172-189.
-
-    Pacers in Colonial Period, 14, 116, 126, 118, 137.
-
-    Pacers, Early American, 112, 126, 127, 131, 132, 133, 134, 138,
-    139, 141.
-
-    Pacers, English, 84, 85, 86, 157-171.
-
-    Pacers, Last in Britain, 410.
-
-    Pacers of Rhode Island, 173-182.
-
-    Pacers in Russia, 392, 393, 394.
-
-    Pacing Ancestry of Saddle Horse, 191.
-
-    Pacing Gaits, Mechanism of, 154-156, 184, 185, 186.
-
-    Pacing Horse, History and Antiquity of, 154-174.
-
-    Pacing Pilot, 152, 195, 299, 316, 343, 416, 417.
-
-    Pacing Pilot, History of, 341-343.
-
-    Pacing and Trotting, Oneness of, 17, 498, 499.
-
-    Packer, L. D., 536, 539, 542.
-
-    Paddy, 377.
-
-    Palgrave, Historian, 52.
-
-    Palo Alto Farm, 289, 291, 293, 294, 491, 492, 501, 503, 504,
-    505.
-
-    Parris Horse, 265.
-
-    Parthenon at Athens, Frieze of, 16, 156.
-
-    Pasacas, 299.
-
-    Patchen, George M., 329, 331.
-
-    Paul, 290.
-
-    Paul Pry, 250, 251.
-
-    Peabody, Warren, 295.
-
-    Peacock, 348, 349.
-
-    Pearce, Edmund, 342.
-
-    Pearl, 322.
-
-    Pease, Mark, 363.
-
-    Peck, Harvey W., 557.
-
-    Pedigree of American Eclipse, 446.
-
-    Pedigree of Alexander’s Norman, 417.
-
-    Pedigree of Bay Chief, 418.
-
-    Pedigree of Black Rose, 419.
-
-    Pedigree of George Wilkes, 454.
-
-    Pedigree of Hambletonian, 267.
-
-    Pedigree of Lord Russell, 420-431.
-
-    Pedigree of Maud S., 420-431.
-
-    Pedigree of Messenger, 205-221.
-
-    Pedigree of Miss Russell, 420-431.
-
-    Pedigree of Nutwood, 420-431.
-
-    Pedigree of Pilot Jr., 410, 417.
-
-    Pedigree of Sully Russell, 420-431.
-
-    Pedigree of Sunol, 438-446.
-
-    Pedigree of Tippoo, 145-147.
-
-    Pedigree of Waxana, 438-446.
-
-    Pedigrees, Early Fictions, 8.
-
-    Pedigrees, Early Frauds in, 96, 97, 100, 101.
-
-    Pedigrees, Investigation of, 22, 409-455.
-
-    Pelham, 498.
-
-    Penn, William, Arrival of, 14, 135.
-
-    Pennsylvania, Colonial Horse History, 135-138.
-
-    Pepper, Col. R. P., 397, 421.
-
-    Perkins, Mark D., 328.
-
-    Perry, Alvah, 365.
-
-    Persian Horses, 49, 50, 391, 468.
-
-    Pet, 325.
-
-    Peyton, Balie, 486.
-
-    Pfifer, Dan, 335.
-
-    Phallas, 305.
-
-    Phallamont, 305.
-
-    Pheasant, 232.
-
-    Phidias, Greek Sculptor, 16, 156.
-
-    Philadelphia, Early Pacing at, 179.
-
-    Philips, Clark, 454, 455.
-
-    Philips, E. V., 454.
-
-    Philips, Josiah, 453.
-
-    Philostorgius, 27, 39, 42, 95.
-
-    Phœnicia. (See Phœnician Merchants.)
-
-    Phœnician Merchants, 4, 33, 35, 38, 39, 40-48, 79, 185.
-
-    Photius, Early Writer, 27, 42.
-
-    Pick’s Turf Register, 83, 84, 214, 215, 216.
-
-    Pictures of Horses, First Correct, 556.
-
-    Piedmont, 299.
-
-    Pierce, Abraham, 356.
-
-    Pilot Family, 343, 344.
-
-    Pilot Jr., 274, 309, 316, 416, 417, 458, 463.
-
-    Pilot, Pacing, 195.
-
-    “Pinafore Standard,” (See Kentucky Standard.)
-
-    Pixley, 309.
-
-    Place’s White Turk, 68.
-
-    Plato, 251.
-
-    Plow Boy, 327.
-
-    Plutarch, 465.
-
-    Pocahontas, 355-358, 414.
-
-    Pocahontas (Young), 355.
-
-    Polk Brothers, 359.
-
-    Polkan (Volcan), 392.
-
-    Polonius, 311.
-
-    Polybius, Historian, 45.
-
-    Polydore Virgil, 165, 170.
-
-    Pope Mare, 297.
-
-    Porter Colt. (See Daniel Lambert.)
-
-    Porter, John, 389.
-
-    Porter, Judge J., 245.
-
-    Porter’s _Spirit of the Times_, 99.
-
-    Porter, William T., 98, 99, 235, 259, 344, 437.
-
-    Portia, 493.
-
-    Port Royal, N. S., Raid on, 142.
-
-    Portraits of Horses, First Correct, 556.
-
-    Pot8os, 447.
-
-    Potomac (by Messenger), 245.
-
-    Pray Colt, 279.
-
-    Pray, Ebenezer, 278, 280.
-
-    Pratt, John, 216, 222, 223.
-
-    Primal Horse, The, 18, 195-197.
-
-    Prince, 437.
-
-    Prince Edward Island, 153.
-
-    Prince of Wales’ Arabian Horses, 60.
-
-    Princeps, 319.
-
-    Princess, 235, 243, 266, 306, 307.
-
-    Pritchard, Dr., 472.
-
-    “Privateer,” 555.
-
-    Prophet’s Mares, The, 54, 55, 56.
-
-    Pruden, James, 353.
-
-    Purchas, Samuel, 166.
-
-    Puett, Mr., 435.
-
-    Purposes of Kentucky Standard, 524, 525, 526.
-
-
-    Q
-
-    Quagga Story, 465.
-
-    Quaker Lass, 253.
-
-    Quarter Racing, Colonial, 115.
-
-    Queen Ann, 243.
-
-    Queen Mary, 528, 552.
-
-    Queen of Sheba, Visit to Solomon, 40, 42.
-
-    Queen (dam of Blue Bull), 353.
-
-    Quimby, David, 364.
-
-
-    R
-
-    Race Horse. The American, 90-107.
-
-    Race Horse, The English, 67-89.
-
-    Race Horses, Native American, 96.
-
-    Races, Early Colonial Pacing, 177, 178.
-
-    Racing in America, Antiquity of, 90, 91.
-
-    Racing in England, Early, 83.
-
-    Racing, First, in America, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 134.
-
-    Racing, First Established American, 12.
-
-    Racing, First in Virginia, 109, 110, 113.
-
-    Racing Prohibited in Maryland, 138, 139.
-
-    Racing Prohibited in New Jersey, 138.
-
-    Racing Prohibited in Pennsylvania, 136.
-
-    Racing Register, Bailey’s English, 83.
-
-    Rack, The, 192.
-
-    Ralph Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Randolph, John, 450.
-
-    Ranger (Lindsay’s Arabian), 94.
-
-    Rattler, 157, 420, 422, 473.
-
-    Raudenbush, George W., 310.
-
-    Ray, John P., 454, 455, 557.
-
-    Raynor Colt, 259, 344.
-
-    Raynor, George, 259, 344.
-
-    Red Bird, 345.
-
-    Red Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Reeder, Dr. George, 475.
-
-    Regan, Joseph, 335.
-
-    Register Association, The American Trotting, 536-545.
-
-    Regulus, 70.
-
-    Regulus Mare and Produce, 206.
-
-    Relf, C. P., 319.
-
-    Remington Horse, 235, 262, 264.
-
-    Reynolds, Edward, 244.
-
-    Reynolds, G. U., 326.
-
-    Rhode Island. Colonial Horse History. 133, 134.
-
-    Rhode Island Pacers, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180,
-    181, 182, 286, 309, 313.
-
-    Rhode Island and Virginia Pacing Races, 177, 178.
-
-    Ribot, Th., 466.
-
-    Rice’s Hiatoga. (See Hiatoga.)
-
-    Rice, Edward, 364, 365.
-
-    Richards, A. Keene, 6, 7, 64, 65, 66, 93.
-
-    Richard, John, Publisher, 99.
-
-    Richards, Richard, 350.
-
-    Ridgeway, Benjamin C., 248.
-
-    Rip Van Dam’s Pacer, 127, 147, 174, 179.
-
-    Rising Sun, 357.
-
-    Rittenhouse, David, 365.
-
-    Robert Fillingham (George Wilkes), 285.
-
-    Robert J., 306, 309.
-
-    Robin Gray, 419.
-
-    Robinson, Governor of Rhode Island, 174.
-
-    Rockhill & Brother, 310.
-
-    Rockingham (Imported), 322.
-
-    Rockplanter, 346.
-
-    Roderick, King of Visigoths, 46.
-
-    Rodes, Levi T., 318.
-
-    Roe, Seely C., 271, 383.
-
-    Roebuck, 493.
-
-    “Roland,” 557.
-
-    Romaine, Cyrus, 434, 435, 436.
-
-    Romans in Britain, 79, 80.
-
-    Rosalind, 502.
-
-    Rosalind Wilkes, 313.
-
-    Roulin, Mons., 472, 473.
-
-    Rous, Admiral, 4, 67, 71.
-
-    Roxana, 70, 84, 163, 213.
-
-    Royal George, 150.
-
-    Royal Mares, 58, 68, 82, 84, 410.
-
-    Ruins, Prehistoric American, 199.
-
-    Running Blood in the Trotter, 481-496, 511.
-
-    Running Gait, The, 154-156.
-
-    Russell, Capt. John W., 420-431.
-
-    Russell, Col. H. S., 357.
-
-    Russell, Mr., 350.
-
-    Russian Pacers, 392, 393, 394.
-
-    Rylander, Mr., 238.
-
-    Rynders, Capt. Isaiah, 311, 414.
-
-    Rysdyk, Wm. M., 272, 278, 281, 302, 309, 398, 399.
-
-
-    S
-
-    Sabæans, 42.
-
-    Saddle Gaits, 192, 193, 194.
-
-    Saddle Horse, American and English, 119.
-
-    Saddle Horse, Ancestry of the, 191.
-
-    Saddle Horse, English, 192, 193.
-
-    Saddle Horse Register, 194.
-
-    Saddle Horse, The American, 190-195.
-
-    Saddle Stock, Foundation, 194, 195.
-
-    Sager Horse (Young Sportsman), 149.
-
-    St. Bel, 293.
-
-    St. Hillaire, Geoffrey, 472.
-
-    St. Julien, 302.
-
-    St. Lawrence (Old), 151.
-
-    St. Marks, Venice, Bronze Horses of, 158.
-
-    St. Victor’s Barb, 410.
-
-    Saladin, 321.
-
-    Sale of Wallace Publications, 536-545.
-
-    Salisbury, Monroe, 501.
-
-    Sally Anderson, 297.
-
-    Sally Miller, 325, 327, 328.
-
-    Sally Russell, Pedigree of, 420-431, 458.
-
-    Sally Slouch, 338.
-
-    Saltram, 451.
-
-    Sam Hazzard, 152.
-
-    Sam Purdy, 335, 337.
-
-    Sampson, 19, 209, 211, 212.
-
-    Sanders, James H., 529, 530, 531.
-
-    Sanders’ Trotting Stud Book. (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book.)
-
-    Santa Claus, 310.
-
-    Saracenic Horse. (See Arabs, Turks, Barbs, etc.)
-
-    Saracens, 50.
-
-    Saracens Overthrow Visigoths, 46.
-
-    Saracens in Spain, 473.
-
-    Saratoga, 250.
-
-    Sarpedon, 437.
-
-    Satterwhite, Mr., 441.
-
-    Saunders, H. C., 359.
-
-    Scandinavian Horse, 473.
-
-    Scanlon, James, 333.
-
-    Scape Goat, 147, 149.
-
-    Scobey, Backus & Burlew, 345.
-
-    Scobey, C., 345.
-
-    Scobey’s Black Prince, 346.
-
-    Scobey’s Champion. (See Champion.)
-
-    Scotland, 482.
-
-    Scott, Samuel, 365.
-
-    Scott’s Hiatoga. (See Hiatoga.)
-
-    Scott’s Shales. (See Shales.)
-
-    Screwdriver, 243.
-
-    Seagull, 422, 426.
-
-    Sears, Richard, 307.
-
-    Sedan, Mr., 353.
-
-    Sedley Arabian, 70.
-
-    Seely Abdallah, 283.
-
-    Seely, Daniel, 241.
-
-    Seely, David R., 271.
-
-    Seely, Jonas, Jr., 267, 279, 282, 283.
-
-    Seely, Jonas, Sr., 278, 279, 280.
-
-    Seely, Ebenezer, 280, 283.
-
-    Seely, Edmund, 279, 338, 340.
-
-    Seely, Peter, 279, 399.
-
-    Seely’s American Star. (See American Star.)
-
-    Selaby (or Marshall Turk), 69.
-
-    Seneca Patchen, 336.
-
-    Sentinel, 275, 301.
-
-    Serls, Wilson, 147, 148.
-
-    Services of American Star, 340.
-
-    Services of Hambletonian, 272.
-
-    Services of Messenger, 229-230.
-
-    Seward, W. H., 64.
-
-    Shaftsbury, 253.
-
-    Shales, 401, 402.
-
-    Shanghai Mary, 289, 355, 356, 413.
-
-    Shark, 303.
-
-    Shawhan, John, 358.
-
-    Shawhan’s Tom Hal, 358.
-
-    Shawmut, 301.
-
-    Sheldon V., 146-248.
-
-    Shepherd, Colonel, 422.
-
-    Shepherd, John, 355, 357.
-
-    Shepherd Kings, 36, 37, 39.
-
-    Sherman, B. B., 265.
-
-    Sherman Morgan, 175, 376.
-
-    Sherrill, Louis, 360.
-
-    Shipman, George, 413, 414.
-
-    “Ships of Tarshish.” (See Tarshish.)
-
-    Shiruo, William, 364.
-
-    Shropshire, Benjamin N., 358.
-
-    Shropshire, Mr., Jr., 359.
-
-    Sickles, H. T., 333, 334.
-
-    Sidon, 35.
-
-    Silvertail, 21, 235, 267, 279, 281.
-
-    Simmons, 288.
-
-    Simmons, William L., 286, 287, 453.
-
-    Simmons, Z. E., 285.
-
-    Simpson, Joseph Cairn, 218, 219, 221, 444, 486, 487, 511.
-
-    Singerly, Benjamin, 554.
-
-    Sir Archy, 253, 326, 451, 488.
-
-    Sir Charles, 343, 417.
-
-    Sir Henry, 339, 363.
-
-    Sir Peter, 397.
-
-    Sir Solomon, 246, 251.
-
-    Sir Wallace, 272.
-
-    Sir Walter (by Hickory), 312, 313.
-
-    Sir William, 318.
-
-    Size of Horses, 11, 12, 13, 14, 111, 113, 114, 115, 129, 130,
-    131, 136, 137, 140, 168, 172, 173, 179, 182.
-
-    Skenandoah, 362.
-
-    Skinner, John S., 73, 97, 98, 447.
-
-    Skinner’s Turf Register, etc., 73, 76, 97, 101, 224, 548.
-
-    Slasher, 253.
-
-    Slocum, John N., 350.
-
-    Smetanka, 391, 392, 395, 396.
-
-    Smith, Capt. John W., Pioneer, 142.
-
-    Smith, F. G., 557.
-
-    Smith, H. N., 308, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505.
-
-    Smith, J. F. D., Colonial Writer, 114.
-
-    Smith, Thomas T., 345.
-
-    Smith, William B., 433.
-
-    Smuggler, 308, 357, 358.
-
-    Snap Dragon, 447.
-
-    Snediker, Isaac, 256.
-
-    Sniffin, John, 344.
-
-    Solomon, King, 35, 40, 41, 55.
-
-    Somers, George, Early Pioneer, 109.
-
-    Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah (table), 297.
-
-    Sons of Almont (table), 299.
-
-    Sons of Belmont (table), 300.
-
-    Sons of Electioneer (table), 293.
-
-    Sons of George Wilkes (table), 288.
-
-    Sons of Hambletonian (table), 275.
-
-    Sons and Grandsons of Hambletonian, 284-314.
-
-    Sons of Messenger, 232.
-
-    Sophonisba, 259.
-
-    Sorrel Dapper, 346.
-
-    Sorrel Tom (Shawhan’s Tom Hal), 358.
-
-    South Carolina, Colonial Horse History, 140, 141.
-
-    Sovereign (Imported), 433.
-
-    Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical History, 42.
-
-    Spain, Early Horses, 45, 46. 47.
-
-    Spanish Horses, 81, 173, 174, 175, 202, 203, 204, 376, 472, 473.
-
-    Spanish Jennets, 160, 161, 174, 175.
-
-    Spaulding, Dr., 333.
-
-    Speed of Hambletonian, 271.
-
-    Speed, John, 379.
-
-    Speed of Narragansett Pacers, 176.
-
-    Sphinx, 293.
-
-    Spirit, 344.
-
-    Spirit of the Times, 548, 551, 557.
-
-    Spirit of the Times (Old), 98, 101.
-
-    Spirit of the Times (Porter’s), 98.
-
-    Spirit of the Times (Wilkes’), 98, 99, 530.
-
-    Sprague & Akers, 313.
-
-    Sprague, Hon. Amasa, 313.
-
-    Sprague (Rounds’), 313.
-
-    Squire Talmage, 275.
-
-    Stamboul, 297. 332.
-
-    Stamboul Arabian, 418.
-
-    Stamina, Trotter and Runner, 482, 489, 490.
-
-    Standard, First Suggestion of the, 519.
-
-    Standard, Origin and History, 518-524.
-
-    Standard, The, 542, 544, 545, 552, 553, 554.
-
-    Standard, The Kentucky. (See Kentucky Standard.)
-
-    Standard, The “Pinafore.” (See Kentucky Standard.)
-
-    Stanford, Leland, 291, 463, 464, 492, 493, 501.
-
-    Stanford University, 293.
-
-    Stanley, Colonel, 238.
-
-    Star of Catskill, 341.
-
-    State of Maine, 151.
-
-    Statue of Washington, Union Square, 331.
-
-    Staying Qualities in Trotter and Runner, 482, 489, 490.
-
-    Stearns, Mr., 346.
-
-    Steele, Andrew, 351.
-
-    Steele, Solomon, 368, 373.
-
-    Steiner, J. H., 542.
-
-    Steel, Robert, 307.
-
-    Steinway, 310.
-
-    Stephanides, William (Fitz Stephen), 158.
-
-    Stevens, Robert L., 334.
-
-    Stevens, John Austin, 123.
-
-    Stewart, Robert, 348.
-
-    “S. T. H.,” 555.
-
-    Stockholder Mare, 422.
-
-    Stone, Elijah, 352, 353.
-
-    Stoner, Col. R. G., 309, 501, 505.
-
-    Stoner, Martin, 349.
-
-    Stonyford Stud, 413.
-
-    Stout, Mrs. S. L., 501.
-
-    Strabo. Greek Historian, 2, 27, 31, 33, 39, 41, 42, 43, 95.
-
-    Strader, R. S., 333.
-
-    Strathmore, History of, 275, 309, 313.
-
-    Strype, John, 158.
-
-    Strideaway, 355, 356.
-
-    Stringfield, John K., 428.
-
-    “Structural Incongruity,” 495.
-
-    Strumpet, 125.
-
-    Stubbs, English Artist, 73, 77, 78.
-
-    Stud Book, Breeders’ Trotting. (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud
-    Book.)
-
-    Stud Book, Edgar’s, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104.
-
-    Stud Book, English. (See English Stud Book.)
-
-    Stud Book, Sanders’. (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book.)
-
-    Stud Book, Wallace’s, 101-104.
-
-    Stump (Adams’), 359.
-
-    Subscription Purses, Early, 90.
-
-    Sultan, 297, 332.
-
-    Sutton, Lewis J., 294.
-
-    Sun, The, 557.
-
-    Sunol, Pedigree of, 290, 292, 294, 438-446, 499.
-
-    Surrey, 327, 328.
-
-    Swedish Horses, 165, 172, 473.
-
-    Swedish Horses of Pennsylvania, 137.
-
-    Sweepstakes, 275, 312.
-
-    Swigert, 350.
-
-    Swigert, Daniel, 351.
-
-    Swigert, Philip, 440, 442, 444, 446.
-
-    Swiss Boy, 422.
-
-    Sykes, Mr., 362.
-
-
-    T
-
-    Tables—Founders of Great Trotting Families, 274.
-
-    Tables—Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah, 297.
-
-    Tables—Sons of Almont, 299.
-
-    Tables—Sons of Belmont, 300.
-
-    Tables—Sons of Electioneer. 293.
-
-    Tables—Sons of Hambletonian, 275.
-
-    Tacony, 145, 149.
-
-    Tappan, George, 261.
-
-    Tarshish, Ships of, 4, 33, 44, 49.
-
-    Tattersall, Mr., 447.
-
-    Tattler, 493, 502.
-
-    Taylor, G., on Early New England Horses, 132.
-
-    Taylor, Mr., 422.
-
-    Taylor, Samuel, 345.
-
-    Tefft, Mr., 349.
-
-    Ten Broeck, R., 437.
-
-    Terry, Samuel Hough, 557.
-
-    Texas, 195.
-
-    “The American Roadster,” 449.
-
-    “The Blessing,” Voyage of, 109.
-
-    The Conqueror, 305.
-
-    The King, 288.
-
-    The Moor, 297. 332.
-
-    “The Perfect Horse,” 449.
-
-    Theopholis, 42.
-
-    Thomas, Colonel, 369.
-
-    Thomas Jefferson, 151, 433, 482.
-
-    Thomson, Allen W., 378, 380, 433, 557.
-
-    Thorne, Edwin, 260, 302.
-
-    Thorndale, 297.
-
-    Thoroughbred Blood in the Trotter, 481-496, 511.
-
-    Thoroughbreds, First in America. 95. 96.
-
-    Thoroughbreds, First in New York, 125.
-
-    Thoroughbred Foundations, 511, 513.
-
-    Thoroughbred, The Term, 483, 484, 485, 486, 487, 488
-
-    Thoroughbred, What Constitutes a, 483, 484, 485.
-
-    Thoulouse Barb, 69.
-
-    Thurston, Benjamin, 377.
-
-    Thutmosis I., 29, 36.
-
-    Timoleon. 450, 451, 488.
-
-    “Tin-cup” Records, 506.
-
-    Tippoo (by Messenger), 399.
-
-    Tippo, Canadian Progenitor, 145, 146, 147.
-
-    Tippo Saib, 246, 276, 327.
-
-    Tippo Sultan, 233, 234, 246.
-
-    Titcomb & Waldron, 350.
-
-    “Titmouse Stud Book.” (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book.)
-
-    Togarmah, 28, 29, 32, 33.
-
-    Togarmah, Land of, 49.
-
-    Tom Bowling, 451, 452.
-
-    Tom Hal, 152, 195, 433.
-
-    Tom Hal Family, 358-360.
-
-    Tom Hal (Gray’s), 359.
-
-    Tom Hal Jr. (Gibson’s), 359, 360.
-
-    Tom Hal (Kittrell’s), 359.
-
-    Tom Hal (Lail’s), 358. 359.
-
-    Tom Hal (Shawhan’s), 358.
-
-    Tom Hal (Shropshire’s), 359.
-
-    Tom Patchen, 336.
-
-    Tom Rolfe, 355, 356, 357.
-
-    Tom Teemer, 419.
-
-    Tom Thumb, 281.
-
-    “Tom Titmouse Stud Book.” (See Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book.)
-
-    Tom Titmouse, Pacer, 531, 533.
-
-    Tone, Richard, 333.
-
-    Tone, Thomas, 333.
-
-    Topgallant, 237, 451.
-
-    Torgom, 28.
-
-    Toronto Chief, 151, 433.
-
-    Tracy, Gen. B. F., 553, 557.
-
-    Training of Hambletonian, 271.
-
-    Trajan, Emperor, 43.
-
-    Transfer of Wallace Publications, 536-545.
-
-    “Travels Through the States,” 118.
-
-    Traveler (Imported), 95.
-
-    Traveler (Lloyd’s), 371.
-
-    Traveler (Morton’s), 371.
-
-    Traveler. (See Beautiful Bay.)
-
-    Tredwell, Alfred M., 302.
-
-    Tredwell, John, 255, 256.
-
-    Tredwell Mare, 250, 251.
-
-    Trot and Pace, Varieties of One Gait, 155, 156, 184, 185, 186.
-
-    Trotter in Relation to Pacer, 172-189, 498, 499.
-
-    Trotters in England, 89.
-
-    Trotters in 2:15 List, Breeders of, 501.
-
-    Trotting Gait, Mechanism of, 154-156, 184, 185, 186
-
-    Trotting Horse, How He is Bred, 456.
-
-    Trotting Instinct, 23.
-
-    Trotting Races, Early, 138.
-
-    Trotting Races, First in America, 456, 457.
-
-    Trotting Register, 508, 518, 520, 522, 529, 531.
-
-    Trotting Register Association, The American, 536-545.
-
-    Trotting Register, Enemies Made by, 511, 512, 534, 535, 543,
-    544, 545, 559.
-
-    Trotting Register, Transfer of, 536-545.
-
-    Trouble, 264.
-
-    Troye, Animal Painter, 65.
-
-    True Briton. (See Beautiful Bay.)
-
-    True John, 264.
-
-    Truffle (Imported), 419.
-
-    Trustee (Imported), 334, 452, 481.
-
-    Tucker, Joseph, 262, 263.
-
-    Tulip Hill (Estate), 74.
-
-    Turf Mare. (See Messenger.)
-
-    Turf Papers, Timidity of, 510.
-
-    Turf Papers Too Numerous, 510.
-
-    Turf Register, Pick’s, 83, 84.
-
-    Turk, 411.
-
-    Turk (Bartlett’s), 346.
-
-    Turk (Weddle’s), 346.
-
-    Turks, 81, 82, 85, 168, 391.
-
-    Turks (English Foundation Stock), 68-72.
-
-    Tuscarawas Chief. (See Scott’s Hiatoga.)
-
-    Tuthill, A. T., 347.
-
-    Tweed, James Davis, 365.
-
-    Tweedie, General, 43.
-
-    Twenty-Mile Trotters, 482.
-
-    Twombly, Shade, 377.
-
-    Twombly, Wingate, 380.
-
-    Tyre, 4, 35.
-
-
-    U
-
-    Udell, Colonel, 250.
-
-    Underhill, Judge, 265.
-
-    Underhill, R. C., 302.
-
-    Updike, Mr., Writer, 177.
-
-    Upton, Major, 26, 54.
-
-    Useful Cub, 401, 402.
-
-    Utica, Algeria, 44.
-
-    Utter Horse, 311.
-
-    Uz, Land of, 40.
-
-
-    V
-
-    Vail, Thomas J., 433, 434.
-
-    Valentine, Native English Runner, 80.
-
-    Van Buren, President, 64.
-
-    Van Cortland, A., 332.
-
-    Van Cott, W. H., 345.
-
-    Vanderbilt, Commodore, 279.
-
-    Van der Donck’s Description of New Netherlands, 121.
-
-    Van Kirk, John S., 347.
-
-    Van Ranst, C. W., 224, 229, 246.
-
-    Vanvliet, Daniel, 437.
-
-    Van Wyck, Z. B., 330.
-
-    Vatican, 300.
-
-    Veech, R. S., 303, 310, 318, 419, 420, 424, 501, 526, 527.
-
-    Velocity, 397.
-
-    Vergennes Black Hawk, 313.
-
-    Vermont, 264.
-
-    Vermont Black Hawk. (See Black Hawk.)
-
-    Vernon Arabian, 70.
-
-    Viatka Horses (Russian), 393, 394.
-
-    Victor Bismarck, 275.
-
-    Virginia, 8, 9, 10, 11.
-
-    Virginia, Beverley’s History of, 111.
-
-    Virginia, Colonial Horse History, 108-119.
-
-    Virginia, First Importations to, 109, 110, 116, 117.
-
-    Virginia, First Racing in, 91.
-
-    Virginia, First Settlement of, 108.
-
-    Virginia and Rhode Island Pacing Races, 177, 178.
-
-    Virgo, 311.
-
-    Visigoths and Saracens, 46.
-
-    “Vision,” 557.
-
-    Vixen, 68.
-
-    Volcan. (See Polkan.)
-
-    Voltaire, 493.
-
-    Volunteer, History of, 275, 301, 313.
-
-    Von Mittendorf, Professor, 393.
-
-
-    W
-
-    Wadsworth, General, 328, 453.
-
-    Wagner, 432.
-
-    Walk, Mechanism of the, 154-156.
-
-    Walker Horse, 437.
-
-    Walker, J. H., 310.
-
-    Wallace, Gen. Lew., 66.
-
-    Wallace, John H., 528, 547-559.
-
-    Wallace Publications, History of, 547-559.
-
-    Wallace Publications, Transfer of, 536-545.
-
-    Wallace’s American Stud Book, History of, 548, 549.
-
-    Wallace’s American Trotting Register, History of, 550-554.
-
-    Wallace’s Monthly, 74, 111, 132, 169, 218, 233, 256, 275, 294.
-    295, 356, 415, 423, 428, 453, 483, 519-525, 527-531.
-
-    Wallace’s Monthly, History of, 554-557.
-
-    Wallace’s Year-Book, History of, 557-559.
-
-    Walpole, Sir Robert, 76.
-
-    Wapsie, 252.
-
-    Ward, Mr., 368, 371, 375.
-
-    Warlock, 300.
-
-    Warrior (Black Warrior), 149, 150.
-
-    Washington, 322.
-
-    Washington Statue, Union Square, 331.
-
-    Waterloo, 300.
-
-    Waterwitch, 514.
-
-    Watkins, Julius, 361.
-
-    Watson, John F., 126, 179, 180.
-
-    Watt, Joseph, 365.
-
-    Waxana, Pedigree of, 438-446.
-
-    Waxy (grandam of Sunol), 438-446.
-
-    Weatherby, Mr.. Compiler of English Stud Book, 71, 83, 84, 87,
-    88, 106, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217.
-
-    Weaver, John, 324.
-
-    Webster (by Medoc), 319.
-
-    Wedgewood, 300.
-
-    Weights, First Use of, 157, 473.
-
-    Weisiger, Mr., 436.
-
-    Weismann, Professor, 471.
-
-    Welch, Aristides, 309.
-
-    Welch, John P., 438, 439, 440, 442, 444, 445, 446.
-
-    Welch, Samuel, 361.
-
-    Wesley Grey, 70.
-
-    West, Col. R., 297, 304, 310, 311, 358, 526, 527.
-
-    Western Asia, 30, 32.
-
-    Western Girl, 502.
-
-    Whelan, William, 320, 437, 481.
-
-    Whip (Cannon’s), 419.
-
-    Whip (Cumming’s), 359.
-
-    Whisky Jane, 336, 337.
-
-    Whitehall, 309, 313.
-
-    Whitney, Frank, Artist, 556.
-
-    Whynot, 323, 410.
-
-    Whynot Messenger, 249.
-
-    Whyte, Mr., English Author, 159.
-
-    Wickham, Mr., 450, 451.
-
-    Widow Machree, 311, 414.
-
-    Wilcox, Isaiah, 266.
-
-    Wilcox Mare, 266, 306.
-
-    Wilcox, Mr., 149.
-
-    Wildair, 451.
-
-    Wildair Mare, 450.
-
-    Wild Deer, 149.
-
-    Wild Horses of America, 196-204.
-
-    Wild Horses of Arabia, 26.
-
-    Wild Wagoner, 336.
-
-    Wiley, John, 365.
-
-    Wilkes Boy, 288.
-
-    Wilkie Collins, 288.
-
-    Wilkes (Mr.), George, 99.
-
-    Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times, 99.
-
-    Wilkins, Richard, 249.
-
-    William (Imported), 432.
-
-    William Hunter Mare, 357.
-
-    Williams, C. W., 501.
-
-    Williams, G. T., 315.
-
-    Williams, John, 434, 435, 436.
-
-    Williams, John, Jr., 348.
-
-    Williams, Mr. (Owner of Godolphin Arabian), 73.
-
-    Williams, Roger, 13, 133.
-
-    Williams’ Turk, Sir J., 69.
-
-    Williams, Warren, 315.
-
-    Wilson, James, 352.
-
-    Wilson, Sir R., 31.
-
-    Wilson, William H., 491, 501, 505.
-
-    Wilson’s Blue Bull. (See Blue Bull.)
-
-    Wilton, 288.
-
-    Winthrop, 364.
-
-    Winthrop Messenger, 20, 363, 481.
-
-    Winthrop Messenger, History of, 237-241.
-
-    Wiser, Hon. J. P., 147.
-
-    Withers, Gen. William T., 297, 304, 307, 312, 333.
-
-    Woodburn Farm, 300, 350, 415, 416, 420-431, 516-532.
-
-    Wood, W. H., 271.
-
-    Woodford, 319.
-
-    Woodford Mambrino, 318, 319.
-
-    Woodford Wilkes, 288.
-
-    Woodmansee, L. D., 355, 357.
-
-    Woodnut, H. C., 304.
-
-    Woodpecker, 437.
-
-    Woodruff, George, 334, 325.
-
-    Woodruff, Hiram, 326, 346, 481.
-
-    Woodward, S. B., 382, 383.
-
-    Woodward, William, 443. 444.
-
-    Wootton, English Artist, 76, 77.
-
-    Worden, Mr., 437.
-
-    Wyllis, Colonel, 94.
-
-
-    Y
-
-    “Yah Amerikanski,” 555.
-
-    Yates, L. E., 364.
-
-    Year-Book, Transfer of, 536-545.
-
-    Yemen, 2, 28, 55.
-
-    Yemen (see also Arabia), 40, 42, 43.
-
-    Youatt on the Pace, 170, 171.
-
-    Young Andrew Jackson, 327.
-
-    Young Bashaw, 321, 322, 327, 336.
-
-    Young Bay Kentucky Hunter, 368.
-
-    Young Bulrock, 375.
-
-    Young Commander, 243, 357.
-
-    Young Conqueror, 360.
-
-    Young, Daniel, 245.
-
-    Young Eclipse (Sherman’s), 347.
-
-    Young Engineer, 357.
-
-    Young, George A., 283.
-
-    Young Jim, 288.
-
-    Young Morrill, 357.
-
-    Young One Eye, 278, 279.
-
-    Young Patriot, 301.
-
-    Young Pocahontas (2:26¾), 355, 356.
-
-    Young Portia, 493.
-
-    Young Rolfe, 357.
-
-    Young Selim, 353.
-
-    Young Sportsman (Sager Horse), 149.
-
-    Young Wilkes, 288.
-
-
-    Z
-
-    Zachary Taylor, 241.
-
-
-
-
-
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Horse of America in his Derivation,
-History, and Development, by John H. Wallace
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Horse of America in his Derivation, History, and Development
-
-Author: John H. Wallace
-
-Release Date: August 18, 2020 [EBook #62972]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HORSE OF AMERICA ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus1">
-<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">JOHN H. WALLACE.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="smaller">THE</span><br />
-<span class="larger">HORSE OF AMERICA</span><br />
-<span class="smaller smcap">in his<br />
-Derivation, History, and Development.</span></p>
-
-<p class="titlepage smaller">TRACING HIS ANCESTORS, BY THE AID OF MUCH NEWLY DISCOVERED DATA,<br />
-THROUGH ALL THE AGES FROM THE FIRST DAWNINGS<br />
-OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY.</p>
-
-<p class="center smaller">INCLUDING THE HORSES OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD, HITHERTO UNEXPLORED,<br />
-GIVING THEIR HISTORY, SIZE, GAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS<br />
-IN EACH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES.</p>
-
-<p class="center smaller">SHOWING HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED, TOGETHER WITH A HISTORY<br />
-OF THE PUBLICATIONS THROUGH WHICH THE BREED<br />
-OF TROTTERS WAS ESTABLISHED.</p>
-
-<p class="titlepage"><i><span class="smcap">With Maps and Illustrations.</span></i></p>
-
-<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br />
-JOHN H. WALLACE,<br />
-<span class="smaller"><i>Founder of “Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” “Wallace’s Monthly,”<br />
-“Wallace’s Year Book,” etc.</i></span></p>
-
-<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">NEW YORK:</span><br />
-PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.<br />
-1897.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>[ii]</span></p>
-
-<p class="titlepage smaller">Entered according to act of Congress, by<br />
-JOHN H. WALLACE,<br />
-in the year 1897, at Washington, D. C.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">PREFACE.</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The study of the Horse, from the first glimmerings of history,
-sacred and profane, and tracing him from his original home through
-his migrations until all the peoples of the globe had received their
-initial supply, may not be a new idea, but it is certainly a new
-undertaking. Horse Books without number have been written,
-mostly in the century just closing, but in the history of the horse
-they are all alike—merely reproductions of what had been printed
-before. So far as my knowledge goes, therefore, this volume is the
-first attempt, in any language, to determine the original habitat of
-the horse and to trace him, historically, in his distribution.</p>
-
-<p>The facts presented touching the introduction of the horse into
-Egypt, and two thousand years later into Arabia, as well as the
-plebeian blood from which the English race horse has derived his
-great speed, will be a shock to the nerves of the romanticists of the
-old world as well as the new. Taking the facts of history and
-well-known experiences together, my readers can determine for
-themselves whether the claims for the superiority of Arabian blood
-is not pure fiction. For my own part I cannot recognize any blood
-in all horsedom as “royal blood” except that which is found in
-the veins of the horse that “has gone out and done it,” either
-himself or in his progeny.</p>
-
-<p>In our own country there has always remained a blank in horse
-history that nobody has attempted to supply. This blank embraced
-a century of racing of which we of the present generation have
-been entirely ignorant. Believing that a correct knowledge of the
-horse of the Colonial period, in his size, gait, qualities and capacities
-was absolutely essential to an intelligent comprehension of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iv"></a>[iv]</span>
-phenomena presented on our trotting and running courses of the
-present day, I have not hesitated to bestow on this new feature of
-the work great labor and research. In this I have felt a special
-satisfaction in the fact that while the field is old in dates, this is
-the first time it has ever been traversed and considered.</p>
-
-<p>In the chapters which follow, many historical questions are
-treated at such length as their relative importance seems to demand,
-embracing the different families that have contributed to the building
-up of the breed of trotters; and the question of how the trotting
-horse is bred is carefully considered in the light of all past
-experiences and brought down to the close of 1896. These chapters
-will not surprise the old readers of the <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, for
-they will here meet with many thoughts that will not be new to
-them, but they will find them more fully elaborated, in more
-orderly form, and brought down to the latest experiences.</p>
-
-<p>It is not the purpose of this book to furnish statistical tables
-covering the great mass of trotting experiences, nor to consider the
-mysteries of the trainer’s art that have been so ably discussed by experienced
-and skillful men. But the real and only purpose is to
-place upon record the results of years devoted to historical research,
-at home and abroad; to dispel the illusions and humbugs that have
-clustered about the horse for many centuries; and to consider with
-some minuteness, which of necessity cannot be impersonal, the
-great industrial revolution that has been wrought in horse-breeding,
-and all growing out of a little unpretentious treatise written
-twenty-five years ago, which contained nothing more striking than
-a little bit of science and a little bit of sense intelligently commingled.
-The battle between the principles of this treatise and
-selfish prejudices and mental sterility, was long and bitter, but the
-truth prevailed, and in the production of the Driving Horse the
-teachings of that little paper have placed our country first among
-all the nations of the earth.</p>
-
-<p class="right">JOHN H. WALLACE.</p>
-
-<p class="smaller"><span class="smcap">New York: 40 West 93d Street.</span></p>
-
-<p class="smaller"><i>September 1, 1897</i></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[v]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<table class="contents" summary="Contents">
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGES</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER I.<br />INTRODUCTION.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>General View of the Field Traversed</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1-23</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER II.<br />ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>No indications that the horse was originally wild—The steppes of High Asia
-        and Arabia not tenable as his original home—Color not sufficient evidence
-        —Impossibility of horses existing in Arabia in a wild state—No
-        horses in Arabia until 356 A.D.—Large forces of Armenian, Median
-        and Cappadocian cavalry employed more than one thousand seven
-        hundred years B.C.—A breed of white race horses—Special adaptability
-        of the Armenian country to the horse—Armenia a horse-exporting
-        country before the Prophet Ezekiel—Devotion of the Armenian people
-        to agricultural and pastoral pursuits through a period of four thousand
-        years—All the evidences point to ancient Armenia as the center from
-        which the horse was distributed</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">24-35</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER III.<br />EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>First evidences of horses in Egypt about 1700 B.C.—Supported by Egyptian
-        records and history—The Patriarch Job had no horses—Solomon’s
-        great cavalry force organized—Arabia as described by Strabo at
-        the beginning of our era—No horses then in Arabia—Constantius sends
-        two hundred Cappadocian horses into Arabia A.D. 356—Arabia the last
-        country to be supplied with horses—The ancient Phœnician merchants
-        and their colonies—Hannibal’s cavalry forces in the Punic Wars—Distant
-        ramifications of Phœnician trade and colonization—Commerce
-        reached as far as Britain and the Baltic—Probable source of Britain’s
-        earliest horses</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">36-50</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER IV.<br />THE ARABIAN HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The Arabian, the horse of romance—The horse naturally foreign to Arabia
-        —Superiority of the camel for all Arabian needs—Scarcity of horses in
-        Arabia in Mohammed’s time—Various preposterous traditions of Arab
-        horsemanship—The Prophet’s mythical mares—Mohammed not in any
-        sense a horseman—Early English Arabians—the Markham Arabian—The
-        alleged Royal Mares—The Darley Arabian—The Godolphin
-        Arabian—The Prince of Wales’ Arabian race horses—Mr. Blunt’s pilgrimage
-        to the Euphrates—His purchases of so-called Arabians—Deyr<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>[vi]</span>
-        as a great horse market where everything is thoroughbred—Failure of
-        Mr. Blunt’s experiments—Various Arabian horses brought to America
-        —Horses sent to our Presidents—Disastrous experiments of A. Keene
-        Richards—Tendency of Arab romancing from Ben Hur</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">51-66</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER V.<br />THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The real origin of the English race horse in confusion—Full list of the
-        “foundation stock” as given by Mr. Weatherby one hundred years ago—The
-        list complete and embraces all of any note—Admiral Rous’ extravaganza—Godolphin
-        Arabian’s origin wholly unknown—His history—Successful
-        search for his true portrait—Stubbs’ picture a caricature—The
-        true portrait alone supplies all that is known of his origin and
-        blood</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">67-78</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER VI.<br />THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (<i>Continued</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred for different
-        purposes—Markham on the speed of early native horses—Duke of Newcastle
-        on Arabians—His choice of blood to propagate—Size of early
-        English horses—Difficulties about pedigrees in the seventeenth and
-        eighteenth centuries—Early accumulations very trashy—The Galloways
-        and Irish Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The
-        pacers wiped out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">79-89</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER VII.<br />THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Antiquity of American racing—First race course at Hempstead Plain, 1665—Racing
-        in Virginia, 1677—Conditions of early races—Early so-called
-        Arabian importations—The marvelous tradition of Lindsay’s “Arabian”—English
-        race horses first imported about 1750—The old colonial stock
-        as a basis—First American turf literature—Skinner’s <i>American Turf
-        Register and Sporting Magazine</i>, 1829—Cadwallader R. Colden’s
-        <i>Sporting Magazine</i>, short-lived but valuable—The original <i>Spirit of
-        the Times—Porter’s Spirit of the Times—Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times</i>,
-        1859—Edgar’s Stud Book—Wallace’s Stud Book—Bruce’s Stud Book—Their
-        history, methods and value—Summing up results, showing
-        that success has followed breeding to individuals and families that
-        could run and not to individuals and families that could not run, whatever
-        their blood</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">90-107</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER VIII.<br />COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—VIRGINIA.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Hardships of the colonists—First importations of horses—Racing prevalent
-        in the seventeenth century—Exportations and then importations
-        prohibited—Organized horse racing commenced 1677 and became very
-        general—In 1704 there were many wild horses in Virginia and they
-        were hunted as game—The Chincoteague ponies accounted for—Jones
-        on life in Virginia, 1720—Fast early pacers, Galloways and Irish
-        Hobbies—English race horses imported—Moreton’s Traveler probably
-        the first—Quarter racing prevailed on the Carolina border—Average<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span>
-        size and habits of action clearly established—The native pacer thrown
-        in the shade by the imported runner—An Englishman’s prejudices</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">108-119</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER IX.<br />COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of Dutch
-        and English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size of horses—Horses
-        to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands not to run at
-        large—Esopus horse—Surrender to the English, 1664—First organized
-        racing—Dutch horses capable of improvement in speed—First
-        advertised Subscription Plate—First restriction, contestants must “be
-        bred in America”—Great racing and heavy betting—First importations
-        of English running horses—Half-breds to the front—True foundation
-        of American pedigrees—Half-bushel of dollars on a side—Resolutions
-        of the Continental Congress against racing—Withdrawal
-        of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and trotting contests everywhere—Rip
-        Van Dam’s horse and his cost</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">120-127</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER X.<br />COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW ENGLAND.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>First importations to Boston and to Salem—Importations from Holland
-        brought high prices—They were not pacers and not over fourteen
-        hands—In 1640 horses were exported to the West Indies—First American
-        newspaper and first horse advertisement—Average sizes—The
-        different gaits—<span class="smcap">Connecticut</span>, first plantation, 1636—Post horses
-        provided for by law—All horses branded—Sizes and Gaits—An
-        Englishman’s experience with pacers—Lindsay’s Arabian—<span class="smcap">Rhode Island</span>,
-        Founded by Roger Williams, 1636—No direct importations ever made—Horses
-        largely exported to other colonies 1690—Possibly some to
-        Canada—Pacing races a common amusement—Prohibited, 1749—Size
-        of the Narragansetts compared with the Virginians</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">128-134</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XI.<br />COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, MARYLAND, CAROLINA.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s newspaper—Conestoga
-        horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish origin—Acrelius’ statement—<span class="smcap">New
-        Jersey</span>—Branding—Increase of size—Racing, Pacing
-        and Trotting restricted—Maryland—Racing and Pacing restricted
-        1747—Stallions of under size to be shot—<span class="smcap">North Carolina</span>—First
-        settler refugees—<span class="smcap">South Carolina</span>—Size and gait in 1744—Challenges—No
-        running blood in the colony, 1744—General view</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">135-141</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XII.<br />EARLY HORSE HISTORY—CANADA.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Settlement and capture of Port Royal—Early plantations—First French
-        horses brought over 1665—Possibly illicit trading—Sire of “Old
-        Tippoo”—His history—“Scape Goat” and his descendants—Horses of
-        the Maritime Provinces</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">142-153</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</span>CHAPTER XIII.<br />ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The mechanism of the different gaits—The Elgin Marbles—Britain
-        becomes a Roman province—Pacers in the time of the Romans—Bronze
-        horses of Venice—Fitz Stephen, the Monk of Canterbury—Evidence
-        of the Great Seals—What Blundeville says—What Gervaise Markham
-        says—What the Duke of Newcastle says—The amble and the pace
-        one and the same—At the close of Elizabeth’s reign—The Galloways
-        and Hobbies—Extinction of the pacer—The original pacer probably
-        from the North—Polydore Virgil’s evidence—Samuel Purchas’
-        evidence—The process of wiping out the pacer—King James set the
-        fashion—All foreign horses called “Arabians”—The foreigners larger
-        and handsomer—Good roads and wheeled vehicles dispensed with the
-        pacer—Result of prompting Mr. Euren—Mr. Youatt’s blunder—Other
-        English gentlemen not convinced there ever were any pacers</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">154-171</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XIV.<br />THE AMERICAN PACER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE AMERICAN TROTTER.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Regulations against stallions at large—American pacers taken to the West
-        Indies—Narragansett pacers; many foolish and groundless theories
-        about their origin—Dr. McSparran on the speed of the pacer—Mr.
-        Updike’s testimony—Mr. Hazard and Mr. Enoch Lewis—Exchanging
-        meetings with Virginia—Watson’s Annals—Matlack and Acrelius—Rip
-        Van Dam’s horse—Cooper’s evidence—Cause of disappearance—Banished
-        to the frontier—First intimation that the pace and the trot
-        were essentially one gait—How it was received—Analysis of the two
-        gaits—Pelham, Highland Maid, Jay-Eye-See, Blue Bull—The pacer
-        forces himself into publicity—Higher rate of speed—Pacing races very
-        early—Quietly and easily developed—Comes to his speed quickly—His
-        present eminence not permanent—The gamblers carried him there—Will
-        he return to his former obscurity?</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">172-189</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XV.<br />THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The saddle gaits come only from the pacer—Saddle gaits cultivated three
-        hundred years ago—Markham on the saddle gaits—The military seat
-        the best—The unity of the pace and trot—Gaits analyzed—Saddle
-        Horse Register—Saddle horse progenitors—Denmark not a thoroughbred
-        horse</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">190-195</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XVI.<br />THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The romances of fifty years ago—Was the horse indigenous to this country?—The
-        theories of the paleontologists not satisfactory—Pedigrees of
-        over two millions of years too long—Outlines of horses on prehistoric
-        ruins, evidently modern—The linguistic test among the oldest tribes
-        of Indians fails to discover any word for “Horse”—The horses abandoned
-        west of the Mississippi by the followers of De Soto about 1541
-        were the progenitors of the wild horses of the plains</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">196-204</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span>CHAPTER XVII.<br />MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of pedigrees in
-        English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable sources—Messenger’s
-        right male line examined—Flying Childers’ “mile in a minute”—Blaze
-        short of being thoroughbred—Sampson, a good race horse—His
-        size; short in his breeding—Engineer short also—Mambrino was
-        a race horse with at least two pacing crosses; distinguished as a
-        progenitor of coach horses and fast trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot
-        be traced nor identified—Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred
-        he is the only one that founded a family of trotters—This fact
-        conceded by eminent writers in attempting to find others</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">205-221</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XVIII.<br />HISTORY OF MESSENGER.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Messenger’s racing in England—His breeder unknown—Popular uncertainty
-        about the circumstances and date of his importation—The matter
-        settled by his first advertisement—Uncertainty as to his importer—Description
-        of Messenger by David W. Jones, of Long Island—Careful
-        consensus of descriptions by many who had seen Messenger—His
-        great and lasting popularity as a stock horse—Places and prices of his
-        services for twenty years—Death and burial</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">222-231</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XIX.<br />MESSENGER’S SONS.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader R.
-        Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville, N. Y.—Some
-        of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse in appearance—Failure
-        as a runner—Good natural trotter—His most famous sons
-        were Abdallah, Almack, and Mambrino Paymaster—Winthrop or
-        Maine Messenger and his pedigree and history—Engineer and the
-        tricks of his owners—Certainly a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush
-        Messenger, pedigree and description—Noted as the sire of coach
-        horses and trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden
-        Messenger, dam thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot,
-        Saratoga, Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger,
-        Coriander, Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury,
-        Hotspur, Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of
-        the name “Messenger.”</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">232-254</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XX.<br />MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam, Amazonia—Speculations
-        as to her blood—Description of Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the
-        Champion line—Mambrino Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History
-        and pedigree—Mambrino Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s
-        Hambletonian—Andrus’ Hambletonian, sire of the famous
-        Princess, Happy Medium’s dam</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">255-266</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span>CHAPTER XXI.<br />HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s description, and
-        comments thereupon—An analysis of Hambletonian, structurally considered—His
-        carriage and action—As a three-year-old trotter—Details
-        of his stud service—Statistics of the Hambletonian family—History
-        and ancestry of his dam, the Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson,
-        Green’s Bashaw, and his dam</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">267-283</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXII.<br />HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS AND GRANDSONS.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Different opinions as to relative merits of Hambletonian’s greater sons—George
-        Wilkes, his history and pedigree—His performing descendants—History
-        and description of Electioneer—His family—Alexander’s
-        Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and Belmont—Dictator—Harold—Happy
-        Medium and his dam—Jay Gould—Strathmore—Egbert—Aberdeen—Masterlode—Sweepstakes—Governor
-        Sprague,
-        grandson of Hambletonian</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">284-314</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXIII.<br />MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Description and history of Mambrino Chief—The pioneer trotting stallion
-        of Kentucky—Matched against Pilot Jr.—His best sons—Mambrino
-        Patchen, his opportunities and family—Woodford Mambrino, a notable
-        trotter and sire—Princeps—Mambrino Pilot—Clark Chief—Fisk’s
-        Mambrino Chief Jr.—Ericsson</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">315-320</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXIV.<br />THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior individual
-        —His greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter and pacer—His
-        history—His noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island Black
-        Hawk—Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius M. Clay—The
-        various horses named Cassius M. Clay—George M. Patchen—His
-        great turf career—George M. Patchen Jr.—Harry Clay—The Moor,
-        and his son Sultan’s family</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">321-337</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXV.<br />AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding really unknown—A
-        trotter of some merit—His stud career—His daughters noted
-        brood mares—Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing Pilot—History and
-        probable origin—Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training and races—Prepotency—Family
-        statistics summarized—Grinnell’s Champion, son of Almack—His
-        sons and performing descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his
-        sire, the Morse Horse—Swigert and Blackwood</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">338-351</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span>CHAPTER XXVI.<br />THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His family
-        rank—The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom Rolfe—Young
-        Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal Family—The various Tom
-        Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin
-        Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">352-365</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXVII.<br />THE BLACK HAWK, OR MORGAN FAMILY.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original Morgan—The
-        fabled pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin Morgan’s breeding
-        hopelessly unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black Hawk—His disputed
-        paternity—His dam called a Narragansett—Ethan Allen—His great
-        beauty, speed, and popularity—The Flying Morgan claim baseless—His
-        dam of unknown blood—His great race with Dexter—Daniel
-        Lambert, the only successful sire of the Black Hawk line</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">366-389</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXVIII.<br />THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Orloffs, the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis Orloff, founder of
-        the breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff began breeding in 1770—Smetanka,
-        Polkan, and Polkan’s son, Barss, really the first Orloff
-        trotting sire—The Russian pacers—Their great speed—Imported
-        Bellfounder—His history and characteristics—Got little speed—His
-        descendants—The English Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The
-        old Norfolk trotters—Hackney experiments in America—Superiority
-        of the trotting-bred horse demonstrated in show ring contests</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">390-408</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXIX.<br />INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Tendency to misrepresentation—The Bald Galloway and Darley Arabian—Godolphin
-        Arabian—Early experiences with trotting pedigrees—Mr.
-        Backman’s honest methods—Shanghai Mary—Capt. Rynders and
-        Widow Machree—Woodburn Farm and its pedigree methods—Victimized
-        by “horse sharps” and pedigree makers—Alleged pedigree of
-        Pilot Jr. conclusively overthrown—Pedigrees of Edwin Forrest,
-        Norman, Bay Chief and Black Rose—Maud S. pedigree exhaustively
-        considered—Captain John W. Russell never owned the mare Maria
-        Russell—The deadly parallel columns settle it</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">409-431</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXX.<br />INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES (<i>Continued</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree making in
-        that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas Jefferson—True
-        origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts about the old-time
-        gelding Prince—The truth about Waxy, the grandam of Sunol—Remarkable
-        attempts to make a pedigree out of nothing—How “Jim”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xii"></a>[xii]</span>
-        Eoff worked a “tenderfoot”—Pedigree of American Eclipse—Pedigree
-        of Boston—Tom Bowling and Aaron Pennington—Chenery’s Grey
-        Eagle—Pedigree of George Wilkes in doubt</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">432-455</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXXI.<br />HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Early trotting and pacing races—Strains of blood in the first known trotters—The
-        lesson of Maud S.—The genesis of trotting horse literature—The
-        simple study of inheritance—The different forms of heredity—The
-        famous quagga story not sustained—Illustrations in dogs—Heredity
-        of acquired characters and instincts—Development of successive
-        generations necessary—Unequaled collections of statistics—Acquired
-        injuries and unsoundness transmitted</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">456-479</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXXII.<br />HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (<i>Continued</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Trotting speed first supposed to be an accident—Then, that it came from
-        the runner—William Wheelan’s views—Test of powers of endurance—The
-        term “thoroughbred” much abused—Definition of “thoroughbred”—How
-        trotters may be made “thoroughly bred”—How to study
-        pedigrees—Reward offered for the production of a thoroughbred horse
-        that was a natural pacer—The trotter more lasting than the runner—The
-        dam of Palo Alto—Arion as a two-year-old—Only three stallions
-        have been able to get trotters from running-bred mares—“Structural
-        incongruity”—The pacer and trotter inseparable—How to save the trot
-        and reduce the ratio of pacers—Development a necessity—Table proving
-        this proposition—The “tin cup” policy a failure—Woodburn at
-        the wrong end of the procession</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">480-507</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc">CHAPTER XXXIII.<br />HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (<i>Continued</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Breeding the trotter intelligently an industry of modern development—Plethora
-        of turf papers, and their timidity of the truth—The accepted
-        theories, old and new—Failure of the “thoroughbred blood in the
-        trotter” idea—“Thoroughbred foundations,” and the Register—“Like
-        begets like,” the great central truth—Long-continued efforts
-        to breed trotters from runners—New York the original source of
-        supply of trotting blood to all the States—Kentucky’s beginning in
-        breeding trotters—R. A. Alexander, and the founding of Woodburn—The
-        “infallibility” of Woodburn pedigrees—Refusal to enter fictitious
-        crosses in the Register and the results—The genesis and
-        history of the standard—Its objects, effects, and influence—Establishing
-        the breed of trotters—The Kentucky or “Pinafore” standard—Its
-        purposes analyzed—The “Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book” and
-        how it was compiled—Failure and collapse of the Kentucky project—Another
-        unsuccessful attempt to capture the Register—How
-        honest administration of the Register made enemies—The National
-        Breeders’ Association and the Chicago Convention—Detailed history of
-        the sale and transfer of the Register, the events that led up to it,
-        and the results—Personal satisfaction and benefits from the transfer,
-        and the years of rest and congenial study in preparing this book—The
-        end</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">508-546</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="tdc"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</span>APPENDIX.<br />HISTORY OF THE WALLACE PUBLICATIONS.<br /><i>By a Friend of the Author.</i></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mr. Wallace’s early life and education—Removal to Iowa, 1845—Secretary
-        Iowa State Board of Agriculture—Begins work, 1856, on “Wallace’s
-        American Stud Book,” published 1867—Method of gathering pedigrees—Trotting
-        Supplement—Abandons Stud Book, 1870, and devotes exclusive
-        attention to trotting literature—“American Trotting Register,”
-        Vol. I., published in 1871—Vol. II. follows in 1874—The
-        valuable essay on breeding the forerunner of present ideas—Standard
-        adopted 1879—Its history—Battles for control of the “Register”—<i>Wallace’s
-        Monthly</i> founded 1875—Its character, purposes, history,
-        writers, and artists—“Wallace’s Year Book” founded 1885—Great
-        popularity and value—Transfer of the Wallace publications, and their
-        degeneration</td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX">547-559</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<table class="contents" summary="List of illustrations">
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Portrait of the Author</span></td>
-    <td colspan="3" class="tdpg"><a href="#illus1"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Map of Armenia, Cappadocia, Syria, etc.</span></td>
-    <td><i>To face page</i></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus2">24</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Map of Phœnician Colonies and the Mediterranean</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus3">36</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Godolphin Arabian, True Portrait</span></td>
-    <td rowspan="2" class="valign">In one view</td>
-    <td rowspan="2" class="valign center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td rowspan="2" class="valign tdpg"><a href="#illus4">67</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><span class="smcap">Godolphin Arabian, Distorted</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Star Pointer, the Champion Pacer (1:59¼)</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus6">155</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">John R. Gentry, Pacer (2:00½)</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus7">173</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Alix, the Present Champion Trotter (2:03¼)</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus8">255</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Hambletonian (Rysdyk’s)</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus9">267</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">George Wilkes, Son of Hambletonian</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus10">284</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Electioneer, Son of Hambletonian</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus11">289</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Abdallah (Alexander’s), Son of Hambletonian</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus12">294</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Nancy Hanks, by Happy Medium (2:04)</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus13">306</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Ethan Allen, by Vermont Black Hawk</span></td>
-    <td class="center"><span class="ditto">”</span> <span class="ditto">”</span></td>
-    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus14">381</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="center smaller"><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—Nine of the above engravings
-have been reproduced, by permission, from the
-Portfolio issued by <i>The Horse Review</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p>
-
-<h1 class="nobreak">THE HORSE OF AMERICA.</h1>
-
-<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br />
-<span class="smaller">INTRODUCTION.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p class="center">General View of the Field Traversed.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In undertaking to fulfill a promise made years ago, to write a
-history of the American Trotting Horse and his ancestors, I am
-met with the inquiry: What were his ancestors and whence did
-they come? To say that the American Trotter, the phenomenal
-horse of this century, is descended from a certain horse imported
-from England in 1788, does not fully meet the requirements of
-the truth, for there are other and very distinctive elements
-embodied in his inheritance that are not indebted to that particular
-imported horse. In searching for these undefined elements,
-I have found myself in the fields of antiquity, reaching out step
-by step, further and further, until the utmost boundaries of all
-history, sacred and profane, were clearly in view. There I found
-a field that was especially attractive because it was a new field,
-and the relations of the peoples of the earliest ages to their horses
-had never been investigated nor discussed. Having no engagements
-nor necessities to hurry me, the careful exploration of this
-hitherto unknown territory has afforded me very great enjoyment.</p>
-
-<p>As the result of these investigations, the breadth and scope of
-this volume will be greatly widened, touching upon the originals
-of most of the lighter types of horses, and many of the idols of
-the imagination will be demolished. The objective point is the
-history of the Trotting Horse, but before reaching that point we
-must consider the beginnings of, practically, nearly all the varieties
-of horses in the world. The assistance that I may be able
-to gain from modern writers will be very limited, and restricted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span>
-Haicus, the great grandson of Japheth, became the ruler of his
-people. Descending from him, in the direct male line, there
-were five or six long reigns before the dynasty was overthrown
-by the Assyrians. They were largely an agricultural people, and
-the ancient historians have told us they were famous for the
-great numbers and fine quality of the horses they produced. The
-market for their horses, the prophet Ezekiel tells us, was in the
-great commercial city of Tyre, whence they were carried “in the
-ships of Tarshish” by the Phœnician merchants to all portions of
-the known world. Having here reached back to the Noachic
-period and country, with all that this implies, I will leave the
-problem, with the more extended consideration that will be
-given it in the chapter on the general distribution of horses in all
-parts of the commercial world.</p>
-
-<p>Horsemen of average intelligence and writers on the horse,
-oftentimes much below average intelligence in horse matters, all
-seem to unite on the Arabian horse as their fetish, when in fact
-they know nothing about him. The songs of the poets and the
-stories of the novelists have taken the place, in the minds of the
-people of all nations, of solid history and sober experience. When
-a story writer wishes to depict an athletic and daring hero, he
-never fails to mount him upon an “Arab steed,” when some
-blood-curdling adventures are to be disclosed. When Admiral
-Rous, the great racing authority in England, announced some
-years ago, that the English race horse was purely descended from
-the horses of Arabia Deserta, without one drop of plebeian
-blood, all England believed him, and this rash and groundless
-dictum has served all writers as conclusive evidence ever since.
-Now, it is not probable that more than two or at most three per
-cent. of the blood of the English race horse as he stands to-day is
-Arabian blood. The greatness and value of the Arabian horse is
-purely mythical. He has been tested hundreds of times, both on
-the course and in the stud, and in every single instance he has
-proved a failure. This is what all history and experience teach.
-There are but few horses bred in Arabia and there are, comparatively,
-but few there now. From the time of their first introduction
-into Yemen—Arabia Felix—up to the time of Mohammed,
-about two hundred and seventy years, they were still very scarce.
-Mohammed was not a horseman nor a horse breeder, nor is it known
-that he ever mounted a horse but once, and then he had but two
-in his army. When he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca he rode<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span>
-a camel; and when he went the second time in triumph, mounted
-on a camel, he made the requisite number of circuits round the
-holy place, then dismounted and broke the idols that had been
-set up there. Then came the triumphant shout of his followers;
-“There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.”
-Since then, this cry has rung over a thousand battlefields, and
-as I write it is still heard in the homes of the slaughtered Armenians.
-From a great, warlike, and conquering people, the followers
-of Mohammed have degenerated into an aggregation of
-robbers and murderers of defenseless Christians. Since the days
-of Mohammed, horses no doubt have increased in numbers, but
-all modern travelers express their surprise at the small numbers
-they see. The horse is an expensive luxury in Arabia, and none
-but the rich can afford to keep him. He fills no economic place
-in the domestic life of the Arab, for he is never used for any purpose
-except display and robbery. Nobody is able to own a horse
-but the sheiks and a few wealthy men. Nobody would think of
-mounting a horse for a journey, be it long or short. The camel
-fills the place of the horse, the cow and a flock of sheep, all in
-one, and surely the Arabs are right in saying, “Job’s beast is a
-monument of God’s mercy.” It is very evident that nearly all
-the horses said to have been brought from Arabia never saw
-Arabia. As an illustration of the uncertainty of what a man is
-getting when he thinks he is buying an Arabian, in the Orient, I
-will give, in some detail the experiences of Mr. Wilfrid S.
-Blunt, a wealthy Englishman who had an ambition to regenerate
-the English race horse by bringing in fresh infusions of Arabian
-blood. He went to Arabia to buy the best, but he didn’t go <i>into</i>
-Arabia to find it. He skirted along through the border land
-where agriculture and civilization prevailed, while away off to the
-south the wild tribes roamed over the desert, and to the north,
-not far away, was the land of abundance that had been famous
-for more than three thousand years for the great numbers and
-excellence of the horses bred there. Here on the banks of the
-Euphrates Mr. Blunt found the town of Deyr, and he soon discovered
-it was a famous horse market. The inhabitants were the
-only people he met with who seemed to understand and appreciate
-the value of pedigrees, and there were no horses in the town
-but “thoroughbreds.” Here Mr. Blunt made nearly all his purchases
-which amounted to eighteen mares and two stallions “at
-reasonable prices.” As will be seen in the extracts from his book,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>
-he was strikingly solicitous that the friends at home should have
-no doubt about the quality of the stock he purchased being all
-“thoroughbred.” No doubt he realized the awkwardness of the
-location as not the right one in which to secure “thoroughbred”
-Arabians and hence the vigorous indorsement of the honesty of
-the “slick and experienced” dealers as honest men and true descendants
-of the Bedouins of the desert. In this “he doth
-protest too much” and thus suggests that while the pedigrees
-came from the tribes of the desert to the South, it might be possible
-that the horses came from the farmers who bred them to the
-North. However this may have been, the whole enterprise
-turned out to be a flat failure, and after a number of years spent
-in begging for popular support, the whole collection was dispersed
-under the hammer of the auctioneer, not realizing a tithing of
-the cost.</p>
-
-<p>While it is not necessary that I should express any opinion as
-to whether Mr. Blunt was deceived in the breeding of the animals
-which he brought home, I will make brief allusion to an American
-experience which is more fully considered elsewhere. Some
-forty or more years ago Mr. A. Keene Richards, a breeder of race
-horses in Kentucky, became impressed with the idea that the way
-to improve the race horse of America was to introduce direct infusions
-of the blood of Arabia. He did not hesitate, but he
-started to Arabia and brought home some horses and mares and
-put them to breeding. The pure bloods could not run at all and
-the half-breeds were too slow to make the semblance of a contest
-with Kentucky-bred colts. He concluded that he had been
-cheated by the rascally Arabs in the blood they put upon him.
-He then determined to go back and get the right blood, and as a
-counselor he took with him the famous horse painter, Troye,
-who was thoroughly up on anatomy and structure. They went
-into the very heart of Arabia and spent many weeks among the
-different tribes of the desert. They had greatly the advantage of
-Mr. Blunt or any other amateur, for they were experienced horsemen
-and knew just what they were doing. When they were
-ready to start home they believed they had found and secured
-the very best horses that Arabia had produced. When the
-produce of this second importation were old enough to run it was
-found that they were no better than the first lot, and thus all the
-bright dreams of enthusiasm were dissipated. Thus was demonstrated
-for the thousandth time that the blood of even the best<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span>
-and purest Arabian horse is a detriment and hindrance rather
-than a benefit to the modern race horse. Mr. Richards, with all
-his practical knowledge and experience, was no more successful
-than the amateur, Mr. Blunt. The blood which Mr. Richards
-brought home was, no doubt, purer and more fashionable, as estimated
-in the desert, than that brought home by Mr. Blunt, but
-when tested by modern advancement it was no better.</p>
-
-<p>A careful study of the chapter on the English Race Horse will
-present to the minds of all my intelligent readers the consideration
-of several points to which they will be slow in yielding
-assent. These points run up squarely against the preconceived
-opinions and prejudices of two centuries, and these preconceived
-opinions and prejudices are well-nigh universal. The first point
-upon which the public intelligence has gone wrong is in the
-general belief that horse-racing had its origin in the seventeenth
-century, when Charles II. was restored to his throne.
-The truth is we have accounts of racing by contemporaneous historians
-in the twelfth century, and indeed, we might say from the
-time of the Romans in Britain. To go back four centuries, however,
-is far enough to answer our present purpose. After selecting,
-breeding, and racing four hundred years we must conclude
-that the English had some pretty good race horses. This is
-fully verified by the writers at the close of Queen Elizabeth’s
-reign as well as at the beginning of Charles II.’s. They had native
-English horses that were able to beat all the imported exotics, including
-the Arabian owned by King James. We must, therefore,
-conclude that the race horse was not created by Charles II., but
-that racing was simply revived by him, after the restrictions of
-Cromwell’s time, and that the old English blood was the basis of
-that revival. The importations of so many exotics in his reign
-were simply so many reinforcements of the old English racing
-blood.</p>
-
-<p>The next point to which exception will be taken is the conclusion
-reached as to the character and influence of the exotics
-that were introduced in the reign of Charles II. These exotics
-have been designated in a general way, by the phrase “foundation
-stock,” which has been introduced more out of deference to
-the popular understanding than to its legitimate and true
-meaning. For the real “foundation stock” we must look away
-back in the centuries, long before Charles was born. The
-analysis of the data furnished by Mr. Weatherby as “foundation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>
-stock” clearly shows that the Turks predominated in
-numbers, but, possibly, the Barbs in influence. The Arabian
-element, in both numbers and influence, seems to be practically
-<i>nil</i>, and this is the “gist of my offending.” The one great horse—Godolphin
-Arabian—exerted a greater and more lasting influence
-upon the English race horse than any other of his century
-and probably than all the others of his century, and his blood is
-wholly unknown. Fortunately, a few years ago I was able to
-unearth his portrait and prove it a true portrait, and in that
-picture we must look for his lineage. He was a horse of great
-substance and strength on short legs, with no resemblance whatever
-to a race horse. About fifty years after his death Mr.
-Stubbs, the artist, who prided himself upon representing the
-character of a horse rather than his shape, came across this
-picture, from which he made an “ideal” copy of what he thought
-the horse should have been, which is a veritable monstrosity.
-These two pictures will appear together in their proper places,
-where they can be leisurely studied, and the honest and the dishonest
-compared.</p>
-
-<p>The American race horse is the lineal descendent of the English
-race horse, and like his ancestor he is very largely dependent upon
-the “native blood” for his existence as a breed. The first
-English race horse was imported into Virginia about 1750, and
-he there met a class of saddle mares that had been selected, bred,
-trained, and raced at all distances up to four-mile heats, for nearly
-a hundred years. These mares were the real maternal foundation
-stock upon which the American race horse was established,
-as a breed. The phrase “native blood” is here used as applying
-to the animals and their descendants, that were brought over
-from England at and soon after the plantation of the American
-colonies. Up to the time of the Revolution there were but few
-racing mares brought over—as many as you could count on your
-fingers—but they must have been marvelously prolific, for thirty
-or forty filly foals each would hardly have accommodated all the
-animals with pedigrees tracing to them. Quite a number of our
-greatest race horses and sires of forty or fifty years ago traced to
-some one of these mares through links that were wholly fictitious.
-Indeed, from the period of the Revolution, and even before that,
-down to our own time, the pernicious and dishonest habit of
-adding fictitious crosses beyond the second or third dam became
-the rule in the old American families, and an animal with a strictly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>
-honest pedigree was the exception. In spreading abroad these
-dishonest fictions as true pedigrees, the press—perhaps not
-venally, but ignorantly—was made the active agent. Whenever
-a rogue could get a pedigree into print, however absurd, nothing
-could prevent its spread as the truth. The early sporting and
-breeding press was not in the hands of men remarkable for conscience
-and still less remarkable for knowledge. But the worst
-of all was the “professional pedigree maker” who knew so many
-things that he never knew, and stopped at nothing. In all this
-dirty work of manufacturing pedigrees there is a very striking
-resemblance between the awkward efforts of the early English
-and the early American pedigree maker. This whole topic of the
-ignorance of the press and the dishonesty of the pedigree makers
-will be considered fully in its proper place. Fortunately, although
-still far from perfect, the methods and care in the preservation
-of the true lineage of the race horse in our own day
-have been greatly improved. The many efforts to improve the
-American race horse by introducing fresh infusions of Saracenic
-blood will receive due attention, especially as they have nearly all
-been made within the newspaper period, and their uniform and
-complete failure will not be new to American horsemen.</p>
-
-<p>When we reach the horses of the colonial period, we are in a
-field that never has been explored and cannot be expected to yield
-a very rich harvest. Here and there I have been able to pick up
-a detached paragraph from some contemporaneous writer, and
-occasionally a record, or an advertisement, from which, in most
-cases, I have been able to construct a fair and truthful outline
-and description of the horses of the different colonies, down to
-the Revolutionary war. The collection of the material has required
-great patience and great labor, but it has not been an irksome
-task, for many things have been brought to light of great
-interest to the student of horse history. The knowledge of the
-colonial horse in his character and action, that may be gathered
-from the chapters devoted to his description and history, I flatter
-myself, will not only be interesting as something new, but will
-throw a strong light on the lineage of the two-minute trotter and
-pacer.</p>
-
-<p>The colonists of Virginia were subjected for a number of years
-to great suffering, privation, and want. They were badly selected
-and many of them were improvident and never trained to habits
-of industry and thrift. There were quite too many “penniless<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span>
-gentlemen’s sons” among them, who had been sent out with the
-hope that the change might improve their habits and their
-morals. They were too proud to work, and when they were driven
-to it by necessity they didn’t know how. After suffering untold
-hardships for a succession of years, those that survived learned
-to adapt themselves to their environment and to make their own
-way in the world. Their first supply of domestic animals were
-all consumed as food, embracing horses, cattle, swine, and goats,
-and everything had thus been consumed except one venerable
-female swine, as reported by a board of examiners. Their second
-supply of horses, cattle, swine, and goats was more carefully
-guarded, and from them in greater part came the countless denizens
-of the barnyard.</p>
-
-<p>There were several shipments of horses at different times, by
-the proprietors in London, down till about 1620 and possibly
-later, but they do not seem to have increased very rapidly, for in
-1646 all the horses in the colony were estimated at about two
-hundred of both sexes. This estimate was probably too low, for
-ten years after this the exportation of mares was forbidden by
-legislative enactment, and eleven years later this restriction was
-removed, and both sexes could then be exported. From this
-legislation and from writers who visited the colony we learn that
-horses were very plenty, and they are described as of excellent
-quality, hardy and strong, but under size. It was the custom in
-Virginia, and indeed in all the other colonies at that period and
-for long afterward, to brand their young horses and turn them
-out to hustle for their own living. They increased with wonderful
-rapidity and great numbers became as wild and as wary of
-the habitation and sight of man as the deer of the forest. About
-the close of the seventeenth century the chasing and capture of
-wild horses in Virginia became a legitimate and not always an
-unprofitable sport, for an animal caught without a brand became
-the unquestioned property of his captor. It is a noteworthy fact
-that off the coast of Virginia the island of Chincoteague has
-been occupied for probably two hundred years by large bands of
-wild horses. They are still there, and not till within the last few
-decades have there been any efforts made to domesticate some
-selections from them. They are of all colors, but quite uniform
-in size, not averaging much over thirteen hands, with clean limbs,
-and many of them are pacers. There is only one way to account
-for them in that location, and that is, that they were originally a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>
-band of Virginia wild horses that wandered or was chased out
-onto this sandy peninsula, and while there some great storm set
-the mysterious ocean currents at work and cut off their retreat by
-converting a peninsula into an island, and there they have lived
-and multiplied ever since.</p>
-
-<p>The colonial horses of Virginia were of all colors and all very
-small in size, as we would class them in our day. An examination
-of a great many advertisements of “Strayed,” “Taken up,”
-etc., of the period of about 1750, clearly establishes the fact that
-at that time the average height was a small fraction over thirteen
-hands and one inch. More were described as just thirteen hands
-than any other size, and they were nearly all between thirteen
-and fourteen. From this same advertising source I was able to
-glean conclusive evidence as to their habits of action, and found
-that just two-thirds of them were natural pacers and one-third
-natural trotters. Thus for more than a hundred years they had
-retained the peculiarities of their English ancestors in the reign
-of James I., in color, size, and gait. This in no way differs from
-the description of the Chincoteague Island ponies of to-day. As
-early as 1686 a law was enacted that all stallions less than thirteen
-and a half hands high found running at large should be
-forfeited; but this, like Henry VIII.’s laws in the same direction,
-had failed to increase the average size of the horses. From the
-indomitable passion for horse-racing which prevailed universally
-among the colonists, we may safely conclude that some animals
-were carefully selected and coupled with a view to the speed of
-the progeny, both at the gallop and at the pace, but the great
-mass were allowed to roam at large, and under such conditions
-no variety or tribe of horses has ever improved in size, or indeed
-in any other quality.</p>
-
-<p>The early horses of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands,
-afterward New York, were brought from Utrecht in Holland.
-As we would look at them to-day, they were small, but they were
-larger and better, and brought higher prices than the English
-horses of the Eastern colonies or than the Swedish on the West.
-It was conceded, however, that for the saddle they were not so
-good as the New England horses, and hence it may be inferred
-that they were not pacers. It is very evident, however, that the
-two breeds were soon mixed, as the saddle was then the universal
-means of travel, whether for long or short distances. During
-the time of the Revolutionary war a large accumulation of data<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>
-bearing on the size and action of the horses of that period goes
-to show that the average size had then increased to fourteen
-hands and one inch, and in gait fifteen both paced and trotted,
-nine trotted only, and seven paced only. It is not pretended
-that these data represent the horses of the early colonial period,
-but only of the period above indicated. Strains of larger breeds
-had been introduced, but the little New England pacer had made
-his mark on the habits of action.</p>
-
-<p>In 1665, the next year after the Dutch had surrendered the
-country to the English, Governor Nicolls established a race-course
-on Hempstead Plains and offered prizes for the fleetest runners,
-and his successors kept up annual meetings on that course for
-many years. This was the first official and regularly organized
-race-course that we have any trace of in this country. These
-meetings seem to have been well supported from the very first by
-both town and country, and as the people were then practically
-all Dutch, it is a fair inference that the horses engaged in the
-races were Dutch horses. This was before the English race horse
-had reached the character of a breed, and a hundred years before
-the first of that breed was imported into New York. From this
-beginning many tracks were constructed or improvised in and
-about the city, upon which racing at all forms and at all gaits has
-been carried on to the present day. When honestly conducted
-the sport has always been favorably received by reputable people;
-but at successive periods it has degenerated into a mere carnival
-of gambling that placed it under a ban.</p>
-
-<p>The horses of the New England colonies fill a very important
-place in the horse history of the country. This is especially true
-of a remarkable tribe of swift pacers, produced in Rhode Island
-and known throughout the whole country as the “Narragansett
-Pacers.” To the description of these a special chapter will be
-devoted. The first horses imported into New England reached
-Boston harbor in 1629 and were sent direct from England by the
-proprietary company in London. The same year a small consignment
-reached Salem. The next year about sixty head were
-shipped to the plantation, but many of them were lost on the
-voyage. In 1635 two Dutch ships landed at Salem with twenty-seven
-mares and three stallions, and were sold there at remunerative
-prices. Other shipments followed, no doubt, that have not
-been noted. In 1640 the colonists seem to have been supplied
-with all the horses they needed, for that year they shipped a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>
-cargo of eighty head to the Barbadoes. From these importations
-into Boston and Salem, all the New England colonists received
-their supplies. The field specially gleaned to determine the size
-and gaits of the Massachusetts horses covered the years 1756-59,
-from which it appears that the average height was then fourteen
-hands and one inch; and as to gait, just three-fourths were
-pacers and one-fourth trotters. In comparing this average size
-with the Virginians of the same period we find that the Massachusetts
-horses were about one hand higher, which would
-indicate the influence of the early Dutch blood. Besides this
-we must make some allowance for a possible different habit of
-estimating size.</p>
-
-<p>When the plantation was made at Hartford, Connecticut, in
-1636, the planters brought their horses and other domestic animals
-with them. In 1653 the General Court, at New Haven, made
-provision for keeping public saddle horses for hire, and all horses
-had to be branded. After passing over a period of more than a
-hundred and twenty years we find that in 1776 the average size
-of the Connecticut horse was thirteen hands and three inches,
-thus ranging below the other New England colonies. At that
-period it is found that the ratio of pacers and trotters was as
-fifteen pacers, or trotters and pacers, to four that trotted only.
-The very interesting experience of two English travelers,
-mounted on Connecticut pacers, in 1769, and their enthusiasm
-about their superlative qualities, will be found in its place.</p>
-
-<p>The colony of Rhode Island was planted in 1636 by Roger Williams
-and his followers, and eleven years later they obtained their
-charter. Their supply of horses came wholly from the colony of
-Massachusetts, and in a short time the new plantation became
-greatly distinguished for the superiority and speed of its pacers.
-From the official report of the colony for 1690, we learn that
-horses constituted their leading item of exports, and that they
-were shipping horses to all the colonies of the seaboard. At that
-early day the fame of the Narragansett pacer extended through
-all the English colonies, and probably also through the French
-plantations on the St. Lawrence. All trade with Canada was
-strictly prohibited, but in the then condition of the borders how
-could such regulation be enforced, if a Frenchman, with a bale
-of peltry, wanted to exchange it for a Narragansett? Freed
-from the Puritan restrictions of New England, of that day, the
-Rhode Islanders developed the speed of their pacers by racing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>
-them, and thus the best and fastest of all New England were
-collected there. In 1768 the average height of the Narragansetts
-was fourteen hands and one inch, which shows them to have been
-about three and a quarter inches higher than the Virginia horses
-of the same period. They were not all pacers, for out of thirty-five
-there were eight that did not pace, and some others that
-both trotted and paced. A full account of these famous pacers
-will be found in the chapter on the Colonial Horse History of
-New England, and that on The American Pacer and his Relations
-to the American Trotter.</p>
-
-<p>William Penn did not visit his princely gift from Charles II.
-until 1682, and it was then under the government of the Duke of
-York. In giving a description of things as he found them he
-remarks: “The horses are not very handsome, but good,” and
-this is all he says of them. Knowing that Pennsylvania, in the
-early part of this century, produced larger and heavier horses,
-than any other portion of the country, it was a great surprise to
-me to find the undoubted proof that a hundred years earlier she
-had produced the smallest and the lightest horses of any of the
-colonies. In the first half of the last century the average size of
-the horses of Eastern Pennsylvania was thirteen hands one and
-a quarter inches, and they were remarkably uniform in size. This
-was one-quarter inch below the average of the Virginians. Of
-the twenty-eight animals examined as to gait, twenty-four of
-them were natural pacers, three both paced and trotted, and a
-single one trotted only. Finding these two facts of uniformity
-of size and uniformity of gait together, we are prepared for
-another fact that follows, viz., in Philadelphia the pacers were
-more popular and fashionable than in any other city, so far as we
-can learn, and they were selected with great care and bred for
-their speed, and that speed was highly tested on the race-course.
-They were breeding for speed without much regard to size, and
-hence the uniformity.</p>
-
-<p>It has not been discovered that the colonists of New Jersey
-made any direct importations of horses from England. Their
-original supplies were obtained from New York on the one side
-and Pennsylvania on the other. From these sources, therefore,
-we can form a correct estimate of the size and gaits of the Jersey
-horses, without going into particular investigation. The only
-object, then, in referring to this colony is to prove that before
-1748 all kinds of racing had become so common in the colony as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>
-to be a nuisance. Consequently the legislative authority passed
-an act in 1748 for the suppression of “Running, Pacing and
-Trotting Races.” This was in strict harmony with the well-known
-condition of things in Philadelphia and vicinity very early in
-the century. If there had been no pacing races there would
-have been no legislation suppressing them.</p>
-
-<p>The horses of the colony of Maryland would necessarily partake
-of the characteristics of Virginia and Pennsylvania, from which
-she probably received her supply. There seems to be no evidence
-of direct importation. This colony was really the first, in point
-of time, to legislate for the suppression of pacing races. In 1747,
-one year before New Jersey, an act was passed forbidding pacing
-races in certain locations at certain times, and the avowed object
-was the protection of the Friends in holding their yearly meetings.
-Here, then, we have historic evidence that the three colonies of
-Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had frequent pacing
-races, and legislative evidence that Maryland and New Jersey
-had quite too many pacing races, early in the last century. It
-follows, then, that the other colonies indulged their sporting
-fancies in pacing races also.</p>
-
-<p>The colonies of North and South Carolina obtained their supply
-of horses from Virginia, and they possessed the same characteristics
-as the parent stock. The first permanent settlement in
-North Carolina was in 1653, but before this it had become the
-refuge of Quakers and others fleeing from the proscriptions that
-prevailed in Virginia against all who did not conform to the
-English church. South Carolina received her charter in 1663, at
-a time when horses were beginning to run wild in Virginia. In
-1747 thirty horses were advertised in which the size was given,
-and the average is within a small fraction of thirteen and a half
-hands high, and in this number two were given as fifteen hands,
-which was a very large horse for that day. The gait is given in
-only twelve cases—ten of which were pacers, one paced and trotted,
-and one trotted only.</p>
-
-<p>The chapter on the “Early Horse History of Canada” is very
-brief. It was not till the year 1665 that the first horses were
-brought over from France, and as they came from ancient Picardy,
-right across the Channel from England, it is reasonable to assume
-that they partook of the same characteristics as the English horses,
-and that many of them were pacers. Another theory of the
-origin of the Canadian pacer is the probability of clandestine trading<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span>
-with the New Englanders. Among the many impossible
-stories about the breeding of Old Tippoo, the greatest sire of
-Canada, the truth seems to come to the surface at last, and there
-can be no reasonable doubt that he was got by “Scape Goat.”
-However much or little dependence can be placed upon many of
-the claims of fast pacing stallions coming from Canada, it must
-be conceded that some of these claims seem to be well founded,
-and that the pacing element has been greatly strengthened by
-blood from the other side of the border.</p>
-
-<p>The most striking fact in the history of the pacing habit of
-action is its great antiquity. The average Englishman of to-day
-and the average American of twenty years ago have been united
-in insisting with the greatest vehemence that the pace is not a
-natural but an acquired gait, resulting from some injury or malformation.
-One of the great leaders on that side of the discussion
-called it “structural incongruity” arising from the breeding
-of the “thoroughbred” horse on the “slab-sided” mares of the
-West and South, and thought the idea was unanswerable, but
-never cited any instances to prove it. Now, the truth is, the
-earliest unquestioned evidence we have that horses paced is that
-furnished by the chisel of Phidias when he sculptured the horses
-on the frieze of the Parthenon at Athens, and that is two
-thousand three hundred and thirty-three years old. From the
-period when the sons of Japheth turned their attention to horse-breeding
-on the fruitful plains and valleys in the regions of the
-mountains of Ararat down to this culmination of Greek art, I
-have not been able to find any contemporaneous evidence of
-the existence of the lateral habit of action; but as we know it
-existed more than two thousand years ago, we are justified
-in concluding that among the original bands of horses, in their
-original habitat, pacers as well as trotters abounded. From the
-erection of the Parthenon in Athens, the occupation of Britain
-by the Romans, and through all the centuries down to the plantation
-of the colonies in this country, we have mountains of indisputable
-evidence of the antiquity of the pacer. In its place this
-topic will be quite fully discussed.</p>
-
-<p>The relation which the pacer bears to the American Trotting
-Horse has for twenty-five years been a topic of much senseless
-discussion. In the historical sketch which served as an introduction
-to the first volume of the “American Trotting Register,” the
-attention of the breeding public was first called to this question,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>
-in a form that was somewhat tentative, and much less didactic
-than my judgment suggested, but it served as an introduction to
-the study of the question which it foreshadowed. From this
-initial paragraph grew the discussion that has been going on ever
-since, much of which has been the merest jargon. The essential
-oneness of the trot and the pace has been clearly demonstrated by
-thousands of experiences. The trotting inheritance that produces
-the fast trotter also produces the fast pacer; and the pacing
-inheritance that produces the fast pacer also produces the fast
-trotter. The trotting-bred John R. Gentry, with his pacing
-record of a mile in two minutes and one-half a second, is but a
-single instance of very many of the same character. The fastest
-harness racers in the world are the pacers, and it seems to make
-no difference whether the inheritance of speed comes from the
-trotter or the pacer. The subject of the pacer in his diversified
-historical relations to the American trotter will be found in different
-portions of this work, and all tending to show the significant
-fact that he is again rapidly attaining the position of honor
-among the equine race which he maintained for so many centuries
-in the far-distant past.</p>
-
-<p>Early in this century the American Saddle Horse, the real
-saddle horse of all time, past and present, began to vanish from
-sight. Improved roads and wheeled vehicles superseded him, in
-great measure, long before the days of railroads. For business
-and travel he was the sole dependence of our forefathers for two
-hundred years, and in point of health it is a great misfortune
-that he has gone so completely out of use. The horse that cannot
-take the “saddle gaits” and carry his rider without discomfort or
-fatigue is not a saddle horse. Springing up and down at every
-revolution of the horse is not riding for pleasure, but to avoid
-punishment and a torpid liver. In the chapter devoted to his
-description, origin, and breeding, it will be clearly shown that he
-is indebted to his pacing ancestry of the past centuries for his
-saddle gaits. As the mere matter of great speed cuts no figure in
-the qualifications of a saddle horse there is a wide field here for
-the production of style and beauty in the breeder’s art. The aims
-of a goodly number of intelligent breeders are now moving in this
-direction, and with the foundations so well laid as they now are,
-we can look forward to a grand superstructure. As the breeder
-of speed at the trot goes to the horse that can do it himself, and
-as the breeder of speed at the gallop goes to the horse that can<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>
-beat all the others, so the breeder of the saddler will go to the
-handsomest and best of all his tribe, and when we reach the horse
-that is perfect in symmetry, style, quality, and disposition, he will
-be a saddle horse and no questions will be asked about what particular
-combinations of blood he may possess. He will be strictly
-eclectic, with the one exception of the inheritance of gait, and he
-will be the result of wise choosing in his size and structure, and
-of skillful handling in his disposition and manners.</p>
-
-<p>The Wild Horse of the plains and pampas of North and South
-America was at one time an object of great interest and curiosity
-with all our people. No schoolboy of sixty or seventy years ago
-knew any lesson in his geography so well as the one which pictured
-and described the millions of wild horses that roamed over
-the Western plains. In the field of imagination and exaggerated
-fiction he was a fairly good second to the Arabian—both arrant
-humbugs, at least so far as their merits have been tested. In the
-past, the question has sometimes been asked, tentatively,
-whether the horse may not have been indigenous on this continent?
-The paleontologists have undertaken to answer this question
-in the affirmative and have produced the bones of what they
-call the horse to prove it. This “horse” is scant fifteen inches
-high and he has three, four or five toes on each foot. These toes
-resemble “claws” more than anything else. They tell us these
-little animals flourished over two millions of years before man was
-placed on the earth, and that they are now found imbedded in
-the solid rock, say two hundred feet below the general surface.
-The outline drawing of horses on works supposed to have been
-erected by a prehistoric and lost race, and also the linguistic question
-as to whether any of the oldest Indian tribes had any word
-representing the horse, will be fully considered, with that presented
-by the paleontologists, in the chapter devoted to the Wild
-Horse. Too much prominence has been given to the horses of
-Cortez in his conquest of Mexico, as the progenitors of the American
-wild horse. He had very few horses in his command, and it
-is very doubtful whether any of them escaped the slaughter of
-battle and found a home in the wilderness. The horses in the
-army of the unfortunate Ferdinand De Soto, that were abandoned
-on the confines of Texas, after his death, became the progenitors
-of all the wild horses of North America.</p>
-
-<p>The remarkable pre-eminence to which Messenger attained as
-the founder of a great race of trotters, in his own right and by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>
-his own power, and more especially as he was the only English-imported
-running horse that ever showed any tendency whatever
-in that direction, the study of Messenger’s lineage becomes a
-question of very great interest and value to all students of trotting
-history. His sire, Mambrino, was a great race horse, and
-was distinguished above all others of his generation, or indeed of
-any other generation, before or since, as the progenitor of a tribe
-of coach horses of great excellence and value. In addition
-to this, the evidence seems to be conclusive that he had a natural
-and undeveloped trotting step that far surpassed that of all other
-running horses of his day. His sire, Engineer, was notoriously
-short on the side of his dam, and his grandsire, Sampson, was a
-half-breed of great size and bone, and ran some winning races, in
-the best of company, for that day.</p>
-
-<p>The history of Messenger himself is still clouded in mystery,
-and the blood he inherited from his dam remains hopelessly unknown.
-The identity of his importer and owner has never been
-established, which of itself throws a suspicion upon the pedigree
-that is said to have come with him. He ran several races at
-Newmarket, England, and proved himself a second or third-rate
-race horse. The racing records there show that he was by
-Mambrino, and that is all that is known about his inheritance.
-He left a few tolerably good race horses, for their time, but he
-filled the country with the best road and driving horses that the
-horsemen of this country had ever known. A chapter each to
-Messenger’s ancestors and to himself will be found in their proper
-places in this volume. The twenty years of Messenger’s life and
-service in this country fell in a period of indifference to all kinds
-of racing except running. The English race horse was then the
-popular idol, and it is not known that any of his sons or daughters
-were ever trained to trot. Neither can it now be certainly
-determined that any of them were disposed to pace, but if we
-may judge of the habits of action of his immediate progeny by
-what we know of succeeding generations, we can hardly doubt
-that there were pacers among them. As the custom then was,
-and as it so remained for at least half a century later, all pacers
-were hidden away from public sight, as they were supposed to
-furnish evidence of ignoble breeding.</p>
-
-<p>The chapter on “The Sons of Messenger” will be long, but it
-will be of exceeding interest. They constitute the connecting
-link that brings together the peculiar trotting instincts of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>
-sire and develops them in their own progeny. Several of them
-were not only trained to run, but did run successfully. It is not
-known that any of his sons was ever trained to trot, but it is
-known from contemporaneous evidence that several of them were
-fast natural trotters, notably Bishop’s Hambletonian, Bush Messenger,
-Winthrop Messenger, Mambrino, etc., all of which will
-be considered in their proper place. When we reach the second
-remove from Messenger we begin to enter into the full fruition
-of all the promises, and in considering such animals as Abdallah,
-Almack, Mambrino Paymaster, Harris’ Hambletonian, etc., we
-begin to feel that we are well within the trotting latitudes, for
-this remove began to found families and tribes that attracted the
-attention of all intelligent breeders.</p>
-
-<p>In the next remove from Messenger we strike the most famous
-of all trotting progenitors in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian. At one
-time there was an active and determined difference of opinion
-among breeders as to which of three horses, Hambletonian, Ethan
-Allen, or Mambrino Chief, would in the end prove to be the most
-successful sire. This controversy may not be remembered by the
-younger of the present generation of horsemen, but it was bitter
-and uncompromising, and it presents a lesson so important that it
-may be here referred to. The adherents of Ethan Allen argued
-that as he was handsomer, that his gait was the very perfection of
-trotting action, and that he was incomparably faster than either
-of the other two, he must of necessity prove the most successful
-in begetting trotters. The adherents of Mambrino Chief
-used the same argument, with the exception of beauty and style,
-and dwelt strongly on the fact that he was a faster horse than
-Hambletonian, and would consequently get faster offspring.
-Both these arguments were good, so far as they went, but they
-lacked completeness and hence were not sound. Neither Ethan
-Allen nor Mambrino Chief had a dam, and so far as we know the
-inheritance of both was restricted to the male side of the house.
-Development of speed is a valuable and real qualification in any
-sire, but all experience goes to show that it is only a help to an
-inheritance. Hambletonian was not much developed, but it is
-conceded on all hands that he could show a 2:40 gait at any time
-and that his action was very perfect. He was got by a grandson
-of Messenger, whose dam, Amazonia, was one of the fastest mares
-of her generation, whatever her blood may have been. Abdallah
-got more and faster trotters than any other grandson of Messenger,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>
-and his daughters were very famous as the producers of trotters.
-Hambletonian’s dam, the Kent Mare, was by imported Bellfounder,
-a horse that got no trotters practically, but this mare
-was the fastest four-year-old of her time, and that because she was
-out of a very fast mare, One Eye, that was a double granddaughter
-of Messenger. That is, One Eye was by Hambletonian, the
-son of Messenger, and out of Silvertail, a daughter of Messenger.
-This double Messenger mare was unknown to the trotting turf,
-but she was well known throughout Orange County as a remarkably
-fast trotter. Hence Hambletonian not only possessed more
-Messenger blood than any horse of his generation, but that blood
-came to him through developed trotters, and he had a right to
-surpass all competitors, especially the two that were, at one time,
-the most prominent.</p>
-
-<p>Several of the sons of Hambletonian, as shown by the tabular
-statistics which will be introduced, became greater than their
-sire, not only in getting trotters from their own loins, but in
-transmitting the trotting instinct to their descendants. The
-growth and spread of this family is far and away beyond any precedent
-that can be cited in any age or country, and is simply marvelous.
-It is said that fully ninety per cent. of the fast trotters
-now on the turf have more or less of the blood of Hambletonian
-in their veins, and I think it is a safe conclusion to say that
-no intelligent breeder in all the country is trying to produce
-trotters without it. All the other tribes are dropping out of
-sight, and at the present ratio of rise and fall it will be but a few
-years till every trotter on the turf will be credited in some
-degree to the one really great progenitor, Hambletonian. The
-other tribes will not be blotted out nor will their merits be lost,
-but absorbed into the mightier tribe.</p>
-
-<p>Such families as the Bashaws, the Clays, the Black Hawks, the
-Mambrino Chiefs, the Pilots, the American Stars, the Blue Bulls,
-etc., will be fully considered through several chapters, according
-to their strength and merit. As these families have not been
-able to hold their own in the rush to the front, and as they seem
-to be falling further to the rear in the number and quality of
-their performers each succeeding year, we may as well begin to
-designate them as “the minor families.” Their inheritance was
-feeble and unsatisfactory, and more or less sporadic, and we never
-had any right to expect a brilliant and permanent success from
-such beginnings.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span></p>
-
-<p>As the investigation of disputed, spurious and fraudulent pedigrees
-was a prime necessity in order to reach safe and honest
-grounds upon which to build up a breed of trotters, much of my
-time through all my editorial life was devoted to this kind of
-investigation. From the first page of the first volume of the
-“Register” I was deeply impressed with the importance of having
-all pedigrees absolutely correct, and this impression grew into a
-vital conviction that without this a breed of trotters never could
-be established. I soon found that I had accepted from some
-breeders of the very highest respectability a goodly number of
-pedigrees that were thoroughly rotten in their extensions. This
-taught me that I must study the moral fiber of breeders critically,
-as well as their pedigrees, and that from the highest to the
-lowest. Some men are honest from principle and because it is
-right to be honest, while others are honest because “honesty is
-the best policy.” Some men are dishonest because of ignorance,
-others because they were born cheats, but the most dangerous of
-all rogues is the man who will utter a false pedigree and then
-prove it by trained witnesses who, for half a dollar, can remember
-whatever is necessary and forget whatever might be against their
-employer’s interest. By this kind of evidence a man can prove
-anything. Not very long ago a man proved that a certain mare
-came out of a certain other mare, and when that was shown to be
-impossible he turned round and proved (?) that she was out of
-another mare, and there was just as much truth in the one as the
-other, and not a single word of truth in either. So long as there
-are men in the world there will be rogues among them, but the
-intelligence of the public in breeding matters has so greatly advanced
-that many an honest man would begin to doubt his own
-sanity if he were even to think of breeding in lines that he was
-once ready to fight for as the only right and successful way to
-breed. The brainless advocacy of “more running blood in the
-trotter,” was substantially the basis of the whole brood of dishonest
-pedigrees, against which it became my duty to wage war;
-but to-day no intelligent man in all the land can be found to advocate
-any such balderdash unless it be in the foolish support of
-thoughtless opinions previously expressed.</p>
-
-<p>The subject of “How the Trotting Horse is Bred,” is a most
-interesting one because it is entirely new in animal economy and
-is distinctively American. The initial thought that opened the
-door to the practical and scientific consideration of the subject<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>
-was the happy conception, in the spring of 1872, of the little
-phrase, “Trotting Instinct.” Following this with the definition
-of the word “instinct” as being “the sum of inherited habits,”
-the term expressed in two words and the definition of it in five
-words, put the whole subject in a form that was easily comprehensible
-and flashed upon the mind as thoroughly practical.
-This little phrase, with its definition, when once comprehended,
-is a very complete epitome of all that has been taught and all
-that has been learned of the art of breeding the trotter. It not
-only embraces, but requires, the trotting inheritance as the only
-starting point, which must be strengthened and the instinct intensified
-by the development of the speed of succeeding generations.
-It stood some years at the parting of the ways between
-intelligence and ignorance, between enlightened judgment and
-stupid prejudice, between honesty and dishonesty, but now it is
-accepted, in practice, as the universal law from one end of the
-land to the other. Thus, we have not only added millions to the
-wealth of the country, but without any outside assistance or instruction
-we have produced a horse that by way of pre-eminence,
-throughout the world, is justly entitled to be designated, “The
-Horse of America.”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br />
-<span class="smaller">ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>No indications that the horse was originally wild—The steppes of High Asia
-and Arabia not tenable as his original home—Color not sufficient evidence
-—Impossibility of horses existing in Arabia in a wild state—No horses in
-Arabia until 356 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>—Large forces of Armenian, Median, and Cappadocian
-cavalry employed more than one thousand seven hundred years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>—A
-breed of white race horses—Special adaptability of the Armenian country
-to the horse—Armenia a horse-exporting country before the Prophet
-Ezekiel—Devotion of the Armenian people to agricultural and pastoral
-pursuits through a period of four thousand years—All the evidences point
-to ancient Armenia as the center from which the horse was distributed.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In undertaking to consider and determine what particular portion
-of the earth was the original habitat of the horse, we must
-not forget that we are in a field that antedates all history, both
-sacred and profane. When we have gone back to the very first
-dawnings of historical records we are still far short of the period
-in which initial light can be reached. In profane history, with
-more or less safety, we can get back to a point about seventeen
-hundred years before the Christian era; and in sacred history
-about two hundred years less. At both of these dates the horses
-referred to were not in a feral state, but were the companions
-and servants of man.</p>
-
-<p>There have been two separate theories advanced which demand
-some attention, because of the eminence and learning of the men
-who have advanced them. The first is that the original habitat
-of the horse was on the steppes of High Asia, east and north of
-the Caspian and the Black Sea. The only argument I have ever
-seen advanced in support of this theory is based upon the great
-number of wild horses that are found in that part of the world,
-and that so many of them are of a dun color. From the frequency
-of the recurrence of the dun color another theory has
-sprung up to the effect that the original color of the horse was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>
-dun, and hence it is argued that when the dun color appears in
-our own day it must be taken as evidence that the original color
-of the horse was dun. This reasoning is very far from being
-conclusive, for there are dun horses and dun tribes in all breeds,
-just as there are greys, and the color is just as liable to be transmitted
-as any other color. In the last century there were many
-dun horses in England, and at least one of that color was advertised
-very widely as “the Dun Arabian,” probably a foreign
-horse, but it is hardly possible that he was an Arabian. It was then
-the custom of the country to call all foreign horses “Arabians,”
-no difference from what part of the world they came. It has
-been stated on what seemed to be good authority that a dun
-horse once won the Derby, but whether the color may result from
-line breeding or from atavistic tendencies, the argument advanced
-does not seem to have any weight in it for the purpose intended.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus2">
-<p class="transnote">Transcriber’s Note: the map can be clicked for a larger version.</p>
-<a href="images/illus2.jpg"><img src="images/illus2-small.jpg" width="400" height="250" alt="" /></a>
-<p class="caption">ARMENIA, CAPPADOCIA, NORTHERN SYRIA ETC.</p>
-<p class="caption">ABOUT 1200 B.C.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Another argument in favor of the wild and unknown regions
-east and north of the Caspian as the habitat of the horse has
-been urged with much more power and effect. It has been accepted
-and reiterated by so many learned men, one after another,
-that I doubted the wisdom of attempting to overthrow it, until I
-found the spot in which it was fatally weak. This view of the
-question seems to rest upon the fact that the successive hosts of
-Barbarians that overran Europe in the early centuries of the
-Christian era brought their horses, as well as their flocks and
-herds, with them, and it is assumed that these horses were the
-first brought into Europe. This involves a total misconception
-of dates; not of a few years merely, but of many centuries. All
-of Europe, including Britain, and all of Northern Africa, were
-abundantly supplied with horses, probably a thousand years
-before the first destructive wave of Barbarians touched Europe.
-Linguistic and ethnological facts clearly prove that those people
-came from Asia, and possibly from a part of Asia where there
-were horses running wild, but that does not prove that they came
-from the original habitat of the horse. With no dates, either
-definite or approximate, to support this theory, and with no
-specific portion of the earth fixed upon as the general locality
-from which they came, it resolves itself into a mere speculation
-with nothing to support it, except the fact that different writers
-have been copying it from one another, without throwing any
-additional light upon it, for a number of generations.</p>
-
-<p>The most remarkable and at the same time the most untenable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span>
-of all the claims that have been urged about the horse is that he
-was indigenous in Arabia. We can tolerate any number of foolish
-claims set up to show that the Arabian horse is superior to all
-others, for such assertions can be tested and disproved, as they
-have been a thousand times, but the claim that Arabia was the
-original habitat of the horse is so utterly preposterous, and yet so
-widely advocated by writers and others who know nothing about
-it, that we must consider it with some brief deliberation. When
-the maimed and crippled horses of De Soto were turned loose and
-abandoned on the plains of Texas, they had all around them the
-means of an abundant and healthy subsistence, and they multiplied
-and grew into an innumerable host that made the earth
-tremble when they moved in great masses. Under the same
-favorable conditions of water and pasture, the same results followed
-on the pampas of South America. Upon the early settlement
-of Virginia, as well probably as in some of the other
-colonies, and within two hundred years, many of the horses of
-the colonists strayed away, became wild and remained so, propagating
-and increasing for generations, and until the growing
-numbers of their former masters captured or exterminated them.
-The varied herbage of the forest and its grassy swales, and
-streams of pure water everywhere, made Virginia a paradise for
-the horse in his feral state.</p>
-
-<p>Buffon, the French naturalist of a hundred and fifty years ago,
-notices the theory of the wild horses of Arabia, but he is careful
-not to commit himself nor indorse it in any form. In Vol. I., p.
-237, he says: “According to Mannol, the Arabian horses are descended
-from the wild horses in the deserts of Arabia, of which,
-in ancient times, large studs were formed,” etc. In going further,
-to find where Mannol got his information, it appears that
-somebody, with an unpronounceable name that I have forgotten,
-told him so. Major Upton, a very intelligent but very credulous
-modern writer on what he saw and learned in the desert, says he
-never heard of this story of wild horses in Arabia, and pronounces
-it a “fallacy.” When we consider that Arabia never was
-conquered and the reason why, although Rome, at the very culmination
-of her power, followed by Assyria and Egypt, all failed of
-their purpose without meeting an enemy in battle, we must accept
-the fact that nature had interposed a barrier that military
-power could not surmount. The barrenness and aridity of the
-desert has always protected the Arabs against the most powerful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span>
-armies of the mightiest nations. Now, to maintain that wild
-horses could not only live, but flourish and increase, in a country
-where there was not enough edible herbage on a thousand acres
-to keep a grasshopper alive, and not a running stream of water
-within five hundred miles, requires a measure of mental sterility
-that can be found nowhere but among a few of the writers on
-the Arabian horse. Of all the curiosities in which the literature of
-the Arabian horse abounds and in the multitudinous efforts to give
-him the primacy among horses, there seems to be nothing quite
-so absurd as this story about his being indigenous to the desert.
-Animals in a wild state are never found except in countries and
-districts where the conditions surrounding provide them with
-food and water. How long would a band of strong, healthy
-horses live if turned loose to seek their own subsistence in the
-desert of Arabia? Of all the countries on the face of the globe
-there is no one where the horse is so completely dependent upon,
-the care and support of his master as Arabia.</p>
-
-<p>Fortunately, we are not left for data to unwritten traditions
-two thousand years old, nor to the fervid imaginations of a race
-of cutthroats and thieves of the very lowest order of civilization,
-but we can turn, with full confidence, to authentic contemporaneous
-history, from which we can settle this question, at once
-and for all time. Strabo, the great Greek geographer and philosopher,
-flourished in the reign of Augustus, at the very beginning
-of the Christian era. He describes Arabia just as we know it
-to-day, for all countries have changed in their boundaries and
-government except Arabia. He describes the people as chiefly
-nomadic, and as breeders of camels. The most remarkable thing
-in this description is the fact, found in his great work, Vol. III., p.
-190, that they had no horses at that time. The exact language
-used in this statement will be found in the next chapter of this
-work. The question now arises, If there were no horses in Arabia
-at the beginning of the Christian era, when and how did they
-become possessed of them? Fortunately, again, written history
-supplies the answer to this question. In my next chapter will be
-found, quoted at some length, the circumstances bearing on this
-question. In brief, the facts are as follows: Philostorgius, a distinguished
-Greek theologian, wrote an ecclesiastical history in the
-fifth century which is no longer extant. Photius, at one time
-Patriarch of Constantinople, in the ninth century wrote an
-epitome of the work by Philostorgius and to this epitome we are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span>
-indebted for the facts we here relate. Constantius, at the time of
-which Philostorgius wrote, was on the throne of the Eastern
-empire, and was exceedingly zealous in spreading and strengthening
-the Christian religion. He learned that the prince of Arabia
-Felix (that part of Arabia which we will designate by its modern
-name Yemen) was strongly disposed to come out with his people
-and embrace Christianity. Constantius thereupon determined
-to encourage both prince and people in the movement they were
-contemplating, and he sent them a grand embassy with many
-valuable presents, the most noted of which were two hundred
-“well-bred Cappadocian horses.” The embassy was completely
-successful, and Theopholis, who had been made a bishop and
-placed at the head of it, remained there several years. This was
-in the year 356 of the Christian era, and is the first intimation we
-have in all history of horses in Arabia. These are the facts, so
-far as any facts are known, upon the consideration of which I am
-not able to assent to the claim that either High Asia or Arabia
-was the original habitat of the horse.</p>
-
-<p>I have been surprised at the number of coincidences that seem
-to point to ancient Armenia as the first habitation of the horse.
-This country at one time was a very powerful kingdom, extending
-from the mountains of Caucasus on the north to Media or Assyria
-on the south, and from the Caspian Sea on the east to the
-Euphrates on the west, and at one time even to the Mediterranean.
-It was intersected by several ranges of mountains and
-not only gave rise to the Euphrates and the Tigris, but to a number
-of smaller rivers. It was well watered everywhere, and produced
-in great abundance all varieties of herbage, cereals, and
-fruits. It was originally called Ararat by the Hebrews, probably
-after a range of mountains about central to the territory embraced,
-and because Noah’s Ark rested somewhere “on the
-mountains of Ararat.” It is also called Togarmah in Scripture,
-after Torgom, son of Gomer, who was the son of Japheth, the
-son of Noah. Japheth seems to have been the oldest son of
-Noah, and he chose this fruitful region as the future home of his
-descendants. The Rev. Michael Chamich, a native Armenian,
-went back into the old Armenian records, translated the language
-as originally used, and wrote a history of the country from its
-first settlement; and this history has been Englished by Johannes
-Adval, another native Armenian, and published in Calcutta in
-1827. This work seems to be worthy of credence, and it clearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span>
-establishes the lineal descent of the governing family back to
-Japheth, the son of Noah. The order of succession as the head
-of the tribe continues through several generations unbroken, from
-father to son. Gomer, the son of Japheth, was succeeded by his
-son Togarmah, then followed Haicus, Armenac, Aramais,
-Amassia, Gelam, Harma, Aram, Arah, who was slain in battle,
-his son Cardus (at twelve years old), Anushaven, who died without
-issue and was succeeded by Paret, who reigned fifty years
-and during his reign the patriarch Joseph died in Egypt, B.C.
-1635. These princes all had long reigns. Haicus was the
-first of the line to assume the title of king, and he was greatly
-distinguished for extending the boundaries of his kingdom.
-Gelam extended his borders to the Caspian. Aram was fifty-eight
-years on the throne, during which time he had a war with
-the Medes, and also with the Cappadocians, in both of which he
-had a large force of cavalry in the field. This was about seventeen
-hundred years before the Christian era, and is the first mention
-of cavalry that I have found in history, either sacred or profane.
-In both these wars his cavalry was met by the cavalry of
-the enemy, equal to or greater than his in numbers. How long
-before this troops may have been mounted on horses it is impossible
-to say, but from the numbers so used at that period of the
-world by the neighboring nations and tribes, as the Medes, the
-Cappadocians, etc., it is fair to conclude that the horse had then
-been an important factor in all military movements for many
-generations. When we consider two opposing armies, each provided
-with divisions of five thousand cavalry, the period being
-about B.C. 1700, with no dates beyond that are known as relating
-to the horse, we are shut up to our own reasoning as to the number
-of centuries that may have been required to produce these
-great numbers. It must have been at least one century, or it may
-have been three or four, and this would carry us back to the head
-of the house of Japheth.</p>
-
-<p>If we accept Egyptian chronology, which still lacks much of
-being reliable, one of the Pharaohs, named Thutmosis I., invaded
-Syria, passing up through Palestine till he reached the latitude of
-Aleppo, and then turned eastward and crossed the Euphrates.
-His campaign was successful; he fought many battles and returned
-laden with spoils, especially horses and chariots of war. This was
-before the Israelites reached the promised land, and before
-Joshua’s battle with the “Northern kings,” in which they had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span>
-“horsemen and chariots very many,” and which is the earliest
-Scriptural instance in which horses were employed in battle.</p>
-
-<p>The territory embracing the ancient countries of Eastern Asia
-Minor, bounded on the north by the Black Sea and the Caucasian
-mountains, on the south by the thirty-seventh degree of
-north latitude, and extending to the Caspian Sea, has always
-been remarkable for the variety, value, and abundance of its agricultural
-products. Many of the very early historians have noted
-the fact that each one of the countries embraced in this territory
-was distinguished for the excellence and numbers of horses produced,
-and they appear in about the following order, namely,
-Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Media. The last-named country
-embraced what is now the northern part of Persia, and as between
-the “Medes” and the “Persians” there is no little confusion in
-the public mind, as sometimes one was on top and sometimes the
-other. Then, to add to the confusion, the Assyrians came in,
-occupying the same country and the same capitals. For our
-present purposes it is not necessary to enter into the consideration
-of these successive dynasties. The Medes were comparatively
-newcomers, and as they were a great military people their prominence
-in horse history resulted more from the spoils of war and
-the tribute in horses that they collected from their neighbors
-than from their own production. Kitto says that in the time of
-the Persian empire the plain of Nissæum was celebrated for its
-horses and horse races. This plain was near the city of Nissæa,
-around which were fine pasture lands, producing excellent clover.
-The horses were “entirely white” (probably grey) and of extraordinary
-height and beauty, as well as speed. They constituted
-part of the luxury of the great, and a tribute in kind was paid
-from them to the monarch, who, like all Eastern sovereigns, used
-to delight in equestrian display. Some idea of the opulence of
-the country may be had when it is known that, independently of
-imposts rendered in money, Media (then the undermost dog),
-paid a yearly tribute of not less than three thousand horses,
-four thousand mules, and nearly one hundred thousand sheep.
-The races, once celebrated through the world, seem to exist no
-more.</p>
-
-<p>When Darius the Mede had extended his empire over the
-whole of Western Asia and Egypt, he exacted heavy tribute in
-horses from all subjugated provinces. This was about 520 B.C.,
-and antedated the racing referred to above. In all parts of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span>
-extended empire he built roads and established lines of couriers,
-mounted on fleet horses, that there might be no delay in receiving
-at his capital and sending out again intelligence of what was
-transpiring in any part of his dominions. For this service the
-best and fleetest horses were required, and the only guide we
-have to determine how these horses were selected we find in the
-fact that the tribute collected from the little kingdom of Cilicia,
-formerly a part of Cappadocia, was, in addition to a stated sum of
-money, one white horse for every day in the year. It is possible
-that these white Cilician horses may have been the progenitors of
-the white (grey) race horses spoken of in Media.</p>
-
-<p>In describing the general fruitfulness of Cappadocia, Strabo
-says: “Cappadocia was also rich in herds and flocks, but more
-particularly celebrated for its breed of horses.” Strabo speaks
-of this as a leading characteristic of the country and doubtless it
-had held pre-eminence in this respect for generations before he
-wrote. Three hundred and fifty-six years later, when Constantius
-was selecting his presents of horses for the prince and people
-of Yemen, in Arabia, he knew just where to look, in all his
-dominions, for the best of their kind, and selected two hundred
-“well-bred” ones for Arabia. Sir R. Wilson, in discussing the
-quality of the Russian cavalry horses about 1810, had evidently
-heard of this Cappadocian origin of the Arabian horse, but, unfortunately,
-he got all the parties badly mixed in his reference.
-He makes Constantine instead of Constantius the donor of three
-hundred Cappadocian horses, instead of two hundred, and they
-are given to one of the African princes, instead of to an Arabian
-prince. The African traveler, Bruce, found some excellent horses
-in Nubia, Africa, and from their high quality and unusually large
-size he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that these were
-the descendants of the three hundred from Constantine.</p>
-
-<p>After glancing over all the different countries in this great
-zone as defined above, and extending from the Bosphorus to the
-Caspian Sea, one cannot fail to be impressed with its special
-adaptation to the production and sustenance of all varieties of
-domestic animals, in their greatest perfection. Here the country
-seems to have been made for the horse, and the horse for the
-country. Here was a country suited to his nativity, and here we
-find records of his existence centuries earlier than in any other
-country. The wild ass flourished in this country, but I have not
-been able to find any evidence or indication that the horse was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span>
-not always the companion and servant of man. Wherever he is
-found in a feral state reasons that are amply satisfactory are
-never wanting to account for that state. Ancient historians have
-specially noted each of the principal countries embraced in this
-zone for the superiority and numbers of its horses, but no one
-has made any allusion to wild horses, nor suggested that there
-may have been a time when their ancestors were wild.</p>
-
-<p>Now, as we have designated a long and wide region of Western
-Asia, embracing a number of different nationalities and governments,
-as the probable original habitat of the horse, can we go
-further and designate the particular nationality or government
-in which was his original home and from which he was distributed
-to adjoining nations or peoples? In answer to this question,
-we cannot present any dates of record earlier than about
-1700 B.C., and this date will apply as well to Media and Cappadocia
-as to Armenia. We must, therefore, consider it in the
-light of other facts and circumstances, not dependent upon
-specific dates. In the first place, and taking the Mosaic account
-of the deluge as the starting point, “the ark rested on the mountains
-of Ararat.” This is the original name of a country, intersected
-by a mountain range, and that range took its name from
-the country in which it was found. “Mount Ararat” was simply
-a very high peak in that range. The distinction should be observed
-here between “the mountains of Ararat” and “Mount
-Ararat.” In the second place, it is clearly established by all history
-that near the base of this mountain range Japheth and his
-descendants had their homes. His son Gomer was highly distinguished
-in his day, and his grandson, Togarmah, son of
-Gomer, became a powerful chief. To such prominence did he
-rise in the affairs of his age that for centuries after his day his
-country was called “Togarmah.” Hence we have the three
-names, Ararat, Togarmah and Armenia applied in sacred and
-profane history to the same country that we are now considering.</p>
-
-<p>During the continuance of the dynasty of King Haic or Haicus,
-the son of Togarmah, the Armenians became a very prosperous
-and powerful people. They did not seem to be an aggressive or
-warlike people, although their boundaries were greatly extended,
-but a thrifty agricultural and industrious people. Breeding and
-marketing horses seem to have been their leading employments.
-In the twenty-seventh chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel he gives a
-catalogue of the different peoples trading with the great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span>
-Phœnician merchants and the products of their countries, in which
-they traded. This catalogue was written five hundred and fifty-eight
-years before the Christian era, and is very remarkable
-for its extent and completeness. It not only shows what the
-Phœnicians carried away to the West, in their “Ships of
-Tarshish,” but also what they brought back for distribution
-among their customers in Western Asia. I will quote, from
-the revised version, two or three of the classes of articles
-enumerated, embracing both import and export trade. Of
-foreign imports he says: “Tarshish” (Spain and beyond) “was
-thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches;
-with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.” Of
-articles for export he says: “They of the house of Togarmah
-traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and mules.”
-“Togarmah” here means “Armenia,” and this is the only instance
-in which horses are mentioned in the catalogue. I will
-give another quotation, not because it is conclusive in itself, but
-because it is confirmatory of Strabo’s statement that there were
-no horses in Arabia in his day. He says: “Arabia and all the
-princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs,
-and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants.” Other
-products from more southern portions of Arabia are enumerated,
-but no horses. This is the initial step toward the general distribution
-of horses, by the Phœnician merchants, which will be
-developed in the next chapter.</p>
-
-<p>In speaking of Media (Vol. II., p. 265), Strabo says: “The
-country is peculiarly adapted, as well as Armenia, to the breeding
-of horses.” Of one district not far from the Caspian he remarks:
-“Here, it is said, fifty thousand mares were pastured in
-the time of the Persians, and were the king’s stud. The Nessæan
-horses, the best and the largest in the king’s province,
-were of this breed, according to some writers, but according to
-others they were from Armenia.” Again he says: “Cappadocia
-paid to the Persians, yearly, in addition to a tribute in silver,
-one thousand five hundred horses, two thousand mules, and fifty
-thousand sheep, and the Medes contributed nearly double this
-amount.”</p>
-
-<p>Of Armenia he says, p. 271: “The country is so well adapted,
-being nothing inferior in this respect to Media, for breeding horses
-that the race of Nessæan horses, which the king of Persia used,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span>
-is found here also; the satrap of Armenia used to send annually
-to the king of Persia twenty thousand young horses.”</p>
-
-<p>The Nessæan horses, so famous for their speed, were the
-“thoroughbreds” of their day, and there can hardly be a doubt
-they originated in Armenia, and, just like our own “thoroughbreds,”
-they were essentially the result of careful selection
-through a series of generations, and of breeding only from
-animals possessing the desired qualifications in the highest
-degree. In the earlier days of racing in Media, it appears that
-white was the fashionable color, but I am disposed to think that
-grey, growing white with age, was the color intended to be expressed
-by the writers of that period. The “albino” color is
-abnormal and supposed to indicate tenderness and lack of stamina.</p>
-
-<p>There is one fact, in considering this question, to which I have
-probably not given sufficient prominence and weight. So far as
-the records go, the three countries of Armenia, Cappadocia, and
-Media are synchronous in having mounted troops in their
-armies seventeen hundred years before the Christian era. We
-must, therefore, consider the conditions of these countries antecedent
-to the period of 1700 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> Of Cappadocia we know absolutely
-nothing historically until it was conquered by Cyrus, king
-of Persia, about 588 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> Of Media the earliest knowledge we
-have of a historical character does not go back further than about
-842 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> It should be observed that I here speak of “historical”
-knowledge and not of uncertain traditions of many centuries
-earlier. Both of these nations with their distinctive nationalities
-have, long since, been wiped off the surface of the earth.</p>
-
-<p>When we reach Armenia, we reach a people with a most remarkable
-history, extending back for more than four thousand
-years. This history, although not wholly free from criticism or
-doubt, seems to be honestly written and worthy of a liberal
-measure of confidence. That the children of Japheth should
-have settled at the foot of the mountains of Ararat strikes every
-one as a very natural event, but that their descendants should still
-be there, through all the triumphs and oppressions of four thousand
-years, is one of the most stupendous facts in the history of
-the world. From the very first we know of them they seem to
-have been an agricultural people, strongly attached to their
-native soil. When they ruled over the land from the Caspian to
-the Mediterranean, they built no great cities, but adhered steadfastly
-to the rural pursuits of their fathers, and this, probably,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span>
-was the chief cause of their weakness. Their wealth and sources
-of wealth were chiefly in their horses, and these they sold to the
-merchants of Sidon and Tyre, who carried them to all the nations
-of Europe and Africa, commencing with Egypt, and supplying all
-wants as far as Spain and Morocco, and beyond, probably, as far
-as Britain. The Phœnician merchants were the first to open
-commercial transactions with Europe and Africa, and they were
-in control of the commerce of the world long before King Solomon
-entered into commercial partnership with Hiram, king of Tyre.
-Armenia had horses to sell long before they had horses in Egypt,
-and Phœnicia had ships and enterprise to carry them there.
-There is a fitting of interests here that seems to point to Armenia
-as the great original source of supply, and as the original habitat
-of the horse.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br />
-<span class="smaller">EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF HORSES.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>First evidences of horses in Egypt about 1700 B.C.—Supported by Egyptian
-records and history—The Patriarch Job had no horses—Solomon’s great
-cavalry force organized—Arabia as described by Strabo at the beginning of
-our era—No horses then in Arabia—Constantius sends two hundred
-Cappadocian horses into Arabia <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 356—Arabia the last country to be
-supplied with horses—The ancient Phœnician merchants and their colonies
-—Hannibal’s cavalry forces in the Punic Wars—Distant ramifications of
-Phœnician trade and colonization—Commerce reached as far as Britain and
-the Baltic—Probable source of Britain’s earliest horses.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Having considered the different theories or opinions as to the
-original habitat of the horse and the means and facilities by which
-distribution to the different portions of the earth may have been
-effected, I have omitted land migration, which will be self-evident
-to all as an important factor in the problem. It is now in order,
-therefore, to consider such dates and facts as are pertinent and
-may be gleaned from history, sacred and profane.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus3">
-<p class="transnote">Transcriber’s Note: the map can be clicked for a larger version.</p>
-<a href="images/illus3.jpg"><img src="images/illus3-small.jpg" width="400" height="240" alt="" /></a>
-<p class="caption">PHŒNICIAN COLONIES</p>
-<p class="caption">ABOUT 1200 B.C.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>When Abraham, with Sarah his wife, visited Egypt about 1920
-B.C., the Pharaoh for her sake bestowed upon him many gifts:
-“Sheep and oxen and he asses and men servants and maid servants
-and she asses and camels.” Among these great gifts there
-were no horses, evidently because Egypt had no horses at that
-time. There is no mention nor reference to horses in Egypt till
-Joseph became prime minister two hundred years later, when
-there were a few horses, and they were traded or sold to Joseph by
-their owners in exchange for food, not in droves, but as individuals.
-These scriptural facts in the experiences of Abraham and
-Joseph seem to be circumstantially sustained by the discoveries
-of those learned Egyptologists who, in late years and with the
-spade in their hands, have resurrected so much of history that had
-been buried for thousands of years. It was during the reign of
-the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, that Abraham and Joseph were
-in Egypt, and in order to approximate the time when horses were
-first introduced, we must glance at a few facts in connection with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span>
-what is known of the Hyksos. Some have claimed they were from
-Chaldea, some from Northern Syria and Asia Minor, and some
-again from Phœnicia, and it is one of the strangest things in history
-that a great nation should be overthrown and held in subjection
-for over five hundred years and nobody know who did it.
-Then again, it is equally incomprehensible that any nation should
-have subdued Egypt and held it in bondage so long and yet never
-have claimed the honor of having done so. Still another mystery
-remains that never has been solved, and that is, what became of
-the Shepherds and their followers when they were driven out?
-At the period of the conquest the governing class was rent by
-factions and under a weak and tyrannical king. The Delta and
-the Valley of the Nile were crowded with slaves, many of them
-of Asiatic origin. The elevated plains and mountain sides were
-covered with fierce and intractable nomads, all of Asiatic origin,
-tending their flocks. Some brave and skillful shepherd organized
-the shepherds and the slaves and at their head swept down upon
-the government with a power that was so mighty as to be irresistible.
-Manetho, the great Egyptian historian of more than
-two thousand years ago, thus describes the event: “Under this
-king, then, I know not wherefore, the god caused to blow upon
-us a baleful wind, and in the face of all probability bands from
-the East, people of ignoble race, came upon us unawares, attacked
-the country and subdued it easily and without fighting.”
-In remarking upon this same event Professor Maspero, who stands
-at the very head of the Egyptologists, says: “It is possible that they
-(the shepherds) owed this rapid victory to the presence in their
-armies of a factor hitherto unknown to the Africans—the war
-chariot—and before the horse and his driver the Egyptians gave
-way in a body.” In view of the direct declaration of Manetho
-that the question of the succession was settled “without fighting,”
-the mere suggestion of an unsustained “possibility” from
-Maspero that the result may have been determined by the war
-chariots cannot be accepted. All the authorities agree that the
-horse was introduced into Egypt at some period during the rule
-of the Shepherd Kings, but there is absolutely no evidence that
-this was at the beginning or anywhere near the beginning of that
-rule.</p>
-
-<p>No records or delineations of the horse have been found in any
-of the temples or tombs of Egypt prior to the beginning of the
-eighteenth dynasty, which was probably about the year 1570 B.C.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span>
-and contemporaneous with the birth of Moses. If the Shepherd
-Kings left behind them any records or delineations of the horse
-it would be quite natural for the true kingly line to destroy and
-erase every vestige of whatever would revive a memory to them so
-bitter and hateful. But the absence of all traces of horses under
-the seventeenth dynasty of the Shepherds does not prove that
-there was none, for we have direct proof in Joseph’s case that
-they were there one hundred and fifty-six years, and in Jacob’s
-burial one hundred and nineteen years before the beginning of
-the eighteenth dynasty.</p>
-
-<p>The question as to the time when they procured their horses
-having now been approximately settled, the inquiry naturally
-follows as to where they came from? In answering this question
-there seems to be no hesitation or doubt. They came from
-Northern Syria, which embraces not only the northeastern
-coast of the Mediterranean, including Phœnicia, but the countries
-north and east of it trading there, which means the great horse-breeding
-countries of Armenia and Cappadocia. Being largely
-engaged in the Egyptian trade for many centuries, it is probable
-the Phœnician merchants were the principal agents in supplying
-them. In speaking of the horse in Egypt, Prof. Maspero says:
-“The horse when once introduced into Egypt soon became fairly
-adapted to its environment. It retained both its height and
-size, keeping the convex forehead—which gave the head a slightly
-curved profile—the slender neck, the narrow hind-quarters, the
-lean and sinewy legs and the long, flowing tail which had characterized
-it in its native country. The climate, however, was
-enervating, and constant care had to be taken, by the introduction
-of new blood from Syria, to prevent the breed from deteriorating.
-The Pharaohs kept studs of horses in the principal
-cities of the Nile valley, and the great feudal lords, following their
-example, vied with each other in the possession of numerous
-breeding stables.”</p>
-
-<p>There are some facts here that are worthy of special emphasis:
-(1) There were no horses in Egypt till the period of the Shepherd
-Kings, i. e., about the time of Joseph. (2) All Egyptologists
-down to the present day agree that the supply of Egyptian horses
-was procured from Northern Syria. (3) The Egyptians and the
-Arabians were adjoining nations in constant, friendly intercourse,
-exchanging the products of their respective countries, and yet
-there is no shadow of an intimation that the Arabians had then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span>
-ever owned a horse. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, not
-only from what is written, but from what is implied, that the
-Arabians at about the period of 1600 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> had no horses. Northern
-Syria, as the source of Egyptian supply, points directly to
-Armenia, adjoining on the east, as the original source. When
-Strabo wrote at the beginning of the Christian era that there
-were no horses in Arabia at that time, he would still have been
-within the bounds of the truth if he had said there had been
-none there for more the sixteen hundred years before his day.
-All these considerations confirm the history that has come down
-to us from Philostorgius.</p>
-
-<p>As early as the dynasties of the Shepherd Kings and while the
-Israelites were still in Egyptian bondage, the Phœnician merchants
-had accumulated great wealth and great power and were
-literally the masters of the seas. The Phœnicians were a commercial
-and maritime people and the Egyptians were, in fact, dependent
-upon them for all their foreign supplies. These conditions
-leave hardly a doubt that Egypt’s first supply of horses came
-through the Phœnicians. But upon the establishment of the
-eighteenth dynasty under the old Thebans, the spirit of war and
-conquest revived, and under Thutmosis I. and Thutmosis III.,
-notably, numerous and successful campaigns were made against
-Northern Syria and then extending eastward across the Euphrates
-into the borders of Armenia and Assyria. And from the number
-of horses and chariots captured in battle and collected as tribute,
-the careful student cannot avoid the conclusion that this kind of
-spoil was the chief incentive to the various campaigns. “Besides
-the usual species,” Maspero informs us, “powerful stallions were
-imported from Northern Syria, which were known by the Semitic
-name of <i>Abiri</i>, the strong.” This is the first mention in history
-of an improved type of horse noted for his strength.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever may have been the precise period in which the Patriarch
-Job lived, he was the author of the grandest panegyric on
-the war-horse that ever was written. Yet it seems strange that
-he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five
-hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she asses, but did not
-own a horse. To draw his picture of the war-horse he must have
-seen him in action, on the field, and it is not improbable in his
-younger days he witnessed, or possibly participated in, some great
-battle between the Babylonians and the Persians, north of the
-latitude and country in which he lived. It is now generally conceded,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span>
-I think, among learned men that the “land of Uz” was in
-the southeastern portion of Arabia Deserta, bordering on the
-Persian Gulf, where the horse is a useless luxury. Job was a
-very rich man, he certainly did not lack in admiration of the
-horse, and if he had thought that horses would add to his comfort
-and enjoyment he could easily have obtained them from the great
-herds in the north. But the camel is the great beast of service
-and utility in Arabia; it was so in Job’s time, it is so to-day, and
-it always will be so because it is suited to the environment.</p>
-
-<p>When Joshua was subduing the tribes of Canaan, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 1450, he
-found that the Phœnicians had several well-fortified cities and
-did not attack them, but he encountered a combination of
-“Northern Kings” with a vast army and “with horses and chariots
-very many.” His victory was complete, and he houghed their
-horses and burned their chariots with fire.</p>
-
-<p>Jabin, called the King of Canaan, in the time of the Judges,
-had his kingdom on the northern border of Palestine and east of
-Phœnicia, at the southern extension of Mount Lebanon. Sisera,
-one of the greatest commanders of the time, B.C. 1285, commanded
-his army and he had nine hundred chariots of iron, but
-the victory of the Israelites was complete.</p>
-
-<p>In the year <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 1056, David pursued some of the tribes of
-Western Arabia that had made a raid on Southern Palestine and
-carried away many captives and much spoil. He overtook them
-with his own followers and subdued them, and none escaped except
-four hundred young men who fled on camels. He recovered
-all the captives and brought back all the flocks and herds, but
-there were no horses among them. About the same time, historians
-inform us, the tribes of Eastern Arabia were paying their
-tribute to the Assyrians in camels and asses, while the northern
-countries were paying theirs in horses and money.</p>
-
-<p>The Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 992, to learn of
-his wisdom and “to prove him with hard questions.” Her kingdom
-was in that part of southeastern Arabia now called Yemen,
-bordering on the Red Sea. Her journey was a very long one and
-she “came with a very great train of camels that bare spices and
-very much gold and precious stones.” It will be observed that
-there were no horses in this “very great train.” It will be observed
-further, from the incidents above related, that whenever
-the Israelites met their neighbors north of them, whether in
-peace or war, they met horses with them; and whenever they met<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span>
-their neighbors south of them, they were mounted only on
-camels.</p>
-
-<p>When the dominions of Solomon had become vastly extended,
-embracing numbers of tributary kingdoms, as well as nomadic
-tribes, and when his ships had gathered in untold riches from all
-parts of the world, he found it prudent to reorganize his army
-for the defense of his kingdom and his wealth, and on a scale
-commensurate with the dangers that might arise from a combination
-of the jealous and envious neighbors with whom he was surrounded.
-Among the northern kingdoms of that day it had been
-often demonstrated in battle that the effective force of an army
-must be estimated by its strength in horsemen and chariots of
-war. Solomon, therefore, bought horses and chariots from Egypt,
-and horses from all lands that had them for sale. It is probable
-that the superiority of the Egyptian chariots was the special
-reason for buying them in that country, as he paid six hundred
-shekels of silver for the chariots and one hundred and fifty for
-the horses to bring them home. The reorganized army consisted
-of one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen,
-and they were quartered in the different large cities in his
-dominions. In the interval of seven hundred and twenty-eight
-years that had elapsed since Joseph was Prime Minister, and
-horses introduced in Egypt, they had greatly multiplied. When
-Solomon died and his kingdom was divided into two hostile
-camps, Hiram, King of Tyre, his lifelong friend and associate,
-became virtually his successor to the trade of the world.</p>
-
-<p>The great Greek geographer, Strabo, traveled and wrote in
-the reign of Augustus, and died <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 24. For descriptions of all
-countries of that period and their industries and productions, he
-has been quoted for eighteen hundred years as the best if not the
-only authority. Writing as he did, at the very initial point of
-the Christian era, he gives us a landmark that fixes itself in the
-mind. He gives a brief, but quite satisfactory, description of
-Arabia, in which he notes the general topography and boundaries
-as they are understood to-day; and then he enters, somewhat,
-into the climate, productions of the soil, character and industries
-of the people, etc. Of one part of the country he speaks of the
-inhabitants as breeders of camels, and of another, that is more
-productive, he remarks: “The general fertility of the country is
-very great; among other products there is in particular an
-abundant supply of honey. Except horses, there are numerous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span>
-herds of animals, asses and swine, birds also of every kind, except
-geese and the gallinaceous tribes.”</p>
-
-<p>Here we have from the very highest authority the pivotal fact
-that there were no horses in Arabia at the commencement of the
-Christian era. This does not rest upon argument, nor is it a
-deduction from some condition of things that might have existed;
-but it is a distinct declaration of what Strabo saw with his own
-eyes and wrote down when he saw it. It must, therefore, stand
-as an undisputed fact, until some reputable authority is brought
-forward to contradict it. This description from Strabo applies
-to that rich portion of Arabia, bordering on the Red Sea along
-its full length. With the fact established, circumstantially and
-historically, that there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning
-of the Christian era, it now remains to consider how and when
-they were first introduced in that country.</p>
-
-<p>Philostorgius, a distinguished Greek theologian, born <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 425,
-as related in the preceding chapter, wrote an ecclesiastical history,
-which is no longer extant, but fortunately Photius, at one
-time patriarch of the Eastern church, born <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 853, prepared an
-epitome of it. This epitome of Philostorgius comes down to
-<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 425, and is to be found in the Lenox Library of this city,
-bound up in the same volume with Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical
-History. I will here quote literally from this epitome so much
-as is pertinent to the question before us. Constantius was then
-on the throne of the Eastern Empire, and labored for the promotion
-of the Christian religion.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Constantius sent ambassadors to those who were formerly called Sabæans,
-but are now known as Homeritæ, a tribe descended from Abraham, by Keturah.
-As to the territory which they inhabit, it is called by the Greeks Magna Arabia
-and Arabia Felix, and extends to the most distant part of the ocean. Its
-metropolis is Saba, the city from which the Queen of Sheba went forth to see
-Solomon.... Constantius, accordingly, sent ambassadors to them to
-come over to the Christian religion.... Constantius, wishing to array
-the embassy with peculiar splendor, put on board their ships two hundred
-well-bred horses from Cappadocia, and sent them, with many other gifts.... The
-embassy turned out successfully, for the prince of the nation, by
-sincere conviction, came over to the true religion.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Other facts might be quoted from this epitome, showing that
-Theopholis was made a bishop and placed at the head of this embassy
-and that he remained in Arabia Felix several years, prosecuting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span>
-his work successfully. It might also be quoted to show
-that the people of the cities of Yemen (Arabia Felix) were, at
-that day, well advanced in civilization and refinement, and that
-wealth and luxury abounded on all sides. Their lands, from the
-sea to the desert, were wonderfully productive, and their people
-lived in the cities and on their farms, but few leading a nomadic
-life. In later generations this part of the country, which is in
-Arabia Felix, has been called Yemen, and I believe it is universally
-conceded among the Arab tribes and by writers who have
-studied the subject that the best horses come from Yemen.</p>
-
-<p>Taking the administration of Joseph as indicating the time
-when the first horses were introduced into Egypt, about B.C.
-1720, and the actual date when Constantius sent the first into
-Arabia, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 356, we find that Egypt led Arabia by two thousand
-and seventy-six years. And yet numbers of men have written
-great pretentious books on the horse, in which they tell us that
-the Egyptians got their horses from the Arabians; while others
-equally pretentious and voluminous tell us the Arabians got their
-horses from the Egyptians; and neither class probably ever gave
-the labor of an honest hour to settle this question. The one is
-over two thousand years out of the way, and still they know just
-as much about it as the other knows. They are both equally
-ignorant and equally dishonest, for they simply copied, as their
-own, what somebody had said before them.</p>
-
-<p>It is conceded on all hands and by all men who have gone beneath
-the mere surface, that the literature of the ages furnishes no
-evidence that there were horses in Arabia before the fourth or
-fifth century of our era. General Tweedie, by far the ablest
-writer on the Arabian horse that we have examined, concedes
-the pertinency and force of the absence of all literary evidence,
-until the fifth century is reached, and as a reply he says: “The several
-Roman invasions of Arabia, in the reigns of Augustus, Trajan,
-and Severus, must have left foreign horses behind them.” This
-is, in fact, conceding the accuracy of Strabo’s representations and
-that there were no horses in Arabia at the beginning of the
-Christian era. The truth of the historical allusion is that the
-Romans never overran nor conquered Arabia. They could skirmish
-around the border and capture a few towns or cities, but
-the death-dealing desert was too much for them. Trajan at last
-made it a Roman province by his proclamation, and not by his
-sword, and for the excellent reason that “the game was not worth<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span>
-the candle.” What a strange fact it is that Arabia, instead of
-the first, should have been the last country in all the old world to
-be supplied with horses!</p>
-
-<p>It is very difficult to comprehend or even imagine the changes
-that may be wrought in a thousand years by a strong, enterprising,
-and aggressive people, colonized in a rich country occupied
-by semi-barbarians and savages. This was the condition in
-Northern Africa, when the Phœnician colonies were planted
-there, a thousand years before the Christian era. The colony at
-Utica in Algeria was planted about eleven hundred years before
-the Christian era, which was contemporaneous with the reign of
-Saul as king of Israel. The colony of Carthage, that afterward
-contested with Rome for universal dominion, was planted in the
-same country, about two hundred years later, and was contemporaneous
-with Jehu. The whole southern shore of the Mediterranean
-was dotted with Phœnician colonies, from Egypt westward.</p>
-
-<p>The oldest of the Phœnician colonies so far from home was
-probably Gades, now called Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain
-and outside of the Pillars of Hercules. This colony was planted
-about fifteen hundred years B.C. and was contemporaneous with
-Moses and the forty years’ journeying of the Israelites in the
-wilderness. The more recent scholarship seems to have developed
-the fact that still north of Gades and extending from
-the mouth of the Guadelete to that of the Guadiana, there was a
-very large and flourishing colony planted by the Phœnicians,
-possessing within itself many of the requisites and functions of
-statehood, and that this was the ancient “Tarshish” of scripture.
-This plantation became a secondary Tyre, and the “ships of Tarshish”
-not only made their voyages back and forth through the
-length of the Mediterranean, but extended them northward, up
-the European coast and to Britain, and southward along the
-African coast for a great distance, establishing trading posts
-wherever the products of a country promised profitable exchange.</p>
-
-<p>The planting of colonies in that age, even for the one ostensible
-purpose of trade, involved more than the mere erection of a
-“trading post” at some selected harbor. A strong and well-equipped
-and well-trained military force had to be employed to
-protect and defend them. The Phœnicians were great traders,
-and at the same time they were excellent fighters. Their numerous
-colonies on both shores of the Mediterranean required a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span>
-strong military force that was made up very largely of slaves and
-the nomadic tribes of the country, but always commanded by
-prominent and influential Phœnicians. It is impossible to tell
-what the very early experiences of the colonists may have been
-with regard to horses; nor do we know whether they found horses
-already there when they arrived at their new plantations. My
-belief is, however, that they were not only the first to carry
-horses to Egypt, but they were the first to carry them to the
-western extremities of the Mediterranean. It will be remembered
-that the early trade of the Armenians with the Phœnician merchants
-was not only in horses, but in <i>horsemen</i>, and it is probable
-that these “horsemen” were slaves, expert and skillful in managing
-the horse. It has been said by historians that certain classes of
-their ships were ornamented with a carved horse’s head, at the
-prow; and it has been inferred that the ships so designated were
-specially constructed and fitted up for the safe carrying of horses.
-It is true that in the course of the centuries horses may have
-found their way from Egypt westward to Algeria, and by crossing
-the Bosphorus they might have found their way from Asia
-Minor to Spain, but it is also true that from small beginnings at
-the plantation of the colonies there was ample time for them to
-increase to almost countless herds before the period when the
-colonists became a mighty military power in the earth.</p>
-
-<p>Historians tell us that the military establishment of the city
-of Carthage alone, when on a peace footing, consisted of three
-hundred elephants, four thousand horses and forty thousand foot
-soldiers. When Hannibal started out to fight Rome, in the second
-Punic war, say <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 218, he had with him eighty thousand footmen
-and twelve thousand horsemen; and he left thirty-two thousand
-soldiers at home to guard his Spanish and his African
-dominions. With a proportional division of the home troops, he
-then had about seventeen thousand mounted men in his army.
-These were not war levies, but hardened and trained soldiers, and
-it is, therefore, not remarkable that he held nearly the whole of
-Spain in subjection, and practically all of Northwestern Africa.
-Polybius, the soldier historian, tells us that “his Numidian
-cavalry formed the strongest part of his army, and to their quick
-evolutions, their sudden retreat, and their rapid return to the
-charge, may be attributed the success of Hannibal in his great
-victories.” At an earlier period, we learn that in the organization
-of the Phœnician armies the numerous nomadic tribes were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span>
-placed on their flanks, and wheeled about on unsaddled horses
-guided by a bridle of rushes.</p>
-
-<p>At a very remote period there were two tribes in the interior of
-Spain, the Celtæ and Iberi, that were greatly distinguished for
-their love of independence and their bravery in defending it.
-The antiquarians have failed to give us any information as to
-what they were or whence they came. They were contemporaneous
-with some of the early colonies of the Phœnicians. Their
-tactics in battle seemed to have been to break the enemy’s ranks by
-a charge as cavalry, and to then dismount and fight on foot. They
-united as one people and called themselves Celtiberi. Where
-they got their horses, or whether they had them before the
-Phœnicians arrived, are questions that cannot be answered.</p>
-
-<p>The Visigoths, or western Goths, overran Northern Italy, settled
-in Southern France and eventually passed over into Spain,
-where they established a dynasty that lasted over two centuries and
-until it was overthrown by the Saracens, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 711. Roderick,
-the king of the Visigoths, went out to battle with the Saracens,
-arrayed in his most showy apparel, and mounted on his splendid
-chariot, made of ivory and set with precious stones. As the battle
-progressed he saw what he had good reason to believe was
-treachery on the part of one wing of his army and he alighted
-from his chariot, mounted his horse called Orelia and rode away
-while his soldiers were being butchered. He was the last of the
-Gothic dynasty. There had been a battle between the navies of the
-Saracens and the Goths, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 680, fifty-one years earlier, in which
-the fleet of the Saracens had been entirely destroyed, and at that
-time the Saracens occupied the whole of the southern shore of
-the Mediterranean. The word “Moors,” as often used to designate
-the people of Northern Africa, is not well chosen, for it really
-belongs to but one of many different tribes of different names.
-The term “Saracen” anciently meant only an Arab born, but
-since the middle ages it has come to mean any and all adherents
-to the Mohammedan religion, in the usage of Christian people,
-and is particularly apposite when speaking of a number of tribes
-engaged in a common cause.</p>
-
-<p>The people of Northern Africa were not negroes as we understand
-the word, but a mixture of different races. When the
-Phœnicians settled among them they were nomadic barbarians,
-possessing a country of great riches without knowing it. Under
-the tuition of their new masters they made great advances in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span>
-many of the arts of peace and in all the arts of war. The Phœnician
-blood was liberally commingled with that of the natives.
-The blood carried the brains, and hence the beautiful structures
-that came from their hands and heads. No purely bred nomad
-ever could have conceived or constructed the Alhambra. The
-Phœnicians were refined and educated idolaters, as refinement and
-education were understood in their day, while the native people
-were literally barbarians.</p>
-
-<p>The then recent and rapid spread of Mohammedanism among
-all the people of Northern Africa is, on its surface, one of the
-most remarkable facts in history. As a religion it served to
-unite, under the banner of the Crescent, all who accepted it, and
-guaranteed to all who fell in its defense immediate admission to
-paradise. All who did not accept it were enemies and only fit to
-perish by the sword of the Saracen. The founder of this religion
-died A.D. 632, and seventy-nine years afterward his followers, in
-Northern Africa alone, won their great victory over the Gothic
-dynasty of Spain. When once on Spanish soil they appeared to
-take root there and held possession of a large part of Spain for
-nearly nine hundred years.</p>
-
-<p>Now that I have traversed the field of Spain and Northern
-Africa, from the first dawnings of history down to the beginning
-of the seventeenth century, in order to gather in all that history
-reveals touching the introduction and propagation of the horse
-in those regions, we are ready to summarize the facts that we
-have gleaned. At the periods of six hundred (when Carthage became
-independent of the mother country), four hundred, and
-two hundred years before the Christian era, there is undoubted
-evidence, over and over again, that Spain and Northern Africa
-were abundantly supplied with horses. Then, how is it possible
-that the hordes of Barbarians from Asia could have supplied these
-countries with horses, when they did not arrive there until
-several centuries after the supply is established to have existed?
-Take, if you please, the shortest of the periods suggested above,
-when Hannibal’s cavalry almost annihilated a great Roman army,
-two hundred and sixteen years before the Christian era. This
-was five hundred and seventy-two years before Arabia had any
-horses; and how can “the blind leaders of the blind” supply
-Hannibal’s cavalry with Arabian blood? When the people of
-Northern Africa, west of Egypt, fought their way into Spain it is
-not known that there was a single Arabian soldier nor a single<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span>
-Arabian horse in the whole army. They were all called Arabians,
-however, and that pretense has existed ever since.</p>
-
-<p>The Phœnicians were the most remarkable people of all the
-early ages and indeed of any age. They belonged to the Aramaic
-or Semitic race; they settled in Canaan long before the days of
-Abraham and attained their greatest prosperity in the days of
-Solomon, when his fleets and those of his friend Hiram, King of
-Tyre, controlled and monopolized the commerce of the world.
-More than five hundred years before this alliance, however, they
-had established commercial relations with all the countries bordering
-on the Mediterranean, and their ships were trading in the
-ports of every country from Egypt to the Pillars of Hercules and
-far beyond. There seems to be no doubt that they carried tin
-from Britain and amber from the Baltic, and, of course, they
-had to bring something to exchange for what they carried away.
-What did they bring? As amber did not enter into the necessary
-arts it is not probable the trade was very large, but tin was required
-by many nations in their everyday life, especially the
-Egyptians, who had no foreign commerce and were thus dependent
-upon the Phœnician merchants. We may conclude, therefore,
-that the trade in tin was large, and as there was no Phœnician
-colony in extreme southwestern Britain, the foreign traders
-would bring just what the Britons most needed. If they were
-already in possession of horses they would not need that kind of
-exchange, but if they were not in possession of horses, that would
-be just the kind of exchange they would want, and probably this
-was the source from which they obtained their supply. The
-question, however, of how or when our British ancestors obtained
-their first supply of horses has never been positively answered.
-That they had them in great abundance at the beginning of the
-Christian era is fully established by the experience of the Romans
-when they captured Britain. From their great numbers and the
-skill displayed in their management in battle, it cannot be
-doubted that they were there for many generations before the
-Roman armies came in contact with them. Many theories have
-been advanced as to how the horse may have reached Britain, but
-no one of them rests on so reasonable a basis of probability as
-that of the Phœnician traders. If from this source, which I am
-strongly disposed to believe was the true source, it must have
-been during the maritime supremacy of the Phœnicians and their
-colonies, and this would place the date several centuries before<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span>
-the Christian era. If we were able to reconstruct the original
-line of the migration of the early English horses, we would, probably,
-first find them in “the land of Togarmah” starting to
-market at Tyre, where they were exchanged for supplies needed
-in Armenia. There they were put on board one of the great
-“ships of Tarshish,” and when they next touched the land it was
-at one of the ports at the southwestern portion of England, where
-they were exchanged for tin and other products of the mines.</p>
-
-<p>In addition to the argument furnished by this known course of
-trade between nations and peoples, in prehistoric times, we have
-an additional one in the natural perpetuation of racial qualities,
-extending through many centuries. In reply to some questions
-submitted to a friend of mine who was born in Western Persia,
-educated in this country, and then returned to the land of his
-nativity, I have replies to my questions bearing date of July,
-1896. He is located at Oroomiah, not far from the modern line
-between Persia and Turkey, and in what may be considered the
-very center of ancient Armenia. He is not skilled in horse lore,
-but he uses horses a great deal and is a very intelligent observer.
-He says that the Persian horses have been greatly overrated and
-that the country is full of very ordinary horses. He says that
-they are all colors, with bays probably predominating. There is
-a great variety of mixed greys, shading into white, and a few that
-are dappled. Then there are chestnuts, sorrels, “mouse-color”
-(duns), and not many blacks. They are small, as a rule, and a
-harness of small size from this country has to be cut down for
-them. From this I infer that they are generally under fourteen
-hands. On the whole the horses are nicely shaped, have slender,
-clean limbs, small ears, and carry the head and tail well up. As a
-rule they are great stumblers. With regard to gaits he says that
-stress is laid on a rapid walk—a half walk and half trot. In this
-country we would call it the “running walk” that may be kept
-up for days in succession. In speaking of the pace, my correspondent
-says: “There are some horses trained to pace, while
-some pick it up naturally, that is, are born pacers. The greater
-number are natural pacers. Now and then one will find a rapid
-pacer, but commonly the pace is a five or six miles an hour gait.
-There are some that single-foot naturally, and from birth.”</p>
-
-<p>He then says horses are not bred with any care. They are turned
-loose in herds and the breeding is such as would naturally occur.</p>
-
-<p>It will be observed that my Persian friend speaks of the different<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span>
-colors “of grey, shading into white,” which suggests a possible
-descent from the famous breed of white Nissæan horses kept
-by the great Darius and other Medo-Persian monarchs for racing
-purposes. But the striking feature in this description of the
-horses of Persia, or more properly, of ancient Armenia, of this
-day, is the fact that they are of the same size and color and
-habits of action as the horses of Britain when first visited by the
-Romans, as well as when they were more minutely described
-twelve hundred years later, and as they were at the beginning of
-the seventeenth century, and as they still were at the middle of
-the eighteenth century. As evidence on these points reference
-is made to the chapters on horses of the colonial period that will
-follow in their place. In ancient Armenia, as with all pastoral
-people of the early ages, horses were turned out to run in herds
-and literally left to Mr. Darwin’s law of “natural selection and
-the survival of the fittest.” So it was in Britain to a great extent,
-until the eighteenth century, and so it was in the American
-colonies until fifty years later; hence the same types and characteristics
-prevailed and were perpetuated in all these countries.</p>
-
-<p>It is sad to contemplate the present debased and semi-barbarous
-condition of the descendants of a great people who for centuries
-stood first among all the nations of the earth in commercial enterprise,
-in learning, and in the arts. The banishment of the
-Saracens from Spain in the beginning of the seventeenth century
-of our era was in fact the banishment of the descendants of the
-Phœnicians who first colonized Spain. The architectural structures
-which they left behind them, and which for their marvelous
-beauty have challenged the admiration of the world, were not
-the work of nomads and barbarians. They were the flashes of
-the old Phœnician taste and genius as exemplified by the descendants
-of the men whom Hiram sent to construct and decorate
-the buildings of Solomon. The Alhambra and some other structures
-in Spain are all that we have to remind us of the genius,
-and grandeur of Phœnicia. Whatever may have been the character
-and attainments of the descendants of the colonists at the
-time, the change from idolatry to Islamism was a bad one.
-Wherever, throughout the world, the teachings of the “Prophet”
-have been accepted, whole nations have become intolerant, murderous
-and brutalized, and the modern Phœnicians are no exception.
-They have now lost their identity in the follies and crimes
-of Islamism and we can have no sympathy for them.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE ARABIAN HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The Arabian, the horse of romance—The horse naturally foreign to Arabia—
-Superiority of the camel for all Arabian needs—Scarcity of horses in Arabia
-in Mohammed’s time—Various preposterous traditions of Arab horsemanship—The
-Prophet’s mythical mares—Mohammed not in any sense a
-horseman—Early English Arabians—the Markham Arabian—The alleged
-Royal Mares—The Darley Arabian—The Godolphin Arabian—The Prince
-of Wales’ Arabian race horses—Mr. Blunt’s pilgrimage to the Euphrates—His
-purchases of so-called Arabians—Deyr as a great horse market where
-everything is thoroughbred—Failure of Mr. Blunt’s experiments—Various
-Arabian horses brought to America—Horses sent to our Presidents—Disastrous
-experiments of A. Keene Richards—Tendency of Arab romancing
-from Ben Hur.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Admiration always leads to exaggeration. This is true in
-most of the relations of life, but in our admiration of the horse it
-becomes greatly intensified, so greatly indeed that in magnifying
-his excellent qualities we find ourselves telling downright falsehoods
-about him before we know it. This “amiable weakness,”
-as we might call it, is true of our everyday life and our everyday
-horses; but when we come to the horse that is the universal ideal
-of perfection, everybody seems to lay aside all the restraints of
-truth in extolling the superiority of his qualities. The “Arabian
-horse” is the ideal horse of all the world. He is the “gold
-standard” in all horsedom, with the one important distinction
-that the one is real and the other is mythical. Not one so-called
-horseman in a million ever saw a genuine Arabian horse, nor any
-of the descendants of one; and in all the discussions of the past
-three hundred and fifty years it has never been shown in a single
-instance that a horse from Arabia, with an authenticated pedigree
-and tracing as such, has ever been of any value, either as a
-race horse or as a progenitor of race horses. The superior qualities
-of “the Arabian horse,” like the superior qualities of “The
-Arabian Nights,” are purely works of the imagination. There
-is just as much truth in the stories of Sindbad the Sailor and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span>
-Aladdin’s Lamp as there is in most of the literature relating to
-the Arabian horse.</p>
-
-<p>I am fully satisfied that these views of the Arabian horse will
-not meet with a ready acceptance by the vast majority of the
-horsemen of this or any other country, but my reasons for presenting
-them will become apparent as the discussion progresses.
-They smash too many idols and dispel too many chimeras of the
-brain to be readily accepted. It takes the average man a long
-time to get clear of the prejudices in which he was born, and the
-first question that will be asked by the doubter is, “Why could
-not Arabia have supported a race of indigenous wild horses, as
-well as any other country?” Because the horse, wild or tame,
-has never learned to dig a well forty feet deep, nor to draw water
-after it is dug. Neither has he learned to lay up a store in time
-of plenty against a time of famine. The horse could not live in
-Arabia without the care of man. And, second, “Why were all the
-civilized and semi-civilized nations west of Asia supplied with
-horses a thousand years before Arabia, when so near the original
-habitat of the horse?” It is the first law of our nature to supply
-ourselves with what we need. The camel always has been a
-necessity to the Arab, not only to carry him and his burdens, but
-to furnish nourishment and sustenance to him and his family.
-The camel is adapted to the country and the country to the
-camel, and no other created animal can fill that place. He is,
-literally, “the ship of the desert.” The horse in Arabia is a
-luxury that can be indulged in only by the rich; hence his ownership
-is practically restricted to the chiefs of tribes. He is never
-used except for display and war. Palgrave, in speaking specially
-of the Nejd tribe, says: “A horse is by no means an article of
-everyday possession, or of ordinary or working use. No genuine
-Arab would ever dream of mounting his horse for a mere peaceful
-journey, whether for a short or a long distance.”</p>
-
-<p>When we consider the immeasurable superiority of the camel
-to the horse in meeting the wants and necessities of the Arab,
-we will not be surprised at the immense herds of the former and
-the small numbers of the latter that are bred and reared in that
-country. A camel can go four days without water, and under
-stress, it is said, a good one can cover the distance of two hundred
-miles in twenty-four hours. The camel and the country
-are suited to each other, while the horse is an exotic, and has no
-part in any industrial interest except raiding and robbery. My<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span>
-attention was first called to this unexpected smallness in the
-numbers of Arabian horses in the seventh century, two hundred
-and sixty years after the introduction of the original stock from
-Cappadocia. The flight of Mohammed from his enemies in
-Mecca to Medina took place <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 622. There, setting up as a
-Prophet, and as holding communications with Heaven, he soon
-gathered around him a number who believed in his divine inspiration.
-Understanding the habits and instincts of his followers,
-he soon found he must give them something to do. He
-called them about him, mounted a camel, and at their head he
-was successful in plundering two or three caravans, which greatly
-enraged his old enemies at Mecca. Whether the anger of his
-enemies was kindled anew because some of the plunder belonged
-in Mecca, or whether he merely deprived the Meccans of the opportunity
-of doing the plundering themselves, the historian fails
-to make clear. Whichever may have been the underlying reason,
-it led to war. In the first campaign of the Meccans and in the
-first battle fought, they far outnumbered the followers of the
-Prophet. There were some camels in Mohammed’s train, but no
-horses. He did not lead the battle himself, but remained in his
-tent and promised his followers that all who fell in battle would
-be forthwith admitted into Paradise. They believed the promise,
-as millions and millions have believed it since; it inspired them
-with a recklessness of life, and they were completely victorious.
-The result of this victory was the capture of one hundred and
-fifteen camels and fourteen horses, besides the entire camp of the
-enemy. In the battle of the next year (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 625) between the
-same parties, the forces were much increased on both sides. Sir
-William Muir, the historian, informs us that Mohammed had but
-two horses in his army, one of which he mounted himself and
-took command of his forces. This battle was not decisive. In
-subsequent raids he captured many enemies and traded his female
-captives for horses with the surrounding tribes, so far as he was
-able to obtain them. The next year he had an army of three
-thousand men and thirty-six horses, while the enemy had an
-army of three thousand men, of whom two hundred were cavalry,
-but there was no fighting. The fame of Mohammed as a successful
-and relentless pillager and destroyer had now spread far
-and wide, and as a means of escape the chiefs of the larger portion
-of the tribes of Arabia hastened to tender their allegiance
-and obey his commands. From this forward, therefore, we must<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span>
-consider Mohammed as the representative of the whole of Arabia,
-in both its religious and military power. The next year his old
-enemies, the citizens of Mecca, surrendered the sacred city to
-him without a blow, and thus Islamism became a mighty power
-in the world.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident from many sources other than the history of
-Mohammed that horses have always been a very sparse production
-in Arabia. Burckhardt, the famous traveler in the East,
-journeyed very extensively in Arabia about 1814, and he gives
-the result of his observations on this point of numbers as follows:
-“In all the journey from Mecca to Medina, between the mountains
-and the sea, a distance of at least two hundred and sixty
-miles, I do not believe that two hundred horses could be found,
-and the same proportion of numbers may be remarked all along
-the Red Sea.” This is in strict conformity with the observations
-of other writers, the reasons for which have already been given.</p>
-
-<p>Time out of mind, everybody has heard of the insuperable
-difficulty of prevailing upon an Arab to part with his genuine,
-high-caste mare for either love or money. He will expatiate, as
-the story goes, upon “the beauty and graces of his mare as the
-light of his household and the joy and playmate of his children,
-and above all as she is royally bred he cannot, as a good Moslem,
-disobey the injunctions of the Prophet not to sell such mares, but
-to keep them forever that their descendants may enrich the
-children of the faithful to all generations.” If you ask him
-more particularly about her lines of descent, he will give you fifty
-or a hundred generations and land you safely on the name of the
-particular one of the five mares of the Prophet from which she is
-descended. To illustrate the sham of all this Major Upton’s experience,
-in purchasing horses in Arabia for the East India
-service, may be cited. It is evident the major understands his
-dealers and they understand him. He says: “In the desert we
-never heard of Mohammed’s mares, nor was his name ever mentioned
-in any way as connected with the Arabian horse.” He
-says there is no restriction nor difficulty in buying as many mares
-as you want, in any part of Arabia. This disposes of the tricky
-pretenses of the Arab horse dealer when he is negotiating a sale
-to a man without Arabian experience.</p>
-
-<p>Some modern writers make mention of a tradition that still
-prevails among some tribes as to the origin of the Arabian horse,
-and it is to the effect that their best horses came originally from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span>
-Yemen. This tradition is met with in Arabia Deserta, a long
-way from Arabia Felix, of which Yemen is a portion. While
-this tradition is of no possible value as evidence, it is suggestive
-of what might be unearthed in that strange country. The people
-were not nomadic, but agricultural and commercial, and the cities
-were rich. The people were well advanced in the arts and comforts
-of civilized life, and in their cities they had many beautiful
-temples and palaces. Such a people would of necessity produce
-learned men who would leave records of their national history
-behind them, and especially that of such an event as the conversion
-of the whole people to Christianity. Possibly the researches
-of scholarly men may yet bring to light more of the facts connected
-with the embassy from the Emperor Constantius and
-the introduction of the Cappadocian horses into Yemen, as related
-in the preceding chapters.</p>
-
-<p>There are many other traditions, so called, that are burnished
-up and brought out whenever the crafty dealer finds he has a
-Richards from America, or a Blunt from England, with his mind
-already made up that all the best horses of the world have come
-from Arabia. To such a customer, with his mind already at high
-tension in search for the longest pedigree and the purest blood,
-the dealer casts his hook in something like the form following:</p>
-
-<p>“When King Solomon had completed the temple he turned his
-attention to supplying his army with horses and chariots. He
-searched every nation that had horses for sale and would have
-none but the very best that the world could produce. He spent
-much of his time in admiring his beautiful horses, and one day
-he was so thoroughly absorbed that the hour of prayer passed
-without his observing it. He felt that this neglect to pray at the
-proper time was a great sin, and that his horses had led him into
-it. He did not hesitate longer, but he at once ordered all his
-horses to be turned loose to the public. Some of my ancestors
-succeeded in securing six of these mares, and from these six
-mares all the good horses of Arabia are descended.”</p>
-
-<p>Other dealers are a little more modest in their claims for the
-antiquity of the pedigrees of their horses, and generously knock
-off about sixteen hundred years, being content to trace to the
-mares of the Prophet instead of the mares of Solomon. This
-still leaves them with a pedigree only about twelve hundred years
-long, which beats our modern romancers in making stud books.
-In order to test and select the mares that were worthy of becoming<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span>
-the dams of the best horses, as the story goes, the Prophet
-shut up a herd of mares, in plain sight of water, and kept them
-there till they were almost famished with thirst; and then at a
-signal they were all released at once, and when rushing headlong
-to the water the trumpet sounds, and notwithstanding their
-sufferings they turn and align themselves up in military order.
-In this test of obedience and discipline, it is said, only five of the
-mares obeyed the signal (some say only three) and thus the mares
-that obeyed, notwithstanding their sufferings, became justly entitled
-to the distinctive and honored name of “The Prophet’s
-Mares.” Another story is told of the particular markings which,
-in the Prophet’s estimation, indicated the best horses. By one
-authority he always selected a black horse with a white “forehead,”
-and some white mark or marks on his upper lip. Another
-authority says he always chose a bay horse with a bald face
-and four white legs, and so we might go on till we had embraced
-every color and every combination of marks, and we would then
-find that each “authority” had a horse to sell corresponding with
-the Prophet’s preferences. Now the fact is that Mohammed was
-neither a horseman nor a horse breeder, and the whole tenor of
-history goes to show that he neither knew nor cared very much
-about horses. In his first pilgrimage to Mecca, after the battles
-referred to above, the privilege for which was secured by negotiation,
-a hundred horsemen, it is said, were started and kept one
-day’s journey in advance of the main body of pilgrims. The
-great numbers following Mohammed on this pilgrimage admonished
-his old enemies of Mecca of the futility of attempting to
-resist his power longer, and they fled from the city during the
-continuance of the ceremonies. A year or two later he summoned
-all the tribes of Northern and Eastern Arabia to follow him
-again to Mecca, and they had too lively a sense of their own safety
-to disobey. Due time was given for preparation, the rendezvous
-was at Medina, and a vast host from all Northern and Western
-Arabia congregated there for a purpose that might be to fight,
-or it might be to pray. Mohammed mounted his camel and the
-word was passed, “On to Mecca.” As against such a multitude
-the Meccans saw that resistance was hopeless, and the city was
-surrendered without either side striking a blow. Arrayed in great
-splendor and mounted on his camel, the Prophet made the requisite
-number of circuits round the holy place and then entered
-and ordered all the idols that had been set up there to be destroyed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span>
-and his followers then shouted, “Allah is Allah, and
-Mohammed is his Prophet!” Thus he became master of all
-Arabia—and woe to the Christian or the Jew who stood in his
-way. Two years afterward he died, and there is nothing in his
-life or history to indicate that he ever owned a horse or that he
-ever mounted one, except on a single occasion. In the ten short
-years of his public life he had something more important on hand
-than to determine how to breed horses.</p>
-
-<p>In studying the Arabian horse in the light of what he has done
-and what he has failed to do, we are indebted to English writers
-for little snatches of experiences extending back for a period of
-about two hundred and fifty years. The earliest English writer
-who has had anything to say about the Arabian horse was the
-Duke of Newcastle, who seems to have known a great deal about
-the various types and breeds of horses of his day. During the
-period of the Commonwealth it appears he devoted his time, in
-the Netherlands, to training horses in the <i>manege</i> of that day.
-From his experience in this employment he became an expert in
-the form, structure, and docility of the different kinds of horses
-that he handled. When Charles II. was brought back and placed
-upon the throne, the duke also came to his own, and being a
-personal friend of the king he became his counselor and adviser
-in all matters relating to the improvement of the horses of the
-realm. In 1667 the duke published his famous book upon the
-horse, in which he speaks right out on any and every question that
-he touches. There can be no doubt that he knew more about
-horses and horse history than any man of his day. In speaking
-of the Arabian horse he says: “I never saw but one of these
-horses, which Mr. John Markham, a merchant, brought over, and
-said he was a right Arabian. He was a bay, but a little horse,
-and no rarity for shape, for I have seen many English horses far
-finer. Mr. Markham sold him to King James for five hundred
-pounds, and being trained up for a course (race), when he came
-to run every horse beat him.”</p>
-
-<p>It is generally held that this Markham Arabian was the first of
-that breed ever brought to England, and this seems to be established
-by the fact that historians antedating his arrival make no
-mention of any Arabian horse before this one, and those following
-always speak of this horse as the first. In speaking of the
-powers of endurance of the Arabian horse, the duke says: “They
-talk they will ride fourscore miles in a day and never draw the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span>
-bridle. When I was young I could have bought a nag for ten
-pounds that would have done as much very easily.” The duke’s
-masterful knowledge of the subject, as well as his special official
-relations to the king, gave him control of whatever was done or
-attempted in the direction of improving the racing stock of England.
-Tradition informs us that “King Charles II. sent abroad
-the master of the horse to procure a number of foreign horses
-and mares for breeding, and the mares brought over by him (as also
-many of their produce) have since been called Royal Mares.”
-It is very doubtful whether any such importation was ever made.
-The question has been discussed, from time to time and even
-recently, but nobody has ever yet discovered who was “Master of
-the Horse,” to what country he was sent or what the character of
-the mares he brought home, or where he got them. The fair
-presumption is that these “Royal Mares” were myths and that
-they were created merely for the purpose of putting a finish on
-certain very uncertain pedigrees, just as a trotting-horse man
-would finish a pedigree that he knew nothing about by saying,
-“out of a thoroughbred mare.” As a matter of course it has
-always been assumed that these “Royal Mares” were of distinctively
-pure Arabian blood. But, if we admit that such an importation
-was really made, we must consider that it was made
-under the direction and control of the Duke of Newcastle, the
-king’s mentor in all horse affairs, and this is sufficient proof that
-there was no Arabian blood about the “Royal Mares.” As the
-size of the English race horse and especially his weight of bone
-commenced to increase soon after this time, it strikes me as
-probable that this was the wise and guiding motive of the duke in
-making his selections of the “Royal Mares.”</p>
-
-<p>When we come down a little nearer to our own times and step
-across the border from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century,
-we are still in the realm of traditions, and many of them very
-preposterous. The deceptions practiced in nomenclature were so
-common as to be well-nigh universal. Everybody who owned a
-foreign horse must have “Arabian” attached to his name. To
-illustrate this evil and the misleading effects flowing from it, I
-will give two instances of the most famous horses in all English
-history. The Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian stand
-pre-eminent and before all others as progenitors of the English
-race horse. The former of these two was purchased at Aleppo,
-in Asia Minor, and brought to England in 1711, by Mr. Darley of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span>
-Yorkshire who secured him through a brother in trade in that
-region. He was the sire of Flying Childers and many others,
-and his blood carried from generation to generation. Aleppo is
-in Northern Syria and far distant from Arabia. At one time it
-was embraced in Armenia Minor, the original home of the horse,
-and adjoined Cappadocia and Cilicia, all famous for the excellence
-of their horse stock more than two thousand years before
-there was a single horse in Arabia. Upon the restoration of the
-ancient Theban line of Pharaohs in Egypt, at the beginning of
-the eighteenth dynasty, no time was lost by Thutmosis I. in leading
-a great army into Northern Syria for no other purpose that is
-apparent except to replenish and reinvigorate the horse stock of
-Egypt, from the region of Aleppo and further east, for this is
-the region from which they had secured their original stock.
-His successors pursued the same course, year after year, and the
-number of horses and chariots captured in battle, as well as the
-number of mares sent as tribute by the frightened people, were
-duly recorded in the annals of their achievements. If the
-Darley Arabian, so called, bore any relationship whatever to the
-Arabian horse, it can only be established by tracing him back to
-some one of the animals in Cappadocia that the Emperor Constantius
-sent to Arabia in the year A.D. 356. A writer of the
-seventeenth century, Dr. Alexander Bursell, in speaking of Aleppo,
-says: “Formerly this part of the country was famous for fine
-horses; and though many good ones are still bred here, it may
-be said they are much degenerated.” This is the observation of
-an intelligent man, written and published in 1756, about forty
-years after Mr. Darley’s horse was brought from there.</p>
-
-<p>The other illustration is that of Godolphin Arabian. As a progenitor
-of race horses this was the greatest horse of his century, or
-indeed of any other century in the history of the English race
-horse. He died in 1753, and absolutely nothing is known of his
-origin or his early history. The story is generally accepted, and
-I suppose is true, that he was bought out of a cart in Paris, as an
-act of humanity, by a Mr. Coke, taken to London, presented to
-Mr. Williams, the keeper of a coffee-house, and passed from him
-to Lord Godolphin, who kept him till he died. The story that
-he was presented to Louis XV. by the Bey of Tunis in 1731 has
-never been verified in any manner, and breaks down on the vital
-point of date. Some intelligent Englishmen insist that he <i>must
-have been</i> an Arabian, while others insist that he <i>must have been</i> a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span>
-Barb, while no man <i>knows</i> whether he was either one or the
-other. With the most prominent horses of the nation and of
-their century thus used to mislead the public mind as to their
-lineage, what are we to expect from the great ruck of the obscure
-and less prominent? But, as a more elaborate and methodical
-discussion of this topic will be found in the chapter on the English
-and American Race Horse, we will now turn our attention to
-the actual experiences with the Arabians in recent times.</p>
-
-<p>When we come down to the present century we get into the
-era of newspapers that really begun to give the news, and thus
-educate their readers, not very authentically, but circumstantially,
-in what was passing in the world in every department of knowledge
-and enterprise. Under these wide sources of information, a
-few authentic experiences will serve to illustrate the true status
-of the Arabian horse and his influence, or lack of influence, on
-English and American horses. More than twenty years ago the
-Prince of Wales made a royal progress through Her Majesty’s
-dominions in the East. The enthusiasm was unbounded and he
-was loaded down with many valuable presents, among them
-several elegant, high-caste Arabian horses. It appears that some
-of these horses had already won reputation and money on the
-turf, and were considered the very best that could be found in
-the East. On their arrival they were greatly admired and praised,
-especially by the sporting friends of the prince, who seemed to
-have no doubt, nor did they conceal their opinions, that they
-could beat any horses in all England. This was a conclusion
-that a great many racing men, with longer memories, could not
-accept, and after a good deal of diplomacy a match was finally
-concluded between the prince’s best horse and an old horse that
-was third or fourth-class, in his prime, but was unsound and
-liable to break down any time he was extended. The prince was
-popular, had many supporters, and much money was pending.
-The old horse was patched up as well as possible, the day came,
-the race was started, and the old cripple was so much faster than
-the Arab that his managers had the hardest work in the world to
-prevent him from running clear away and disgracing the prince.
-This account of the race I had from one of the most eminent and
-successful trainers that England has produced. He witnessed
-the race and knew all the facts concerning it. Notwithstanding
-the popularity of the prince and the universal feeling of loyalty
-toward him, it was a long time before his Arabs ceased to be a
-laughing-stock among horsemen.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p>
-
-<p>Some sixteen or eighteen years ago, an English gentleman of
-wealth and intelligence—Mr. Wilfrid S. Blunt—got it into his
-head that the way to improve the English race horse was to secure
-fresh infusions of pure Arabian blood. He was industrious
-in propagating his fad, in an amateurish way, through the columns
-of the English newspapers, evincing great zeal and a great lack of
-knowledge of the hundreds of experiments in the same direction
-and in the history of his own country that had proved disastrous.
-But he had a will of his own and a bank account that enabled him
-to carry out his views to their own realization. In the autumn of
-1877 he made up a pleasant family party, consisting of his wife,
-Lady Anne, and two of her lady friends and started for Arabia, with
-the full determination to find the best and to buy nothing that
-was not of the purest and best lineage that could be found in all
-that country. Fortunately, Lady Anne carefully noted down
-everything that transpired in their journeyings and after the return
-wrote a very pleasant and readable book, understood to have
-been edited by her husband in some of its features. The title
-of the book—“The Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates”—did not
-strike me pleasantly, for I never knew that any of the numerous
-Bedouin tribes were to be found on the Euphrates. But my
-purpose is not to criticise either the book or its title, but to follow
-the party over its itinerary and discover just where Mr. Blunt
-found the blood he was looking for, and upon what evidence he
-accepted it as “the best blood.” With this view I will carefully
-give his own language, so far as it applies to the point in view.</p>
-
-<p>His first purchase was at Aleppo, where he got a mare he
-named Hagar, as he says, “for a very moderate sum.” “She was
-of the Kehilan-Ajuz breed.” “When purchased she was in very
-poor condition, having just gone through the severe training of a
-campaign.” “She was bred by the Gommussa, the most able of
-the horse-breeding tribes, had passed from them to the Roala,
-and had now been captured and ridden some two hundred miles,
-in hot haste, for sale to Aleppo.” “We never met anything in
-our travels that could compete with her over a distance, and she
-has often run down foxes and even hares, without assistance,
-carrying thirteen stone on her back.” This was the first experience
-of the English “tenderfoot” among Syrian horsethieves.
-According to his own showing, he bought her from the fellow
-who had stolen her and had ridden her two hundred miles to
-escape, and he accepted what the thief told about the breeding of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span>
-the mare as true. The thief knew just what Mr. Blunt wanted
-and he shaped the pedigree and tracing to suit the purchaser.
-Mr. Blunt had no knowledge of this mare’s breeding, nor where
-she came from; still, her blood was to become one of the great
-influences in renovating the English race horse. This incident is
-of no importance, in itself, except as it illustrates the universal
-conditions under which amateurs buy horses in the Orient.</p>
-
-<p>Upon leaving Aleppo, the party traveled eastward till they
-struck the Euphrates and then down the right bank of that river.
-The first town of any importance was Deyr, on the river, and just
-across was ancient Mesopotamia. They were still in the border
-land between the productive north and the desert south, with
-the Syrian desert between them and the Arabian desert. All
-this region is occupied with a mixture of races, employed in
-varied pursuits, with but a feeble trace of tribal authority, as all
-are under the direct government of the Sultan of Turkey.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Deyr is well-known,” Mr. Blunt says, “as a horse market, and is, perhaps,
-the only town north of the Jebel Shammar where the inhabitants have any
-general knowledge of the blood and breeding of the beasts they possess. The
-townsmen, indeed, are but a single step removed from the Bedouins, their undoubted
-ancestors. They usually purchase their colts as yearlings either from
-the Gomussa, or some of the Sabaa tribes, and having broken them thoroughly,
-sell them at three years old to the Aleppo merchants. They occasionally, too,
-have mares left with them, in partnership, by the Anazah, and from these they
-breed according to the strictest desert rules. It is, therefore, for a stranger,
-by far the best market for thoroughbreds in Asia, and you may get some of
-the best blood at Deyr that can be found anywhere, besides having a
-guarantee of its authenticity, impossible, under ordinary circumstances, to get
-at Damascus or Aleppo. There are, I may say, no horses at Deyr but thoroughbreds.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>He made some purchases at Deyr and then they pursued their
-journey down the river, and at the most convenient point he
-crossed over to Bagdad, on the Tigris. Here he inspected the stud
-of the Turkish pasha, but the prices were high and he seemed to
-lack confidence in the purity of their breeding. Whatever the
-cause, he made no purchases, and soon started on his journey
-up the Tigris. Upon reaching Sherghat on the Tigris, he turned
-westward, and crossing ancient Mesopotamia, he was again at
-Deyr, where he seems to have made more purchases, and then
-started, in a southwesterly direction, with eighteen mares and two
-stallions for Damascus and the coast. This closed the search of
-Arabia for Arabian horses of the highest caste and purest blood,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span>
-without really being in Arabia, and this is all that can be said of
-“The Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates”—without having seen a
-real Bedouin.</p>
-
-<p>No doubt Mr. Blunt thinks he is right in his high appreciation
-of the town of Deyr as a horse market; that it is “the best
-market for thoroughbreds in Asia;” and that “there are no
-horses in Deyr but thoroughbreds,” or he would not have bought
-his horses there. Dealing in horses seems to be the principal
-business of the people, they are all well informed on the best and
-purest strains of blood, according to Mr. Blunt, and all their own
-horses are thoroughbred. Truly an ideal market, an ideal people,
-and ideal horses, just suited to the needs of enthusiastic amateurs
-like Mr. Blunt. This remarkable horse town is located on the
-border between the rich grain fields and luxuriant meadows on the
-north, and the comparatively barren deserts of the south. On
-the north the country has been famous for thousands of years for
-the great numbers and excellence of the horses produced, and
-they are still produced of excellent form and quality, and are sold
-at very low prices. On the south is the land of the camel, and
-but few horses and those few held at high prices, and the simple
-term “Arabian horse” always brings them purchasers. Here,
-then, we find that Deyr is the very paradise of horse traders—a
-tribe, wherever we find them on the face of the earth, distinguished
-for elasticity of conscience. The north furnishes the
-horses and the south furnishes the pedigrees, and no wonder the
-Deyrites had nothing but “thoroughbreds” when Mr. Blunt came
-along. In the line of their business and from their southern
-neighbors, they had picked up enough “Arabian horse talk” to
-satisfy all inexperienced buyers that they knew all about the value
-of the different strains of Arabian blood, and could supply them
-from their own studs, at very reasonable prices. And thus Mr.
-Blunt brought home to England eighteen “Arabian” mares and
-two stallions, without any satisfactory evidence that they ever
-had seen Arabia. In this enthusiastic venture, resulting in utter
-failure, there is one alleviating fact that Mr. Blunt can call to
-mind, and that is that his horses were just as good for the purpose
-of improving the English race horse as any others that
-have been brought from the Orient in the past hundred years.
-Whatever their blood, whether genuine or counterfeit Arabians,
-they have all alike been failures, and all alike good for nothing.</p>
-
-<p>Early in the history of our own government it became not an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span>
-unusual thing for the Sultan of Turkey, the Emperor of Morocco,
-or some other potentate of the Saracenic races, to present to the
-President two horses, and as they were presents from royalty to
-what they esteemed royalty, they were necessarily of the highest
-caste and of the greatest value of any horses in all their dominions.
-It is probable that Mr. Jefferson was the first president to
-receive these royal gifts, and under the requirements of the constitution
-and without any disrespect to the donor, he ordered
-them to be sold to the highest bidder, and turned the money into
-the treasury. Several of the presidents received these presents
-of horses, and without knowing the fact, I will presume disposed
-of them the same way. In the case of President Lincoln, Mr.
-Seward seemed to be more highly favored and the sultan sent
-the horses to him. Through the State Agricultural Society, Mr.
-Seward presented his royal presents to the State of New York.
-My recollection is not very distinct, but my impression is that
-Mr. Van Buren had disposed of his in the same way. When
-General Grant received his, he was not in public office and hence
-they became his personal property. A number of the first of
-these importations, together with some others that were brought
-from Arabia, individually and by private persons, were, in the
-early part of the century, carried into the South, which was then
-the “race-horse region,” but the breeders there very soon discovered
-that in breeding from them they were taking a backward
-instead of a forward step. Their progeny could neither run nor
-trot, and as they were too small for the ordinary uses of the
-farmer and planter, they were almost unanimously rejected, with
-nothing left but the ignorant “fad” that was embodied in the
-name “Arabian.”</p>
-
-<p>The most notable example of the folly of attempting to regenerate
-the American race horse by the introduction of the
-“blood of the desert” is furnished in the sad experience of the
-late A. Keene Richards, of Kentucky. He inherited a large
-estate, and when he came into possession he proved himself an
-intelligent and successful breeder, and ran the colts of his own
-breeding, with a full share of winnings. He was not a spendthrift
-nor a gambler, but he was not content with mediocrity in sharing
-triumphs with his neighbors, for he was ambitious to beat,
-them all. He soon had his head full of such horses as the Darley
-Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian, and he argued if that blood
-founded the English race horse, he would go to Arabia and get it,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span>
-and it could not fail to regenerate the American race horse. He
-did not stop to inquire whether either of his great ideals might
-have had a drop of Arabian blood in his veins, but he started for
-Arabia at once. He brought home a few stallions and felt sure
-he was on the eve of the greatest triumph of his life. When the
-half-Arab produce of his strong and elegantly bred race mares
-were old enough to run the jockey club allowed the half-breeds
-seven pounds the advantage in weight and they were beaten.
-The club then allowed them fourteen pounds and they were
-again beaten; and finally the allowance was raised to twenty-one
-pounds, and they were still in the rear rank. Under these humiliating
-defeats a careful man would have hesitated before he
-went further, but he at once jumped to the conclusion that his
-defeat was not in the fact that Arab blood could not run fast
-enough to win, but in the fact, as he supposed, that the rascally
-Arabs had sold him blood that was not Arab blood. In a short
-time he was off for Arabia again, taking with him as companion
-and adviser the distinguished animal painter, Troye, who had a
-long and successful experience as a delineator of race horses and
-knew all about the anatomy of the horse. They spent several
-months among the different tribes, and in order to get “inside of
-the ring,” as it were, they ate with the Arabs, slept with the
-Arabs, and worshiped with the Arabs, as Mr. Richards told me
-himself. They came home full of the highest expectations, bringing
-several mares as well as stallions with them, and fully assured
-that every one was of the highest caste and the best form for racing
-that could be found on all the plains of the desert. After
-the foals of this importation were old enough to start in the
-stakes, they were given the same advantages in weight as before,
-and they proved no better than the first lot. Poor Mr. Richards
-was crushed in spirits, not only by the vanishing of his air castles,
-but by the importunacy of his creditors. In his heroic, but misguided,
-efforts to improve the American race horse by infusions
-of pure Arabian blood, he involved his once handsome estate,
-and he died hopelessly insolvent. He had bred a number of pure
-Arabs of several generations, but the abundant feed and luxuriant
-blue grass of Kentucky did not increase their size, for when they
-came under the auctioneer’s hammer they were but little
-“tackeys,” and they brought only the price of little “tackeys.”</p>
-
-<p>The number of horses brought to this country, whether as
-gifts to statesmen or as private ventures, and called “Arabians,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span>
-is not very large, and it is safe to say that not one in ten of them
-ever saw Arabia. They came from Turkey or some of the Barbary
-States. But in the case of Mr. Richards there can be no
-doubt that he made his selections in Arabia itself. Those selections
-having been made personally and with care and skill, we are
-bound to accept them as genuine Arabians. When we find,
-therefore, that having been tested they are no better than the
-horses brought from Turkey or from Africa, we must conclude
-that the whole scheme is mere moonshine, and that Arabian
-blood as a means of improvement has failed to develop the value
-that enthusiasts and dreamers have claimed for it since “time
-whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.”
-Practical and thinking men always judge of the value of a breed
-of horses from what the representatives of that breed can do or what
-they fail to do. The emotional and unpractical are always looking
-for an ideal horse, and the poets and story writers are always
-furnishing them one. Where a horse figures in a story he is
-uniformly endowed with an almost supernatural intelligence and
-sense. To finish up the ideal horse, he always traces back to the
-“Courser of the Desert.” If his triumph is in a flight of speed,
-he distances all competitors because he is a pure Arabian. The
-story of “Ben Hur,” written by General Lew Wallace, furnishes a
-fitting illustration of this tendency of the public mind. The story
-of the chariot race at Antioch is a masterpiece of most exciting
-ingenuity, and one of the finest specimens of word painting in
-the English language. The irascible old sheik is quite overdrawn,
-but the judgment and skill of Ben Hur cannot be surpassed.
-As a matter of course, the team of black Arabians was
-bound to win. Every bright schoolboy in the country has read
-the story, and he has joined in the triumph of the black Arabians.
-The wide interest in the chariot race seemed to demand its pictorial
-delineation, and soon the public was gratified with a large
-and elegant etching, which hangs before me as I write. The only
-trouble about this excellent work of the imagination and the
-team of black Arabians is that there were no horses in Arabia till
-about three hundred and fifty years after the date of this supposed
-scene. We must let the poets sing and the novelists work
-out their plots, but it is well to pay some attention to the facts
-and experiences of history.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus4">
-<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="700" height="475" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">GODOLPHIN ARABIAN.</p>
-<p class="caption">A true portrait taken from life by D. Murrier, painter to H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus5">
-<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="700" height="475" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">GODOLPHIN ARABIAN.</p>
-<p class="caption">A distorted copy by Mr. Stubbs who never saw the horse, and changed to express the idea of fleetness.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The real origin of the English race horse in confusion—Full list of the
-“foundation stock” as given by Mr. Weatherby one hundred years ago—The
-list complete and embraces all of any note—Admiral Rous’ extravaganza—Godolphin
-Arabian’s origin wholly unknown—His history—Successful
-search for his true portrait—Stubbs’ picture a caricature—The
-true portrait alone supplies all that is known of his origin and blood.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The English Race Horse is the great central figure of all the
-horse literature of the past two hundred years. Much has been
-claimed for him and much has been written about him, in a haphazard
-way, by people who know but little of the subject. A few
-men of independent and real thought have written on this subject,
-but they have devoted their attention to the comparing of
-family with family or individual with individual. Of the books
-that have been written by brainless people on the English horse
-there is no end, and they are generally mere repetitions, without
-giving credit, of what somebody has said before. Among all the
-books that have been written on this subject I have never yet
-found one that even pretended to make a serious attempt at discovering
-the real origin of the English Race Horse. They all seem
-to agree with Admiral Rous that he is purely descended from the
-Arabian horse, and without one drop of the blood of the indigenous
-English horse. The average writer for the two past centuries
-has been content with just this much knowledge, and he
-wants nothing more. Occasionally it is modestly suggested in
-some magazine article that this exclusively Arabian origin may
-not be true, and I am glad to note that these suggestions are becoming
-more frequent of late years. It has been claimed that
-the pure Arabian origin of the race horse “is as solid as a
-pyramid,” all of which may be accepted—but, unfortunately for
-the claimant, the “pyramid” is standing on its apex, and when
-the facts breathe upon it, as gently as a zephyr, it will topple
-over. The most convenient and the most authoritative collection<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span>
-of facts relating to the earliest exotic horses that were
-brought in is to be found in the English Stud Book itself, and
-as but few of my readers have access to this work, I will copy
-that portion of it entire, as it appears in the first volume, and
-the edition of 1803. In the edition of 1808 the list was reprinted
-with four additional animals and some verbal changes, which,
-when important, will be noted.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="center">“ARABIANS, BARBS AND TURKS.”</p>
-
-<p>1. The Helmsley Turk was an old Duke of Buckingham’s and got Bustler,
-etc.</p>
-
-<p>2. Place’s White Turk was the property of Mr. Place, studmaster to Oliver
-Cromwell, when Protector, and was the sire of Wormwood Commoner, and
-the great grandams of Windham, Grey Ramsden and Cartouch.</p>
-
-<p>3. Royal Mares: King Charles the Second sent abroad the master of the
-horse, to procure a number of foreign horses and mares for breeding, and the
-mares brought over by him (as also many of their produce) have since been
-called Royal Mares.</p>
-
-<p>4. Dodsworth, though foaled in England, was a natural Barb. His dam, a
-Barb mare, was imported in the time of Charles the Second, and was called a
-Royal Mare. She was sold by the studmaster, after the king’s death, for
-forty guineas, at twenty years old, when in foal (by the Helmsley Turk) with
-Vixen, dam of the Old Child Mare.</p>
-
-<p>5. The Stradling or Lister Turk was brought into England by the Duke of
-Berwick, from the siege of Buda, in the reign of James the Second. He got
-Snake, the D. of Kingston’s Brisk and Piping Peg, Coneyskins, the dam of
-Hip, and the grandam of Bolton Sweepstakes.</p>
-
-<p>6. The Byerly Turk was Captain Byerly’s charger in Ireland, in King
-William’s wars (1869, etc.). He did not cover many bred mares, but was the
-sire of D. of Kingston’s Sprite, who was thought nearly as good as Leedes;
-the D. of Rutland’s Black Hearty and Archer, and the D. of Devonshire’s
-Basto, Ld. Bristol’s Grasshopper, and Ld. Godolphin’s Byerly Gelding, all in
-good forms: Halloway’s Jigg, a middling horse; and Knightley’s Mare, in a
-very good form.</p>
-
-<p>7. Greyhound. The cover of this foal was in Barbary, after which both
-his sire and dam were purchased, and brought into England by Mr. Marshall.
-He was got by King William’s White Barb Chillaby, out of Slugey, a natural
-Barb Mare. Greyhound got the D. of Wharton’s Othello, said to have beat
-Chanter easily in a trial, giving him a stone, but who, falling lame, ran only
-one match in public, against a bad horse; he also got Panton’s Whitefoot, a
-very good horse; Osmyn, a very fleet horse and in good form for his size; the
-D. of Wharton’s Rake, a middling horse; Ld. Halifax’s Sampson, Goliah and
-Favorite, pretty good 12-stone Plate horses; Desdemona, and other good
-mares, and several ordinary Plate horses, who ran in the North where he was
-a common stallion and covered many of the best mares.</p>
-
-<p>8. The D’Arcy White Turk was the sire of Old Hautboy, Grey Royal,
-Cannon, etc.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p>
-
-<p>9. The D’Arcy Yellow Turk was the sire of Spanker, Brimmer, and the
-great-great-grandam of Cartouch.</p>
-
-<p>10. The Marshall or Selaby Turk was the property of Mr. Marshall’s
-brother, studmaster to King William, Queen Anne, and King George the first.
-He got the Curwen Old Spot, the dam of Windham, the dam of Derby Ticklepitcher,
-and great-grandam of Bolton Sloven and Fearnought.</p>
-
-<p>11. Curwen’s Bay Barb was a present to Louis the Fourteenth from Muley
-Ishmael, King of Morocco, and was brought into England by Mr. Curwen,
-who being in France when Count Byram and Count Thoulouse (two natural
-sons of Louis the Fourteenth) were, the former, master of the horse, and the
-latter an admiral, he procured of them two Barb horses, both of which proved
-excellent stallions, and were well known by the names of the Curwen Bay
-Barb and the Thoulouse Barb. Curwen’s Bay Barb got Mixbury and Tantivy,
-both very excellent formed Galloways. The first of them was only thirteen
-hands two inches high, and yet there were not more than two horses of his
-time that could beat him at light weights. Brocklesby, Little George, Yellow
-Jack, Bay Jack, Monkey, Dangerfield, Hip, Peacock, and Flatface, the first
-two in good forms, the rest middling; two Mixburys, full brothers to the first
-Mixbury, middling Galloways; Long Meg, Brocklesby Betty, and Creeping
-Molly, extraordinarily high-formed mares; Whiteneck, Mistake, Sparkler,
-and Lightfoot, very good mares, and several middling Galloways, who ran for
-Plates in the North. He got two full sisters to Mixbury, one of which bred
-Partner, Little Scar, Soreheels and the dam of Crab; the other was the dam of
-Quiet, Silver Eye and Hazard. He did not cover many mares except Mr.
-Curwen’s and Mr. Pelham’s.</p>
-
-<p>12. The Thoulouse Barb became afterward the property of Sir J. Parsons
-and was the sire of Bagpiper, Blacklegs, Mr. Panton’s Molly, and the dam of
-Cinnamon.</p>
-
-<p>13. Darley’s Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr. Darley, of
-Yorkshire, who, being an agent in merchandise abroad, became member of a
-hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse. He
-was the sire of Childers, and also got Almanzor, a very good horse; a white-legged
-horse of the D. of Somerset’s, full brother to Almanzor, and thought to
-be as good, but meeting with an accident, he never ran in public; Cupid and
-Brisk, good horses; Dædalus, a very swift horse; Dart, Shipjack, Maica and
-Aleppo, good Plate horses, though out of bad mares; Ld. Lonsdale’s Mare in
-very good form, and Ld. Tracy’s Mare in a good one for Plates. He covered
-very few mares except Mr. Darley’s, who had very few well-bred mares besides
-Almanzor’s Dam.</p>
-
-<p>14. Sir J. William’s Turk (more commonly called the Honeywood Arabian)
-got Mr. Honeywood’s two True Blues; the elder of them was the best Plate
-horse in England, for four or five years; the younger was in very high form
-and got the Rumford Gelding, and Ld. Onslow’s Grey Horse, middling horses out
-of road mares. It is not known that this Turk covered any bred mares except
-the dam of the two True Blues.</p>
-
-<p>15. The Belgrade Turk was taken at the siege of Belgrade, by Gen. Merci,
-and sent by him to the Prince de Craon, from whom he was a present to the
-Prince of Lorraine. He was afterward purchased by Sir Marmaduke Wyvill,
-and died in his possession about 1740.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span></p>
-
-<p>16. Croft’s Bay Barb was got by Chillaby, out of the Moonah Barb Mare.</p>
-
-<p>17. The Godolphin Arabian was imported by Mr. Coke, at whose death he
-became (together with Cade, Regulus, etc., then young) the property of Ld.
-Godolphin. His first employment was that of a teaser to Hobgoblin, who, refusing
-to cover Roxana, she was put to the Arabian, and from that cover produced
-Lath, the first of his get. He was also sire of Cade, Regulus, Blank,
-etc., and what is considered very remarkable, as well as a strong proof of his
-excellence as a stallion, there is not a superior horse now on the turf without a
-cross of the Godolphin Arabian, neither has there been for several years past.
-He was a brown bay, with no white, except on the off heel behind, and about
-fifteen hands high (a picture of him is in the library at Gog Magog, Cambridgeshire).
-It is not known to what particular race of the Arab breed, indeed it
-has been asserted that he was a Barb. He died at Gog Magog in 1753, in or
-about the 29th year of his age. The story of his playfellow, the black cat,
-must not be omitted here, especially as an erroneous account has got abroad,
-copied from the first introduction to the present work. Instead of his grieving
-for the loss of the cat she survived him, though but for a short time; she sat
-upon him after he was dead in the building erected for him, and followed him
-to the place where he was buried under a gateway near the running stable; sat
-upon him there till he was buried, then went away, and never was seen again,
-till found dead in the hayloft.</p>
-
-<p>18. The Cullen Arabian was brought over by Mr. Nosco and was sire of Mr.
-Warren’s Camillus, Ld. Orford’s Matron, Mr. Gorges’ Sour Face, the dam of
-Regulator, etc., etc.</p>
-
-<p>19. The Coomb Arabian (sometimes called the Pigot Arabian and sometimes
-the Bolingbroke Grey Arabian) was the sire of Methodist, the dam of Crop,
-etc., etc.</p>
-
-<p>20. The Compton Barb, more commonly called the Sedley Arabian, was sire
-of Coquette, Greyling, etc.</p>
-
-<p class="center">(<span class="smcap">Additions in 1808 Edition.</span>)</p>
-
-<p>21. King James the First bought an Arabian of Mr. Markham, a merchant,
-for 500gs., said (but with little probability) to have been the first of the breed
-ever seen in England. The Duke of Newcastle says, in his treatise on Horsemanship,
-that he had seen the above Arabian, and describes him as a small
-bay horse, and not of very excellent shape.</p>
-
-<p>23. Bloody Buttocks; nothing further can be traced from the papers of the
-late Mr. Crofts than that he was a grey Arabian, with a red mark on his
-hip, from whence he derived his name.</p>
-
-<p>23. The Vernon Arabian was a small chestnut horse. He covered at Highflyer
-Hall, and was the sire of Alert, etc. Alert had good speed for a short
-distance.</p>
-
-<p>24 &amp; 25. The Wellesley Grey, and Chestnut Arabians (so called) were
-brought from the East, but evidently not Arabians. The former was a horse
-of good shape, with the size and substance of an English hunter.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This list of twenty-seven different animals, which for the sake
-of convenience I have numbered, was presented to the public<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span>
-more than a hundred years ago by Mr. Weatherby, the highest of
-all English authorities, as the foundation stock from which the
-English race horse was propagated. The uniform omission of
-dates of importations, etc., discloses the fact that the compiler
-had no accurate knowledge of the animals or their history, and
-that he was dependent largely upon very uncertain traditions for
-his information. It must not be understood that the animals in
-this list were contemporaneous, or that the list embraces all the
-foreign animals that were brought in, but only those that were
-recognized as of value in founding the breed.</p>
-
-<p>To understand just what we have to consider, I will place here,
-in juxtaposition to the above list, the remark of Admiral Rous, at
-one time the great race-horse authority of England, which expresses
-the popular opinion as to the origin of the race horse,
-that is practically universally held in all lands. The admiral
-says: “The British race horse is a pure Eastern exotic whose
-pedigree may be traced two thousand years, the true son of
-Arabia Deserta, without a drop of English blood.” To reach
-the approximate truth on the issue here made, and to puncture
-this extravaganza is the work now before us.</p>
-
-<p>Numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, were Turks, and to these we
-may add Mr. Darley’s horse, known as the Darley Arabian, number
-13, for he was brought from Aleppo in Turkey, far removed
-from Arabia, and famous for the great numbers and excellence of
-its horses many centuries before Arabia had any horses. To carry
-horses, for sale, from the deserts of Arabia, where they are
-scarce, to the region of Aleppo, where they are very plenty, and
-of the highest quality, would be simply “carrying coals to Newcastle.”
-We may therefore safely conclude that the ten horses
-here enumerated were Turks.</p>
-
-<p>Numbers 4, 7, 11, 12, 16, 20 were Barbs, as they are named in
-the list. It is a surprise to me that these six horses should be
-designated as “Barbs,” for it has been the usage of many generations
-to call these horses “Arabians.” As late as 1819 the Dey
-of Algiers sent several Algerine horses as a present to the Prince
-Regent of England, and they were always spoken of as “Arabians.”</p>
-
-<p>Numbers 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 are all unsatisfactory as to
-their origin. Number 17—Lord Godolphin’s horse—is wholly
-unknown as to his blood elements, and further on his history will
-be considered. Number 18 “was brought over,” but from
-whence nobody knows. Number 19 is in the same condition, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span>
-not one of his different owners has been able to tell us anything
-about his origin. Number 21 was, possibly, an Arabian, but the
-Duke of Newcastle, who knew the horse well, seems to have
-doubted his genuineness on account of his inferiority. However
-this may have been, he preceded other importations so many
-years that it is not known that he ever sired a colt, and as a progenitor
-we may as well strike him out. Number 22 seems to be
-in darkness, and all efforts to find his origin having failed he may
-as well be classed as unknown. Number 23 is furnished with no
-evidence that he was entitled to be classed as an Arabian. Numbers
-24 and 25 were confessedly not genuine.</p>
-
-<p>This reduces the analysis to its lowest form and shows that in
-the original foundation stock, including Mr. Darley’s horse (13),
-there were ten Turks and six Barbs that can be accepted with
-reasonable certainty. This leaves eight so-called “Arabians,”
-from which we must eliminate numbers 17, 21, 24, 25, leaving
-numbers 18, 19, 22, 23, without any evidence whatever that they
-were Arabians except in name. From these four rather obscure
-animals, therefore, according to the Rous dictum, the English
-race horse must have derived every drop of his blood; and yet
-there is not a scintilla of evidence either direct or inferential that
-any one of them, or the ancestors of any one of them, ever saw
-Arabia. From the custom of calling every horse from abroad
-an “Arabian,” that has prevailed in England for more than two
-hundred years, it is fair to conclude that there was no Arabian
-blood in the foundation stock. It was the blood of the Turks
-and the Barbs, commingled with that of the native blood that had
-been bred to race for centuries, that furnished the foundation of
-the modern English and American race horse.</p>
-
-<p>Blood in the race horse is an imperative necessity, but it must
-be blood that has been carefully selected from winners, and raced
-for generations, or it is of no value as an element of speed. If
-the English race horse had been a strictly pure exotic from
-Arabia Deserta, as Admiral Rous maintained, he would have
-been of no value either as a race horse or the progenitor of race
-horses, without many generations of careful selection and development
-of speed.</p>
-
-<p>The Godolphin Arabian was altogether the greatest horse of
-his century. He flourished during most of the reign of King
-George II., but the horsemen of the world, even Englishmen
-themselves, know far more about him than they do about the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span>
-reign of that monarch. Still, nobody knows anything of his
-birthplace, his origin or his blood. He was to the English race
-horse what Rysdyk’s Hambletonian has been to the American
-trotter. Neither of them was ever in a race, but each of them
-stood immeasurably superior to all others of his day as a progenitor
-of speed, at his own gait. From the latter we had reason
-to expect speed because we knew he inherited speed, but from
-the former we had no reason to expect anything, for we knew
-nothing of what he inherited until he proved his inheritance by
-what he transmitted to his progeny. Some of the principal semi-tragic
-incidents, so far as known in the early life of Godolphin
-Arabian, were seized upon by the great novelist Eugene Sue, and
-out of them grew a “horse novel” from his gifted pen. The
-horse was foaled about 1724, was brought to England from France
-about 1730, and died at Magog Hills, 1753. There seems to be a
-substantial agreement among those who had the best opportunities
-to know that the horse was employed on the streets of Paris
-as a common drudge in a cart and driven by a brutal master. A
-Mr. Coke, who is represented to have been a Quaker, was in Paris
-on business and he happened to witness the brutality of the
-ruffian who was this horse’s master in trying to make him draw a
-load of wood up a steep acclivity on to a new bridge, which the
-horse after repeated trials and clubbings was unable to accomplish.
-To relieve the poor brute from his sufferings, Mr. Coke’s
-feelings of humanity asserted themselves, and he stepped forward
-and bought the horse on the spot and had him released from the
-cart. Mr. Coke, it is said, brought the horse to London and presented
-him to Mr. Williams, the proprietor of a famous coffee-house,
-and Mr. Williams presented him to Earl Godolphin.</p>
-
-<p>In September, 1829, Mr. John S. Skinner commenced the publication
-of the first horse magazine that ever appeared in this
-country, and in the first number there appeared a steel engraving
-purporting to be executed by the famous Stubbs and to represent
-the great horse, Godolphin Arabian. Not many years afterward
-I came into possession of a copy of this publication from the beginning,
-and the sight of this picture always impressed me as the
-most ludicrous abortion of the likeness of a horse that could be
-conceived of. The neck was absolutely longer than the body,
-the legs were about strong enough for a sheep, and all over it
-lacked strength of both muscle and bone to a most absurd extent.
-When this picture appeared in London, some years before, it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span>
-laughed at by all artists as well as by all men who knew anything
-about the shape of a horse, as a monstrosity, and it was received
-in the same spirit on this side of the water; but it bore the name
-of a great artist and that was sufficient to secure the approbation
-of the unthinking and the unknowing. The only key to the
-origin of the horse, the only pedigree that can be given, must be
-found written in his own structure of bone and muscle and
-brain. A true delineation, therefore, of his form and shape became
-a matter of the highest moment, not merely to satisfy the
-curiosity of the curious, but as a study of the true sources of his
-wonderful prepotency.</p>
-
-<p>Sixty-five years ago a correspondent of Mr. Skinner’s magazine,
-referred to above, and a descendant of Mr. Samuel Galloway
-of Maryland, spoke of an oil painting of Godolphin Arabian
-that had hung in the hall at Tulip Hill from the days of his
-childhood as still hanging there, and said that it was wholly
-unlike the Stubbs engraving. Mr. Galloway was one of Maryland’s
-land barons, an enthusiastic horse breeder, and a successful
-horse racer. He was educated at Cambridge, I think; and if
-so, no doubt he saw Godolphin Arabian many times before he
-died, for he was within four or five miles of him, and his sporting
-instincts could not fail to take him to see so great a horse
-when so near at hand. As he was a young man of great wealth
-and great ambitions, it is quite probable he was on terms of
-friendly acquaintance, if not intimacy, with Lord Godolphin, and
-thus secured the oil painting from that distinguished friend himself.
-This theory is strengthened by the fact that the picture
-still bears the coat of arms of Lord Godolphin.</p>
-
-<p>To reach and secure this picture, or at least a faithful copy of
-it, became an object of continuous effort that was never intermitted
-for more than twenty years. At last, in the spring of
-1877, one of the correspondents of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, Prof. M. C.
-Ellzey, of Blacksburg, Virginia, wrote me that the picture was
-then the property of Dr. J. H. Murray (whose wife was a lineal
-descendant of Mr. Galloway) of Cedar Park, adjoining Tulip Hill,
-West River, Maryland, and that he would have the picture sent
-to me. In a few days it arrived, and when my eyes rested upon
-it, it was like the feast of a lifetime; for there was all that could
-ever be known of the greatest horse of his century. The painting
-was in a state of excellent preservation and the coat of arms
-of Lord Godolphin was plainly traceable. The horse is shown<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span>
-from his right side, in his rough, paddock condition, with his
-right hind foot a little advanced, and his head low and without
-any animation or excitement. The standpoint of the artist is a
-little forward of the shoulders, and he must have been a tall man
-or the horse must have been a low horse, or perhaps both, for
-he sees over the horse and portrays the fine spring of muscle over
-the loin, on the opposite side of the vertebra. From the position
-of the artist the drawing is slightly foreshortened, and this, together
-with the advance of his right hind foot, intensifies the
-droop of the rump, to some degree, in the outline. From the
-proportions, as shown in the painting, I would conclude he was
-below fourteen and a half hands high rather than above it. His
-head is striking and unusually large for an animal of his size,
-with remarkable width between the eyes, and without a star to
-lighten it up. His ear is not fine, and it droops backward as he
-stands, as if half-asleep. His mane is sparse and in disorder.
-His throat-latch is very good, and the windpipe large and well
-developed. The neck is of a fair length for a horse of his blocky
-formation, and there is nothing unusual about it except its great
-depth at the collar place. The slope of the shoulder is very
-marked and shows his ability to carry his head in the air when
-he wished to do so, but the shoulder itself is coarse and angular
-to an unusual degree. His withers rise very abruptly and there
-is great perpendicular depth through the carcass at this point.
-His back is remarkably short and the spread and arch of his loins
-is simply magnificent. But the point of superlative excellence is
-in the remarkable development of power in his quarters. His
-limbs, instead of being “spider legs,” are unusually strong for
-an animal of his size; indeed, they might be considered coarse
-for any horse that was pretended to be a race horse. His tail is
-of the usual weight and somewhat wavy. With the addition that
-there is a little white at the coronet of the right hind foot,
-and not forgetting his friend and companion the cat, I have
-made a somewhat detailed description of what is represented in
-the painting. Several artists examined the picture, and they
-pronounced it the work of an artist of ability and experience.
-The signature “D. M. pinxt” was carefully examined, but no
-one was able to throw any light upon the name represented by
-the initial letters “D. M.”</p>
-
-<p>While this painting contained within itself evidence of its
-great value as a likeness of its subject, it lacked confirmation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span>
-as “true to the life;” and nothing could supply this
-lack but to find a portrait of the same horse, painted by another
-artist, and then if the two agreed, the proof would be fully satisfying
-to the understanding. A little over a hundred years ago
-Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne, Duke of Leeds, and heir to
-Lord Godolphin, wrote Sir Charles Bunbury, a great race-horse
-man, that he had a painting of Godolphin Arabian, by Wootton,
-at Gog Magog Hills. Over sixty years ago an American gentleman
-wrote to Mr. Skinner’s magazine that he had seen a painting
-of Godolphin Arabian hanging in Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
-In 1878 my physician told me I must quit work for awhile, and
-that I had better visit the great Exposition at Paris that year. I
-was anxious to see the Fair, but I was a great deal more anxious
-to see those two paintings of Godolphin Arabian, if they were
-still in existence. Gog Magog Hills is a quaint old place, and the
-origin and meaning of its name is lost in a very remote antiquity.
-As it has not been the residence of its owners for more than a
-hundred years, it is much neglected. The people in charge were
-very obliging, and I was immediately admitted to the view of
-Wootton’s painting of Godolphin Arabian. The first glance was
-a complete vindication of the truthfulness of the Maryland painting
-as a true likeness in every important feature of the outline
-and proportions. The canvas is about four and a half by four
-feet, inclosed in a massive frame. After studying it and comparing
-it, point by point for more than an hour, with a copy of
-the Maryland painting, it became evident they were not painted
-by the same hand, although the horse had the same position in
-both pictures, with the exception that the right hind foot was
-thrown backward in the Wootton painting instead of forward,
-and thus gave a less abrupt droop of the rump. The head was
-precisely the same shape, but in the large painting the articulations
-were less distinct and expressive.</p>
-
-<p>After a little peregrination through Norfolk, studying the
-“Norfolk Trotter” as then called, but since called “Hackney,”
-on his “native heath,” I reached Houghton Hall, in Norfolk.
-This grand old place was built over a hundred and sixty years
-ago by the famous Sir Robert Walpole, and at that time it was
-considered the most splendid structure, as a gentleman’s country
-seat, in all England. For many years it has been the property
-of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, but is not often occupied as a
-residence. Here too, I was lucky, for upon my entrance to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span>
-picture gallery, about the first object upon which my eye rested
-was the painting of the Godolphin Arabian, and the first impression
-was that there must be “spooks” around, for that seemed
-certainly the Maryland picture I was looking at. I had it taken
-down and removed to a good light, and there the whole mystery
-was removed. It is difficult to compare two peas. All you can
-say about them is that they were just alike, and that is all I can
-say about the Galloway picture in Maryland and the Houghton
-Hall picture in England. The paintings were the same size, and
-the pigments used were of precisely the same shades of color and
-quality. The colors were peculiar in the fact that the artist had
-used no varnish nor oil that would leave a shiny appearance.
-The Houghton Hall picture had a black, glossy margin all around
-it of about five inches in width on which the names of the most
-noted of his progeny were inscribed in gold letters, and at the
-bottom was this inscription: “The original picture taken at The
-Hills, by D. Murrier, painter to H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland.”
-This explained the modest signature attached to the
-Maryland picture, which was a replica of the original. “The
-Hills” is the local designation of “Gog Magog Hills.” The word
-“original” not only implies that the picture was made from life,
-but that one or more replicas were made at the same time.</p>
-
-<p>Here, then, in this picture, we have all that we know or probably
-ever will know of the origin and pedigree of this horse. It
-does not tell us what he was, but it does tell us in the most clear
-and unmistakable language what he was not. There is no feature
-nor element in his make-up that does not say that he was neither
-an Arabian nor a Barb. He was a stout, strong-boned, heavily
-muscled, short-legged horse. In his form and shape he was very
-far removed from an ideal progenitor of race horses, but he was
-that progenitor all the same. About forty years after his death
-Mr. Stubbs, who never saw the horse, brought out a painting of
-him which all artists laughed at as the picture of an impossible
-horse. This picture, however, was engraved on steel and became
-the standard representation of Godolphin Arabian, in England,
-till this day. Both these pictures are here given, and a comparison
-of many points makes it evident that Stubbs copied from
-the original of Murrier or from the painting by Wootton, which
-was probably also a copy of Murrier, and he followed his copy
-just as closely as he could while converting a big-boned, stout
-saddle horse into a long-necked, spindle-shanked race horse.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span>
-By actual measurement the neck is longer than the body, but it
-is not necessary to point out the Stubbs absurdities, as they are
-apparent to every eye. It was simply an awkward and dishonest
-attempt to express in his form and shape such a pedigree as a
-great racing sire should have had. In these two pictures we have
-the real and the imaginary—the honest and the dishonest.</p>
-
-<p>The search for this picture and then for its verification was a
-labor of many years. I never expected to find the horse’s origin,
-but the discovery of his likeness seemed to be in the bounds of a
-possibility that was finally realized. Murrier’s picture, as a
-mere work of art, is of no mean value. It contains within itself
-undoubted evidence that it is a true picture of a horse, and it is
-shown circumstantially that this horse was the great “unknown
-and untraced founder” of the English race horse, with nothing
-of the race horse in his appearance.</p>
-
-<p>The name of this horse has been a misnomer ever since the
-day he fell into the hands of Lord Godolphin, and it has misled
-a multitude of men to their financial hurt. Of late years the
-more intelligent class of writers, instead of calling him an
-“Arabian” call him a “Barb,” but there is just as much propriety
-in using one name as the other, and not a scintilla of
-authority for using either. Whatever may have been his origin,
-his marvelous structural combination of propelling power supplied
-what was wanting in the English stock of his day, and gave
-him success. Since then thousands of Arabians and Barbs have
-been tried and all of them have failed.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE ENGLISH RACE HORSE (<i>Continued</i>).</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>England supplied with horses before the Christian era—Bred for different
-purposes—Markham on the speed of early native horses—Duke of Newcastle
-on Arabians—His choice of blood to propagate—Size of early English
-horses—Difficulties about pedigrees in the seventeenth and eighteenth
-centuries—Early accumulations very trashy—The Galloways and Irish
-Hobbies—Discrepancies in size—The old saddle stock—The pacers wiped
-out—Partial revision of the English Stud Book.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Britain was fully supplied with horses when first invaded by
-the Romans, but as there is no history beyond that period we are
-only groping in the dark when we attempt to discover when or
-whence this supply was procured. The most reasonable theory
-is that the first supply came from the Phœnician merchants,
-when they were trading for tin in the southwestern part of
-Britain. If this theory be correct, the trading between the
-Phœnicians and the Britons could hardly have been later than
-the fourth century before the Christian era, and it is more probable
-that it was several centuries earlier. This topic, however,
-has been considered in a preceding chapter. Another theory is
-that when the tides of migration struck the Atlantic, in the
-higher latitudes, there was a natural deflection toward the
-warmer countries of the south, the people carrying their horses
-with them. But from the primitive condition of the arts and of
-maritime affairs among the Norsemen of that very early period,
-and from the insular position of Britain, it seems to me that to
-reach it with horses, the most probable source of supply was from
-that great nation whose “ships of Tarshish” had been trading to
-all lands more than a thousand years before the Christian era.
-But, laying all theories aside, there are some facts and dates that
-we know, and the particular one to which I wish here to call attention
-is the historical record that when the Romans first visited
-Britain they found an abundant supply of horses; and this was
-about four hundred years before Arabia received her supply from
-the Emperor Constantius.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span></p>
-
-<p>From the time of the Romans in Britain, horse-racing has been
-a popular and favorite amusement of our ancestors, and from that
-time horses have been bred for special purposes. The “Great
-Horse,” as he was called, was bred for war, parade, and show,
-and was large enough and strong enough to carry a knight in
-armor. The smaller horses were bred for the race or the chase,
-others for the saddle on account of their easy, gliding motion, and
-the comfort of the rider, while others, again, were stout of back and
-limb and able to carry burdens. In regard to the speed of the
-horses bred for that purpose, Mr. Gervase Markham, the second
-Englishman who undertook to write a book on the horse, has
-given us some very interesting and valuable information. He
-brought out his work in the latter part of the sixteenth century,
-and it passed through several “enlarged and improved” editions.
-In the edition of 1606 he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“For swiftness what nation has brought forth the horse which excelled the
-English? When the best Barbaries that ever were in their prime, I saw them
-overcome by a black Hobbie, of Salisbury, and yet that black Hobbie was overcome
-by a horse called Valentine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor
-running was ever equalled, yet was a plain English horse, both by syre and
-dam.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From this we must conclude that some horses from the Barbary
-States had been brought over previous to 1606, which doubtless
-antedated the arrival of King James’ Arabian. This is the
-horse known as the Markham Arabian, and is in the above list of
-foundation stallions. In speaking of the Arabian horses as a
-breed, the Duke of Newcastle remarks as follows upon this
-particular representative of that breed:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I never saw but one of these horses, which Mr. John Markham, a
-merchant, brought over and said he was a right Arabian. He was a bay, but a
-little horse, and no rarity for shape, for I have seen many English horses far
-finer. Mr. Markham sold him to King James for five hundred pounds, and
-being trained up for a course (race), when he came to run every horse beat
-him.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The duke then goes on to speak of the staying qualities of the
-Arabians:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“They talk they will ride fourscore miles in a day and never draw
-the bridle. When I was young I could have bought a nag for ten pounds that
-would have done as much <i>very easily</i>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span></p>
-
-<p>These remarks are repeated here because they are specially pertinent
-in this connection.</p>
-
-<p>It will be conceded by every one who has any knowledge of the
-horse history of this period that the Duke of Newcastle was the
-best-informed man of his generation on all subjects connected
-with the history and breeding of the horse. His preference for
-blood was in the following order: The Barb, the Turk, the
-Spaniard, the Neapolitan, and the handsomest of the English
-stock. It will be observed that in this classification the Arabian
-has no place.</p>
-
-<p>From these illustrations, to which other similar ones might be
-added, it seems to be evident that the native English stock did
-not lack speed so much as they lacked quality, finish, and beauty.
-Perhaps size should be included in this enumeration. They had
-been bred and trained to run for centuries, and they were as stout
-and fleet as the exotics, but they lacked the qualifications of
-beauty and style. The foreigners possessed what the natives
-lacked, and more than all they furnished both the climatic and
-the blood outcross that were needed to re-invigorate the native
-character. It was the custom of the people in the seventeenth
-century to let their horses of both sexes roam at will through
-forests and glades, and in this way the average size had been reduced
-and the law of Henry VIII. (prohibiting the running at
-large of stallions under a certain size) had become a nullity.
-At the time of the restoration of Charles II. (1660) the average
-size of the traveling stock of England was very small—perhaps
-not over thirteen hands high—and then commenced the serious
-work of increasing the size and improving the speed of the light
-horse stock, under the direction and influence of the Duke of
-Newcastle. The introduction of the new blood would give vigor
-to the stock, but as that blood was the blood of Turks and Barbs,
-probably but little if any larger than the native stock, the mystery
-still remains unsolved. In about one hundred years from
-that time the average size of the race horse had been brought up
-from less than fourteen to about fifteen hands. This increase of
-size cannot be accounted for on any other grounds than the introduction
-of the blood of some larger breed. We cannot conceive
-of this being the blood of the old Flanders stock that had
-been brought over centuries before; hence I am strongly of the
-opinion that the duke knew just what he was doing when he
-brought in a lot of stallions and mares (the latter called the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span>
-“Royal Mares”) without telling anybody what they were or
-where they came from. This view is strengthened by the fact
-that none of the descendants of these mares, for several generations,
-ever made a mark upon the turf. If we reject this theory
-of the “Royal Mares,” we are then forced to the conclusion that
-the increase of size came chiefly from the large cold-blooded
-mares of the native stock. The fleet running families of the
-natives were small, and the imported Turks and Barbs were but
-little if any larger; hence, if we accept the evidence of our own
-senses and study the great variations in height, we cannot reject
-the conclusion that these variations had their origin in the size
-of the original elements entering into the formation of the breed.</p>
-
-<p>What was the extent of the influence of the speed of the old
-English race horse upon the new race horse that sprang up in the
-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? This is a question that
-has not been very much discussed, but every intelligent and
-thinking man has given it more or less thought. Britain was
-not rapid in the progress of civilization and refinement, but
-through all the centuries of her history she had her race horses
-and she ran them. There can be no doubt that many of these
-native horses could outrun and outlast the best of the exotics
-that were brought in. None of those exotics, so far as we know,
-could run and win. Their value, then, was measured, not by
-what they could do themselves, but by what their progeny could
-do; and that progeny, at the foundation, carried half the blood of
-the old tribes. There were no racing calendars in the seventeenth
-century and none till the second decade of the eighteenth,
-and during all that time the blood of every man’s horse would,
-naturally, be fashionable blood. When the racing calendars
-were established they were a partial check upon untruthful representations,
-but this check only extended to the sire of the animal,
-and was then not always trustworthy. This left the whole
-maternal side open to all kinds of misrepresentation, and as the
-Anglo-Saxon race is fond of liberty, every man exercised the
-liberty of making his pedigrees to suit himself. Thus, through
-advertisements, sale papers, etc., great multitudes of fictitious
-pedigrees, all shaped on fashionable lines, gained currency and
-were propagated from owner to owner, from generation to generation.
-On this point I speak from the personal knowledge of a
-long lifetime in connection with such affairs in our own country,
-and I take it for granted that our English ancestors were no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span>
-better and no worse than we are ourselves. This was the condition
-of things in England for about one hundred and fifty years,
-and when Mr. Weatherby was at work on the Stud Book he was
-overflowed with a flood of those bald-headed fictions, concocted by
-generations long past, and nobody could disprove them. In
-this way a large portion of the accumulated rubbish of past generations
-found its way into the English Stud Book and there it
-stands to-day, serving only to misguide the seeker after truth.</p>
-
-<p>The earliest records of English racing commence with the year
-1709, and at Newmarket 1716. There have been several racing
-calendars published at different times, but probably the best and
-most convenient for office use is the Racing Register published
-by Bailey Bros., commencing with the first and now filling several
-large volumes. In the early days very few of the winners even
-had any pedigree, but after the lapse of about fifty years we find
-it the rule to insert the sire of all winners, although there were
-still some exceptions. Under this usage it became possible in
-the course of time to establish the leading facts on the paternal
-side, and thus the work of the stud-book compiler was greatly
-facilitated. Those racing calendars, although intended merely
-to serve the convenience of men who bet their money, caring
-nothing for blood, served the more permanent and valuable purpose
-of fixing the paternal lines in the genealogy of the English
-race horse.</p>
-
-<p>In 1786 Mr. William Pick, of York, England, published “A
-Careful Collection of all the Pedigrees it was then Possible to
-Obtain,” thus antedating Mr. Weatherby’s “Introduction” by
-five years. In 1785 Mr. Pick had commenced the publication of
-a racing calendar called “The Sportsman and Breeder’s Vade
-Mecum,” which was continued a good many years. These little
-annual volumes were well received, and they were the forerunners
-of Pick’s Turf Register, the first volume of which was brought
-out in 1703. This was the same year that the first volume of
-Weatherby’s Stud Book appeared, and there was a sharp rivalry
-between the two authors, not merely as two men, but as representing
-two divisions of the country. Mr. Pick was a Yorkshire
-man and Mr. Weatherby was a Londoner. Yorkshire claimed to
-be the “race-horse region” of England, and the Southrons were
-ready to fight rather than concede that claim. This rivalry survived
-two or three generations of racing men, and it is a question<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span>
-whether it has yet subsided. In the north Pick was the authority
-and in the south, Weatherby.</p>
-
-<p>These two men worked on different plans, and each had its advantages.
-Pick limited his labors to the great animals of the
-past, and took them up in chronological order, giving a brief
-sketch of the history and performances of each. This plan required
-space, and when he had completed his first volume of five
-hundred and twenty-eight pages he had only reached the close of
-1763. The second volume, bringing the work down to the close
-of 1772, made its appearance in 1805. Mr. Pick did not live to
-continue the work, and it fell into the hands of Mr. R. Johnson,
-who brought out the third volume in 1822, which continued the
-chronological order to the close of 1782. After the lapse of forty-five
-years, namely 1867, the fourth volume appeared under Mr.
-Johnson’s name, bringing the work to the close of 1792, and I am
-not aware that the work has been continued. These four volumes
-contained much that cannot be found elsewhere, and are very
-valuable.</p>
-
-<p>When we come to study these assemblages of impossible things
-put together and called pedigrees, we begin to realize the absolute
-rottenness of the alleged pedigrees of that whole early period.
-Take, for instance, the case of the horse called the Bald Galloway.
-He bore this name because he had a bald face, and was of the
-Galloway breed. This Galloway breed took its name from the
-old Province of Galloway, in the southwestern part of Scotland.
-They were small, active horses and were famous for many generations
-as a breed of pacers. It has been said that the last pacers in
-Great Britain were found in Galloway. This horse, Bald Galloway,
-was foaled some time about 1708 and was famous as a fast
-race horse till he trained off at five years old. I think there is
-no doubt about his being a genuine Galloway, and if so how
-could he have a pedigree all of foreign blood and ending in a
-“Royal Mare?” This Galloway horse was the sire of the famous
-Roxana, that produced Lath and his full brother Cade, that
-made the early reputation of the great Godolphin Arabian. I
-will ask my readers to refer to the Curwen Bay Barb, No. 11,
-near the commencement of this chapter. This was one of the
-very best of all the Barbs imported, and his origin and history are
-given with unusual fullness, as well as an enumeration of the best
-of his get. In examining this enumeration it will be seen that a
-good number of his best foals were out of Galloway mares and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span>
-are called “Galloways.” Brocklesby Betty was one of the great
-mares of her day, and the Stud Book says that “as a runner, she
-was thought to be the superior of any horse or mare of her time.”
-She was foaled 1711, was got by Curwen Bay Barb and out of Mr.
-Leedes’ Hobby Mare. She was a brood mare before she was
-trained, and her performances were soon after the establishment
-of the Racing Calendars, which show her great superiority. The
-“Hobbies” were a breed of Irish pacing horses that had been
-noted for more than a hundred years, on both sides of the Irish
-channel, as saddle horses, hunters, and runners. The theory
-that these “Irish Hobbies” were descended from the horses on
-board one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, that was wrecked
-on the Irish coast, is purely fanciful, for they were known as a
-breed long before the Spanish Armada was projected. The Hobbies
-were larger and better formed, as a rule, than the Galloways,
-and more highly esteemed. These illustrations of the influence
-and power of indigenous blood in the formation of the breed,
-known throughout the world as the English race horse might be
-extended indefinitely, but let these suffice. With the “Galloways”
-and the “Hobbies,” well known to our ancestors two hundred
-years ago as established breeds or tribes of horses, we cannot
-avoid the conclusion that they were very prodigal of fancy and
-very economical of truth when they attempted to clothe Bald
-Galloway, Leedes’ Hobby, etc., in foreign pedigrees to make
-them fashionable. Aside from the matters of evidence here introduced
-going to show the composite material entering into the
-constitution, structure and instincts of the race horse as he is today,
-there is another that plays a very prominent part in the
-combination. When we see a race horse fourteen hands high,
-and another of equally pure blood standing beside him seventeen
-hands high, we naturally wonder, and ask, Why this difference
-in size? The Turk, the Barb, the Hobby, the Galloway, and indeed
-all the old English racing stock, were very small, scarcely
-averaging fourteen hands. After we have made every allowance
-for a salubrious climate and a generous and unstinted dietary we
-must concede a gradual increase of growth, but these things fail to
-account for a difference of twelve inches in the height of two
-horses bred in the same lines for untold generations. The conclusion
-seems to be inevitable that there were big horses as well
-as little ones in the original combination of ancestors. From
-these diverse sources of his inheritance, it becomes plain to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span>
-mind of every one that the English race horse is thoroughly composite
-in the blood he inherits, and it is beyond the powers of
-analysis to determine whether one element did more than another
-in making him the fastest running horse in the world.</p>
-
-<p>While it might be forcibly, if not conclusively, argued that the
-native English horse had in him all the elements necessary to the
-development of a breed of race horses as great as the breed of
-our own day, there is one fact ever present to the senses which
-goes to show that the influence of exotic blood was very wide and
-very powerful in controlling the action of the race horse. The
-popular and prevailing pacing action of the Hobbies, the Galloways,
-and other hunting, racing and saddle tribes was completely
-wiped out more than a hundred years ago. Any attempt
-to account for this revolution in the gait of the English horse as
-a fancy of fashion, or on the introduction of wheeled vehicles,
-fails to satisfy the understanding. In the first half of the seventeenth
-century pacers were popular, common, and abounded
-everywhere. In the second half of the eighteenth century not
-one could be found in all Britain, “from Land’s End to John
-O’Groat’s House.” Of all the facts that are known and established
-in the history of the English horse, the wiping out of the
-pacer is the most striking and significant. This exterminating
-process was not limited to the families that were intended for
-hunting or racing purposes, but extended to all types and breeds
-of English horses. The little English pacers that had been the
-favorites of kings and princes and nobles for so many centuries
-were submerged in the streams of Saracenic blood that flowed in
-upon them, and their only legitimate descendants left upon the
-face of the earth found homes in the American colonies.
-Their blood is one of the principal elements in the foundation of
-the English race horse, but the “lateral action” in his progeny
-was esteemed a bar-sinister on the escutcheon of the stallion, and
-it was sought to be covered up with something more fashionable
-in name. The old saddle horses of England were not all pacers,
-although that habit of action was very general among them, and
-in some families it was more uniform and confirmed than in
-others, and my authority for this conclusion will be found in the
-detailed account of the horses brought from England to the
-American colonies early in the seventeenth century. It is evident
-that from the day the blood of the Saracenic horse was
-brought in contact with that of the indigenous saddle horse, they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span>
-were antagonistic, if in nothing more, certainly in the habit of
-action. The one never moved in the lateral action and the other
-very generally adopted that form of progression because it was
-his inheritance. What might have been the result if left to the
-laws of “natural selection,” it would be impossible to decide;
-but with the dictates of profit to the master, the mandates of
-fashion, and above all the accepted teachings of the Duke of
-Newcastle, the little pacer had no “friends at court,” and all he
-could do was to get out of the way, with his lateral action. In
-our own country and under the observation of everybody the
-pacer shows great tenacity to his long-inherited habit of action,
-and although buried in non-pacing blood, as supposed, for two or
-three generations, the pace is liable to appear again, at any time.
-So it was, doubtless in English experiences, but as the revolution
-was not retarded by the development of pacing speed, in one
-hundred years from the restoration, in 1660, there was no longer
-a pacer on British soil.</p>
-
-<p>When the first Mr. Weatherby assumed the task of making and
-keeping a registry of English race horses, he seems to have had
-only a very faint conception of the magnitude of the undertaking.
-The first volume of his “General Stud Book” was published
-in 1803, and when it appeared it was found to contain so many
-things that were not true that the necessary work of revision
-and excision reduced its contents fearfully. In these eliminations
-he started in with a free hand, as is shown by comparison
-with later editions, but soon found that his book was disappearing
-very rapidly, and not much of it would be left, if he did not
-stay his hand. At this point he seems to have adopted some
-new rule, unfortunately, either of evidence or of date, probably
-the latter, for his work discloses the fact that he declined all responsibility
-for pedigrees as they came to him, of an earlier
-period than about 1780. Beyond that date nearly all the crude
-and impossible things of fiction were allowed to remain and are
-thus propagated as true, down to our own day. There was one
-rule, however, adopted very early in the management of this
-compilation that saved it from degeneracy, and that was the
-difficulty of getting into it. In all its history, from the beginning,
-it has been a kind of “close corporation,” and the animals
-in the volume of the last year are almost uniformly descended
-from the animals to be found in the first volume. The application
-of this rule, no doubt, worked an injustice in very many cases,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span>
-but it made the English race horse a BREED, pre-eminent above
-all other horses for his unequaled speed as a running horse.
-This general rule restricting admissions to the descendants of
-such as had places in preceding volumes seems to have been
-followed and maintained with a good share of rigidity, by the
-different generations of the Weatherby family, in whose hands
-the compilation still remains. Whatever may have been the ratio
-of fables and forgeries in the first volume, they were there
-compacted and neither the Weatherbys nor the breeders have
-been much annoyed with them since. The plan of the Stud
-Book itself is very unsatisfactory to the careful student, for the
-reason that it admits of no details of breeder, owner, etc., that
-are of vital importance in tracing and identifying an unknown or
-disputed pedigree. While the plan is very desirable and effective
-in placing the produce of mares underneath the dams, it is
-very defective in relation to breeders, and subsequent owners.
-Unless the identity of the animal can be traced and established
-by the records, the pedigree is always doubtful. But notwithstanding
-the unsatisfactory plan of its construction, it has been
-honestly compiled, and we may safely accept its contents, back
-as far as the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Mr.
-Weatherby began his work; but when we reach the period of the
-eighteenth century, facts, fables and frauds are so inextricably
-mixed that whatever we accept must be <i>cum grano salis</i>. Beyond
-that period Mr. Weatherby furnishes nothing but the wildest
-fancies and traditions shaped up by those contributing them
-with a view to lengthen a pedigree and a price accordingly. All
-that we can ever know of the horses of that period we must
-gather from the little snatches dropped by contemporaneous historians.</p>
-
-<p>In establishing his “General Stud Book,” Mr. Weatherby’s
-work may be compared to the building of an embankment around
-a great field which contained all the race horses of the realm. They
-were of all colors, all markings and all sizes, except the monster
-cart horse and the diminutive Shetland. They had all raced or
-possessed blood that had raced, and they all had pedigrees of
-various lengths and various degrees of reliability. They all
-walked and trotted and galloped, and there was not a pacer
-among them, for the last pacer had disappeared from England
-probably fifty years before this. The antagonism of the Saracenic
-horse had triumphed, and that antagonism was bred in the blood<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span>
-and bone of every animal in the field. They were placed there
-to be inter-bred and to produce race horses. Every one of the
-thousand owners was anxious to produce a great winner, and he
-was left to the exercise of his own fancy and judgment as to
-what cross would be most likely to prove successful, and to vindicate
-his superior intelligence. With, all experimenting outside
-of the breed practically barred, the instincts of the breed ripened
-and intensified until its representatives are able to beat the fleetest
-in the world at the gallop, but they could neither walk fast
-nor trot fast. It is doubtful whether any person in the world
-has ever seen a true-bred race horse that could trot a mile in
-four minutes. At this gait they show no aptness nor speed whatever.
-By breeding to fit the modern methods of racing, the
-speed of the race horse has been greatly increased, for short distances,
-but his stamina and endurance no longer command admiration
-as in former generations.</p>
-
-<p>In the latter half of the last century there were a good many
-excellent trotters in England, but the further we get away from
-the blood of the old English pacer, the fewer the trotters we
-find, until at last there are none at all. It seems to be true of
-all countries that where there are no pacers there are no trotters.
-It was not the purpose nor wish of the English people to
-banish the trotter, but when the pacer was banished the trotter
-soon followed him.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE AMERICAN RACE HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Antiquity of American racing—First race course at Hempstead Plain, 1665—
-Racing in Virginia, 1677—Conditions of early races—Early so-called
-Arabian importations—The marvelous tradition of Lindsay’s “Arabian”—
-English race horses first imported about 1750—The old colonial stock as a
-basis—First American turf literature—Skinner’s <i>American Turf Register
-and Sporting Magazine</i>, 1829—Cadwallader R. Colden’s <i>Sporting Magazine</i>
-short-lived but valuable—The original <i>Spirit of the Times</i>—<i>Porter’s
-Spirit of the Times</i>—<i>Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times</i>, 1859—Edgar’s Stud Book
-—Wallace’s Stud Book—Bruce’s Stud Book—Their history, methods, and
-value—Summing up results, showing that success has followed breeding
-to individuals and families that could run and not to individuals and
-families that could not run, whatever their blood.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Horses were kept for running, and horse racing was a common
-amusement in some of the American Colonies for about a
-hundred years before the first English race horses were imported.
-This embraces a century of horse history that, hitherto, has been
-practically unexplored and unknown. For the details of what I
-have been able to glean of this neglected and unknown century
-my readers are referred to the chapters on the different colonies.
-The first racing in this country of which we have any historical
-knowledge was organized by Governor Nicolls. In 1664 the
-Dutch surrendered the province of New Netherlands to the English,
-and the next autumn, 1665, the new race course at Hempstead
-Plains was inaugurated by the new governor of the colony.
-This course was named Newmarket, after the famous English
-course, and Governor Nicolls’ successors continued to offer
-purses on this course for many years, and after a time there were
-two regular meetings held there, spring and autumn. Owing to
-the distance of this course from the city, other courses, near at
-hand, were soon constructed and racing of all kinds and at all
-gaits held high carnival. The principal prizes were called “Subscription
-Purses,” the distance almost invariably two miles, and
-the weight carried ten stone. The horses that ran were known<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span>
-as “Dutch horses,” and were descended from the original stock
-brought from Utrecht, in Holland. They were larger than the
-English horses, and brought better prices, although the latter
-were esteemed more highly for their saddle gaits. I think the
-Dutch horses, originally, had no natural pacers among them, but
-for the pleasures and uses of the saddle they were inter-bred with
-the English horses and the mixed blood soon produced many
-pacers. It is probable also that this mixture increased the speed
-of the whole tribe. Thus racing continued with but few interruptions
-and without any known changes in the rules or conditions
-governing performances, except that after fifty years or more
-the weight to be carried was reduced from ten stone to eight
-stone. In the year 1751, which was eighty-six years after Governor
-Nicolls had established the Newmarket course on Long
-Island, we find the following significant condition inserted in
-the terms of entrance to the races, for the first time: “Free to
-any horse, mare, or gelding bred in America.” The simple
-meaning of this new condition was to “head off” the scheme of
-some “sharp” fellows who were, probably, then on the ocean
-with two or three English race horses, with which they expected
-to “gobble up” whatever stakes or purses came within their
-reach.</p>
-
-<p>The first record we have of racing in Virginia is to be found in
-the court records of Henrico County, in the year 1677—twelve
-years after the establishment of racing in New York. For fuller
-particulars of this, the reader is referred to the chapter on that
-colony. The Virginians were a horse-racing people from the
-start, and it is impossible to tell how long before racing first commenced,
-but probably just as soon as any two neighbors met, each
-owning a horse, a few hundred pounds of tobacco were put up
-the next day, to make it interesting, in determining which was
-the faster. This racing feeling was not confined to neighbors
-nor to neighborhoods, but it pervaded the whole colony, and the
-people of every county had their annual and semi-annual meetings,
-which everybody attended. Their methods of handicapping
-will strike the present generation as somewhat peculiar. In
-their advertisements of the meetings, such language as the following
-was very common: “Sized horses to carry one hundred
-and forty pounds and Galloways to be allowed weight for
-inches.” From this we learn that the tribe of little Scotch pacers
-were still to the fore on this side of the water and that they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span>
-were just as fleet as the larger horses, provided the weight was
-graduated to their inches. There was one feature in these race
-meetings that will be a surprise to many of my readers, as it was
-to myself, and that is the fact that at most of these meetings
-there was one four-mile race. Smaller prizes were run for by
-horses classed as to size, and it may be noted that there was one
-class “not exceeding thirteen hands.” At these meetings the
-distance never seems to have been less than one mile, while on
-the southern border of the colony and in North Carolina, quarter
-racing was very popular and very common from the earliest dates,
-and it was kept up through the greater part of the eighteenth
-century. For a fuller account of the racing of those early days
-the reader is referred to the chapter on Virginia.</p>
-
-<p>In this old English, Irish and Scottish blood, full of the pacing
-element, which we may now call “native” blood, we have the
-real foundation upon which the English race horse was bred and
-from which has come the approximate if not the complete equal
-of the highest type of the English horse, in both speed and
-stamina. The English and the American race horse came from
-the same source and possess the same blood, with this trifling
-distinction—the native mares in England were bred to horses of
-exotic, Saracenic origin, while the native mares of America were
-bred to the descendants of that native-exotic combination.
-Hence, with the original maternal ancestry of the same blood,
-the combined and improved English descendant of that blood
-became the paternal ancestor of the American race horse. We
-must not forget that this “paternal ancestor” had been the result
-of crossing and recrossing, selecting, breeding and developing
-for nearly a hundred years, and that he was, therefore, a far
-better horse and far more prepotent as a sire than the produce
-of the first cross made under the direction of the Duke of Newcastle.
-We must not ignore the fact that while there were many
-stallions brought over in the early days there were also a few
-mares, but they were so few in number that their influence was
-hardly appreciable in the new breed to be established. Saracenic
-blood was touched very sparingly in the colonial days, as even
-the names of not more than three or four have been preserved
-in history. The only one of that period fully identified was
-named Bashaw and was kept on Long Island about the year 1768.
-Like all the others, he was called an Arabian, but according to
-the showing of his advertisement he was bred by the Emperor of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span>
-Morocco, and was not an Arabian. Of the later period and coming
-down to about 1860 there are twenty-five or thirty that have
-been called “Arabians.” Near the head of the list stands one
-called “Arab Barb” or “Black Arabian Barb.” He was claimed
-to be an imported Barb from Algiers, and was seventeen hands
-high, “and coarse in proportion.” Many other so-called “importers”
-were equally absurd and dishonest in their claims, but
-there horses all passed as genuine “Arabians.” Out of the
-whole number called “Arabians” not more than five or six seem
-to have had a shadow of right to the name, and these exceptions
-were practically restricted to the animals imported by Mr. A.
-Keene Richards, of Kentucky. That each and all of these exceptions
-were irredeemable failures is a fact well known to all
-intelligent horsemen. This motley crew of “Arabian” importations
-came from all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean,
-except Arabia, were all called “Arabians,” and they were all flat
-disappointments both as race horses and as producers of race
-horses.</p>
-
-<p>Out of this list of thirty-five or forty so-called Arabian horses,
-there is one that requires special mention, not only because a correction
-may be made in his history, but because I have frequently
-spoken of him as the only Arabian that had left any mark upon
-the horse stock of the country. Lindsay’s Arabian, as he was
-called, was a grey horse and represented to be over fifteen hands
-high. The story is that he was a Barb and had been presented
-to the commander of a British man-of-war, when a colt, by the
-ruler of one of the Barbary States, as an expression of gratitude
-to the captain for having saved the life of his son. The captain
-sailed away for a South American port, and while lying there he
-took his present ashore to let him have a little exercise. The
-colt was given the free range of a lumber-yard, as the story goes,
-and in his playfulness a pile of lumber fell upon him and broke
-three of his legs. The British officer was greatly grieved at his
-loss and proposed to put the colt out of misery by knocking him
-on the head. There happened to be an American trading vessel
-in port and the skipper “allowed if he had that critter on his
-vessel he could save him.” The officer at once gave him to the
-skipper and told him his history. Yankee ingenuity and thrift
-soon got him aboard the trader and he was swung up and his
-legs properly bandaged. The surgical treatment was good, the
-bones knit, and in due time the vessel arrived at New London,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span>
-and the colt was taken to the vicinity of Hartford. Just where
-this story originated it is not possible now to say, nor do I know
-that it ever had currency in Connecticut, but it was certainly
-rehearsed and probably believed in Maryland. He was owned by
-Colonel Wyllis of Hartford, and was advertised in 1770 under the
-single name of Ranger, and described as “a fine English stallion
-of the Barbary breed, bred in England.” From this it would
-appear that nothing was then known of his romantic history.
-As a part of his Maryland history it was said that General Washington’s
-attention had been attracted to a body of Connecticut
-cavalry by the excellence of their horses, and at his instance
-Captain Lindsay bought Ranger, because he was the sire of many
-of those horses, and took him to Maryland, where he was ever
-afterward known as “Lindsay’s Arabian.” The story of the
-indorsement of Washington made an excellent stallion card, and
-it is not necessary that we should inquire into it too closely, for
-the dates might raise a question. The horse passed from Colonel
-Wyllis to James Howard, of Windham, and was advertised by
-him as “The Imported Arabian Horse called The Ranger to
-stand at his stable the season of 1778.” Hence we must conclude
-that he was not taken to the South before the season of 1779, or
-possibly later. Then, as now, to catch the popular fancy, North
-and South, the horse is no longer an “English stallion of the
-Barbary breed” but an “Imported Arabian Horse.” His cross
-was well esteemed in his day, and it has held its place in the estimation
-of all the experienced horsemen as a good cross in an
-old pedigree. We now see that he was bred in England, that he
-was got by a Barb horse or the son of a Barb horse, and that it is
-not probable there was a single drop of Arabian blood in his
-veins. This little sketch will serve to illustrate the methods,
-general and particular, that were invariably used to place a fictitious
-value upon the so-called imported “Arabians.” In no
-other department of human knowledge has there been such a
-universal and persistent habit of misrepresenting the truth of
-history as in matters relating to the horse. It seems to have
-been, and still is, a kind of psychical contagion that has been
-generating dishonesty and a habit of lying in the minds of the
-great body of horsemen for the past two hundred and fifty years.
-If a horse is brought from Turkey, or Syria, or Egypt, or Spain, or
-Morocco, or any of the Barbary States, he is at once called an
-“Arabian.” This is worse than a misnomer, for it is an essential<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span>
-untruth, and its universal use does not redeem it from its essence
-of deception and fraud. It must be conceded, however,
-that this deception may have sprung from bad teaching and
-ignorance rather than from a depraved moral sense, for many
-people, as well as the poets and the novelists, may have concluded
-that as the nations named above got their religion from Arabia,
-so they got their horse stock from the same country, and thus
-the horses brought from Turkey, or Syria, or Egypt, or Spain,
-or Morocco, or any of the Barbary States, are descendants of the
-Arabian horse and thus entitled to the name “Arabian.” This
-seems to be the only theory upon which this universal misrepresentation
-can be palliated. Let us repeat a sentence or two here,
-to show what history reveals on this point. Strabo says there
-were no horses in Arabia at the beginning of the Christian era.
-Philostorgius says that in the year 356, two hundred “well-bred”
-Cappadocian horses were sent as a present to the prince of
-Yemen, by the Emperor Constantius. These were the first
-horses in Arabia. In the days of Mohammed horses were exceedingly
-scarce in Arabia, and they have remained so to the
-present time. The horse is an expensive exotic in Arabia, as he
-is never used for any domestic purpose, nor for any other purpose
-except robbery or display. For all domestic and commercial
-uses the camel is far better. All the countries named above were
-abundantly supplied with horses, at least eight hundred or a
-thousand years before there were any horses in Arabia. The
-Moslems got their religion from Arabia, but not their horses.
-This topic is more fully discussed in the chapter on the Arabian
-horse.</p>
-
-<p>The importation of English race horses to this side of the
-water commenced about the year 1750, and that being the middle
-of the last century it is easy to remember the date when the
-line was drawn between the old and the new elements appearing
-on the race course. The following six animals were brought over
-within a year or two of that date—Monkey, Traveller, Dabster,
-Childers, Badger, and Janus. A few others might be named,
-but some at least are mythical. Of those here named, Traveller
-was the great horse. Janus became the progenitor of a tribe of
-very fast quarter horses, and although he did not found that
-tribe, which had been in existence for a hundred years on the
-border line between Virginia and North Carolina, he doubtless
-improved it. Monkey was twenty-two years old when he came<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span>
-and did not live long. The whole number imported into all the
-colonies before the war of the Revolution counts up to about fifty,
-and some of these are practically unknown, and a few of them
-were wholly fictitious. Maryland, I think, was first in the field
-of importations, and then followed Virginia, New York, and
-North Carolina. Possibly the very earliest importations were
-made in South Carolina, but there is not much evidence that
-those importations were utilized to any extent for racing purposes,
-and hence we know but little of the doings of that colony
-till a later date. There were not more than about twenty mares
-of English race-horse blood imported, in the quarter of a century
-preceding the Revolution, into all the colonies. As many of
-these animals of both sexes were stolen or destroyed during the
-war, we can approximate with some degree of certainty the great
-reduction in this producing force by the time the war ended and
-importations again commenced.</p>
-
-<p>Now, we have before us the old colonial running stock that
-had been tested in many a battle and found able to cover the
-distance of two to four miles, and we have also the new running
-stock that had never been asked to go any further, but we have
-no actual, authentic and reliable knowledge of the comparative
-speed of the two classes. There were no stop watches nor
-records of time kept in those days. This much only we know,
-that prizes were offered for “half-breds” for a few years, but
-when it was found that some of the half-breds could run just as
-fast and as far as some of the whole-breds, this class of prizes was
-withdrawn. Then commenced the manufacture of fraudulent
-pedigrees, for, it was argued, “How could an American horse
-beat an English horse unless he had English blood and plenty of
-it?” Hence, when a horse won that fact was taken as proof that
-he was full bred, and no time was lost in investing him with a
-first-class, pure-bred pedigree. This was a little onerous on the
-few imported mares that were known and named, as in the case
-of imported Mary Gray, for she had to <i>produce</i> eleven filly foals
-by imported Jolly Roger in order to accommodate her numerous
-progeny, as alleged, and how many more claims were made of
-the same pedigree it would be very difficult to estimate. When it
-began to appear a little awkward to require Mary Gray to have,
-on paper, more than eleven filly foals by Jolly Roger, it was soon,
-discovered that it was less perplexing and at the same time less
-liable to be “cornered” by saying “dam an imported English<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span>
-mare.” No doubt there was a great deal of sharp practice, to
-say nothing of cheating and lying, about horse matters in Colonial
-times, but those little venialities were only the blossoms indicating
-the mature fruits of deceptions and frauds that were to follow
-when pedigrees would be considered an element of value in the
-running horse, and when every man would have the power, in
-fact, to make and print his pedigrees to suit himself. This
-brings us to a very brief consideration of what has been done in
-the direction of correcting the frauds of the past and preventing
-them in the future.</p>
-
-<p>The period of fable and of falsehood in the genealogy of the
-American race horse seems to have commenced not long after the
-first importations of English race horses. In the first generations
-from the imported English horse and the native mare, it was rather
-difficult for a man to fix up a pedigree for his half-bred colt that
-would show him to be full bred, but after forty, fifty, or sixty
-years had elapsed the events became misty, and then every man
-exercised the right to make his own pedigrees to suit his own
-fancy. This seems to have been the condition of things for
-many years, and while there were a few honest men who would
-stick to the truth, the great majority either made their pedigrees
-to suit themselves or employed some “expert” to make them for
-them. The confusion which ensued was most perplexing, and
-the slipshod manner in which editors and writers on the horse
-did their work was most discouraging. Whatever was found in
-print on a crossroads blacksmith shop door was taken as authentic,
-because it was in print.</p>
-
-<p>In 1829 Mr. John S. Skinner, of Baltimore, Maryland, commenced
-the publication of a monthly magazine, entitled “<i>The
-American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine</i>,” and as it really
-“filled a long-felt want,” it received a very encouraging support.
-As its name indicated its field, it at once became the authority on
-sporting events and the receptacle of a great amount of valuable
-correspondence on the horses of the day, as well as the earlier race
-horses. Mr. Skinner was industrious in collecting material for
-his magazine, but unfortunately he published whatever was sent
-to him relating to the horse, and just as it was sent. If a communication
-was well written, no difference how many errors of
-fact it might contain, it never seemed to occur to Mr. Skinner to
-use his blue pencil. Pedigrees were sent in, amounting to many
-thousands, during his ownership, with fictitious and untruthful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span>
-remote extensions, and published without any possibility of tracing
-the different crosses to a known or responsible source or
-name. Here was the opportunity of a lifetime to “fix up” the
-pedigrees of stallions to suit the public demand and the fees
-sought by their owners, send them to Mr. Skinner, and have
-them duly spread before the public in all their dishonest finery.
-The early volumes are very rich in the accumulations of pedigrees,
-such as they are, and hence very valuable. The magazine
-received less and less attention from its proprietor each succeeding
-year and finally it was transferred to the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>,
-of New York, and died after an existence of some fifteen years.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Cadwallader R. Colden, of New York, commenced the
-publication of another sporting magazine, that was of very great
-merit, and did much to correct some of the errors that abounded
-in Mr. Skinner’s publication. In the controversies which naturally
-sprang up he had greatly the advantage of his adversary, for
-he knew horse history and Mr. Skinner did not. Mr. Colden was
-a man of marked ability, and over the signature of “An Old
-Turfman” he made himself famous as a writer. He hated a
-fraud and wherever he saw one he did not hesitate to hit it. His
-publication was a large and expensive one, racing was then under
-the periodical interdict of public opinion, and after about two or
-three years, and greatly to the loss and misfortune of the truths
-of horse history, the publication was discontinued. The weekly
-press had no representative in the field of “horse literature and
-sporting subjects” until early in the thirties, when the <i>Spirit of
-the Times</i> was founded by William T. Porter. The conception
-of a weekly paper devoted to all kinds of sports, such as hunting,
-fishing, racing, gaming, etc., was not only new in this country,
-but it was brilliant. Mr. Porter was not only a gentleman in his
-appearance and manners, but he had fine social qualities and was
-a writer of ability and polish. Such a personage would naturally
-gather about him friends and correspondents that were congenial,
-and very soon <i>The Spirit of the Times</i> became noted as the organ
-of a great body of educated men who loved sport and enjoyed
-wit. It was the only publication of its kind on the continent,
-and it soon obtained a very wide circulation. Mr. Porter knew
-very little of horses, either theoretically or practically, but he
-was a ready adapter and wrote some fine descriptions of famous
-racing contests. His habits were sportive rather than industrious,
-hence he left nothing behind him of value to his friends<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span>
-or to the world except the mere fact that he was the founder of
-the first sporting paper in this country. In course of time the
-paper with all its belongings became the property of John
-Richards, the former pressman, and Mr. Porter had to look for a
-living wherever he could find it. Mr. George Wilkes then took
-him under his wing, and started a new sporting paper called
-<i>Porter’s Spirit of the Times</i>. The use of this name carried
-with it the support of a good many friends, but as he was not
-able to write anything, practically, for the new paper, from its
-very commencement in September, 1856, it failed to yield any
-support to Mr. Porter, and not much to Mr. Wilkes and his
-partners. Litigation arose and Mr. Wilkes finally withdrew from
-<i>Porter’s Spirit of the Times</i>, and started <i>Wilkes’ Spirit of
-the Times</i> in September, 1859. We then had three sporting
-papers all claiming to be the original and only legitimate <i>Spirit
-of the Times</i>. Among their readers they were distinguished as
-the <i>Old Spirit</i>, <i>Porter’s Spirit</i>, and <i>Wilkes’ Spirit</i>. The
-circulation of the Old Spirit was largely in the Southern
-States, and the war destroyed it, in 1861. <i>Porter’s Spirit</i> having
-but little money and still less brains, died about the same
-time. This left Mr. Wilkes in open possession of the field, and
-his remarkably trenchant articles on the conduct of the war
-gave <i>Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times</i> a very wide circulation, even
-among those who cared nothing for sporting matters. At the
-same time he was fortunate in securing the services of Mr.
-Charles J. Foster, an able writer on horse subjects, and a very
-industrious and capable man in managing and discussing affairs
-connected with the horse. Some years later, Mr. Wilkes dropped
-his own name from the title of his paper, and not long afterward
-he added twenty-five or thirty years to its age by changing the
-numbers so as to cover the period of the original <i>Spirit of the
-Times</i> founded by William T. Porter. The old sporting publications,
-one and all, maintained the view, so far as they ever had
-any view to maintain, that all that was of any value in the
-American horse, for whatever purpose, had come down to us
-from the Arabian through the English race horse. Their value,
-therefore, consists wholly in the naked statistics which they contain.</p>
-
-<p>The first attempt made in this country, in the direction of
-publishing a stud book of American race horses, was the product
-of Patrick Nesbitt Edgar, an eccentric and apparently not well-balanced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span>
-Irishman, who was a resident of North Carolina. This
-book, which purported to be a “first” volume, was very remarkable
-in many respects, two or three of which I will enumerate.
-The prevailing absence of dates and all means by which the truth
-or falsity of a pedigree could be determined; the astounding
-number of crosses given, even to the <i>immediate</i> descendants of
-imported sires; the multitude of animals never heard of before
-nor since, with pedigrees extended a dozen crosses; the absence
-of many animals that everybody had heard of. This book had
-been in print about thirty years before I ever saw it, and the first
-impression it made on my mind was that the author was “clean
-daft.” At the same time, through all his work there was a
-“method in his madness,” going to show the care he had taken to
-exclude or suppress any little fact that might lead to detection
-and exposure. As an illustration of his methods I will take the
-following pedigree, at random, as given by him and copied,
-literally, by Mr. Bruce, following the particular form of the
-latter:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="hanging">CENTAUR, b. h. foaled 1767, bred by ——; owned in Virginia,
-got by imported Stirling (Evans’) (foaled 1762).</p>
-
-<p>1st dam by imp. Aristotle (imported 1764).</p>
-
-<p>2d dam by imp. Dotterel.</p>
-
-<p>3d dam by imp. David (imported 1763).</p>
-
-<p>4th dam by imp. Ranter (imported 1762).</p>
-
-<p>5th dam by imp. Othello (imported 1755).</p>
-
-<p>6th dam by imp. Childers (imported 1761).</p>
-
-<p>7th dam an imported, thoroughbred mare.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Now, what do we know about this pedigree that has been indorsed
-and published, just as here stated, by two stud-book
-makers? They do not pretend to know by whom he was bred,
-nor do they know in what part of Virginia he was owned, but
-they assume to know perfectly well each cross in his pedigree
-and that his seventh dam was an imported, thoroughbred mare.
-The dates of importations in parentheses in the foregoing have
-been placed there by myself for the sake of the exhibit. The
-horse Dotterel, the original of that name and by the same reputed
-sire, never left England, and it is probable this Dotterel is mythical.
-Now, let us analyze this pedigree by the aid of the searchlight
-of dates. Ranter, imported 1762, might have had a filly to
-his credit in 1763. This filly at two years old might have been
-bred to David and produced a filly in 1766. This filly at two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>
-years old might have been bred to Dotterel and produced a filly
-in 1769. This filly at two years old might have been bred to
-Aristotle and produced a filly in 1772. This filly, at two years
-old, might have bred to Evans’ Stirling (or Starling), and produced
-the colt Centaur in 1775—<i>but he was foaled in 1767</i>. Not
-once in a million times would this succession of possibilities
-occur, but if they did occur in this case the pedigree of Centaur
-still remains absolutely impossible, for four generations of horses
-cannot be crowded into five years. This exhibit fairly illustrates
-the character of Mr. Edgar’s work, and being right on the border
-line between the “native” race horse and the modern “thoroughbred”
-we see just how they compressed the breeding of eight generations
-into the space of fifteen or sixteen years. If we were to
-compare the English with the American methods of manufacturing
-pedigrees, it would be hard to determine which was the more
-shamefully dishonest. Mr. Edgar was fiercely dissatisfied with
-the indifference of horsemen to his enterprise, and with the lack
-of support which they rendered him. He went forward with his
-second volume and professed to have completed it, but announced
-that it should never be put in type until the horsemen of the
-country should assist and support him. In the event of their
-failing to do so he threatened to sink his manuscript twenty feet
-deep in the center of the Dismal Swamp, where no mortal would
-ever find it. The second volume never appeared, and it is to be
-hoped he carried out his threat.</p>
-
-<p>For the second attempt at compiling a stud book of American
-Race Horses I must, myself, plead guilty. Some time in the “fifties”
-I came into possession of a number of volumes of the “old”
-<i>Spirit of the Times</i>, Skinner’s American Turf Register, three
-or four volumes of the “English Stud Book” and a large number of
-volumes of the <i>English Sporting Magazine</i>. As I was then dabbling
-slightly around the edges of “horse literature,” I found
-this little nucleus of a library very convenient, but very unsatisfactory
-in answering questions that came to me, and which an
-official position seemed to require that I should be able to answer.
-When asked for the pedigrees of other domestic animals I could
-take down the Herd Books of the different leading breeds and
-give precise information, but when asked about the pedigree of a
-horse, unless he was greatly distinguished as a racer, days of solid
-labor might be expended on the one question and then not discover
-the information sought. It was, perhaps, ten years after<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>
-this time before I ever saw or heard of the misbegotten and foolish
-compilation of pedigrees made by Edgar. For some years
-this labor of compilation was prosecuted at odd hours, for my
-own personal use and satisfaction, and without the remotest purpose
-of ever publishing a stud book. As I plodded my way
-along, finding what I supposed to be a fact here and another
-there, and often conflicting, I found myself invariably accepting
-what was longest as a pedigree, as this feature seemed to be evidence
-not only of completeness, but of truthfulness at the same
-time. As my gleanings grew in volume my interest in what I
-was doing became more absorbing and intense, and when I had completed
-the search of every page and paragraph of my published
-sources of information, up to the close of the year 1839, I found I
-had enough matter for a large volume. About this time I came
-into possession of a copy of “Edgar’s Stud Book”—and I was
-greatly perplexed to know what to do with it. The copyright
-was dead and it contained a good many unimportant and utterly
-unknown things that I had not met with in all my gleanings.
-Under these circumstances and considering the fact that it
-abounded in the crudest uncertainties, to call them by no harsher
-name, I concluded to use his work in all cases where I did not
-have a pedigree from other sources, to cut off all imaginary extensions
-and to insert his name, in every case, as the source of information
-and responsibility. The work then went to press and
-the first volume of “Wallace’s American Stud Book” made its appearance
-in 1871. The time and labor expended on the first
-volume made me quite familiar with the leading performers of
-the several generations embraced therein, and the work on the
-second volume went forward with more ease and rapidity, and in
-1871 I had completed the gleaning of all publications relating to
-the race horse, up to the close of 1870.</p>
-
-<p>This second volume, being about the size of the first, was completed
-and put in due form for the compositor, but never was
-published. The reason why it was never published may not be
-without interest to the student of horse genealogy, and I will, in
-a few words, state that reason. Side by side with the progress
-of the second volume of the runners, I was carrying forward a careful
-investigation of the lineage of the early trotters and their progenitors.
-As there were no trotting records giving pedigrees, I
-was compelled to go back to the breeders as the only source of
-reliable information. When I obtained this from intelligent and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span>
-reputable people I accepted the information and stood by it as
-the truth; and when I came to compare it with the representations
-of pedigree made in advertisements of some stallion scion
-of the family, the truth began to dawn upon me that advertisements,
-whether in newspapers or on crossroads blacksmith-shop
-doors, with scarcely an exception, were made up of statements
-that were utterly false and fictitious. They were made up for
-the single purpose of securing patronage, and generally traced in
-different directions to famous and well-known horses. The fictitious
-extensions of stallion advertisements have served as the
-basis for the fictitious extensions of families and tribes. When I
-came to compare the extensions of trotting pedigrees with running
-pedigrees, I could not discover that the one was any more
-or less reliable than the other. They rested on precisely the
-same basis of stallion pedigrees, and no difference whether they
-appeared in Mr. Skinner’s <i>Turf Register</i> or in a big poster, there
-was no censorship, and they were both in type—and whatever
-was in type was generally supposed to be worthy of belief. In
-one respect the pedigrees of running horses are more reliable
-than the early advertisements of trotting horses, particularly
-with those that raced, for they were required to give the sire and
-dam when they were entered in races, and a failure to comply
-with this rule was penalized. The sires, therefore, are generally
-right, but unfortunately the rule did not require the dam to be
-named and definitely specified, hence any one of a dozen unnamed
-mares by a given horse could be represented in after years
-as the dam of that particular horse. Here commenced the
-trouble in the unnamed and untraced mares that never have
-been nor ever can be identified. On a careful and sorrowful
-review of my work of many years I found that I had been working
-on a wrong basis from the start. Instead of discovering and
-arranging a great many valuable truths, as I supposed, I had devoted
-years to perpetuating thousands and thousands of fictions
-in these unknown, unnamed, and unidentified dams. This is the
-reason the second volume of “Wallace’s American Stud Book”
-never was published. The only benefit I ever derived from the
-work was in its educational aspects. The work made me familiar
-with the early running-horse history of this country and of England,
-and taught me what so many horsemen should learn—that
-a truth is always better than a lie. The more carefully and thoroughly
-I went into the origin, lineage and history of what we<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>
-may call the modern race horse, the more evident it became to
-my mind that the great mass of the running horses of our own
-generation are carrying, in their pedigrees, the frauds and fictions
-of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to say nothing
-of the innumerable deceptions and tricks of our own century.
-To accept and propagate these untruths is simply to, in a manner,
-indorse them, and an attempt to eliminate them would invoke
-the clamors of a continent. Hence, more than twenty years
-ago, I washed my hands of all responsibility for the pedigrees of
-English race horses, and turned my attention to establishing the
-lineage of the American trotter, on sure foundations, and building
-him up into a breed.</p>
-
-<p>The third attempt at compiling the pedigrees of running-bred
-horses was made by Mr. Sanders D. Bruce, of New York, and as
-it followed Edgar and Wallace, it was made up chiefly of what he
-found in these works. The conscienceless fictions of Edgar were
-accepted without hesitation or remorse, and the central aim
-seemed to be to make every pedigree as long as possible, whether
-true or false. No fictitious stallion advertisement was ever too
-absurd to serve as a basis for the pedigrees of all his kindred.
-Mr. Bruce accepted everything and rejected nothing, and it is
-not probable he ever investigated a pedigree in his life. His
-rule of action seems to have been to please his customers, and to
-scrupulously avoid all public discussions of pedigrees. This was
-the politic course to pursue, for any attempt to defend the monstrosities
-it contained would have wiped it out of existence very
-quickly. Bruce’s Stud Book seems to have been supported by a
-few individuals, from the beginning, as a kind of eleemosynary
-institution, and it is not likely it will ever rise above that condition.</p>
-
-<p>The substantial correctness of the generations extending
-back for a period of sixty or eighty years, and in some cases
-even a little further, is a very valuable contribution to our store
-of knowledge in this department of industry, but, unfortunately,
-the generations beyond those that may be classed as recent very
-largely rest upon foundations that are fictitious and fraudulent.</p>
-
-<p>These fictions and frauds are so general and common in
-the remote extensions on the female side of the pedigree that
-when we find a string of ten or perhaps twenty dams and not one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span>
-of them named, known or identified until we strike the twenty-first,
-and she described as “thoroughbred, imported mare,” we
-know that this is the work of the professional “pedigree maker,”
-and not more than once in a hundred times will we be mistaken.
-This is alike true of both English and American pedigrees of
-race horses. The modern crosses are comparatively honest, but
-the remote extensions, through the maternal lines, in both countries
-are chiefly the products of a venal imagination.</p>
-
-<p>There are some foundation truths in the history and development
-of the English and American race horse—for they are both
-one in blood—to which I must briefly advert before dismissing
-this topic. In announcing the conclusions which I have reached,
-I am fully conscious that I will come in contact with preconceived
-opinions that have been very prevalent, if not universal,
-for at least two centuries.</p>
-
-<p>1. There were race horses in England that had been racing and
-breeding for centuries before the first Saracenic horse was
-brought there, and it was not an uncommon thing for the native
-to beat the exotic, when he first arrived. There had been racing
-in America, by what we will call the native stock—but they were
-all English and Dutch—for about one hundred years before the
-first English race horse reached this country.</p>
-
-<p>2. These horses had been selected with care and bred for centuries
-with more or less intelligence, with the single purpose of
-increasing their speed. During those centuries there were not
-so many writers on biology, heredity, etc., as we have now, but
-the old aphorism, “Like begets like”—a complete epitome of all
-science on this subject—was just as well known and as universally
-believed a thousand years ago as it is to-day. We may, therefore,
-safely conclude that at the close of the sixteenth century
-there were many native English horses, descended from lines and
-tribes that had been selected, raced and bred for generations,
-that were fully the equals of the best of the exotics, that were
-brought in about that time.</p>
-
-<p>3. The native stock of England at the close of the sixteenth
-century, was the stock from which the American colonies received
-their first supplies, except the few brought from Utrecht,
-in Holland, to the Dutch Colonists in New York. When brought
-across the Atlantic, especially in Virginia, no time was lost in continuing
-their development as race horses, which was carried forward<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span>
-for nearly one hundred years before the first English race
-horse was imported for their improvement. Their regular racing
-was at all distances, up to four miles.</p>
-
-<p>4. On this basis of the native English blood, common to both
-countries, the breed of English and American race horses was
-built up. The foreign elements brought into England were
-chiefly from the Barbary States and from Turkey. This exotic
-blood certainly had a very marked effect upon the horse stock of
-Britain, but it cannot be said, with certainty, that it increased
-the speed of the race horse. All the experiences of the past
-hundred years with these foreign strains have gone to show that
-instead of increasing the speed they have retarded it.</p>
-
-<p>5. The list of the foundation stock of the English race horse as
-given by Mr. Weatherby, in the first volume of the English Stud
-Book, and reproduced in the preceding chapter, is worthy of very
-careful study, especially by those who seem to think that the
-English race horse is descended, without admixture, from the
-Arabian horse. The striking feature of that list is the overwhelming
-preponderance of other blood than the Arabian, even if we
-accept all that is called Arabian as genuine. Mr. Darley’s horse,
-called an Arabian, and Lord Godolphin’s horse, called an Arabian,
-count for more than all the others put together, in the make-up
-of the English race horse. Mr. Darley’s horse came from a region
-remote from Arabia and where a thousand good horses are bred
-for one in Arabia, and should be called a Turk. Lord Godolphin’s
-horse—“the great unknown”—will ever remain unknown.
-He seems to have been traced to France, and, after studying his
-portraiture, it is probable he was a French horse.</p>
-
-<p>6. Taking this list of foundation stock and viewing it from the
-standpoint of the greatest lenity and liberality that a sound and
-careful judgment can accord, we find that the inheritance of
-Arabian blood in the veins of the English race horse, if there was
-any such inheritance at all, was strictly infinitesimal. This
-historical fact in the foundation of the race horse, showing the
-inutility of Arabian blood, whether genuine or spurious, has
-been fully confirmed in great multitudes of trials, in both nations,
-during the past hundred years. In no case has it been a benefit,
-but always a detriment.</p>
-
-<p>7. The race horse has been bred through centuries for the
-single purpose of speed. Through all his generations he has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>
-been the product of the brains, judgment and skill of his successive
-masters. Parents were selected that could go out and win
-the prizes from their fellows. The next generation was not only
-the product of running parents, but parents that were from running
-families. Thus grew up the pedigree of the race horse
-under the direction of thought and judgment. Pedigrees are practical
-things and full of winners, and in no sense made more valuable
-by having some supposed “Arabian” cross away back ten
-generations, that never ran in his life.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—VIRGINIA.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Hardships of the colonists—First importations of horses—Racing prevalent in
-the seventeenth century—Exportation and then importations prohibited—Organized
-horse racing commenced 1677 and became very general—In 1704
-there were many wild horses in Virginia and they were hunted as game—The
-Chincoteague ponies accounted for—Jones on life in Virginia, 1720—Fast
-early pacers, Galloways and Irish Hobbies—English race horses
-imported—Moreton’s Traveler probably the first—Quarter racing prevailed on
-the Carolina border—Average size and habits of action clearly established—The
-native pacer thrown in the shade by the imported runner—An Englishman’s
-prejudices.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The colony of Virginia, settled at Jamestown, May 13, 1607,
-was subjected to a succession of dissensions, privations and disasters
-extending through a number of years. The elements of
-which this first plantation was composed were heterogeneous, and
-many of them wholly unsuited to battle with the hardships and
-privations of the wilderness. A very large proportion of the adventurers
-were mere idlers at home, descended from good but
-impecunious families, and had never done an honest day’s work
-in their lives. Too proud to labor even if they had known how,
-hunger and rags soon made them the most unhappy and discontented
-of mortals. The governmental affairs of the colony fell into
-confusion, like the people forming it, and we have no official
-record of what was done for a number of years. All that is
-known today of what transpired in the early years of the colony
-has been gleaned from the personal correspondence of actors in
-the many strifes that came so near destroying them all. These
-letters are, generally, so strongly imbued with partisan feeling
-that there seems to be no room left to tell us anything about the
-industrial growth of the colony, either in planting or breeding.
-The excerpts, therefore, relating to the early horses of Virginia
-which I have been able to gather from a great many sources, will
-fall far short of being complete, but I think they will serve as a
-basis upon which to form an intelligent estimate of the Virginia<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span>
-horses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and as to the
-nineteenth, the newspapers will furnish everything what is
-needed.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident that the fleet of three vessels which took out to
-Virginia the first adventurers took also some horses and mares
-with them; for the governor and council, who went out the next
-year, in reporting the condition of the colonists to the home
-company, under date of July 7, 1610, use this language:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Our people, together with the Indians, had, the last winter, destroyed and
-killed up all our hogs, inasmuch as of five or six hundred, as it is supposed, there
-was not above one sow that we can hear of left alive, not a hen or a chick in
-the fort, and our horses and mares they had eaten with the first.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From a letter written by M. Gabriel Archer, who arrived in
-Virginia August 31, 1609, we gather the following facts:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“From Woolwich, the fifteenth day of May, 1609, seven sail weighed anchor
-and came to Plymouth the twentieth day, where George Somers, with two
-small vessels, consorted with us. There we took into The Blessing, being the
-ship wherein I went, six mares and two horses, and the fleet layed in some
-necessaries belonging to the action; in which business we spent time till the 2d
-of June, and then set sail to sea, but crossed by South West winds, we put into
-Falmouth, and there stayed until the 8th of June, then gate out.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Now, as The Blessing was probably about the average size
-of the rest of the fleet, I think it is reasonable to conclude that
-each of the other vessels took some horses also. In a report of a
-voyage to Virginia, dated November 13, 1611, we find the following
-statement: “They have brought to this colony one hundred
-cows, two hundred pigs, one hundred goats, and seventeen horses
-and mares.” In 1614 the Virginians made a raid on Port Royal,
-in what was then called New France, and carried off to Virginia,
-among other captures, a number of horses, mares and colts. A
-second raid in the same quarter seems to have resulted in carrying
-off wheat, horses, clothing, working tools, etc.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Harmor, writing in 1614, in his “True Discourse on the
-Present State of Virginia,” says: “The colony is already furnished
-with two hundred neat cattle, infinite hogs in herds all over
-the woods, some mares, horses and colts, poultry, great store,
-etc.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1894, in the Public Records Office in London, I found that
-the Virginia Company had sent out four mares, February, 1619,
-on The Falcon. And further, I found a kind of summary of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>
-what the company had done in the past toward populating and
-supplying the colonists with live stock. It is stated that they
-had sent twelve ships, taking out one thousand two hundred and
-sixty-one persons, making the total number in Virginia at that
-date about two thousand four hundred. The exportations
-include five hundred cattle, with some horses and goats, and an
-infinite number of swine. In 1620 the company ordered twenty
-mares to be sent over, at a cost, delivered, of fifteen pounds
-each. From the price of horses in England at that day, I would
-infer that somebody was making money out of the colonists.</p>
-
-<p>In a little work published in London, 1646, entitled “A Perfect
-Description of Virginia,” the author says that “There are in
-Virginia, of an excellent raise (race), about two hundred horses
-and mares.” It is evident that this statement is a mere estimate,
-and I am disposed to think it a very wild estimate from what follows
-in a very few years. It is true that horses do not propagate and
-increase as fast as any other variety of domestic animals, but
-under the circumstances every effort would be made to increase
-the stock, and from what follows, I think my criticism will be
-sustained.</p>
-
-<p>In the legislation of the colony we find no mention of horses,
-till the year 1657, when the exportation of mares was prohibited.
-Eleven years after this (1668) this restriction was removed and
-the exportation of both mares and horses permitted. The very
-next year, 1669, the importation of more horses was prohibited
-by legislative enactment. From this it would seem that there
-were already too many horses in the colony, or possibly some
-horse breeder had begun to realize that there were better horses
-in some of the other colonies that were finding a market in Virginia,
-and they thus sought “protection” for their own stock.</p>
-
-<p>This prohibition could not have been aimed at the mother
-country, for the prices obtained would not justify the cost and
-risk of a sea voyage. We must, therefore, conclude that it was
-intended to shut out the New England colonies, which were
-already shipping horses to all the settlements on the seaboard, as
-well as to some of the West India Islands. In this we see at what
-an early date commenced the interchange of commodities among
-the colonies. As early as 1647 the Dutch authorities at New
-Amsterdam authorized Isaac Allerton to sell twenty or twenty-five
-horses to Virginia.</p>
-
-<p>The court records of Henrico County, Virginia, for the year 1677<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>
-contain three distinct trials growing out of horse races for that
-year. In one case the contest was for three hundred pounds of
-tobacco; in another the winner was to take both horses; in the
-third the amount at issue does not appear. From the readiness
-at sharp practice and from the cunning dodges to get clear of
-paying a bet it is very evident that the principals and the witnesses
-were well up in all the tricks of racing as it was practiced
-at that early day. How long before 1677 racing was practiced in
-Virginia I have no means of determining, but the next year and
-the next, continuing to the end of that century, the records of
-the court speak for themselves. In these trials I find the names
-of Thomas Jefferson, Jr., grandfather of President Jefferson, and
-also the name of Benjamin Harrison, the ancestor of two presidents,
-although they were not principals in any of the cases.</p>
-
-<p>In Beverley’s History of Virginia, published in London, 1705,
-at section ninety-four, we have the following:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“There is yet another kind of sport, which the young people take
-great delight in, and that is the hunting of wild horses; which they
-pursue, sometimes with dogs and sometimes without. You must know
-they have many horses foaled in the woods of the uplands, that never were in
-hand and are as shy as any savage creature. These having no mark upon them
-belong to him that first takes him. However, the captor commonly purchases
-these horses very dear, by spoiling better in the pursuit, in which case he has
-little to make himself amends, besides the pleasure of the chase. And very
-often this is all he has for it, for the wild horses are so swift that ’tis difficult to
-catch them; and when they are taken ’tis odds but their grease is melted, or
-else being old they are so sullen that they can’t be tamed.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In the number of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for September, 1877, p.
-684, will be found a very interesting article from the pen of the
-late Dr. Elwood Harvey, on “The Chincoteague Ponies,” that
-have from time immemorial occupied, in a wild state, the
-islands of Chincoteague and Assoteague off the eastern shore of
-Virginia and Maryland. The traditions relating to their origin
-are very hazy and improbable, and the most reasonable one, because
-it is within the range of possibilities, is that a Spanish ship
-was wrecked off this part of the coast and the original ponies
-were on board and swam ashore. It is well established that they
-have occupied the islands for more than a hundred years. They
-are about thirteen hands high, uniform in shape and resemble
-each other except in color, for all colors prevail. Some of them
-pace a little, and they have rather light manes and tails, and no
-superabundance of hair on the fetlocks. Now, the horses of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span>
-Virginia, at the period of which Mr. Beverley writes, and of
-which I will have something further to say as we progress, were
-but little if any larger than these semi-wild inhabitants of the
-islands; they were of all colors and many of them paced. As it
-is well known that the action of the ocean, so unaccountable to
-all human ken, one year builds up a dike connecting islands with
-the mainland, and the next year, perhaps, washes it out again,
-we can thus easily understand how a herd of these semi-wild
-animals may have been caught and kept there. In this way, it
-seems to me, the origin of the Chincoteague ponies may be easily
-and rationally accounted for, without any shadow of violence to
-the clearest reasoning. Mr. Hugh Jones, who, in many directions,
-seems to have been a closer observer of the life of the colonists
-than any of the other tourists whose writings we have examined,
-wrote a little work entitled “The Present State of Virginia,”
-which was published in London, 1724, expressing himself
-as follows, on page 48:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The common planters, leading easy lives, don’t much admire labor or any
-manly exercise except horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fighting, in which
-some greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summers,
-make some very lazy, who are then said to be climate struck. The saddle
-horses, although not very large, are hardy, strong, and fleet; and will pace
-naturally and pleasantly at a prodigious rate. They are such lovers of riding
-that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse, and I have known some spend
-the morning in ranging several miles in the woods to find and catch their horses
-only to ride two or three miles to church, to the courthouse or to a horse race,
-where they generally appoint to meet on business, and are more certain of finding
-those they want to speak or deal with than at their home.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Jones here places us in close contact with the character
-and habits of the people of that day, as well as with the character
-and qualifications of their horses. It is not to be inferred, I
-think, that all their horses were pacers, but that all their saddle
-horses were pacers there can be little doubt. This is the first
-intimation we have from Virginia that some of their pacers were
-very fast, and when Mr. Jones says “they could pace naturally
-and pleasantly at a prodigious rate,” he means that the speed
-was marvelous, wonderful, astonishing. This “prodigious rate,”
-in a good measure, balances Dr. McSparran’s account of the Narragansett,
-which he had seen go a mile “in a little over two minutes
-and a good deal less than three,” and gives strength to the
-statement of Mr. Lewis, that when a boy he had ridden in pacing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>
-matches and return matches between the Rhode Islanders
-and the Virginians.</p>
-
-<p>In the <i>Virginia Gazette</i>, under date of January 11, 1739, we
-find the following advertisement, to which we invite special attention,
-as it brings out some facts which, inferentially, throw a
-great deal of light upon horse racing, up to that period:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“This is to give notice that there will be run for at Mr. Joseph Seawall’s,
-in Gloucester County, on the first Tuesday in April next, a Purse of Thirty
-Pistoles, by any horse, mare or gelding; all sized horses to carry 140 lbs. and
-Galloways to be allowed weight for inches, to pay one Pistole entrance, if a
-subscriber, and two if not, and the entrance money to go to the second horse,
-etc. And on the day following, on the same course, there will be a Saddle,
-Bridle and Housing, of five pounds value, to be run for by any horse, mare or
-gelding that never won a prize of that value, four miles, before. Each horse
-to pay five shillings entrance and that to go to the horse that comes in second.
-And on the day following there is to be run for, by horses not exceeding thirteen
-hands, a hunting saddle, bridle and whip. Each horse to pay two
-shillings and sixpence at entrance, to be given to the horse that comes in
-second. Happy is he that can get the highest rider.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The first point suggested by this advertisement is that there
-were no distinctions made except by size, and that, at this date,
-1739, there were no English race horses then in Virginia. The
-second point is that there was such a thing as “horse size” but
-what size this was I have not been able to discover. The third
-point is that Galloways were allowed weight for inches. They
-were evidently below “horse size.” But they were expected to
-enter for the big purse of the meeting, and they must, therefore,
-have ranked as good race horses; but what did they mean by
-“Galloway?” This is the only instance in which I have met the
-term in Virginian history, although it is well known in general
-horse lore. “Galloway” is an old name of a territorial division
-of Scotland, embracing Wigtonshire, part of Ayrshire, etc., in
-the southwestern part of that country, and was at one time
-famous for the excellence of its pacers, and it is probable they
-were to be found there after the influx of eastern blood had
-driven the pacer from all other portions of Great Britain. The
-Irish Hobbie, always undersized, was a famous race horse, as well
-as a pacer, many generations before the period now under consideration.
-The name “Galloway” is only known in history and
-is not to be found on any modern map. I have learned by many
-experiences that the name is very generally believed to be Irish
-and is confounded with “Galway,” an Irish county. It is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>
-known that an Irish gentleman shipped many cattle to the
-colony, and it is quite possible that he shipped horses also, and if
-this reasoning be right, these “Galloways” may have been Irish
-“Hobbies.” It will be observed, also, that the distance to be run
-is not definitely stated, but it is fairly to be concluded that the
-race of the second day was to be four miles, and none of them less
-than one mile, and that in heats. Races of four-mile heats were
-very common long before the first English race horse was imported.</p>
-
-<p>We here have a stock of horses that the people of Virginia
-have bred and ridden and raced for a hundred years, and we
-know comparatively nothing about them. They seem to have
-been specially adapted to the saddle, but they could run four
-miles, or they could run a quarter of a mile, like an arrow from
-a bow. They were not a breed, although selecting and crossing
-and interbreeding for a hundred years would make them quite
-homogeneous. There is a romantic interest attaching to these
-little horses, for we have reached the middle of the eighteenth
-century, and all the successive idols of this race-loving people
-are about to be dethroned by their own act, and their homage
-transferred to a stranger—a larger and finer animal and faster
-over a distance of ground. Whatever of glory and honor, to say
-nothing of money, that was to be achieved from this time forward
-was to be ascribed to the newly arrived English race horse.
-But the truth should not be concealed that this old stock
-furnished half the foundation, in a vast majority of cases, for the
-triumphs of future generations of the Virginia race horse, and
-the same may be said of the old English stock upon which the
-eastern blood was engrafted. About the middle of the eighteenth
-century the line was drawn, and there was thereafter developed
-the engrafting of the new upon the old. In 1751-52, Moreton’s
-imported Traveller was there, and he was the only English
-race horse advertised that year. There may have been two or
-three others, but they had not made themselves known to the
-public, and I very much doubt whether there was any other. A
-very few years later there were many others, and some of them
-of great celebrity.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. J. F. D. Smith made an extended tour of the colonies,
-especially of Virginia, before the Revolutionary war, and he suffered
-some of the inconveniences growing out of the rising
-hostility to the mother country. In speaking of quarter racing,
-he says:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In the southern part of the colony and in North Carolina, they are much
-attached to Quarter Racing, which is always a match between two horses to
-run one quarter of a mile, straight out, being merely an exertion of speed; and
-they have a breed that perform it with astonishing velocity, beating every other
-for that distance with great ease, but they have no bottom. However, I am
-confident that there is not a horse in England, nor perhaps in the whole world,
-that can excel them in rapid speed; and these likewise make excellent saddle
-horses for the road.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It will be observed that Mr. Smith speaks of these heavily
-muscled horses as a <i>breed</i>, which expression, I suppose, is intended
-to be used in a restricted sense. In the many generations of
-horses that would necessarily succeed each other in a century, in
-the hands of a people so devotedly fond of racing, it is merely an
-exercise of common sense, among barbarous as well as civilized
-people all over the world, to “breed to the winner.” In this
-way, and without any infusion of outside blood, there would be
-improvement in the strength and fleetness of all animals bred for
-the quarter path. He remarks further that “these likewise
-make excellent saddle horses for the road.” In that day nothing
-was accepted as a “saddle horse” that could not take the pacing
-gait and its various modifications. This was true of Virginians
-of that day, and it is still true of their descendants who have
-built up new States further west.</p>
-
-<p>In the early days, as already intimated, it was the habit of Virginians
-to brand their horses and then turn out all not in daily
-use to “hustle” for their own living. As a matter of course these
-animals would often stray long distances away, and not a few
-never were found. In due time, legislation provided for the recovery
-of estrays, embracing all kinds of domestic animals as well
-as negro slaves. Fortunately this enables me to reach what may
-be considered “original data,” in determining the size and habits
-of action of the early Virginian horses. As the field of my examination,
-I have taken the <i>Virginia Gazette</i>, for the years 1751
-and 1752, published at Williamsburgh, and in these volumes I
-find a great many advertisements of “Strayed or Stolen” animals
-scattered through the pages; and in the second especially a great
-many “Taken Up” advertisements appear. In a very large proportion
-of these notices, perhaps a majority of them, all the description
-that is given is the color, sex and brand, with occasionally
-some natural mark. As a matter of course these are of no
-value for the object in view. In some cases the size is given
-without the gait, and in others the gait is given without the size,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span>
-in a few both size and gait are given. The range of size is from
-one of fifteen hands down to one of twelve hands, with more of
-thirteen hands than any other size, either above or below. The
-true average of the whole number is a little over thirteen hands
-and one inch, and none of them are called ponies. As further
-evidence of the small size of the colonial Virginia horses we find
-that in 1686 the legislature of Virginia passed an act providing
-for the forfeiture of all stallions under thirteen and a half hands
-high found running at large. It provided that any person
-might take up such stallion and carry him before a justice of the
-peace, and if he measured less than thirteen and a half hands,
-the justice was required to certify to the measurement and the
-facts, and the horse passed legally to his new owner.</p>
-
-<p>As to the gaits I find just twice as many pacers as trotters.
-Double-gaited animals, of which there were a few, I have here
-classed with the pacers. That many of these little fellows were
-very stout and tough is fully demonstrated by the fact that they
-could run heats of four miles with a hundred and forty pounds
-on their backs. This closes the first epoch in the history of the
-Virginia horse. The fleet and compact little horse of thirteen to
-fourteen hands had had his day, and he was now about to be
-overshadowed by a greater in speed and a greater in stature.
-Much of the blood of the little fellow that could run four miles
-and pace “at a prodigious rate,” was commingled with the blood
-of the English race horse, but whatever its triumphs, the lately
-arrived “foreigner” took the credit. A man would have been
-pronounced “clean daft” if at that time he had dreamed that
-one hundred and forty years later the blood of this little pacer
-would stand at the head of the great trotting interest of the
-world. The tough little fellow has retained his qualities through
-all the generations in which he has been neglected, despised and
-forgotten, until he was taken up twenty odd years ago, and now
-the names and achievements of the great pacers are as familiar
-to the whole American people as ever were the name of the greatest
-running horses. It is not known how long he continued to be
-a factor in the racing affairs of Virginia, but probably not later
-than about 1760.</p>
-
-<p>From about 1750 to 1770 seems to have been a period of great
-prosperity in Virginia and, notwithstanding the general improvidence
-of the times, many of the large landholders and planters
-were getting rich from their fine crops of tobacco and their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span>
-negroes. This prosperity manifested itself strongly in the
-direction of the popular sport of horse racing and improving the
-size, quality, and fleetness of the running horse. England had
-then been selecting, importing Eastern blood, and “breeding to
-the winner” for a hundred years, with more or less intelligence
-and success, while the colonists had rested content with the descendants
-of the first importations from the mother country.
-Doubtless progress had been made here too, but it was as the
-progress of a poor man against another with great wealth and
-backed by the encouragements of royalty. The English horse could
-then run clear away from the Saracenic horse, his so-called progenitor,
-and he was very much larger than that “progenitor.”
-We can understand how the speed might be increased by its development
-in a series of generations and by always breeding to
-the fastest, but the increase of size can hardly be accounted for
-as the result of climatic causes—but we are getting away from
-the thought before us. When the Virginia planter found he had
-a handsome balance in London, subject to his draft, he at once
-ordered his factor to send him over the best racing stallion he
-could find. The action of one planter stirred up half a dozen
-others who felt they could not afford to be behind in the matter
-of improvement, but more especially that they could not afford
-to be behind in the finish at the fall and spring race meetings of
-the future. These importations went on continuously for about
-twelve years, and until they were interrupted by the excited relations
-and feelings between the colonies and the mother country
-and the preparations for the War of the Revolution, which was
-then imminent. After the close of the Revolution a perfect
-avalanche of race horses was poured upon us, some of which were
-good, but a great majority of them were never heard of after
-their arrival, on the race course or elsewhere. But up to the close
-of the century they had not succeeded in exterminating the
-pacer—the saddle horse of a hundred generations.</p>
-
-<p>As a specimen of how absurdly a man can talk and even write
-on subjects of which he knows nothing, I cannot refrain from
-giving the following from what an Englishman had to say in
-1796 about the horses and horsemanship of Virginia:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The horses in common use in Virginia are all of a light description, chiefly
-adapted for the saddle; some of them are handsome, but are for the most
-part spoiled by the false gaits which they are taught. The Virginians are
-wretched horsemen, as indeed are all the Americans I have met with, excepting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>
-some few in the neighborhood of New York. They ride with their toes just
-under the horse’s nose, and their stirrup straps left extremely long, and the saddle
-being put three or four inches on the mane. As for the management of the
-reins, it is what they have no conception of. A trot is odious to them, and
-they express the utmost astonishment at a person who can like that uneasy
-gait, as they call it. The favorite gaits which all their horses are taught are
-a pace and a <i>wrack</i>. In the first the animal moves his two feet on one side at
-the same time and gets on with a sort of a shuffling motion, being unable to
-spring from the ground on these two feet, as in a trot. We should call this an
-unnatural gait, as none of our horses would ever move in that manner without
-a rider; but the Americans insist upon it that it is otherwise, because many of
-their colts pace as soon as born. These kind of horses are called “natural
-pacers” and it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to make them move in any
-other manner. But it is not one horse in five hundred that would pace without
-being taught.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>There can hardly be a doubt that our English friend in his
-“Travels Through the States” noted and wrote down just what
-he thought he saw, and when he saw anything that he never had
-seen in England, he was ready to either deny its existence altogether
-or to insist that there was some mistake about it. Poor
-man, he could not understand how there could be anything outside
-of England that could not be found in England. His
-vision, mental and physical, seems to have been restricted to the
-shores of his own island home, and he was probably a descendant
-of a very good man we once heard of. As you sail up the Firth
-of Clyde you pass an island of three or four miles in extent,
-called Cumbrae. At the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the
-island was a very pious man, some generations back, and every
-Sunday morning he prayed that the Lord would bless the “kingdom
-of Cumbrae and the adjacent islands of Great Britain and
-Ireland.” The author of “Travels Through the States” was
-evidently one of the very numerous descendants of this good
-man, as they are scattered all over England, and as I am a strong
-believer in the laws of heredity, I can hardly avoid this conclusion.
-Indeed, some of the numerous tribe, tracing their genealogy
-through many generations back to “The kingdom of Cumbrae,”
-have found their way across the water, and at another place I
-will pay my respects to them. But to return to our traveler:
-there can be no doubt about his never having seen a pacer in
-England, for the last one had disappeared before his day, unless
-an occasional one might have been found in the old province of
-Galloway, in the southern part of Scotland. If he had known<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span>
-the history of the horses of his own country he would have known
-that from the time of King John down to that of James I., the
-pacer was the most popular and fashionable horse in England,
-and that the nobility and gentry used no other kind for the saddle.
-He was always of “a mean stature,” but he was compact,
-hardy and strong, and could carry his burden a long journey in a
-day with great ease and comfort to his rider. In the reign of
-Elizabeth, he was kept separate from others, and bred as a breed
-on account of his easy, gliding motion, which he transmitted to
-his progeny. At the time of the plantation of the English colonies
-in this country the pacers were very numerous, and as they
-were just the type of horse suited to wilderness life, a very large
-proportion of those selected were pacers. The pacers our traveler
-saw in Virginia were the lineal descendants of the original English
-stock brought over by the adventurers, and the awkward riding
-charged upon the Virginians, with some evident exaggerations,
-was wisely and sensibly adapted to the action of the horses
-they were riding. The criticism of the long stirrups is wholly
-unjust, as they are just the right length for the “military” seat,
-and nobody in this country when mounted on a <i>real saddle horse</i>
-would ever think of taking any other. The Englishman, when
-mounted on his “bonesetter,” is compelled to have his stirrups
-short so that he can rise and fall with every revolution the horse
-makes on the trot to save himself from being shaken to death.
-This up and down, up and down, tilt-hammer seat, if it can be
-called “a seat” at all, is one of the most ungraceful things,
-especially for a lady, that can be conceived of in all the displays
-of good and bad equestrianism. The English have been compelled
-to adopt it because they have no trained saddle horses,
-and a lot of brainless imitators about our American cities have
-followed them because “it is English, you know.” If the English
-had pacers and horses trained to the “saddle gaits,” they
-never would have anything else, and the tilt-hammer “seat”
-would disappear from Rotten Row and everywhere else.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br />
-<span class="smaller">COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW YORK.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Settlement of New Amsterdam—Horses from Curaçoa—Prices of Dutch and
-English horses—Van der Donck’s description and size of horses—Horses
-to be branded—Stallions under fourteen hands not to run at large—Esopus
-horse—Surrender to the English, 1664—First organized racing—Dutch
-horses capable of improvement in speed—First advertised Subscription
-Plate—First restriction, contestants must “be bred in America”—Great
-racing and heavy betting—First importations of English running
-horses—Half-breds to the front—True foundation of American pedigrees—Half
-bushel of dollars on a side—Resolutions of the Continental Congress
-against racing—Withdrawal of Mr. James De Lancey—Pacing and trotting
-contests everywhere—Rip Van Dam’s horse and his cost.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>For several years after Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the
-employ of the Dutch, discovered the harbor of New York and
-the great river which took his name, in the year 1609, there is
-uncertainty and doubt as to the nature of the settlement. For a
-time it seems to have been merely a trading post, occupied only
-by those in the employment of the company that owned it, and
-without many of the elements requisite to make up a permanent
-colony. At Fort Orange (Albany) and at Esopus (Kingston),
-the conditions were the same as at New Amsterdam, as New
-York was then named. The first party of immigrants that seemed
-to have the elements of permanent colonization about it arrived
-in 1625, and consisted of six families and several single men,
-making in all forty-five persons, with furniture, utensils, etc.,
-and one hundred and three head of cattle. Doubtless some of
-these “cattle” were horses, and the general instead of the specific
-term was used in enumerating them. Very little is known of the
-early horse history of the New Netherlands, as the whole region
-was then named; there can be no doubt, however, that they increased
-and multiplied. Sometime, probably about 1643, a cargo
-or two of horses were brought up from Curaçoa and Azuba, in
-the Dutch West Indies, but the climatic change was too great for
-them, and they did not do well, being specially subject to diseases<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>
-from which the Dutch horses seemed to have complete immunity.
-In 1647, Isaac Allerton, as agent, was authorized to sell twenty
-or twenty-five of these horses to Virginia, and whether the
-authorities were able thus to get clear of a bad investment does
-not appear from the existing records. In a report to the home
-company, made in 1650, I find the following prices were given at
-that time: A young mare with second foal, one hundred and
-fifty florins; stallion, four or five years old, one hundred and
-thirty florins; milch cow, one hundred florins. The same report
-makes a comparison by giving the prices of New England horses,
-as follows: A good mare one hundred to one hundred and twenty
-florins; stallion, one hundred florins; milch cow, sixty to seventy
-florins. Neither horses nor cows were then allowed to be shipped
-out of the province without permission of the council.</p>
-
-<p>Adrien Van der Donck wrote a description of New Netherlands
-which was published 1656, in which he speaks of the horse stock
-as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The horses are of the proper breed for husbandry, having been brought
-from Utrecht for that purpose; and this stock has not diminished in size or
-quality. There are also horses of the English breed which are lighter, not so
-good for agricultural use, but fit for the saddle. These do not cost as much as
-the Netherlands breed and are easily obtained.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From a large number of facts collected for the years 1777 and
-1778 the horses then averaged about fourteen hands and one inch,
-and when compared with earlier data it is evident they had increased
-in height. In the gaits of those advertised, fifteen both
-paced and trotted, nine trotted only, and seven paced only. As
-this was in the period of the Revolution, and right in the center
-of hostilities, some allowance should be made for horses from
-other colonies.</p>
-
-<p>The people of this colony, like those of all the others, branded
-their horses and turned them out to seek their own living in the
-summer season, and this resulted in many losses, and oftentimes
-in much bad feeling. The Dutch were not accustomed, in the
-“old country,” to building fences around their crops high enough
-and strong enough to keep out all the droves and herds of animals
-running at large. In the line of improvement and increase of
-size in their horses, they provided that all stallions running at
-large, of two years and nine months old, must be fourteen hands
-high or be castrated. This law was in force in 1734, and no doubt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>
-was effective. Among the many laws for the suppression of vice of
-different kinds, I find one prohibiting horse racing on Sunday,
-and from this we might infer that it was not forbidden on
-other days of the week.</p>
-
-<p>In old newspapers, advertisements, etc., we sometimes come
-across “Esopus Horses, Esopus Mares,” and, for years, I was not
-able to tell what this term meant. The locality of Kingston was
-originally called Esopus, and in that neighborhood there were
-several farmers who bred horses largely, at an early day in the
-history of the colony, and the locality became famous for the character
-and quality of the horses produced there. They were
-of the best and purest Dutch blood, and for what we would call
-“all-purpose horses” their fame was very wide in that day. Hence
-I infer that the term “Esopus” was used to indicate what was
-considered the best type of Dutch horses. There is danger of
-going astray in the meaning of the term “Dutch horses,” as in
-later times it was applied to the great, massive draft horses of
-Pennsylvania. They were better “for agricultural purposes,” as
-Van der Donck puts it, than the Connecticut horses, because they
-were larger and stronger, but they were sprightly and active and
-some of them could run very well. They had a fine reputation
-in the adjoining colonies.</p>
-
-<p>New Amsterdam, and consequently all the plantations in New
-Netherlands, surrendered to Colonel Nicolls, commanding the
-British forces, August 27, 1664. Colonel Nicolls remained as
-governor of the colony three or four years and until he was succeeded
-by Governor Lovelace. Among his early official acts,
-Governor Nicolls laid out a race course on Hempstead Plains,
-and named it Newmarket, after the famous course in England.
-No engineering or grading was necessary, as nature had already
-made a perfect course without stick or stone or other obstruction.
-The first race was run 1665, and although it was a long distance
-from the city, the presence of the governor gave the occasion
-prestige and there was a great gathering of the gentry from town,
-and the farmers of Long Island. These meetings were kept up
-annually by the appointment of succeeding governors, and after
-a time they were held twice a year, spring and fall. There are
-some very important facts about these races that are not known
-and probably never will be known, namely, who were the nominators
-and what breed of horses were entered in these contests.
-With these two essential facts left out the value of the information<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span>
-is greatly impaired. As it is known, however, that there
-were but two breeds or types of horses that could have been engaged
-in these contests, it becomes a matter of interest to reach
-a conclusion as to which were the victors. Mr. John Austin
-Stevens has done some very excellent work on this part of the
-horse history of New York, but I cannot agree with him in his
-characterization of the Dutch horses as being Flemish. They
-did not come from Flanders, but from Utrecht. They were not
-great unwieldy brutes, such as we would associate with Flanders,
-but hardy, compact animals that could make their way in the
-wilderness. Although larger, it does not follow that they could
-not run as fast or even faster than the New England ponies. All
-breeds of horses were very much smaller two hundred years ago
-than they are now. These races were instituted, evidently, for
-the improvement of the breed of horses in the colony, and the
-great majority of these horses were the descendants of the original
-stock brought from Utrecht. We must, therefore, conclude that
-they were not slow, heavy, unwieldy animals with no action, as
-the language of Mr. Stevens would seem to imply, but capable
-of improvement in the direction of speed. No doubt there were
-very many New England horses in the colony, “lighter and better
-adapted to the saddle,” but neither the interests nor the pride
-of the old Dutch settlers would have permitted them to support
-racing for a period of more than eighty years, unless the early
-Utrecht blood was represented. Besides this, the weights carried,
-one hundred and forty pounds, and the distance, generally
-two-mile heats, were conditions that were strongly against
-the New Englanders, even if they were lighter of foot. With
-these two breeds in the field, we may accept it as an inevitable
-sequence that the superior qualities of the one would very soon
-be engrafted on the other, and by this process of breeding, a better
-type would be produced than either of the originals. This
-first step was only a prelude to the next, and that again to the
-next, until the common, plain lesson was thoroughly learned,
-that if a running horse was wanted the way to get him was to
-breed to a running horse that had proved he was a running horse.
-The improvement became very wide and general, and occasionally
-an animal was produced with such phenomenal speed that he
-was barred from stakes and purses. On this foundation, and
-this alone, the running turf was built up and continued for about<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>
-eighty years, with occasional intervals, when the gamblers made
-it so nasty that no decent people would go near it.</p>
-
-<p>The first subscription plate race of which we have any trace is
-to be found in the <i>New York Gazette</i>, of September 27, 1736, of
-which the advertisement is given below. The course indicated
-is believed to have been on the Church Farm, west of Broadway,
-and not far from where the Astor House now stands. There
-is no account of what horses won, and all we know is just what is
-in the advertisement.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“On Wednesday, the 13th of October next, will be run for, on the course
-at New York, a plate of twenty pounds’ value, by any horse, mare or gelding,
-carrying ten stone (saddle and bridle included), the best of three heats, two
-miles each heat. Horses intended to run for the plate are to be entered the
-day before the race, with Francis Child, on Fresh Water Hill, paying a half
-pistole each, or at the post on the day of running, paying a pistole. And the
-next day being the 14th, will be run for, on the same course, by all or any of
-the horses that started for the twenty-pound plate (the winning horse excepted)
-the entrance money, on the conditions above. Proper judges will be named
-to determine any disputes that may arise. All persons on horseback or in
-chairs, coming into the field (the subscribers and winning horse only excepted)
-are to pay sixpence each to the owner of the grounds.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Passing on to 1747 we find a duplication of the foregoing for
-the plate race of that year, with some variations. Entries are
-restricted to animals that never won a plate before “on this
-island,” and a horse named Parrot is not permitted to compete.
-This race was advertised to take place on the Church Farm.
-The next that I will notice is the advertisement of this same
-stake for 1751, when the weight was reduced to eight stone, and
-in addition to the usual exclusion of previous winners, we have
-for the first time a restriction of the entries to animals “<i>bred in
-America</i>.” At the May meeting at Hempstead Plains, the year
-following, 1752, the entries are again restricted to animals “bred
-in America.” From this, then, we are able to fix the precise period
-when English Race Horses were first brought to this colony. At
-this time there were two or three other courses on Manhattan
-Island, besides several noted speeding grounds on the roads and
-elsewhere, for the trotters and the pacers, of which no advertisements
-appear, and consequently no notice was taken by the newspaper
-press.</p>
-
-<p>From about 1760 up to the time when the Revolutionary struggle
-began to engross and absorb all thought and all action, racing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span>
-received a tremendous impetus, not only in this colony but in
-others. Ten or twelve years before this a very few rich men in
-Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina commenced importing
-English running-bred horses with great success, and Mr. James
-De Lancey and other rich men of this colony were only a year or
-two behind them. This fancy grew and spread until a great many
-breeders and planters of the richer class had imported stock of
-their own, while their less wealthy neighbors were well supplied
-with half-breds. These half-breds were, for a short time, classed
-by themselves and purses were offered and run for, restricted to
-this class. After experimenting with animals bred in this way it
-was found that not a few of them were able to hold their own in
-any company. Mr. Morris’ mare Strumpet was only half-bred,
-but she was able to beat many of the imported animals, as well
-as the full-breds that started against her. From this it would
-appear that breeding for speed for a hundred years had produced
-results in this country as well as in England. These experiments
-led many owners of old-fashioned stock to try it, and right there
-is where thousands and thousands of our best old American pedigrees
-end. The decade from 1750 to 1760 witnessed a complete
-transformation from the old methods to the new, from the old blood
-to the new, and more than all from the old managers to the new.
-During the next decade, from 1760 to 1770, the new blood came
-out in great strength, and the saturnalia of horse racing grew
-more and more furious. Purses of a hundred dollars, as in the
-olden time, sprang up to ten times that sum, and matches were
-made for sums that were fabulous in that day. One match, between
-Mr. Delaney of Maryland and Mr. De Lancey of New
-York, specified the consideration on each side as a half bushel
-of silver Mexican dollars, and the Marylander had the satisfaction
-of carrying home a bushel of silver dollars. The great struggle,
-in New York, for supremacy on the turf was between the De
-Lancey family and the Morris family. These two families had
-been bitter political rivals for years, and when they met on the
-turf it was for “blood.” The De Lanceys were Tories and the
-Morrises were Whigs, and this intensified the feeling that had so
-long existed between them. When the Continental Congress
-adopted that remarkable resolution, advising the people to abstain
-from horse racing, cock fighting, gambling and some other
-more slight offenses, on the grounds of “economy,” in view of
-the approaching conflict with the mother country, the effect was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>
-thrilling and electrical. Every man who loved his home and his
-country obeyed it. True, as I have said, it was drawn in the
-form of advice and in the interests of “economy,” but there was
-but one great evil, one great prodigality at which it was aimed,
-and that was the gambling connected with horse racing. It was
-well aimed and struck the bull’s eye. It came in the midst of
-preparations for the greatest race meetings ever then projected,
-but everything was dropped and there it lay through all the years
-of the bloody struggle and until peace again smiled upon a land
-of free men. Before avowed hostilities commenced, Mr. James
-De Lancey, one of the first and largest importers and breeders of
-his day, sold out every animal of the horse kind that he possessed
-and retired to England. Thus, as the colonial period
-drew to its close, the brave little colonial horse that had weathered
-the storms of a hundred winters and carried his master in
-safety and comfort through all that time, is superseded by another
-race, and no one has ever attempted to write even so much
-as his epitaph.</p>
-
-<p>As the contests of speed considered, up to this point, have all
-been at the running gait, I must not close my review of this
-colony without giving some attention to the pacers and the trotters.
-At these gaits all sources of information are almost hopelessly
-barren of facts and incidents. We know that the running
-horses of the colonial period were the saddle horses of the country,
-and we know that the best and most fashionable saddle
-horses were pacers. When we connect these two facts and place
-them alongside of the pacing and trotting experiences of Pennsylvania
-and New Jersey, we have no difficulty in reaching the
-safe conclusion that the same conditions would produce the same
-results as in those two States. Pacing and trotting contests
-were just as frequent and as exciting in this colony as in any
-other, but they were sustained chiefly by road-house keepers
-and butchers, and were never advertised. Matches were made
-one hour and decided on the road in the next. In the “Annals of
-New York,” compiled and published in 1832, by John F. Watson,
-we find the following curious, but very valuable, scrap of horse
-history:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Some twenty or thirty years before the Revolution, the steeds most prized
-for the saddle were pacers, since so odious deemed. To this end the breed was
-propagated with much care. The Narragansett pacers of Rhode Island were in
-such repute that they were sent for, at much trouble and expense, by some few<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span>
-who were choice in their selections. It may amuse the present generation to
-peruse the history of one such horse, spoken of in the letter of Rip Van Dam
-of New York, in the year of 1711, which I have seen. He states the fact of the
-trouble he had taken to procure him such a horse. He was shipped from Rhode
-Island in a sloop, from which he jumped overboard when under sail, and swam
-ashore to his former home. Having been brought back he arrived in New York,
-in thirteen days’ passage, much reduced in flesh and spirit. He cost thirty-two
-pounds and his freight fifty shillings. This writer, Rip Van Dam, was a great
-personage, he having been president of the Council in 1731, and on the death of
-Governor Montgomery that year, he was governor, ex-officio, of New York. His
-mural monument is now to be seen in St. Paul’s Church.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>As New England saddle horses were only worth forty dollars
-in 1650, and this horse cost more than four times as much, when
-horses were more plentiful, we must conclude that he was a fine
-specimen of the breed, and was, probably, bought for stock purposes.
-The date of this transaction is a significant fact that
-should not be forgotten, as 1711 is the same year in which the
-first of the two great founders of the English race horse, Darley
-Arabian, was brought to England.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br />
-<span class="smaller">COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—NEW ENGLAND.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>First importations to Boston and to Salem—Importations from Holland
-brought high prices—They were not pacers and not over fourteen hands—In
-1640 horses were exported to the West Indies—First American newspaper
-and first horse advertisement—Average sizes—The different gaits—<span class="smcap">Connecticut</span>,
-first plantation, 1636—Post horses provided for by law—All
-horses branded—Sizes and Gaits—An Englishman’s experience with
-pacers—Lindsay’s Arabian—<span class="smcap">Rhode Island</span>, Founded by Roger Williams,
-1636—No direct importations ever made—Horses largely exported to
-other colonies 1690—Possibly some to Canada—Pacing races a common
-amusement—Prohibited 1749—Size of the Narragansetts compared with
-the Virginians.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In 1629 the London founders of the plantation of Massachusetts
-Bay sent out six vessels laden with emigrants, horses, cattle,
-goats, etc. These vessels brought some twenty-five head of
-mares and stallions, that were valued at six pounds each and all
-owned by the company in London, except three mares from
-Leicester, that were owned by private parties. At that time
-there seems to have been some rivalry between Boston and Salem
-as a shipping point, but this fleet came to Boston harbor. This
-same year (1629) Salem seems to have had six or seven mares and
-one stallion, besides forty cows, and forty goats. From this it
-might be safely inferred that a part of this fleet put into Salem
-harbor, or that there may have been another and somewhat earlier
-shipment of which we have no details. Salem was really
-founded in 1626, and the settlement at Charlestown, Boston,
-dates from the same year. The next year about sixty head were
-shipped to the plantation, but many were lost during the voyage,
-of both horses and cattle. Several other shipments followed, but
-nothing worthy of special note, till 1635, when two Dutch ships
-arrived at Salem with twenty-seven mares, valued at thirty-four
-pounds each, and three stallions. Some writers have spoken of
-these mares as “Flanders mares,” but I have not been able to
-find any evidence or even indication that this might have been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>
-the fact. The records show they were Dutch ships, and that on
-a given day they sailed out of the Texel, a Dutch port, far away
-from Flanders. I think, therefore, we are safe in concluding
-they were “Dutch mares,” and they should be so designated.
-Just about this period they were bringing Dutch horses from
-Utrecht, in Holland, to the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam,
-and it was well known in Holland as well as in New England that
-the Dutch horses brought much better prices in New England
-than the English importations. It is probable, further, that
-these Dutch traders were looking out for a choice of markets, as
-between New England and New Netherlands. These mares were
-valued at thirty-five pounds each, the record says, but we are not
-informed as to the price that was really paid for them. There is
-a very wide discrepancy between the figure at which these mares
-were “valued” and the cost of the mares that were brought from
-England. The English company charged the colony six pounds
-each for the horses sent from there, and ten pounds freight.</p>
-
-<p>I have labored assiduously to get at such data as would afford
-a safe basis upon which to determine the size and other qualities
-of these Dutch horses. They were larger than the English horses
-of that period and they were more muscular, with greater weight
-of bone. They were, doubtless, better adapted to the various
-offices of the “general purpose” horse than their English contemporaries,
-in every respect, except the saddle. There is no
-distinctive evidence that they were pacers or could go any of the
-saddle gaits, in their own right. It is probably safe to conclude
-that the original importations would not average more than fourteen
-and a half hands high, and very likely the exact truth, if it
-could be reached, would place them below that figure rather than
-above it. The process of reducing the size commenced as soon as
-they arrived: for the English horses had saddle qualities which
-the Dutch did not possess, and everybody wanted a saddle horse.
-Still the Dutch blood was highly prized, and a hundred and fifty
-years afterward it was no uncommon thing, especially in the
-valley of the Connecticut, to meet with the advertisements of
-stallions seeking patronage on the strength of “Dutch blood.”
-This, for a time, was a puzzle to me, but as we consider the horse
-interests of the region of the Hudson and the Mohawk Valley
-extending eastward and that of eastern Massachusetts extending
-westward along with the current of emigration, it is not difficult
-to understand how the blood of the Dutch horse should have become<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span>
-so generally diffused. On the one hand we had the much-desired
-saddle qualities, and on the other we had the much-desired
-increase of size without deterioration in appearance. Thus
-owners were accommodated and the horse stock of the country
-was improved by the interbreeding of the two nationalities. It
-is not necessary to further particularize different importations.
-It is sufficient to say that they were very numerous, and the multiplying
-of the stock was carried forward with vigor and success.
-Five years later—1640—the colonists not only had all the horses
-they needed, but they shipped a cargo of eighty head to Barbadoes.
-From the colony of Massachusetts Bay all the plantations
-of New England secured their foundation stock of horses, hence
-they are here considered collectively.</p>
-
-<p>The people of the Plymouth plantation were very slow in providing
-themselves with horses, and it was not till after 1632 that
-they had any. It is hard to conceive of a colony like that of
-Massachusetts Bay living and flourishing for a period of, say,
-eighty years without a newspaper, and yet such is the fact. The
-Boston <i>News-Letter</i>, the first newspaper, so called, in this country,
-was established May 29, 1704, and it lived many years. The
-early colonial newspapers, from one end of the land to the other,
-were anything and everything but newspapers, as we understand
-the meaning of the title in our day. If a boy fell off a building
-in London and broke his leg, six weeks before, it was liable to
-appear as an item of “news” in the local American newspaper,
-but if the same accident happened the week before, in a neighboring
-town, it was never mentioned. The name “newspaper”
-attached to such publications was a fraud.</p>
-
-<p>The following is a copy of the first horse advertisement ever
-published in this country, and for that reason it is worthy of preservation.
-It was taken from the Boston <i>News-Letter</i> of November
-19, 1705:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Strayed from Mr. John Wilson of Braintree, at Mr. Havens’ in Kingston,
-in Narragansett, about a fortnight ago, a sorrel mare, low stature, four white
-feet, a white face, shod all round, her near ear tore, has a long white tail and
-mane. Whoever will give any intelligence of her ... will be sufficiently
-rewarded.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>As this was in the period when the Narragansett pacers had
-reached their greatest fame, we might argue that this mare had been
-sent down to Kingston from Braintree, Massachusetts, to be wintered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>
-and to be bred in the spring to some famous horse in
-Kingston, the very center of the horse-breeding interests of that
-day.</p>
-
-<p>Under the date of June 17, 1706, I find a bay horse advertised
-as “strayed or stolen: fourteen hands high, hardly possible to
-make him gallop,” and October 28, 1706, a black gelding “fourteen
-hands high, paces, trots, and gallops.” Then in the years
-1731 and 1732 I find a “black mare fourteen and three-quarter
-hands, trots and paces;” a “black horse twelve hands,” no gait
-given; “black gelding, fourteen hands, races, trots, and gallops;”
-“bay horse large, good pacer;” “roan mare, fourteen hands,
-paces and trots.” But the field which I specially gleaned was
-for the years 1756-59, where I found the average height was
-fourteen hands one inch, the data including eight pacers and two
-trotters. This, I think, may be taken as fairly representative of
-the size and habit of action of Massachusetts horses in the first
-half of the eighteenth century.</p>
-
-<p>In 1636 the first plantation was made in Connecticut at Hartford
-by the Rev. Thomas Hooker and over a hundred of his congregation
-with him. They left nothing behind, but brought all
-their domestic animals to their new home. I have not been able
-to discover just how many horses they brought with them, but in
-a few decades they had a great abundance and to spare. In 1653
-the General Court at New Haven made provision for keeping
-public saddle horses for hire and fixed the rate of charges for
-their use. It also prohibited the sale of horses outside of the
-colony. In 1658 all horses, young and old, had to be branded by
-an officer appointed for that purpose, and it required several
-years of legislation before the system of branding, selling and recording
-could be so perfected as to prevent dishonesty and frauds.
-In 1674 an act was passed providing and enjoining that all colts
-entire and stallions running at large, under thirteen hands high,
-should be gelded. This law also required a good deal of amending
-before it could be made to work smoothly. The size of the
-Connecticut horses about the time of the Revolution was an
-average of thirteen hands three inches, thus ranging below the
-other New England colonies. In 1778 horse racing was prohibited
-under the penalty of forfeiture of the horse and a fine of
-forty shillings. In 1776 a careful compilation of the gaits of the
-horses of that period, embracing nineteen individuals, taken as
-they came, showed that fifteen were pacers, or pacers and trotters,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>
-and four were trotters only. As an evidence of the quality of the
-Connecticut pacers, take the following passage from a little
-volume published 1769, in England, entitled “A Voyage to North
-America,” by G. Taylor, Sheffield, England, 1768-69:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“After dinner at New London, Conn., Mr. Williams and I took post horses,
-with a guide to New Haven. Their horses are, in general of less size than
-ours, but extremely stout and hardy. A man will ride the same horse a hundred
-miles a day, for several days together, in a journey of five or eight hundred
-miles, perhaps, and the horse is never cleaned. They naturally pace,
-though in no graceful or easy manner, but with such swiftness and for so long
-a continuance as must seem incredible to those who have not proved it by
-experience.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This is a very different view of the pacer from that expressed
-by another Englishman who visited Virginia in 1796. He had
-never seen a pacer before and he was wholly unwilling to believe
-his host when he assured him it was a natural gait and that many
-colts paced from the day they were foaled. This, to the mind of
-the Englishman could not be true, he says, “for none of our
-horses ever move in that manner.” (See Virginia, pp. 117-118).</p>
-
-<p>The most noted horse ever owned in Connecticut, at least in
-colonial days, was the horse named and known in later times as
-Lindsay’s Arabian. When I was younger I accepted the marvelous
-story of the origin and early history of this horse, of which a
-brief account is given in the chapter on the “American Race
-Horse,” to which reference is here made. This acceptance on
-my part of the romantic story was largely superinduced by a
-statement made by a justice of the Supreme Court of the United
-States, that he had examined the animal when he was old and
-found on three of his legs undoubted physical evidence that they
-had at one time been broken. This appeared in a reputable
-publication, but when compared with some other facts in the
-history of the horse that are known, there can hardly be a doubt
-that the examination by the justice was a fiction. When I began
-to realize that the marvelous story was a mere fiction my “wrath
-waxed hot” against the people of “the land of steady habits,” to
-say nothing of “wooden nutmegs,” until Mr. O. W. Cook made
-it very plain that the people of Connecticut never had heard of
-the remarkable story. (See <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, Vol. VI., p. 251).
-Thus it became evident that the whole story had been fabricated
-in Maryland and was a kind of “green goods” method for catching
-the unwary. These are my apologies to the general public<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>
-and especially to the Connecticut public for supposing them
-guilty of any such fraud. The naked truth of the matter is,
-that while this horse may have been imported from England, his
-public advertisements clearly indicate that his owners knew nothing
-of his blood or early history.</p>
-
-<p>The colony of Rhode Island was planted by Roger Williams
-and his followers in 1636, and the first patent giving it a legal
-existence was obtained 1647. It was an offshoot from Massachusetts
-and a protest against the intolerance of that colony in religious
-affairs. For several years I made renewed and persistent
-efforts to discover whether in the early colonial period Rhode
-Island had ever imported any horses from foreign countries, and
-after exhausting every source of recorded information, I have
-not been able to find a single intimation of such importation.
-It is evident, therefore, that the famous Narragansett pacer is
-simply the result of carefully selecting and breeding from the
-best and the fastest of the descendants of the English pacers, to
-be found everywhere in the colony of Massachusetts. The
-superiority of the Narragansett pacer over all others of his kind
-seemed to suggest the probability that he must have possessed
-blood that was superior to all others, and to supply this “want,”
-a Rhode Islander advanced the claim that his grandfather had
-imported the original stock from Spain. Unfortunately for this
-“claim” there were two difficulties in the way of accepting it.
-First, there were no pacers in Spain, and second, the Narragansett
-pacers were famous for their speed and value before the
-grandfather was born, or at least before he was out of his swaddling
-clothes.</p>
-
-<p>The horse interests of Rhode Island seem to have been active
-and successful from the very founding of the colony, and the
-fame of her pacers extended to all the American colonies at a
-very early day. When the authorities made their report to the
-Board of Trade at London, in 1690, showing what they had produced
-and where and how they had disposed of their surplus,
-they place horses at the head of their products and state that
-they are shipped to all the English colonies on the American
-coast. This statement is sustained by corresponding facts that
-are known in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Trading
-with the French colonies in Canada was rigorously prohibited,
-but it is quite probable that many a good pacing horse found his
-way to the St. Lawrence in exchange for pelts and furs. But,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span>
-as the Narragansett and the pacer generally will be fully considered
-in another part of this volume, the reader is referred to
-the chapters wholly devoted to those topics.</p>
-
-<p>That racing was a common amusement of the people of Rhode
-Island is fully established by the very best of contemporaneous
-evidence, and by the silver plate prizes won, that are said to be still
-in existence in some of the old families. Attempts have been
-made to laugh this statement out of court, on the grounds that
-Rhode Island was a Puritan colony, and such a thing as a horse
-race would not be tolerated for a single day. This attempt shows
-a great deal more smartness than knowledge, for Rhode Island
-was not a Puritan colony, as that term is generally understood,
-but had for its very foundation opposition to the spirit of intolerance
-that prevailed in all the other New England colonies. But,
-what is still more conclusive, the legislature of the colony in
-1749 enacted a law prohibiting all racing, under a penalty of
-forfeiture of the horse and a fine of one hundred dollars. As in
-other colonies not in New England racing and betting had become
-so common that the moral sense of the people rose up and
-abolished it. If there had been no racing there would have been
-no law to wipe it out.</p>
-
-<p>When the Rev. Dr. McSparran, of Rhode Island, made a trip in
-Virginia and rode the Virginia pacers some hundreds of miles,
-early in the last century, he seems to have observed them closely
-and spoke very highly of them, but he said they were not so
-large and strong as the Narragansetts, nor so easy and gliding in
-their action. It might be suggested that this opinion was the
-natural result of esteeming one’s own as better than those of a
-neighbor, but he was certainly right in the matter of size. In
-1768 the Rhode Island horses averaged fourteen hands one
-inch, while the Virginia horses averaged (1750-52) thirteen hands
-one and three-quarter inches, making a difference of three and
-one-quarter inches in height. In the matter of gait they were
-not all natural pacers, for out of thirty-five there were eight that
-did not pace, and some of the others both paced and trotted.
-From this it may be inferred that breeders, in order to increase
-the size, had incorporated more or less of the blood of the early
-Dutch importations.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">COLONIAL HORSE HISTORY—PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY,
-MARYLAND, CAROLINA.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Penn’s arrival in 1682—Horse racing prohibited—Franklin’s newspaper—Conestoga
-horses—Sizes and gaits—Swedish origin—Acrelius’ statement.
-<span class="smcap">New Jersey</span>—Branding—Increase of size—Racing, Pacing, and Trotting
-restricted—<span class="smcap">Maryland</span>—Racing and pacing restricted 1747—Stallions of
-under size to be shot. <span class="smcap">North Carolina</span>—First settlers refugees—<span class="smcap">South
-Carolina</span>—Size and gait in 1744—Challenges—No running blood in the
-colony 1744—General view.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>When William Penn arrived on this side of the water (1682)
-and took possession of his princely gift from Charles II., he
-found the eastern border of his new province already occupied,
-though sparsely, by an industrious and enterprising people.
-The old Swedish colonists as well as a sprinkling of Englishmen
-and other nationalities had been there for a good many years, and
-were beginning to get the necessaries as well as the comforts of
-life about them. For their numbers, they had a fair supply of
-horses, cattle, sheep, and swine; and the growing of cereals and
-fruits of all kinds showed encouraging progress, with the
-promise of plenty. The new proprietor was gladly welcomed
-and his rule proved kindly and beneficent. In a letter to Lord
-Ormonde, after his arrival, Mr. Penn, in describing the condition
-of things in his new colony, says: “The horses are not very handsome,
-but good.” The public affairs of Penn’s grant, before his
-arrival, had been administered in the name of the Duke of York,
-from about the time New Amsterdam had surrendered to the
-English, and hence we find sundry regulations with regard to
-the horse in force before that event.</p>
-
-<p>The first of these, having the efficacy of law, was in the year
-1676, requiring all horses to be branded, and officers appointed
-to do the branding and keep a record of the fact. Besides the
-individual brands, each town had its own brand that had to be
-applied, and by this double marking it was supposed that strays<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span>
-could be identified with certainty. Another provision was that
-no mares should be exported to Virginia or Barbadoes or other
-foreign plantations. Again, every owner was supposed to keep
-a certain number of horses at home, for daily use, and he was
-allowed to keep twice that number running at large. In 1682 no
-stone horse under thirteen and one-half hands high was allowed
-to run at large. This was afterward changed to thirteen hands.
-In 1724 this law was revised and re-enacted so that colts “of
-comely proportions” and not more than one year and a half old,
-if thirteen hands high, might run at large; but if older than
-eighteen months they must be fourteen hands high or suffer the
-penalty, which was castration. In 1750 horse racing of all kinds
-was prohibited, under a severe penalty.</p>
-
-<p>In that grand old repository of ancient, curious, and valuable
-things relating to colonial affairs, the New York Historical
-Society, to which I am greatly indebted, I found a file of the
-<i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, commencing with the year 1729, published
-by “B. Franklin, printer.” In that day the term “editor” or
-“reporter” was not known in the vocabulary of any well-regulated
-newspaper office, and for anything of a local character you
-had to look in the advertising columns. To these I resorted, as
-usual, and they presented results that were a great surprise to
-me. Pennsylvania has long been famous for the production of
-great massive draft horses, and before the days of railroads just
-suited, with six or eight of them in a team, for the transportation
-of freights from the seaboard to the Ohio River. This was
-a great business at the beginning of this century and for forty or
-fifty years afterward. The fame of those great teams, the great
-wagons and the great loads they hauled over the mountains,
-spread far and wide, and as a special designation that went with
-them they were called Conestoga horses, and the wagons were
-called Conestoga wagons, named after a creek in Lancaster County,
-Pennsylvania, where many large horses were bred. There was no
-particular line of blood to be followed, for a large horse bred west
-of the mountains was just as certainly a Conestoga as though he
-had been bred in Lancaster County. The Conestoga was simply
-the horse that was best suited for a big team with an enormous
-load, and he varied in size from sixteen and one-half to eighteen
-hands in height and from one thousand six hundred to one
-thousand nine hundred pounds in weight. These measurements
-he reached by breeding for the one purpose of strength and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>
-weight. It is safe to conclude that in the latter part of the last
-century breeding animals of large size were brought over the
-water, for we can hardly conceive of their being descended from
-the little pacers preceding them only fifty or sixty years.</p>
-
-<p>The Pennsylvania horses of the first half of the last century
-were remarkably uniform in size, and from a large number of
-cases in which the size is given I find the exact average was
-thirteen hands one and one-quarter inches. Of the twenty-eight
-animals in which the habit of action is given, twenty-four were
-pacers, three both paced and trotted, and just one is given as a
-natural trotter. Here we have two very striking facts—the low
-stature and the uniformity of the pacing gait. These horses
-average a quarter of an inch below the Virginians, the next lowest,
-and a higher ratio of pacers than in any other colony. There
-must have been some reason or reasons for this, and I will suggest
-two which strike me as probably effective in producing these
-results. The earliest settlers in Southeastern Pennsylvania were
-the Swedes. They brought their horses with them from the Old
-World, and they were undoubtedly pacers, but I have no means
-of determining anything about their size. This may be an important
-factor in determining the uniformity of the gait, as well
-as the diminutive size. The other consideration that I will
-present is the fact that the pacer was more fashionable in and
-about Philadelphia, then the leading city of the continent, than
-in any other section or portion of the colonies. It is a fact that
-seems to be fully established, that early in the last century the
-breeding of pacing horses was carried on in the region of Philadelphia,
-with much spirit and intelligence, and that pacing
-stallions for public service were carefully selected for their shapeliness
-and speed. It is also a fact that all horses that could not
-pace were, in the public estimation, classed as basely bred.</p>
-
-<p>The Swedes and Finns planted a colony on the west bank of
-the Delaware in 1638, and as they were an industrious and
-thrifty people they prospered and extended their plantation up
-the river as far as Philadelphia. This territory was then claimed
-by the Dutch of New Netherlands, and they overcame the
-Swedes in 1655, and ten years later they in turn had to surrender
-to the English. Of the early Swedes, the Rev. Acrelius
-wrote and published, in the Swedish language, a very valuable
-account of his people. In speaking of their horses he says: “The
-horses are real ponies and are seldom over sixteen hands high<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>
-[evidently a misprint and should read “thirteen” instead of
-“sixteen”]. He who has a good riding horse never employs him
-for draft; which is also the less necessary, as journeys are for the
-most part made on horseback. It must be the result of this,
-more than of any particular breed in the horses, that the country
-excels in fast horses, so that horse races are often made for very
-high stakes.” Such horses often sold for sixty dollars in our
-modern money. The question of the pacers of Philadelphia will
-be considered more at length in the chapters devoted to the history
-of the pacer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">New Jersey</span> is not known to have made any direct importations
-of horses from the old country. Lying between New York
-on the east and Pennsylvania on the west, she had abundant opportunity
-to get her supply of horses from her neighbors on
-either side, to say nothing of the overflow from Virginia about
-1669. Like all the other colonies, as early as 1668 her horses
-were ordered to be branded and then suffered to roam at large
-and find their own living. Not much attention seems to have
-been given to the idea of improvement in the size and quality of
-the stock till 1731, when it was provided by law that all colts of
-eighteen months old, running at large and under fourteen hands
-high, should be gelded. I have not made any attempt to get at
-the exact average size of the Jersey horses, nor to ascertain the
-ratio of pacers among them, for we know the environments and
-the sources of supply, and in knowing these we know just what
-the Jersey horses were—a large majority of them were pacers and
-they were not over fourteen hands high.</p>
-
-<p>The statutes of this colony, enacted 1748, furnished the first
-real evidence of record, with one exception, going to show that
-pacing and trotting races, as well as running races, were the common
-amusement of the people in the first half of the last century.
-They were so common, indeed, that the legislative authorities
-declared them a nuisance and restricted them to certain days
-in the year. That this was not a “moral spasm,” as some might
-call it, that had seized the legislative authorities of that particular
-year, is evident from the fact that, afterward and from time
-to time, this statute was amended, and always in the direction of
-greater restrictions and greater severity. This is sufficient evidence
-that the moral sense of the community sustained the lawmakers
-in pronouncing it a nuisance, to be abated. It is not
-probable that pacing and trotting races were any more common<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>
-or more demoralizing in New Jersey than in some of the other
-colonies, but they seem to have been content with fulminating
-against “horse racing” without specifying the different gaits at
-which the horses might go in the race. Until this old colonial
-statute was discovered, it was not possible to prove by contemporaneous
-evidence that there had been any pacing or trotting
-races before the first decade of the present century. This, however,
-adds to their antiquity more than a hundred years.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Maryland</span> was really the first in point of time to legislate for
-the suppression of pacing, as well as running races, but the old
-statute, enacted in 1747, was not discovered till very recently.
-This proves that pacing races were very common in Maryland one
-hundred and sixty years ago, but it says nothing about trotting
-races. It will be observed that in the New Jersey statute the
-different kinds of racing are placed in this order: “Racing, pacing
-and trotting,” and I take this to mean the order of their
-prominence. Applying this method to Maryland, it may be inferred
-that trotting races were infrequent and practically unknown,
-and hence not enumerated as offensive. Taking these two
-cases together, I think we are justified in concluding that the
-pacer antedated and preceded the trotter in all turf sports. No
-doubt he was faster then than the trotter, and he has maintained
-his superiority, in that respect at least, to this day. Maryland
-was a great racing colony and it was afterward a great racing
-State. This statute did not sweep over the whole colony, but
-applied only to the race course at Newmarket, and Anne Arundel
-and Talbot counties. As I understand the matter, this statute
-was enacted specially at the request of the Society of Friends,
-and for the protection of their yearly meetings.</p>
-
-<p>With Pennsylvania on the one side and Virginia on the other,
-it is not necessary to spend any time on the sizes and gaits of the
-horses of Maryland, for they were simply duplicates of those in
-the two colonies with which they were in constant intercourse
-and trade. In the matter of undersized stallions running at
-large Maryland was more in earnest and more savage than any of
-the other colonies. For, by an act of Legislature, passed 1715,
-it was provided that any person finding an entire colt eighteen
-months old, or an unbroken stoned horse, running at large, no difference
-what his size, might shoot him upon the spot.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">North Carolina</span> was first permanently settled by a colony from
-Virginia, led by Roger Green, July, 1653. For some years previous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span>
-to this it had been the refuge of Quakers and others fleeing
-from the persecutions and proscriptions that prevailed in Virginia
-at that time, against all who did not conform to the ritual of the
-English church. These refugees and colonists took their horses
-and all they had with them, and as this was but a few years before
-there was an overproduction of horses in Virginia, and great
-droves were running wild without an owner, we may conclude
-they cost but little and that they spread rapidly in the new
-colony. As we thus know whence they came, we necessarily
-know what they were in size and gait, and we need not trace
-them any further.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">South Carolina</span> received her colonial charter in 1663, and the
-earliest newspaper that I have found was for the year 1744, from the
-advertisements in which I have extracted the following data as to
-size and gait. In the first four and the last four months of the
-<i>South Carolina Gazette</i> for 1744 I find thirty horses advertised
-as strayed or stolen, in which the size is given, and they average
-within a small fraction of an inch of thirteen and one-half hands,
-and of this number three are given as fifteen hands, which was
-considered, in that day, a large horse. Out of this number the
-gait is given in only twelve cases, ten of which were pacers, one
-paced and trotted, and one trotted only. The foundation horse
-stock of South Carolina was obtained chiefly, if not wholly, from
-Virginia, and the practice of branding and turning out, to roam
-at large, prevailed everywhere.</p>
-
-<p>In the issues of the <i>Gazette</i> for this year (1744) I find but one
-advertisement of a stallion for public service, and he is called the
-“famous racing horse named Roger,” and is advertised as a great,
-race horse, but there is no attempt to give a pedigree or to claim
-that he possessed any blood that was not the inheritance of all
-others. Another advertisement is a lengthy challenge from
-Joseph Butler to run his gelding Chestnut against any horse,
-mare or gelding for five hundred or one thousand pounds “inch
-and weight,” the lowest horse carrying thirteen stone. No mention
-or reference is made to his blood, and from these two facts
-we may reasonably infer that at that time there were no strains
-of blood, known to the Carolinians, specially bred to run. The
-distance to be run is not definitely mentioned, but it was on a
-road from one point to another, and I suppose it was about two
-and a half, or possibly three miles. This was three years before
-the first English race horse was imported into Virginia. It has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>
-been represented that an old gentleman, whose name is forgotten,
-imported into South Carolina a number of English race horses at
-a period long anterior to this, but that claim has never been in a
-shape that placed it above very grave suspicion and doubt; and
-the claim accompanying it, in the way of apology, that the old
-man would never allow any of his horses to race, did not improve
-its credibility. From the advertisements just referred to, it
-seems evident that there was no distinctively English running
-blood in the colony till after this date.</p>
-
-<p>This review of the horses of the colonial period embraces all
-that I have been able to glean of the character, qualifications,
-size and habit of action of the earliest importations and their descendants.
-Their diminutive size will be a surprise to my readers
-as it has been to me, and the overwhelming ratio of pacers to
-trotters will be a still greater surprise. The importance of increasing
-the size by judicious selections of the largest seems to
-have been ever present to the minds of the colonists, but not
-much could be accomplished in that direction, under the system
-prevalent everywhere of roaming at large. The little pacers
-were great saddle horses, and down to the days of good roads and
-wheeled vehicles they were deemed indispensable. That there
-were race horses among them at the running, pacing and trotting
-gaits there is indisputable evidence, covering about a hundred
-years of the colonial period, but there is no record of the rate of
-speed. The pacer was the favorite and fashionable horse of that
-period, and after something has been said about the Canadian
-horse we will take up his history and treat it with that fullness
-its importance demands.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">EARLY HORSE HISTORY—CANADA.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Settlement and capture of Port Royal—Early plantations—First French
-horses brought over 1665—Possibly illicit trading—Sire of “Old Tippoo”—His
-history—“Scape Goat” and his descendants—Horses of the Maritime
-Provinces.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Before taking up the two provinces of the Dominion—Quebec
-and Ontario—to which reference is made in this volume as
-“Canada,” there is an incident in the history of Nova Scotia,
-full of sadness, that I cannot pass over without mention. The
-French made a settlement here in 1602, and named the country
-New France. The settlement to which I refer was at Port Royal,
-afterward named Annapolis by the English. This seems to have
-been a thrifty and flourishing little plantation, far removed from
-all outside associations, except the savages of the forests, with
-whom they lived in peace. The first horses brought to North
-America were owned and bred by the people of Port Royal. In
-November, 1613, Captain Argall, of Virginia, organized a plundering
-expedition, and having learned of the defenseless condition
-of Port Royal from Captain John Smith, he sailed up there
-with two or three ships, captured the place and carried away
-horses, cattle, sheep, wheat, farming utensils, and indeed everything
-their ships would carry, and then sailed away to Virginia.
-This raid was without authority or orders, but it was winked at
-by the officials, and forthwith a second raid was made by Argall,
-and all that had been left in the first was carried away in the
-second, as well as some of the inhabitants.</p>
-
-<p>The pacer of Canada, generally believed to be of French origin,
-has long been an object of diligent investigation, without reaching
-any satisfactory results. Again and again I have gone over
-the first half-century of the history of the French plantations
-on the St. Lawrence; examining everything in the English
-language that held out any hope of throwing light upon the question,
-but nothing was revealed. The trouble was that my search<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span>
-stopped a little short of the date when the first horses arrived.
-The management of the affairs of the plantations on the St.
-Lawrence being in a company located in France, there was a
-lack of vigor, not much growth, and still less profits to the projectors
-of the colony. The energies of the people seemed to be
-directed almost wholly to collecting and trading in peltry instead
-of building up a commonwealth from the productions of
-the soil. For half a century these primitive people lived without
-horses. Their farms, if they could be called farms, all had a
-frontage on the water, running back in narrow strips to the
-highlands. They did their plowing with cattle and their canoes
-supplied the place of the saddle horse, the family carriage and
-the lumber wagon to carry the scanty surplus of their little farms
-to market. At last the company in France, holding direction
-and control, got out of the way, and the king of France assumed
-direct authority over the affairs of the plantation. On June 30,
-1665, the Marquis de Tracy arrived at Quebec, as viceroy, with a
-numerous suite of retainers and a regiment of French soldiers.
-Two months later a large fleet arrived bringing many colonists,
-embracing artisans, farmers, peasants, etc., with their families,
-and a good number of horses, the first that had ever been seen
-on the St. Lawrence. There is a tradition that a horse had been
-sent over to the governor in 1642, but it is probable he was lost
-on the voyage, as the older people of the colony had no recollection
-or knowledge of any such animal. These colonists came
-from the ancient province of Picardy, not now to be found on
-the modern maps of France, but it lay on the English Channel
-in the extreme northwest of France. As it is expressly stated
-that these colonists came from Picardy, it is fair to conclude
-that the horses came from that portion of the kingdom also.
-At this period in history there had been no wars between France
-and England for many years, and commercial as well as social
-intercourse had long been cultivated between the people on both
-sides of the channel. We know but little of the early horse history
-of France, but in our own time we know that France has been
-largely benefited by the diffusion of the English blood among
-her horse stock, so we may conclude that if a man in Kent had a
-horse that a man in Picardy wanted, he very soon got him in the
-way of legitimate trade. I think, therefore, it is safe to conclude
-that the horse stock of Northwestern France and the horse
-stock of England were very much the same in appearance, action<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span>
-and blood. On this basis of reasoning, which involves no improbabilities,
-we may conclude that the same proportion of the
-horses from Picardy were natural pacers.</p>
-
-<p>There is another theory, giving the Canadian pacer an Anglo-American
-origin, that commends itself to the unbiased judgment
-with even greater force than the one just suggested. Various
-writers have talked about the “French characteristics” of the
-Canadian pacer, and all that, when probably not one of them ever
-saw a horse that he <i>knew</i> to be French. The early pacers—the
-pacing-bred pacers—all have more or less strongly marked resemblances,
-especially in conformation, and it makes no difference
-whether they come from Canada or whether their habitat has
-been south of Mason and Dixon’s line for two hundred and fifty
-years. When we look at a pacer, therefore, we may as well be
-honest and say we don’t know whether he resembles the horses
-that reached the St. Lawrence in 1665, or those that reached
-Massachusetts Bay in 1629. The theory that the French Canadians
-got the foundation of their pacing stock from the New
-England colonies rests upon two well-known facts. First, the
-colonies had a great abundance of such horses for sale; and second,
-they were within reach of and purchasable by the Canadians. To
-these two facts rendering the theory possible, we have others
-which render it probable. The jealous restrictions sought to be
-imposed on both the English and French colonists by the home
-governments of both people strongly indicate that there was no
-small amount of illicit trading, and this trading, in the very
-nature of things, must have been between the English and French.
-Toward the close of the seventeenth century the English colonies,
-especially Rhode Island, had far more horses than they
-needed for home use, and they did a thriving business in exporting
-them to different parts. These were just the kind of horses
-the Canadians needed for their wild life in the wilderness; they
-were cheaper than they could be brought from France; the
-water way of Lake Champlain was convenient; pelts and furs
-were a desirable commodity of exchange, and there was no cordon
-of customs officers to keep the willing traders apart. Of these
-theories we consider the second the more probable of the two,
-and if we accept it we reach the conclusion that the so-called
-“French” Canadian pacer is merely a descendant of the old English
-pacer brought over by the early New England colonists.
-Objection has been presented to this theory, on the grounds that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span>
-the powerful confederation of the Six Nations Indians interposed
-an insurmountable barrier to all trade, whether legitimate or
-illicit, between the Canadians and the colonists of New England.
-This objection is certainly conclusive as applied to the different
-periods of hostilities, but the hostilities were not continuous.
-During both the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries there
-were periods of years at a stretch when there were no hostilities,
-and when there was nothing to prevent the Canadian and the
-Yankee from coming together and exchanging what they each
-had that the other wanted. The border abounds in traditions of
-the incidents connected with this illicit trading, but we need not
-go to the border in the wilderness to learn that the desire to
-“beat the customs” is almost universal. We can see it manifested
-every day at the docks in New York, when a steamer
-arrives from abroad. The fine lady, with her gloves and lots of
-other lingerie that she has been contriving all the way across how
-best to keep from the sight of the officer, is no better and no
-worse than the “Canuck,” who in a retired place at midnight
-trades his peltry to the Yankee for his horse. If the Canadian
-pacer did not have his origin in New England it was not because
-he could not be carried across the border.</p>
-
-<p>When we enter upon the consideration of the actual performers
-descended from the original Canadian stock, we find both pacers
-and trotters of speed and merit, but in attempting to trace them
-to their particular ancestors we find ourselves in a labyrinth
-from which there seems to be no deliverance. In the midst of
-this darkness I am glad to be able to say there is a ray of light
-that illumines much that has been obscure. The greatest progenitor
-of trotters and pacers that Canada has produced, “Old
-Tippoo,” has been fully identified in his true origin, and he has
-been well named “The Messenger of Canada.” He seemed to be
-known all over Canada as the greatest of their trotting and pacing
-sires, and many attempts were made through several years to
-give his pedigree, but in all these attempts there were elements
-of weakness and in many of them very bald absurdities.</p>
-
-<p>When the roan gelding Tacony made his record of 2:27, away
-back in 1853, the performance was looked upon as something that
-would not be surpassed in a generation at least. Then when
-Toronto Chief made his saddle record of 2:24½, ten or twelve
-years later, and it was found that he and Tacony were both
-descended from a Canadian horse called Tippoo, the inquiry became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>
-quite active as to what Tippoo was, and all kinds of imaginable
-stories were told about him. In the search for the history and
-breeding of the horse Tippoo, extending through more than
-twenty years, many curious and some impossible things were
-developed, and as these old “fads” may come as new discoveries in
-future generations, I will mention two or three of them here.
-The first of these untruthful statements to assume tangible form
-was to the effect that Tippoo was imported from England, and
-that he was got there by Nesthall’s Messenger. I never could
-tell how or where this story originated, but it first appeared in the
-pedigree given to Toronto Chief when he went into the stud on
-Long Island. This was settled by the facts, expressed in very
-few words, that the horse was not imported, but bred in Canada,
-and that there was no such horse in England as “Nesthall’s
-Messenger.”</p>
-
-<p>The next representation came from an old horseman, Mr. V.
-Sheldon, of Canton, New York, a very intelligent and careful
-correspondent, who had given much labor to the question. He
-had learned from different sources, that were satisfactory to his
-mind, that a Mr. Howard, a traveling preacher, had ridden a
-mare from Lowville, New York, over into Canada; that this mare
-was in foal “by a very noted horse that stood at Lowville;” that
-when the mare became too heavy for his use under the saddle he
-sold her to Isaac Morden, and that the foal she dropped was the
-famous Tippoo. The name of the “very famous horse that stood
-at Lowville” was not remembered, but as Ogden’s Messenger
-was there at that time—1816-17—the conclusion followed that
-he was the horse. This representation was far from complete,
-but as there was nothing unreasonable about it, and nothing
-known to be untrue, I accepted it for a time, awaiting further light.</p>
-
-<p>The third representation came from Mr. Lewis T. Leavens, of
-Bloomfield, Ontario, who was born 1792, and was, therefore, old
-enough to have had some personal knowledge of the horse. But
-whether his knowledge was personal or only traditional cannot
-now be made to appear. He says that Tippoo was got by a horse
-called Escape, and I will ask the reader to note this name
-“Escape” as we progress. He says that “when Escape was on
-the ocean, the vessel encountered a severe gale, and the horse
-had to be thrown overboard, and he was picked up the ninth day
-off the coast of Newfoundland, on a bar, eating rushes.” This
-silly and ridiculous story had been told and possibly believed by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>
-some fools more than a hundred years before the dates here implied
-by Mr. Leavens. It is probable it was first told as a joke,
-by some wag in Rhode Island, when asked about the origin of
-the Narragansett pacers. He replied that the original Narragansett
-“was caught swimming in mid-ocean, when a ship came
-along, lassoed him, pulled him on board, and landed him safely
-in Narragansett Bay.” The vitality of the joke probably had its
-origin in the experience of Rip Van Dam, when in 1711 he went
-up to Narragansett for a flying pacer, which is related in another
-part of this volume. Mr. Leavens speaks of the Rev. Erastus as
-the owner of the dam, and the breeder of the horse; but he says
-the horse did not come into possession of Isaac Morden till he
-was six or eight years old. The date of his death is fixed by Mr.
-Leavens in 1835, and while he is more definite than our information
-from other sources, all agree he died from a kick about that
-year.</p>
-
-<p>The next representation that seems to be worthy of noticing
-is a communication that appeared in the New York <i>Sportsman</i>,
-written by somebody who signs himself “Dick.” Whether
-“Dick” is in earnest and believes what he writes, or whether he is
-merely trying to “sell” somebody, we will leave for him to decide.
-He seems to depend upon Mr. Morden, at one time the owner of
-the horse, as the source of his information. “Dick” says the sire
-of Tippoo was imported into New York in 1811, and was called
-Fleetwood. Why did he not tell us by whom the horse Fleetwood
-was imported? If there was a man in New York in 1811 so
-big a fool as to import an English stallion at great expense, and
-then send him up to the wilderness of Canada where there was
-neither money nor mares, his name should be handed down as a
-historical curiosity. The whole story is a “fake.”</p>
-
-<p>In January, 1883, I received from the Hon. J. P. Wiser, of
-Prescott, Ontario, the following letter, which he had just received
-from the writer:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Wellington</span>, December 27, 1882.</p>
-
-<p>As the origin of the Tippoo horses seems to be a mystery to you I will tell
-you. Erastus Howard was a traveling preacher in those days, and he traveled
-on horseback. He bought in Kingston a dark chestnut mare and bred her to a
-horse called “The Scape Goat,” brought from Narragansett Bay, in Rhode
-Island. The horse was a large brown horse, and could rack (pace) faster than
-he could run. The colt was coal black and large, and was sold to Mr. Wilcox,
-who named him Tippoo Sultan. His gait was like the “Scape” some, but
-soon squared off to a trot, and the way he could go was dreadful. In June,
-1836, he broke his leg and was lost.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Wilson Serls.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span></p>
-
-<p>This short letter was a great surprise, for never before had I
-heard of Mr. Serls. Through the kindness of Mr. Wiser he had
-entered the discussion, evidently without knowing anything
-about what representations had been made by others. His short,
-crisp sentences seemed to be an epitome of a history of this horse,
-which he might be able to give. It will be observed that the
-traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, is still in the foreground,
-and that Mr. Leavens’ “Escape” and Mr. Serls’ “Scape Goat”
-are evidently one and the same horse, and thus these two men
-practically confirm each other, so far as the identity of the horse
-is concerned. No time was lost in preparing a series of questions
-to be submitted to Mr. Serls, embracing the sources of his information,
-for although well advanced in years he certainly could
-not have had personal knowledge of what he testified. These
-questions not only covered the minute points in the history of
-the matter, but they were so framed as to test the accuracy and
-honesty of his memory. In due time they came back fully and
-satisfactorily answered, and as these answers embrace many things
-that my readers care nothing about I will condense them into
-narrative form.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Serls derived his information from his uncle, Stephen
-Niles, the brother of his mother. In 1798 Stephen Niles took a
-band of horses to Prince Edward County, and stopped with an
-uncle of his who was then a member of the provincial parliament,
-living on the Bay of Quinte. His uncle prevailed upon him to settle
-there. In 1800 he was married, and bought a farm of two hundred
-acres four miles west of Wellington, where he lived many
-years, and the place is still known as Niles’ Corners. He was an
-orthodox Quaker in his religious belief, and for a number of years
-he was one of the bench of magistrates for Prince Edward
-County. When the War of 1812 broke out he was employed by
-the British forces in procuring hay and grain for the mounted
-troops. In 1858 he died, leaving an honorable name behind him.</p>
-
-<p>At the close of the war the military authorities sold off a large
-number of horses to the highest bidder, and Mr. Niles was present
-when the traveling preacher, Erastus Howard, bid off a dark
-chestnut mare for ninety-three dollars, at Kingston. This mare
-afterward became the dam of the famous Tippoo, and as a matter
-of course nothing can ever be known of her breeding. In 1816 a
-man from Rhode Island, whose name is not definitely remembered,
-but believed to be Williams, traveled the horse Scape Goat<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>
-through Prince Edward County, and he stopped one day and
-night in each week at the house of Stephen Niles, and during
-that season Mr. Howard bred his chestnut mare to this horse,
-and, as already said, the produce was Tippoo. This black colt
-passed into the hands of Mr. Wilcox, who gave him his name,
-and he afterward passed through several other hands before he
-reached Mr. Morden about 1826, and he died ten years later from
-the effects of a kick. As the horse Scape Goat was brought from
-Narragansett Bay, and as he was a remarkably fast pacer, there
-can be no mistake in calling him a “Narragansett Pacer.” He
-was considerably larger than the average of that tribe, but this
-does not vitiate his title to a place in that family. It seems he
-was only kept in Prince Edward County the one season, and his
-owner, not being satisfied with the extent of his earnings, took
-him back to Rhode Island. Thus, the horse that has been
-proudly designated as “Canada’s Messenger,” was the son of a
-Narragansett pacer. In his younger days, Tippoo paced like his
-sire, but as he grew older the trotting gait was more fully
-developed.</p>
-
-<p>It is safe to say that the immediate progeny of Tippoo were
-numerous, and it is safe to say that some of them, either as trotters
-or pacers, were fast for their day, but it must be confessed
-that we know very little about the way they were bred. One son
-was called Sportsman, but nothing is known of his dam and very
-little of the horse himself beyond the fact that he was the sire of
-the roan gelding Tacony, that trotted some great races about
-1853, and made a record of 2:27. This horse had a son called
-Young Sportsman, that was more widely known as “the Sager
-Horse,” and his horse became the sire of the trotting mare
-Clara, or Crazy Jane, as she was at one time called, that made a
-record of 2:27 in 1867. Beyond these two representatives of the
-Sportsman line, I have not been able to go. It has been claimed
-that another son of Tippoo, called Wild Deer, was the sire of the
-Sager Horse, but it does not seem to be well sustained. There
-was a son called Wild Deer, and several others that have been
-mentioned by turf writers, but no particulars of any value have
-been given.</p>
-
-<p>Warrior, or Black Warrior, as he is sometimes called, was a
-brown horse and not a black, as his latter name would imply.
-He was a son of old Tippoo and his dam was a black mare owned
-and ridden by an officer in an English regiment, known as the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>
-First Royals. She was a black mare and after she was sold out
-of the service she was called “Black Warrior,” and this name
-was transmitted to her son. This mare was for a long time represented
-as the dam of Royal George, but she was the dam of his
-sire. This horse was bred at Belleville, Ontario, and about 1840
-a certain Mr. Johnston was moving from Belleville to Michigan.
-He had this horse with him, which, becoming lame on the way,
-he traded to a Mr. Barnes, living about twenty miles south of
-London, Ontario. He was a valuable horse and left many very
-useful animals. Many of his get were pacers, and he was kept by
-Mr. Barnes till he died.</p>
-
-<p>Royal George was a brown-bay horse, foaled about 1842, and
-was got by Warrior, son of Tippoo. His dam was the off one of
-a pair of bay mares taken to that vicinity from Middlebury, Vermont,
-by a Mr. Billington. This mare got her foot in a log
-bridge and the injury made her a comparative cripple for life.
-Being thus unfitted for road work, Mr. Billington sold or traded
-her to Mr. Barnes. She was bred to Warrior and produced Royal
-George. It is said by those who knew both animals, that this
-mare was a better trotter than Warrior, and from this springs the
-argument that Royal George had a trotting inheritance from his
-dam as well as from his sire. To learn whence this inheritance
-came, I have labored assiduously for years without being able to
-technically determine it. The single fact that her sire in Vermont
-was known as “the Bristol Horse,” is beyond all doubt, but
-as Mr. Billington was not living when this search was commenced,
-it has not been possible to determine just what horse is meant by
-“Bristol Horse.” At one time Harris’ Hambletonian was known
-very widely as “Bristol Grey” or “Bristol Horse,” and this is the
-only horse in the records so designated. It may, therefore, be
-assumed as more than a probability that this was the sire of the
-dam of Royal George.</p>
-
-<p>When three or four years old he was sold by Mr. Barnes to
-James Forshee, and he was known as “the Forshee Horse” for
-several years. He was sixteen hands high, not very handsome,
-but well formed, with plenty of substance and stamina, good
-action, and a first class “business” horse for anything that was
-wanted of him. In the stud, at low prices, he was largely
-patronized, and during the other months of the year he was employed
-in all kinds of drudgery. From Forshee he passed to
-Frank Munger, and from Munger to Mr. Doherty, of St. Catherines,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>
-for four hundred dollars, and he gave him the name of
-Royal George, and kept him many years. In 1858 W. H. Ashford,
-of Lewiston, New York, bought him and kept him two or
-three years there and at Buffalo. He seems to have passed into
-Doherty’s hands again, and died at St. Catherine’s, December,
-1862. It is not known that he ever had any training as a trotter
-except what he got from his owner on the road, and there is no
-tradition of his ever having been in a race but once, and that was
-on the ice at Hamilton, about 1852, against the famous State of
-Maine, for a considerable wager. In this contest he was the
-winner. His highest rate of speed was about 2:50 under the
-saddle. He was strongly disposed to pace, but when he got
-down to his work his gait was a square, mechanical trot. He
-left a numerous progeny with a heavy sprinkling of pacers among
-them; they were generally of fine size and very useful animals.
-Many of his sons were kept entire and that whole region of Ontario
-was filled up with Royal Georges, to say nothing of the
-large numbers that were brought across the border. He left one
-representative in the 2:30 list, and five sons that became sires of
-performers.</p>
-
-<p>Toronto Chief was the best son of Royal George, according to
-the records. He was a brown horse, foaled 1850, and was bred by
-George Larue, of Middlesex County, Ontario. His dam was a
-small bay mare by a horse called Blackwood, and his grandam
-was by Prospect. The horse Blackwood “was bought of a
-Frenchman below Montreal in 1837,” and that is all that can be
-said of his blood. He was a horse of fine size and went with
-great courage. Toronto Chief passed through several hands before
-he reached his owner, A. Bathgate, of New York. He was a
-horse of great speed for his day, having a record of 2:31 in harness
-and 2:24¼ under saddle. He left three representatives in the 2:30
-list, and among them the famous Thomas Jefferson, 2:23, with
-thirty-nine heats to his credit. Six of his sons became sires of
-trotters, and five of his daughters producers. Like all the other
-minor families, the Royal George family is surely being absorbed
-or submerged in trotting strains of more positive and uniform
-prepotency.</p>
-
-<p>It is probably true that Old Columbus and Old St. Lawrence
-were both descended from the Tippoo family, as they were both
-bred in Canada and seemed to possess and transmit the same
-characteristics as the Royal Georges possessed, in conformation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span>
-and gait. Their descendants were not numerous, but so many of
-them were able to show such a rate of speed, either at the lateral
-or diagonal gait, that they left a distinct trace on the trotting
-stock of the United States. Old Pacing Pilot has always been
-classed as a Canadian, but no trace of his origin has ever been
-secured, and it is impossible at this day to give any definite information
-as to whether he was brought from Canada or not.
-Some forty or fifty years ago the “Canadian pacers” were so
-highly esteemed for their speed that very many horses were called
-“Canadians” that never saw Canada. The original Tom Hal was
-purchased in Philadelphia as early as 1828, and was always called
-a Canadian. He was the progenitor of the great pacing family
-still bearing his name, that is doubtless the most noted pacing
-family now in existence. Sam Hazzard, it is said, was brought
-from Canada about 1844, and left some noted descendants. Many
-others might be named, but as they never gained great celebrity,
-and as their origin is not fully established, I will leave the
-Canadians for future investigators.</p>
-
-<p>The rich province of Ontario has always been, in all its ways,
-the most English section of the Canadian Confederation, and in
-nothing more than in horsemanship. True, it is now a great
-trotting region, but running is and always has been the sport of
-the rich and fashionable, and almost all the English horses imported
-in Canada have gone to Western Ontario. On the other
-hand, in the Maritime Provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
-and Prince Edward Island—running races have never been
-popular, except at Halifax, which is a great military station and
-socially and otherwise much influenced by its English army and
-navy residents. It is the only point in the provinces where running
-meetings are given or where the running horse is at all
-cherished. For generations the principal sport of the people of
-these provinces has been trotting and pacing races, winter and
-summer, for ice racing is very general and very popular, through
-Maritime as well as Western Canada, the numbers of great bays
-and wide rivers affording ample courses, everywhere, throughout
-the long winters. Though there is, through these provinces, a
-generous sprinkling of horses called French Canadian, it is a fact
-that when we write the horse history of Maine we have written
-that of the Maritime Canadian provinces. The best of the early
-trotting stock of these provinces came from Maine, and the most
-and the best of the old-time trotters of New Brunswick, Nova<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>
-Scotia, and Prince Edward Island were of tribes loosely described
-as Maine Messengers. For this there are ample geographical and
-natural reasons. That part of Quebec nearest them has never
-been rich in horses nor in anything else which the Provincials
-want, or in which they trade. The people of eastern New England
-are their natural trading neighbors, and the city of St. John,
-New Brunswick, especially in the past, the common market
-place; and almost all the earlier Maritime trotting sires trace
-through St. John to Maine, or some of the other New England
-States. It is a fact, too, that for generations enterprising horsemen,
-in the lower provinces, have been importing American trotting
-stallions for service, and to-day the trotting stock of these
-provinces is very thoroughly Americanized. While the exportation
-of horses, principally to Boston and Bangor, is one of the industries
-of Nova Scotia and of Prince Edward Island especially,
-almost without exception trotting and pacing stallions in use
-there are imported American horses, or the descendants of
-American trotting sires; while, as we have noted, the foundation
-stock came chiefly from Maine, and in very small degree from
-Ontario or Quebec. In either of the Maritime provinces it is a
-rarity to find a trotting horse that has not more or less of American
-blood.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The mechanism of the different gaits—The Elgin Marbles—Britain becomes a
-Roman province—Pacers in the time of the Romans—Bronze horses of
-Venice—Fitz Stephen, the Monk of Canterbury—Evidence of the Great
-Seals—What Blundeville says—What Gervaise Markham says—What the
-Duke of Newcastle says—The amble and the pace one and the same—At
-the close of Elizabeth’s reign—The Galloways and Hobbies—Extinction of
-the pacer—The original pacer probably from the North—Polydore Virgil’s
-evidence—Samuel Purchas’ evidence—The process of wiping out the
-pacer—King James set the fashion—All foreign horses called “Arabians”—The
-foreigners larger and handsomer—Good roads and wheeled vehicles
-dispensed with the pacer—Result of prompting Mr. Euren—Mr. Youatt’s
-blunder—Other English gentlemen not convinced there ever were any
-pacers.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In considering the antiquity and history of the pacing horse, it
-seems to be necessary that we should have a clear perception of
-the mechanism of the gait from which he takes his distinctive
-name and the relation which that mechanism bears to other gaits
-or means of progression. In the study of this mechanism we
-learn the combination by which we unlock the mystery that has
-puzzled so many breeders of the past and present generations.
-Some have maintained that the pace is a combination of the trot
-and the gallop, while a smaller number have maintained that the
-fast trot was a combination of the pace and the gallop. It is
-quite evident, as I will be able to show, that neither of these
-parties has ever given any careful attention and study to the
-mechanism of the different gaits. The most simple and least
-complicated method of illustrating this mechanism of movement
-is furnished in the human means of progression. At the walk, a
-man steps off with his left foot and the heel of that foot strikes
-the ground before the toe of the right foot leaves it. Then the
-right foot advances and strikes the ground before the toe of the
-left foot leaves it. This is the natural “heel and toe” walk, and
-the speed may be increased by quickening the step and extending
-the stride, so far as physical conformation will permit. Still<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>
-greater speed becomes a succession of bounds, the propelling foot
-leaving the ground before the advanced foot strikes it. This is
-running, the highest rate of speed attainable, and in every revolution,
-for a space, the whole body is in the air. In the action
-of the horse, with four legs, we find greater complication, which
-I will try to make clear.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus6">
-<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">STAR POINTER.</p>
-<p class="caption">By Brown Hal, strictly pacing bred, record 1:59¼, 1897.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>First, all horses walk, all horses pace or trot, and all horses
-gallop. The walk is easily analyzed, for it is slow and the movement
-of each limb can be followed by the eye. Each foot makes
-its own stroke upon the ground, and we count one, two, three,
-four in the revolution.</p>
-
-<p>Second, at the gallop, which is a succession of leaps, each
-limb, as shown by the instantaneous photograph, performs its
-own function, whether in rising from the ground, flying through
-the air, or in striking the ground again. There is harmony in
-all, but there is no unity in any two or more of them, and when
-they strike the ground again you hear the impacts, one, two,
-three, four, in a cluster. The conventional drawing of the running
-horse in action is impossible in nature, and a wretched caricature
-of the action as it is. As in the walk, so in the run, we
-count four impacts in the revolution.</p>
-
-<p>Third, at the pace the horse advances the two feet, on the
-same side, at the same time, and when they reach the ground
-again there is but one impact; then the two feet on the other side
-are advanced and strike in the same way. Thus, the rhythm of
-the action strikes the ear as that of the movement of an animal
-with two feet instead of four. In this there can be no mechanical
-mistake, for in the revolution of the four-legged pacing horse
-we count one, two, and in the revolution of the two-legged man
-we count one, two. The conclusion, therefore, seems to be inevitable
-that the two legs on the same side of the pacing horse
-act in perfect unison in performing the functions of one leg. At
-the trot the horse advances the two diagonal feet at the same
-time, and when they reach the ground again there is but one impact;
-then the two other diagonal feet are advanced and strike
-in the same way. Thus, the rhythm of the action strikes the
-ear as that of the movement of an animal with two feet instead
-of four. In this there can be no mechanical mistake, for in the
-revolution of the four-legged trotting horse we count one, two,
-and in the revolution of the two-legged man we count one, two.
-The conclusion, therefore, seems to be inevitable that the two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>
-diagonal legs of the trotting horse act in perfect unison in performing
-the function of one leg. In the mechanism of the gait
-then that is midway between the walk and the gallop there is no
-difference in results, nor distinction in the economy of motion,
-except that the pacer uses the lateral legs as one, and the trotter
-the diagonal legs as one. In use, there is a vertical distinction,
-if that term should be allowed, between the gait of the pacer and
-the trotter. The action of the pacer is lower and more gliding
-which fits him for the saddle, while the action of the trotter is
-higher and more bounding which makes him more desirable as a
-harness horse. In the processes of inter-breeding to the fastest,
-this distinction, if it be a distinction, seems to be coming less
-real, or at least less observable.</p>
-
-<p>While the essential oneness of the pace and the trot is indicated
-above from the mechanism and unity of the two gaits,
-there is a great mountain of evidence to be developed when we
-reach the consideration of breeding subjects, in which we will
-meet multitudes of fast trotters getting fast pacers, and fast
-pacers getting fast trotters; fast pacers changed over to fast trotters
-and fast trotters changed over to fast pacers, and the final evidence
-that speed at the one gait means speed at the other. Having
-briefly explained what a pacer is, it is now in order to take
-up the question of whence he came.</p>
-
-<p>On the summit of the Acropolis, in Athens, stand the ruins of
-the Parthenon, a magnificent temple erected to the goddess
-Minerva. The building was commenced in the year B.C. 437,
-and was completed five years afterward. All the statuary was
-the work of the famous Phidias and his scholars, made from
-Pentelic marble. This noted building resisted all the ravages
-of time, and had, in turn, been converted into a Christian temple
-and a Turkish mosque. In 1676 it was still entire, but in 1687
-Athens was besieged by the Venetians, and the Parthenon was
-hopelessly wrecked. As a ruin it became the prey of the Turks
-and all other devastators, and in order to save something of what
-remained of its precious works of art, Lord Elgin, about the year
-1800, brought home to England some portions of the frieze of
-the temple, with other works of Phidias, in marble, sold them to
-the government, and they are preserved in the British Museum.
-This frieze is a most interesting subject to study, not only as a
-specimen of Greek art of the period of Pericles, but as a historic
-record of the type and action of the Greek horses of that day.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>
-It consists of a series of white marble slabs, something over four
-feet wide, upon which are sculptured, in high relief, the heroes
-and defenders of Athens, mounted on horses, and some of these
-horses are pacing, while others are trotting and cantering. This
-is the first undoubted record we have of the pacer, and it is now
-over two thousand three hundred and thirty years old.</p>
-
-<p>Britain became a Roman province in the reign of Claudius, in
-the first part of the first century of the Christian era, and it continued
-under the Roman yoke until <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 426, when the troops
-were withdrawn to help Valentinian against the Huns, and never
-returned. When Julius Cæsar first invaded Britain, in the year
-<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 55, he found the inhabitants fierce and warlike and abundantly
-supplied with horses and war chariots. These chariots
-were driven with great daring and skill, and the fact was thus
-demonstrated that this kind of warfare was not a new thing to
-the Britons, and that they were not to be easily subdued. The
-next year he returned again, but the second seems to have been
-no more successful than the first expedition. But little is known
-of the extent of territory overrun or the result of these invasions
-beyond the fact that no settlement was made then, and none till
-about ninety years afterward, when under the reign of Claudius,
-a strong military colony was planted there and Britain became a
-Roman province. During these centuries of bondage we know
-practically nothing of the lives of the slaves and but little of
-their masters, except the remnants of military works for aggression
-and defence, and the magnificent roads they constructed where-ever
-they moved their armies. In relation to their horses, I will
-make a few extracts from a work published about the beginning of
-this century, by Mr. John Lawrence, a man of great research and intelligence,
-besides of a wide acquaintance with the practical affairs
-of the horse, and, I may add, altogether the most reliable writer
-of his period. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In forming the paces, if the colt was not naturally of a proud and lofty
-action, like the Spanish or Persian horses, wooden rollers and weights were
-bound to their pastern joints, which gave them the habit of lifting up their
-feet. This method, also, was practiced in teaching them the ambulatura, or
-amble (pace), perhaps universally the common traveling pace of the Romans.</p>
-
-<p>“That natural and most excellent pace, the trot, seems to have been very
-little prized or attended to by the ancients, and was, indeed, by the Romans
-held in a kind of contempt, or aversion, as is demonstrated by the terms which
-served to describe it. A trotting horse was called by them <i>succussator</i>, or
-shaker, and sometimes <i>cruciator</i>, or tormentor, which bad terms, it may be presumed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span>
-were applied specially to those which in these days we dignify with
-the expressive appellation of ‘bone-setters.’”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The statuary of the early ages furnishes some excellent illustrations
-of the gait of the horse at that period of the world’s history.
-The four bronze horses on St. Mark’s in Venice are known
-throughout the world, and they are in the pacing attitude. The
-forefoot that is advanced is possibly a little too much elevated
-to strike the ground the same instant the hinder foot should
-strike it, but the whole action indicated is undoubtedly the
-lateral action. The date of these horses is lost in history, but it
-is supposed they were cast in Rome, about the beginning of the
-Christian era. Their capture in Rome and transfer to Constantinople,
-then their capture by the Venetians and transfer to
-Venice, next their capture by Napoleon and transfer to Paris,
-and then their restoration to Venice, are all matters of history.</p>
-
-<p>William Stephanides, or Fitz Stephen, as he was called, a
-monk of Canterbury, was born in London, lived in the reigns of
-King Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I., and died 1191. He
-wrote a description of London in Latin, which was afterward
-translated by John Strype, and printed, from which I take the
-following extract:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“There is without one of the gates, immediately in the suburb, a certain
-smooth field (Smithfield) in name and reality. There every Friday, unless it
-be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred horses exposed
-for sale. The earls, barons and knights who are at the time resident in
-the city, as well as most of the citizens, flock thither either to look or to buy.
-<i>It is pleasant to see the nags with their sleek and shining coats, smoothly ambling
-(pacing) along, raising and setting down, as it were, their feet on either side; in
-one part (of the field) are horses better adapted to the esquires; those whose pace
-is rougher, yet expeditious, lift up and set down, as it were, the two opposite fore
-and hind feet (trotting) together.</i>”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>After locating and describing the pacers in one part of the field
-and the trotters in another, Fitz Stephen goes on to take a look
-at the colts, then horses of burden, “strong and stout of limb,”
-and then their chargers in their galloping action. He next gives
-a very spirited description of the race, when the people raise a
-shout and all the other horses, cattle, etc., are cleared away, that
-the contestants may have an unobstructed field. It is a fact
-worthy of note that every English writer on the race horse, for
-the past century or two, has quoted a part of the above paragraph
-from Fitz Stephen as the first known and recorded instance of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span>
-racing in England, but left one of the most important parts out.
-Even Mr. Whyte, one of the most prominent of modern writers,
-in his “History of the British Turf,” seems to have followed some
-other writer, in the omission; or possibly, as he never had seen a
-pacer in England, he concluded that Fitz Stephen had only imagined
-that he saw, in one part of the field, horses moving at the
-lateral gait. In the paragraph quoted above, I have italicised
-that part of the description which English writers on turf subjects
-have omitted with remarkable uniformity.</p>
-
-<p>This seems to have been the period in which the pacing horse
-reached the highest point in official and popular appreciation, at
-least since the days of the Roman occupation of Britain. In
-speaking of this period, Mr. Lawrence says: “All descriptions of
-saddle horses were taught to amble” (that did not amble naturally),
-“and that most excellent and useful gait, the trot, was
-almost entirely disused.” In addition to the evidence of Fitz
-Stephen, we have that furnished by the Great Seals of a succession
-of sovereigns commencing with Richard I., and continuing
-to Elizabeth. These seals represent a knight in armor, mounted
-on a pacing horse in action, and perhaps the most conspicuous,
-at least the clearest, impression that has come down to us is that
-of King John, used at Runnymede, when he yielded to the demands
-of his barons and granted the Magna Charta. This act
-secured the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon race for all time and in
-all climes.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Thomas Blundeville was, probably, the first writer on the
-horse who undertook to publish a book in the English language
-on that subject. This book, entitled “The Art of Riding,” was
-merely a translation from the Italian, with some brief observations
-on English horses added to it. The first edition, it is said,
-was published in London, 1558, the year that Queen Elizabeth ascended
-the throne. The only edition which I have been able to
-find in the British Museum is that of 1580, in old English black
-letter. In quoting from the old authors of that period I will
-seek to avoid confusion by using the modern orthography. In
-speaking of the horses of his day he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Some men would have a breed of great trotting horses meet for the war
-and to serve in the field. Some others again would have a breed of ambling
-horses of a mean stature for to journey and travel by the way. Some, again,
-would have a race of swift runners to run for wagers or to gallop the buck, or
-to serve for such like exercise for pleasure. But the plain countryman would
-have a breed only for draft or burthen.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span></p>
-
-<p>“The Irish Hobbie is a pretty fine horse, having a good head and a body indifferently
-well proportioned, saving that many of them be slender and pin-buttocked.
-They are tender-mouthed, nimble, pleasant and apt to be taught,
-and for the most part they be amblers and thus very meet for the saddle and to
-travel by the way. Yea, and the Irishmen, both with darts and light spears,
-do use to skirmish with them in the field, and many of them do prove to that
-use very well, by means they be so light and swift.</p>
-
-<p>“Let those mares that shall be put to the stallion be of a high stature,
-strongly made, large and fair, and have a trotting pace as the mares of Flanders
-and some of our own mares be. For it is not meet, for divers reasons,
-that horses of [service stallions] should amble. But if any man seeks to have
-a race of ambling horses, to travel by the way, then I would wish his stallion
-to be a fair jennet of Spain, or at least a bastard jennet, or else a fair Irish
-ambling Hobbie; and the mare to be also a bastard jennet, bred here within
-this realm, having an ambling pace, or else some other of our ambling mares,
-so that the mare be well proportioned. And if any man desires to have swift
-runners let him choose a horse of Barbary or a Turk to be his stallion, and let
-the mare, which shall be put unto him, be like of stature and making unto
-him, so nigh as may be, for most commonly, such sire and dam such colt.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It is evident Mr. Blundeville was not much of a friend of the
-pacer, but as an honest writer he considers things as he finds
-them. Unfortunately he throws no light upon just what he
-means by the term “Spanish Jennet,” and a definition of that
-term, as used in the sixteenth century, would throw much light
-on passages from following writers in later periods. Everybody
-knows he was a small Spanish saddle horse, but nobody knows
-just what gait he took. To use Blundevilles own language,
-“The pace of the jennet of Spain is neither trot nor amble, but a
-comely kind of going like the Turke.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Gervaise Markham published several revised and enlarged
-editions of his work on the horse, the last of which I have been
-able to examine being printed in London, 1607, the same year
-the colony was planted at Jamestown, Virginia. In this edition
-he devotes nine short chapters or paragraphs to the pacer. In
-quoting from him I will again use the modern methods of spelling.
-He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“First to speak of ambling in general. It is that smooth and easy pace
-which the labor and industry of an ingenious brain hath found out to relieve
-the aged, sick, impotent and diseased persons, to make women undertake
-journeying and so by their community to grace society; to make great men try
-the ease of travel, more willing to thrust themselves into the offices of the commonwealth,
-and to do the poor both relief and service. It makes them when
-necessity, or as the proverb is, “when the devil drives,” not to be vexed with
-the two torments, a troubled mind and a tormented body. To conclude, ambling<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>
-was found out for the general ease of the whole world, as long as there is
-either pleasure, commerce or trade amongst the people. Now for the manner
-of the motion and the difference betwixt it and trotting. It cannot be described
-more plainly than I have set down in my former treatise; which is that it is the
-taking up of both legs together upon one side and so carrying them smoothly
-along to set them down upon the ground even together, and in that motion he
-must lift and wind up his fore foot somewhat high from the ground, but his
-hinder foot he must no more than take from the ground, as it were, sweep it
-close to the earth. Now, by taking up both his legs together on one side, I
-mean he must take up his right fore foot and his right hinder foot. For, as in
-the contrary pace, when a horse trots he takes up his feet crosswise, as the
-left hinder foot and the right fore foot, etc.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Markham, in his edition of 1607, then goes on in six or
-eight chapters acknowledging that many foals pace naturally,
-and to show how the foal may be trained to pace. His methods
-are very cruel, in many cases, and very crude throughout; but it
-clearly demonstrates the fact that in the sixteenth century the
-pace was a very general gait among English horses. In these
-chapters we find the toe weight first introduced as well as the
-trammels or hopples. The most striking fact brought out in
-these chapters is the discovery that more than three hundred
-years ago Englishmen were using the same devices to convert
-trotters into pacers that we are now using to convert pacers into
-trotters. He takes notice that Mr. Blundeville had advised those
-who wished to breed amblers to select a Spanish jennet or an
-Irish Hobbie, and objects to the former on the grounds that their
-paces are weak and uncertain. From this I conclude that the
-gait of the jennet, whatever it might have been, was not a habit
-of action fixed in the breed, and that its transmission was doubtful.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Markham then goes on further to explain the mechanism
-of the trot and the pace and incidentally introduces the rack or
-single-foot action, which, I think, is the first time I have found
-it in any English writer. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The nearer a horse taketh his limbs from the ground, the opener and evener
-and the shorter he treadeth, the better will be his pace, and the contrary
-declares much imperfection. If you buy a horse for pleasure the amble is the
-best, in which you observe that he moves both his legs on one side together
-neat with complete deliberation, for if he treads too short he is apt to stumble,
-if too large to cut and if shuffling or rowling he does it slovenly, and besides
-rids no ground. If your horse be designed for hunting, a racking pace is most
-expedient, which little differs from the amble, only is more active and nimble,
-whereby the horse observes due motion, but you must not force him too eagerly,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>
-lest being in confusion he lose all knowledge of what you design him to, and
-so handle his legs confusedly. The gallop is requisite for race horses....
-If he gallop round and raise his fore legs he is then said to gallop strongly, but
-not capable of much speed, and is fitter for the war than racing.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In 1667 the Duke of Newcastle published his famous work on
-the horse under the title, “A New Method and Extraordinary
-Invention to Dress Horses, and Work them According to Nature
-and also To Perfect Nature by the Subtilty of Art which was
-Never Found Out, but by the Thrice Noble, High, and Puissant
-Prince, William Cavendish, Duke, Marquess, and Earl of Newcastle,
-etc., etc.,” followed with twelve other titles and offices.
-The book was dedicated to “His Most Sacred Majesty, Charles
-the Second,” and is pretentious and magniloquent in its letter
-press and its make-up as it is in its title. In this work there is
-a great deal of bad English, some sense, and much nonsense, all
-mixed up with a strut of superiority that His Grace, no doubt,
-felt justified in enjoying after his long years of beggary in Antwerp.
-In giving the <i>natural</i> gaits of the horse he places the
-walk first, then the trot and next the amble, which he describes
-very minutely as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“For an amble he removes both his legs of a side, as, for example, take the
-far side, he removes his fore leg and his hinder leg at one time, whilst the
-other two legs of the near side stand still; and when those legs are on the
-ground, which he first removed, at the same time they are upon the ground
-the other side, which is the nearer side, removes fore leg and hinder leg on
-that side, and the other legs of the far side stand still. Thus an amble removes
-both his legs of a side and every remove changes sides; two of a side in the
-air and two upon the ground at the same time. And this is a perfect amble.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The duke seems to have been somewhat profuse in the use of
-words, and not very happy in his use of them, but after all we
-know just what he means. The description of the movement is
-that of the clean-cut pace, and our object in introducing it here
-is not only to show that the pace was then a well-known and
-natural gait in England, but also to show that the <i>pace</i> and the
-<i>amble</i> are one. In itself, the word “amble” is a better word than
-“pace,” for the latter is often used in referring to a rate of speed
-without regard to the particular gait taken by the horse, but in
-this country it is now universally understood to apply to the
-lateral motion, and it would not be wise at this day to attempt to
-change it. There is an undefined supposition in the mind of
-some people that the amble is something different from the pace,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span>
-that it is a slower and less pronounced gait, and hence we are
-often told a given horse did not pace, but “he ambled off.” In
-all that we have found in the writings of the past, and in all that
-I have seen with my own eyes, I have not been able to discover
-that there is any distinction between the amble and the pace.
-The only distinction is not in the gait itself, but in the fact that
-our ancestors, four hundred years ago, used the word “amble”
-to express precisely the same thing that their descendants now
-express by the word “pace.” The only sense in which the word
-“amble” is used among the horsemen of this country is to describe
-a kind of slow, incipient pace that many horses, both runners
-and trotters, show when recalled for a fresh start in scoring
-for a race. This probably indicates, whether in the case of a
-runner or a trotter, that somewhere, not very far removed, there
-is a pacing inheritance, and this incipient amble, as it is sometimes
-called, comes from that inheritance. It is also possible
-that it may arise from the excitement of the start and the confusion
-consequent upon the contest.</p>
-
-<p>At the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, about the beginning
-of the seventeenth century, the pacing horse of England was at
-the highest point of his utility and fame. He was the horse for
-the race course, he was the horse for the hunting field, and he was
-the horse for the saddle. He was able to beat King James’
-Arabian, and with the few Barbs that had then been brought in,
-the historian informs us, he was able to hold his own. There
-were two tribes of his congeners, the Galloway and the Irish
-Hobbie, the former from Southwestern Scotland and the north of
-England, and the latter from Ireland. These tribes were chiefly
-pacers, and not a few of them were distinguished as running
-horses. The Bald Galloway, as he was called, was a grand representative
-of his tribe. He was simply a native pony with a bald
-face, and he was a capital runner for his day, and a number of
-his get were distinguished runners. True, he is tricked out in
-the Stud Book with a pedigree, wholly fictitious, and that nobody
-ever heard of for a hundred years after he was foaled, but
-that did not prevent his daughter Roxana, when bred to Godolphin
-Arabian, from producing two of his greatest sons, Lath and
-Cade. This topic, however, has already been considered in the
-chapter on the English Race Horse. The Galloways were very
-famous as pacers in their day, and it seems they were about the
-last remnants of the pacing tribes to be found in England. It<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>
-seems, also, that long after they had ceased to be known on the
-other side their descendants were still known by the same designation
-in Virginia. From the history of the times, it appears
-that a wealthy Irish gentleman invested quite largely in shipping
-live stock to Virginia, and there can hardly be a doubt that his
-shipments included some of the Irish Hobbies.</p>
-
-<p>While the opening of the seventeenth century witnessed the
-supremacy of the English pacer, in the uses and enjoyments of
-the lives of the people, during the whole course of its succeeding
-years he was battling for his existence, and at its close he was
-nearly extinct. At the close of Queen Anne’s reign there were
-still a few Galloways left, but in the early Georges there were no
-longer any survivors, and Great Britain was without a pacer in
-the whole realm. The extinction of a race of horses that had
-been the delight of the kings, queens, nobility, and gentry of a
-great nation for many centuries is, perhaps, without a precedent
-in the history of any civilized people, and the causes which produced
-this wonderful result are well worthy of careful study. In
-looking into these causes we must consider the facts as we find
-them.</p>
-
-<p>As we have no guide, either historic, linguistic or ethnographic,
-by which we can certainly determine the blood of the original
-inhabitants of the British Isles, it is not remarkable that we
-should be in profound ignorance as to the blood of their horses.
-They were, doubtless, like their masters, of mixed origin, and
-through all the centuries their appearance would indicate that
-they have been bred and reared in a nomadic or semi-wild state,
-in which only the toughest and fleetest had survived. A good
-many years ago I met with a theory, advanced by somebody, that
-the original horse stock of Britain came from the North, but
-there were no reasons given to support it. I have no hesitation
-in accepting this theory, as far as it distinguishes between the
-North and the South, for some Northern countries produce vast
-numbers of natural pacers, as Russia, for instance, but I have
-never learned that any Southern country produced pacers. Certainly
-the shaft horse of the Russian drosky has been a flying
-pacer for generations, and great numbers of them are produced
-in Russia, especially in the eastern part of the empire. As these
-pacers are produced in a natural and semi-wild state, it must be
-conceded that habits of action have been inherited from their
-ancestors in the remote past. Historically, we know that the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>
-Phœnicians, when they ruled the trade of the world, supplied the
-whole of the northern coast of Africa, from Egypt to Algiers, and
-the southern coast of Spain, with horses, about a thousand years
-before the Christian era. Now, the horses of those regions are
-the descendants of the original stock carried there by the Phœnicians,
-and we know their habit of action is not that of the pacer.
-Hence the conclusion that the English pacer came from the
-North and not from the South. In speaking of the difference in
-the gaits of Northern and Southern horses, Mr. John Lawrence
-specifies the horses of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, etc., and says:
-“They are round made, but with clean heads and limbs; their
-best pace is the trot (or pace), which indeed is the characteristic
-pace of the Northern, as the gallop is of the Southern horse.”
-Other writers speak of the trot (or pace) as common to Northern
-horses, but as not common to Southern horses. Now, as all
-Southern horses do trot, and as these writers could not fail to
-know that they trotted, at some rate of speed, we must construe
-their terms so as to be consistent with plain, common sense.
-There was something in the “trot” of the Northern horse altogether
-different from the “trot” of the Southern horse that rendered
-his habit of action more conspicuous, probably by his higher
-rate of speed, but still more probably by the peculiar mechanism
-of his lateral action. If we insert the word “pace” instead of
-the word “trot,” the meaning of these old writers becomes very
-plain and in harmony with other known facts. Neither does it
-militate against the theory that the inhabitants of Britain may have
-secured their original horse stock from the Phœnician merchants;
-but if they did, it seems quite evident that at a later date they
-supplemented their supply from the pacing element from the
-North.</p>
-
-<p>At the close of the fifteenth century Polydore Virgil, an
-Italian ecclesiastic, came to England and wrote a descriptive history
-of the British Islands in Latin, which was published about
-1509. Part of this history was very clumsily translated about
-the time the English language began to assume its present form
-in literature and learning. In speaking of the horses of the
-country, he seems to have been greatly surprised with the pacers,
-and treats them as a curiosity. He says: “A great company of
-their horses do not trot, but amble, and yet neither trotters nor
-amblers are strongest, as strength is not always incident to that
-which is most gentle or less courageous.” It will be observed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>
-that these observations were made nearly four hundred years ago,
-and that the surprise of the Italian was not at merely seeing a
-few pacers which he had never seen in his own country, but that
-“the great company” of English horses were pacers. As I have
-here given an instance showing the surprise of an Italian at finding
-pacers, I will follow it with another showing the surprise of
-an Englishman at not finding any pacers. The chaplain of the
-Earl of Cumberland, on his several voyages of discovery in South
-America and the West India Islands, about 1596, made elaborate
-note of what he saw and learned of the new countries which the
-English then visited for the first time. These notes passed into the
-hands of that wonderfully prolific writer, or rather compiler,
-Samuel Purchas, from whose fourth volume, page 1171, the following
-paragraph is taken:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“And I wot not how that kind of beast [speaking of cattle] hath specially
-a liking to these Southerly parts of the world above their horses, none of which
-I have seen by much so tall and goodly as ordinarily they are in England; they
-were well made and well mettled, and good store there are of them, but methinks
-there are many things wanting in them which are ordinary in our English
-light horses. They are all trotters, nor do I remember that I have seen
-above one ambler, and that was a little fiddling nag. But it may be if there
-were better breeders they would have better and more useful increase, yet they
-are good enough for hackneys, to which use only almost they are employed.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The surprise of the Englishman at finding no pacers in South
-America seems to have been as great as that of the Italian at
-finding so many of them in England, one hundred years earlier.
-These horses were strictly Spanish, and probably were descended
-from those brought from Palos in 1493 by Columbus, the first
-horses that ever crossed the Atlantic. The “one little fiddling
-nag” that showed some kind of a pacing gait may have been of
-English blood and captured from some English expedition, several
-of which were unfortunate; or his failure to trot may have been
-the result of an injury. It should not be forgotten that in
-that period every sea captain was out for what he could capture,
-and this was especially the case as between the English and the
-Spanish. These are the outlines of the principal points of evidence
-that the pacing habit of action came from the North and
-not from the South. That there were pacers in both Greece and
-Rome before the Christian era, and perhaps later, there can be no
-doubt, for they were both overrun and devastated again and
-again by the hordes of Northern Barbarians, bringing their flocks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span>
-and their herds and their families, as well as their horses, with
-them.</p>
-
-<p>This question naturally suggests itself here: “If the English
-pacer had been the popular favorite of the English people for so
-many centuries, how did it come that he and his habit of action
-had been so completely wiped out in one century, the seventeenth?”
-This question might be answered in very few words,
-by saying the people thought they were getting something better
-to put in his place. In reaching this conclusion I will not
-pretend to say the judgment of the people was not right, that is,
-if they exercised any judgment in the case. “Jamie the Scotsman”
-when on the throne set the fashion in the direction of
-foreign blood by paying the enormous price of five hundred
-pounds for the Markham Arabian. The Duke of Newcastle,
-when he was young, had personally seen this horse, and while he
-thought he was a true Arabian, he described him as a very ordinary
-horse in his size and form, and an entire failure as a race
-horse. It seems that any average native pacer could outrun him,
-but he carried the badge of royalty, and that was sufficient to
-make him fashionable, as he was not only the king’s horse, but
-was himself a royal Arabian. The weak place in the character
-of James I., in addition to his intolerable pedantry, was his inordinate
-ambition to be considered the wisest sovereign who ever
-sat upon a throne since the days of Solomon. His courtiers,
-nobility, and all who approached him understood his weakness,
-and a little quiet praise of the great superiority of the Arabian
-blood in the horse, over all other breeds and varieties, was always
-grateful to the monarch, for he was the original discoverer and
-patentee of that blood. Then and there, in order to praise the
-wisdom of a foolish king, a foolish fashion grew into a foolish
-notion that has afflicted all England from that day to this. No
-humbug of either ancient or modern times has had so long a run
-and so wide a range as the miserable fallacy “that all excellence
-in the horse comes from the Arabian.” Notwithstanding the
-thousand tests that have been made and the thousand failures
-that have invariably followed, from the time of King James to
-the present day, there are still men writing books and magazine
-articles on the assumption that “all excellence in the horse comes
-from the Arabian,” without ever having devoted an honest hour
-to the study of the question as to whether this is a truth or a fallacy.
-This craze for Arabian blood was the primary cause of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>
-extinction of the pacer, and this craze was so strong in its influence
-that when a foreign horse was brought in, no difference
-from what country, if he were of the lighter type he was called
-an Arabian and so advertised in order to secure the patronage of
-breeders. Horses brought from the African coast were invariably
-classed as Arabians, notwithstanding they and their ancestors
-were in Africa more than a thousand years before there were any
-horses in Arabia; and the same may be said of Spain. But as this
-line of inquiry has already been considered in another chapter,
-I will get back to the immediate topic.</p>
-
-<p>The process of breeding out the pacer did not commence in
-real earnest until the middle of the seventeenth century, when
-the Stuarts regained the sovereignty of Great Britain in the person
-of Charles II. Released from the restraints of Puritan rule,
-the Restoration brought with it a carnival of immorality and vice,
-for the court and the courtiers set the fashion and the people followed.
-As the breeding interest of the period of which we now
-speak has already been considered in the chapter on the English
-Race Horse, I will not further enlarge upon it. The light, or
-running and hunting, horses of England of that day were not all
-pacers, but they were all of the same type and the same blood,
-hence when I speak of the pacers I include their congeners.
-They were small—less than fourteen hands high—and not generally
-handsome and attractive. In general utility they were ahead
-of the importations, and doubtless many of them could run as
-fast and as far as the foreign horses, but the foreigners had the
-advantage in size, especially the Turks and the Neapolitans; besides
-this, they were more uniformly handsome and attractive in
-their form and carriage. It is also probable that the outcross
-from the strangers to invigorate the stock was needed and resulted
-in the increase of the size of the progeny. This latter
-suggestion is inferential and has been sustained by many similar
-experiences, but without this as a start it would be exceedingly
-difficult to account for the rapid increase in the height of the
-English race horse. It is certainly true that the chief aim of the
-English breeder of that day was to increase the size, without losing
-symmetry and style, and if he found that foreign upon native
-blood gave him a start in that direction, he was wise in the commingling.
-Another consideration, growing out of the rural economy
-of the people, doubtless had a very wide influence in the
-direction of wiping out the pacer, in this period of transition.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>
-Long journeys in the saddle became less frequent, good roads
-began to appear and vehicles on wheels took the place of the saddler
-and the pack horse. To get greater weight and strength for this
-service, recourse was had to crosses with the larger and courser
-breeds, and through these channels have come the giants and the
-pigmies of the modern race course. Under the changed conditions
-of travel and transportation it is not remarkable that the
-people should have been willing to see their long-time favorites
-disappear, for it is known to every man of experience that the
-pace is not a desirable gait for harness work. No doubt the pacer
-is as strong as the trotter of the same size and make-up, but in
-his smooth, gliding motion there is a suggestion of weakness communicated
-to his driver that is never suggested by the bold,
-bounding trotter. The antagonism between the pacers and the
-new horses of Saracenic origin was irreconcilable and one or the
-other had to yield. As the management of the contest was in
-the hands of the master the result could be easily foreseen, for if
-one cross failed, another followed and then another, till the Saracenic
-blood was completely dominant in eliminating the lateral
-and implanting the diagonal action in its stead.</p>
-
-<p>As no home-bred pacer, of any type or breed, has been seen in
-England for nearly two hundred years, it is not remarkable that
-Englishmen of good average intelligence, for the past two or three
-generations, have lived and died supposing they knew all about
-horses, and yet did not know there had ever been such a thing in
-England as a breed of pacing horses. When, some eighteen or
-twenty years ago, I called the attention of Mr. H. F. Euren,
-compiler of the Hackney Stud Book, to the early English pacers
-as a most inviting field in which to look for the origin of the
-“Norfolk Trotters,” he was surprised to learn that such horses
-had existed in England, but he went to work and gathered up
-many important facts that appear in the first volume of the
-Hackney compilation. Many of these facts, but in less detail,
-had already appeared, from time to time, in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>,
-but Mr. Euren’s was the first modern English publication to
-place them before English readers. From this prompting, Mr.
-Euren did well, but we must go back a little to see how this subject
-was treated by English writers of horse books, who wrote
-without any promptings from this side.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. William Youatt was a voluminous writer on domestic
-animals, and at one time was looked upon as the highest authority<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>
-on the horse, both in England and in this country. He seems
-to have been a practitioner of veterinary surgery, and from the
-number of volumes which he published successfully, he must
-have been a man of ability and education. There can be no
-question that he knew a great deal—quite too much to know anything
-well. The first edition of his work on the horse was published
-in 1831, and soon after its appearance several publishing
-houses in this country seized upon it as very valuable, and each
-one of them soon had an edition of it before the public. It purports
-to have been written at the instance of “The Society for
-the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.” This declaration was a
-good thing, in a commercial view, and no doubt it did much in
-extending the circulation of the book. Without tarrying to note
-several minor historical blunders, I will go direct to one relating
-to the gait of the horse, which is now under consideration. In
-his fourth edition, page 535, he incidentally discusses the mechanism
-of the pace, and after speaking of the Elgin Marbles, to
-which I have referred at the beginning of this chapter, and after
-conceding that two of the four horses are not galloping but pacing,
-he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Whether this was then the mode of trotting or not, it is certain that it is
-never seen to occur in nature in the present day; and, indeed, it appears quite
-inconsistent with the necessary balancing of the body, and was, therefore, more
-probably an error of the artist.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This remark is simply amazing in an author who pretentiously
-undertakes to instruct his countrymen in the history of the horse
-when he knows nothing about that history. If he had gone back
-only twenty-two years, “Old John Lawrence,” in his splendid
-quarto, would have told him about the pacer. If he had gone
-back one hundred and sixty years, the Duke of Newcastle would
-have explained to him the complete and perfect mechanism of
-the pacing gait. If he had gone still further back and examined
-Gervaise Markham, Blundeville, Polydore Virgil, and Fitz
-Stephen the Monk, of the twelfth century, any and all of them
-would have explained to him the pacing habit of action and shown
-him that for many successive centuries the pacing horse was the
-popular and fashionable horse of the realm. If Mr. Youatt had
-lived to see John R. Gentry pace a mile in 2:00½; Robert J. in
-2:01½, and dozens of others in less than 2:10, he might have
-changed his mind and concluded that it was possible, after all, for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span>
-a horse to travel at the lateral gait without toppling over. From
-Mr. Youatt and a few other modern English authors, most of our
-American writers on the horse have derived what little mental
-pabulum they thought they needed, and thus an error at the
-fountain has been carried into all the ramifications of our horse
-literature. Only two or three years ago a very intelligent gentleman,
-who had attained great eminence as a veterinary surgeon,
-especially for his knowledge and treatment of the horse’s foot,
-seriously and in good faith stoutly maintained that the pacing
-habit of action was merely the result of an abnormal condition of
-the foot, and that all pacers would trot just as soon as their feet
-were put in the right shape. We must not laugh at this wild
-notion, for it is really no worse than Mr. Youatt’s doubting
-whether it was possible for a horse to balance himself at the
-lateral motion. Neither gentleman seemed to know anything
-about the fact that it was a matter of inheritance, and that the
-lateral habit of action had come down by transmission through
-all the generations for a period of more than two thousand years.
-It is hardly necessary to say that the gentleman who was so confident
-that the pace was merely the result of the abnormal condition
-of the feet brought his notions about the pacer from across
-the water. He was an Anglo-American, and could make a pacer
-into a trotter in a jiffy, by using the paring-knife. He was an
-intelligent man and a skillful veterinarian, but there were no
-pacers in England and there should be none here. Toward the
-close of the chapter on The Colonial Horses of Virginia, will be
-found the observations of an English tourist in 1795-96 who is
-very certain that there is some mistake about the pacer, and will
-not be convinced there are any, unless they are artificially created.
-Having now completed what I had to say about the old English
-pacer, it is next in order to consider his descendants in this
-country and the relations they bear to the American trotter.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE AMERICAN PACER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE AMERICAN TROTTER.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Regulations against stallions at large—American pacers taken to the West
-Indies—Narragansett pacers; many foolish and groundless theories about
-their origin—Dr. McSparran on the speed of the pacer—Mr. Updike’s
-testimony—Mr. Hazard and Mr. Enoch Lewis—Exchanging meetings
-with Virginia—Watson’s Annals—Matlack and Acrelius—Rip Van Dam’s
-horse—Cooper’s evidence—Cause of disappearance—Banished to the frontier—First
-intimation that the pace and the trot were essentially one gait—How
-it was received—Analysis of the two gaits—Pelham, Highland
-Maid, Jay-Eye-See, Blue Bull—The pacer forces himself into publicity—Higher
-rate of speed—Pacing races very early—Quietly and easily developed—Comes
-to his speed quickly—His present eminence not permanent—The
-gamblers carried him there—Will he return to his former obscurity?</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In the several chapters devoted to “Colonial Horse History”
-will be found all the leading facts that I have been able to glean
-from the early sources of information. With the exceptions of
-the horses brought from Utrecht in Holland to New Amsterdam
-(New York), two shiploads that sailed out of the Zuider Zee and
-landed at Salem, Massachusetts, and those brought from Sweden
-by the colonists that settled on the Delaware, all the early importations
-came from England. As much the larger number of
-those from England and Sweden were pacers, the breeds and
-habits of action were soon mixed up, as those who had no pacers
-wanted pacers for the saddle, and those who wanted more size,
-regardless of the gait, were always ready to supply their want by
-an exchange of their saddle horses for more size. The Dutch
-horses were certainly something over fourteen hands and the English
-and Swedish horses were perhaps nearer thirteen than fourteen
-hands. The colonists from the first, and from one end of the
-land to the other, seem to have appreciated the importance of increasing
-the size and strength of their horse stock, and this was
-very hard to do under the conditions then prevailing of allowing
-their horses to roam at large. Hence, stringent regulations were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span>
-adopted in all the colonies against permitting immature entire
-colts and stallions under size to wander where they pleased. It
-is doubtful whether these regulations were any more effective
-than those of Henry VIII., for while there was some increase, it
-was hardly perceptible until after the close of the colonial days.
-The real increase did not commence till the farmers had provided
-themselves with facilities for keeping their breeding stock at
-home.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus7">
-<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">JOHN R. GENTRY.</p>
-<p class="caption">By Ashland Wilkes, pacing record 2:00½, 1896.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is very evident from the statistics of size and gait, as given
-in the chapters referred to above, that our forefathers wisely
-selected the most compact, strong and hardy animals they could
-find in England as the type best adapted to fight their way
-against the hardships of a life in the wilderness of the new world.
-There have been some attempts, wholly fanciful and baseless, to
-trace importations from other countries, outside of those mentioned
-above, but all such attempts have proven wholly imaginary
-and worse than futile. In less than twenty years after the New
-England colonies received their first supply they commenced
-shipping horses by the cargo to Barbadoes and other West India
-Islands. This trade was cultivated, extended to all the islands,
-and continued during the remainder of the seventeenth and
-practically the whole of the eighteenth century. The pacers of
-the American colonies were exceedingly popular and sought after
-by the Spanish as well as the Dutch and English islands. Indeed,
-the planters of Cuba alone carried away at high prices
-nearly all the pacers that New England could produce. They
-knew nothing about pacers for the saddle until they had tried
-them and then they would have nothing else. These continuous
-raids of the Spaniards of the West Indies upon the pacers of
-New England, and Rhode Island especially, has been assigned,
-by the local historians of that State as one of the principal
-causes of the decadence and practically final disappearance of the
-Narragansett pacer from the seat of his triumphs and his fame.
-It is just to remark here, in passing, that if there had been pacers
-among the horses of Spain, the Spanish dependencies would have
-secured their supplies from the mother country and not have
-come to Rhode Island and paid fabulous prices for them.</p>
-
-<p>As all the pacing traditions of this country to-day point to
-the horses of Narragansett Bay as the source from which our
-modern pacers have derived their speed, we must give some attention
-to the various theories that have been advanced as to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>
-origin of the Narragansett horse. In time past, and extending
-back to a period “whereof the memory of man runneth not to the
-contrary,” the horse world has been cursed with a class of men
-who have always been ready to invent and put in circulation the
-most marvelous and incredible stories about the origin of every
-remarkable horse that has appeared. Some of these wiseacres
-have maintained that the original Narragansett pacer was caught
-wild in the woods by the first settlers on Narragansett Bay, while
-others (and this seems to be of Canadian origin) have insisted
-that when being brought to this country a storm struck the ship
-and the horse was thrown overboard, and after nine days he was
-found off the coast of Newfoundland quietly eating rushes on a
-sand bar, where he was rescued and brought into Narragansett
-Bay. This story of the marine horse probably had its origin in
-the experiences of Rip Van Dam, which will be narrated further
-on. Another representation, coming this time from a very
-reputable source, has been made as to the origin of the Narragansett
-horse, and as many, no doubt, have accepted it as true, I
-must give it such consideration as its prominence demands. Mr.
-I. T. Hazard, a representative of the very old and prominent
-Hazard family of Rhode Island, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Updike,
-makes the following statement:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“My grandfather, Governor Robinson, introduced the famous saddle horse,
-the Narragansett pacer, known in the last century over all the civilized parts
-of North America and the West Indies, from whence they have lately been
-introduced into England, as a ladies’ saddle horse, under the name of the
-Spanish Jennet. Governor Robinson imported the original from Andalusia, in
-Spain, and the raising of them for the West India market was one of the objects
-of the early planters of this country. My grandfather, Robert Hazard,
-raised about a hundred of them annually, and often loaded two vessels a year
-with them, and other products of his farm, which sailed direct from the South
-Ferry to the West Indies, where they were in great demand.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This theory of the origin of the Narragansett came down to
-Mr. Hazard as a tradition, no doubt, but like a thousand other
-traditions it has nothing to sustain it. Opposed to it there are
-two clearly ascertained facts, either one of which is wholly fatal
-to it. In the first place, there were no pacers in Andalusia or
-any other part of Spain, and in the second place, these horses,
-according to official data, were the leading item of export from
-Rhode Island in 1680, and Governor Robinson was not born till
-about 1693. As impossibilities admit of no argument, I will not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>
-add another word to this “Andalusian” origin tradition, except
-to say that a hundred years later, when the pacing dam of Sherman
-Morgan was taken from Cranston, Rhode Island, up into
-Vermont, she was called a “Spanish mare,” because Mr. Hazard
-had said the original Narragansett had come from Spain. The
-story of the descendants of the Narragansetts having been carried
-from the West Indies to England, and there introduced
-under the name of the Spanish Jennet as a lady’s saddle horse, is
-wholly imaginative. The Spanish Jennet, whatever its gait may
-have been, was well known in England many years before the
-first horse was brought to any of the American colonies. (See
-extracts from Blundeville and Markham in Chapter XII.)</p>
-
-<p>After several years of fruitless search for some trace of the
-early importations of horses into the colony of Rhode Island, I
-have reached the conclusion that probably no such importations
-were ever made. The colony of Massachusetts Bay commenced
-importing horses and other live stock from England in 1629, and
-continued to do so for several years and until they were fully
-supplied, as stated above. In 1640 a shipload of horses were exported
-to the Barbadoes, and it was about this time that Rhode
-Island began to assume an organized existence. Her people were
-largely made up of refugees from the religious intolerance of the
-other New England colonies, and they brought their families and
-effects, including their horses, with them. The blood of the
-Narragansett pacer, therefore, was not different from the blood
-of the pacers of the other colonies, but the development of his
-speed by the establishment of a pacing course and the offering of
-valuable prizes, naturally brought the best and the fastest horses
-to this colony and from the best and fastest they built up a breed
-that became famous throughout all the inhabited portions of the
-Western Hemisphere. The race track, with the valuable prizes
-it offered and the emulation it aroused, was what did it. As the
-question of origin is thus settled in accordance with what is
-known of history and the natural order of things, and as the Narragansett
-is the great tribe representing the lateral action then
-and since, we must consider such details of history as have come
-down to us.</p>
-
-<p>The Rev. James McSparran, D.D., was sent out by the London
-Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to
-take charge of an Episcopal church that had been planted some
-years before in Rhode Island. He arrived in 1721, and lived till<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>
-1759. He was an Irishman, and appears to have been somewhat
-haughty and irascible in his temperament and was disposed to
-find fault with the climate, the currency, the people, and pretty
-much everything he came in contact with. He was a man of observation,
-and during the thirty-eight years he spent in ministering
-to the spiritual wants of his flock, he was not unmindful of
-what was passing around him, and made many notes and reflections
-on the various phases of life as they presented themselves
-to his mind, and especially on the products and industries of the
-colony. These notes and observations he wrote out, and they were
-published in Dublin in 1753, under the title of “America Dissected.”</p>
-
-<p>His writings do not discover that he was a man of very ardent
-piety, but he was honored as a good man while he lived, and was
-buried under the altar he had served so long. His duties sometimes
-called him away into Virginia, and, in speaking of the
-great distance of one parish from another, he uses the following
-language:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“To remedy this (the distance), as the whole province, between the mountains,
-two hundred miles up, and the sea, is all a champaign, and without
-stones, they have plenty of a small sort of horses, the best in the world, like
-the little Scotch Galloways; and ’tis no extraordinary journey to ride from
-sixty to seventy miles or more in a day. I have often, but upon larger pacing
-horses, rode fifty, nay, sixty miles a day, even here in New England, where
-the roads are rough, stony and uneven.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The reverend gentleman seems to assume that his readers knew
-the Scotch Galloways were pacers, and with this explanation his
-observations are very plain. He makes no distinction between
-the Virginia horse and his congener of Rhode Island except that
-of size, in which the latter had the advantage. In speaking of
-the products of Rhode Island he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The produce of this colony is principally butter and cheese, fat cattle, wool,
-and fine horses, which are exported to all parts of English America. They are
-remarkable for fleetness and swift pacing; <i>and I have seen some of them pace
-a mile in a little more than two minutes, and a good deal less than three</i>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>When I first read this sentence in the reverend doctor’s book
-I confess I was not prepared to accept it in any other light
-than that of a wild enthusiast, who knew but little of the force
-of the language he used. To talk about horses pacing, a hundred
-and fifty years ago, in a little more than two minutes and a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>
-good deal less than three, appeared to be simply monstrous.
-The language evidently means, according to all fair rules of construction,
-that the mile was performed nearer two minutes than
-three, or in other words, considerably below two minutes and
-thirty seconds. I doubt not my readers will hesitate, and perhaps
-refuse, to accept such a performance, just as I did myself
-till I had carefully weighed not only the character of the
-author of the statement, but the circumstances that seemed to
-support it. If the learned divine had known no more of the
-world and its ways than many of his profession, I would have
-concluded he was not a competent judge of speed; but he was a
-man of affairs, and knew perfectly well just what he was saying.
-The question naturally arises here as to what opportunities or
-facilities the doctor had for timing those pacers of a hundred
-and fifty years ago. In a note appended to the above extract by
-Mr. Updike, the editor of the work, I find the following:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The breed of horses called Narragansett pacers, once so celebrated for
-fleetness, endurance and speed, has become extinct. These horses were highly
-valued for the saddle, and transported the rider with great pleasantness and
-sureness of foot. The pure bloods could not trot at all. Formerly they had
-pace-races. Little Neck Beach, in South Kingston, of one mile in length, was
-the race course. A silver tankard was the prize, and high bets were otherwise
-made on speed. Some of these prize tankards were remaining a few years ago.
-Traditions respecting the swiftness of these horses are almost incredible.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The facts stated by Mr. Updike in this note are corroborated
-from other sources, and may be accepted as true. These were
-the opportunities and facilities the doctor had for holding his
-watch, and nobody will doubt they were sufficient to enable him
-to be a competent witness. In connection with this subject, and
-as another footnote, Mr. Updike introduces a letter from Mr. I.
-T. Hazard, which brings out another very curious fact in the history
-of the pacer. The Hazard family was very eminent in
-Rhode Island, and many of its members have occupied positions
-of high honor and responsibility for several generations. The
-date of the letter is not given, and we may infer it may have
-been written fifty years ago, or perhaps more. Mr. Hazard says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Within ten years one of my aged neighbors, Enoch Lewis, since deceased,
-informed me he had been to Virginia as one of the riding boys, to return a
-similar visit of the Virginians in that section, in a contest on the turf; and that
-such visits were common with the racing sportsmen of Narragansett and
-Virginia, when he was a boy. Like the old English country gentlemen, from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span>
-whom they were descended, they were a horse-racing, fox-hunting, feasting
-generation.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This paragraph from Mr. Hazard’s pen has been the subject of
-very deliberate consideration. The first promptings of my judgment
-were to doubt and reject it, especially on account of the
-absence of date to the letter, and of the remote period in which
-Mr. Enoch Lewis must have visited Virginia. Another question,
-as to why we have not this information from any other
-source except Mr. Hazard, presented itself with no inconsiderable
-force. After viewing the matter in all its bearings I am
-forced to concede that it is likely to be true. These visits must
-have taken place before the Revolution, and from the construction
-we are able to place upon the dates, this was not impossible.
-It is a fact that I do not hesitate to announce that before the
-Revolution racing in all its forms was more universally indulged
-in as an amusement than it ever has been since. This was before
-the days of newspapers, and all we can possibly know of the
-sporting events of that period we must gather up from the detached
-fragments that have come down to us by tradition.
-There was a strong bond of sympathy and friendship between the
-followers of Dr. McSparran in Rhode Island, surrounded as they
-were by Puritans, and their co-religionists in Virginia. They
-were accustomed to maritime life, and had abundance of vessels
-fitted up for the shipment of horses and other live stock to
-foreign ports. To take a number of their fastest pacers on board
-one of their sloops and sail for Virginia would not have been considered
-much of an adventure. These visits were not only occasions
-of pleasure and festivity, with the incidental profits of winning
-purses and bets, but they were a most successful means of
-advertising the Narragansett pacer; and through these means
-alone the market was opened, as Dr. McSparran expresses it, in
-all parts of British America. When we consider the widespread
-fame of these Rhode Island horses, and that there were no other
-means by which they could have achieved it, except by their
-actual performances, we are forced to the conclusion that they
-were carried long distances, and in many directions, for purely
-sporting purposes. That these visits would result in the transfer
-of a good number of the best and fastest horses from Narragansett
-to Virginia would be a natural sequence, and thus, in after
-years, we might look for a strong infusion of Narragansett blood
-in the Virginian pacing-horse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span></p>
-
-<p>It appears to be a law of our civilization that each generation
-produces somebody who, out of pure love for the curious and
-forgotten, devotes the best years of his life to hunting up old
-things that have well-nigh slipped away from the memory of
-man. In this class Mr. John F. Watson stands conspicuous
-in what he has done for Philadelphia and New York. In 1830
-he published a work entitled “Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania,”
-in two volumes, and among all the antiquated manners
-and habits that he again brings to our knowledge, he has something
-to say about the horse of an early day:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The late very aged T. Matlack, Esq., was passionately fond of races
-in his youth. He told me of his remembrances about Race Street. In
-his early days the woods were in commons, having several straggling forest
-trees still remaining there, and the circular course ranging through those trees.
-He said all genteel horses were pacers. A trotting-horse was deemed a base
-breed. These Race Street races were mostly pace-races. His father and
-others kept pacing stallions for propagating the breed.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Watson further remarks, on the same subject: “Thomas
-Bradford, Esq., in telling me of the recollections of the races,
-says he was told that the earliest races were scrub and pace-races
-on the ground now used as Race Street.”</p>
-
-<p>The Rev. Israel Acrelius, for many years pastor of the Swedish
-church of Philadelphia, wrote a book early in the last century,
-under the title, “History of New Sweden,” which has been translated
-into English. In describing the country and people, in
-their habits and amusements, he thus speaks of the horse:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The horses are real ponies, and are seldom found over thirteen hands
-high. He who has a good riding horse never employs him for draught, which
-is also the less necessary, as journeys, for the most part, are made on horseback.
-It must be the result of this, more than to any particular breed in the
-horses, that the country excels in fast horses, so that horse races are often
-made for very high stakes.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It will be noted that Mr. Acrelius does not say that these races
-were pacing-races; but when his remark is taken in connection
-with what Mr. Matlack said about the pacers, and when it is considered
-that he is speaking of the speed of the saddle horses as
-such, we can easily understand his true meaning. In our turf
-history I supposed I was getting well back when I reached
-the great race between Galloway’s Selim and Old England, in
-1767, but here we find that race was comparatively modern, and
-that the pacers antedated the gallopers by many, many years.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span></p>
-
-<p>In 1832 Mr. Watson did the same service for New York that
-he had done for Philadelphia, and published his “Annals of New
-York,” in which we find the piece of horse history embodied
-in the extract printed on pages 126 and 127, to which the reader
-will please turn.</p>
-
-<p>It is hardly possible to be mistaken in assuming that Rip Van
-Dam’s letter was written to some person in Philadelphia, and that
-Mr. Watson saw it there. I would give a great deal for the sight of
-it; and if it has been preserved in any of the public libraries of that
-city, either in type or in manuscript form, I have good hopes of yet
-inspecting it. In one point of view, it is of exceeding value, and
-that is its date. It is fully established by this letter that, as
-early as 1711, the Narragansetts were not only established as a
-breed or family, but that their fame was already widespread.
-This, of necessity, carries us back into the latter part of the
-seventeenth century, when their exceptional characteristics were
-first developed, or began to manifest themselves. In reaching
-that period we are so near the first importations of horses to the
-colonies that it is no violence to either history or good sense to
-conclude that the original Narragansett was one among the very
-earliest importations. This plays havoc with some Rhode Island
-traditions, as will be seen below; but with 1711 fixed as a point
-when the breed was famous, traditions must stand aside.</p>
-
-<p>While on this matter of dates, it may not be unprofitable to
-compare the advent of the Narragansett with the well-known
-epochs in horse history. Every schoolboy knows that the Darley
-Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian, say twenty years after, were
-the great founders of the English race horse. The Narragansetts
-had reached the very highest pinnacle of fame before the Darley
-Arabian was foaled. Darley Arabian reached England about the
-same year that Rip Van Dam’s Narragansett jumped over the
-side of the sloop and swam ashore, and this was eighty years before
-there was an attempt at publishing an English stud book.
-When Janus and Othello, and Traveller, and Fearnaught, the
-great founders of the American race horse, first reached Virginia,
-they found the Narragansett pacer had been there more than a
-generation before. On the point of antiquity, therefore, the
-Narragansett is older than what we designate as the thoroughbred
-race horse, and if he has a lineal descendant living to-day
-the pacer has a longer line of speed inheritance, at his gait, than
-the galloper.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span></p>
-
-<p>The only attempt at a description of this breed that I have
-met with is that given by Cooper, the novelist, in a footnote to
-“The Last of the Mohicans.” This note may be accepted as
-history, so far as it goes, and pretends to be history; but I am
-not prepared to admit that all the breed were sorrels. This
-color, no doubt, prevailed in those specimens that Mr. Cooper
-had seen or heard of, but I think all colors prevailed, as in
-other breeds. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In the State of Rhode Island there is a bay called Narragansett, so named
-for a strong tribe of Indians that formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or
-one of those unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the animal
-world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once well known in America
-by the name of Narragansetts. They were small, commonly of the color
-called sorrel in America, and distinguished by their habit of pacing. Horses
-of this race were, and still are, in much request as saddle-horses, on account
-of their hardiness, and the ease of their movements. As they were also sure
-of foot, the Narragansetts were much sought for by females who were obliged
-to travel over the roots and holes in the new countries.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Without having a minute description of so much as a single individual
-of the race, I can only infer, from general descriptions,
-as to what their family peculiarities of form and shape may have
-been. It is fully established that they were very compact and
-hardy horses, and that they were not large; perhaps averaging
-about fourteen and a quarter hands in height. I have met with
-no intimation that they were stylish or handsome, and we think
-it is safe to conclude that they were plain in their form, and low
-in their carriage. From my conceptions of the horse I think
-one of the better-shaped Canadian pacers, of fifteen hands or
-thereabouts, might be accepted as a fair representative of the
-Narragansett of a hundred and fifty years ago. He was fleet,
-hardy, docile, and sure-footed, but not beautiful, and it is reasonable
-to suppose that the lack of style and beauty was one of the
-leading causes of his becoming extinct in the land of his nativity.</p>
-
-<p>In considering the causes which resulted in what we may call
-the dispersal of the Narragansett pacers, and their extinction in
-the seat of their early fame, we must be governed by what is
-reasonable and philosophical in the industrial interests of the
-people, rather than look for some great overwhelming disaster,
-like an earthquake, that ingulfed them in a night. In speaking
-of this dispersal, and the causes which led to it, Mr. Hazard says:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“One of the causes of the loss of that famous breed here was the great
-demand for them in Cuba, when that island began to cultivate sugar extensively.
-The planters became suddenly rich, and wanted the pacing-horse for
-themselves and their wives and daughters to ride, faster than we could supply
-them, and sent an agent to this country to purchase them on such terms as he
-could, but to purchase them at all events. I have heard my father say he
-knew the agent very well, and he made his home at the Rowland Brown
-House, at Tower Hill, where he commenced purchasing and shipping until all
-the good ones were sent off. He never let a good one escape him. This, and
-the fact that they were not so well adapted to draught as other horses, was
-the cause of their being neglected, and I believe the breed is now extinct in
-this section. My father described the motion of this horse as differing from
-others in that his backbone moved through the air in a straight line, without
-inclining the rider from side to side, as the common racker or pacer of the
-present day. Hence it was very easy; and being of great power of endurance,
-they would perform a journey of a hundred miles in a day, without injury to
-themselves or rider.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>We can understand very well how an enormous and unexpected
-demand from Cuba without restriction as to price, should reduce
-the numbers of the breed very materially. But it is a poor
-compliment to the intelligence and thrift of the good people of
-Narragansett to say that, because there was a lively demand,
-they killed the goose that laid the golden egg every day. It is a
-slander upon that Yankee smartness which is proverbial to conclude
-that they deprived themselves of the means of supplying a
-market that was making them all rich. We must, therefore,
-look for other causes that were more potent in producing, so
-marked a result.</p>
-
-<p>After more than a hundred years of faithful service, of great
-popularity, and of profitable returns to their breeders, the little
-Narragansetts began to disappear, just as their ancestors had disappeared
-a century earlier. Rhode Island was no longer a
-frontier settlement, but had grown into a rich and prosperous
-State. Mere bridle paths through the woods had developed into
-broad, smooth highways, and wheeled vehicles had taken the
-place of the saddle. Under these changed conditions, the little
-pacer was no longer desirable or even tolerable as a harness horse,
-and he was supplanted by a larger and more stylish type of horse,
-better suited to the particular kind of work required of him.
-This was simply the “survival of the fittest,” considering the
-nature of the services required of the animal. The average
-height of the Narragansett was not over fourteen hands and one
-inch. His neck was not long, even for his size; he dropped<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>
-rapidly on the croup, and his carriage was low, with nothing of
-elegance or style in his appearance. His mane and tail were
-heavy, his hind legs were crooked, his limbs and feet were of the
-very best, but aside from his great speed and the smoothness of
-his movements under the saddle, there was nothing very desirable
-or attractive about him. In a contest with a type of the harness
-horse, at least one hand higher, of high carriage and elegant
-appearance, there could only be one result, and that soon decided.</p>
-
-<p>As in England, so in this country, the blood of the running
-horse soon worked the extermination of the pacer; not because it
-was stronger in reproducing itself, perhaps, but because it had
-the skill and fancy of the breeder enlisted in selecting and mating
-so as to make the expunging process complete. Only a few
-years ago a pacing horse could hardly be found in any of the
-older settled portions of the country, especially where running
-blood had become fashionable. He was literally banished to the
-frontiers of Canada, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee,
-and especially in the latter two States, where his blood is still
-appreciated and preserved for the luxurious saddle gaits which
-it alone transmits. In many individual cases he has shown wonderful
-power in meeting and overcoming antagonistic elements,
-but with the tide of running blood all against him, it was only a
-question of time as to how soon he would be totally submerged.</p>
-
-<p>It is only a quarter of a century ago that the first volume of
-“Wallace’s American Trotting Register” was published, and then
-began the great task of bringing order out of chaos. In a historical
-introduction to that work, I inserted the following:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“So many pacing horses have got fast trotters, so many pacing mares have
-produced fast trotters, and so many pacers have themselves become fast trotters,
-and little or nothing known of their breeding, that I confess to a degree of
-embarrassment, from which no philosophy relieves me. If the facts were
-limited to a few individual cases we could ignore the phenomena altogether,
-but, while they are by no means universal, they are too common and apparent
-to be thus easily disposed of. I am not aware that any writer has ever brought
-this question to the attention of the public; much less, attempted its discussion
-and explanation. Indeed, it is possible that the observations of others may not
-sustain me in the prominence given these phenomena, but all will concede
-there are some cases coming under this head that are unexplained, and perhaps
-unexplainable. It is probable trotters from this pacing origin, and that
-appear to trot, only because their progenitors paced, will not prove reliable
-producers of trotters. Such an animal being in a great degree phenomenal,
-should not be too highly prized in the stud, till he has proved himself a trotting
-sire as well as a trotter.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span></p>
-
-<p>This very comprehensive little paragraph, put modestly and
-tentatively rather than positively, contained a germ of thought
-that is to-day exerting a very wide influence. So far as my knowledge
-goes, this was the first time in which the public attention had
-ever been called to the intimate relations between speed at the
-pace and speed at the trot. Some laughed at it as not practical,
-others sneered at it as a theoretical abstraction, a few gave it some
-thought, while the writers who never think left it severely alone.
-It required the cumulative experiences of nearly ten years before
-horsemen generally began to think about it, and then ten more
-before the germ had matured itself in the minds of all intelligent
-men who were able to divest themselves of their earlier prejudices.
-The great primary truth now stands out in high relief
-that the pace and the trot are simply two forms of one and the
-same gait, that lies midway between the walk and the gallop.
-At last the truth, dimly foreshadowed in the paragraph above, is
-received and accepted, in some form or other, almost if not quite
-universally. This fact and its acceptance are now shown in all the
-recorded experiences of racing, and especially in the origin and
-habits of action of many of the heads of trotting and pacing
-families, to which the reader is referred.</p>
-
-<p>At the beginning of Chapter XIII. I have labored to make
-plain the proposition that the pace and the trot are simply two
-forms of one and the same gait. This is evident from the fact
-that this gait, in one form or the other, is the intermediate link between
-the walk and the gallop, and this is true among nearly all
-quadrupeds. I have also there shown, and I think beyond cavil,
-that the mechanism of the pace and the trot is the same, and
-especially in the fact that in both forms two legs are used as one
-leg. That is, if the two legs on the same side move together, we
-call it the pace, and if the diagonal legs move together we call it
-the trot. The rhythm is the same and the sound is the same,
-and by the ear no man can tell whether the movement is at the
-lateral or diagonal motion. In all the varieties of steps that a
-horse may be taught, and in all the methods of progression that
-he may naturally adopt, there is no step or movement in which
-he uses two legs as one except in the pace or the trot. From the
-place, therefore, which these two forms of the gait hold, indifferently,
-in animal movement, between the walk and the gallop;
-from the unity of action and result in the use of the same mechanism,
-and from the wide disparity between the mechanism of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>
-this gait and that of all other gaits in the action of the horse, we
-must conclude that the pace and the trot are one and the same
-gait.</p>
-
-<p>Another evidence of the unity of the two forms of the trot is
-to be found in the great numbers of pacers that have been
-changed over to trotters and the astonishing readiness with which
-they took to the new form of action. To go back no further
-than the records sustain us, we find that the converted pacer
-Pelham was the first horse that ever trotted in 2:28. This was
-in 1849, and four years later the converted pacer Highland
-Maid trotted in 2:27. Twenty years later, Occident, another,
-trotted in 2:16¾. These were champions of their day, and when
-we come a little nearer we find that Maud S. was a pacer and
-Sunol was a pacer, although neither of them ever paced in public,
-and the fact that they ever paced at all was held as a kind of
-“home secret.” Since the days of Pelham, literally thousands
-of horses have been changed from pacers to trotters, and some
-hundreds have been changed from trotters to pacers successfully.
-Then there are quite a number, like Jay-Eye-See, 2:10 trotting
-and 2:06¼ pacing, that have made fast records at both gaits.</p>
-
-<p>At one time the pacing horse Blue Bull stood at the head of
-all sires of trotters in this country, and it is not known or believed
-that he possessed a single drop of trotting blood. He was
-a very fast pacer and could do nothing else, and a large percentage
-of the mares bred to him were pacers, and practically all the
-others had more or less pacing blood, but his great roll of trotters
-in the 2:30 list was the wonder of all horsemen of that
-period. Certainly the average of the elements in his inheritance
-would place him very low in theory, but in practice he struck
-back to some ancestor that was strongly prepotent. The trouble
-in his case is practically the same as in all other pacing stallions—the
-inheritance traces back to a period more remote than any
-of the fast trotting stallions, but at intervals it has been neglected
-and not developed until it has become weak and uncertain from
-lack of use. The same may be said of the Copperbottoms,
-Corbeaus, Flaxtails, Hiatogas, Davy Crockets, Pilots, Rainbows,
-Redbucks, St. Clairs, Tippoos, and Tom Hals, as well as other
-heads of minor families that will be considered in their proper
-places.</p>
-
-<p>The changes that have been wrought in the status of the pacer
-have been truly wonderful. Instead of being hidden away as an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>
-outcast and a disgrace to the family, condemned to a life of inferiority
-and drudgery, he has been brought out and exhibited to
-the public as a son and heir and the equal of the best. In looking
-back over the trotting records of twenty years ago, any one will
-be surprised to observe that at all the leading meetings of the
-whole country there were no pacing contests. Occasionally at
-the minor and local meetings of the middle Western States, a
-pacing contest would be given for a small purse, in which local
-and obscure horses only would be engaged. Very naturally the
-owners of pacing horses protested against this practical exclusion
-of their favorites from the trotting meetings, and employed all
-their energies in begging for admission. When they began to be
-really clamorous the managers of trotting tracks argued that
-there could be no profit to them in opening pacing contests, for
-nobody cared about seeing a pacing match, that the entries would
-not fill, and especially that there would be no betting, that, consequently,
-the pool-sellers would have nothing to divide with the
-management. As the receipts for pool-selling and all other
-gambling privileges were making the track managers rich, they
-were very slow about admitting an untried element that might
-diminish their profits. But gradually and patiently the pacers
-worked their way into the exclusive circle, and when they appeared
-everybody, especially in the Eastern States, was surprised
-to see what excellent horses they were and the terrific speed they
-showed. Instead of the typical pacer, as formed in the popular
-mind, with the low head, bull neck, low croup, hairy legs, exuberant
-mane and tail, and generally “Canuck” all over, that
-would stop at the end of the first half-mile, here was an array of
-horses that in make-up and gameness would average just as well
-as the same number of trotters. This was a revelation to great
-multitudes of people, and from that time forward the pacer had
-a fair show, on his merits. For hundreds of years the pacer,
-with very few exceptions, has been able to show a little higher
-rate of speed than the trotter. When Flora Temple smashed all
-records in 1859 by trotting in 2:19¾, Pocahontas had drawn a
-wagon, five years earlier, in 2:17½; and when Maud S. trotted in
-1885 in 2:08¾, this beat all laterals as well as diagonals, except
-Johnson, who the year before had paced in 2:06¼. In 1894 Alix
-trotted a mile in 2:03¾, which stands the best at this writing, but the
-same year Robert J. paced in 2:01½, and John R. Gentry in 2:00½
-in 1896.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span></p>
-
-<p>It is not my purpose here to undertake to discuss the reasons
-for the almost continuous supremacy of the pacer over the trotter,
-for there is no data from which I might frame a conclusion
-that would really “hold water.” At best, therefore, I can only
-suggest two or three thoughts. Speed at the pace is older, and has
-been longer in the process of development, than speed at the
-trot. In 1747 pacing races had then been fashionable in Maryland,
-and had been carried on in that colony time out of mind,
-but we have no trace of trotting races. One year later (1748)
-“running, pacing and trotting” races had become so numerous
-and so common in the colony of New Jersey that they were declared
-a nuisance and suppressed by the legislative authority.
-My impression from the language of the act is that it was aimed
-chiefly at the running and the pacing races, and that the trotters
-were not very numerous. It seems to be a reasonable conclusion
-that this racing mania in New Jersey took its rise about 1665,
-when Governor Nicolls established the Newmarket race course
-on Long Island, and if so, it had been growing in strength for
-over eighty years, and if we add the time from then till now we
-find that the speed of the pacer has been going on almost
-continuously for over two hundred years in our own
-country. There is another fact entering into the rural life
-of colonial times that must not be left out of consideration.
-The pacer was the universal saddle horse, and the trotter never
-was tolerated for that service. Every farmer’s son had his saddle
-horse, and when two of them met what so natural and common as
-to determine then and there which was the faster, if a little
-stretch of road offered? In these neighborhood rivalries, if not
-in actual racing, the instinct of speed at the pace was kept alive
-and developed, from generation to generation. If I am right in
-this little study of colonial life, we can understand that the inheritance
-of speed at the pace has come down to our own time
-through a great many generations of pacers, and hence the pace
-is the faster gait. There is one fact in our own experience that
-seems to sustain this with great force, and that is the small
-amount of “pounding” that the pacer requires in order to reach
-the full development of his powers. There is no need of driving
-a pacer to death in order to teach him how to pace, for he already
-knows how to pace, and all that is needed in the way of training
-is to get him into high condition. It may be possible that the
-lateral action is faster than the diagonal because it is less complicated,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span>
-but I can see no anatomical reason for this, as the two legs
-in both gaits act as one leg. The only difference I can see in
-practice is that the trotter has more up-and-down motion than
-the pacer; that is, he bounds in every revolution, describing a
-series of depressed curves with his back as he moves, while the
-pacer rises less from the ground with his hind feet and seems to
-glide instead of bound; in other words, there is less action thrown
-away by the pacer than the trotter, and this may arise from
-the more complex action in the diagonal than in the lateral
-motion.</p>
-
-<p>The pacer has reached a higher acclivity than the trotter, but
-he is not so well assured in his footing. His present popularity
-and his upward flight are phenomenal, but the causes that have
-sent him there are abnormal and not lasting. In his best individualities
-he is simply a gambling machine when in the hands
-of unscrupulous men, to be manipulated in whatever direction
-he will make the most money. Racing, at whatever gait, is not
-necessarily demoralizing nor disreputable, but when it falls into
-the control of the “professionals” it becomes both. So long as
-it remains under the control of the breeders it is not only honorable
-and legitimate for them to develop and race their stock,
-but it is a necessary adjunct to their business, for they must thus
-bring their products before the public, if they expect to
-make their business pay. Breeders should not own race tracks,
-or if they do, they should have no part nor lot in the percentage
-uniformly paid for the gambling privilege.</p>
-
-<p>The history of racing in this country teaches over and over
-again that whenever the breeding and racing interest falls into
-the control of gamblers, down goes the whole interest and honest
-men suffer with the rogues. The grasping track managers are
-to-day complaining loudly that they cannot afford to give trotting
-meetings unless they are allowed to bring in the pool-sellers
-and make them divide the “swag” with the track. Every attempt
-by legislatures to make gambling on races a felony outside
-the race track and a virtue inside is a most arrant humbug and
-most destructive in its results. It makes the race track a cesspool
-of every vice, and a stench in the nostrils of every honest
-man and decent woman. The moral sense of the people all over
-this country is being aroused, and if public gambling cannot be
-suppressed on horse races, then history will repeat itself and
-horse racing will be wiped out. The gamblers and their friends<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>
-will sneer at this as “puritanism,” but no difference about the
-name—it will come.</p>
-
-<p>But, destructive and ruinous as gambling on races may be to the
-life and moral character of young men, as well as to the
-material interests of honest and reputable breeders, it hardly
-comes within my province to discuss it further in this place, and
-therefore I will return to the consideration of the pacer. As
-the historical periodicity is now looming in sight when the moral
-sense of the people will command the suppression of racing of
-every kind, the question becomes exceedingly pertinent as to
-what is to become of the pacer? He will no longer be of any
-value as a gambling machine, the days of the saddle horse are
-past as a means of travel, except by a few about the parks of the
-cities, and however uppish and handsome he may be, he is not
-and never will be a desirable driving horse in harness. We have
-already used sufficient of his blood to create the American Saddle
-Horse, and if the saddle horse shall produce “after his kind” we
-need no more infusions from the pure pacer. In the trotter his
-blood has leavened everything, and in some lines more than we
-desire or need. He has been a great source of trotting speed,
-and if, as I am inclined to believe, Messenger’s power to transmit
-trotting speed came from the old English pacer, then the pacer is
-the only source of that speed. Under the condition of things as
-here foreshadowed he will probably sink back into the obscurity
-from which he emerged twenty years ago.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The saddle gaits come only from the pacer—Saddle gaits cultivated three hundred
-years ago—Markham on the saddle gaits—The military seat the best—The
-unity of the pace and trot—Gaits analyzed—Saddle Horse Register—Saddle
-horse progenitors—Denmark not a thoroughbred horse.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In the preceding chapters the pacer has been considered from
-the standpoint of his antiquity, history, speed at the pace, and
-his contributions to speed at the trot. We now come to consider
-him as the founder of the best and most delightful type of saddle
-horses in the world. This estimate of his quality and value had
-a solid foundation in the judgment and habits of our ancestors at
-an early period in our history. When our patriotic forbears
-entered upon the struggle for independence, they were fully
-alive to the necessity of foreign sympathy and aid. For this
-purpose agents were sent abroad to enlist the good feelings and,
-if possible, secure co-operation of foreign governments, especially
-that of France. Mr. Silas Dean was sent to Paris, and in a communication
-to the secret committee of Congress, under date of
-November 28, 1776, he writes: “I wish I had here one of your
-best saddle horses, of the American or Rhode Island breed—a
-present of that kind would be money well laid out with a certain
-personage.” This was probably intended as a present to Marie
-Antoinette, or some other person having great influence at court.
-It further indicates that “the American or Rhode Island Saddle
-Horse” was at that period, in Mr. Dean’s opinion at least, the
-best in the world. (See Dean Papers, New York Historical
-Society, Vol. I., p. 377.)</p>
-
-<p>To the man of average intelligence and candor on horse subjects
-it certainly is not necessary to enter upon an elaborate discussion
-to show that the saddle gaits come from the pacer, but a
-certain class of writers, who neither declare nor attempt to prove
-their position, constantly imply that the saddle gaits came from
-the “thoroughbred.” As it is better, therefore, to make everything<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>
-plain as we go along, I will very briefly consider this
-point. Twelve years ago, through <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, I presented
-the following questions to all gentlemen interested in saddle-horse
-affairs and acquainted with saddle-horse history: “Are all
-the tribes and families noted for their saddle qualities descended
-in whole or in part from pacing ancestry?” In order to cover
-the whole question, no difference from what standpoint it might
-be considered, I added the following: “Has any family or subfamily
-of saddle horses come from pure running ancestry and
-without any admixture of pacing blood?” To these questions
-Major Hord, then editor of the <i>Spirit of the Farm</i>, at Nashville,
-Tennessee, a gentleman of very wide and accurate knowledge on
-this subject, but strongly in favor of running blood, made the
-following response through his paper:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“We can only draw conclusions from established facts in reference to these
-questions, for we do not think they can be answered otherwise, as the original
-ancestry of our best saddle families is more or less clouded in obscurity. It is
-an established fact, demonstrated by experience, that in order to get a saddle
-horse, the quickest and most successful way is to get in the pacing blood; it
-matters not how good or bad the other blood may be, a strong dash of pacing
-blood will almost invariably improve the animal for saddle purposes, and never,
-under any circumstances, does a pacing cross detract from an animal’s qualities
-for the saddle. Judging from these facts, we conclude that all our saddle
-families are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry. On the other
-hand, all our best saddle families have a strong infusion of thoroughbred running
-blood. This blood, however, is valuable only for the courage, bone, and
-finish it gives the animal, for it imparts none of the saddle gaits; and while
-we have secured the best results in breeding the saddle horse by mixing the
-running and pacing blood, we have observed that too much running blood in
-the stallion detracts from his success as a sire of saddle stock. As a rule, no
-trainer’s skill can make a good saddle horse out of a thoroughbred runner,
-whereas if you mix two or more strong pacing crosses on top of the running
-blood, a child can gait the produce to the saddle. We have sometimes seen
-good saddle horses that were thoroughbreds, but have never seen a perfect one.
-Our observation and experience lead us to the conclusion that the natural saddle
-gaits come from the pacers, but to the runner we are indebted for the size,
-style, bone and finish of our saddle stock.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In this reply, when the author says “all of our saddle families
-are descended, at least in part, from pacing ancestry,” and when
-he adds to this that “running blood imparts none of the saddle
-gaits,” he has answered both questions very fully and very satisfactorily.
-The argument that running blood gives bone and
-finish, and all that, is very well as a theory of breeding, but it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>
-has nothing to do with the questions propounded. As all
-families of saddle horses have pacing blood, and as there is no
-family without it, it may be taken as settled that the saddle
-gaits come from the pacer.</p>
-
-<p>I notice that at least one of the present saddle gaits was cultivated
-more than three hundred years ago. Mr. Gervaise Markham,
-a writer of the sixteenth century, and probably the second
-English author on the horse, says: “If you buy a horse for
-pleasure the amble is the best, in which you observe that he
-moves both his legs on one side together, neat with complete deliberation,
-for if he treads too short he is apt to stumble, if too
-large to cut and if shuffling or rowling he does it slovenly and
-besides rids no ground. If your horse be designed for hunting,
-a racking pace is most expedient, which little differs from the
-amble, only is more active and nimble, whereby the horse observes
-due motion, but you must not force him too eagerly, lest
-being in confusion he lose all knowledge of what you design him
-to, and so handle his legs carelessly.” The orthography of the
-work “rack” as used by Markham is “wrack,” and this is the
-only place I have met with it in any of the old authors. Webster
-defines the word “rack” as “a fast amble,” but Markham uses it
-in contradistinction from the amble. It is worthy of note here
-that the word “rack” is older than the word “pace,” in its use
-as designating the particular gait of the horse, and through all
-the centuries it has been retained. Of all the gaits that are
-subsidiary to the pace and derived from that gait, the rack is
-probably the most common, and in many sections of the country
-the pacer is called a racker. Racking is often designated as
-“single-footing,” and in this gait as well as in the running walk
-and fox trot, there are four distinct impacts in the revolution.
-It follows, then, that they are not susceptible of a very high rate
-of speed.</p>
-
-<p>In all the services which the horse renders and in all the relations
-which he bears to his master, there is no relation in which
-they can be made to appear to such great mutual advantage as
-when the one animal is carrying the other on his back. There
-is no occasion on which a beautiful horse looks so well as when
-gracefully mounted and skillfully handled by a lady or gentleman.
-And, I will add, there is no occasion when a lady or gentleman,
-who is at home in the saddle, looks so well as when
-mounted on a beautiful and well-trained American horse. England<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>
-has no saddle horses, and never can have any till she secures
-American blood and adopts American methods. The shortening
-of the stirrups and the swinging up and down like a tilt-hammer
-is not, with our English friends, a matter of choice, but a necessity
-to avoid being jolted to death. Their very silly imitators,
-on this side, think they can’t afford to be out of the fashion, because
-“it’s English, you know.” For safety, true gentility, and
-comfort the military seat is the only seat, and if you have a
-horse upon which you can’t keep that seat without punishment,
-he is no saddle horse. If your doctor tells you that your liver
-needs shaking up, mount an English trotting horse, but if you
-ride for pleasure and fresh air, get a horse that is bred and
-trained to the saddle gaits. There is just as much difference between
-the two horses as the difference between a springless wagon
-on a cobble-stone pavement and a richly upholstered coach on
-the asphalt.</p>
-
-<p>The American Saddle Horse has an origin as well as a history.
-His origin dates back thousands of years, and his history has
-been preserved in art and in letters since the beginning of the
-Christian era. For centuries he was the fashionable horse in
-England, and the only horse ridden by the nobility and gentry.
-Away back in the reign of Elizabeth it was not an uncommon
-thing to use hopples to teach and compel trotters to pace, just
-as in our day hopples are often used to teach and compel pacers
-to trot. In the early settlement of the American colonies pacers
-were far more numerous than trotters, and this continued to be
-the case till after the War of the Revolution. The great influx
-of running blood after that period practically banished the pacer
-to the western frontiers, where a remnant has been preserved for
-the uses of the saddle; and on account of his great speed and
-gameness he has again returned to popular favor in our own day.</p>
-
-<p>The walk and the canter, or short gallop, are gaits that are
-common to all breeds and varieties of horses, but what are known
-as “the saddle gaits” are derived wholly from the pace and are
-therefore considered modifications or variations of the pace. In
-regions of country where the saddle horse is bred and developed
-these gaits are well known among horsemen and riders as the
-rack (single-footing), the running-walk, and the fox-trot. These
-gaits are not easily described so as to be understood without an
-example before the eye. The rack is the most easily explained
-so as to be comprehended, and it is sometimes called the slow<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>
-pace. In this movement the hind foot strikes the ground an
-instant before the fore foot on the same side, then the other two
-feet are moved and strike in the same way; thus there are four
-strokes in the revolution, in pairs. As each foot has its own
-stroke we see the appositeness of the phrase “single-footing.”
-The four strokes are in pairs, as one, two—three, four, and in many
-cases as the speed of the horse increases the interval between the
-strokes is lost and the horse is at a clean rapid pace. As a matter
-of course none of these gaits in which the horse makes four
-strokes instead of two in the revolution can be speedy. They
-are not developed nor cultivated for speed alone, but for the comfort
-and ease of the rider and the change from one to another for
-the rest and ease of the horse.</p>
-
-<p>These “saddle gaits” are always derivatives from the pace, and
-I never have seen one that did not possess more or less pacing
-blood. A careful examination of the first and second volumes of
-“The National Saddle Horse Register” establishes this fact beyond
-all possible contradiction. This work is a very valuable
-contribution to the horse history of the country, but it is a misfortune
-that more care has not been taken in the exclusion of
-fictitious crosses in a great multitude of pedigrees. This trouble
-is specially apparent among the supposed breeding of many of
-the old stallions that are inserted as “Foundation Stock.” The
-tendency throughout seems to be to cover up and hide away the
-very blood to which we are indebted for the saddle horse, and to
-get in all the blood possible that is in direct antagonism to the
-foundation of the saddle gaits. It can be accepted as a fundamental
-truth in horse lore, that from the day the first English
-race horse was imported into this country to the present day,
-which covers a period of about one hundred and fifty years,
-nobody has ever seen, either in England or in this country, a
-thoroughbred horse that was a pacer. When the old race horse
-Denmark covered the pacing daughter of the pacer Cockspur,
-the pacing blood of the dam controlled the action and instincts
-of the colt, and in that colt we have the greatest of saddle-horse
-sires, known as Gaines’ Denmark.</p>
-
-<p>As this horse Denmark was by far the greatest of all saddle-horse
-progenitors, and as his superiority has been widely
-attributed to his “thoroughbred” sire Denmark, the son of imported
-Hedgford, I have taken some pains to examine his pedigree.
-His sire was thoroughbred, his dam and grandam were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span>
-mongrels, and the remoter crosses were impossible fictions. The
-fact that he ran four miles cuts no figure as evidence of purity
-of blood, for horses were running four miles in this country before
-the first “thoroughbred” was born. Of the fourteen stallions
-that are inserted as “Foundation Stock,” it is unfortunate that
-the choice seems to be practically restricted to the State of Kentucky,
-while the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee, to say
-nothing of Illinois, Missouri, etc., have produced numbers of
-families and tribes that are much more prominent and valuable
-from the true saddle-horse standpoint than some that appear in
-the select list of fourteen. It is doubtless true, however, that
-more attention has been paid to symmetry and style, and to the
-correct development and culture of the true saddle gaits, in
-Kentucky than in any of the other States. With such horses as
-Gaines’ Denmark, John Dillard, Tom Hal, Brinker’s Drennon,
-Texas, Peters’ Halcorn, and Copperbottom the list is all right,
-but the other half-dozen are mostly young and have hardly been
-heard of outside of their own immediate neighborhoods. It is a
-notable fact that old Pacing Pilot does not appear as the progenitor
-of a saddle family.</p>
-
-<p>In considering the comparative merits of the leading foundation
-stallions we find that Denmark was not a success in any
-direction except as the sire of handsome and stylish saddle
-horses. John Dillard may not have been the equal of Denmark,
-in the elegance of his progeny, but he far surpassed him in his
-valuable relations to the trotter. His daughters became quite
-famous as the producers of trotters of a high order, and they have
-over twenty in the 2:30 list. The Tom Hals have developed
-phenomenal speed at the pace, and a great deal of it, interspersed
-with but few trotters.</p>
-
-<p>Of late years many owners of the very best material for saddle
-stock have given their whole attention to the development of
-speed, either at the lateral or diagonal motion, because it has
-been deemed more profitable. In thus selecting, breeding and
-developing for extreme speed, the adaptation to saddle purposes
-has been lost or bred out. While it is true that some colts come
-into the world endowed with all the saddle gaits, it is also true
-that skill and patience are requisite in teaching the saddle horse
-good manners. There is no imaginable use to which the horse
-can be put where he will show his beautiful form and thorough
-education to so great advantage as under the saddle.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The romances of fifty years ago—Was the horse indigenous to this country?—The
-theories of the paleontologists not satisfactory—Pedigrees of over two
-millions of years too long—Outlines of horses on prehistoric ruins evidently
-modern—The linguistic test among the oldest tribes of Indians fails
-to discover any word for “Horse”—The horses abandoned west of the
-Mississippi by the followers of De Soto about 1541 were the progenitors of
-the wild horses of the plains.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Fifty years ago there was much that was romantic and mysterious
-in our conceptions of the real character and origin of the
-vast herds of wild horses that abounded on our Western plains, and
-the same remark applies to their congeners on the pampas of
-South America. The wild horse and the Indian opened up a
-most inviting field for the writers of romance, and current literature
-was flooded with “Wild Western” stories, with the horse and
-the Indian as the leading characters. We are now one generation,
-at least, this side of the time when stories of this kind are
-either sought or read, but we are not past the period when the
-origin or introduction of the horse on this continent may be considered
-with interest and profit. Before touching upon the wild
-horse, as known in our early history, however, it may be well to
-consider, briefly, the question as to whether he may not have
-been indigenous to this continent.</p>
-
-<p>In our generation the spade has become a wonderful developer
-of the truths of ancient history. The buried and forgotten cities
-of the old world are being unearthed in Europe, Asia and Africa,
-and thousands of works of art and learning that had vanished
-from the face of the earth are again restored to the knowledge
-of the human race. In a kindred branch of investigation the
-geologists and paleontologists have been delving into the bowels
-of the earth—not to find what previous generations of men had
-left behind them, but to find what life was myriads of ages before
-man was placed on the earth. Out of the rocks they have,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span>
-literally, quarried many strange examples of animal life that
-lave been buried millions of years, and hundreds of feet below
-the present surface. Among these strange petrefactions that
-were thus buried when the earth was young, there is one that has
-been widely exploited as the “Primal Horse,” that is, the animal
-from which our present horse was finally evolved. There are
-three or four specimens of this petrefaction now on exhibition in
-this country, the first having been discovered by Professor Marsh,
-of Yale College, and now in the museum of that institution.
-Nearly twenty years ago Professor Huxley, the great English
-naturalist, delivered a lecture in this city on the Marsh petrefaction
-as his text, in which he told us that the “Primal Horse”
-had, originally, five toes on each foot, that after an indeterminate
-geological period he lost the two outside toes on the hind feet,
-and after another million years, more or less, he lost the outside
-toes of the fore feet, thus leaving him ready to go on developing
-the middle toe into the foot and hoof of the horse while the outside
-toes disappeared. In proof of this he offered the fact that
-horses of this day have splint bones on each side of the leg,
-under the knee, and these bones are the remnants of the outside
-toes. This was the explanation which the learned professor gave
-in disposing of the outside toes when there were but three toes
-on each foot, but he failed to explain what had become of the
-outside toes when there were five on each foot, and there his
-whole explanation toppled to the ground.</p>
-
-<p>In the American Museum of Natural History, in this city, there
-is a very fine representative of this particular type of petrefactions.
-It is about fifteen inches high, with a head that is disproportionately
-large, and a tail that is long and slender, suggesting
-that of a leopard. On each fore foot this animal has four
-toes, or claws, as we might call them, and on each hind foot
-three claws. With these claws this little animal might dig in
-the ground, or he might climb a tree when necessary for either
-safety or food. Each one of these toes has its own distinct
-column of joints and bone extending to the knee, and there is no
-material difference in the size and strength of these different
-columns. Now, with three toes and three columns only, we can
-accept or reject, as we please, Professor Huxley’s method of getting
-the two superfluous ones out of sight by pointing to the
-splint bones on the leg of a modern horse and saying these are
-the remnants of the outside toes. But, in the meantime, neither<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>
-Mr. Huxley nor anybody else has told us what became of the
-outside toes and their columns in cases where there were five
-toes. It will not do to chuck these out of sight and say nothing
-about them; they must be accounted for or the theory fails. In
-the specimen now under examination the fore feet are each supplied
-with four toes, and each toe is supported by its own distinct
-column of bone. Here we meet with the same difficulty as in
-the case of five toes, for we have more material than the Huxley
-theory is able to provide for. This theory has been generally
-accepted among specialists, in this line of investigation, and they
-all point to the splint bones, as already stated, as the remnants
-of the two toes, adhering to the main column. This leaves the
-one superfluous toe wholly unprovided for, and thus the theory
-discredits itself and leaves the question in a shape that is entirely
-unsatisfactory and unacceptable to the understanding.</p>
-
-<p>The teeth of this specimen, in their shape and arrangement,
-very strongly resemble the teeth of the horse. Upon this one
-fact is placed the chief reliance to sustain the claim that this was
-the “Primal Horse,” but this fact, when taken without the support
-of other facts, simply proves that the animal was herbivorous,
-subsisting on the same kind of food as the horse, but it does
-not prove that he was a horse. The teeth are an excellent starting
-point, and we admit their arrangement and resemblance to
-the teeth of the horse, but the rules of comparative anatomy, as
-well as common sense, require that at some other point or points
-there should be at least a suggestion of resemblance. In this
-case there is absolutely no resemblance, but a very marked and
-unmistakable divergence. The foot of this little animal, fifteen
-inches high, bears no more resemblance to the foot of the horse
-than the foot of the dog bears to the foot of the horse. Indeed,
-the foot of the specimen before us, whether provided with three,
-four or five claws, very strikingly resembles the foot of the dog.
-The arrangement of the different specimens of the feet, commencing
-with the smallest with four toes and ending with the perfect
-and full-grown foot of the horse as we know him, intended to
-illustrate the process of evolution, is a very interesting study, but
-when you have done with the last foot with claws and reach forward
-for the first foot with a hoof, you find there is an impassable
-gulf between them, over which the theory of Evolution has not
-been able to construct a bridge. But there is another consideration
-that is final and that cannot be overcome by any theory<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>
-whatever. According to the chronology widely accepted among
-geologists, this little animal was buried in the sand more than
-two millions of years ago, and in a grave more than a hundred
-feet below the general surface of the country in which he was
-found. In some great upheaval or cataclysm of the earth’s surface,
-this little animal, with all his contemporaries, perished, and
-there perished with him all possibility of propagating his race.
-It is only a waste of time, therefore, to speculate upon what a
-certain race of animals might have produced in our day, when
-they were all cut off two millions of years ago. With this disposition
-of the little animal with the variety of toes, quarried
-from the rocks and by courtesy here called the “Primal Horse,”
-we reach another prehistoric epoch in our inquiry, but much
-less remote than the one just considered.</p>
-
-<p>From the incredible numbers of wild horses on our Western
-plains and on the pampas of South America, at a very early
-period in history, it became a question of some interest with
-many thinking men as to whether the horse was not indigenous
-on this continent. It is within the knowledge of everybody that
-this continent was inhabited by a mysterious and unknown race
-of people long before it was visited by Europeans. These mysterious
-people seem to have been driven out by the fierce and
-warlike savages who occupied the country at the time of its discovery,
-and even they knew nothing about the people who had
-preceded them. In very many localities the vanished people left
-behind them marks, numerous and unmistakable, that they had
-made considerable progress in the arts of civilized life. Writers
-have generally designated them as “the Mound Builders,” because
-they heaped great <i>tumuli</i> of earth over the graves of their
-distinguished dead, but the real “Mound Builders” did far more
-than this, for with immense labor they built great, strong defenses
-for their protection against their enemies. When we go
-further West and South, into the fertile valleys among the mountains,
-we find still later traces of these unknown people in the
-ruins of buildings and dwellings erected, with infinite labor,
-traces of irrigating canals, etc., but we still fail to come up with
-them, or any trace of their history. In that region ruins of this
-type are designated as “Aztec Ruins,” but this title puts us no
-further on the way of who the builders were. In 1877 a correspondent
-of a Colorado newspaper, who seemed to write intelligently
-and candidly, described some of those ruins which he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span>
-found in the valley of the Las Animas, in Southwestern Colorado.
-He speaks of a valley fifteen miles long and seven miles wide, on
-the Animas River, and says this valley was covered with dwellings
-built of stone, but he gives particular attention to a row of buildings
-built of sandstone laid in adobe mud. These buildings are
-about three hundred feet long and three hundred feet apart, as
-I understand the writer, and extend a distance of six thousand
-feet. The outside walls are four feet thick and the inside ones
-from one and a half to three feet thick; there are rooms still left
-and walls remaining that indicate a building four stories high.
-In some of the rooms there are writings that never have been
-deciphered, and in one of them there are drawings of tarantulas,
-centipedes, horses and men. The word “horses” riveted my attention,
-and connected with it there were several things to be
-considered. First, were the drawings really intended to represent
-horses? Second, if so might they not have been placed there long
-after the builders had disappeared and in recent years? Third, if
-placed there by the builders, what was their date, and were they
-before or after the introduction of the horse into Mexico by the
-Spaniards? The possibility of ever obtaining any satisfactory
-information about these drawings and their date seemed very
-remote, but after watching and waiting for about eighteen years,
-I have recently received two letters that settle the whole matter
-so far as these particular ruins are concerned.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Charles McLoyd, a very intelligent gentleman of Durango,
-Colorado, who has made a special study of the Cliff Dwellers and
-kindred subjects, in that part of the world, writing under date
-of January 10, 1895, says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I am unable to inform you in regard to the pictures on those particular
-ruins, but can say that in no other locality have I found pictures of horses or
-anything to indicate that these prehistoric races had any knowledge of the
-animal. If such pictures existed we would be unable to determine anything
-definite from them; or in other words, it would not show that the horse was
-on this continent before the Spaniards brought him, but rather that the people
-who constructed the buildings lived here after the Spaniards came. I have
-often seen pictures of horses on the walls of cañons, but there is no question
-but they were the work of the present Indians. We often find associated with
-them pictures of railroad trains, etc., that indicate that some of them are of
-very recent date. To sum the matter up, would say that, so far, there is no
-evidence that these races had any knowledge of the horse, or had ever seen
-the Spaniards.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. John A. Koontz, of Aztec, New Mexico, writes under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span>
-date of January 24, 1895. He knows all about the ruins in question,
-for he owns the land on which they are situated, and puts
-the whole matter very clearly, as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I know nothing of the drawings of horses and other animals on the walls
-of the ‘Aztec Ruins’ here that Mr. Wallace speaks of. I think the drawings
-were all in the imagination of the correspondent to whom Mr. Wallace refers.
-I have been familiar with the ruins for fourteen years and this is the first time
-I have ever heard of any drawings of horses on any of the walls. There are
-drawings on some rocks some miles from the ruins, but from their nature I
-have considered them the work of the modern Indians. These ruins were
-visited by a party of archeologists two years ago, who spent several weeks
-here, and made a survey, with maps and general drawings of the same. They
-decided that the main building had, originally, over seven hundred rooms.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>These letters are conclusive, so far as the region of the Las
-Animas is concerned, and with that region knocked out there is
-not enough left to justify further search for evidence that the
-prehistoric races had any knowledge of the horse. Nothing remained
-then but the linguistic test, and in 1885 I had such an
-opportunity for applying this test as may never occur again.
-This test formulated itself in my mind, in this shape: “Did any
-of the nations or tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent
-have a word in their language indicating a horse?”
-When in California I applied to Mr. Bancroft, the compiler and
-publisher of the great documentary history of the Pacific coast,
-who then had a large corps of skilled translators at work on his
-famous compilation, and submitted my question. He introduced
-me to his principal linguist, who knew not only Spanish, English
-and other modern languages, but also the language of the
-Indians of the coast, the mountains and the plains, of the period
-covered by the question. The question did not seem to be new
-to him, and he answered with the candor and conscientiousness
-of a man who knew what he was saying, that there was no word in
-any of the Indian tongues, ancient or modern, that represented
-the horse. This settled the question of the supposed prehistoric
-character and rank of the horse, and we are thus driven to accept
-the infinitesimally small number left behind by Cortez, Nunez
-and De Soto as the seed from which sprang the countless thousands
-of wild horses that for generations roamed the Western
-plains.</p>
-
-<p>The story of the Conquest of Mexico is full of blood and
-cruelty, but as we have nothing to do with any part of the story<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span>
-except so much of it as relates to the introduction of the horse to
-the continent of North America, it will require but small space
-to tell it. Cortez sailed from Cuba for Yucatan, February, 1519,
-with an army of six hundred and sixty-three men, two hundred
-Indians and sixteen horses. This wholly inadequate supply of
-cavalry was the weak place in his venture, but the horses could
-not be had in Cuba, without paying an incredible price. Those
-he was able to secure cost from four to five hundred <i>pesos de oro</i>
-each. The <i>peso</i> was the Spanish dollar. The expedition was
-nominally fitted out for Yucatan, but its real aim was the heart
-of Mexico. In his first fight with the Indians near the coast,
-men mounted on horses were feared by the natives as monstrous
-apparitions. This overwhelming fear of the horse may seem to
-some of my readers as overdone by the historian, but it seems to
-have been the common experience of all the different nations and
-tribes of Indians wherever the horse made his first appearance in
-battle. In the first battle two of the horses were killed, and in
-the second another was killed, and all that remained were more
-or less severely wounded. Cortez was afterward joined by Alvarado,
-at Vera Cruz, with twenty horses and one hundred and fifty
-men. In making his official reports directly to the home government
-in Spain instead of the governor of Cuba, Cortez gave mortal
-offense to that dignitary, and he sent out an armada under
-Narvaez to supersede Cortez and return him in chains to Cuba.
-This armada consisted of eighteen vessels, carrying nine hundred
-men, eighty of whom were cavalry. After some diplomacy,
-Cortez, feeling that with his little handful of men he was wholly
-unable to meet Narvaez, he did all he could to avoid a conflict.
-Each party knew the exact strength of the other, and as Narvaez
-began to threaten, Cortez determined to fight for his rights and
-his liberty. He then had but five men mounted, but he took advantage
-of the carelessness of his adversary, made a night attack
-in the midst of a tempest, and captured Narvaez and his whole
-army. The private soldiers of that day, like their commanders,
-had no idea or principle to fight for except for plunder, and they
-were always ready to attach themselves to the most successful
-robber. Cortez was their ideal leader, and at once he had a new
-army of devoted followers. He then had eighty-five mounted
-men, and he felt strong enough to hold and rule the great country
-he had conquered. Mexico was conquered in 1521, and the
-news of the vast amount of treasure captured brought a great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>
-crowd of emigrants from Spain and from all her dominions. The
-Spaniards, like other nations of Southern Europe, kept their horses
-entire and whenever representatives of both sexes strayed away,
-reproduction would follow. As the country became more tranquil,
-and as the tide of European settlers kept pouring in, we can easily
-understand how the little bands of estrays should grow into larger
-bands and soon become as wild as though they had never seen a
-human being except to flee from him.</p>
-
-<p>The explorer De Soto sailed for Florida in 1539, in search of
-gold. He had in his command five hundred and thirteen men,
-exclusive of sailors, and two hundred and thirty-seven horses,
-besides some for the purpose of bearing burdens, the number
-not given. In all his weary journey of three years he found the
-Indians active, hostile, and courageous fighters. In one of his
-first battles he lost twelve horses, and had seventy wounded. He
-pursued many phantoms in search of gold, in different directions,
-but his general course was westward and northwestward. He
-was the first European to discover the Mississippi River, not far
-from the mouth of the Arkansas, and there he was buried in the
-middle of the river, to prevent the Indians from discovering he
-was dead and from desecrating his remains. His followers then
-determined to push on westward to Mexico, and reached as far as
-the borders of Texas, probably, when they became discouraged
-with the magnitude of the difficulties that surrounded them, and
-determined to return and seek an outlet from the wilderness by
-water. On this last journey, west of the Mississippi, they suffered
-their greatest loss of horses. They had not been shod for
-more than a year, and a great many were lame and unable to
-travel. When the Spaniards had completed their boats and were
-ready to leave the scenes of their sufferings and disasters, they
-turned loose upon the bank of the river their four or five remaining
-horses, which manifested great excitement, running up and
-down the bank neighing for their masters, as they sailed away.
-This alarmed the Indians and they ran into the water for safety.</p>
-
-<p>The Indians were afraid of the horses and the horses were
-afraid of the Indians. It seems to be a fact, observed in all the
-early intercourse of the Spaniards with the Indians, that universally
-they had a kind of superstitious awe of the horse as a
-superior being, and it is probably due to this awe that the Indians
-did not utterly destroy every horse that fell out of the ranks or
-that escaped in the wilderness. As I understand the history of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>
-this terrible exploration, when the Spaniards crossed the Mississippi
-they had two hundred and fifty men and one hundred and
-fifty horses, and when they came back and were ready to sail
-they had but four or five horses left. It is fair, therefore, to
-conclude that the greater portion of these hundred and fifty head
-was scattered in the wilderness as they went out and as they returned.
-This provides a sufficient breeding basis for the countless
-multitudes of descendants, and places that nucleus in the
-right region to nourish them in a feral state.</p>
-
-<p>While this exploration of De Soto seems to furnish a breeding
-basis of sufficient breadth to account for all the wild horses that
-have appeared on this continent, there is another consideration
-that we must not overlook, and that is the inborn tendency of
-the domestic horse to become wild when in wild associations.
-By turning to the chapter on the colony of Virginia you will see
-that there were many wild horses there at the beginning of the
-last century. On the frontiers, near the habitat of wild horses,
-they became a great nuisance to the settlers in “coaxing” away
-their domestic horses and making them as wild as the wildest.
-These accretions to their strength from the domestic horse have
-been going on for generations, and thus the wild horse became
-conglomerate in the elements of his blood, with the Spanish
-traits still predominant. Fifty or a hundred years ago the pens
-of many writers were employed in idealizing “The Wild Horse of
-the Desert.” He was made the leading figure in many a romance,
-and the hero of many a triumph. Tom Thumb, the great trotter
-that was taken to England, astonished all the world with his
-speed and his endurance, and, following the fashion of the day,
-he was represented to have been caught wild on the Western
-plains. For many years the wild horse was the “fad” of American
-writers, just as the Arabian was of English writers, and the
-writers on one side were just about as far from intelligence and
-truth as those on the other. When, forty years ago, great droves
-of the half-breeds, Mustangs, were brought from the plains to
-the border prairie States, seeking a market, the scales began to
-drop from the eyes of the worshipers of the wild horse. They
-were homely little brutes, and they were as tough as whit-leather.
-But the countless multitudes that roamed at will over their
-grazing grounds, making the earth tremble when they moved,
-have dwindled down to a few insignificant bands, and the whole
-glamour around the wild horse of the desert has vanished.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">MESSENGER AND HIS ANCESTORS.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Messenger the greatest of all trotting progenitors—Record of pedigrees in
-English Stud Book—Pedigrees made from unreliable sources—Messenger’s right
-male line examined—Flying Guilders’ “mile in a minute”—Blaze short
-of being thoroughbred—Sampson, a good race horse—His size; short in
-his breeding—Engineer short also—Mambrino was a race horse with at
-least two pacing crosses: distinguished only as a progenitor of coach
-horses and fast trotters—Messenger’s dam cannot be traced nor identified—
-Among all the horses claiming to be thoroughbred he is the only one that
-founded a family of trotters—This fact conceded by eminent writers in
-attempting to find others.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Having completed a brief historical sketch of horse history
-from the beginning, and many events connected therewith, we
-are now ready to consider the American Trotting Horse, as the
-culmination of what has been written. Thus far we have met
-with much pretentious nonsense, claiming to be history and
-written by men who never gave the subject the study of an
-honest hour. The horse is honest enough, but the rule seems
-to be almost universal that whenever men commence to write
-about him they are guided by their imagination and not by the
-facts. As to what we are to meet in the coming chapters, I can
-only say that, unfortunately, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes
-and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The instinct to misrepresent
-has been transmitted, and I cannot promise that we
-will find any great moral improvement among the horsemen of
-our own country and generation.</p>
-
-<p>For more than three-quarters of a century, and indeed from
-the first trotting experiences of this country that have been preserved,
-it has been the unanimous judgment of all who have
-given any thought or attention to the subject that the imported
-English horse, Messenger, was the great central source of trotting
-speed. As the years have rolled by this opinion has
-increased in strength until it has become an intelligent and
-demonstrated belief. When, forty years ago, a horse was found<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>
-able to trot a mile in two minutes and thirty seconds, the speed
-was deemed wholly phenomenal, but that speed has been increased,
-second by second, until we are now on the very brink of
-two minutes. In this process every second and fraction of a
-second that has been cut off has been so much additional proof of
-the universal belief that Messenger was the chief progenitor of
-the American trotter. He is not the only source of trotting
-speed, but he is the chief source. Whence he derived this distinctive
-power to transmit trotting speed will be made more
-clear as we proceed. His blood left no deep nor lasting impress
-upon the running horses of the country, and it is seldom
-we meet with any trace of it in the running horse of to-day, but
-it is prominent and conspicuous at the winning post of every
-trotting track on this continent. This will be made apparent
-when we come to consider the details and the merits of the
-mighty tribes and families that have descended from him.</p>
-
-<p>Several years ago I promised to write a volume on “Messenger
-and his Descendants,” and I have often been reminded of that
-unfulfilled promise, which I will here try to redeem. When that
-promise was made I had written many things about Messenger,
-but since then I have secured very many valuable facts that, I
-think, will far more than compensate for the delay. There is
-still much that is unknown and much that is only partially
-known of the origin and history of Messenger and his ancestors,
-and in considering the questions that will arise as the discussion
-progresses, I will not submit to a slavish acceptance of whatever
-has come down in the shape of stallion advertisements, or as
-unsupported traditions, and then recorded as facts by people who
-knew nothing about them, and made no effort to know. I shall
-look for the facts that are known to be facts, or such evidence as
-is reasonable and commends itself to an unbiased judgment, and
-then reach such conclusions as right reason shall dictate. The
-pedigree of Messenger, or rather the pedigree of Messenger’s
-reputed grandam, appears in the English Stud Book in the
-editions of 1803 and 1827, in the following form:</p>
-
-<table summary="The pedigree of Messenger">
-  <tr>
-    <td colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Regulus Mare</span> (Sister to Figurante). Her dam by Starling, out of Snap’s dam.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1769, b. f. by Herod (dam of <i>Alert</i>).</td>
-    <td class="valign nw" rowspan="2">Mr. Vernon.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1770, bl. c. <i>Hyacinth</i>, by Turf.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>1771, bl. c. <i>Leviathan</i> (aft. Mungo), by Marske.</td>
-    <td class="nw">Lord Abingdon.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1773, — f. by Turf.</td>
-    <td class="valign nw" rowspan="4">Lord Grosvenor.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1774, — f. by Ditto (dam of <i>Messenger</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1777, bl. f. by Dux.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1780, b. f. by Justice (dam of <i>Equity</i>).</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1782, b. c. Vulcan, by Justice.</td>
-    <td class="nw">Mr. Panton.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1783, b. c. <i>Savage</i>, by Sweetbriar.</td>
-    <td class="valign nw" rowspan="2">Mr. Bullock.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td></td>
-    <td>1784, b. f. <i>Ariel</i>, by Highflyer (dam of Mr. Hamilton’s Swindler, by Bagot).</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>This is all we have of the pedigree of Messenger as recorded in
-the English Stud Book, and this record, on its face, has a very
-suspicious appearance. Messenger had run some races at Newmarket
-and a place must be provided for him in the Stud Book.
-He always ran as a son of Mambrino, and there is no doubt this
-is correct, as it so appeared in the Racing Calendar, long before
-the days of the Stud Book. But nobody, either then or later,
-seemed to know anything about his dam. Toward the close of
-this chapter I will give an exhaustive review of the many troubles
-in which these two fillies by Turf seem to be involved.</p>
-
-<p>Messenger was by Mambrino, he by Engineer, he by Sampson,
-he by Blaze, he by Flying Childers, and he by the Darley Arabian.
-We give the right male line here for the reason that there
-can be no doubt as to the accuracy of this line, for it has been
-preserved in contemporaneous racing records. The trouble, where
-any trouble exists, is all with the dams of these horses which at
-best are only matters of the most uncertain tradition. A writer
-in the Edinburgh <i>Review</i> for July, 1864, covers the whole ground
-when he says: “The early pedigrees (in the Stud Book) are but
-little to be relied upon, as they seem for the most part to have
-been taken from traditional accounts in the stable, from descriptions
-at the back of old pictures, and from advertisements, none
-of which had to pass muster at the Herald’s College.” This is
-in full accordance with our American experiences and it is entirely
-safe to say that the great body of our old American pedigrees,
-especially in their remote extensions, are more or less fictitious.
-The industry of producing great pedigrees out of little
-or nothing has long been pursued on both sides of the water, and
-it would be very difficult to determine which side had the better
-of it.</p>
-
-<p>Before attempting to analyze the pedigree of Messenger, or
-rather that of his dam, with which the chief difficulty lies, we
-will go back to the head of the male line and consider each successive
-generation. The Darley Arabian, one of the most distinguished
-of all the founders of the English thoroughbred horse,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span>
-was brought from Aleppo, about the year 1710. He did not
-cover many mares except those of his owner in Yorkshire, but he
-was very successful. Childers, commonly called Flying Childers,
-was foaled 1715. He was got by the Darley Arabian out of
-Betty Leeds, a distinguished lightweight runner, by Careless.
-Childers was the most distinguished race horse of his day, and
-the fabulous story of his having run a mile in a minute was circulated,
-believed and written about for generations. He ran a
-trial against Almanzor and Brown Betty over the round course
-at Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs and ninety-three yards)
-in six minutes and forty seconds, “and it was thought,” says the
-old record, “that he moved eighty-two feet and a half in a second
-of time, which is nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute.”
-This was the basis of the legend “A Mile in a Minute,” and it
-has lived till our own day, just as many a traditional pedigree
-has lived. If we accept the time as given by the old chroniclers,
-of which we have very grave doubts, Childers ran at the rate of
-one minute and forty-five seconds to the mile, and he covered a
-distance of fifty feet and about two inches to the second of time.
-The pedigree of Childers on the maternal side is one of the oldest
-in the Stud Book, and we are not aware that any charges
-have ever been made against its substantial authenticity.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Blaze</span>, the son of Childers, was foaled 1733, and was out of a
-mare known as “The Confederate Filly,” by Grey Grantham; her
-dam was by the Duke of Rutland’s Black Barb, and her grandam
-was a mare of unknown breeding, called “Bright’s Roan.” Here
-the maternal line runs into the woods, but this is not the only
-defect in the pedigree, for the dam of Grey Grantham was also
-unknown. In order to give a clear idea of just how Blaze was
-bred, taking the Stud Book for our authority, we will here tabulate
-the pedigree for a few crosses.</p>
-
-<table class="pedigree" summary="Pedigree of Blaze">
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8">Blaze (1733).</td>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Childers</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Darley Arabian</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Betty Leeds</td>
-    <td>{ Careless.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Sister to Leeds.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Confederate Filly</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Grey Grantham</td>
-    <td>{ Browlow Turk.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Blood unknown.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Daughter of</td>
-    <td>{ Black Barb.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Brights Roan, unknown.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Certainly this horse cannot be ranked as thoroughbred under
-any rule, English or American, that has ever been formulated.
-Only three generations away we find two animals of hopelessly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>
-unknown breeding. Mr. Henry F. Euren, compiler of the English
-Hackney Stud Book, has given Blaze a new place in horse
-genealogy, and this new place affects the American trotter, remotely,
-outside of the line through Messenger. Mr. Lawrence,
-the best English authority on horse matters in the latter part of
-the last and the beginning of the present century, had maintained,
-confessedly on tradition only, that Old Shales, the great
-fountain head of the English trotters of a hundred years ago, was
-a son of Blank, by Godolphin Arabian. On this point Mr. Euren
-has got farther back and found earlier evidence in printed form
-that Blaze and not Blank was the sire of Old Shales. We combated
-this claim for a time, but in the introduction to his Stud
-Book he has made out a very good case, and we have hardly a
-doubt but that he is correct. In speaking of the breeding of Shales,
-and of his dam being a “strong common-bred mare,” he says: “It
-is of interest to examine the pedigree of the sire (Blaze) to determine
-whether yet stronger racing or pacing elements existed on
-that side.” After giving a tabulation of the pedigree he continues:
-“There would thus appear to have been a large proportion
-of English (native) blood in the dam of Blaze, though no
-one can say what was its character—whether running, trotting,
-or ambling.” In referring to the fact that Bellfounder was a
-descendant of Old Shales, the son of Blaze, Mr. Euren makes
-this practical application of the incident:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The fact that in the seventh generation from Blaze, on each side, the reunion
-of the blood in Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, the sire of so many fast American
-trotting horses, should have proved to be of the most impressive character,
-would appear to warrant the conclusion that there was a strong latent trotting
-tendency in the near ancestors, on one, if not on both, sides of Blaze.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>These two points from a very high English authority—that
-Blaze was not thoroughbred and that he was the sire of Shales,
-a great trotting progenitor, must have due weight in reaching
-sound conclusions.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sampson</span>, the son of Blaze, was foaled 1745, and he has occupied
-a very prominent and at the same time unique place in running-horse
-history. He was not only a great race horse, at heavy
-weights, but he was considered phenomenal in his size and
-strength, and in his lack of the appearance of a race horse.
-Some of his measurements have come down to us, and as they are
-reliable data as to what was considered a remarkably large and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>
-strong race horse a hundred and forty years ago, we will reproduce
-them here in order that the curious may compare them with
-the average race horse of this generation:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Height on the withers, 15 hands 2 inches; dimensions of fore leg from the
-hair of the hoof to middle of fetlock joint, 4 inches; from fetlock joint to bend
-of the knee, 11 inches; from bend of knee to elbow, 19 inches; round fore leg
-below knee, narrowest part, 8½ inches; round hind leg, narrowest part, 9 inches.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>These measurements may not seem to merit any particular attention
-at this day, but a hundred and fifty years ago they were
-considered phenomenal in the race horse. But we are not left
-to the dry details of a certain number of inches and fractions of
-an inch upon which to base a just conception of the strength and
-substance of this horse. A number of historians have told us of
-the merriment among the grooms and jockeys when Sampson
-made his first appearance on the turf. The question was, “Has
-Mr. Robinson brought a coach horse here to run for the plate?”
-The laugh was on the other side at Malton that day, however,
-when the “coach horse,” carrying one hundred and forty pounds,
-won the plate in three heats. The distance was three miles, and
-Sampson was then five years old. At long distances and at high
-weights Sampson was a first-class race horse for his day. But,
-notwithstanding all this, we are told that his blood never became
-fashionable, for there was a widespread conviction that he was
-not running-bred on the side of his dam. The historians tell us
-that he transmitted his own coarseness and lack of the true running
-type in a marked degree, which was very evident in his
-grandson, Mambrino.</p>
-
-<p>His pedigree has been questioned from the day of his first
-appearance to the present time, and we have made a very careful
-study of all the facts at our command. In the first edition of
-his Stud Book (1803) Mr. Weatherby gives his dam as by Hip; g. d.
-by Spark, son of Honeycomb Punch; g. g. d. by Snake and out of
-Lord D’Arcy’s Queen. This has not been materially changed in
-any of the subsequent editions, and we think it may be taken for
-granted that the horse was advertised under this pedigree. Mr.
-Weatherby commenced work on pedigrees in 1791, and avowedly
-accepted the best information he could get with regard to old
-pedigrees, regardless of the source. We are not aware that he
-ever investigated anything outside of his office work, or if he did
-he never gave the public the benefit of the details of his investigations.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span>
-John Lawrence commenced work on horse history long
-before Mr. Weatherby commenced as a compiler of pedigrees, and
-he was altogether the ablest writer of his day, or perhaps we
-might add, of any other day. He was a clear and independent
-thinker and a vigorous writer. In his “History of the Horse in
-all His Varieties and Uses,” on page 281, he thus discusses the
-question of Sampson’s pedigree:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Nobody yet ever did, or ever could assert positively that Jigg was not
-thoroughbred, but the case is very different with respect to Sampson; since
-nobody in the sporting world, either of past or present days, ever supposed
-him so. Nor was the said world at all surprised at Robinson’s people furnishing
-their stallion with a good and <i>true</i> pedigree, a thing so much to their advantage.
-Having seen a number of Sampson’s immediate get, those in the
-Lord Marquis of Rockingham’s stud and others, and all of them, Bay Malton
-perhaps less than any other, in their <i>heads</i>, size and form, having the appearance
-of being a degree or two deficient in racing blood, I was convinced that
-the then universal opinion on that point was well grounded. I was (in 1778)
-an enthusiast, collecting materials for a book on the horse. It happened that
-I wanted a trusty and steady man for a particular service, and opportunely for
-the matter now under discussion, a Yorkshire man about threescore years of
-age was recommended to me, who had recently been employed in certain stables.
-I soon found that his early life had been spent in the running stables of the
-North, and that he had known Sampson, whence he was always afterward
-named by us ‘Old Sampson.’ He was very intelligent on the subject of racing
-stock and his report was as follows. He took the mare to Blaze, for the cover
-which produced Sampson, helped to bit and break the colt, rode him in exercise
-and afterward took him to Malton for his first start, where, before the race,
-he was ridiculed for bringing a great coach horse to contend against racers.
-On the sale of Sampson this man left the service of James Preston, Esq., and
-went with the colt into that of Mr. Robinson. His account of Sampson’s dam was
-that she appeared about three parts bred, a hunting figure and by report a
-daughter of Hip, which, however, could not be authenticated; and the fact
-was then notorious and not disputed in the Yorkshire stables.... Mr.
-Tattersall lately stowed me a portrait of Sampson in his flesh, in which this
-defect of blood appears far more obvious than in one which I had of him
-galloping.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Again, in his great quarto work, issued 1809, Mr. Lawrence
-reiterates his belief that Sampson was not thoroughbred. He
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I am by no means disposed to retract my opinion concerning Robinson’s
-Sampson. Not only did the account of the groom appear to me to be entitled
-to credit, but the internal evidence of the horse’s having had in him a cross of
-common blood is sufficiently strong by the appearance both of the horse himself
-and of his stock; an idea in which every sportsman, I believe, who remembers
-Engineer, Mambrino and others will agree with me.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span></p>
-
-<p>Here then, we have the answer to the whole inquiry reduced
-to its simplest form. The groom who coupled the mare with
-Blaze from which came Sampson says the mare was called a Hip
-mare, but that her pedigree was really unknown. For the intelligence
-and honesty of this groom Mr. Lawrence does not hesitate
-to vouch, and he adds the common belief of all the Yorkshire
-sportsmen of that day, who knew the mare, that she was of
-unknown breeding. This evidence is further supplemented by
-the family characteristics of the stock descended from Sampson,
-to say nothing of the great lack of “blood” in the appearance of
-Sampson himself. As against this we have the dry, unsupported
-assertion of Mr. Weatherby, forty years after the event, and probably
-copied from an advertisement of the horse. In view of all
-this we must tabulate the pedigree of Sampson as follows:</p>
-
-<table class="pedigree" summary="Pedigree of Sampson">
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8">Sampson (1745).</td>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Blaze</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Childers</td>
-    <td>{ Darley Arabian.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Betty Leeds.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Confederate Filly</td>
-    <td>{ Grey Grantham.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ D. of Black Barb.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Called a Hip Mare (Unknown).</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Engineer</span>, son of Sampson, was a brown horse, foaled 1755, and
-was out of Miner’s dam, by Young Greyhound; grandam by Curwen’s
-Bay Barb, and the next dam unknown. This is all the
-pedigree that has ever been even claimed for this horse, and it
-falls far short of the rank of thoroughbred. That the eye may
-take it all in at a glance we will here put it into tabular form.
-There is a discrepancy of one year between Weatherby and Pick
-in the age of the horse, and we find Pick is right in giving his
-date as 1755.</p>
-
-<table class="pedigree" summary="Pedigree of Engineer">
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8">Engineer (1755).</td>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Sampson</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Blaze</td>
-    <td>{ Childers.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Confederate Filly.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Unknown.</td>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>&nbsp;</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Miner’s dam</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Young Greyhound</td>
-    <td>{ Greyhound.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Pet mare.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ D. of Bay Barb</td>
-    <td>{ </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Unknown.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding the absence of Eastern blood, Engineer was a
-race horse of above average ability, although not so good as another
-son of Sampson called Bay Malton. A few of his sons
-aside from Mambrino ran respectably, and his daughters were, at
-one time, highly prized as brood mares.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino</span>, the son of Engineer, was a great strong-boned grey
-horse, bred by John Atkinson near Leeds in Yorkshire, and was
-foaled 1768. His dam was by Cade, son of the Godolphin
-Arabian; g. d. by Bolton Little John; g. g. d. Favorite by a
-son of Bald Galloway, etc. The Cade mare produced Dulcine, a
-noted performer, and the mare Favorite was a distinguished
-performer herself. The poverty of this pedigree is all on the
-side of the sire, as will be seen by a brief tabulation.</p>
-
-<table class="pedigree" summary="Pedigree of Mambrino">
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="8">Mambrino (1768).</td>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Engineer</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Sampson</td>
-    <td>{ Blaze.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Unknown.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Miner’s dam</td>
-    <td>{ Young Greyhound.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ D. of Bay Barb.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="4">{ Daughter of</td>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Cade</td>
-    <td>{ Godolphin Arabian.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Roxana.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td rowspan="2">{ Daughter of</td>
-    <td>{ Bolton Little John.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>{ Favorite.</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>It is worthy of note here, as a curious fact, that Mambrino had
-two pacing crosses. Roxana, the dam of Cade, was by Bald Galloway
-and Favorite was by a son of Bald Galloway. This horse
-Bald Galloway was a distinguished representative of the famous
-old tribe of pacers known as the “Galloways,” from the province
-of Galloway in Southwestern Scotland.</p>
-
-<p>Mambrino was not put upon the turf till he was five years old,
-and he proved himself a great race horse in the best company
-and for the largest class of stakes. He was on the turf most of
-the time for five or six years and until he was beaten by Woodpecker
-in 1779, in which race he broke down. He was beaten,
-but four times, and paid four forfeits. He went into the stud in
-the spring of 1777, although he ran after that, at 10gs. 10s. 6d.
-to cover thirty mares besides those of his owners. In 1779 he
-was again in the stud, in Cambridgeshire as before, at the same
-price; 1781 he covered at 50gs. 10. 6d.; 1784 at 15gs. 10. 6d.;
-1785 at 25gs. 10s. 6d.; 1786 he dropped back to 15gs. 10s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p>We give these prices to show the variations in the estimated
-value of his services. As a sire of race horses Mambrino was not
-successful. Some fifteen or twenty of his progeny ran more or
-less respectably, but none of them was at all comparable with
-himself. While he was a comparative failure as a racing sire
-there was another qualification in which he attained great eminence
-and distinction. In the second volume of Pick’s Turf Register,
-published 1805, on page 266, we find the following paragraph
-appended to the history there given of this horse:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Mambrino was likewise sire of a great many excellent hunters and strong,
-useful road horses. And it has been said that from his blood the breed of
-horses for the coach was brought nearly to perfection.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This paragraph, considering its date (1805), the authority
-from which it comes, and the peculiar circumstances which
-prompted its utterance, has a most striking significance. After
-years of familiarity with Mr. Pick’s works we can say freely that
-we never have been able to find any allusion or reference to the
-qualities of any horse portrayed by him other than his running
-qualities. This reference to the adaptabilities of the progeny of
-Mambrino stands alone. The “blood that brought the breed of
-coach horses nearly to perfection” must have been blood that
-gave the “breed” a long, slinging, road-devouring trot, as well
-as size and strength. The very same qualifications were observed
-and noted in the descendants of Mambrino in this country forty
-and fifty years ago, and at no time in our history have we had
-such unapproachable coach horses as the great-grandsons of
-Mambrino. What has been said, therefore, by Mr. Pick of the
-“coach-horse” qualities of the descendants of Mambrino in England
-has been fully realized and verified in his descendants,
-through Messenger, in this country.</p>
-
-<p>The question here arises whether Mambrino ever showed any
-remarkable trotting action himself that would seem to justify
-this estimate of the trotting action of his descendants? Several
-writers, and among them Mr. Lawrence, have spoken of this
-peculiarity of Mambrino’s incidentally, but the most tangible
-account we have of it is furnished by an English writer to the
-<i>Sporting Magazine</i>, who dates his letter from the “Subscription
-Rooms, Tattersall’s, 1814.” These “subscription rooms”
-were the very focus of sporting events, and this writer seems to
-be unusually intelligent on this class of subjects. The object
-and point of his communication is to prove that no thoroughbred
-horse could be developed into a fast trotter. “Hence,” he says,
-“no thoroughbred was ever known capable of trotting sixteen
-miles within the hour, and only one stands on record as having
-trotted fifteen miles within one hour. That was Infidel, by
-Turk, who performed it in the North, carrying nine or ten stone.
-Several race horses have been supposed capable of trotting fourteen
-miles in one hour, and it is reported that the late Lord
-Grosvenor once offered to match Mambrino to do it for a thousand
-guineas.” Now this writer does not say that Lord Grosvenor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>
-really made such an offer, but only that he was “reported”
-to have made it. This does not prove that the offer was formally
-made, but it does prove that Mambrino had a very remarkable
-trotting step or such a topic would not have been considered at
-Tattersall’s subscription rooms. As this writer seems to refer to
-Mambrino and Infidel only as exceptional horses for their trotting
-step among thoroughbreds, we may take it for granted that
-Mambrino was considered exceptional, in his day. It is not
-probable that he was ever trained an hour at the trot, and we
-must conclude, therefore, that whatever speed he showed was his
-natural and undeveloped gait. It will be observed that Mr.
-Pick’s paragraph was dated 1805, and the letter from the “subscription
-rooms” 1814, so that they could not have been mere reflections
-of theories advanced on this side of the Atlantic in relation
-to Messenger being a great source of trotting speed. These
-two facts were on record long before any “Messenger theories”
-were in existence, and those “theories” were formulated long before
-these two facts were known. The conclusions reached on
-both sides of the water are entirely harmonious, but they were
-reached in complete independence of each other.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Messenger</span>, son of Mambrino, was a grey horse about fifteen
-hands two inches high, with strong, heavy bone and a generally
-coarse appearance for a horse represented to be thoroughbred.
-From the Racing Calendar, and not from the Stud Book, we learn
-that he was foaled 1780, and came out of a mare represented to
-be by Turf, and she out of a mare by Regulus, son of Godolphin
-Arabian, etc., as represented by Mr. Weatherby in his Stud
-Book. By looking back to the beginning of this chapter the
-form in which the entry appears in the Stud Book will be fully
-comprehended. The identity, history, and breeding of the dam
-of Messenger is the central point in this inquiry, and we must do
-our work carefully and thoroughly. From the form of the entry
-in the Stud Book, it will be understood that the breeder of each
-animal is supposed to appear opposite the foals of his own breeding,
-but this we have found in more than a thousand instances
-to be wholly imaginary on the part of the compiler. If the
-animal ran, the name of the party running him is far more apt
-to appear than the name of the breeder. It will be observed,
-also, that the Turf fillies of 1773 and 1774 appear without their
-color being known. These fillies seem to be put in there to partially
-fill the gap between 1771 and 1777. Mr. Pick says the dam<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span>
-of Messenger was black, but he gives no account of her further
-than that. Whether Mr. Pick was indebted to Mr. Weatherby,
-or Weatherby to Pick, I cannot say, but they both give the
-pedigree just as we have given it in this country. I am not
-inquiring whether these authorities agree on this pedigree, but
-whether they knew anything about it, and whether there is such
-agreement in details between them as will support each other.</p>
-
-<p>The first question that arises in every man’s mind is, whether
-there is any further trace of this Turf mare, the reputed dam of
-Messenger, in the Stud Book, by whom was she bred and owned,
-and by whom was Messenger bred? Pick says the Turf mare was
-bred by Lord Bolingbroke, and Weatherby says she was bred by
-Lord Grosvenor. To test the question whether either is right,
-I have gone through the English Stud Book, page by page, and
-pedigree by pedigree, wherever I found the name of Lord
-Bolingbroke, or Lord Grosvenor, to see if any trace of the Turf
-mare could be found. I found no shadow of trace. The
-certificate of pedigree that came across the ocean with Messenger
-represents him to have been bred by John Pratt, and Mr. Pick,
-or rather his successor, Mr. Johnson, says he was bred and owned
-by Mr. Bullock. These clear and explicit declarations gave
-new hopes of finding something of the Turf mare, and at it I
-went again, and searched every pedigree that had the name of
-Mr. Pratt or Mr. Bullock attached to it, with no better results
-than before. Now, Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Grosvenor, Mr.
-Pratt and Mr. Bullock were all breeders, and if any of them
-ever owned the dam of Messenger and bred from her, none of
-her produce was ever recorded or ever started in a race.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, the more we search for the truth about Messenger and
-his origin, the more dense becomes the mystery. When we find
-an English authority that seems clear, we find another that contradicts
-him, and probably neither of them knows anything
-about it beyond uncertain tradition. When we consider these
-contradictions of authorities in connection with the fact that
-men were just as prone to lie and fix up a bogus pedigree a hundred
-years ago as they are to-day, and that stud-book makers
-were just as liable to be deceived then as now, we must conclude
-that there is room for very serious doubts as to whether
-Weatherby or Pick knew anything about the pedigree of Messenger,
-or by whom he was bred.</p>
-
-<p>In pushing our inquiries still further in search of this mare,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>
-we must consider somewhat in detail Mr. Weatherby’s methods
-and the degree of responsibility he assumed for the accuracy of his
-compilations. In 1791 he published what he called “An Introduction
-to a General Stud Book,” containing, as he says, “a small
-collection of pedigrees which he had extracted from racing calendars
-and sale papers, and arranged on a new plan.” In May,
-1800, he issued a supplement to his “Introduction” bringing
-down the produce of mares to 1799. In 1803 he issued what we
-suppose is the first edition of the first volume of the Stud Book.
-The title-page reads, “The General Stud Book, containing pedigrees
-of race horses, etc., from the Restoration to the present
-time.” The imprint is, “Printed for James Weatherby, 7
-Oxenden Street, etc., London, 1803.” The volume contains
-three hundred and eighty-four pages, while the edition of 1827
-contains four hundred and forty-eight pages. There is no
-“Volume I.” on the title-page, nor is there any indication that
-this is a continuation or revision of any preceding work. It
-brings down the list of produce in many cases to and including
-1803, but none later than that year, so there can be no mistake
-as to when it was issued.</p>
-
-<p>I have been thus particular in identifying this first edition
-of the first volume of the English Stud Book, for it gives us an
-insight into the methods employed by Mr. Weatherby in the progress
-of his work. Upon a careful comparison of the editions of
-1803 with 1827 extending through the letters A, B, and M, we
-find that he has thrown out more than ten per cent. of the entire
-families in the edition of 1803. By “entire families” I mean
-brood mares, with their lists of produce. In making these exclusions
-he seems to have confined himself to what may be considered
-the historic period, at that day, and did not go back
-further than about twenty years. Beyond that period everything
-was traditional, and he appears to have shrunk from all responsibility
-of attempting the exclusion of families. On and near the
-border line between these periods he seems to have taken the responsibility
-of cutting off a great many individuals of doubtful
-identity, even though the family was left to stand on its uncertain
-basis of tradition. I cannot say positively that the dam
-of Messenger and her sister were cut off with the multitude of
-others, but I can say that neither of them ever appeared again
-in the Stud Book. Other members of the family of the Regulus
-mare have places for their descendants in subsequent volumes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span>
-from which I would infer that Mr. Weatherby considered her
-breeding all right, but the two fillies, one of them the dam of
-Messenger, have been treated as spurious and wholly omitted
-from the records. These are the facts relating to these two
-fillies claimed originally to be by Turf, and there can be no moral
-doubt that they were omitted or excluded because Mr. Weatherby
-deemed them unsustained and probably spurious.</p>
-
-<p>In confirmation of the facts and circumstances already adduced,
-going to show that Messenger was not thoroughbred, we are now
-ready to consider one of the strongest arguments that can be
-advanced in support of that conclusion. This argument is
-founded on the laws of nature and is not dependent upon the
-mere writing down of uncertain traditions. Messenger possessed
-and transmitted qualities that no thoroughbred horse has
-ever transmitted, from the period when the breed of race horses
-was formed to the present day. It is practically conceded on all
-hands that Messenger, by his own power and by his own right,
-founded a family of trotting horses, and this fact will be fully
-demonstrated in coming chapters. It is equally plain and, with
-honest and intelligent people, it is accepted with equal readiness,
-that no thoroughbred horse has ever done this. This declaration
-has been much controverted, but always in a general way
-and without specifying any particular thoroughbred horse that
-had succeeded in establishing a family of trotters. In the progress
-of a discussion of this point with the late Charles J. Foster,
-a very clear and able writer, he was directly challenged, in a
-manner that could not be dodged, to name the thoroughbred
-horse outside of Messenger, that had accomplished this feat.
-Greatly to my surprise, and I might say, gratification, he came
-back at me with <i>two of Messenger’s sons</i>—Hambletonian and
-Mambrino. Thus he conceded the whole contention, for out of,
-literally, thousands he had to come back to two sons of Messenger.</p>
-
-<p>In reply to an article in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for December, 1887,
-going to show that Messenger was not a thoroughbred horse, Mr.
-Joseph Cairn Simpson, of California, an able man and a lifelong
-advocate of more running blood in the trotter, wrote a review of
-the article in question. After admitting the full force of the
-demonstration that Messenger was not a thoroughbred horse,
-there is one sentence to which Mr. Simpson cannot subscribe,
-and he quotes it as follows: “Complete and conclusive as these
-facts may be, there is still another fact equally complete and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span>
-still more convincing. Messenger possessed and transmitted
-qualities that no thoroughbred horse, in the experience of man,
-ever possessed and transmitted.” This was a declaration of Messenger
-as a progenitor against the whole world of thoroughbreds,
-and Mr. Simpson felt that he could not let it pass unchallenged,
-and after scratching about among the thousands of thoroughbreds
-without finding anything, like poor Mr. Foster, he
-“acknowledges the corn,” and comes back with Mambrino, <i>the
-son of Messenger</i>, without, seemingly, once realizing that he was
-proving my contention.</p>
-
-<p>The theory that if any other English race horse had been in
-Messenger’s place and bred upon the same mares and had his
-progeny developed as Messenger’s were developed, he would have
-produced the same results, has always been very popular with
-the advocates of “more running blood in the trotter.” No
-doubt there are still some honest, but not well-informed people,
-who hold to this view merely because they have never heard of
-any other imported English horses that were contemporaneous
-with Messenger, and hence have concluded there were none. If
-Messenger had been all alone during the twenty years of his stud
-services, as this theory assumes, there might be some reason to
-doubt whether some other English race horses might not have
-done just as well in establishing a line or tribe of trotters. But
-was he alone? From the close of the Revolutionary War to the
-end of the last century was a period of great activity and enterprise
-in the way of importing running horses from Great Britain.
-The blood of Herod and English Eclipse was in the highest estimate,
-not only in the old but in the new world, and a great many
-distinguished horses were brought over possessing those favorite
-strains. During that period racing was carried on with just as
-much spirit and <i>éclat</i> on Long Island and the river counties of
-New York, New Jersey, and some of the eastern counties of
-Pennsylvania as it was in Virginia and South Carolina. Horses
-of the most fashionable lineage were sought after and patronized,
-not by a few great breeding establishments, but by the farmers
-generally, in all the region here designated. The following list
-of imported English race horses is made up of animals that were
-contemporaneous with Messenger, covering the same mares and
-the offspring subjected to precisely the same treatment and conditions.
-The list is limited to what may be called the trotting
-latitudes, and embraces such animals only as were brought into<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>
-New Jersey, New York and Eastern Pennsylvania. We will not
-only give their names, but the blood elements also, so that all
-can see that Messenger not only had competitors but competitors
-of the highest grade of running blood.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Admiral, by Florizel, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Ancient Pistol, by Ancient Pistol, son of Snap.</li>
-<li>Arrakooker, by Drone, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Baronet, by Vertumnus, son of Eclipse.</li>
-<li>Benjamin, by Ruler, son of Young Marske.</li>
-<li>Creeper, by Tandem, son of Dainty Davy.</li>
-<li>Deserter, by Lenox, son of Delpini, by Highflyer.</li>
-<li>Dey of Algiers, Arabian.</li>
-<li>Diomed (Tate’s), by Phenomenon, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Driver, by Saltram, son of Eclipse.</li>
-<li>Drone, by King Herod.</li>
-<li>Dungannon (Young), by Dungannon.</li>
-<li>Expedition, by Pegasus, son of Eclipse.</li>
-<li>Express, by Postmaster, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Exton, by Highflyer, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Florizel, by Florizel, son of King Herod.</li>
-<li>Grand Seignor, Arabian.</li>
-<li>Highflyer (1782), by Highflyer.</li>
-<li>Highflyer (1792), by Highflyer.</li>
-<li>Highlander (Brown), by Paymaster.</li>
-<li>Highlander (Gray), by Bordeaux.</li>
-<li>Honest John, by Sir Peter Teazle.</li>
-<li>Joseph, by Ormond, son of King Fergus.</li>
-<li>King William, by King Herod.</li>
-<li>King William, by Paymaster.</li>
-<li>Light Infantry, by Eclipse.</li>
-<li>Magnetic Needle, by Magnet.</li>
-<li>Magnum Bonum, by Matchem.</li>
-<li>Nimrod, by King Fergus.</li>
-<li>North Star, by North Star, son of Matchem.</li>
-<li>Paymaster, by Paymaster.</li>
-<li>Prince Frederick, by Fortunio.</li>
-<li>Punch, by King Herod.</li>
-<li>Revenge, by Achilles.</li>
-<li>Rodney, by Paymaster.</li>
-<li>Royal George, by Jupiter, son of Eclipse.</li>
-<li>Royalist, by Saltram.</li>
-<li>Slender, by King Herod.</li>
-<li>Sour Crout, by Highflyer.</li>
-<li>Venetian, by Doge.</li>
-<li>Yorkshire, by Jupiter, son of Eclipse.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>Here we have forty-one imported English stallions, contemporaneous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span>
-with Messenger, occupying the same territory and
-covering the same mares that he covered. With the exceptions
-of two or three they were all ranked as not only thoroughbred,
-but they possessed the most fashionable and successful blood
-that England had then produced. A few of them were taken
-southward after a time, but the great body of them lived out
-their days here.</p>
-
-<p>To this great array of imported English running horses we
-might add hundreds of their sons, and yet not find one that claimed
-to be thoroughbred that ever became a trotting progenitor or
-founded a family of trotters. Mr. Foster and Mr. Simpson, by far
-the two ablest writers on the wrong side of the question that this
-country has produced, with this list of forty English stallions
-before them from which to select their proof that Messenger was
-not the only progenitor of trotters, were at last compelled to
-take two of Messengers sons, as trotting progenitors, to prove
-that their sire was not a trotting progenitor. If the intellectual
-powers of these two gentlemen had enabled them to scratch ever
-so little beneath the glittering surface of the word “thoroughbred,”
-they would have saved themselves from this humiliating
-exhibition of absurdity.</p>
-
-<p>What was true of Messenger’s contemporaries is equally true
-of all the strictly thoroughbred stallions that have lived on the
-earth from his day to the present. No one of them has ever
-founded a trotting family and no one of them has ever got a trotter
-out of a mare of his own kind. Out of the half-dozen instances
-on record where a thoroughbred horse has got a trotter there is
-no one instance in which the dam did not have a strong pacing
-or trotting inheritance. If we accept the known and recorded
-experiences of the past seventy years, in the trotting world, we
-find two great facts on every page of the record. First, Messenger
-left a family of trotters; second, no other thoroughbred
-horse did that. It follows, then, that if Messenger transmitted
-capacities different from those transmitted by thoroughbred
-horses, he must have had a different inheritance from thoroughbred
-horses, and if different, then that inheritance could not have
-been thoroughbred. From the facts we have developed in the
-history of his English ancestors; from the ten thousand demonstrations
-of his American descendants, and from the great laws
-which govern the transmission of special capacities, we are forced
-to the conclusion that Messenger was not a thoroughbred horse.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HISTORY OF MESSENGER.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Messenger’s racing in England—His breeder unknown—Popular uncertainty
-about the circumstances and date of his importation—The matter settled
-by his first advertisement—Uncertainty as to his importer—Description of
-Messenger by David W. Jones, of Long Island—Careful consensus of descriptions
-by many who had seen Messenger—His great and lasting popularity
-as a stock horse—Places and prices of his services for twenty years—Death
-and burial.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Messenger made his first appearance on the turf in October,
-1783, then three years old, and ran twice, successfully, that year.
-He continued on the turf till November, 1785, winning eight
-races, losing six and receiving forfeits in two. Most of his races
-were practically matches, and all were single dashes but one, in
-which he was beaten. Two of his winnings were less than a
-mile, five at the distance of a mile and a quarter, and one at two
-miles. These distances are approximate. He was beaten at two
-and a quarter miles, three, and three and a half miles. He
-never appeared in any great racing event, but seemed to be
-managed with a special view to picking up small prizes at short
-distances. His owner and manager, Mr. Bullock, was a very
-shrewd “professional” at Newmarket, he had quite a number of
-horses in the same stable with Messenger and some of them seem
-to have been selected always to run for the more valuable prizes.
-Considering the short distances he was able to run and the unimportant
-character of the contests in which he was engaged, we
-must conclude that Messenger was a very ordinary race horse.</p>
-
-<p>It is not known by whom Messenger was bred. In his first
-advertisement in this country it is stated that he was bred by
-John Pratt, of Newmarket, but in the fourth volume of Pick’s
-“Turf Register,” continued by Johnson, it is stated explicitly that
-he “was bred by and the property of Mr. Bullock, of Newmarket.”
-Mr. John Pratt was a breeder as well as a racing man of some
-prominence, in his day, and the certificate of pedigree from him
-and purporting to have been issued by him was probably a fraud,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span>
-as he died May 8, 1785. This was while Messenger was still on
-the turf, and owned and controlled by Mr. Bullock for two years
-previous to this, still no mention is made of the fact, and Mr.
-Pratt is made to say that he sold him to the Prince of Wales,
-while all the evidence, which must necessarily be of a negative
-character, goes to show that the Prince of Wales never owned
-him. Mr. Pratt was a Yorkshire man, of Askrigg, in the North
-Riding, and although he died at Newmarket we have no trace
-of any of the family from which the dam of Messenger was said
-to have descended ever being in his possession. Besides this, it
-is not likely that the importer of Messenger got a certificate from
-him two years after his death.</p>
-
-<p>The different representations that have been made about Messenger’s
-importation would fill a much larger space than would
-be profitable. About no horse has there been so much written,
-and about no horse has there been so little really known. His
-character and memory have never suffered defamation, for every
-writer was a eulogist of the most enthusiastic type, whether he
-knew anything of his hero or not. As a specimen of the admiration
-which he excited, it has been told a hundred times that
-when the horse came cavorting down the gangplank from the
-ship, with a groom hanging on to each side of his head, literally
-carrying them for some distance before he could be checked, an
-enthusiastic horseman shouted out, “There, in that horse a million
-dollars strikes American soil.” This story has been told so
-often, even in England, that no doubt many people believe the
-startling prophecy was really uttered. Indeed we have heard the
-name of the prophet, but as he was a distinguished New Yorker
-and as debarkation took place at Philadelphia, we never have
-been able to fully reconcile the actor with the occasion. The
-reputed prophecy, like the reputed pedigree, seems to have been
-an afterthought, but unlike the pedigree it proved true, whether
-uttered or not. Some said he was imported 1785, while others
-dribble along through the intermediate years till 1800 was fixed
-upon with great positiveness as the precise year. One of these
-gentlemen, we remember very well, was entirely confident he
-returned to England and was brought back again after a number
-of years. Less than twenty years ago the breeding world was
-favored with scores upon scores of this kind of teachers, not one
-of whom knew what he was talking about. The most surprising
-example of this kind of writing, however, is furnished by Mr. C.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>
-W. Van Ranst, himself, who was part owner of the horse a number
-of years. In a communication published in Skinner’s “Turf
-Register,” 1831, he says Messenger was imported into New York
-in 1792, and in the same publication for 1834 he says he was imported
-into New York 1791. As the sequel will show, Mr. Van
-Ranst, although his owner, had no definite knowledge of the
-early history of the horse.</p>
-
-<p>From some slight investigations I became satisfied, years before,
-that Messenger made his first appearance in this country at
-Philadelphia, and that he was imported into that city instead of
-New York. In that view all the writers of the whole country
-were opposed to me; but, as it became more and more evident
-that those writers were merely copying from one another and
-that none of them had ever made an honest search for the truth,
-I resolved to follow my own convictions and to commence
-there an investigation that would settle the matter one way or
-the other. In a few hours after reaching that city I found a
-file of the old <i>Pennsylvania Packet</i>, and in the number dated May
-27, 1788, an advertisement of which the following is a true copy:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="center">JUST IMPORTED</p>
-
-<p class="center">The capital, strong, full blooded, English stallion,</p>
-
-<p class="center">MESSENGER.</p>
-
-<p>To cover mares this season at Alexander Clay’s, at the sign of the Black
-Horse, in Market Street, Philadelphia, at the very low price of three guineas
-each mare, and one dollar to the groom.</p>
-
-<p>Messenger was bred by John Pratt, Esq., of Newmarket, who certifies the
-following pedigree. The grey horse Messenger was bred by me and sold to the
-Prince of Wales; he was got by Mambrino (who covered at twenty-five guineas
-a leap). His dam by Turf, his grandam by Regulus; this Regulus mare was
-sister to Figerant and was the dam of Leviathan. <span class="smcap">John Pratt.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The performance of Messenger has been so very great that there need only
-be a reference to the racing calendar of the years 1783, 1784 and 1785.</p>
-
-<p>Any mare missing this season shall be served the next gratis, provided
-they continue the same properties, on paying the groom’s fees.</p>
-
-<p>This is a literal copy of the first printed announcement of Messenger
-in this country, and there are two very striking features
-connected with it, namely, its bad grammar and the absence of
-the name of the importer and owner. The former we may
-attribute to the times, but to the latter I have been disposed to
-attach no trifling significance. It is a fact that till this day we
-have no direct information as to who imported this horse. The
-name “Benger” was developed indirectly as the man, but not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span>
-till years after the horse was dead, and probably the importer too,
-did I learn from an advertisement of a son of his that stood in
-Jersey that the importer’s name was “Thomas Benger.” In 1791
-and for two years afterward he was advertised to stand at “Mount
-Benger, two miles from Bristol, Pennsylvania.” When I visited
-Bristol for the purpose of identifying “Mount Benger,” which I
-supposed was the country seat of the owner of Messenger, I was
-greatly surprised to find that none of the “oldest inhabitants”
-had ever heard of such a place, and when I was informed that
-there was no locality within half a dozen miles of Bristol where
-the ground rose to a hundred feet above the level of the Delaware
-River, the name “Mount Benger” assumed the character of an
-absurdity as well as a myth. From a very intelligent man of
-middle age, who had learned the blacksmith trade with his grandfather,
-I learned that he had often heard his grandfather speak of
-Messenger, and as having put the last set of shoes on him when
-he was taken away to New York the fall the yellow fever was so
-bad in Philadelphia. The tradition was still preserved in the
-family that Messenger reared up in crossing the river in a boat,
-and struck his groom on the head with one of those shoes, from
-the effects of which he died. As our informant was able to name
-two other horses, Governor and Babel, brought over by Mr.
-Benger, we were ready to accept his tradition that he lived at a
-point known in old times as “China Retreat,” two miles below
-Bristol on the Delaware. This point has been known later as
-“White Hall.”</p>
-
-<p>After all traditions were exhausted, without yielding anything
-tangible or satisfactory, we turned with great confidence to the
-records of the county of Bucks, in which Mr. “Benger” had
-lived for a number of years. After a diligent and protracted
-search, embracing a number of years before and after his known
-residence in the county, we were not able to discover that any
-person by the name of “Benger” had ever owned a foot of real
-estate in the county or had been in any way publicly connected
-with its affairs or its administration. We had search made in
-Philadelphia with the same fruitless results. There is a faint
-tradition that Thomas Benger, if that was his name, was a fox-hunting
-Irish baronet, and if this was so, it is probable he returned
-to the old country about the time he sold Messenger in
-1793. However this may be, the owner is forgotten, but his
-horse will live forever.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span></p>
-
-<p>Among the many eulogies and word-paintings of Messenger,
-by writers who knew the horse personally, we select the following
-from the pen of the late David W. Jones, of Long Island, as
-the most striking and picturesque. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Having scanned in my boyhood the magnificent form and bearing of this
-noble old horse, and for more than half a century having drawn reins over his
-descendants, I have for a length of time felt it incumbent to furnish such facts
-and impressions, as, when considered with those of others, will give the
-younger portion of the present generation, as well as posterity, a fair knowledge
-of the general characteristics of the noblest Roman of them all. The first time
-I ever saw old Messenger my father sent me to the farm of Townsend Cock,
-Esq., of the County of Queens, L. I., where the horse was then standing, to
-receive his services. On my arrival at his harem, I found the groom, whom I
-knew, and he at once placed me with the mare a short distance from the stable,
-by the side of a barrier erected for security. Having at home heard frequent
-and long discussions in relation to the wonder I was now to behold, you may
-suppose I was all eyes. Presently the stalwart groom, James Lingham, with,
-at the extreme end of the bridle rein, all the blood of all the Howards, turned
-the angle of the stable and came in full view. The moment the old horse
-caught sight of the paragon of beauty I had brought to his embrace, he threw
-himself into an attitude, with the grandeur of which no other animal can compare,
-and at the same moment opened his mouth, and distending his nostrils,
-raised his exultant voice to such a pitch as gave unmistakable evidence of the
-capacity of his lungs and the size of his windpipe. Indeed, if his nostrils were
-as much larger than ordinary as my boyish vision pictured them, I can almost
-suppose that Mr. McMann with his little bay mare (Flora Temple), and sulky,
-could drive in at one, down the windpipe, turn under his immensely long
-arching loin and out at the other.... At that early day I was only impressed
-by those extraordinary developments; but in after years as I sit behind
-his offspring, they invariably remind me of what was then to my youthful
-judgment less apparent—the extraordinary strength of his loin, the length
-and beautiful molding of the buttock, the faultless shape of the crupper
-bone, giving an elegant set to his fine flowing tail, as well as the remarkable
-swell of his stifle, altogether forming a most perfect and powerful hind
-quarter.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>A good many years ago I made a special study of all that had
-been written about Messenger, and I was fortunate in being able
-to supplement this information by interviews with a few old
-gentlemen who knew the horse personally. Nearly all that
-generation of horsemen had passed away before I commenced this
-personal search for them. But a few then remained with excellent
-memories and with characters above suspicion or reproach.
-From these sources I gathered a great many incidents, facts and
-descriptions which I succeeded in harmonizing, to my own mind<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span>
-at least, and thus was able, to compile a complete description of
-the horse at every point. That description was written out more
-than twenty years ago, and in presenting it now I will not change
-a single word. At the time it was written, as will be seen from
-its perusal, I had really no doubt the horse was thoroughbred. It
-will not be charged, therefore, that the coarse traits brought out
-in the description were influenced in any degree by a theory of
-his breeding:</p>
-
-<p>“Messenger was a grey, that became lighter and flea-bitten
-with age. He was fifteen hands three inches high, and for a
-thoroughbred his appearance was coarse. He did not supply the
-mind with an idea of beauty, but he impressed upon it a conception
-of solidity and power. His head was large and bony, with
-a nose that had a decided Roman tendency, though not to a
-marked degree. His nostrils were unusually large and flexible,
-and when distended they were enormous. His eye was large,
-full, very dark and remarkably brilliant. In this particular he
-does not appear to have inherited the weakness of his great-grandsire,
-Sampson. His ear was larger than usual in the blood horse,
-but thin and tapering and always active and expressive. The
-windpipe was so unusually large and stood out so much as a distinct
-feature that it marred what otherwise would have been a
-gamelike throat-latch and setting on of the head. His neck
-was very short for a blood horse, but was not coarse and thick
-like a bull’s; neither did it rise into such an enormous crest as
-that of his sire. It was not a bad neck in any sense, but like
-Lexington’s of our own day, it was too short to be handsome.
-His mane and foretop were thin and light. His withers were
-low and round, which appears to have been a family characteristic
-in the male line, back for three generations at least. His
-shoulders were heavy and altogether too upright for our ideas of
-a race horse. His barrel was perfection itself, both for depth
-and rotundity. His loin was well arched, broad and strong.
-His hips and quarters were ‘incomparably superior to all others.’
-The column of the vertebra being of unusual depth and strength,
-gave the setting on of the tail a distinctive, but elegant character.
-The tail was carried in fine style; like the mane, it was not in
-superabundant quantity, but there was no such scantiness as to
-detract from the beauty and grace of the animal. His stifles
-were well spread and swelling, but there appears to have been no
-unusual development at this point. From the stifle to the hock<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span>
-and from the elbow to the knee, no writer that we can now recall
-has given us any description of either length or strength. We
-may, therefore, take it for granted that these points had no unusual
-development of muscle, but were in harmony with the
-general contour and make-up of a great strong horse. His hocks
-and knees were unusually large and bony, with all the members
-strong and clearly defined. The cannon bones were short and
-flat and the ligaments back of them were very large and braced a
-good way off, so that the leg was broad and flat. Mr. Jones says
-this part of the limb was of medium size, but other writers all
-agree that he had an unusual amount of bone at this point.
-Considering the whole style and character of the horse, and
-especially the character of his ancestors in the male line, and of
-Turf, the [reputed] sire of his dam, all of whom were distinguished
-for their quantity of bone, we are disposed to think Mr.
-Jones’ memory has not served him with entire accuracy in this
-particular. The conviction is reasonable and grows out of evidence
-that comes from every quarter, and we have no disposition
-to surrender it, that the bones of Messenger’s limbs were unusually
-large and strong for those of a thoroughbred. His
-pasterns and feet were all that could be desired, and as an evidence
-of the excellence and health of his underpinning several
-writers have put it on record that whether in the stable or on
-the show ground he never was known to mopingly rest one leg
-by standing on the other three, but was always prompt and
-upright. This is our conception of the form and appearance of
-the horse as we have reached it after a diligent and careful study of
-all that has been said by those who saw him while he lived.
-From this description it is a very easy matter to pick out the
-features which gave him his coarse and badly bred appearance.
-His big head, long ears, short neck, low withers, upright shoulders,
-large bones and, possibly, coarse hair, complete the catalogue.
-From these features the purity of his blood has been doubted
-and denounced, just as that of his sire, his grandsire and his
-great-grandsire had been denounced. The coarseness, the cart-horse
-appearance was in the family, but it did not seem to prevent
-some of them from beating some of the best that England produced
-in successive generations. There are many traditions that
-have been handed down to us concerning his temper, some of
-which, no doubt, have accumulated and gathered strength and
-ferocity in the years through which they have rolled. There<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span>
-have been perhaps half a dozen stories about his killing his
-keepers, but we are not able to say whether any one of them is
-true. It is known with certainty, however, that he was willful
-and vicious and would tolerate no familiarity from strangers.”</p>
-
-<p>The ownership of Messenger, after he was transferred from
-Philadelphia to New York, like his earlier history, seems to be
-very much muddled. Henry Astor, a New York butcher, certainly
-bought him in the fall of 1793, and located him at Philip
-Platt’s, four miles from Jamaica, on Long Island. In the spring
-of 1796 Mr. Cornelius W. Van Ranst bought one-third interest
-in him and removed him to Pine Plains in Dutchess County, New
-York, and, without specifying the time, he says he afterward
-purchased the remaining two-thirds, for which he paid two thousand
-seven hundred and fifty dollars. There appears to have
-been some mistake about this, for in 1802 we find Henry Astor, of
-New York, conveying one-third interest in the horse to Benjamin
-B. Cooper, of Camden, New Jersey. Some other parties also
-claim to have owned an interest in the horse, and I heard that
-there was a lawsuit about him between Astor and Van Ranst.
-The latter claims to have owned an interest in him till the time
-of his death, in 1808. It is not known how much Mr. Astor paid
-for him when he bought him, nor have I any data from which to
-determine the probable market value of the horse except that
-Mr. Van Ranst says he paid two thousand seven hundred and
-fifty dollars for two-thirds of him. If we accept this as a basis,
-he must have been valued at about four thousand one hundred
-and twenty-five dollars. It is true, beyond doubt, that for several
-years he brought to his owners a net annual rental of one thousand
-dollars. This would indicate a very large patronage at very high
-prices for those times. For the twenty years of his stud services
-in this country, we find him located as follows:</p>
-
-<p>1788, at Alexander Clay’s, Market Street, Philadelphia, at $15
-the season and $1 to the groom, privilege of returning.</p>
-
-<p>1789, at Thomas Clayton’s, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, at
-$10 the season and $1 to the groom.</p>
-
-<p>1790, at Noah Hunt’s, in the Jersies, near Pennington, at $8.</p>
-
-<p>1791, at “Mount Benger,” two miles from Bristol, Bucks Co.,
-Pa., at $16.</p>
-
-<p>1792, at the same place and the same price.</p>
-
-<p>1793, at the same place and the same price.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span></p>
-
-<p>1794, at Philip Platt’s, fifteen miles from New York and four
-from Jamaica, Long Island, at $25 the season.</p>
-
-<p>1795, at the same place and the same price, when, as Mr. Van
-Ranst expressed it, “he took with our horsemen.”</p>
-
-<p>1796, at Pine Plains, Dutchess County, N. Y., where he covered
-106 mares at $30 the season.</p>
-
-<p>1797, I have no advertisement for this year, but it is probable
-he was at the same place at the same price.</p>
-
-<p>1798, at Pine Plains, as before, and the terms $30 for the season
-and $40 to insure.</p>
-
-<p>1799, I have no definite trace of him this year, but there are
-some indications he was in West Jersey.</p>
-
-<p>1800, for the spring season he is not located, but he made a
-fall season at John Stevens’ in Maidenhead, Hunterdon Co., N. J.</p>
-
-<p>1801, at Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., and I have seen the
-book account of expenses, etc., while he was there.</p>
-
-<p>1802, at Cooper’s Ferry, opposite Philadelphia, Pa., but the
-price of services is not mentioned.</p>
-
-<p>1803, at Townsend Cock’s, near Oyster Bay, Long Island, at
-$20 the season.</p>
-
-<p>1804, at the same place and the same price.</p>
-
-<p>1805, at Bishop Underhill’s, in Westchester Co., N. Y., fifteen
-miles from Harlem Bridge. Price reduced to $15.</p>
-
-<p>1806, back again at Townsend Cock’s, and the terms fixed at $15
-for the season, and $25 to insure.</p>
-
-<p>1807, again at Bishop Underhill’s on the same terms as before,
-and this was the last of his twenty years’ stud services. It will
-be observed that the horse is located every year except two, and
-these locations are determined, not by tradition or hearsay, but
-by copies of his advertisements for each year. In giving the
-prices charged for his services I have given the value of the
-guinea or the pound as five dollars.</p>
-
-<p>Messenger died January 28, 1808, in the stable of Townsend
-Cock, on Long Island, in his twenty-eighth year. This date has
-been as familiar to all intelligent horsemen for the last forty
-years as any prominent event in the history of the nation. The
-news of the death of the old patriarch spread with great rapidity,
-and soon the whole countryside was gathered to see the last of
-the king of horses and to assist at his burial. His grave was prepared
-at the foot of a chestnut-tree some distance in front of
-the house, and there he was deposited in his holiday clothing.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span>
-In response to the consciousness that a hero was there laid away
-forever a military organization was extemporized, and volley
-after volley by platoons was fired over his grave. Some of the
-young men and boys who witnessed and participated in the ceremonies
-of the occasion were still living twenty years ago, and as
-they related the incidents of the occasion to me, their recollections
-seemed to be as clear and bright as though the occurrence
-had been of yesterday.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.<br />
-<span class="smaller">MESSENGER’S SONS.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader R. Colden’s
-review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville, N. Y.—Some of his
-descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse in appearance—Failure as a
-runner—Good natural trotter—His most famous sons were Abdallah,
-Almack and Mambrino Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his
-pedigree and history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly a
-son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree and description—Noted
-as the sire of coach horses and trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir
-Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black
-Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga, Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly,
-Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander, Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher,
-Shaftsbury, Hotspur, Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse
-of the name “Messenger.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It is not my purpose to write a history of all the descendants
-of Messenger, for that would fill several volumes and would be
-simply writing over again the trotting and pacing records of the
-past twenty years. I will, therefore, limit the chapters on this
-topic to such of his descendants as have demonstrated the value
-and prominence of their blood, as a factor, in the make-up of
-the American Trotter. Naturally, the immediate progeny of
-Messenger will first demand consideration, and then will follow
-the succeeding generations that have written their own history
-in the official records of trotting and pacing. Completeness of
-description and space occupied will be determined, chiefly, by
-the prominence and historic value of the animal under review.
-In this scope and without following any chronological order, I
-will try to embrace all that is known that would be of value to
-the student of trotting-horse history.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hambletonian</span> (<span class="smcap">Bishop’s</span>), originally called <span class="smcap">Hamiltonian</span>.—This
-was a dark-bay horse about fifteen hands two inches high.
-He was bred by General Nathaniel Coles, of Dosoris, Long
-Island, and was foaled 1804. He was got by Messenger, his dam
-Pheasant (the Virginia Mare), said to be thoroughbred, by imp.
-Shark and grandam by imp. Medley. I first unearthed the pedigree<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>
-of this “Virginia Mare” in the advertisement of Hambletonian
-for 1814 when he was owned by Townsend Cock and standing
-that year at Goshen, New York. The “Old Turfman,” Cadwallader
-R. Colden, was thoroughly familiar with all turf subjects in
-the early years of this century, and was the best turf writer of his
-generation. He had no patience or tolerance with frauds in
-pedigrees and always exposed them without mercy. He stoutly
-maintains that the pedigree of the “Virginia Mare” was bogus,
-and, to use his own language, he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“When Hambletonian became a public stallion, his owners were in a dilemma;
-a <i>pedigree</i> was necessary, so to work they went, and, as many had done
-before and as many are doing now, <i>made one</i>; and in his handbills his dam was
-given as bred in Virginia, and got by imported Shark, with a train of maternal
-ancestors, with as much truth, and affording as much ability to trace it or
-discover the breeder of the dam, as though they had said <i>hi, cockalorum jig</i>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Colden goes into the pedigree of this mare and the non-racing
-character of her family at great length, and it cannot be denied
-that he has the whole argument. As a specimen of sharp and
-interesting turf writing of that period and from that pen, I must
-commend my readers to turn to this article, which will be found
-in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, Vol. II., p. 67.</p>
-
-<p>With the probabilities all against the truthfulness of the pedigree
-of the dam, as given, it is certainly true that he was a running
-horse and attained distinction in his day. I have no full
-list of his performances at hand, but the following may be taken as
-a fair summary of his principal achievements. He ran at Newmarket
-in the spring of 1807 (then three years old), one mile,
-beating General Coles’ colt Bright Phœbus, Mr. Terhune’s bay
-filly, and distancing two others. He also ran, two days after the
-above race, four heats of a mile each, beating Bright Phœbus
-again and distancing three others. In the fall of 1808 he ran
-five weeks successively, and the three last weeks he won three
-four-mile purses, running the distance in shorter time than it
-ever had been run in the State of New York. I must say here that
-these races were run on the then Harlem course, which was not a
-full mile in length.</p>
-
-<p>While Hambletonian was on the turf, Tippoo Sultan, a grandson
-of Messenger, beat Bond’s First Consul in a famous four-mile
-race, and Mr. Bond determined that he would find a horse that
-would be able to lower Tippoo Sultan’s colors, and it was thought<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>
-there was nothing in the North able to do it except Miller’s Damsel,
-so he made a match for four thousand dollars a side on condition
-that Damsel should prove not to be in foal. But the mare
-proving to be in foal the match was off. He then took Hambletonian
-into his stable and offered to match him for the same
-amount against Tippoo Sultan, but he went amiss and the match
-was off. This incident is here introduced to show that whatever
-his real merits, Hambletonian had some reputation as a running
-horse. It was said that the secret of Mr. Colden’s hostility to
-the “Virginia Mare” and her descendants was because those
-descendants were always able to beat the descendants of his
-fashionably bred mare Matilda. Whatever the motive in exposing
-a pedigree that has never been fully established, there is one
-particular and that the most important of all particulars, in
-which Mr. Colden has done justice to Hambletonian. He says:
-“<i>Hambletonian got some excellent roadsters, good trotters.</i>”</p>
-
-<p>There seems to be no description of this horse extant that is
-fully satisfactory. For some seasons he was in the hands of Mr.
-Daniel T. Cock, who in 1869 furnished me the following: “He
-was a dark bay, a little heavy about the head and neck, fifteen
-and a half hands high, and rather an upright shoulder. Back,
-loin and hind quarters as good as were ever put on a horse. Fore
-legs a little light, but hind legs strong and good—pretty straight.
-He was a beautiful saddle horse, notwithstanding his head and
-ear were a little coarse.” Other persons who had seen him have
-described him as “a great strong horse, with bone and substance
-enough to pull the plow or do any other kind of drudgery.” It
-has been said that he had a fine open trotting gait and that, in a
-cutter with old Isaac Bishop behind him, he was able to show the
-boys the road.</p>
-
-<p>In 1807 he became the property of Townsend Cock, of Long
-Island, and he remained on the turf till 1810, when he was put in
-the stud. That and the following season he was at the stable of
-his owner; 1812 at Cornwall; 1813 at Fishkill; 1814 at Goshen;
-1815-16 at Fishkill; 1817 at White Plains. In the winter of
-1819 Mr. Cock sold him to Stephen and Smith Germond of Dutchess
-County, New York, and Isaac Bishop of Granville, New
-York. The latter was probably the real owner, and the horse
-then became known as “Bishop’s Hambletonian.” He made
-several seasons in the region of Granville and was back in Dutchess
-County 1823 and 1824. The next year he was at Granville—1825.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>
-He made one season, at least, at Burlington, Vermont,
-and some seasons or parts of seasons at Poultney, Vermont. It
-is said he lived till 1834.</p>
-
-<p>At Wallingford, Vermont, he was bred upon the “Munson
-Mare,” said to be a daughter of imported Messenger, and doubtless
-either by him or one of his earlier sons, and the produce
-was Harris’ Hambletonian, also known as “The Remington
-Horse” and Bristol Grey, and this son became the progenitor of
-a great tribe of trotters, known as the “Vermont Hambletonians,”
-some of which were very fast pacers, among them the
-famous Hero, the fastest of his generation. Another son of
-Mr. Bishop’s horse was the Judson Hambletonian, that was the
-sire of the Andrus horse, that got the famous Princess, that was
-pitted against Flora Temple. He was also bred on his half-sister,
-Silvertail, by Messenger, and produced One Eye, a very fast mare,
-the grandam of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, and I have always
-thought that this combination was the very cream of the pedigree
-of that great horse. He was also bred on a daughter of Mr.
-Coffin’s son of Messenger and produced Whalebone, that was the
-phenomenal long-distance trotter of his generation. His son, Sir
-Peter, out of an unknown mare, was also a famous old-time trotter.
-One of his daughters was bred to Coriander, son of Messenger,
-and the produce was Topgallant, the fastest horse of his
-time. These individual enumerations might be extended indefinitely,
-but I have given enough to show that he was not
-merely a progenitor of trotting speed in remote generations, but
-that speed came directly from his own loins. Another most significant
-fact is here brought to light, namely, that when bred
-back upon the blood of his own sire he achieved his greatest successes.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino.</span>—This great son of Messenger was a bright bay
-with a star and one white ankle. He was fully sixteen hands
-high, with great length of body and generally of coarse appearance.
-He was foaled 1806, and was bred by Mr. Lewis Morris, of
-Westchester County, New York. His dam was by imported
-Sour Grout, out of a mare by imported Whirligig, and she out of
-the famous Miss Slammerkin, that is a well-known landmark
-reaching beyond the Revolution. The late William T. Porter, of
-the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>, stoutly maintained that Mambrino was
-not a thoroughbred horse, and his reasons seemed to rest wholly
-upon his coarse and cart-horse appearance. Technically, Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>
-Porter was right, but the trouble did not rest with the dam, as
-he seems to have supposed, for I have seen the original certificate
-of breeding in the handwriting of Mr. Morris, his breeder, and
-there is no slip on that side of the pedigree. Mr. Morris was a
-prominent breeder and racing man for many years and his character
-was without taint. The pedigree is a very long one and I
-would be very far from vouching for the truth of the remote
-extensions, but back to the mare by Cub, imported by Mr. De
-Lancey, who bred Miss Slammerkin, there can be no mistake.</p>
-
-<p>In the spring of 1810, then four years old, he was purchased
-of his breeder by Major William Jones, of Queens County, Long
-Island, and in the autumn of that year he was trained and ran
-for the two-mile purse at the old Newmarket Course, Long
-Island, and it is said gave some evidence that he could run, but
-after that he was never trained nor started in a race, from which
-we may conclude he was not a race horse, or his owner, who bred
-and ran his horses, would have given him another trial.</p>
-
-<p>In 1811 he was put in the stud and made the season at Huntington,
-Long Island, in charge of Ebenezer Gould. It is not
-known where he made the season of 1812, but probably in Orange
-or Dutchess County. The years 1813-14-15 he was in charge of
-my late highly esteemed and venerable correspondent, David W.
-Jones, on the borders of Queens and Suffolk counties, Long
-Island, where he covered about two hundred and fifty mares.
-In 1816 he was in one of the river counties, in 1817 at Fishkill,
-and 1818 at Townsend Cock’s, Long Island. In later years he
-changed hands many times, at from two hundred to two hundred
-and fifty dollars, and there is no published trace of him till we
-find that he made the seasons of 1825 and 1829 at Pleasant Valley,
-Dutchess County, and he died the property of Benjamin Germond,
-on the farm of Azariah Arnold in Dutchess County, about
-1831.</p>
-
-<p>He took his beautiful color from his dam and transmitted it
-with great uniformity. His general structure was after the Messenger
-model, especially in the large bones and joints of his
-limbs. His head was long and bony and his ears were large and
-somewhat heavy. He was too high on his legs and his general
-appearance was coarse, all of which he transmitted. In speaking
-of his offspring Mr. Jones remarks: “When young they were
-somewhat leggy and lathy, but spirited, stylish and slashing in
-action. When matured, he must indeed be fastidious who would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>
-crave another.” With regard to his gait Mr. Jones uses the
-following very emphatic language: “I have been the breeder of
-some, and the owner of many good horses, and with the best
-opportunities of judging, having ridden him (he was never driven)
-many, many miles, I say, with entire confidence, he was the best
-natural trotter I ever threw a leg over. His walk was free, flinging
-and elastic; his trot clear, square and distinct, with a beautiful
-roll of the knee and great reach of the hind leg.” In the
-absence of actual training and timing, it is hardly possible to get
-better evidence that Mambrino was a natural trotter that might
-have been developed to a considerable rate of speed. It would
-be interesting to know just why the horse “never was driven.”
-Did he show an unconquerable aversion to harness, and did
-Abdallah inherit this aversion? This description of Mambrino’s
-gait was written in 1866, and the writer had spent a long lifetime
-in an intimate personal knowledge of many, or indeed most, of
-the best early trotters that this country had produced.</p>
-
-<p>The only one of his immediate progeny that attained distinction
-as a trotter was the famous Betsey Baker. This mare was
-very prominent among the best of her day, and was able, on one
-occasion at least, to beat the great Topgallant, and in tandem
-with Grey Harry when she was old she trotted in 2:41¾-2:43¾.
-Others of his progeny were trotters of some merit, but none of
-them especially distinguished on the turf. His three sons, Abdallah,
-Almack and Mambrino Paymaster, are the bright links in the
-chain extending from Messenger to the two-minute trotter that
-will keep his memory green as long as there is a trotting horse
-on the earth. Abdallah at the head of the Hambletonians,
-Almack at the head of the Champions, and Mambrino Paymaster
-at the head of the Mambrino Chiefs embrace the major portion
-of the great trotters of this generation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Winthrop, or Maine Messenger.</span>—Perhaps no son of Messenger,
-not excepting Hambletonian and Mambrino, produced a
-more marked effect upon the stock of any part of the country
-than this horse did in the State of Maine. The impress he there
-made was not only remarkable at the time, but it is still felt and
-acknowledged in his descendants to this day. There have been
-many conflicting statements made to the public about him and
-his history, but I think I am now able to give, in authentic and
-reliable form, all that is really known of his origin and history.
-He was foaled about 1807 and was among the last colts by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>
-imported horse, but unfortunately we know nothing of the blood
-of his dam. Mr. Alvan Hayward, for many years a citizen of
-Kennebec County, Maine, but more recently of York, Livingston
-County, New York, says his dam possessed some imported blood;
-but as all his records and memoranda were burned up in 1845 he
-is not able to give the pedigree of the mare that produced him.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Hayward bought the horse about 1817 or 1818, in the
-village of Paris, Oneida County, New York, of a man by the
-name of Rice or Wright, but did not remember which. He
-took him to Winthrop, Maine, where he was first known as
-“Messenger,” then as “Kennebec Messenger,” or “Winthrop
-Messenger,” and when he became old, as “Old Messenger.” The
-earliest contemporaneous account I have of this horse is his
-advertisement for the season of 1819, which I copy from the
-Hallowell <i>Gazette</i> of May 12, of that year, and is as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="center">“THE VALUABLE HORSE MESSENGER.</p>
-
-<p>“The subscriber hereby recommends to the public and all who feel interested
-to improve in the breed of good and serviceable horses, the good horse Messenger,
-that stock so well known and approved of on Long Island, New York,
-and Pennsylvania. Said horse was raised on Long Island, and owned by Mr.
-Rylander, a gentleman who has taken the greatest pains to import the best
-breed of horses that came to his knowledge. Said horse is a silver grey, well
-proportioned, of a large size, and a good traveler. Gentlemen who are desirous
-of raising good horses will do well to call and see for themselves.</p>
-
-<p>“The Messenger will stand for the most part of the time in the village at
-Withrop Mills.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Alvan Hayward.</span></p>
-
-<p>“Winthrop, May 1st, 1819.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From the foregoing it will be seen that the new element,
-brought out in the history of this horse is the statement that he
-was owned at one time by Mr. Rylander, of Long Island. There
-were two brothers of this name, and they imported a great many
-horses, but never before had I heard their names connected with
-Winthrop Messenger. This carries us back to a period in the
-history of the horse before he was taken to Oneida County.</p>
-
-<p>Colonel Stanley, a prominent banker of Augusta, and at one
-time a leading horseman and stage proprietor, bought Messenger
-of his kinsman, Hayward, and owned him some seven years. He
-says the horse was brought to Maine as early as 1816, and that
-his Uncle Hayward had certificates that he was got by imported
-Messenger, out of a mare well-bred and part of imported blood.</p>
-
-<p>In a communication from Mr. Sanford Howard, who had been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>
-prominently connected with the breeding interests of the country
-for many years, the following description is given:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I saw him several times, first in 1828. In the latter years of his life he
-stood mostly at Anson, on the Kennebec River, and I think died there about
-1831 [he died at Dixfield]. He appeared like an old horse when I first saw
-him, older, perhaps, from being much afflicted with grease, which had become
-chronic, and at length had almost destroyed his hoofs; so that the last time I
-saw him he was nearly incapable of locomotion. His feet and legs looked like
-those of an elephant. This trouble was transmitted to his offspring through
-several generations (though not invariably so), and constituted, perhaps, in connection
-with, in many cases, a flat foot and low heels, their greatest defect.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Hayward states, in concluding his letter, that he has no doubt the
-horse he took to Maine was got by imp. Messenger. The remark is probably
-elicited by intimations that he might have been gotten by a son of Messenger.
-I presume Mr. Hayward’s belief was well founded. As imported Messenger
-did not die until the 28th of January, 1808, there is no discrepancy between
-that event and the age of Mr. H.’s horse. At the same time I must admit that
-Maine Messenger hardly looked like a half-blood horse. He was pretty large,
-rather short-legged, thick-set, with heavy mane and tail, very hairy legs, long
-hair on his jaws, and was heavy coated (in winter) all over his body. These
-characteristics were sometimes accounted for by saying he was probably out of
-a Dutch mare, meaning such mares as the Dutch farmers of New York kept.
-I never heard of any claim being set up for his speed in trotting, and I presume
-he was never tried at running. He was strong and plucky, and the story
-was told at Winthrop that on an occasion when all the stallions of the neighborhood
-were brought out to be shown, they were put to a trot in sleighs for half
-a mile or so, and Messenger was beaten. Whereupon his owner proposed that
-the horses should each draw a sled with six men on it up to Winthrop hill,
-and be timed. It was done, and Messenger beat them all. I think the first of
-his offspring that became noted for fast trotting was a gelding called Lion,
-taken to Boston by a well-known horse dealer by the name of Hodges, of
-Hallowell, Maine. He was sold, I think, for four hundred dollars, which
-made quite a sensation among the Kennebec farmers who had any stock of the
-same sort. I do not recollect the rate of speed this horse showed, but a mile
-in three minutes was then considered wonderful, and probably this was about
-his rate. Other horses of the stock were soon brought out as fast travelers. I
-remember a friend of mine showing me some young horses he was training,
-and I rode with him after several of them. They were <i>natural trotters</i>, and
-would do <i>nothing but trot</i>, even under severe applications of the whip. But I
-think the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster
-trotters than the first. They were also generally handsomer horses, not so
-rough looking. Nearly all the horses of this stock which have acquired a
-reputation in Massachusetts, New York, etc., as fast trotters, had not more
-than a quarter of the blood of the horse that Mr. Hayward took to Maine, and
-consequently had not more than an eighth of the blood of imported Messenger.</p>
-
-<p>“The mares that produced these horses were of no particular blood.
-Various stallions had been kept in that section. Morgans from New Hampshire<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>
-and Vermont, with an occasional change to the French Canadians, and
-now and then a quarter or half bred horse from New York or New Jersey.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially
-valuable, as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent
-observer from a personal acquaintance with the original horse
-and his progeny. There are some inferences, however, that may
-be drawn from Mr. Howard’s letter that would be unjust to this
-distinguished animal. His general coarse appearance, in connection
-with which Mr. H. says, “he hardly looked like a half
-bred horse,” was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino,
-a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the
-same remark was often made about him. The quantity and
-length of his coat in the winter of his old age are not conclusive
-against his pretensions to a large share of good and pure blood.
-They are the results oftentimes of neglect and ill health. It is
-somewhere stated that the famous Sir Archy before he died
-looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully three inches long.
-Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that “the second generation
-from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than the
-first.” In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would
-be altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these
-things if development and use did not strengthen and intensify
-the instinct to trot in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is
-right, and we do not doubt he is, the increased capacity did not
-grow out of the dilution of the blood, but out of the strengthening
-of the instinct by culture and use. At the time Mr. Howard
-made this remark he evidently did not know that the famous
-old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were
-both immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In
-their day these two were classed among the best and fastest trotters
-that the world had then produced. The facts that both
-these animals were the immediate progeny of Winthrop Messenger
-were never brought to light for many years, and all I will say
-about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or
-suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established.</p>
-
-<p>In a letter written by Mr. Hayward, May 12, 1852, in speaking
-of the useful and everyday qualities of this horse’s progeny,
-he used the following language:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The stock produced by that horse I consider superior, as combining more
-properties useful in a horse than any other stock I have ever been acquainted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span>
-with, being good for draft, for carriage, for travel, for parade, or any place
-where horses are required. They had great bottom and strength, and were of
-hardy constitution. There are some horses in this town twenty-two years old,
-that were by a son of Winthrop Messenger, which I brought with me when I
-left Maine. They have always been accustomed to draw the plow and to perform
-other hard labor, and yet they have the appearance of young horses, and
-will now do more service than many horses of seven or eight years old.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Among the several sons of imported Messenger whose names
-are conspicuous as the progenitors of great tribes of the most
-distinguished trotters I know of no one entitled to a higher
-place on the roll of fame, all things considered, than this one
-that went to Maine, and there laid a foundation that has made
-the State famous throughout the length and breadth of the land
-for the speed and stoutness of its trotting horses.</p>
-
-<p>With such noted performers from his own loins as Fanny
-Pullen and Daniel. D. Tompkins, and in the next generation the
-famous Zachary Taylor, this horse made about the best showing
-of all the sons of Messenger, but as his line failed to produce a
-Rysdyk’s Hambletonian or a Mambrino Chief, it dropped to a
-place somewhat removed from the front of the procession.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Engineer</span> was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high and very
-elegant in his form, style and proportions. The earliest account
-we have of him is in the spring of 1816, when he was advertised
-in <i>The Long Island Star</i> to stand at the stable of Daniel Seely,
-near Suffolk Court House, and at Jericho, in Queens County.
-He was in charge of Thomas Jackson, Jr., generally designated
-as “Long Tom.” He was then well advanced in years, but no
-attempt was made to give his age. Mr. Daniel T. Cock, in
-charge of Duroc and one or two other stallions, was then in sharp
-competition with Engineer, and he assures me he was a horse of
-large size, great share of bone and sinew, most elegant form, and
-a fine mover. His elegant appearance was so captivating that he
-was a very troublesome competitor.</p>
-
-<p>The advertisement referred to contains the following very
-unsatisfactory paragraph relating to his pedigree, viz., “The
-manner he came into this country is such that I cannot give an
-account of his pedigree, but his courage and activity show the
-purity of his blood, which is much better than the empty sound
-of a long pedigree.” This was a most unexpected discovery, for
-I had always understood that Engineer was a son of Messenger
-and never had heard of this mystery before. It is here intimated<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>
-that the horse was imported, and the story that Jackson told was
-that he was brought from England to Canada by a British officer,
-and by some surreptitious means found his way from Canada to
-Long Island. What appears to be the real history of the horse,
-and the version accepted afterward by everybody on the island,
-will be found in the following extract from a letter written by
-David W. Jones, February 28, 1870. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I can well account for Mr. Cock’s recollections of the history of the first
-Engineer. Thomas Jackson and George Tappan, noted owners and keepers of
-stallions on Long Island and in the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the
-course of their peregrinations met with a person in possession of this horse,
-who offered him for sale. Impressed with his fine appearance and pedigree,
-they at once entered into negotiations for his purchase, and finally obtained
-him at so low a price as to cause strong suspicions that he was not honestly in
-his vendor’s possession. They, however, determined to take the chances, and
-at once brought him to Long Island, their place of residence, and determined
-on what they deemed a harmless representation in regard to his history; for
-this they had several motives. First, Messenger stallions were then very
-numerous on Long Island; their blood coursed in the veins of nearly every
-brood mare. Secondly, imported stallions were much desired, and by a little
-added fiction they could give him considerable <i>éclat</i>, and thirdly, in case of his
-having been unjustly obtained this would afford the best means of disguise.
-Accordingly they represented him as having been imported from England to
-Canada and ridden in the army by Gen. Brock, who, in an engagement with our
-troops, was shot and killed. The horse, escaping into our lines, was secured
-by our soldiers and brought to the State of New York. On these representations
-they claimed to have purchased him. No pedigree, as I recollect, was
-attempted to be given, and though many doubted the truth of this statement,
-there was no evidence to controvert it. For a length of time this story was
-adhered to; but after several years, when all fears of difficulty had subsided,
-they acknowledged the deception. Mr. Tappan, who resided but a few miles
-from me, was a man of more than ordinary candor and fairness, for one of his
-position and employment. I knew him well, and occasionally rendered him a
-favor by preparing his horse bills. On one of these occasions, at my house, he
-gave a full and particular statement of the whole affair. Some of the details
-have escaped me, but the essential facts are distinctly recollected. The owner,
-with Engineer in possession, was met at some public place and the purchase
-completed, and this statement then made, ‘that he had become involved in debt,
-and that his creditor had begun a prosecution, with a view to levy on the horse,
-the only property he possessed, and he was determined not to lose all.’ This
-was certainly enough to arouse their suspicions with regard to his history. He
-declared the horse was bred and raised in Pennsylvania and that he was got
-by imported Messenger. Whether any further pedigree was given is not
-recollected. He was at this time (1814) a horse considerably advanced in years
-and perfectly white. Mr. Tappan also told me that he had afterward traced
-the horse, and was entirely satisfied of the former owner’s veracity. I will<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>
-not apologize for the length of this statement, being desirous of giving you all
-the information here possessed and probably all that can now be obtained.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>I am not aware that in the past sixty years any question has
-ever been raised as to the truth of the universally accepted statement
-that Engineer was a true son of Messenger, and I would
-not have disturbed it now, nor thought of doing so, had it not
-been for that remarkable advertisement discovered in the obscure
-Long Island paper. That was contemporaneous history, however,
-and it must either be explained or accepted. The question
-has been examined down to the bottom by one of the most conscientious
-and capable men of his generation, in this department
-of knowledge. His verdict has been accepted as the truth by all
-parties of that day, and I cannot reject it.</p>
-
-<p>It is not known that any of his immediate progeny attained
-distinction on the trotting turf. Several of his sons bore his
-name in the stud and while their blood seemed to be helpful in
-the right direction, only one of them made any mark as a sire of
-speed, and that was the horse known as Lewis’ Engineer, the
-sire of the world beater, Lady Suffolk. Burdick’s Engineer,
-another son, was taken to Washington County, New York, and
-got the dam of the famous Princess, which produced the great
-Happy Medium. In all these instances there was commingling
-with other strains from Messenger.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Commander.</span>—This was a grey horse, fully sixteen hands high
-and of massive proportions. He was a son of imported Messenger
-and out of a mare by imported Rockingham. This Rockingham
-was not a thoroughbred horse. Commander was bred in
-Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and found his way to Long Island
-about 1812, where he was liberally patronized. His name frequently
-occurs among the remote crosses of good pedigrees, but
-his fame rests wholly on the progeny of his son, Young Commander,
-who was the sire of Screwdriver, Screws, Bull Calf and
-other good ones. This horse Young Commander was sometimes
-called “Bull” and sometimes “American Commander.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Messenger, (Bush’s)</span>, generally known as <span class="smcap">Bush Messenger</span>.
-This son of Messenger was bred by James Dearin, of Dutchess
-County, New York, and was foaled 1807. His dam was a Virginia
-mare, named Queen Ann, by Celer, son of imported Janus,
-and out of a mare by Skipwith’s Figure, son of imported Figure,
-and she out of a mare imported by Colonel Miland, of Virginia.
-This pedigree was not accepted without some misgivings, but as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>
-it was possible and as it had been indorsed sixty years ago by
-Cadwallader R. Colden and published before that by Mr. Dearin, I
-am disposed to accept it as reliable.</p>
-
-<p>He was sixteen hands high, a light grey, becoming white with
-age. He was excellent in form and probably the most handsome
-and attractive of all the sons of Messenger. The first public
-notice we have of him, he was advertised at the stable of his
-breeder, six miles south of Poughkeepsie, in 1813. Soon after
-this he became the property of Philo C. Bush, and this was the
-first horse, he says, that he ever owned. This Mr. Bush was a
-noted “character” in his day. From early manhood, through
-good and evil report, and until he died a very old man in poverty
-and want, he was a habitue of the race track. He knew all about
-race horses and their breeding, and he could prattle pedigrees
-from morning till night. Added to this knowledge which his
-life pursuits had placed in his possession, he was endowed with a
-most vivid imagination which was brought into the most active
-play whenever he found it necessary. To maintain his “reputation”
-it seemed to be a necessity that he should be able to extend
-all pedigrees laid before him and give the remote crosses, whether
-he knew anything about them or not. He was the author of the
-running pedigree given to the dam of Major Winfield—Edward
-Everett, son of Hambletonian—and on it money was won in a
-bet. An investigation of just two minutes disclosed the facts
-that by established and known dates the whole thing was utterly
-impossible. He was literally a very “racy” <i>raconteur</i>, but his
-reminiscences soon became tedious, notwithstanding their brilliancy,
-and it was always important to have a call to some business
-that cut off further entertainment from his <i>répertoire</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Bush says he paid one thousand seven hundred and forty
-dollars and a silver watch for this horse, and with him he got an
-elegant suit of clothing that had belonged to imported Express.
-It is said that he never ran but one race and that was at Pine
-Plains, in which he distanced all his competitors in the first heat.
-In 1816 Mr. Bush kept him at Kinderhook; 1817 at Kinderhook
-and Schodack; 1818 at Kinderhook and Albany; 1819-20 at
-Utica. In the autumn of 1820 he was sold to Dr. Millington, of
-Crooked Lake, Herkimer County, and he was kept there 1821-22.
-He was then sold to Edward Reynolds, of East Bloomfield,
-where he was kept three or four years, after which he made one
-or more seasons at Le Roy, and he died at East Bloomfield in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>
-July, 1829. This horse had probably more trotting speed than
-any of the other sons of Messenger. Mr. Bush assured me that
-he could trot very fast for a horse of that day, and when led by
-the side of another horse he could beat three minutes very easily,
-but as we have to take Mr. Bush’s assertions <i>cum grano salis</i>, we
-fortunately have very reliable testimony of contemporaneous date
-and from a source wholly disinterested. I have before me a
-letter written by Judge J. Porter, of East Bloomfield, dated June
-4, 1828, in reply to inquiries from some correspondent about the
-horse, his terms, etc. He writes as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I should think he was a very swift <i>trotter from what I have seen</i>, and very
-sprightly and nearly white. He has got a great number of fine colts in this
-town which are three years old; and the probability of their drawing on the
-old horse’s business is the reason of his being removed to Le Roy and Batavia.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Whether Judge Porter was a horseman or not he certainly
-reflected, in this remark which I have emphasized, the leading
-quality for which Bush Messenger was distinguished in that region
-<i>and in that day</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Although he was certainly a very fast natural trotter, it is not
-known that he was ever trained an hour in his life, neither is it
-known that any fast or trained trotters ever came from his loins.
-This was the period of fast mail coaches running from Albany to
-Buffalo, and as the old proprietors of those great lines were
-pushed westward from State to State until they finally were
-driven across the Mississippi, I have many times heard them talk
-of the great slashing grey Messenger teams that would carry their
-coaches along at ten miles an hour, and lament that there were
-no such horses nowadays. There were other sons of Messenger
-and many grandsons, all known as “Messengers,” but as a progenitor
-of horses suited to the stage coach this particular one
-that broke his neck in trying to get out of his inclosure was the
-premier. He probably came nearer filling the place in this
-country that his grandsire filled in England—English Mambrino—than
-any other one of the tribe, for we can truly say of him, as
-Pick said of his grandsire, “from his blood the breed of horses
-for the coach was brought nearly to perfection.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Potomac</span> was a bright bay, fifteen and a half hands high, and
-was bred by Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. He
-was foaled 1796 and got by imported Messenger; dam by imported
-Figure; grandam by Bashaw. He was put on the turf in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span>
-spring of 1799 and was a respectable race horse at short distances.
-He ran against and beat some of the best of his day. He was on
-the turf about three years. In the midst of his racing career he
-was purchased by Mr. Van Ranst for five hundred pounds. In
-1802 he was owned by Major William Jones, of Cold Spring Harbor,
-and made some seasons there. In 1806 he was at New
-Windsor, Orange County, New York. In 1808 he was in charge
-of Thomas Jackson, at Rahway, New Jersey, and 1811 at Crosswicks,
-near Trenton, New Jersey. It is probable he died about
-this time, as we find no further trace of him. Most of his stock
-were bays, of good size, and very salable animals. Nothing can
-now be recalled that connects him with any of the trotting strains
-coming from his sire. He was not strictly running-bred on the
-side of his dam.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tippoo Saib</span> was a bay horse with one white foot and was fully
-sixteen hands high, with plenty of bone. He was foaled 1795,
-got by imported Messenger; dam Mr. Thompson’s imported
-mare by Northumberland; grandam by Snap, etc. His fine size
-and elegant pedigree made Tippoo Saib a very desirable horse to
-breed to, but for some cause he did not appear much on the turf.
-He ran a few races and went into the stud early, in the neighborhood
-of Trenton, New Jersey, and in the following year was
-at Goshen, Fishkill, and Pine Plains, New York. My impression
-is he was then returned to West Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
-where he was probably owned in his latter days. His
-sons Tippoo Sultan, Financier and others, acquired great fame on
-the turf. His connection with the trotting lines of descent is
-very distinct, but not very prominent.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sir Solomon</span> was got by imported Messenger; dam Camilla by
-Cephalus; grandam Camilla by imported Fearnought and out of
-imported Calista, etc. He was foaled about 1800, bred by General
-Gunn, of Georgia, who seems to have kept Camilla and perhaps
-others in the North for the purpose of breeding. The pedigree
-on the side of this dam is an excellent one and would seem to
-justify the owner in seeking to get the best crosses possible into
-his stud. When five years old he was sold to Mr. Bond, of Philadelphia,
-for two thousand dollars. His races were numerous and
-often successful, beating some of the best horses of his day, and
-among them the famous Miller’s Damsel, also by Messenger,
-over the Harlem Course in heats of four miles. Not much is
-known of his stud services, and he seems to have been kept<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>
-several years in Union County, New Jersey. He seems to have
-labored under the disadvantage of having a greater horse of the
-same name—Badger’s Sir Solomon by Tickle Toby—in competition
-with him, and thus the son of Tickle Toby would steal many
-a chaplet from the brow of his namesake, the son of Messenger.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ogden Messenger</span> was a grey horse, foaled 1806, got by imported
-Messenger; dam Katy Fisher, by imported Highflyer;
-grandam a mare imported by H. N. Cruger in 1786, by Cottager;
-great-grandam by Trentham; great-great-grandam by Henricus;
-great-great-great-grandam by Regulus. The pedigree of this
-dam is correct, and she was doubtless entitled to rank as thoroughbred.
-This horse was bred by Mr. Cruger, and at three
-years old was sold to David Ogden, and that summer he was pastured
-on the farm of Major William Jones, of Long Island, from
-whose books we have the foregoing facts. Mr. David W. Jones
-remarks: “I retain a perfect recollection of him. He was at
-that time a large overgrown colt, not particularly ugly nor exceedingly
-coarse, but having no special beauty nor finish. I cannot
-better describe him than to say he was a coarse pattern of a
-fine horse, with marked traits of his lineage.” Mr. Jones evidently
-saw him at his worst age and before he fully reached his
-maturity.</p>
-
-<p>Judge Odgen, his owner, was a large landholder in St. Lawrence
-County, New York, and in the spring of 1810 he removed
-from New Jersey to an island of eight hundred acres in the St.
-Lawrence river, opposite the village of Haddington, and took the
-horse, then four years old, with him. It is not known that he
-ever ran a race for money, and it is not probable he ever did, for
-it was his owner’s aim and object to improve the stock of the
-country as well as his own, in which he was successful. After
-five or six years he was taken to Lowville in Lewis County, and
-made several seasons there in charge of Charles Bush, and from
-this fact he came to be known there, locally, as Bush Messenger.
-Thus it happened that there were two sons of imported Messenger
-in the State of New York at the same time, and both known
-as Bush Messenger, and to these we might add a grandson and a
-great-grandson in the State of Maine, and at later date both
-named “Bush Messenger.” It was at one time supposed that
-Mr. Ogden’s horse while at Lowville became the sire of the
-famous Tippoo of Canada that became the head of a very valuable
-tribe of trotters and pacers, but later developments showed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>
-that this was a mistake. (He appears to have alternated in his
-services between Lewis and Jefferson counties, but whether
-weekly or yearly I cannot state. He was taken to Lowville as
-early as 1815 and was there five or six years.)</p>
-
-<p>The facts about this horse have been developed from much
-correspondence with different parties, but more especially from
-Mr. V. Sheldon, of Canton, New York, and from Mr. P. F.
-Daniels, of Prescott, Ontario. Both men knew the horse personally,
-and Mr. Daniels was seventy-five years old when he wrote.
-He still had a very clear recollection of the horse in his appearance
-and style of action. In describing him he says: “He was
-peculiarly marked about his hocks and knees, having a series of
-dark rings about his limbs, continuing at intervals down to his
-hoofs, and many of his sons and daughters were marked the
-same way.” Having ridden him many times he says: “He;
-had a long flinging step and was a fast trotter. His action was
-high and not easy to the rider, and he could not widen behind
-as some of our modern trotters.”</p>
-
-<p>When Mr. Daniels was a young man he was engaged in carrying
-the mail, and in March, 1821, he believes it was, Judge
-Ogden gave him an order to bring the horse home from Lewis
-County. He led him all the way behind his mail conveyance
-and delivered him safely to young Mr. Ogden, who gave him to
-an Irish groom named Daley, and Daley remarked he would soon
-make him look like another horse. That night he gave him an
-overfeed of corn and he died of colic. He was never advertised
-while at home and he was not very liberally patronized. The
-Freemans and the Archibalds, however, Mr. Daniels says, bred
-to him largely. His stock were good and many of them excellent,
-especially those descended through his sons Blossom and
-Freeman’s Messenger.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino (Grey).</span>—This son of Messenger was foaled about
-1800, his dam was by Pulaski, grandam by Wilkes; great-grandam
-by True Briton. He was bred by Benjamin C. Ridgeway,
-near Mount Holly, New Jersey. In 1807 he stood at Flemington
-under the name of Fox Hunter. He was purchased by Richard
-Isaac Cooper, who resold him to William Atkinson for about one
-thousand two hundred dollars. He was a flea-bitten grey, mane
-and tail white, handsome and stylish, about sixteen hands high,
-head medium size, and a good, well-formed horse at every point,
-except his feet, which were big and flat. He was probably never<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span>
-harnessed and was a very popular stallion in Salem and adjoining
-counties for many years. Mr. Atkinson was a very prominent
-and influential member of the Society of Friends, and
-“Billy” Atkinson was always a welcome guest as he traveled
-through Salem, Gloucester, and Burlington counties with his
-horse, and his genial good humor made him as popular as his
-horse. He always claimed great speed for his horse; but owing
-to his position in the society he never could gratify his friends
-by showing it. When his offspring came into service they were
-not only performers of great merit on the road and the course,
-but they had bone and substance that fitted them for every kind
-of labor required of them. All the Quakers had Mambrinos and
-nothing else, after “Billy” Atkinson and his horse had been
-among them a few years. Some of his descendants attained to
-great local fame as trotters and some did well as runners. He
-was a very valuable horse and left a wonderfully numerous and
-valuable offspring.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Black Messenger.</span>—Among all the progeny of Messenger,
-this is the only one that I can now recall that was black. He
-was bred by William Haselton, of Burlington County, New
-Jersey, and out of a mare highly prized in the Haselton family,
-but her blood cannot now be traced. He was foaled in 1801 and
-on the death of Mr. Haselton in 1804 he was sold to Charles or
-Richard Wilkins of Evesham, ten miles from Camden, New
-Jersey, who owned him till he died at an advanced age. As the
-birth of this horse is fixed by documentary evidence at 1801 it suggests
-that Messenger was kept in Burlington County, New
-Jersey, the unplaced season of 1800. Still as he was at Lawrenceville
-in the fall season of 1800 it is possible the mare was sent to
-him there. He was full sixteen hands high and possessed great
-muscular development and strength of bone. He was not handsome,
-but his figure and style were very commanding. In his
-day he was regarded as one of the best natural trotters ever in
-Burlington or Gloucester counties. This was not the claim of his
-owner merely, but the unprejudiced opinion of all the horsemen
-who knew him. His stock were very highly prized as horses
-suited to all purposes and especially for fast road work. Some
-of them were greatly distinguished locally as fast trotters, and
-among them was Nettle, the dam of the famous Dutchman, that
-was the greatest trotter of his day.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Whynot Messenger</span>, Pizzant’s Messenger, Austin’s Messenger,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span>
-and Cousin’s Messenger were all sons of Messenger and got
-by him while he was in West Jersey, but as nothing has been
-developed concerning their maternal breeding nor the character
-of their progeny, I will pass them over with this bare record that
-such horses existed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Saratoga.</span>—This son of Messenger was a flea-bitten grey and
-was foaled about 1805. It is believed he was bred on Long
-Island, but nothing is known of the blood of his dam. He was
-driven in harness and did service in several counties in Pennsylvania,
-and was sold at auction in Philadelphia to James Dubois
-of Salem, New Jersey. He was a great, strong horse, and was
-kept at work on the farm of his owner, covering mares only as
-opportunity offered. He was a slashing trotter, but it was only
-when his owner was away from home and got an extra drink or
-two that anybody ever had an opportunity to see how fast he
-could go. A number of his progeny were fast trotters; among
-them a mare called Charlotte Gray that was the fastest of her
-day in all that region. Among his sons, one called Dove was
-greatly distinguished in the stud.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Nestor and Delight.</span>—These were sons of Messenger, the
-former bred in Orange County, New York, in 1802, and was at
-Warwick in that county, 1807 in charge of Nehemiah Finn. The
-latter was bred in Westchester County in 1806, and made the
-season of 1827 at Warwick, New York, in charge of John G.
-Blauvelt, and is probably the horse that was more widely known
-as Blauvelt’s Messenger. The breeding of the dams of both
-these horses is very uncertain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mount Holly</span> was a grey horse, fifteen and a half hands high.
-He was foaled about 1807 and was bred by Colonel Udell, of Long
-Island. His dam was by Bajazet, and his grandam was by Bashaw.
-Not much is known of him till he was well advanced in
-years and was taken to Dutchess County. Daniel T. Cock knew
-him well on the island, and he assured me he was a trotter in the
-true sense of the word. The late Mr. Daniel B. Haight, a horseman
-of excellent judgment and knowledge, knew him very well,
-and he describes him as of the true Messenger grey, and a smooth,
-well-finished horse all over. His offspring were smooth, handsome,
-and remarkably tough, and from their kindly tempers they
-were easily managed and made horses fit for any service. The
-most noted of his get were the famous trotters Paul Pry and Mr.
-Tredwell’s grey mare that went to England. His cross appears<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>
-in the pedigrees of many trotters and is very highly prized to
-this day. In the latter part of his life he was owned by Jacob
-Husted, of Washington Hollow, New York, and made several
-seasons there. His sight failed entirely as he grew old, and he
-died about 1835. With two such performers from his own loins
-as Paul Pry and the Tredwell mare, it cannot be doubted that
-he inherited and transmitted the true Messenger “trotting instinct,”
-and that without any assistance from the blood of his
-dam.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Plato</span> was a large brown horse, fully sixteen hands high, and
-was a full brother to Bishop’s Hambletonian, being by Messenger,
-out of Pheasant. He was bred by General Coles, of Long
-Island, and was foaled 1802. As he matured the general judgment
-was that his limbs were too light for his body, and this is
-the only instance that I can recall where the get of Messenger
-failed at this vital point. He was trained and ran a few races,
-and from a trial with Miller’s Damsel General Coles said he was the
-best horse that ever ran against that famous mare. In a race
-against his half-brother, Sir Solomon, he won the first heat of
-four miles and broke down in the second, which finished him as
-a race horse. He was a larger and a handsomer horse than his
-full brother Hambletonian, but at no other point was he so good.
-When they stood in the same stable he was advertised at a lower
-price. He was a number of years in the stud on Long Island,
-New Jersey, and the river counties of New York, and after 1816
-at Pine Plains there is no further trace of him. In his physical
-structure and doubtless, in his mental structure also, he took after
-his dam, and the only link now recalled coupling him with the
-trotter is the fact that he was the sire of the dam of Lewis’ Engineer,
-that was the sire of the great Lady Suffolk.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dover Messenger</span> was a grey horse, and was got by imported
-Messenger, but the blood of his dam and the year he was foaled
-are unknown. He was kept several seasons at South Dover,
-Dutchess County, New York, and left a very valuable progeny
-strongly endowed with the instinct to trot. He was taken to
-the town of Russia, in Herkimer County, where he died. There
-was a younger horse bearing practically the same name, a son of
-Mambrino Paymaster, with which this horse has often been confounded.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Coriander.</span>—This son of Messenger was a bay horse, about
-fifteen and a half hands high; was foaled in Queens County, New<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span>
-York, about 1796, and his dam was by Allen’s Brown Figure;
-grandam by Rainbow; great-grandam by Dauphin. He seems to
-have been kept on Long Island as long as he lived. His progeny
-was much like their sire, and Mr. D. W. Jones describes them as
-“clean, wiry, and brilliant. In their make-up there seemed
-nothing wasted and nothing wanted.” He ran some races, as did
-many of his get. He was bred upon one of the early daughters
-of Hambletonian, and she produced the great trotter “Old Topgallant,”
-the sensation of his period and one of the most famous
-of the very early trotters. One of the most remarkable facts in
-the history of this remarkable old gelding is that he ran some
-races before he was trained to trot.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fagdown.</span>—This son of Messenger was bred on the Jersey
-side of the Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, and was foaled,
-I think, in 1803. His dam was represented to be by Diomed, and
-if this be correct it must have been Tate’s imported Diomed that
-was imported into New Jersey and kept there a number of years.
-This was a bay horse and must not be confounded with the
-chestnut horse of the same name imported into Virginia. Fagdown
-became vicious and dangerous, and from this trait in his
-character he was generally called the “Man Eater.” He was
-kept in the region of Philadelphia and south of there for many
-years, and left a very numerous and very valuable progeny. They
-were noted for their superior qualities as road horses, and some
-of them were very fast, for their day. For a number of years no
-family of horses were so popular about Philadelphia as the Fagdowns.
-He had a son called Cropped Fagdown that was fast, and
-another son called Jersey Fagdown that trotted some races
-against the great Andrew Jackson. Another son, named after
-his sire, was bred in Northeastern Maryland, and was taken to
-Eastern Ohio in 1829, and he was kept in Columbiana, Mahoning,
-and Jefferson counties for at least ten years. He was never in
-a race nor never trained, but his Quaker patrons all insisted that
-when led by the side of another horse he could trot as fast as a
-pretty good horse could run. This grandson of Messenger was
-the sire of the grandam of Wapsie, the well-known trotter and
-sire of Iowa.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bright Phœbus</span> was foaled 1804, the same year as Hambletonian.
-He was out of the imported Pot-8-os mare, and his
-breeder, General Coles, of Long Island, sold him to Bond and
-Hughes, of Philadelphia. His most noted achievement was at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span>
-Washington, D. C., in 1808, when in a sweepstakes he more than
-distanced the great Sir Archy, by catching him when he had the
-distemper. His racing career was respectable, but not brilliant,
-and when that ended it is not known what became of him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Slasher</span>, <span class="smcap">Shaftsbury</span>, <span class="smcap">Hotspur</span>.—There was quite a famous
-brood mare owned somewhere in Jersey called Jenny Duter, or
-Jenny Oiter, as some authorities have it. She was got by True
-Briton; dam Quaker Lass by imported Juniper; grandam Molly
-Pacolet, by imported Pacolet, etc., tracing on six or eight more
-crosses that are all fudge. This mare was bred to Messenger about
-1801, and produced Shaftsbury; her daughter by Liberty was bred
-to him about the same time and produced Slasher, and about the
-same time her granddaughter by Slender was also bred to him and
-produced Hotspur. These three sons of Messenger do not seem
-to have ever been trained, and very little of their history can be
-traced, except that they were kept as stallions in different parts
-of New Jersey. It is not known that their blood has had any influence
-upon the American trotting horse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Messenger (Hutchinson’s).</span>—This was a large grey horse,
-foaled in 1792, and bred by Mathias Hutchinson, of Pennsylvania,
-near Philadelphia. His dam was by Hunt’s Grey Figure, son of
-imported Figure. He was kept in Monmouth County, New
-Jersey, 1797, and it is probable that he was often represented as
-imported Messenger himself. I have no knowledge of this horse
-or his progeny beyond the mere facts here given.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Messenger (Cooper’s).</span>—This son of imported Messenger was
-generally known as “Cooper’s Grey” and sometimes as Ringgold.
-He was sixteen hands high and was foaled about 1803. He was
-bred in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and was kept about
-Philadelphia, on both sides of the Delaware, till 1821, when he
-was sold by the administrators of Jacob Kirk, and it has been
-said he was taken to the Wabash by Amos Cooper. He ran some
-races when he was young, and was a horse of a good deal of local
-fame. He was liberally patronized in the stud and left valuable
-progeny. It has been suggested that probably he was the sire of
-Amazonia, the dam of Abdallah; but as there is nothing to support
-this suggestion except the mere matter of location, and as
-all that has ever been claimed for her paternity is that she was
-by “a son of Messenger,” we must not forget that there were
-plenty of other sons of Messenger in the same locality that might
-have been her sire.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span></p>
-
-<p>The name “Messenger” was more sadly abused in its
-duplication in the closing of the last and the early decades of
-the present century than that of any other horse, or perhaps of
-all other horses of that period put together. Multitudes of his
-sons were called “Messenger,” and, in the next generation, multitudes
-of his grandsons gloried in the same cognomen, and thus
-generation after generation perpetuated it, in widening circles,
-till “confusion became worse confounded,” leaving the historian
-in helpless and hopeless ignorance as to what was true and what
-was false. When grey horses in the second, third, or fourth remove
-from the imported horse became old, it required but little
-“diplomacy” to satisfy the public that they were true sons of
-the original, and this became the custom.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus8">
-<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">ALIX.</p>
-<p class="caption">By Patronage, record 2:03¾, the fastest to this date.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.<br />
-<span class="smaller">MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam, Amazonia—Speculations as to
-her blood—Description of Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion
-line—Mambrino Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino
-Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’
-Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Abdallah.</span>—This grandson of Messenger has been popularly
-and justly designated as the “king of trotting sires of his generation.”
-He was bred by John Tredwell, of Queens County, Long
-Island, and was foaled 1823. His sire was Mambrino, son of
-Messenger, and his dam was Amazonia, one of the most distinguished
-trotters of her day. Concerning the breeding and origin
-of Amazonia there has been great diversity of opinion among
-horsemen and a great amount of controversy among writers.
-It is not my purpose to enter into a discussion of the questions
-raised on this point, but I would hardly be doing justice to history
-to pass it over unnoticed. I will, therefore, try to give a
-brief synopsis of the history and the arguments urged, and refer
-the reader to the first and second volumes of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>
-for a more extended consideration of the questions raised.</p>
-
-<p>The first representation of her pedigree was that she was a
-daughter of imported Messenger, and the next was that she was
-by a son of Messenger. On the first claim, that she was by Messenger,
-no argument was possible, one way or the other, on
-account of dates; but against the second claim, that she was by
-a son of Messenger, the arguments were numerous and vehement.
-All these arguments were based wholly upon her coarse external
-conformation and the absence of all resemblance to the Messenger
-family. Among the supporters of this view were many of
-the most intelligent and trustworthy horsemen of the whole
-country. Indeed, the preponderance of intelligence as well as
-numbers seemed to be on that side. That she had “coarse,
-ragged hips,” that she had a “rat tail,” that she “had hair<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span>
-enough on her legs to stuff a mattress,” that she was “a muddy
-sorrel,” etc., were all urged to prove that she was not by a son of
-Messenger. It is true that many entered into this controversy
-who never saw the mare and who knew nothing about her appearance,
-but there were others who knew her perfectly, among them
-my venerable friend David W. Jones, to whom we are all indebted
-for so many treasures from his storehouse of very valuable
-memories.</p>
-
-<p>On the other side there were some little scraps of history, that
-at the vital point may have been history or may have been fiction.
-In the certificate of sale of Abdallah, April 27, 1830, to Mr. Isaac
-Snediker, his breeder, Mr. John Tredwell, says: “And believe him
-to be the very <i>best bred</i> trotting stallion in this country, and be
-it enough to know that his sire was Mambrino and his dam Amazonia.”
-It has been argued that it would be very inconsistent for
-a man of Mr. Tredwell’s standing to certify that Abdallah “was the
-very best bred trotting stallion in this country,” if he knew nothing
-of the blood of his dam, drawing the inference that he must
-have known and believed the representations of his nephew, B.
-T. Kissam, from whom he got Amazonia. The story of the
-original purchase of Amazonia by B. T. Kissam and given to me
-by his brother, Timothy T. Kissam, in 1870, is as follows: Amazonia
-was purchased by B. T. Kissam, a dry goods merchant of
-New York, when on an excursion of pleasure in the vicinity of
-Philadelphia about 1814. She was brought out of a team and
-was then four years old past, his attention having been called to
-her as an animal of much promise. He used her for his own
-driving a short time and sold her to his uncle, John Tredwell.
-“Amazonia was represented to my brother to have been a get of
-imported Messenger.”</p>
-
-<p>Now, in considering whether this scrap of history is probably
-true, the geographical question has been urged with telling effect.
-Messenger had been kept a number of years on both sides of the
-Delaware, right on the way to Philadelphia, his fee had been
-above that of any other stallion, and a large percentage of his
-colts had been kept entire. In no part of the country, perhaps,
-were there so many sons of Messenger seeking public patronage.
-The geography and the chronology of the question, therefore,
-both sustain the probability of its truthfulness. Whether Mr.
-Kissam crossed the river at Trenton, or Burlington, or Camden
-he was right in the hotbed of the sons of Messenger. “If<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>
-Amazonia” it has been asked, “was as coarse and forbidding as
-represented in her appearance, what induced Mr. Kissam to buy
-her?” He wanted a carriage horse and he wanted one that could
-not only show good action, but one that had a right of inheritance
-to good action. He knew the Messengers and knew that
-beauty and style were not family traits in that tribe. Many of
-them were coarse, and possibly as coarse as Amazonia. Her very
-coarseness and lack of style is, under the circumstances, a strong
-argument that in choosing her Mr. Kissam had regard for her
-Messenger blood.</p>
-
-<p>Another argument, resting on “the internal evidences,” has
-been urged with considerable force and it is very hard to answer
-it. Amazonia was a mare of tested and known speed. She was
-in a number of races to saddle and had won several of them in
-less than three minutes along about 1816-18, and when Major
-William Jones, in 1820, accepted the challenge to produce a horse
-that could trot a mile in three minutes for one thousand dollars,
-he knew very well what he was doing, for he had seen Amazonia
-do it a number of times. Her best time was about 2:54, which
-in that day was considered phenomenally fast. If we were to
-meet a running horse out on the plains that could run away from
-all others, we would naturally and justly conclude that he had
-some of the blood of the race horse in his veins. If we have a
-pacer and we learn he came from a section of the country where
-a certain tribe of pacers abounded, we would naturally conclude
-that he belonged to that tribe, especially if we knew there were
-no other pacers in that section. If we have a trotter that can
-go away from all other trotters, and we know that this trotter
-came from a section abounding in a family of trotters, and in nothing
-else that can trot, we naturally and justly conclude that this
-trotter came from some member of that family of trotters. This
-argument from the “internal evidences” seems almost axiomatic,
-and when taken in connection with the historical argument,
-unsatisfactory though it be, they together lay the foundation
-for a very strong probability that Amazonia was by a son of
-Messenger.</p>
-
-<p>Abdallah was in color a beautiful bay, about fifteen and a half
-hands high, and there was a measure of coarseness about him that
-he could not well escape, as both his sire and dam were endowed
-with that undesirable quality. The one exception to this was in
-the character of his coat, which was very fine and glossy when in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>
-healthy condition. His reputation as a great trotting sire was
-very widely extended during his lifetime, but his lack of symmetry
-and his “rat tail,” which he inherited from his dam, so
-impaired his acceptability with the public that he never was
-very largely patronized. Besides this he had an unconquerable
-will of his own, which he transmitted to his offspring very generally.
-This willfulness was not a desirable quality in a horse for
-drudgery, and hence most of his patrons were such as were
-seeking for gameness and speed. When he was four years old he
-was not in the stud, and it is understood that Mr. Tredwell undertook
-to break him thoroughly and train him that year. It is
-also understood that when put in harness he kicked everything
-to pieces within his reach and that all thoughts of training were
-soon abandoned. He never was in harness again until, in extreme
-old age, he was sold for five dollars to a fish peddler, and
-the peddler’s wagon was soon reduced to kindling wood.</p>
-
-<p>He was kept at different points on Long Island, and one season
-in New Jersey, till the fall of 1839, when he, with Commodore,
-another son of Mambrino, was sold to Mr. John W. Hunt, of Lexington,
-Kentucky, where they made the season of 1840. Commodore
-was much the more attractive horse of the two, and did
-a large business, while Abdallah was almost wholly neglected,
-leaving only about half a dozen colts. Meantime his progeny on
-the island began to show their speed and their racing qualities; a
-company was formed and he was brought back from Kentucky
-and made the seasons of 1841 and 1842 at the Union Course,
-Long Island. He was at Goshen, New York, 1843, at Freehold,
-New Jersey, 1844 and 1845, at Chester, New York, 1846-47-48, at
-Bull’s Head, New York, 1849, and did nothing, then at the
-Union Course and Patchogue, Long Island, and was not off the
-island again. After the period of his usefulness was past his inhuman
-owners turned him out on a bleak, sandy beach on the
-Long Island shore, and there he starved to death in the piercing
-November winds, without a shelter or a friend.</p>
-
-<p>Abdallah was the sire of Hambletonian, 10, the greatest of all
-trotting progenitors and greater than all others combined. This
-fact alone has made his name imperishable in the annals of the
-trotting horse. A number of his other sons were kept for stallions
-and some of them lived to old age, but they were all failures
-in the stud. His daughters, generally, proved to be most valuable
-brood mares, producing speed to almost any and every cross.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span>
-A pedigree tracing to an “Abdallah mare” has always enhanced
-the value of a family.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Almack.</span>—Mr. John Tredwell bred his famous team of driving
-mares, Amazonia and Sophonisba, to Mambrino in the spring of
-1822, and the next year they each produced a bay horse colt that
-he named Abdallah and Almack. Sophonisba, the dam of
-Almack, was a superior mare, but she was not fast enough for her
-mate. Almack, however, was a good horse and left some trotters.
-I have no particular description of him at hand and nothing
-can now be given of his history further than that some of his
-daughters produced well and that he seems to have been kept all
-his life on Long Island. His dam Sophonisba was got by a grandson
-of imported Baronet, as represented, but this is so indefinite
-as to be unsatisfactory and suspicious. As none of the Baronets
-could ever trot, even “a little bit,” it is evident that whatever
-trotting inheritance Almack possessed came to him from his
-sire. Aside from a number of his descendants that were recognized
-trotters of merit there was one in particular that established
-Almack as a progenitor of a great family of trotters. A son of
-his bred by George Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, in 1842,
-and known as the “Raynor Colt,” out of Spirit by Engineer II.,
-sire of Lady Suffolk, was led behind a sulky at a fair at Huntington,
-when he was eighteen months old, and he went so fast and
-showed such a magnificent way of doing it, that he was named
-“Champion” by William T. Porter, editor of the <i>Spirit of the
-Times</i>. At three years old he was driven a full mile in 3:05 and
-this was a “world’s record” for colts of that age at that time. In
-1846 he was purchased by William R. Grinnell for two thousand
-six hundred dollars and taken to Cayuga County, where he
-founded a great tribe of trotters that is now known everywhere
-as the “Champion Family.” A fuller account of this horse will
-be found at another place in this volume.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino Paymaster</span> (widely known in later years as Blind
-Paymaster).—This was a large, strong-boned, dark-bay horse,
-sixteen hands and an inch high. When young he was somewhat
-light and leggy, but with age he spread out and became a horse
-of substance. He was bred by Azariah Arnold, of the town of
-Washington, in Dutchess County, New York. There is some
-uncertainty about the year this horse was foaled, but it was somewhere
-between 1822 and 1826. He was got by Mambrino, son of
-Messenger, and his dam was represented to be by imported Paymaster.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>
-The late Mr. Edwin Thorne made a statement a few
-years ago that in an interview with Azariah Arnold he said that
-he did not know or remember the horse that was the sire of the
-dam. At that time Mr. Arnold was very old, and doubtless his
-mental faculties very much impaired, so it would not be remarkable
-that he should have forgotten all about it. On the other
-hand, Nelson Haight, Daniel B. Haight, Seth P. Hopson, and
-others of like high character, maintain that Mr. Arnold, in his
-younger days, always represented the mare to be by Paymaster,
-and the name of the horse itself is very strong evidence that he
-did so represent it, and is a standing proclamation to that effect.
-There can be no possible doubt that in earlier life Mr. Arnold
-constantly represented this mare to be by Paymaster; neither can
-there be any reasonable doubt that when his faculties were impaired
-with age he told Mr. Thorne that he did not remember
-her pedigree. Mr. Arnold’s neighbors all agree that he was a
-man of unblemished character and incapable of a willful misrepresentation,
-when in possession of his faculties. Again, that this
-Paymaster cross was not only possible, but probable, is shown by
-the fact that imported Paymaster was kept by Ebenezer Haight,
-in the year 1807, in the same township with Azariah Arnold, and
-the years 1808 and 1809 in the same part of the county. Therefore,
-Mr. Thorne to the contrary notwithstanding, I have but
-little doubt that the Paymaster cross is correct.</p>
-
-<p>He had a small star in his forehead and a little white on one
-hind foot. His back, loin and hips were altogether superior, and
-those who knew him best say they never saw his equal at these
-points. His head was large and bony, with an ear after the
-Mambrino model. His neck was of medium length and his
-shoulder good. His hind legs were quite crooked and too much
-cut in below the hock in front, giving the legs at that point a
-narrow and weak appearance; his hocks were large and at the
-curb place showed a fullness. His cannon bones, all round, were
-short for a horse of his size, and his feet were excellent. He was
-slow in maturing, but when he filled out he lost all that narrow,
-weedy appearance which characterized his colthood. He was not
-beautiful, but powerful.</p>
-
-<p>About 1828 he was sold and taken to Binghamton, New York.
-Meantime his colts came forward and proved to be so valuable
-that Nelson and Daniel B. Haight and Gilbert Jones purchased
-and brought him back to Dutchess County about the year 1840.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>
-He was not a sure foal-getter, but his stock proved to be of great
-value. When brought back from Broome County he was blind.
-He made one season on Long Island in charge of George Tappan;
-the other seasons till 1847 he was kept in Dutchess County in the
-neighborhood of his owners. In 1847 he was sold to Mr. Gilbert
-Holmes and taken to Vermont, where he died after getting one
-colt. Many of his sons were kept as stallions, but the most
-famous of his get were the mares Iola and Lady Moore, and last
-but not least, his famous son Mambrino Chief, the founder of a
-great family of trotters in Kentucky. His stock were probably
-more noted and more highly prized than that of any of the sons
-of Mambrino that stood in Dutchess County. As Abdallah was
-the link by which the greatest of all trotting families are connected
-with Messenger, so Mambrino Paymaster is the link
-through which the family easily entitled to second place reaches
-the same illustrious original.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino Jr.</span> (<span class="smcap">Bone Swinger</span>) was a beautiful bay horse,
-foaled 182-, got by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam not
-traced. He was bred on Long Island and was owned by George
-Tappan, near Jericho, Long Island. About 1833-4 he made
-some seasons at Washington Hollow, Dutchess County. He was
-about fifteen hands three inches high and was considered more
-blood-like and handsome than most of his family. He was a
-strong breeder, giving most of his colts his own elegant color.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino Messenger</span> (commonly known as the Burton
-Horse) was foaled about 1821. He was got by Mambrino, son of
-Messenger; dam by Coffin’s Messenger, son of Messenger; grandam
-by Black and All Black; great-grandam by Feather. He was bred
-by Abram Burton, of Washington Hollow, New York. He was a
-beautiful bay, about fifteen hands three inches high, and was the
-same age as Mambrino Paymaster, and they were rivals for a
-number of years, each having his friends and adherents. He was
-finer in the bone, having more finish and beauty than his rival,
-and what was still more effective with the public, he could out-trot
-him. Many of his offspring proved to be most excellent
-roadsters and some of them were fast. He was probably taken to
-Western New York, but I have not found any trace of his location
-or history. This name, Mambrino Messenger, was borne by
-several other horses of different degrees of affinity to the originals.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hambletonian</span> (<span class="smcap">Harris’</span>) (also known as Bristol Grey and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>
-Remington Horse).—This was a grey horse, about sixteen hands
-high, and possessed great strength and substance. When young
-he was an iron grey and probably pretty dark, but as he advanced
-in age he became lighter in color. His head was large and bony,
-with great width between the eyes. He was short in the back,
-with long hips, and the rise of the withers commenced far back,
-showing a fine, oblique shoulder. He was a horse of unusually
-large bone formation; his limbs were large, but flat and clean,
-with a heavy growth of hair at the fetlocks. He was of docile and
-kindly disposition and worked well either alone or with another.
-His gait was open and decided and at a walk his long slinging
-steps carried him over the ground unusually fast. His speed as
-a trotter was never developed, but his action at that gait was so
-free, open and square that those who knew him well have insisted
-that his manner of going indicated the possibility of great
-improvement, if he had been handled with that view. His offspring
-were slow in maturing, and for many years, indeed till
-toward the end of his life, he was not appreciated as a stallion.
-He was in constant competition with the little, plump, trim and
-trappy Morgans, and at three and four years old his long, lathy,
-plain colts cut but a sorry figure against the well formed and
-fully developed Morgans of their own age. With such a rivalry,
-sustained by the question of profit to the breeder by early sales,
-it is not remarkable that he should have been neglected, till it
-was clearly demonstrated that he transmitted the true Messenger
-trotting instinct in greater strength than any of his competitors.</p>
-
-<p>He was bred by Isaac Munson, of Wallingford, Vermont; foaled
-1823, got by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam the
-Munson mare that was brought from Boston, 1813. There never
-has been any question about the sire of this horse, but up to
-1869 the representation made by Mr. Harris that his dam was
-an imported English mare was generally accepted as the truth.
-I was led to doubt this, and in December of that year I made a
-thorough search of the records of the custom-house in Boston,
-and found the claim was without any foundation whatever.
-Through the kindness of Mr. Henry D. Noble I was enabled to
-get beyond Mr. Harris, who really knew nothing about the mare,
-back to the Munson family, and to Mr. Joseph Tucker, the
-earliest and best authority living in 1870. In order that this evidence
-may be preserved I will here insert Mr. Tucker’s letter
-entire.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Milford, N. H.</span>, May 4th, 1870.</p>
-
-<p class="noindent">“<span class="smcap">Mr. J. H. Wallace</span>, Muscatine, Iowa.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: Yours of 22d of April is duly received and contents noted. I
-was 24 years old when first acquainted with the dam of the ‘Harris Horse,’ so
-called, in the fall of 1813. Was then carrying on a farm, now owned by Wm.
-Randall, Esq., in this town, for Mr. Israel Munson, a commission merchant
-then doing business on India Street, and afterward on Central Wharf, Boston.
-I was in Boston in the fall of 1813, as above, and found the dam (of Hambletonian)
-and mate in Mr. Munson’s possession. He said they had been ‘leaders’
-in a stage team, and they acted as if green about holding back, etc. He never
-said she was imported from England, neither did I hear such a story till two
-or three years ago. The dam was called ‘a Messenger.’ All the description I
-can give of her is that she was a strong, well-built, light dapple grey, and would
-weigh ten hundred, certain. The span was well matched. The nigh one (the
-dam) was more serviceable than the other. Led them all the way from Boston
-behind an ox team; kept them till the middle of April and then returned the
-pair to Boston. Mr. Munson drove them up, only stopping to dinner, when on
-his way to Vermont in August, 1814, and I didn’t see them again until December.
-I then drove them from Boston to Vermont, and used them a year on the
-Munson farm, on Otter Creek, in Wallingford. In June, 1815, I took them to
-Phœnix Horse (bay, black mane and tail, good looking and smart) in Clarendon
-Flats. Both stood and had foals the spring after I left Mr. Munson’s employ.
-The off mare was occasionally a little lame, I think in the off fore foot, when
-hard drove, but the nigh one was perfectly free from lameness or limping. I
-left Mr. Munson in the spring of 1816, and know nothing of mares afterward.</p>
-
-<p class="center">“Yours truly,</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Joseph Tucker</span>,</p>
-
-<p class="right">“(By Geo. W. Fox).”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>I have given this letter entire, with the exception of a few
-closing sentences, that the public may be able to judge of its
-authenticity. That these mares were leaders in a stage team
-when Mr. Munson bought them is confirmed by members of the
-Munson family, and that the nigh mare was represented to be a
-Messenger at the time of the purchase I have not the least
-doubt. But whether she was really a Messenger is quite another
-question. All I can say is, it was possible in the nature of
-things; and the employment and qualities of the mare, together
-with the representations of Mr. Munson, appear to make it
-probable. During the mare’s lifetime I find she was spoken of
-in the Munson family and about Wallingford as “the imported
-Messenger mare” and in this phrase, no doubt, was the origin of
-the story that she was herself imported. When this phrase,
-through her son, reached the next outer circle, “imported Messenger
-mare” no longer meant a mare by imported Messenger,
-but an imported mare by Messenger.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span></p>
-
-<p>At the point where Mr. Tucker’s knowledge of this mare ceases,
-fortunately Mr. Isaac B. Munson, of Wallingford, takes up the
-history and carries it forward, with great particularity, to the
-time of her death about 1826. She produced several foals by
-different horses, and while they were all valuable animals, the
-only one that is known to history is the subject of this sketch.
-When Hambletonian of Vermont was two years old Mr. Munson
-sold him to Samuel Edgerton and others, of Wallingford, and
-they kept him in the stud till about 1828, when they sold him to
-Mr. Eddy, of Bristol, Vermont, and in the hands of the Eddy
-family he was kept at Bristol, New Haven, and other points in
-and about Addison County till about 1835, when he was kept one or
-two years again in Wallingford and adjacent towns. About 1837
-he was sold to Joshua Remington, of Huntington, Vermont, and
-was taken there. He stood in various parts of Chittenden
-County, and became well known as the “Remington Horse.”
-Unfortunately there is no guide to dates in these transfers and
-it is not known just how long Mr. Remington owned him. He
-next passed into the hands of Mr. Russell Harris, New Haven,
-Connecticut, and remained his till he died late in the year 1847.</p>
-
-<p>The location of this horse was unfavorable either to a large or
-to a numerous progeny of trotters. He was surrounded with
-Morgan blood, trappy and stylish and fast growing in popularity
-on the supposition that they were trotters—a most valuable tribe
-as family horses, but none of them were able to trot fast without
-the introduction of trotting blood from the outside. He lived in
-a period antedating the real development of the trotter and the
-keeping of records of performances, and hence we must not
-judge of his merits as a trotting sire by comparing the list of his
-performers with lists of later generations. Green Mountain
-Maid was one of the best of her day and made a record of 2:28½
-in 1853, and the same year the famous pacing gelding Hero
-made a record of 2:20½. Probably the best trotter from his loins
-was Sontag, with a wagon record in 1855 of 2:31. This mare
-was originally a pacer, and whether his dam was by imported
-Messenger or not we must conclude that the tendency to the
-lateral action was strong in his progeny. Lady Shannon,
-Trouble, Vermont, Modesty, and True John were all famous performers
-in their day. The last named was kept in the stud a
-few years and was known as the Hanchett Horse. He fell into
-the hands of Sim D. Hoagland, of this vicinity, became ugly and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>
-was made a gelding. As a weight puller he had no equal in his
-day. His daughters became the dams of many noted producers
-and performers, and through the doubling of his blood and its
-predominating influence we have the famous General Knox and
-his tribe. But few of his sons were kept as stallions; among
-them the best known is Hambletonian, 814, known as the Parris
-Horse and the sire of the stout campaigner, Joker, 2:22½. Vermont
-Hambletonian (known as the Noble or Harrington Horse)
-was one of his best and best-bred sons. He died in 1865, leaving
-a valuable progeny.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hambletonian</span> (<span class="smcap">Judson’s</span>) was a brown horse and resembled
-his sire very much in both size and form. He was foaled 1821, got
-by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam by Wells’
-Magnum Bonum. This Magnum Bonum family abounded in
-that region, and it was a very good one, whatever the blood may
-have been. This horse was bred by Judge Underhill, of Dorset,
-Vermont, and sold, 1829, to Dr. Nathan Judson, of Pawlet, Vermont.
-He was kept in that region till he died about 1841. His
-progeny were very numerous and valuable.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hambletonian</span> (<span class="smcap">Andrus’</span>) was a brown horse nearly sixteen
-hands high. He was a well formed and evenly balanced horse,
-all over, with an objectionable lack of bone just below the fore-knee.
-His head and ear were strongly after the Messenger
-model. I have never been able to determine just who bred him,
-and consequently his blood on the side of the dam is not fully
-established. He was foaled about 1840, got by Judson’s Hambletonian,
-and out of a mare which Mr. B. B. Sherman says was by
-old Magnum Bonum. He seems to have known this mare well
-and speaks of her as a very superior animal. This would indicate
-inbreeding to the Magnum Bonums, and as they were a light-limbed
-family we may account for this horse’s defects in that respect.
-He was owned a number of years by Mr. Andrus, of
-Pawlet, and passed into the hands of G. A. Austin, of Orwell,
-Vermont. In 1853-4 Mr. Austin sent him to Illinois, along
-with Drury’s Ethan Allen, Black Hawk Prophet, Morgan Tiger
-and some other stallions, in charge of Mr. Wetherbee, for sale.
-In 1854 they were removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and several of
-them sold there, among them the Andrus Horse. He was then stiff
-in his limbs, showing the effects of previous neglect and abuse. He
-died at Muscatine in 1857. His progeny there were defective in
-bone. I am told several of his daughters in Vermont have left<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span>
-good stock there and thus perpetuated his name in the second
-and third generations. But his chief title to fame has been
-secured to him by his renowned daughter Princess, the dam of
-the great Happy Medium. In 1851 Mr. L. B. Adams, who then
-owned her, bred the Isaiah Wilcox mare, by Burdick’s Engineer,
-son of Engineer by Messenger, to Andrus’ Hambletonian, and,
-in a nutshell, the union of this great-grandson of Messenger
-with this great-granddaughter of Messenger produced Princess.
-This pedigree of Princess is incontrovertibly established and will be
-given in fuller detail in the history of her son, Happy Medium.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus9">
-<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">HAMBLETONIAN (RYSDYK’S).</p>
-<p class="caption">The greatest of all trotting progenitors and the most intensely inbred to Messenger.</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s description, and comments
-thereon—An analysis of Hambletonian, structurally considered—His
-carriage and action—As a three-year-old trotter—Details of his stud
-service—Statistics of the Hambletonian family—History and ancestry of
-his dam, the Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson, Green’s Bashaw and his
-dam.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hambletonian, 10.</span>—It has been a matter of constant regret
-that in the compilation of the first volume of the Register I attached
-the name “Rysdyk’s” to this horse, and this misstep has
-served as a kind of apparent justification for very many men to
-seize upon the name “Hambletonian,” with their own name as a
-prefix. This has led to great confusion and annoyance to all
-that body of men who have anything to do with records and correct
-pedigrees. Fortunately, however, the evil has become so
-apparent that many writers are beginning to use the numbers,
-and we now very frequently hear men speak of “Hambletonian,
-10,” as the true designation of this horse.</p>
-
-<p>As no horse of any blood or period in this or any other country
-has excited an interest so universal, or represented such a vast
-sum of money in his offspring and descendants, I must try to
-give an account of him and his family—ancestors and descendants—as
-full and accurate as the materials at hand will enable
-me. He was a beautiful bay color, bred by Jonas Seely, of Sugar
-Loaf, Orange County, New York, foaled 1849, got by Abdallah;
-dam the Kent Mare, by imported Bellfounder; grandam One
-Eye, by Hambletonian, son of Messenger; great-grandam Silvertail,
-by imported Messenger; great-great-grandam Black Jin,
-breeding unknown. He was sold with his dam, when a suckling,
-to Mr. William M. Rysdyk, of Chester, in the same county, and
-he remained his till he died in March, 1876. He has been described
-by a great many writers, but the most minute and accurate
-description I have ever seen is from the pen of “Hark Comstock”
-(Peter C. Kellogg), which I will here present, and after it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>
-note any point upon which my own judgment differs from his.
-It should be remembered that this description was made when
-the horse was breaking down with the weight of years:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Hambletonian, now twenty-six years old, is a rich deep mahogany bay, with
-black legs, the black extending very high up on the arms and stifles. His
-mane was originally black, and in his younger days very ornamental; rather
-light, like that of the blood-horse, and of medium length, never reaching below
-the lower line of the neck, but uniform throughout. His foretop was always
-light. At the present time not a vestige of either remains, they having
-gradually disappeared until crest and crown are bald. His tail is long and
-full. When we first knew him it was very full, but is also thinning with his
-advancing years. The hair of both was black as a raven’s wing, and entirely
-devoid of wave or curl. His marks are a very small star and two white ankles
-behind, but the coronets being dotted with black spots, the hoofs are mainly
-dark. Muzzle dark. Head large and bony, with profile inclining to the Roman
-order; jowl deep; jaws not as wide apart as in some of his descendants, yet not
-deficient. Eye very large and prominent, and countenance generally animated
-and expressive of good temper. We found him to measure 10½ inches across
-the face. Ear large, well set, and lively. Neck rather short and a little heavy
-at the throatlatch, but thin and clean at the crest. His shoulders are very
-oblique, deep and strong; withers low and broad; sway very short, and coupling
-smooth. The great fillets of muscle running back along the spine give extraordinary
-width and strength to the loin, which threatens to lose the closely-set
-hip in the wealth of its embrace. But it is back of here that we find lodged
-the immense and powerful machinery that, imparted to his sons and daughters,
-has ever placed them in the foremost ranks of trotters. His hip is long and
-croup high, with great length from hip-point to hock. Thighs and stifles
-swelling with the sinewy muscle, which extends well down into his large,
-clean, bony hocks, hung near the ground. Below these the leg is broad, flat,
-and clean, with the tendons well detached from the bone, and drops at a considerable
-angle with the upper part of the limb, giving the well-bent rather
-than the straight hock. Pasterns long, but strong and elastic, and let into
-hoofs that are perfection. In front his limbs in strength and muscular development
-comport with the rear formation. His chest is broad and prominent; his
-forelegs stand wide apart (perhaps in part the result of much covering), and he
-is deep through the heart; yet notwithstanding this, and the fact of his roundness
-of barrel, there is no appearance of heaviness or hampered action.</p>
-
-<p>Taken at a glance, the impressive features of the horse are his immense substance,
-without a particle of coarseness or grossness. No horse we can recall
-has so great a volume of bone, with the same apparent firmness of texture and
-true blood-like quality. Though short-backed, he is very long underneath.
-Indeed, he is a horse of greater than apparent length. We found his measurement
-from breast to breeching, in a straight line, greater by four inches than
-his height at the withers—a very unusual excess. We also found him two
-inches higher over the rump than at the withers, and the whole rear, or
-propelling portion of the machinery, would upon measurement seem to have
-been molded for an animal two sizes larger than the one to which it is attached;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span>
-yet so beautifully is its connection effected with the whole that there
-is no disproportion apparent, either in the symmetry or the action of the horse.
-As an evidence of the immense reach which this admirable rear construction
-enables him to obtain, it is often noticed by visitors that in his favorite attitude,
-as he stands in his box, his off hind foot is thrown forward so far under him as
-to nearly touch the one in front of it—an attitude which few horses of his proportionate
-length could take without an apparent strain, yet which he assumes
-at perfect repose. When led out upon the ground his walk strikes one as
-being different from that of any other horse. It cannot be described further
-than to say that it shows a true and admirable adjustment of parts, and a perfect
-pliability and elasticity of mechanism that shows out through every
-movement. Many have noticed and endeavored to account in different ways
-for the peculiarity, some crediting it to the pliable pastern, others to surplus
-of knee and hock action, etc., but the fact is, there seems to be a suppleness of
-the whole conformation that delights to express itself in every movement and
-action of the horse. “In his box,” said a Kentucky horseman, who recently
-looked him over, “I thought him too massive to be active, but the moment he
-stepped out I saw that he was all action.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>There is so much in the foregoing description that is intelligent
-and just that I hardly feel like reviewing a single phrase.
-In judging of the conformation of a horse and determining
-whether it is good or bad, at different points, we must have in
-our mind some ideal standard, by which we mentally compare
-one thing with another. The popular conception of the perfect
-horse is the picture of the “Arabian,” painted by artists who
-never saw an Arabian horse. The next approach to perfection is
-the English race horse, but others may insist that the Clydesdale
-comes nearer perfection and that he should be the ideal with
-which the standard of comparison should be made. It is unfortunate
-that Mr. Kellogg should have described Hambletonian as
-possessing “immense substance, without a particle of coarseness,
-or grossness.” He had a remarkably coarse head in its size and
-outline, but this is greatly softened by saying “with a profile
-inclining to the Roman order.” The ideal muzzle of the English
-race horse is so fine that, figuratively speaking, he can drink
-out of a tin cup, but Hambletonian could not get his muzzle into
-a vessel of much smaller dimensions than a half-bushel measure.
-“Ear large, well set and lively.” This is true as to the size of
-the ears, but not correct, in my judgment, as to the setting on.
-As they habitually lopped backward when in repose, giving a
-sour and ill-tempered expression, I could not concede that they
-were “well set.” The hocks were good and clean, but the
-abrupt angle at that point was certainly a coarse feature. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>
-round meaty withers and the round meaty buttocks were both
-“coarse and gross” when looked at from the point of good breeding.
-His two great, meaty ends, connected with a long and perfect
-barrel, two or three sizes too small for the ends, showed such
-a marked disproportion that I often wondered at it. Not one of
-these criticisms is made in the sense of a criticism of Mr. Kellogg’s
-description, but merely as the expression of a different
-view on some points, and on those points not mentioned I most
-heartily agree with him. He has omitted to give the height of
-the horse for the reason that he had shrunken from his normal
-height just one inch. When at his best he measured fifteen
-hands one inch and a quarter. This shrinkage, in addition to
-the ordinary results of great age, is thus explained by Mr. Guy
-Miller, who knew him better than any other man except his
-owner. “His splendid fore hoofs had been ruined by an operation
-whereby the arch was lost and the horse during the remainder
-of his days stood on his frogs.” He was two inches higher
-on the hips than on the withers.</p>
-
-<p>When the horse was led out his movements were so frictionless
-and faultless that he impressed me as the most wonderful
-horse that I had ever seen. He seemed as supple as a cat with
-the power of an elephant. As he walked he kept pushing those
-crooked hind legs away under him in a manner that gave him a
-motion peculiarly his own, and suggested the immense possibilities
-of his stride when opened out on a trot. Plain and indeed
-homely as he was he was a most interesting and instructive study
-whether in his box or taking his daily walks. The question has
-been asked a thousand times whether the speed of Hambletonian
-had been developed and how fast he could go. This question
-I considered very important, in a philosophical and breeding
-sense, and in starting in to investigate it I found two statements,
-one that the time made at the Union Course was honest and true,
-and the other that it was a “put up job” to make Mr. Rysdyk
-feel good, and that the time in fact was much slower than that
-announced. Each side had its advocates, and it did not take
-long to discover that the enemies of Mr. Rysdyk were all on one
-side and the more bitter their enmity the more blatant they were
-in denying the truth of the time given out for the performance.
-This party was headed by one “J. M.,” long distinguished, and
-will be long remembered in Orange County, for the virulence of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span>
-his dislike to Mr. Rysdyk, and as the most unreliable of all unreliable
-horsemen.</p>
-
-<p>In the autumn of 1852 Mr. Rysdyk and Mr. Seely C. Roe, the
-owner of Roe’s Abdallah Chief, then four years old, concluded to
-exhibit their sons of Abdallah at the fair of the American Institute,
-in New York, and after the fair to take their colts, three
-and four years old respectively, for a light training for a few
-weeks. The programme was carried out, and after reaching the
-course they started the two colts together, and much to Mr.
-Roe’s surprise Hambletonian beat his colt in 3:03. In a short
-time Mr. Roe gave his colt another trial in 2:55½. A few days
-later Mr. Rysdyk drove his colt in 2:48. Believing then he had
-the making of the best trotter in the world and being thoroughly
-homesick, he packed up his traps and started for Orange County,
-and this was the first and the last training that Hambletonian
-ever had. When we consider the age of the colt and how few
-of that age had then ever reached that mark, the little then
-known by amateurs of the arts of training and driving, and the
-very limited preparation, we must conclude that this was a remarkably
-good performance.</p>
-
-<p>Was it honestly made? Mr. Roe has been dead a good many
-years, but the next day after he returned from Long Island with
-Mr. Rysdyk he called at the house of his brother-in-law, David R.
-Feagles, a very responsible man, and in the course of the conversation
-he asked Mr. Feagles if he had heard the news? “No,”
-said Mr. Feagles, “what is it?” “Rysdyk’s colt trotted the
-Union Course in 2:48. I held my watch and I know it is true.”
-Mr. Roe was always steadfast and immovable in this declaration
-while he lived. Mr. W. H. Wood, the breeder of Abdallah Chief,
-says he told him the time was 2:48, and he had several times
-heard it disputed in Mr. Roe’s presence and he had always settled
-the dispute by giving the same fact. Mr. David R. Seely said
-he could not remember the time made, but he had heard the
-matter disputed, and Mr. Roe settled it by saying it was true, that
-he saw it and held the watch on him when he did it. These men
-were as reliable as any in Orange County and their statement of
-Mr. Roe’s assertions cannot be doubted. Considering the circumstances,
-it will occur to any mind that Mr. Roe was the very
-best witness to the truth of this performance that could be produced.
-He was not only disinterested, but in building up the
-reputation of a rival stallion he was testifying to his own hurt.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span></p>
-
-<p>There are other evidences of Hambletonian’s development and
-speed, but nothing so definite as the foregoing. He was driven
-in double team sometimes with the great trotter Sir Walter. Mr.
-Kinner, at one time owner of Sir Walter and other good ones, a
-horseman of experience and knowledge of trotting affairs, assured
-me that Sir Walter had shown a trial at Centerville track to
-wagon in 2:32, and this was before he was driven double, occasionally,
-with Hambletonian; and that Hambletonian could out-foot
-Sir Walter for the first half-mile, but as the young horse
-was green and unseasoned, he could not keep up the clip to the
-finish. He did not hesitate to express the belief that the team
-could have trotted the mile in considerably less than 2:40. There
-is one fact in connection with the trial at Union Course that I
-have omitted in its proper place. Mr. Rysdyk was a remarkably
-careful man and always aimed to be inside of the truth rather
-than beyond it. He advertised his horse as having made the
-trial in 2:48½, as it is probable some of the watches gave that as
-the time, instead of 2:48 flat.</p>
-
-<p>Like all the Abdallah family, Hambletonian matured early, and
-at three years was as well advanced as many colts a year older.
-His stud services commenced early. When two years old he was
-allowed to cover four mares without fee and he got three colts,
-one of which was afterward known as the famous Alexander’s
-Abdallah. When three years old he was offered for public
-patronage at twenty-five dollars to insure, and he covered seventeen
-mares and got thirteen colts. The next season, at the same
-price, he covered one hundred and one mares and got seventy-eight
-colts. The next season (1854), being then five years old,
-the price was advanced to thirty-five dollars, and he covered
-eighty-eight mares, getting sixty-three foals. The price remained
-at thirty-five dollars till 1863, when it was advanced to
-seventy-five dollars. At which price he covered one hundred
-and fifty mares. The next season the price was advanced to one
-hundred dollars, and he covered two hundred and seventeen
-mares, getting one hundred and forty-eight foals. In 1865 the
-price was advanced to three hundred dollars and one hundred
-and ninety-three mares were covered. In 1866 the price was put
-at five hundred dollars and one hundred and five mares were
-covered. At this price his services remained ever afterward—one
-hundred dollars down and the remainder when the mare
-proved in foal. In 1867 he covered seventy-seven mares and got<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span>
-only forty-one foals. This large percentage of failure indicated
-beyond question that his procreative powers had been overtaxed
-and that there was a general letting down of his vital energies.
-In 1868 he was not allowed to cover any mares. In 1869 he
-again manifested his usual vigor and he covered twenty-one
-mares, getting fourteen foals. In 1870 he covered twenty-two
-mares and got thirteen foals. From this time forward his procreative
-powers dwindled, and in 1875, I think, he got but two
-foals, and died the following March.</p>
-
-<p>It has been estimated that he got about one thousand three
-hundred foals, and for several years it was one of the amusing
-features of horse literature to see how many writers were able to
-demonstrate that as a progenitor of speed he was a failure. This
-item of one thousand three hundred foals was taken as the basis
-of computation, and then with the small number of forty trotters
-out of the one thousand three hundred, the percentage of trotters
-was very small. The next step was to find some unknown horse,
-generally a pacer, that had only two or three foals to his credit
-and one of them had made a record of 2:30, thus showing a much
-larger percentage than Hambletonian, and by that much he was a
-greater sire than Hambletonian. All this foolishness has now
-subsided in the face of the fact that the great mass of the trotters
-of today have more or less of his blood in their veins, and in
-a very short time that blood will abound in greater or less
-strength in every American trotter. The tables which here
-follows will make this fact evident to all who will study them.</p>
-
-<div class="smaller">
-
-<p>[Prefatory to these tables and to the other statistics concerning the present
-rank of the trotting families given in the pages following, an explanatory
-paragraph is in order so that they may not be misunderstood. (1) They are
-based on the tables given in the Year Book for 1896, and I regret to say that
-these tables are so emasculated, incomplete, unsatisfactory and in many cases
-contradictory one of the other that it is literally impossible to compile from
-them statistics that may be accepted as absolutely correct and letter perfect.
-However, as this work is not intended as one for statistical reference, the tables
-being approximately correct serve my purpose, which is merely to show <i>relatively</i>
-and with substantial accuracy the standing of the sires and families
-embraced to the close of 1896. (2) By the term “standard performers” is meant
-horses that have acquired trotting records of 2:30 or better, or pacing records of
-2:25 or better. The Year Book no longer gives a 2:30 pacing list, and it should
-be noted that pacers with records between 2:30 and 2:25 are not credited in
-these tables. (3) The tables are designed to show (<i>a</i>) the number of standard
-performers got by each sire named. (<i>b</i>) The number of his sons that are sires of
-standard performers. (<i>c</i>) The number of his daughters that are dams of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>
-standard performers. (<i>d</i>) The number of standard performers produced by
-these sons and daughters, and finally, in the last column, the total number of
-standard performers produced in the two generations—<i>i. e.</i>, by the sire himself,
-and by his sons and daughters. The dates of foaling and death are important
-in considering the opportunities of the families embraced.]</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The first table following gives some idea of the supremacy of
-the Hambletonian family over all others. When we seek a rival
-to Hambletonian as a trotting progenitor we must do so among
-his sons; and by turning to the second table it will be noted that
-many of these outrank the founders of any and all the other
-great trotting families.</p>
-
-<p class="center">FOUNDERS OF THE GREAT TROTTING FAMILIES.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Founders of the great trotting families">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Year died.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Total No. Standard performers in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Hambletonian</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1849</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">40</td>
-    <td class="tdr">148</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1665</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1705</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Blue Bull</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1858</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1880</td>
-    <td class="tdr">60</td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-    <td class="tdr">77</td>
-    <td class="tdr">211</td>
-    <td class="tdr">271</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mambrino Chief</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1844</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1862</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">119</td>
-    <td class="tdr">125</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ethan Allen</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1849</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">22</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">118</td>
-    <td class="tdr">124</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Pilot Jr.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1858</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">72</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George M. Patchen</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1849</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">70</td>
-    <td class="tdr">74</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Champion (807)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1853</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">53</td>
-    <td class="tdr">61</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>In this table Ethan Allen is given as the representative of his
-family in preference to his sire, Black Hawk, the real founder,
-for the reasons that he was a far greater horse, and makes a better
-showing than his sire, and further because he was a contemporary
-of Hambletonian. For exactly the same reasons
-George M. Patchen is given as the representative progenitor of
-the Clay line.</p>
-
-<p>The next table demonstrates what the Hambletonian family has
-done in the second and third generations, and the relative standing
-of the leading sub-families of the greatest trotting line. It
-embraces separately every sire that has to his own credit and to
-the credit of his sons and daughters an aggregate of fifty or more
-standard performers, twenty-three in all, while the totals to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span>
-credit of all the other sons of Hambletonian are grouped in the
-last line:</p>
-
-<p class="center">FAMILIES OF HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Families of Hambletonian’s sons">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Year died.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Total No. Standard performers in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George Wilkes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1856</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">83</td>
-    <td class="tdr">94</td>
-    <td class="tdr">81</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1801</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1884</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Electioneer</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1868</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1890</td>
-    <td class="tdr">154</td>
-    <td class="tdr">65</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">493</td>
-    <td class="tdr">647</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Happy Medium</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1888</td>
-    <td class="tdr">92</td>
-    <td class="tdr">51</td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-    <td class="tdr">272</td>
-    <td class="tdr">364</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Harold</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1893</td>
-    <td class="tdr">44</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-    <td class="tdr">248</td>
-    <td class="tdr">292</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Dictator</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1893</td>
-    <td class="tdr">52</td>
-    <td class="tdr">44</td>
-    <td class="tdr">42</td>
-    <td class="tdr">234</td>
-    <td class="tdr">286</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Volunteer</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1854</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1888</td>
-    <td class="tdr">34</td>
-    <td class="tdr">40</td>
-    <td class="tdr">48</td>
-    <td class="tdr">221</td>
-    <td class="tdr">255</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Strathmore</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1866</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1895</td>
-    <td class="tdr">71</td>
-    <td class="tdr">26</td>
-    <td class="tdr">54</td>
-    <td class="tdr">158</td>
-    <td class="tdr">229</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Abdallah (15)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1852</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">199</td>
-    <td class="tdr">204</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Aberdeen</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1866</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1892</td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">19</td>
-    <td class="tdr">110</td>
-    <td class="tdr">155</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Egbert</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">75</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">74</td>
-    <td class="tdr">149</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Messenger Duroc.</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">41</td>
-    <td class="tdr">125</td>
-    <td class="tdr">148</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Edward Everett</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1855</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">112</td>
-    <td class="tdr">125</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Administrator</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1892</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">44</td>
-    <td class="tdr">93</td>
-    <td class="tdr">107</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jay Gould</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1894</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">28</td>
-    <td class="tdr">76</td>
-    <td class="tdr">105</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Victor Bismarck</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1867</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">64</td>
-    <td class="tdr">95</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Cuyler</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1868</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1894</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">36</td>
-    <td class="tdr">74</td>
-    <td class="tdr">89</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Masterlode</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1868</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">28</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">57</td>
-    <td class="tdr">85</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Sweepstakes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1867</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">39</td>
-    <td class="tdr">74</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Sentinel</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1873</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">57</td>
-    <td class="tdr">65</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Middletown</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1860</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1891</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-    <td class="tdr">63</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Squire Talmage</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1866</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1891</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-    <td class="tdr">58</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Dauntless</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1867</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">51</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Echo</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1866</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">34</td>
-    <td class="tdr">50</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Other sons (125)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">618</td>
-    <td class="tdr">229</td>
-    <td class="tdr">412</td>
-    <td class="tdr">980</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1600</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>This table shows what each horse himself produced, and how
-his blood is breeding on through his sons and daughters; and
-above all it demonstrates the stupendous fact that in three generations
-the Hambletonian family has produced upward of seven
-thousand standard performers, and all facts and all experience
-now beyond cavil justify what I ventured to declare in <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i> many years ago: “The Hambletonian line stands above
-all other lines and must survive because it is the fittest.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">The Charles Kent Mare</span>, dam of Hambletonian, was a bay,
-fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with a star, left forward
-ankle roan, and left hind foot white. Her son was long and
-round, just the opposite of her sire. Hips rather coarse, and might<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>
-be considered a little ragged. Stifles very powerful and well-developed.
-Her hocks and legs were exactly represented in her
-son Hambletonian. Her neck was fine and bloodlike, but not
-long. Her head was good, and her eyes remarkably full and
-bright, showing considerable white. Her mane was long, but
-thin, and her tail was light. Her shoulders were well-sloped,
-her withers ran up high, and were thin. Jonas Seely, Sr., having
-given the old mare One Eye to his son Charles, she was sold
-to Josiah S. Jackson, of Oxford, Orange County. Mr. Jackson
-bred her to Bellfounder and the produce was the Kent mare.
-Although the Seely family owned the stock, originally and afterward,
-Mr. Jackson was really the breeder of this mare. Mr.
-Jonas Seely says she was got the year Bellfounder stood at
-Poughkeepsie (1831), but Mr. Rysdyk says she was got in 1832,
-when Bellfounder stood at Washingtonville. Mr. Jackson sold
-her at three years old to Peter Seely for three hundred dollars;
-Mr. Seely sold her soon after to Mr. Pray, of New York, for
-four hundred dollars; Mr. Pray sold her to William Chivis for
-five hundred dollars; and Mr. Chivis sold her to a gentleman,
-who was a banker in New York—name not remembered—to
-match another as a fast road team. This team ran away after a
-time, and she was injured, and became lame. Charles Kent, a
-butcher in New York, then bought her and bred her to Webber’s
-Tom Thumb, before he came to Orange County. At this juncture,
-on the earnest recommendation of Mr. Pray, who had
-tested the quality of three or four of the family, Mr. Jonas Seely—Jonas,
-second—bought the mare of Kent for one hundred and
-thirty-five dollars, and took her back to the old place, where she
-was bred and produced as follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>1843. Brown filly Belle, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.</li>
-<li>1845. Black gelding, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.</li>
-<li>1846. Chestnut filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.</li>
-<li>1848. Brown filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.</li>
-<li>1849. Bay colt Hambletonian, by Abdallah (mare and colt sold to William M. Rysdyk, for $125).</li>
-<li>1850. Brown filly (went to Maryland), by Young Patriot.</li>
-<li>1851. Lost foal, by L. I. Black Hawk.</li>
-<li>1852. Brown colt Tippoo Saib, by Brook’s Black Hawk.</li>
-<li>1853. Chestnut colt (died young), by Fiddler.</li>
-<li>1856. Brown gelding, by Plato.</li>
-<li>1859. Bay colt, by Almack, son of Hambletonian.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span></p>
-
-<p>In the preceding list there are but two fillies that lived to produce
-anything, and one of them is lost from sight. The produce of
-the first will be given below. The Patriot filly that went to
-Maryland was a brown, and of good size, but nothing further is
-known of her.</p>
-
-<p>The Tom Thumb gelding of 1845 was in 1869 a good road
-horse, and was owned by George S. Conklin. He was showy and
-stylish without very much speed. Her fifth foal, Hambletonian,
-is known wherever the trotting horse is known.</p>
-
-<p>This mare was a trotter of no ordinary merit. She was never
-in any races, so far as known, except they might have been of a
-private nature, but after she passed into the hands of Peter
-Seely her speed was pretty well developed. This is not only
-shown by the advance in her price from owner to owner, but it
-appears to be a well-established fact that when four years old
-Peter Seely had her at the Union Course, and he there gave her
-two trials to saddle, the first in 2:43 and the second in 2:41.
-For a time I was skeptical about these trials, but they seem to be
-beyond question. This is considerably faster than any other of
-the get of imported Bellfounder ever trotted in this country,
-and from this we may conclude that her inheritance from her
-dam was the great factor in her speed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">One Eye</span>, the dam of the Kent mare, was a brown, about
-fifteen hands and an inch high, with two white feet and perhaps
-a little white in her face. With the taste Mr. Seely had of the
-Messenger blood in Silvertail he wanted more of it; and when
-Townsend Cock sent the famous Bishop’s Hambletonian to
-Goshen in 1814, Mr. Seely bred his daughter of Messenger to
-this son of Messenger and the produce was One Eye. I do not
-learn that this mare was handsome, but she was an animal of
-most remarkable courage and endurance. The load was never
-too heavy nor the road too long. Withal, she had a will of her
-own and was a little hard to manage unless she was worked constantly.
-One day when on her mettle she got an eye knocked
-out by accident, and, hence, her name; but the great quality of
-this mare was her remarkable trotting action. Those familiar
-with her gait, and entirely competent to judge, are enthusiastic
-in the opinion that no trotter of the present day ever surpassed,
-her in a grand open trotting step. If the patience and skill
-brought into use in developing the modern trotter had been expended
-on her, she doubtless would have surpassed all of her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>
-day, not even excepting her near relation, old Topgallant. This
-mare illustrates a point of very great importance. She was got
-by a son of Messenger that was a running horse of merit and able
-to beat some of the best of his day, and her dam was a daughter
-of Messenger. The trotting action of neither sire nor dam had
-ever been developed, but when these two Messengers came together,
-the clean, open, unmistakable trotting gait was the result.
-Right at this point and in this mare, One Eye, we have the incipient
-cause of all Hambletonian’s greatness. This mare was
-bred by Jonas Seely, Sr.; given to his son Charles, who sold her
-to his brother-in-law, Josiah Jackson, of Oxford in Orange
-County. According the recollection of Mr. Rysdyk, who was
-entirely familiar with the Seely family and their affairs, she produced
-as follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>1829. Bay gelding Crabstick, by Seagull.</li>
-<li>1830. Bay gelding Pray Colt, by Seagull.</li>
-<li>1831. Bay filly Young One Eye, by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy.</li>
-<li>1833. Bay filly Kent Mare, by imp. Bellfounder. Sold to Mr. Pray.</li>
-<li>1834. Bay filly; sold also to Mr. Pray, by imp. Bellfounder. Perhaps there was another foal that died.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>The first of her foals, Crabstick, appears to have been well-named.
-His temper was anything but smooth and pleasant. He
-was sold early to Mr. Ebenezer Pray, of New York, and he soon
-evinced two traits of character that did not elevate him in the
-estimation of his owner. He would throw every one off that
-dared to mount him, and when they did get him under motion
-he was determined to pace and not trot. On a certain occasion
-Mr. Rysdyk visited Mr. Pray, and he was urged to try his skill
-in riding Crabstick and see if he could make him trot. The attempt
-was long-continued, and embraced up hill, down hill, and
-level work, but all to no purpose, as pace he would. At last Mr.
-Pray proposed to put him over rails and stakes, placed on the
-road at intervals of a good trotting stride, and see if that would
-make him quit moving one side at a time. Mr. Rysdyk went up
-the road and got under good headway, but just before he reached
-the rails the horse threw him. He was not much hurt, mounted
-again, and then commenced in earnest the fight for the mastery
-between the horse and his rider. The value of a neck was nothing
-when compared with the great question of who should conquer.
-The next attempt was successful, and he went over the
-rails flying. The intervals between them were then extended, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>
-he was kept at that most dangerous exercise till he would trot
-without rails, and until both horse and rider were completely
-exhausted. The horse was conquered, and although always
-willful and hard to manage, ever after, when called on to trot, he
-would do it. Mr. Pray sold him to Mr. Vanderbilt, and, although
-kept as a private driving horse, he was fast for his day,
-and could go in less than three minutes at any time.</p>
-
-<p>Her next foal was sold also to Mr. Pray when five years old,
-and was known as the Pray Colt. He was marked just as his
-brother Crabstick, and, like him, was somewhat vicious and hard
-to manage.</p>
-
-<p>The third foal, Young One Eye, was by Edmund Seely’s horse
-Orphan Boy, whose pedigree is not now known. One of her eyes
-was knocked out by Peter Seely, accidentally, when breaking her,
-just as her dam had lost an eye. She passed out of the hands of
-the Seely family and her subsequent history is unknown. If this
-mare ever produced anything, her history and that of her descendants
-would be of great interest and value.</p>
-
-<p>The question at once suggests itself, Where did Crabstick get
-his pacing action? It could not have been from his sire, as he was
-a son of Duroc, so said, but it may have come from Seagull’s
-dam, as we know nothing of her breeding; or it may have come
-from old Black Jin, the dam of Silvertail. If from neither of
-these we must then conclude it came from Messenger himself, or
-rather, through him from some of his pacing ancestors. It is
-altogether probable that the strong infusion of pacing blood in
-Messenger’s veins was the real element that made him a trotting
-progenitor when every other imported English horse failed in
-that respect.</p>
-
-<p>Silvertail, the great-grandam of Hambletonian, was a dark
-brown mare with white hind feet and a white face. She had a
-great many white hairs in her tail and hence she was called
-Silvertail. She was foaled in 1802 and was bred by Mr. Jonas
-Seely, Sr., of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York. She was
-got by imported Messenger in 1801, the year he stood at Goshen,
-New York. Her dam was a great, slashing black mare called
-“Jin” that Mr. Seely had used in his business many years, but
-her origin and breeding cannot now be found. She must have been
-a real good one or Mr. Seely would not have taken her to Messenger.
-In the summer of 1806, as was his custom, he was down at
-New York with a drove of cattle, and his son Jonas, then a lad of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span>
-eight or ten years old, went along to help drive the cattle and
-to see the city. He was detained two or three days longer than he
-expected and it was very important that he should reach home at
-a certain time. On the morning of that day he found himself
-in Hoboken, with his son, and no means of getting home except
-on Silvertail. So he took the boy up behind him and went home
-that day, seventy-five miles, by sundown. She was fully sixteen
-hands high and of very fine style. Her head, neck and ear were
-bloodlike, and her resolution and will were remarkable even in
-old age. Her step, at the trot, is not known to have been much
-developed, but she could gallop all day long. On several occasions
-she carried her master to Albany in a day. Besides the
-famous One Eye she produced several superior foals that brought
-high prices, in those days, but we have only the one line tracing
-to her as a producer. She died the property of Ebenezer Seely.</p>
-
-<p>In searching for the particulars of this pedigree of Hambletonian
-and in tracing it back to old “Black Jin,” I was necessarily
-brought into contact with a great many people, some of
-whom were helpful and some were not. As a matter of course
-I met with the usual number who professed to “know it all,” but
-really knew nothing that was reliable. As the whole tracing
-was in the Seely family, the public may wish to know what kind
-of people they were. Jonas Seely, first, of Oxford in Orange
-County, was a large farmer in the last century and an extensive
-cattle feeder and drover. As there were no railroads or steam
-boats in those days, much of his time was given to driving cattle,
-either in collecting them from the interior or in taking them to
-market in New York. He had use for good horses and he had a
-fancy for the best. His business brought him into contact with
-the butchers of New York, and we find he sold many of his horses
-as well as his cattle to them. These same business relations were
-continued under his successor. He left a large family of sons
-who seemed to take to the horse as a duck takes to water.
-Jonas, second, was one of his younger sons and succeeded to his
-father’s business as well as to the homestead. He was born 1797
-at Oxford, and his father removed to the farm at Sugar Loaf
-when he was a child. He was a thrifty and successful farmer.
-For a number of years he was engaged with his partner and lifelong
-friend, Ebenezer Pray, in buying and driving cattle from
-the West to the New York market. In June, 1882, he passed
-away and there ended an acquaintance and a friendship of nearly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>
-thirty years. He was a strictly conscientious and truthful man,
-and died in the glorious hope of a devoted Christian. His first
-visit to New York, in 1806, the wonders he saw there, and especially
-the total eclipse that occurred while he was there, and
-how he watched it from the Bull’s Head tavern, through a piece
-of smoked glass, and the ride home the next day behind his
-father on Silvertail, and how he ran down many a hill to rest
-himself, and how tired he was when they reached home, are incidents
-that were all detailed to me with the interest and vigor of
-yesterday.</p>
-
-<p>When One Eye was about fifteen years old the elder Jonas gave
-her or sold her to his son-in-law, Josiah Jackson, and in due
-time he bred her to imported Bellfounder and she produced the
-Charles Kent mare. Mr. Rysdyk thought the elder Jonas gave
-this mare to his son Charles and that Charles sold her to Mr.
-Jackson, which is not material. After the Kent mare had been
-battered about in New York for some years and finally crippled,
-Charles Kent, a butcher, bought her and bred her to Webber’s
-Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse that was quite a trotter. On
-one occasion when Jonas II. and Mr. Pray were down in the city,
-Kent wanted to sell the mare, and Mr. Pray urged Jonas very
-strongly to buy her and take her home for a brood mare. He
-concluded to do so if she were not too badly crippled, and they
-together went over on to the island to see her, when she came
-again into the Seely family. In 1848 he bred her to Abdallah,
-in 1849 she produced a bay colt, and in the autumn of that year
-he sold her with her colt to William M. Rysdyk, who had been
-employed on his farm for the year, for one hundred and twenty-five
-dollars, and this colt proved to be the great Hambletonian.</p>
-
-<p>As it is now conceded, not only in this country, but throughout
-the world, that Hambletonian, as a trotting progenitor, is far
-and away the greatest horse that has ever been produced, a careful
-and true analysis of the blood elements entering into his inheritance
-is a most interesting and instructive lesson for all
-breeders. First we have the direct cross from Messenger himself
-in Silvertail; second, we have the cross from a son of Messenger
-on a daughter of Messenger in One Eye, making her equal to a
-daughter of Messenger in blood; third, we have the out-cross
-from Bellfounder, that was a total failure as a trotting progenitor,
-on this double granddaughter of Messenger, and the result
-is a trotter in the Kent mare and practically the only trotter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>
-that Bellfounder ever got; fourth, we have the cross of a grandson
-and probably a double grandson of Messenger on this trotter,
-and the produce is Hambletonian himself. These crosses show
-a stronger concentration of Messenger blood than can be found
-in any horse of his generation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bashaw</span> (<span class="smcap">Green’s</span>).—This was a black horse, fifteen and a
-half hands high, bred by Jonas Seely, the breeder of Hambletonian;
-foaled 1855, and given when following his dam to his son-in-law,
-Colonel F. M. Cummins, of Muscatine, Iowa. He was got
-by Vernol’s Black Hawk, then known as the Drake colt, son of
-Long Island Black Hawk, and his dam was Belle, the first foal of
-the Charles Kent mare, that was out of One Eye. In the spring
-of 1857 he was sold to Joseph A. Green, of Muscatine, and he remained
-his till 1864. He had one white hind foot and a large,
-full star in his forehead. He was a smooth, handsome horse in
-every respect. His head, neck, ear and eye were all good, and
-free from coarseness. His back and loin had very few equals
-even among those that are called most perfect at these points.
-His hip was of great length, and in his buttock there was quite a
-resemblance on a reduced scale to his kinsman, Hambletonian.
-His limbs and feet both in shape and quality were admirable, and
-his disposition docile and kindly. In walking his gait was slinging,
-but loose jointed and slovenly, and he was therefore not a
-pleasant driving horse. But at the trot, whether going slow or
-fast, his style was very taking and his action remarkably perfect.
-While owned by Mr. Green he was handled by good, careful men,
-but they had no experience in developing and driving a trotter,
-and knew nothing about that kind of horsemanship. Under
-these circumstances many a horse would have been spoiled, but
-his gait was always perfect and his popularity as a trotter never
-waned. He never was started in what might be called regular
-races, but at State fairs and the principal county fairs he was
-always in demand and always won. He was, perhaps, the best
-natural trotter that I have ever seen. He was able to show about
-2:28, but I think he never won a heat on a half-mile track in
-better than 2:31, and when sixteen years old he was able to win
-in 2:35. In 1864 Mr. Green sold him to some parties in St.
-Louis, Missouri, and they to Mr. Beckwith of Hartford, Connecticut,
-and while in his hands he was matched against Young
-Morrill, but went amiss and paid forfeit. He made the season of
-1865 at Hartford. The following winter Mr. Green repurchased<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>
-him and he was returned to Muscatine, where he remained till
-January, 1877, when he was sold to George A. Young, of Leland,
-Illinois, and died January, 1880.</p>
-
-<p>He left seventeen trotters in the 2:30 list; twenty-four sons
-that were the sires of fifty-nine standard performers, and thirty-four
-daughters that produced forty-four standard performers. As
-his sire never amounted to anything either as a trotter or a getter
-of trotters, it is fair to conclude that whatever merit he possessed
-was inherited from the same source that made Hambletonian
-greater than all others.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Belle</span>, the dam of Bashaw, 50, was a brown mare about
-fifteen and three-quarter hands high, with tan muzzle and flanks
-and some white feet. She was rather short in the body and
-neck, but she was very stoutly built and had been a fine road
-mare. She was bred by Charles Kent, the butcher, and I think
-was following her dam when Mr. Jonas Seely bought her. She
-was foaled 1843 and was got by Tom Thumb, a Canadian horse,
-and a trotter that was brought into Orange County by William
-Webber and left excellent stock. Her dam was the Charles Kent
-mare, the dam of Hambletonian. She produced as follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>1848. Bay gelding, by Abdallah.</li>
-<li>1849. Bay filly Seely Abdallah, by Abdallah.</li>
-<li>1851. Black colt Seely’s Black Hawk, by Long Island Black Hawk.</li>
-<li>1853. Bay filly, (taken West) by Hambletonian.</li>
-<li>1855. Black colt Green’s Bashaw, by Vernol’s Black Hawk.</li>
-<li>1857. Bay filly by Black Hawk Prophet, son of Vermont Black Hawk, in Iowa. This filly was ringboned, and given away.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>Nothing is now known of the gelding by Abdallah. The filly
-of 1849 by Abdallah, called Seely Abdallah, was owned by Mr.
-Charles Backman, and he had her produce for two or three
-generations.</p>
-
-<p>The black colt by Long Island Black Hawk of 1851 was sold to
-Ebenezer Seely, and kept as a stallion. This Mr. Seely died in
-Chemung County, and the horse died there in the spring of 1859.
-The filly of 1853 by Hambletonian was one of a pair of Hambletonian
-fillies bought and taken to Iowa by Mr. Green in 1855.
-They developed a very fine rate of speed.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS AND GRANDSONS.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Different opinions as to relative merits of Hambletonian’s greater sons—George
-Wilkes, his history and pedigree—His performing descendants—History
-and description of Electioneer—His family—Alexander’s
-Abdallah and his two greatest sons, Almont and Belmont—Dictator—Harold—Happy
-Medium and his dam—Jay Gould—Strathmore—Egbert—Aberdeen—Masterlode—Sweepstakes—Governor
-Sprague, grandson of
-Hambletonian.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>There is hardly a prominent sire by Hambletonian that has
-not been claimed by his admirers to have been the “greatest son”
-of the most renowned of trotting progenitors, and if a poll of
-the horsemen of the country could be taken to-day as to what
-horse was the greatest son of Hambletonian, probably a dozen
-names would be found to have thousands of supporters each. As
-with all questions that are largely matters of opinion, and that
-cannot be decided absolutely by figures, the relative rank of
-horses as progenitors must always remain open to disputation
-according as thinkers approach the subject from different points
-of view and of interest. I shall not enter into any discussion as to
-the relative merits of the great sons of Hambletonian with a purpose
-to reach any deduction as to which was or is the greatest; but
-shall refer the reader to the table given in the preceding chapter,
-and content myself with briefly giving the history of the more
-renowned sires of the Hambletonian line, with such statistics as
-may be necessary to gauge their rank as progenitors.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus10">
-<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="700" height="450" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">GEORGE WILKES.</p>
-<p class="caption">A Great Son of Hambletonian.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George Wilkes</span> was one of the first of Hambletonian’s sons
-to attract attention, by his performances on the turf, to the
-value of his sire; and as a progenitor he must be accorded a place
-in the first rank of all trotting sires. This horse was bred by
-Colonel Harry Felter, Newburgh, New York, was foaled 1856,
-and was got by Hambletonian out of the fast road mare Dolly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span>
-Spanker. (This mare was afterward registered on what seemed
-excellent evidence as by Henry Clay, out of a daughter of Baker’s
-Highlander, but more recent investigation has thrown serious
-doubt upon this pedigree, the subject being fully discussed in
-the chapters in this work on “The Investigation of Pedigrees.”)
-After the travail that brought the little brown colt into the
-world, Dolly Spanker died, and the orphaned youngster, like
-Andrew Jackson, owed his life to woman’s kindly care. He was
-fed by the women of the farm on Jamaica rum and milk sweetened
-with sugar, and soon grew lusty, though he was always an
-undersized horse, never much, if any, exceeding fifteen hands in
-height, though he was so stoutly and compactly made that he
-gave the impression of being larger than he really was. He was
-of that order that has been paradoxically described as “a big
-little horse.” In color he was a very dark brown, and his flanks
-and muzzle shaded into a deep tan, or wine color. From a detailed
-description of him published in the <i>Spirit of the Times</i> in
-1862, I extract the following:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“He is about 15.1, but all horse.... His traveling gear is just what it
-should be—muscular shoulders long strong arms, flat legs, splendid quarters,
-great length from hip to hock, and very fine back sinews. He stands higher
-behind than he does forward, a formation we like.... He is very wide
-between the jaws.... His coat is fine and glows like the rich dark tints
-of polished rosewood.... His temper is kind. We had the pleasure of
-seeing him at his work, and unless we are greatly mistaken he will make an
-amazingly good one. He has a long and easy way of going, striking well out
-behind and tucking his haunches well under him.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Though from the fact that this writer stated that Wilkes “was
-as handsome as Ethan Allen,” we might suspect him of a tendency
-to “paint the lily,” it will be noted that this was written before
-the horse had any great reputation to speak of, and it may be
-accepted as a substantially correct description as far as it goes.
-In describing his action Charles J. Foster wrote that “his hind
-leg when straightened out in action as he went at his best pace reminded
-me of that of a duck swimming.” He was then the property
-of Z. E. Simmons, who had purchased him as a three-year-old
-for $3,000, and another horse.</p>
-
-<p>George Wilkes, or Robert Fillingham, as he was first named,
-was a trotter from colthood. At four years old he was matched
-against Guy Miller, but his party paid forfeit, the reason therefor
-being afterward alleged that they found Fillingham possessed
-of so much speed that they decided to “lay for bigger<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span>
-game.” The late Alden Goldsmith, a most competent judge, saw
-the colt trot at this time and then thought he was the fastest
-horse he had ever seen. He won a race in August of his five-year-old
-year, taking a record of 2:33, and the next year sprang
-into wide fame by defeating the then popular idol, Ethan Allen,
-in straight heats, over the Union Course, the fastest heat being
-in 2:24¾. In October of that year he started in harness against
-General Butler, under saddle. Though Butler was no match for
-George Wilkes in harness, with a saddle on his back, and Dan
-Mace in the saddle, he was almost unbeatable in his day, but it
-took him four heats to beat Wilkes, who forced him out in the
-first heat in 2:21½, a record he never after surpassed. Then
-William L. Simmons and John Morrissey matched Wilkes against
-Butler, two-mile heats to wagon, the latter having previously
-beaten the great George M. Patchen a heat in record-breaking
-time under similar conditions. In preparation for that match
-George Wilkes was sent a trial over the Centerville Course, concerning
-which there has been much discussion and probably
-much romance. Charles J. Foster wrote thus:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“It was a close, sultry day and the stallion was short of work.... He
-went the two-mile trial and I have no doubt it was faster than trotter ever had
-before, or has since, in any rig. But it ‘cooked his mutton,’ as the saying is,
-and for a long time he was George Wilkes no more.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It is said that ever after this trial, whatever it may have
-been, George Wilkes was inclined to sulk in his races. He raced
-with fair success in 1863 and 1864, and at the beginning of 1865
-was classed among the very best out. He was sent against Dexter
-and Lady Thorn, being beaten by both; but in 1866 he twice
-defeated Lady Thorn, the last time in a notable wagon race over
-Union Course in 2:27, 2:25, 2:26¾. Afterward in the same year Lady
-Thorn defeated Wilkes in four successive races, and she beat him
-again in their only meeting the following year, but in 1868 he
-defeated the mare in a hard-fought race, she winning the first
-and second heats and making the fourth heat dead. George
-Wilkes made his record of 2:22, October 13, 1868, over the Narragansett
-Course at Providence in a winning race with Rhode
-Island and Draco. He was kept on the turf with indifferent success
-until 1872, racing frequently against Lucy, Lady Thorn,
-and American Girl, all of whom outclassed him, at least in
-the afternoon of his racing career. Just how fast a trotter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span>
-George Wilkes was it is impossible definitely to determine,
-so many and varying have been the representations on that
-point. It has been claimed that he went a quarter in
-twenty-nine seconds to an eighty-five pound wagon. William L.
-Simmons some years ago stated that of his own knowledge
-George Wilkes trotted a mile and repeat as a six-year-old at the
-Centerville Course in 2:19¼, 2:18½, and that Sam McLaughlin
-drove him a half-mile to wagon over Union Course in 1:04½.
-These statements I give for what may be deemed their worth,
-contenting myself with the remark that it is safe to conclude
-that George Wilkes would have trotted well within the 2:20 mark,
-if he had been managed with a view to bringing out his highest
-racing capacity, instead of being handled solely for the purpose
-of smart betting and match-making manipulations.</p>
-
-<p>George Wilkes was taken to Lexington, Kentucky, by William
-L. Simmons, his owner, in 1873, and in his declining years made
-a reputation so great in the stud that his brilliant turf career is
-almost forgotten. After having trotted against the best in the
-country for twelve successive years, proving his fitness in the
-fiery ordeal of turf contest, he, in the nine remaining years of his
-life, fulfilled the purpose of his being, and demonstrated the
-truth of heredity by getting trotters in plenty able to do and
-outdo what he had in his day done.</p>
-
-<p>George Wilkes got a few foals before going to Kentucky, of
-which the most notable was May Bird, 2:21, the first trotter to
-bring him reputation as a sire. Of the others got in the North,
-Young Wilkes, 2:28¼, a sire of some reputation, and Wilkes
-Spirit, who also figures in the table of sires, are the only ones to
-earn places in the records. Early in the eighties George Wilkes
-began to assume high rank as a sire, May Bird, Kentucky Wilkes,
-Prospect Maid, So So, Joe Bunker and others bringing him into
-prominence. Every year added to his roll of honor and soon he
-was among the leaders. Blue Bull had surpassed Hambletonian
-in the number of trotters to his credit in the 2:30 list, but at the
-close of 1886 George Wilkes was even with the Indiana sire, in
-1887 he passed him, and for some seasons led all sires of 2:30
-performers. George Wilkes got seventy-two trotters and eleven
-pacers to acquire standard records, of which the most noted were
-Harry Wilkes, 2:13½, Guy Wilkes, 2:15¼, and Wilson, 2:16¼; and
-ninety-four of his sons and eighty-one of his daughters have
-produced, as shown in the table of Hambletonian’s sons, 1801<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span>
-standard performers. The following table embraces the sons
-of George Wilkes that have twenty or more standard performers
-to their credit:</p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF GEORGE WILKES.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of George Wilkes">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Total No. produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Red Wilkes, 2:40</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">127</td>
-    <td class="tdr">62</td>
-    <td class="tdr">41</td>
-    <td class="tdr">267</td>
-    <td class="tdr">394</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Onward, 2:25¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">120</td>
-    <td class="tdr">64</td>
-    <td class="tdr">32</td>
-    <td class="tdr">275</td>
-    <td class="tdr">395</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Alcantara, 2:23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">98</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">115</td>
-    <td class="tdr">213</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Bourbon Wilkes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">67</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-    <td class="tdr">112</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Simmons, 2:28</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">64</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-    <td class="tdr">99</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wilton, 2:19¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1880</td>
-    <td class="tdr">61</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">69</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jay Bird, 2:31¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">57</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">68</td>
-    <td class="tdr">125</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Alcyone, 2:27</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1877</td>
-    <td class="tdr">55</td>
-    <td class="tdr">27</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">117</td>
-    <td class="tdr">172</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Guy Wilkes, 2:15¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">52</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-    <td class="tdr">101</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ambassador, 2:21¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">48</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">33</td>
-    <td class="tdr">81</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Gambetta Wilkes, 2:26</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1881</td>
-    <td class="tdr">48</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">32</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Baron Wilkes, 2:18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">65</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Adrian Wilkes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">38</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">63</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wilkes Boy, 2:24½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1880</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">45</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Young Jim</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">19</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Brown Wilkes, 2:21¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">32</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">39</td>
-    <td class="tdr">71</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Young Wilkes, 2:28¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1868</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">41</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Favorite Wilkes, 2:24½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1877</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-    <td class="tdr">44</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Woodford Wilkes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wilkie Collins</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1876</td>
-    <td class="tdr">21</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Lumps, 2:21</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">36</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>The King, 2:29¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jersey Wilkes</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1881</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">22</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Among the other seventy-one producing sons of George Wilkes:
-that do not come within the scope of this table are many most
-promising sires of rapidly growing prominence, and indeed this
-family is branching out wonderfully in every direction. This
-family is an emphatically improving one. In extreme speed, in
-racing capacity, and in form the third Wilkes generation is better
-than either the second or first. Of trotters, such as Beuzetta,
-2:06¾, Ralph Wilkes, 2:06¾, Hulda, 2:08½, Allerton, 2:09¼, the
-once sensational Axtell, 2:12, and many others of the first rank
-by sons of George Wilkes sustain this judgment. The pacing
-instinct is rampant in the Wilkes blood, as is attested by the fact
-that twenty-five per cent. of the performing get of George Wilkes’<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span>
-sons are pacers, and frequently pacers of extreme speed, including
-such as Joe Patchen, 2:03, and Rubenstein, 2:05, while John
-R. Gentry, 2:00½, Online, 2:04, and Frank Agan, 2:03, are by grandsons
-of Wilkes. Like his sire, George Wilkes got many sons
-greater than himself—and after all that is the true test of greatness
-in a progenitor.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus11">
-<img src="images/illus11.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">ELECTIONEER.</p>
-<p class="caption">A Great Son of Hambletonian.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Electioneer</span> has for some years led, far and away, all sires
-of trotters in the numbers of performers to his credit in both
-the 2:20 list and 2:30 list, and is generally conceded to have had
-no equal as a producer of early speed—that is, of colts and fillies
-that trotted fast at tender ages. In many respects this was the
-most remarkable horse of any age, for besides being phenomenally
-prolific in transmitting speed at the trot, and in getting early
-trotters, he possessed in a higher degree than any sire that has
-yet lived the ability to control running blood in the dam, and to
-impress his own instinct and action upon his progeny out of any
-and all kinds of mares. In speaking on his pet hobby of producing
-trotters from thoroughbred running mares, Governor Stanford
-once said to me: “None of my stallions but Electioneer can
-do it;” and of all the hundreds of stallions that have been mated
-with thoroughbred mares in the hope of getting a trotter of extreme
-speed, Electioneer alone was able to do it. Palo Alto,
-2:08¼, is so far faster than any other trotting horse out of a thoroughbred
-dam—the one solitary instance on record of a half-bred
-trotter of extreme speed—that he is significant in one way, and
-one only, and that is as an evidence of the phenomenal prepotency
-of the blood of his sire in controlling instinct and action.</p>
-
-<p>Electioneer was a dark bay horse, foaled May 2, 1868, bred by
-Charles Backman, at his Stonyford Stud, Orange County, New
-York. He was got by Hambletonian, out of Green Mountain
-Maid, by Harry Clay, 2:29, grandam the fast trotting mare
-Shanghai Mary, pedigree not established, but in all probability a
-daughter of Iron’s Cadmus, the sire of the famous old pacer and
-brood mare Pocahontas, 2:17½. (In Chapter XXIX., on the
-investigation of pedigrees, the history of Shanghai Mary is fully
-given.) Green Mountain Maid, the dam of Electioneer, has been
-called by Mr. Backman, and with justice, “the great mother of trotters.”
-In all she bore sixteen foals, fourteen of which were by
-the not remarkable horse Messenger Duroc. Electioneer was
-her second foal and the only one by Hambletonian. Of the other
-fifteen, nine have records of 2:30 and better, another has a record<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span>
-of 2:31, another, Paul, was a very fast road horse, and two died
-young. Of her four sons kept entire, Electioneer, Mansfield,
-Antonio, and Lancelot, all are sires of trotters, and her daughters
-already figure as producers. The figures would seem to point to
-the daughter of Shanghai Mary and Harry Clay, 2:29, as perhaps
-the most wonderful of all great trotting brood mares. She was a
-brown mare, barely fifteen hands high, with a star and white hind
-ankles, and was finely formed, with an exceptionally beautifully
-outlined and expressive head. She had very superior trotting
-action, the trot being her fastest natural gait. A writer who
-made a very close study of her history said, on this point, in <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Her education was limited to a single lesson when three years old; but
-previously she had been regularly developed on somewhat the same plan since
-adopted for early training at Palo Alto, and was probably one of the fastest
-trotters out of harness that ever lived.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>As a matter of fact Green Mountain Maid, while in no sense
-vicious, was so highly strung, wild and uncontrollable, that her
-training was abandoned with the “one lesson” referred to, and
-she never wore harness again.</p>
-
-<p>Green Mountain Maid was a money producer as well as a
-speed producer. Mr. Backman paid four hundred and fifty
-dollars for her when she was carrying her first foal, and the
-writer above quoted states that up to that date (1889) Mr.
-Backman had received sixty-eight thousand eight hundred
-and thirty dollars for such of her progeny as he had then
-sold. This remarkable mare died June 6, 1888, and a fitting
-monument marks her grave by the banks of the Walkill.</p>
-
-<p>At maturity Electioneer was of that shade of bay that many
-might call brown, and stood precisely fifteen and one-half hands
-at the wither and an inch higher measured at the quarter. Many
-of his get, notably Sunol, are pronouncedly higher behind than
-at the wither. In general conformation, Electioneer was a stout
-and muscular horse, standing on fairly short legs. His head was
-well proportioned, of fair size, and a model of intelligent beauty.
-The forehead was broad and brainy, the eyes large and softly
-expressive, and the profile regular, with just the faintest suggestion
-of concavity beneath the line of the eyes. Electioneer’s
-neck was a trifle too short for elegance of proportion, but
-not gross. His shoulder was good, the barrel round, of good<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span>
-depth and proportionate in length and well ribbed, and the
-coupling simply faultless. The quarters were marvelous, and
-Mr. Marvin did not overstate the case when he said they were
-the best he had ever seen on any stallion. They were the very
-incarnation of driving power, and recalled Herbert Kittredge’s
-portrait of Hambletonian, except that there was nothing gross
-or meaty about the buttocks of Electioneer. They were the perfection
-of muscular endowment and development. The arms
-and gaskins, like the quarters, were full with muscle laid on
-muscle, and the legs and feet were naturally excellent. In the
-last years of his life he went over on his knees a bit, but that was
-not strange considering his age, and the fact that he had seen
-considerable track work. Indeed as long as he was at all vigorous
-he was daily exercised on the track, and in view of his great
-success in the stud, this fact has a special significance.</p>
-
-<p>As a three-year-old Electioneer was worked some on the Stonyford
-farm track to wagon, and Mr. Backman, whose word is good
-enough authority for all who know him, stated that he showed a
-quarter to wagon in thirty-nine seconds in that year. Little
-else is known of his history at Stonyford. He was bred to a few,
-very few mares, and was evidently not greatly esteemed by Mr.
-Backman. In the autumn of 1876, ex-Governor Stanford, who
-was just establishing his great breeding farm, Palo Alto, in the
-Santa Clara Valley, California, visited Stonyford to purchase
-stock—principally brood mares. The governor was a great believer
-in what I may call horse-physiognomy, or to be more exact,
-he believed in the importance of the right psychical organization,
-what we commonly call brain force, in horses, and was attracted
-by the physical evidences thereof as indicated in the head. Electioneer
-pleased him in this regard, and in his general make-up,
-and when the governor’s purchase was completed Electioneer
-went along, being put in at twelve thousand five hundred dollars.
-He with the other Stonyford purchases arrived at Palo Alto
-Christmas Eve, 1876.</p>
-
-<p>Though Electioneer never took a record, he was emphatically
-a developed horse. I do not know whether he was ever driven a
-full mile or not—Mr. Marvin never drove him one—but it has
-been stated that one of the other trainers drove him a mile in
-time somewhere between 2:20 and 2:25. However they may be,
-Mr. Marvin in his book settles the question as to his having been
-a fast, trained trotter. He says:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Electioneer is the most natural trotter I have ever seen. He has free,
-abundant action; it is a perfect rolling action both in front and behind, and he
-has not the usual fault of the Hambletonians of going too wide behind. Certain
-writers have said that Electioneer could not trot, and have cited him as a
-stallion that was not a trotter yet got trotters.... I have driven, beside
-Electioneer, a quarter in thirty-five seconds.... He did this, too, hitched to a
-one hundred and twenty-five-pound wagon, with a two hundred and twenty-pound
-man, and not a professional driver, either, in the seat. In this rig he
-could carry Occident right up to his clip, and could always keep right with
-him; and it was no trick for the famous St. Clair gelding to go a quarter
-in thirty-four seconds. Without preparation you could take Electioneer
-out any day and drive him an eighth of a mile at a 2:20 gait. He
-always had his speed with him.... That Electioneer could have beaten
-2:20 if given a regular preparation is with me a conviction about which no
-doubt exists.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Marvin is a conservative and reliable man; he knew
-whereof he wrote, and his testimony must be accepted as conclusive
-both as to Electioneer’s having been a naturally fast trotter,
-and as to his having had his speed developed. Undeveloped
-horses do not trot quarters in thirty-five seconds.</p>
-
-<p>When in 1880 Fred Crocker, one of the seven foals got by
-Electioneer in his first year’s service in California, astonished
-the world by trotting to a two-year-old record of 2:25¾, his sire
-became instantly famous, and that fame has increased rapidly and
-steadily from that day to this. It was not allowed for a moment
-to wane or lag. After Fred Crocker came an ever-surprising
-procession of young record breakers. In 1881 Hinda Rose made
-a yearling record of 2:36½, and Wildflower a two-year-old record
-of 2:21. In 1883 Hinda Rose lowered the three-year-old record
-to 2:19½, and Bonita the four-year-old record to 2:18¾. In 1886
-Manzanita lowered the four-year-old record to 2:16; in 1887
-Norlaine, granddaughter of Electioneer, lowered the yearling
-record to 2:31½; and in 1888 Sunol put the two-year-old record
-at 2:18, and the year following took a three-year-old record of
-2:10½, the fastest to that date. Sunol captured the four-year-old
-record in 1889, and the world’s record, 2:08¼, in 1891, but what
-made this the brightest year in all the history of Palo Alto was
-that Arion lowered the two-year-old record to 2:10¾—the most
-remarkable of all trotting performances—Bell Bird the yearling
-record to 2:26¼, and Palo Alto the stallion record to 2:08¾. Electioneer
-has now to his credit one hundred and fifty-four
-standard performers, and in this and in the 2:20 list he has
-a long lead over all other sires. He died at Palo Alto, December<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span>
-3, 1890, and I am informed that his skeleton has been articulated
-and mounted for the museum of the Stanford University. The
-following table gives the sons of Electioneer that up to the close
-of 1896 had ten or more standard performers to their credit:</p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF ELECTIONEER.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of Electioneer">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Total No. produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Saint Bell, 2:24½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">48</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Sphinx, 2:20½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1883</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Chimes, 2:30¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1884</td>
-    <td class="tdr">32</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Anteeo, 2:16¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">28</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">40</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Norval, 2:14¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Egotist, 2:22½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1885</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">19</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Anteros</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Elector (2170), 2:31</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Albert W., 2:20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Eros, 2:29¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Antevolo, 2:19½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1881</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>*Bell Boy, 2:19¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1885</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Fallis, 2:23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Palo Alto, 2:08¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="center smaller">* Died at 5 years old.</p>
-
-<p>In considering this table it is necessary to remember that the
-Electioneer family dates from 1878, and that no family of anything
-approaching so late a date makes a showing that will bear
-comparison with this. In considering the rank of families
-this question of age is always vital. Electioneer’s first crop of
-foals at Palo Alto—1878—numbered seven, and of these two
-are represented above, while another was the famous gelding
-Fred Crocker. The next numbered but twenty-one, and of
-these Eros, Elector, and Anteeo are in the table, and ten are
-in the 2:20 list. His third and fourth crops (1880 and 1881)
-numbered sixteen and twenty-three respectively, and the forty of
-1882 was the greatest number he ever got in one year. I am informed
-that in all Electioneer got less than four hundred foals at
-Palo Alto; and that, since the first one saw light in 1878 this
-family should in eighteen years make the showing it has with
-nearly fifty per cent. of its members in the 2:30 list, and four hundred<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span>
-and ninety-three of the second generation also there, is certainly
-remarkable. Electioneer has to his credit in the 2:15 list
-the following trotters: Arion, 2:07¾, Sunol, 2:08¼, Palo Alto, 2:08¾,
-Helena, 2:12½, Belleflower, 2:12¾, Utility, 2:13, Quality, 2:13¼,
-Conductor, 2:14¼, and Norval, 2:14¾, an “extreme speed list”
-greater than to the credit of any other sire, while among the get
-of his sons are such trotters as Azote, 2:04¾, Fantasy, 2:06,
-Little Albert, 2:10, Lynne Bel, 2:10½, Copeland, 2:11½, Athanio,
-2:11¾, Cobwebs, 2:12, etc., etc. Sixty-five of his sons have sired
-four hundred and thirty-seven performers, and forty-three of his
-daughters have produced fifty-six performers. With all these
-facts kept in view the study of the above table will prove interesting
-and instructive in forming an estimate of the merit of Electioneer
-as a trotting progenitor.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus12">
-<img src="images/illus12.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">ABDALLAH (ALEXANDER’S).</p>
-<p class="caption">A Great Son of Hambletonian.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Alexander’s Abdallah</span> was the founder of one of the
-very greatest of the Hambletonian sub-families, and he stands in
-the records as a progenitor of the first rank. This was a stout
-bay horse, about fifteen and one-half hands high. Excepting a
-right white ankle he was a rich solid bay. The only reliable
-portrait in existence of this horse was a drawing by Herbert
-Kittredge, made from a photograph taken of Abdallah after he
-went to Kentucky. The picture of Abdallah published in this work
-is a faithful reproduction of the Kittredge portrait published in
-<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for March, 1881, and in the absence of any
-reliable detailed description of the horse this portrait must be
-taken as the best reflection we now have of his individuality.
-He was bred by Lewis J. Sutton, of Warwick, Orange County,
-New York, and was foaled 1852. Mr. Sutton had in 1851 a
-good road mare that he had got at Carl Young’s roadhouse in
-Third Avenue, New York. This mare, Katy Darling, had been
-quite a trotter, and had, it was said, won a match race on Union
-Course. Her reputation as a trotter and her fine form caused
-Mr. Sutton to buy her when, as he describes it, “she was standing
-on three legs,” in the hope of getting a foal from her. He
-took her home in March, 1851, and in August bred her to
-Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, then a two-year-old colt, and September
-22, 1852, she produced the subject of this sketch. Two years
-later Mr. Sutton sold Katy Darling to James W. Benedict, of
-Warwick, from whom she was purchased by Hezekiah Hoyt, who
-took her to Muscatine, Iowa, where she produced a chestnut colt
-that was gelded, by Hector, son of La Tourrett’s Bellfounder.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span>
-This gelding was her only foal other than Alexander’s Abdallah,
-and Katy Darling died at Muscatine, the property of a Mr.
-Stewart. A search was long kept up for the pedigree of this
-mare, and for the full details of what is known of her history the
-reader is referred to the different volumes of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>.
-The conclusion from all the evidence found is that she was probably
-by a son of Andrew Jackson.</p>
-
-<p>As a foal by his dam’s side Alexander’s Abdallah attracted
-much favorable attention by his fine trotting action, and his persistency
-in cavorting around at that gait. Among those who
-took great delight in watching the little fellow trot was Mr.
-Hezekiah Hoyt, and when the youngster was seventeen months
-old Mr. Hoyt, acting for, or in partnership with, Major Edsall,
-bought the colt for five hundred dollars, a fine price at that time.
-Major Edsall kept him until he was seven years old, and I am
-under the impression that he won some local races during that
-time, when he was known as Edsall’s Hambletonian. He was
-accorded a fairly liberal patronage in Orange County, and his
-progeny showed so well that Major Edsall sold him for three
-thousand dollars in 1859 to Joel F. Love and James Miller, of
-Cynthiana, Kentucky. The Hambletonian family was just then
-becoming popular, and the price paid indicates that this horse
-was already regarded by good judges as one of Hambletonian’s
-best sons. That he was regarded, moreover, as quite a trotter is
-indicated by the fact that at the close of his second season in
-Kentucky—1860—Mr. Miller matched him against Albion, a
-competing stallion, for two hundred and fifty dollars a side. The
-affair caused quite a sensation at the time, the Cynthiana horsemen
-going in crowds to Lexington to back Abdallah. The latter was
-driven by “Jim” Monroe, and Albion by Warren Peabody, and
-Abdallah won in the hollowest fashion, distancing Albion in 2:46.
-As youngsters Abdallah’s first progeny in Kentucky showed very
-well, and in the spring of 1863 he was purchased by R. A.
-Alexander, and made the seasons of 1863 and 1864 at Woodburn.
-On the evening of February 2, 1865, Marion’s band of Confederate
-guerrillas raided Woodburn and took away a number of
-horses, among them Alexander’s Abdallah and the then famous
-young trotter, Bay Chief, by Mambrino Chief. Marion mounted
-Bay Chief and, crossing the Kentucky River, the band encamped
-on the farm of a Mr. Bush, in a rough, hilly region, twelve miles
-from Woodburn. Here the next morning the Federal cavalry,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span>
-that were sent in pursuit after the raid, came up with the raiders,
-and after a sharp fight routed them. Marion, on Bay Chief, was
-a conspicuous mark for Federal bullets during the skirmish.
-Early in the fray Bay Chief was shot through the muzzle,
-through both thighs, and one hock. In this condition he carried
-his rider two miles in the retreat, when the horse was so weakened
-by loss of blood that a Federal cavalryman overtook them.
-His piece being empty, the soldier aimed a blow at Marion, but
-missing him, lost his balance, and fell from his horse. The
-guerrilla leader quickly saw his opportunity, jumped from Bay
-Chief, mounted the soldier’s horse, and escaped. Bay Chief
-died about ten days later, despite all efforts made to save him.
-Meanwhile, Alexander’s Abdallah had been found, safe and
-sound, by a Federal soldier in Mr. Bush’s stable. The soldier
-refused to give him up to Mr. Alexander’s men, and declared
-he would send him North and keep him until he got a large reward
-for his return. The horse was barefooted and in no condition
-for hard usage. And so they rode him off, and after going
-some forty or fifty miles he gave out, and they turned him loose
-on the road. He was found next day in a pitiable condition by
-the roadside, and brought back as far as Lawrenceburg on his way
-home, where he was taken with pneumonia and died a few days
-later.</p>
-
-<p>Just how great a loss this was to the trotting breed was not
-realized until long after—until in fact Goldsmith Maid had conquered
-all before her, and made a record as a campaigner never
-equaled, and until his two great sons, Almont and Belmont,
-rose to pre-eminent places in the list of great sires. Other sons
-of this remarkable progenitor have taken rank as sires, and his
-daughters proved of the highest excellence as brood mares; but
-Almont and Belmont have each established such large, important,
-and popular sub-families that this work would be incomplete
-without some brief sketch of each.</p>
-
-<p>Alexander’s Abdallah got Goldsmith Maid, 2:14, Rosalind, 2:21⅔,
-Thorndale, 2:22¼, Major Edsall, 2:29, and St. Elmo, 2:30. Fourteen
-of his sons have produced one hundred and fifty-five standard
-performers, and twenty-nine of his daughters have produced
-forty-four standard performers, among them being the noted
-campaigners, Favonia, 2:15, and Jerome Eddy, 2:16⅔, the latter
-also a successful sire. The following table gives the families of
-his most prominent sons:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span></p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF ALEXANDER’S ABDALLAH.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of Alexander’s Abdallah">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Year died.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Total No. produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Almont, 2:39¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1884</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-    <td class="tdr">95</td>
-    <td class="tdr">72</td>
-    <td class="tdr">609</td>
-    <td class="tdr">646</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Belmont</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1864</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1889</td>
-    <td class="tdr">58</td>
-    <td class="tdr">63</td>
-    <td class="tdr">48</td>
-    <td class="tdr">560</td>
-    <td class="tdr">618</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Hambletonian (Wood’s)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1858</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1885</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-    <td class="tdr">73</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Major Edsall, 2:29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1859</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1886</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">87</td>
-    <td class="tdr">90</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Thorndale, 2:22¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1894</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">47</td>
-    <td class="tdr">57</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jim Munro</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1861</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">38</td>
-    <td class="tdr">46</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Abdallah Pilot</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1865</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1881</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Almont</span> was bred at Woodburn Farm, was foaled 1864, and was
-by Alexander’s Abdallah out of Sally Anderson, by Mambrino
-Chief; grandam Kate, a wonderfully fast pacer by Pilot Jr.
-Colonel R. P. Pepper informed me that he knew Kate as well as
-any of his own horses, and that her speed at the pace was “simply
-terrific.” Kate, whose dam was called the Pope mare, pedigree
-unknown, had several foals, among them the “catch filly”
-that was the dam of Clay Pilot, sire of The Moor, that got the
-great brood mare Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, and Sultan, 2:24, the sire
-of the world-famous Stamboul, 2:07½. Thus the blood of this
-pacing Pilot Jr. mare figures in three great sub-families, the
-Almont family, the Beautiful Bells family, and the Sultan family.
-Almont was a beautiful cherry bay, very rich in shade, and without
-any white whatever. He was fifteen hands two and one-quarter
-inches high at the wither, somewhat higher behind, and
-stoutly and symmetrically made all over. He could not be called
-a handsome or highly finished horse, but he was emphatically a
-well-made one. He had very excellent feet and legs, and these
-he reproduced with great uniformity, as well as his very intelligent
-and even disposition. He was trained early at Woodburn,
-and, like his sire, started but once and distanced his competitor
-in 2:39¾, this being in his four-year-old form. He soon after
-showed 2:32 over the slow Woodburn track, and was sold to the
-late Colonel Richard West for eight thousand dollars and put in
-the stud. In 1874 the late General W. T. Withers, Lexington,
-Kentucky, bought him for fifteen thousand dollars, and a half<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span>
-dozen of years later he was very generally regarded as the greatest
-of living sires, and his prestige made the name of Fairlawn Farm
-of world-wide renown, and made his owner rich. The fact that
-ninety-five of his sons have sired standard performers, a greater
-number of producing sons than is to the credit of any other
-horse, Hambletonian alone excepted, indicates the high rank
-Almont must be accorded as a progenitor. In considering his
-success it is well for breeders particularly to note that good
-judges considered Almont capable of showing a 2:20 gait any
-day, and that, like Electioneer, he always was daily given regular
-and ample track exercise. His gait has been described as bold
-and open, without an excess of knee action, but with immense
-display of power behind. Almont died of spasmodic colic, July 4,
-1884, in the fullness of his fame, and at an age when, had he been
-more discreetly used in the stud, he should have been at his
-prime as a stock horse.</p>
-
-<p>Almont was hardly a sensational horse in his day, the performance
-of Westmont at Chicago in 1884, when he paced a mile with
-running mate in 2:01¾, being the one sensational performance to
-the credit of his progeny. This lightning streak of pacing speed
-that so often crops out in the Almont family can be readily
-accounted for by the student of breeding. As has been noted, his
-grandam Kate, by Pilot Jr., was a phenomenally fast pacer, and,
-as we have indicated, her blood proved potent in more than one
-line. In addition to this there was a strong tendency to pace
-among the progeny of Alexander’s Abdallah. St. Elmo was first
-shown at fairs in Kentucky under saddle and as a pacer, and
-many others of Abdallah’s get were known to naturally pace.
-When we reflect that in Almont this Alexander’s Abdallah blood
-with its pacing predilection was united with the blood of the old
-lightning pacer, Kate, we need not be surprised at the great
-number of fast pacers that came from Almont and his sons.
-Belmont, too, has shown a tendency to get the pacing gait with
-great frequency, but not in such frequency or at such high rates
-as his son Nutwood. As there could not be traced any known
-pacing blood in Belmont’s dam, and as the fact that Alexander’s
-Abdallah transmitted an inclination to pace has been generally
-not known or ignored, some writers have been unable to understand
-why the Belmonts paced. He got pacers because he inherited
-that capacity from his sire, and Nutwood got more and
-faster pacers than Belmont, because in him the pacing inclination<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span>
-inherited from Alexander’s Abdallah was reinforced by the
-strong pacing inheritance of his dam, Miss Russell, the granddaughter
-of Old Pacing Pilot.</p>
-
-<p>As shown in the table of Alexander’s Abdallah’s sons, Almont
-got thirty-seven standard performers, ninety-five of his sons sired
-five hundred and three standard performers, and seventy-two of
-his daughters produced one hundred and six standard performers.
-His most successful sons are embraced in the following table:</p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF ALMONT.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of Almont">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Performers produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Almont Jr. (1829), 2:26</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1872</td>
-    <td class="tdr">44</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-    <td class="tdr">39</td>
-    <td class="tdr">83</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Altamont, 2:26¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">39</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Atlantic, 2:21</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">22</td>
-    <td class="tdr">46</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Piedmont, 2:17¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1871</td>
-    <td class="tdr">19</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Almont Jr. (1764), 2:29</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1871</td>
-    <td class="tdr">19</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">51</td>
-    <td class="tdr">70</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>King Almont, 2:21¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1874</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Pasacas, 2:43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1870</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">27</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Almonarch, 2:24¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">20</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Allie Gaines</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">29</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Harbinger</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">2</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>*Allie West, 2:25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1870</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Abdallah Mambrino</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1870</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">37</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="center smaller">* Died at 6 years old.</p>
-
-<p>This line is justly regarded with growing favor as one of our
-very best and most productive sub-families, and one that is
-breeding on excellently, generation after generation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Belmont</span> was a bay horse of very superior form and finish,
-bred at Woodburn Farm, and foaled there in 1864. He was by
-Alexander’s Abdallah, out of Belle (that also produced McCurdy’s
-Hambletonian, 2:26½, and Bicara, the dam of Pancoast, 2:21¾) by
-Mambrino Chief; grandam Belle Lupe, by Brown’s Bellfounder.
-Belmont and Almont were of the same age, and, perhaps because
-of his finer appearance, Belmont seems to have been the preferred
-one at Woodburn, and was retained while Almont was sold.
-Though Belmont was a successful horse and established a great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span>
-family, no thinking man can contend that he was the equal of
-Almont as a sire, when all the circumstances are considered.
-Almont spent almost his entire stud career at Fairlawn, where
-there never were five mares worthy in blood to be in a great trotting
-stud, where there were scores of mares of all kinds of poor
-and freakish pedigrees, even to “Arabs,” and where none of the
-stock was ever trained. Belmont, on the other hand, was all his
-life at the head of the most famous, and, in his younger years,
-unquestionably the best collection of trotting brood mares in the
-world, and where a training department was always maintained.
-Remembering these conditions, and contemplating the statistics
-of the two families, it is interesting to speculate as to how the
-records would stand had Belmont been at Fairlawn, and Almont
-at Woodburn.</p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF BELMONT.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of Belmont">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Performers produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Nutwood, 2:18¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1870</td>
-    <td class="tdr">136</td>
-    <td class="tdr">90</td>
-    <td class="tdr">69</td>
-    <td class="tdr">432</td>
-    <td class="tdr">568</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>King Rene, 2:30½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1875</td>
-    <td class="tdr">35</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">16</td>
-    <td class="tdr">55</td>
-    <td class="tdr">90</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Egmont</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1873</td>
-    <td class="tdr">34</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">38</td>
-    <td class="tdr">72</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wedgewood, 2:19</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1871</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">60</td>
-    <td class="tdr">91</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Vatican, 2:29¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Warlock</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1880</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Monaco</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1878</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Waterloo, 2:19¼</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1882</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">11</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Meander, 2:26½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mambritonian, 2:20½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1883</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Herschell</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1883</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">——</td>
-    <td class="tdr">10</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Belmont, besides having the advantage of excellent individuality
-was also a trotter of no mean speed. He was driven a mile
-over the working track at Woodburn in 2:28½, and was, therefore,
-a quite well-developed trotter. He never appeared in
-public, and has, therefore, no public history. The most successful
-of his sons has been Nutwood, whose dam was Miss Russell,
-the dam of Maud S. This horse was himself a fast trotter in his
-day, taking a record of 2:18¾, and rose to great popularity and
-success in the stud. Daughters of Belmont, being nearly all out<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span>
-of producing mares, are greatly and justly esteemed as brood
-mares. Belmont died at Woodburn November 15, 1889. Belmont
-got fifty-eight standard performers, sixty-three of his sons
-sired four hundred and eighty-nine standard performers, and
-forty-eight of his daughters produced seventy-one standard performers.
-The rank of his best sons is shown on the preceding
-page; all having ten or more in the list of standard performers
-being included in the table.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Volunteer</span> stands pre-eminent among trotting sires as the
-one horse against not one of whose get the epithet “quitter”
-was, as far as I am aware, ever hurled. He did not get speed
-with remarkable uniformity, nor did his progeny develop speed
-early or rapidly. They required persistent training, but when
-speed was developed in a Volunteer you had with it every other
-quality of a resolute, enduring race horse. They were hardy,
-rugged, good-limbed horses, and uniformly possessed stamina
-and resolution in the highest degree. Volunteer had the advantage
-of being owned by Alden Goldsmith, an ambitious and
-experienced horseman, and the father of two of the most successful
-trainers of our day. The Volunteers had, therefore, every
-advantage that training could give, and his rise to fame was
-largely due to Mr. Goldsmith’s constantly developing and racing
-his progeny.</p>
-
-<p>In 1853 Mr. Joseph Hetzel, Florida, Orange County, New
-York, bred the bay mare Lady Patriot to Hambletonian, 10, and
-Volunteer was foaled May 1, 1854. This mare, Lady Patriot,
-was by a horse called Young Patriot, and out of Mr. Lewis
-Hulse’s trotting mare, and that is all that is known of her pedigree.
-Her sire’s pedigree is wholly unknown. She produced a
-numerous family, among them being Sentinel, 2:29¾, and Green’s
-Hambletonian, brothers of Volunteer, and of some rank as sires,
-and Marksman, by Thorndale, that is also in the table of sires,
-while her daughter Heroine, sister to Volunteer, produced
-Shawmut, 2:26.</p>
-
-<p>Volunteer was a bay horse, with a little white around the left
-hind coronet, fifteen hands three inches at the wither, and sixteen
-hands measured at the coupling. He has been considered
-by many good judges to have been the handsomest of all the sons
-of Hambletonian. He was a horse of superb form and of great
-elegance of carriage. With sufficient of muscle and substance,
-he was built on graceful, finished lines, with a beautiful head<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span>
-loftily carried, a long and graceful neck, a body stout but finely
-molded, and all set off by a handsome mane and tail. His feet and
-legs were of superb quality, and despite his great age they were,
-it is said, without fault or blemish to the last. His temper and
-disposition were good, though he was very high-spirited, and in
-harness he was especially attractive. As a four-year-old Volunteer
-was sold to Mr. R. C. Underhill, of Brooklyn, after he had
-won a premium at the Orange County fair. In April, 1861,
-Mr. Underhill sent him to Tim T. Jackson, of Jamaica, Long
-Island, and in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for December, 1880, Mr. Jackson
-gave his experiences with Volunteer, making among others this
-specific statement:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I had him at Union Course one day, and met Mr. Alfred M. Tredwell
-there, and I got him to hold that watch on him. Had him in quite a heavy
-single-seated wagon, weighing probably one hundred and twenty-five or one
-hundred and thirty pounds. On the first trial he trotted in 2:33. I said to
-Mr. Tredwell that he could beat that, and he trotted the next mile in 2:31¼.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>He had previously been trained by William Whelan, at
-Union Course. It was June 26, 1862, while he was in Jackson’s
-hands, that Alden Goldsmith, in partnership with Edwin
-Thorne, purchased this horse, then called Hambletonian Jr.,
-and he soon afterward became the sole property of Mr. Goldsmith.
-Mr. Rysdyk greatly resented his having been called
-Hambletonian Jr., and early regarded him as a possible rival
-of Hambletonian, and there was war from the start between
-the adherents of sire and son. The Civil War was just then at
-its height, and the patriotic and military spirit rampant, and Mr.
-Goldsmith aptly named his horse Volunteer. Mr. H. T. Helm,
-who wrote a very detailed history of Volunteer twenty years ago,
-credits him with having trotted in 2:36 to wagon at the Goshen
-Fair in the fall of 1862, beating Winfield, Grey Confidence and
-others. At Hartford, Connecticut, in August, 1867, he beat
-George M. Patchen Jr., in a single dash in 2:37. He was, like
-nearly all the other great sires, a developed trotter.</p>
-
-<p>It is said that his early stud opportunities were so limited that
-at ten years old he had but eighteen living foals. The first of
-his get entered the 2:30 list in 1871, but from that time on his
-list rapidly grew, and the great campaigners Gloster, Alley,
-Driver, Bodine, Huntress, the great three-miler, and finally St.
-Julien, 2:11¼, then the fastest trotter in the world, so spread the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span>
-fame of Volunteer that when his sire died in 1876 he was regarded
-as the greatest living sire of trotters. In 1882 Mr. R. S.
-Veech, probably the most intelligent breeder in all Kentucky,
-while on a visit to New York, telegraphed Mr. Goldsmith to
-know whether it was worth while for him to visit Walnut Grove,
-with a view to buying Volunteer, and Mr. Goldsmith’s answer
-reveals the regard in which he held his horse. The pith of his
-admirably written letter was in this paragraph:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“While there is no person that would be more welcome at the farm than
-yourself, if the only object of your visit would be the purchase of Volunteer,
-then your trip would not be a profitable or successful one, as no breeder in
-Kentucky has money enough to buy him.... I have as high a regard
-for money as the most of men for the uses it may subserve, but there are certain
-things which money cannot buy, as the Teacher of old taught Simon the
-Samaritan.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>And so Volunteer remained at Walnut Grove, and “lagged
-superfluous on the stage” long after his owner had passed away,
-and died December 13, 1888, at the extraordinary age of thirty-four
-years, seven months and twelve days.</p>
-
-<p>Volunteer sired thirty-four standard performers, and forty of
-his sons and forty-eight of his daughters produced an aggregate
-of two hundred and twenty-one standard performers. The most
-successful of his sons is the Michigan sire, Louis Napoleon, that
-was out of the Harry Clay mare, Hattie Wood, dam also of Victor
-Bismarck and Gazelle, 2:21. Louis Napoleon has twenty-seven
-in the standard list, and fourteen of his sons and twenty-two of
-his daughters are producers, his best son being Jerome Eddy,
-2:16½, sire of Fanny Wilcox, 2:10¼, and twenty-seven other standard
-performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dictator</span> very early in his career attracted attention as the
-full brother to the famous Dexter, who was his senior by five
-years, and who was king of the trotting turf, and the most
-famous trotter in all the world just at the time when Dictator
-was merging from colthood to maturity. Dictator had thus from
-the very start the advantage of splendid stud opportunities. He
-was bred by Jonathan Hawkins, of Walden, Orange County, New
-York, and was foaled in 1863. He was got by Hambletonian out
-of the famous Clara, the dam of Dexter, 2:17¼, Alma, 2:28¾,
-Astoria, 2:29½, etc., by Seely’s American Star; grandam the McKinstry
-mare, breeding unknown, but that produced Shark with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304"></a>[304]</span>
-a saddle record of 2:27¾. Dictator was a seal-brown horse with
-a white rear ankle, and stood scant fifteen hands and one inch.
-He was made on a small but a fine model, and was, all in all, a
-handsome little horse, and most of his get partook of his fine
-quality of structure, though many were unsound. Shortly after
-Dexter made his <i>début</i> on the turf, Dictator was bought by Mr.
-Harrison Durkee, a wealthy New York gentleman who had an
-extensive stock farm at Flushing, Long Island. The colt was
-then but eleven months old and was left at the Hawkins farm
-until two years old. Then he was sent to Mr. Alden Goldsmith’s
-place, at Washingtonville, to be broken, after which he was taken
-to Mr. Durkee’s farm. The colt was very fast, but the fame of
-Dexter was already wide, and, no great importance being attached
-to development of stallions in that day, he was considered
-of more value for breeding than for racing. He was worked
-considerably at Mr. Durkee’s farm, and Colonel John W. Conley
-and H. C. Woodnut, who at different times had charge of him,
-have both declared that they knew him to be one of the fastest
-trotters of his day. In 1874 Colonel Richard West sold Almont
-to General Withers, and to fill his place leased Dictator in the
-autumn of 1875, and he made the seasons of 1876 and 1877 at
-Colonel West’s Edgehill farm, Georgetown, Kentucky. Standing
-at a higher fee than Almont or George Wilkes, he attracted
-little outside patronage, and he was returned to Long Island. It
-has been stated that when at Colonel West’s, George Brasfield
-drove Dictator quarters as fast as thirty-four and one-half
-seconds. After his return to Flushing he sank from public
-notice until the appearance of Director as a great three-year-old
-in 1880. Then a couple of years later came the phenomenal
-Jay-Eye-See, and close after him Phallas, and with these three
-great trotters on the turf at once “the sire of Jay-Eye-See, 2:10,
-Phallas, 2:13¾, and Director, 2:17,” came again prominently before
-the public. In 1883 he was purchased by Major H. C. McDowell,
-and Messrs. David Bonner and A. A. Bonner, for a price that
-was said to have been twenty-five thousand dollars, and taken to
-Ashland farm at Lexington. Eventually he became the sole
-property of Major McDowell, and died May 25, 1893.</p>
-
-<p>Dictator did not get speed uniformly. He was what might be
-called a sporadic sire, but those of his get that raced at all raced
-well. By far his best son as a producer is Director, 2:17, that
-was out of Dolly by Mambrino Chief, and is the sire of sixteen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305"></a>[305]</span>
-trotters and pacers with records in the 2:20 list, including the
-champion trotting stallion Directum, 2:05¼, and the one-time
-champion pacing stallion, Direct, who after being practically
-crippled in trotting to a four-year-old record of 2:18¼, carrying
-great weights to keep him at that gait, was allowed to go at his
-natural gait and paced in 2:05½, and is already a very successful
-sire. Phallas, 2:13¾, of whom high hopes were entertained, and
-who had great opportunities, proved practically a failure in the
-stud, though his son Phallamont, out of an Almont mare, ranks
-with Direct as the best of Dictator’s grandsons. Dictator got fifty
-standard performers, forty-four of his sons have produced one
-hundred and seventy-three standard performers, and forty-two of
-his daughters have produced sixty-one standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Harold</span> became very famous when Maud S. became queen of
-the turf with the then marvelous record of 2:08¾, a record that
-stood unequaled from 1885 till 1891. This horse was bred by
-Charles S. Dole, Crystal Lake, Illinois, by whom he was sold, in
-an exchange of horses, to Woodburn Farm, when he was a yearling.
-He was foaled in 1864, and his dam was Enchantress
-(the dam also of Black Maria and of Lakeland Abdallah), by
-Abdallah. It was long claimed that this mare’s dam was a
-daughter of imported Bellfounder, but investigation exploded
-this claim. Harold was a bay horse, without marks, just fifteen
-hands high, stoutly made but very homely of form. He had a
-finely made head, but otherwise he was exceedingly plain, and
-when Maud S. came out the late Benjamin Bruce, in the <i>Kentucky
-Live Stock Record</i>, expressed wonder that “that little
-bench-legged stud” could have gotten such a mare. Harold’s
-full brother, Lakeland Abdallah, was far superior to him individually,
-but ranks with Hetzel’s Hambletonian, the brother
-to Volunteer, and Kearsarge, by Volunteer out of Dexter’s dams,
-in the fore front of the well-bred failures in trotting history.
-Largely from his individuality Harold was never, even when
-Maud S. was in the heyday of her renown, a popular horse, and
-the figures given by the Woodburn management say that in his
-entire career he was bred to but five hundred and ninety-four
-mares, or an average of about twenty-five for each of his twenty-three
-seasons. With the exception of Maud S., Harold got
-nothing of the first class, but in the second generation the family
-holds better rank in respect to extreme speed production. Beuzetta,
-2:06¾, Early Bird, 2:10, The Conqueror, 2:13, and the great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306"></a>[306]</span>
-three-year-old Impetuous, 2:13, are out of daughters of Harold,
-while Kremlin, 2:07¾, Io, 2:13½, Rizpah, 2:13½, Russellmont, 2:12¾,
-and the great pacer Robert J., 2:01½, are among the produce of
-his sons, and the present queen of the trotting turf, Alix, 2:03¾,
-is out of a daughter of Attorney, by Harold. Harold died at
-Woodburn, October 6, 1893. This horse never trotted in public,
-but he was worked some for speed at Woodburn. As a six-year-old
-he is said to have trotted the farm track in 2:40½, in which
-mile it is stated he “grabbed a quarter” and was not worked
-again. He is the sire of forty-four standard performers, forty-three
-of his sons have produced one hundred and eighty-one
-standard performers, and forty-five of his daughters have produced
-sixty-seven standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Happy Medium</span> was bred by R. P. Galloway, of Sufferen, New
-York, and was foaled 1863. He was by Hambletonian, out of
-the famous old campaigner Princess, 2:30, that trotted ten miles
-in 29:10¾ and two miles in 5:02, and was the great rival of Flora
-Temple, 2:19¾. Princess was a bay mare, foaled 1846, by Andrus’
-Hambletonian, son of Judson’s Hambletonian, that was by
-Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of imported Messenger; and her
-dam was the Wilcox mare, by Burdick’s Engineer, son of Engineer,
-by imported Messenger. She campaigned from ocean to
-ocean, and her career is perhaps the most remarkable of the
-earlier trotting days. When young she was mixed gaited, alternately
-pacing and trotting, and was put to work hauling logs.
-Then her owner traded her for a second-hand wagon, and finally
-she reached the hands of D. M. Gage, of Chicago. He put her
-into training, and she trotted some indifferent races as Topsy,
-was sold, and taken across the plains to California. Here in
-1858 she beat New York, taking her record of 2:30. Then she fell
-into the hands of the notorious “Jim” Eoff, and the next year
-was matched against the then crack trotter of California, Glencoe
-Chief, at ten miles to wagon. These were golden days on the
-coast, and this race was for the enormous stake of thirty-six thousand
-five hundred dollars. Princess won easily in 29:10¾, but the
-Glencoe Chief party being dissatisfied, another race was trotted
-the next day at the same distance for five thousand dollars,
-Princess again winning. There was after this nothing on the
-coast to race with Princess, and Eoff brought her to New York
-to try conclusions with Flora Temple. Her first race with Flora
-was at three-mile heats at Eclipse Course, Long Island, Flora<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span>
-winning, but at two-mile heats a week later Princess won in 5:02,
-5:05. In their subsequent races Flora turned the tables, though
-in a stubborn contest at two-mile heats Princess forced the then
-queen of the turf to make the long unbeaten record of 4:50½.
-She was then retired from the turf, and after passing through
-several hands became the property of R. F. Galloway, who in
-1862 bred her to Hambletonian.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus13">
-<img src="images/illus13.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">NANCY HANKS.</p>
-<p class="caption">By Happy Medium, record 2:04.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Happy Medium was a bay horse, with star, snip, and two white
-rear ankles, fifteen hands two inches in height, and was a shapely,
-attractive horse, with excellent legs and feet. Some critics have
-found fault that he was light barreled, and perhaps with some degree
-of reason, but as a whole he was structurally much above the
-average of his time. As a four-year-old he started at the Goshen
-Fair and won, taking a record of 2:54, which he lowered to 2:51 in
-1868. The next year, 1869, at Paterson, New Jersey, he distanced
-Guy Miller and Honesty in 2:34½, 2:32½, and these three performances,
-all winning ones, comprise his entire turf career. He was
-in 1871 purchased at a very large price—said to have been twenty-five
-thousand dollars—by Mr. Robert Steel, who placed him at
-the head of his Cedar Park Farm, at Philadelphia. In 1879 he
-was purchased by the late General W. T. Withers, and taken to
-his Fairlawn Farm, Lexington, Kentucky, where he remained
-until he died, January 25, 1888, at which time he had more 2:30
-performers to his credit than any horse then living. The Happy
-Mediums developed speed easily and quickly, and were remarkable
-for the purity of their gait. The most famous of his get is
-the mare Nancy Hanks, that lowered the world’s record to 2:04
-in 1892. The mares bred to Happy Medium never were as a
-whole of good breeding, and in his early stud career they were
-largely of inferior blood and quality. His fame has steadily
-grown, and with ninety-two standard performers to his credit,
-and his sons and daughters breeding on, the blood of Happy
-Medium is justly held in very high esteem as a positive speed-producing
-element. Fifty-one of his sons have produced two
-hundred and thirteen, and forty-seven of his daughters have
-produced fifty-nine standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Jay Gould</span> was one of the most famous of all the sons of Hambletonian
-on the turf and the sensational trotting stallion of his
-day, and he now, in turn, takes a high place among producing sons
-of the great father of trotters. This horse was bred by the late
-Richard Sears, of Orange County, New York, was foaled 1864,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308"></a>[308]</span>
-and was got by Hambletonian, out of Lady Sanford, by Seely’s
-American Star; grandam Old Sorrel, by Exton Eclipse; third
-dam by Lawrence’s Messenger Duroc, etc. At maturity Jay
-Gould was a handsome, blood-like horse, fifteen and one-half
-hands high, and a rich bay in color, with white hind ankles.
-With his dam he was sold while at her side to Charles H. Kerner,
-of New York, who soon after traded them to John Minchin, of
-Goshen, for the then well-known trotter Drift, Mr. Kerner also
-paying a fair sum in cash. Later the colt came into the hands
-of A. C. Green, of Fall River, and was by him named Judge
-Brigham. It is said that Mr. Green first learned that Judge
-Brigham was a fast trotter through his taking fright at a train
-one day in 1870 and running away with him at a trot. Whatever
-the facts as to this are, it was soon known that Mr. Green
-had a very fast trotter, and the next season (1871) he started for
-a five-thousand-dollar purse at Buffalo, among the other starters
-being the already famous Judge Fullerton. To the general
-astonishment, Judge Brigham “cut loose” in the second heat,
-winning it in 2:22, thus equaling the stallion record then held
-by George Wilkes, and placing to his credit the fastest heat ever
-up to that time trotted by a horse in his maiden race. He won
-the race handily, and was the sensation of the time. He was at
-once purchased for, I believe, the great price of thirty-five thousand
-dollars by the late world-famous financier, Jay Gould, H.
-N. Smith, and George C. Hall. Later Mr. Smith acquired Mr.
-Hall’s interest, and Mr. Kerner bought Mr. Gould’s, and finally,
-some years after, Mr. Smith, who had established Fashion Stud
-Farm, at Trenton, New Jersey, and owned the noted mares
-Goldsmith Maid, 2:14, Lady Thorn, 2:18¼, and Lucy, 2:18¼,
-became sole owner of Jay Gould, as Judge Brigham was renamed.</p>
-
-<p>The week following his Buffalo race Jay Gould defeated another
-strong field at Kalamazoo, Michigan; and in 1872 started
-four times, winning in all his races, lowering his record to 2:21¼,
-the then champion stallion record. He was kept in the stud in
-1873, but being challenged on behalf of Bashaw Jr., the following
-year, was given a hurried fall preparation, and met his challenger
-at Baltimore. Bashaw Jr., broke down in the first heat,
-and Gould of course won an empty victory, but to satisfy the
-audience was driven a public trial in 2:19½. Meanwhile Smuggler
-had lowered the stallion record to 2:20, and Jay Gould was
-sent against it at Boston, trotting under unfavorable circumstances<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span>
-in 2:20½ and 2:21½. This practically closed his turf
-career. He made a number of seasons at Fashion Farm, and in
-his later years at Walnut Hill Farm, near Lexington, Kentucky,
-and died of old age June 10, 1894. Jay Gould’s opportunities
-were never of the best. In his earlier years in the stud General
-Knox was more used at Fashion Farm than Jay Gould, and there
-was no training done at Fashion until 1886. Jay Gould is the
-sire of twenty-nine standard performers, the most noted of which
-is the great mare Pixley, 2:08¼. Fourteen of his sons have produced
-thirty standard performers, and twenty-eight of his
-daughters have produced forty-six performers, among the latter
-being the great pacer, Robert J., 2:01½, and such trotters as Poem,
-2:11½, Colonel Kuser, 2:11¼, Mahogany, 2:12¼, Edgardo, 2:13¾, etc.
-His most noted producing daughter is Lucia, whose dam was the
-famous old trotting mare Lucy, 2:18¼, by George M. Patchen,
-2:23½. Lucia is the dam of Edgardo, 2:13¾, Hurly Burly, 2:16¼,
-and several others in the 2:30 list, and her blood is breeding on
-through both her sons and daughters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Strathmore</span>, taking all things into consideration, must be
-rated among the very greatest sons of Hambletonian. He was a
-solid bay horse, of the substantial Hambletonian type, foaled
-1866, bred by Aristides Welch at his Chestnut Hill farm, near
-Philadelphia, and was got by Hambletonian out of the quite
-famous trotting mare Lady Waltermire, by North American, and
-Lady Waltermire’s dam was said to have been by Harris’ Hambletonian.
-This North American sired Whitehall, that got the
-famous trotter Rhode Island, sire of the still more celebrated
-Governor Sprague, and in the section treating of the latter the
-reader will find particulars concerning North American. Lady
-Waltermire was a noted trotting mare in her day, and it has been
-claimed that she performed faster than 2:30, but I have never
-been able to substantiate this claim. When Strathmore was a
-three-year-old, in 1869, I visited Chestnut Hill. Mr. Welch then
-had three sons of Hambletonian, viz., William Welch, Rysdyk,
-and Strathmore, who was then called Goodwin Watson. The two
-former were led out to be shown, but when I inquired for Goodwin
-Watson, Mr. Welch’s reply was “Oh, he’s a pacer”—except
-that he used an adjective in connection with “pacer” that added
-emphasis, and betrayed some degree of regret, or indeed disgust.
-The fact that several of Strathmore’s sons have gotten
-many fast pacers need not be marveled at. I am not aware that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310"></a>[310]</span>
-Strathmore was ever trained, and probably his pacing inclination
-furnishes the reason. When he was seven years old he was purchased
-by Colonel R. G. Stoner, of Paris, Kentucky, and named
-Strathmore, and up to this time, Colonel Stoner states, he had
-but three foals, one of which was afterward known as Chestnut
-Hill, 2:22½, the first of his get to earn a reputation. His first
-two seasons were made in Montgomery County, after which he
-was taken to Paris, in Bourbon County. Colonel Stoner states
-in one of his catalogues that Strathmore’s early opportunities in
-Kentucky were very inferior; that in 1877 and 1878 the service
-fees earned would not pay for his keep; that up to 1879 he
-never served a mare with a record or the dam of an animal with a
-record, and that it was not until Steinway trotted in 1878 as a
-two-year old in 2:31¾, and Santa Claus as a five-year-old in 2:18 in
-1879 that any good mares came to Strathmore. At Colonel
-Stoner’s sale, February 9, 1886, Strathmore was sold for two
-thousand one hundred and fifty dollars to Rockhill &amp; Bro., of
-Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they owned him until his death,
-March 11, 1895. Strathmore has seventy-one in the standard
-list; twenty-six of his sons and fifty-four of his daughters have
-produced one hundred and fifty-eight standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Egbert</span> is one of the youngest sons of Hambletonian, and has
-achieved very fair success in the stud. He is closely inbred to
-the Hambletonian, or rather the Abdallah blood, and is possibly
-the most notable instance of a successful sire being very closely
-inbred. Egbert was bred by Hon. J. H. Walker, Worcester,
-Massachusetts, and was foaled in 1875. He was sold at the sale
-of Mr. Walker’s horses at Worcester in the autumn of 1877,
-when he was purchased for the then great price for a two-year-old
-of three thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars by
-H. J. Hendryx, of Michigan, a representative of Mr. Veech, of
-Kentucky, being a contending bidder. After the sale Mr.
-Hendryx sold the colt for four thousand dollars to George W.
-Raudenbush, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who I believe still owns
-him. In the spring of 1880 Egbert was taken by Colonel Richard
-West to his farm at Georgetown, Kentucky, and kept there a
-number of years, and indeed the greater part of his stud career
-has been in Kentucky. I am not aware that Egbert was ever
-trained. He is individually a superior horse, but is alleged to
-have an unkind disposition.</p>
-
-<p>Egbert was got by Hambletonian out of Campdown, by Messenger<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311"></a>[311]</span>
-Duroc (son of Hambletonian); grandam Miss McLeod
-(dam of Lord Nelson, 2:26¼, and Polonius), by the Holbert Colt
-(son of Hambletonian); great-grandam May Fly, by Utter Horse,
-son of Hoyt’s Comet; great-great-grandam Virgo, sister to the
-dam of Messenger Duroc, by Roe’s Abdallah Chief, son of Abdallah,
-the sire of Hambletonian. The Holbert Colt, son of
-Hambletonian, was a pacer, and others in Egbert’s ancestry paced;
-and in commenting on his pedigree, from this point of view, at
-the time Colonel West took him to Kentucky, I remarked in
-<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, March, 1880: “Colonel West need not be
-surprised if he finds quite a number of Egbert’s offspring starting
-off at a pace.” The facts have borne out the prediction, as a
-glance at Egbert’s long list of fast pacers will show. Egbert is
-the sire of seventy-five standard performers, while twenty-five of
-his sons, and eighteen of his daughters have produced seventy-four
-standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Masterlode</span>, that left a family of some merit in Michigan, was
-a mammoth bay, foaled 1868, got by Hambletonian out of Lady
-Irwin by Seeley’s American Star. He was a gigantic, coarse
-horse, and was certainly the largest horse that ever earned
-a reputation as a sire of trotters. It is said he was quite seventeen
-hands high and was built on a heavy mold even for his
-height. He was bred by James M. Mills, Orange County, New
-York, and passed to A. C. Fisk, Coldwater, Michigan, who
-owned him until his death in 1892. The most noted of his get
-was Belle F., 2:15¼, that was one of the very best campaigners out
-in 1886. He has twenty-eight to his credit in the list, and seventeen
-of his sons and sixteen of his daughters have produced in all
-fifty-seven standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Aberdeen</span> shares with Dictator such honors as attach to the
-highest success of the “Hambletonian-Star cross” in the stud.
-This horse was bred by the notorious Captain Isaiah Rynders, at
-Passaic, New Jersey, and a full account of the investigation of the
-pedigree of his dam, the noted Widow Machree, 2:29, will be found
-in Chapter XXIX., on the investigation of pedigrees. Widow
-Machree was altogether the best trotter of the American Star
-family, and was especially noted for her gameness. Bred to
-Hambletonian, it was natural that she should produce a trotter,
-and Aberdeen was quite a trotter in his day. As a three-year-old
-he won a stake at Prospect Park, distancing his field in 2:46,
-and the statement has been published that he later in his career<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312"></a>[312]</span>
-trotted a slow New Jersey track in 2:24¼. This horse was foaled
-in 1866, and was a bay fifteen hands three inches high, and very
-stoutly, indeed coarsely made, and was of a dangerously vicious
-disposition. The good race mare Hattie Woodward, that made
-a record of 2:15½, first attracted attention to Aberdeen as a sire,
-and in 1881 he was purchased by General Withers and taken to
-Fairlawn, and before this his stud opportunities had been very
-limited. He died in 1892. By far the best of his get is the
-great mare Kentucky Union, that made a record of 2:07¼ in 1896.
-Aberdeen has forty in the standard list, fourteen of his sons have
-produced fifty-seven, and seventeen of his daughters have produced
-nineteen standard performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sweepstakes</span> must be classed among the successful sons of
-Hambletonian as a sire of trotters, though in the second generation
-his family have yet failed of great distinction, nor did
-Sweepstakes himself get extreme speed. This was a bay horse,
-foaled 1867, by Hambletonian out of Emma Mills, that also produced
-Mott’s Independent, by Seely’s American Star. He was
-bred by the late Harrison Mills, near Goshen, in Orange County,
-New York, and was never, I believe, trained. Indeed it has
-been stated that he never wore harness, and is perhaps the most
-remarkable example of a strictly undeveloped sire of trotters.
-The most noted of his get is the bay horse Captain Lyons, 2:17¼.
-Sweepstakes sired thirty-three trotters and two pacers that are
-standard performers, four sons have produced eight trotters and
-two pacers, and twenty of his daughters have produced twenty-five
-trotters and four pacers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Governor Sprague</span> is one of the few horses not descended in
-the male line from one of the great foundation progenitors, and
-that yet was a trotter of merit and the founder of a trotting family.
-His dam, however, was a producing daughter of Hambletonian,
-and this must be regarded as the probable source of his power,
-though his sire was a fine trotter for his day.</p>
-
-<p>Back in the thirties a Frenchman living at Rouse’s Point,
-New York, near the Canadian boundary line, bred a pacing mare
-to a horse that was kept in the same stable with Sir Walter,
-thoroughbred son of Hickory, and the result was the horse
-known as North American, or the Bullock Horse. It was long
-claimed that North American was by Sir Walter, but the best
-authenticated version is given in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, for 1880.
-This was the statement of a Mr. Ladd, said to be a reliable man, who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313"></a>[313]</span>
-knew the Frenchman who bred North American. Ladd had formerly
-lived at Rouse’s Point, and kept a little hotel at Benson’s
-Landing on Lake Champlain. Ladd’s statement was that the
-Frenchman had a little pacing mare, from which he wanted to raise
-a foal, but would not pay more than three dollars for any horse’s
-service. Sir Walter’s fee was fifteen dollars, but in the same
-stable was a large stallion that was used to haul water from the
-lake to the hotel, and the Frenchman was permitted to have the
-service of this horse for three dollars, and this is the only reliable
-version I could ever obtain as to the pedigree of North American.
-Besides the line we are now considering, this horse got Lady
-Waltermire, the dam of the great Strathmore, and one of his
-daughters is the dam of two in the 2:30 list, and Vergennes Black
-Hawk came from another. North America was said to have
-been a natural trotter, and quite fast for a short distance. A
-son of his, named Whitehall, from the name of the place where
-he was bred, was taken to Ohio from New York about 1854 and
-there got the noted Rhode Island, 2:23½, the sire of Governor
-Sprague. Rhode Island was a brown horse, foaled about 1857,
-and his dam was by a black horse called Davy Crockett that was
-brought from Pennsylvania, and her dam was called Bald Hornet.
-This mare, Mag Taylor, was bred to Whitehall twice, one of her
-foals being Belle Rice, the dam of the stallion Harry Wilkes, sire
-of Rosalind Wilkes, 2:14¼, and the other was Rhode Island. This
-horse trotted many races, and at Fashion Course, New York,
-October 27, 1868, earned his record of 2:23½. He about this time
-passed into the hands of Sprague &amp; Akers, and he died in 1875.
-At this time Governor Amasa Sprague had among his brood
-mares Belle Brandon, by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian out of a
-daughter of Young Bacchus. This was a bay mare, foaled in
-1854 in Orange County, and was a fast trotter and a mare of
-great general excellence. She was driven as a mate to Sprague’s
-Hambletonian, and Mr. Sprague claimed that he had once driven
-her a mile in 2:29. Bred to Volunteer she produced Amy, 2:20¼,
-and to Rhode Island, produced in 1872, Governor Sprague, 2:20½.</p>
-
-<p>Governor Sprague was a black horse, approximating fifteen
-hands two inches in height, and very substantially built. He is
-described as having been an exceedingly handsome horse, especially
-in action, his gait having been pure and beautiful. In
-1873 he was sent to Kansas and trained, and so promising was he
-that he was that year sold to Higbee Brothers and Mr. Babcock,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314"></a>[314]</span>
-of Canton, Illinois, for one thousand five hundred dollars. He
-was shown and known as a very fast four-year-old, trotting
-public exhibitions in about 2:22. With the exception of a three-year-old
-race at Earlville, Illinois, he did not start in a public
-race until July 20, 1876, when at Chicago he easily defeated a
-good field, and so promising and attractive did he seem that the
-late Jerome I. Case, of Racine, paid the great price of twenty-seven
-thousand five hundred dollars for him. At Poughkeepsie,
-New York, that season he lowered his record to 2:20½, and a few
-more races ended his short but brilliant turf career. He died at
-Lexington, Kentucky, May 23, 1883, at the early age of eleven
-years. His stud career was therefore short, and this fact we
-must remember in estimating his rank as a sire. Kate Sprague,
-2:18, and Linda Sprague, 2:19, were about the best of his immediate
-progeny, and Rounds’ Sprague, that has twenty trotters
-and pacers in the 2:30 list, some of them in better than 2:20, seems
-to be his most successful son. Governor Sprague has to his credit
-thirty-six trotters and two pacers with standard records, twenty-two
-of his sons have sired fifty-four trotters and fifteen pacers,
-and his daughters have produced twenty-three trotters and six
-pacers. There was nothing in the inheritance of Rhode Island to
-justify a supposition that he would transmit speed uniformly, and,
-like Smuggler, the speed-getting power with him was sporadic.
-But from his dam, Belle Brandon, Governor Sprague received the
-blood of Hambletonian through an individual that had speed
-herself and naturally produced speed; and this strain, combined
-with the blood of a horse that was good enough in his day to beat
-Lucy, American Girl and George Wilkes, gave Governor Sprague
-a right to be all that he was.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315"></a>[315]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS FAMILY.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Description and history of Mambrino Chief—The pioneer trotting stallion of
-Kentucky—Matched against Pilot Jr.—His best sons—Mambrino Patchen,
-his opportunities and family—Woodford Mambrino, a notable trotter and
-sire—Princess—Mambrino Pilot—Other sons of Mambrino Chief.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mambrino Chief was a dark bay or brown horse, got by
-Mambrino Paymaster, grandson of imported Messenger, and his
-dam was a large, coarse mare that was brought from the West in
-a drove, and absolutely nothing was known of her blood. The
-theory was once advanced in print that she must have been by
-Stevens’ Messenger Duroc, but I think it was never repeated.
-The basis of this theory was, that the horse referred to was large
-and coarse, with a long thigh bone, and as the mare was large and
-coarse, with a long thigh bone, she must have been a daughter of
-his. There are some obvious difficulties about accepting this
-“thigh-bone” pedigree. In the first place, the inventor of it
-never saw either the horse or the mare, and how could he have
-put his tapeline on their “thigh-bones” and thus ascertained
-they were of the same length? In the second place, it is not
-known, nor was it known to the inventor, that the horse ever had
-been within three hundred miles of the dam of this “daughter”
-of his. It is not much wonder that the “horse business” is
-hardly considered reputable when an educated man will advance
-such senseless gabble as the basis of a pedigree. This mare produced
-another colt called Goliah that developed some speed, but
-this was not the Goliah that was on the trotting turf.</p>
-
-<p>Mambrino Chief was bred by Richard Eldridge, of Dutchess
-County, New York, and was owned by Warren Williams; in the
-spring of 1851 he passed into the hands of James M. Cockroft
-and G. T. Williams; was kept two or three seasons in Ulster
-County; trotted, under the saddle a trial in 2:36; sold to James
-B. Clay of Kentucky, in the winter of 1854, and then to Gray &amp;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316"></a>[316]</span>
-Jones, 1857, for five thousand and twenty dollars, and died 1861.
-Soon after his arrival in Kentucky he was matched to trot against
-Pilot Jr., and the match stirred up a great deal of interest
-among the breeders. He was so big and coarse and so far removed
-from the type of the running horse that very few believed
-he could show any speed at any gait, for the distance of a mile
-and repeat. He was placed in the hands of Dr. Herr, who had
-had some experience in handling trotters, for preparation. When
-the day came there was quite an assemblage to witness the race
-but the Pilot Jr. party came forward and paid forfeit. This was
-a sore disappointment to those who thought the big horse could
-not trot, and to satisfy them that he could trot and trot fast, Dr.
-Herr drove him to show his gait, and notwithstanding his quarter
-cracks he satisfied all that he really was a trotter. This was an
-auspicious opening of a successful career extending through the
-remaining six years of his life.</p>
-
-<p>In the sense of success, Mambrino Chief was really the pioneer
-trotting stallion of Kentucky. True, “Old” Abdallah had been
-there fourteen years earlier, but he was in bad shape and breeders
-did not like him. He was very plain in his appearance and only
-left some half-dozen of foals behind him when he was brought back
-to Long Island. The breeders all turned to his stable companion,
-Commodore, that was more after the pattern of the running horse,
-and would not look at Abdallah. This Commodore filled the
-blue-grass fields with his foals, but none of them could trot. He
-was a son of Mambrino, by imported Messenger, and was an inbred
-Messenger, if his pedigree was right, but he was a failure as
-a trotting sire. Mr. Marcus Downing took his horse, Bay Messenger,
-there about the same time and he was a failure also, notwithstanding
-he was a grandson of imported Messenger. Both
-Commodore and Bay Messenger should have been trotting sires,
-but either one of two reasons was sufficient to prevent that consummation.
-First their blood and physical structure were all
-right, but the mental structure—the instinct to trot—was lacking;
-they inherited from some ancestor that could not and was
-not inclined to trot. Second, Kentuckians of that period knew
-nothing about trotters and they may have lacked in the requisite
-knowledge, skill and patience to develop them. It is true that
-old Pacing Pilot and some other pacing tribes were there that
-would occasionally throw a pacer with the diagonal motion, like
-Pilot Jr., but there was no other blood there that trotted before the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317"></a>[317]</span>
-arrival of Mambrino Chief. This pacing element was a very
-valuable element upon which to build up the trotter, but unfortunately
-and wherever it was possible, a running pedigree was
-tacked on to the pacer, and thus, in the estimation of Kentuckians
-it was the running blood that did it.</p>
-
-<p>The six years of his services in Kentucky gave sufficient time
-to establish his value as a trotting sire, but not sufficient to build
-up a large family. This limited period must be further restricted,
-in estimating his value, by the fact that the war broke
-out in 1861, at the very time when the larger part of his offspring
-were just at the right age for development. This important fact
-has been very generally overlooked when estimating the true
-value of this horse. The question has often been asked why
-this horse succeeded in Kentucky when he had not succeeded in
-the North? This is too broad a question to be considered in this
-historical sketch, but will be considered at another place in this
-volume. In passing it, some very intelligent writers have attributed
-it to what is called “the climatic outcross,” and there
-may be some real value in this point, but the great cause, aside
-from the new surroundings and expectations of his progeny, may
-be found in the fact that his own speed was never developed
-until the very eve of his transfer to Kentucky. His instinct to
-trot and to trot fast had remained dormant, practically, during
-the whole period of his Northern service, and when he reached
-Kentucky he was, in a sense, a new horse and conscious of his
-powers as a trotter. The salutary effects of development, at
-whatever gait, have been shown in ten thousand instances and
-will continue to be shown as long as the interests and ambitions
-of man shall prompt him to strive to surpass his neighbor.</p>
-
-<p>At one time it was maintained right vehemently by the owners
-of the stock of Mambrino Chief, as well as some others, that as a
-stock horse he was not only equal but superior to Hambletonian.
-In 1867, when the battles were raging between Dexter and Lady
-Thorn, this view showed little abatement, and notwithstanding the
-gelding was beating the mare all the time, they still maintained
-that in the end she would be the conqueror. When Lady Thorn
-was seriously crippled and retired from the turf, there were many
-sad hearts in the Mambrino family and many wonderful stories
-were told, privately, of what Dan Mace had seen her do, and that
-he was keeping very quiet till an opportunity came to show the
-most wonderful flight of speed that the world had ever seen or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318"></a>[318]</span>
-ever would see. With the shroud of what “might have been”
-about them, they were “of the same opinion still.”</p>
-
-<p>Mambrino Chief left six in the 2:30 list; twenty-three sons that
-put ninety-five in the list and seventeen daughters that produced
-twenty-four trotters.</p>
-
-<p class="center">LEADING SONS OF MAMBRINO CHIEF.</p>
-
-<table class="borders" summary="Leading sons of Mambrino Chief">
-  <tr>
-    <th>Name.</th>
-    <th>Year foaled.</th>
-    <th>Year died.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers.</th>
-    <th>Producing sons.</th>
-    <th>Producing daughters.</th>
-    <th>Standard performers produced by sons and daughters.</th>
-    <th>Performers produced in two generations.</th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mambrino Patchen</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1862</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1885</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">51</td>
-    <td class="tdr">90</td>
-    <td class="tdr">259</td>
-    <td class="tdr">284</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Woodford Mambrino, 2:21½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1863</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1879</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-    <td class="tdr">23</td>
-    <td class="tdr">24</td>
-    <td class="tdr">172</td>
-    <td class="tdr">185</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mambrino Pilot, 2:34¾</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1859</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1885</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-    <td class="tdr">17</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">71</td>
-    <td class="tdr">80</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Clark Chief</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1861</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1871</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">12</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">43</td>
-    <td class="tdr">49</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ericsson, 2:30½</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1856</td>
-    <td class="tdr">188-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-    <td class="tdr">15</td>
-    <td class="tdr">25</td>
-    <td class="tdr">31</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mambrino Chief Jr. (Fisk’s)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">1861</td>
-    <td class="tdr">189-</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-    <td class="tdr">14</td>
-    <td class="tdr">34</td>
-    <td class="tdr">39</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino Patchen</span> was the best son of Mambrino Chief and
-was brother to Lady Thorn, 2:18¼. He was foaled 1862, after the
-death of his sire, and was bred by Levi T. Rodes. His dam was
-by Gano, a running-bred son of American Eclipse; his grandam
-was a pacing mare by a colt of Sir William, but what Sir William
-is not known; his great-grandam was an inveterate pacer and
-never was known to strike any other gait. Mambrino Patchen
-was so much smoother and handsomer than his sire, and was so
-much of a failure as a trotter, that a very strong conviction prevailed
-among the friends and neighbors of his owner that he was not a son
-of Mambrino Chief, nor a brother of Lady Thorn. To this story
-that he was a Denmark and not a Mambrino Chief I never have
-given any shadow of credence. The attempt of his owner, Dr.
-Herr, to make him a trotter was patient and persistent, extending
-through several years, but with all his skill and experience he
-failed. Nobody was ever able to “catch” him a mile, but it
-seems to have been conceded that he might go somewhere in the
-“forties.” While this persistent and long-continued training
-failed in its original purpose of giving the horse a record of reputable
-speed, there can be no doubt, under the law that governs,
-that this development did great good to the horse, as a progenitor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319"></a>[319]</span>
-of trotters. The conditions being a handsome horse, with the
-banner constantly flying over him, “full brother to Lady Thorn,”
-an industrious and very capable owner, in the heart of the greatest
-breeding region in the whole country, it is easy to account for
-a very wide and lucrative patronage. Still, as a getter of speed
-he was not a great success, and as a getter of high speed he was a
-failure. With all the facilities for development, only twenty-five
-of his progeny have found a place in the 2:30 list, the fastest of
-which has a record of 2:20½. Of his sons, fifty-one are the sires of
-one hundred and twenty-six trotters, and of his daughters, ninety
-have produced one hundred and twenty-nine standard performers.
-He has proved himself a very great sire of brood mares,
-and when his daughters are bred to horses of stronger inheritance,
-they stand among the best.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Woodford Mambrino.</span>—This son of Mambrino Chief was a
-large brown horse, foaled 1862. He was bred by Mr. Mason
-Henry, of Woodford County, Kentucky. His dam was also the
-dam of other trotters, was got by Woodford, son of Kosciusko,
-and her dam was a farm mare without any known breeding.
-Woodford was a large, strong horse used only for farm work, to
-which he was well suited. After spending a good deal of time
-and labor on his pedigree I am constrained to say that while he
-may have been a son of Kosciusko, his dam’s breeding is worse
-than unsatisfactory. Woodford Mambrino made a record of
-2:21½, and placed thirteen of his get in the 2:30 list. He left
-twenty-three sons that were the sires of standard performers,
-and twenty-four daughters that produced twenty-seven standard
-performers. His son, Princeps, owned by Mr. R. S. Veech, of
-Indian Hill Farm, near Louisville, Kentucky, was in the stud
-far and away the best of his sons, and although he had no record
-of his own he placed in the list forty-four trotters and four
-pacers, many of them with fast records.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Mambrino Pilot</span> was a very large and very coarse horse. He
-was a brown, got by Mambrino Chief, foaled 1859, dam Juliet, by
-Pilot Jr.; grandam by Webster, son of Medoc; great-grandam by
-Whip. He was bred by Thomas Hook, of Scott County, Kentucky,
-and after passing through the hands of Dr. Herr and others
-he was sold to C. P. Relf, of Philadelphia, and, I think, remained
-in his family till he died, 1885. He had a record to saddle
-of 2:27½. He put nine of his get into the 2:30 list, and seventeen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320"></a>[320]</span>
-of his sons left fifty-one performers and fourteen of his daughters
-produced twenty performers.</p>
-
-<p>Many others of the descendants of Mambrino Chief might be
-noticed, but it is not the purpose of this volume to dwell upon
-matters that are accessible in the current literature of the trotting
-horse. The foundations of breeds and the leading heads of
-tribes must command my labor. The table shows the rank of
-the other sons of Mambrino Chief that achieved any degree of
-success, and of these clearly the best was Clark Chief, that died
-at ten years old.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321"></a>[321]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior individual—His
-greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter and pacer—His history—His
-noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island Black Hawk—Henry
-Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius M. Clay—The various horses
-named Cassius M. Clay—George M. Patchen—His great turf career—George
-M. Patchen Jr.—Harry Clay—The Moor, and his son Sultan’s
-family.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This family is no longer prominent in trotting annals and its
-blood has been practically absorbed by other strains that have
-proved themselves more potent in transmitting and more uniform
-and more speedy in performing. The name “Bashaw Family”
-is a misnomer and it should never have been used, but as it has
-represented, for many years, the oldest line of developed speed, it
-seems a necessity to recognize it here. A branch of this family,
-designated as “The Clay Family” has perpetuated itself in some
-strength and will be considered in this chapter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Grand Bashaw</span>, the horse that gave this family its name, was
-imported from Tripoli by Richard B. Jones, who was the American
-consul at that port. Mr. Morgan was associated with him, and they
-imported at the same time two other Barbs, Grand Sultan and
-Saladin. Grand Bashaw was kept in Lower Merion, Montgomery
-County, Pennsylvania, several years; Grand Sultan was kept in
-New Salem, New Jersey, for a time, and Saladin was taken to
-North Carolina and afterward died in Georgia. From these
-three horses nothing has been left to the horse history of the
-country but one single attenuated line. Grand Bashaw was a
-black horse, fourteen hands and an inch high, with a star and a
-snip on his nose. He was kept all his life in the vicinity of
-Philadelphia, and died at Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1845.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Young Bashaw</span> was a grey horse, about fifteen and one-quarter
-hands high, and is the only descendant of Grand Bashaw through
-which we can trace to that horse. He was foaled 1822 and was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322"></a>[322]</span>
-bred by Thomas Logan, of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
-His dam was Pearl, by Bond’s First Consul, a famous running
-horse, his grandam Fancy, by imported Messenger, and his great-grandam
-by imported Rockingham. This is the pedigree under
-which he was advertised, but it has never been authenticated in
-any of its crosses. Judging by the horse himself and his progeny
-there can hardly be a doubt that there was a Messenger cross in
-it, but just where cannot be determined.</p>
-
-<p>He made his first season in Salem, New Jersey, 1826. He was
-then four years old and by no means handsome or attractive in
-his form. His head, ear and neck were his worst features; but
-in addition to these defects he was flat on the ribs and habitually
-carried his tail to one side. His limbs and feet were as good as
-ever were made, but his great redeeming quality was his trotting
-gait. When in Salem he was only a rough, partly developed,
-four-year-old colt, but he showed then a step and a rate of speed
-so remarkable as to induce a few to breed to him, notwithstanding
-his ungainly appearance. He did not cover more than a
-dozen mares that season, and all-told he got eight foals. Out of
-these eight, seven proved to be superior trotters for that day.
-Andrew Jackson was the best, but there was another that could
-go below 2:40. The common remark was, wherever he touched a
-mare of Messenger blood, there was sure to come a trotter. This
-was the general rule, but the best hit he ever made, probably,
-was when he covered Joseph Hancock’s black pacing mare and
-got Andrew Jackson.</p>
-
-<p>In looking over his blood elements we can see nothing in his
-pedigree to justify these trotting qualities except the grandam,
-Fancy, by Messenger. First Consul was a great race horse, but
-neither he nor his descendants ever evinced a disposition to trot.
-The horse Rockingham was contemporaneous with Messenger
-and a constant rival while Messenger was about Philadelphia.
-He was not wholly running-bred, as he was by Towser, afterward
-called Counsellor, and out of a hunting mare. As a stock horse
-he was esteemed as only second to Messenger on the Delaware,
-where he stood many years.</p>
-
-<p>The fame of Young Bashaw did not cease nor die out after the
-exploits of Andrew Jackson, Black Bashaw, Charlotte Temple,
-Washington and others from his own loins. The Clays, the
-Long Island Black Hawks and the Patchens have kept spreading
-it wider and wider until of late years we find that only the one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323"></a>[323]</span>
-great Hambletonian family has overshadowed them all. Young
-Bashaw, after eleven years in the stud along the Delaware River,
-above and below Philadelphia, died at Morrisville, Bucks County,
-Pennsylvania, June, 1837.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Andrew Jackson</span> was the most noted son of Young Bashaw.
-He was a black horse, fifteen and a half hands high, with three
-white feet and a strip of white in his face. He was very well
-formed in every point and was strong, compact, short-legged and
-handsome. He was foaled 1827, and was bred by Joseph Hancock,
-of Salem, New Jersey. His dam was a strong, compact black
-mare that both trotted and paced, and was noted for her speed at
-the latter gait. This mare was brought in a drove from Ohio, in
-the spring of 1820 and on the twenty-first of June of that year she
-was sold to Mr. Hancock, of Salem, New Jersey, for one hundred
-dollars. He kept her a little over six years, and in the spring of
-1826 bred her to Young Bashaw, and in the fall of that year sold her
-to Powell Carpenter; and soon after he sold her to Daniel Jeffreys,
-a brickmaker on the Germantown road, near Philadelphia. She
-was then in foal by Young Bashaw, and the next spring she
-dropped the colt that became famous as Andrew Jackson.</p>
-
-<p>The incidents connected with the history of this mare are here
-given, perhaps in unnecessary detail, but as Andrew Jackson
-was very extensively advertised under a fraudulent pedigree from
-about 1834 till the time of his death, and as I had at one time
-accepted it as true, it is better that it should be made very plain,
-especially as I had been severely criticised for changing it. The
-correction made, as above, was founded on information received
-from two separate and distinct sources and both thoroughly reliable.
-The fraudulent pedigree of this mare represented her as
-“by Whynot, son of imported Messenger, and her dam by Messenger”
-himself. This was just such a pedigree as so great a horse
-should have had, but there was no truth in it. The attack was
-led by quite a large breeder in one of the prairie States, who had
-a number of animals remotely descended from Andrew Jackson.
-He did not even pretend to know anything at all about the truth
-of the matter, but simply urged most vehemently that the pedigree
-should be restored because it was old. The fact of the
-matter was the man wanted the old lie instead of the new truth
-maintained because it would help to sell his stock, which was the
-very object for which the lie was originally invented.</p>
-
-<p>Daniel Jeffreys was very much addicted to trotting horses, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324"></a>[324]</span>
-when he bought the black mare that was then carrying Andrew
-Jackson he kept her for his own driving and named her “Charcoal
-Sal.” She was no doubt among the fastest of the road
-horses, but there is no record of her ever being in a race. How
-much Jeffreys drove Charcoal Sal that autumn cannot now be determined;
-probably too much for the physical, but not too much,
-for the mental, organization of the foal she was carrying.</p>
-
-<p>About the break of day, one morning in the following April,
-somebody was passing Jeffreys’ brickyard (my recollection is,
-it was George Woodruff himself), and he heard a splashing in the
-water accumulated in one of the clay pits, and Charcoal Sal circling
-round in great distress. She had dropped her foal, and in
-its weak efforts to get on its feet, it had rolled into the pit. It
-was at once pulled out and the family aroused, and no time was
-lost in rubbing it dry and wrapping it in warm blankets. Some
-of the mare’s milk was poured into it from time to time, and toward
-noon it was so much revived and strengthened as to manifest
-a disposition to get on its feet. This was due, principally,
-to the womanly care and good nursing of Mrs. Jeffreys. But,
-when helped up, he appeared to have strength enough everywhere
-but in his pastern joints, and there he had no strength at
-all. In this condition the colt remained a day or two, a most
-pitiable and most helpless object, standing on its pasterns instead
-of its feet. One morning at the breakfast-table Mr. Jeffreys
-said he would give any of the boys a dollar if he would put that
-colt out of misery and bury it out of his sight. Mrs. Jeffreys,
-whose womanly feelings and sympathies were all enlisted, replied
-to her husband’s remark that “the boy who would kill that colt
-never could eat another mouthful at that table.” What a grand
-exhibition of true womanly instincts! Day by day her unremitting
-care was rewarded by seeing a little more strength gathering
-in the weak places, and at last her kind, motherly heart was
-gladdened by seeing him skip and play, a strong beautiful colt.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Jeffreys kept the colt till he was some five or six years old!
-and then sold him to John Weaver, whose residence was about
-half a mile from the old Hunting Park Course. He remained
-the property of Mr. Weaver till he died, September 19, 1843. In
-his stud services he was kept on both sides of the Delaware, in
-the region of Philadelphia, and made one season, perhaps two, on
-Long Island. As a trotter he stood as the first of all stallions of
-his day.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325"></a>[325]</span></p>
-
-<p>His first race took place October 19, 1832, over the Hunting
-Park Course for a purse of two hundred dollars for green horses,
-to saddle. He was entered under the name of “Brickmaker,”
-was ridden by George Woodruff (“Uncle George”), and beat
-Jersey Fagdown, son of Fagdown, by Messenger. Time 6:30,
-6:23.</p>
-
-<p>The next year he beat Jersey Fagdown again for the same
-purse and over the same course.</p>
-
-<p>October, 1834, he again won the same purse, over the same
-course, at two miles to saddle, beating Sally Miller. Time 5:26,
-5:25.</p>
-
-<p>The next October, 1835, over the same course, the same conditions,
-he beat Lady Warrenton, by Abdallah, and Daniel D.
-Tompkins, by a son of Winthrop Messenger. Time 5:20, 5:19.</p>
-
-<p>These performances have been extended far enough to give a
-just conception of his speed and his staying qualities. His races
-seem to have been pretty much all to saddle and two-mile heats.
-In that day most races were to saddle. George Woodruff told
-me he was on his back when he made Edwin Forrest trot in
-2:31¼ to win, but whether it was in a race or a trial I cannot now
-recall. Mr. George Woodruff was an uncle of Hiram Woodruff
-and a very worthy man. To him I am indebted for all the details
-of the early life of Andrew Jackson, and they were of his
-own personal knowledge.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Kemble Jackson.</span>—About the year 1853, of all the idols of
-the trotting-horse world, perhaps no one had so many worshipers
-as Kemble Jackson. In 1852 he was beaten by O’Blennis,
-three-mile heats in harness, and in April, 1853, he was beaten by
-both Green Mountain Maid and Lady Vernon, mile heats in harness,
-but in June following he achieved a great triumph. The
-race was on the Union Course and there was a vast concourse of
-people there to see it. The purse and stake was for four thousand
-dollars, three-mile heats to two hundred and fifty-pound
-wagons. The interest was very intense, as O’Blennis, Boston
-Girl, Pet, Iola and Honest John were in it. Each horse in the
-race made better time than he ever made before, and yet Kemble
-Jackson took the lead and maintained it from end to end, without
-a skip or a break. After the first heat even, the friends of
-O’Blennis would not hedge their money, for they had faith that
-the gallant son of Abdallah would win. The finish of the second
-heat was in the order above given. The time was 8:03, 8:04¾.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326"></a>[326]</span>
-Faster time has since been made to wagon, but probably not with
-this weight and at this distance. As a weight-puller for three
-miles I believe he still remains the champion. He was a very
-strongly built chestnut horse, and was got by Andrew Jackson
-the last year of his life.</p>
-
-<p>The pedigree of his dam was in confusion for a long time.
-Her name was Fanny Kemble. There were a number of running-bred
-mares named after that very popular actress, and everybody
-who had anything tracing to “Fanny Kemble” was sure
-that that particular mare was the dam of Kemble Jackson. In the
-first volume of the “Register” he is given as out of Fanny Kemble
-by Sir Archy, and in the second volume there was some fairly
-good evidence that he was out of Fanny Kemble by Hunt’s
-Eagle, tracing on through running lines. It is true he was out
-of a mare called Fanny Kemble, but neither of the two foregoing.
-Her blood was wholly unknown. The Hon. Ely Moore was a
-member of Congress, and when on his way to Washington in 1839
-he saw a very fine, stout-looking mare hitched to a gig in the
-city of Baltimore. She was a chestnut and showed such ability
-to handle a great heavy gig with ease and rapidity that he bought
-her. He bought her for what she was herself and not for what
-her blood was. There was no evidence asked or given as to how
-she was bred. This mare produced several foals to Andrew
-Jackson, the youngest of which was Kemble Jackson. While he
-was still a colt, Mr. Moore presented him to his son-in-law, G.
-U. Reynolds, who still owned him when he died. Mr. Reynolds
-is an intelligent and very reputable man, and this is the history
-of the origin of Kemble Jackson as given to me in person by
-him. Mr. Moore paid two hundred and fifty dollars for this
-mare Fanny Kemble, and she was so handsome and so fast on the
-road that he considered her a very cheap mare. The company
-never was too hot nor the road too long for her.</p>
-
-<p>Everybody has heard of “The Kemble Jackson Check” and
-nearly everybody, until within the last few years at least, has
-been using it without knowing just why or when it can
-be used with advantage. When in the hands of Hiram Woodruff,
-Kemble Jackson got into the habit of bringing his chin back
-against his breast, and in that shape Hiram could pull on him all
-day without getting control of him. In this dilemma, Mr.
-Reynolds suggested an overdraw check which might prevent the
-indulgence of this bad habit. Hiram took the suggestion, had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327"></a>[327]</span>
-one made, and it was a success, in his case. In twenty-four days
-after the performance which made him a great name from one
-end of the land to the other he died of rupture. As he was only
-nine years old and as he was just beginning to be appreciated as
-a stallion the breeders of the country sustained a great loss. Up
-to this point in his history he had no reputation, had been little
-patronized and left but few of his progeny to perpetuate his
-name.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Long Island Black Hawk.</span>—This son of Andrew Jackson
-was foaled 1837 and his dam was the distinguished trotter Sally
-Miller, by Tippoo Saib, son of Tippoo Saib by imported Messenger.
-This mare was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and
-trotted as a three-year-old in 1828 on the Hunting Park Course,
-Philadelphia. She was distinguished in her day, beating many
-of the best, and was the first three-year-old trotter of which we
-have any account. She was finally owned on Long Island, but I
-have never been able to learn the name of her owner. Black
-Hawk trotted some famous races on Long Island, the most noted
-of which, perhaps, was his match with Jenny Lind in which he
-was to pull a two hundred and fifty-pound wagon, and the mare
-the usual weight. In this match he beat her in straight heats.
-Time 2:40, 2:38, 2:43. In 1849 he beat Cassius M. Clay, time
-2:41, 2:38, 2:41. This horse was owned for a time by Jonas
-Hoover, of Germantown, Columbia County, New York, and was
-there called Andrew Jackson Jr., or Young Andrew Jackson.
-He made some seasons in Orange County, and died at Montgomery
-in that county July, 1850. His progeny were not
-numerous and but two of them from his own loins entered the
-2:30 list. His son Jupiter put five in the 2:30 list; Andrew
-Jackson Jr., two; Mohawk, three; Nonpareil, two; Plow Boy,
-one; and Vernol’s Black Hawk, one; to which we may add the
-fact that this last named was the sire of the famous Iowa stallion,
-Green’s Bashaw. Although his life was not long and his
-stud career was probably up to the average, it cannot be said that
-he was a great progenitor of trotters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Henry Clay</span>, the nominal head of the tribe that has taken
-his name, was a black horse, foaled 1837, got by Andrew Jackson,
-son of Young Bashaw; and his dam was Surrey, or Lady Surrey,
-as she is sometimes called, a pacing mare that was brought from
-Surrey, New Hampshire, to New York, and was converted to a
-trotter, or possibly she may have been double-gaited from her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328"></a>[328]</span>
-birth. It has been generally stated in years past that this mare
-was brought from Canada, and as there have been many disputes
-about her origin, I will try to give what authentic knowledge
-we have concerning her.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Peter W. Jones, one of the “old-time” horsemen and a
-very reliable man, said that David W. Gilmore, formerly a grocer
-at City Hall Place and Pearl Street, New York, bought a pacing
-mare, five years old, of Mark D. Perkins, of Mount Vernon, New
-Hampshire, which came from Surrey, New Hampshire, and hence
-her name “Lady Surrey.” Gilmore rode her to New York, with a
-young man named Lovejoy. He gave less than one hundred
-dollars for her. She was a superior saddle mare, and as Mr. Gilmore
-appreciated horseback riding he bought her for that purpose.
-Frank Gilmore, who was a deputy sheriff under Sheriff Orser, of
-New York, said that Lady Surrey was the mare his brother rode
-from New Hampshire, and after he sold her she turned out to
-be a trotter.</p>
-
-<p>This is the story as told by Mr. Jones, and judging from its
-source I have no doubt it is substantially correct. This leaves us
-without any knowledge whatever of the blood of the mare, but
-only that she was both a pacer and a trotter. She was engaged in
-some races and was quite well known to the trotting men of that
-day, and she must have been a pretty good one to have been
-owned by such a horseman as George M. Patchen and by him
-bred to Andrew Jackson. It is said Surrey and Sally Miller were
-coupled with Andrew Jackson the same day; they both stood,
-and the one produced Henry Clay and the other Long Island
-Black Hawk.</p>
-
-<p>While Henry Clay remained the property of his breeder he was
-trained and was looked upon as a promising young horse, but I
-have not been able to determine what rate of speed he was able
-to show. He certainly did not stand anywhere near the fastest,
-and he does not appear to have ever won a race, and perhaps
-never started in one. Still, he was esteemed as one of the best
-horses on Long Island and was liberally supported while there.
-When about eight years old he was sold for a fine price to General
-Wadsworth, of Livingston County, New York, and he was
-kept at various points in that part of the State till he died of old
-age and neglect in 1867. He came into the world when trotters
-were few and he lived till they were many. He left a numerous
-progeny, but as the sire of trotters he was a pronounced failure.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329"></a>[329]</span>
-In examining the 2:30 list I find a single one of his get, before
-he left Long Island, with a single heat of even 2:30. And in
-examining the list of his get during the twenty-odd years of his
-life in Western New York, I find a single representative, with
-a single heat in even 2:30, and this one was out of a mare by old
-Champion, a very noted trotting progenitor. He left three sons
-that appear as sires: Andy Johnson, with three just inside of the
-2:30 list, Henry Clay Jr., with a single one to his credit, and
-Cassius M. Clay, with one very fast one to his credit. This
-Cassius M. Clay was the sire of the famous George M. Patchen.
-Three of Henry Clay’s daughters produced six 2:30 trotters, and
-for a time it was held that the dam of the very famous George
-Wilkes was a daughter of his, but that claim has not been sustained
-by later developments.</p>
-
-<p>The name and memory of the horse Henry Clay would have
-been perpetuated in horse history through an attenuated line of
-descendants, as a fairly good horse, though unsuccessful as a trotting
-progenitor, had his bones been left to rest and rot where
-they were buried. Unfortunately, about the time of his death,
-there sprang up a most voluble enthusiast whose special mission
-on earth seemed to be to extol the superlative greatness of Henry
-Clay, and the contemptible worthlessness of “Bill Rysdyk’s bull,”
-as he designated Hambletonian. He commenced pouring his endless
-contributions into the columns of the breeding press and
-writing interminable letters to as many prominent breeders as
-would receive them, and all about the Clay blood being the only
-blood from which the trotter could be bred. These effusions
-were written with some skill, abounding in great prodigality of
-fancy and still greater economy of truth. It was astonishing
-how many men believed what he said and how few understood
-that the “old man” was in it as a “business.” He had gathered up
-all the cheap sons of the old horse and wanted to sell them at a
-handsome advance, and for a time the game won.</p>
-
-<p>To keep the interest from falling off and the Clay blood moving,
-he secured access to the purses of two wealthy gentlemen
-who were possessors and admirers of Clay blood, and the bones
-of the horse were taken up, mounted and set up, and presented
-to the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C.
-The bones are still there, and the inscription on the pedestal
-when last seen was as follows:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330"></a>[330]</span></p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The progenitor of the entire family of Clay
-Horses, and the foundation of the
-American Trotting Horse.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Then follow the names of the two gentlemen who presented
-the bones to the Museum, but as a kindness to them their names
-are omitted. The first clause of the inscription is true, but
-the second is not true, and I very seriously doubt whether they
-ever authorized the second clause. Henry Clay was not the
-“foundation” of anything, except the airy fabric of a fortune for
-our enthusiast. The scheme as an advertising dodge was well
-worked, and the schemer could well exclaim, “Where now is Bill
-Rysdyk’s bull?” In the nature of things such shams cannot last;
-this one had its fleeting day, and in the end the sheriff sold its
-worthless accumulations.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Cassius M. Clay.</span>—This son of Henry Clay was quite a large
-bay horse, taking his color and much of his shape from
-his dam. He was foaled 1843, and his dam, Jersey Kate,
-was the dam of the trotting horse John Anderson. Jersey
-Kate was a bay, about fifteen hands three inches high, with
-a clean, bony head, long neck, well set up, and when in driving
-condition was a little high on her legs. She was used in
-livery work, and when a good and fast driver was wanted, Jersey
-Kate was always in demand. In the same stable a pair of
-“Canuck” ponies were kept that were driven in a delivery wagon.
-They were duns with white manes and tails and about fourteen
-and one-half hands high, quick steppers with no speed. One of
-them slipped his halter one night and got Jersey Kate with foal.
-While she was carrying this foal she became the property of Mr.
-Z. B. Van Wyck’s father, and when she had dropped her colt and
-was put to farm work it was found that she was too rapid and
-spirited for his other horses, and he sold her to Joseph Oliver, of
-Brooklyn. The colt she dropped was weaned before the sale of
-the dam and remained in the family till he grew up. He was a
-grey, a little below fifteen hands, and as the boy, Z. B. Van Wyck,
-had broken and ridden him he got it into his head that he would
-make a trotter, so he bought him from his father for eighty dollars.
-He continued to improve and he sold him to Timothy T.
-Jackson and he to Charles Carman, who trotted him in many
-races. When Mr. Oliver, then owner of Jersey Kate, saw her
-“catch” colt by a “Canuck” pony able to beat many of the
-good ones on the island, he concluded to breed her to Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331"></a>[331]</span>
-Patchen’s horse, Henry Clay, and the produce was Cassius M.
-Clay. From her appearance, form, and especially her action, it
-was the universal opinion she was by Mambrino, son of Messenger,
-and it is probable she was, but in the absence of proof she
-must be classed as “breeding unknown.” Had it not been for
-the speed of little John Anderson, there would not have been
-any Cassius M. Clay.</p>
-
-<p>When the colt grew up, Mr. Oliver, his breeder, sold him to
-Mr. George M. Patchen, of Brooklyn, and he became a very popular
-stallion. After the death of Kemble Jackson and Long
-Island Black Hawk he was considered the best trotting stallion
-on Long Island. He was in a good many races, some of which
-were reported, but more that were not, and as against stallions,
-he was with the fastest. In temper he was disposed to be vicious
-and had to be watched. In form he could not be considered
-beautiful, but powerful. When the artist was modeling the
-equestrian statue of Washington that stands in Union Square,
-he had a great search for a horse to serve as a model, and he
-selected Cassius M. Clay as the best representative of majesty
-and power that he could find. Although the bronze is of heroic
-size, it is, no doubt, a fair representation of the outline and
-structure of the horse. He died at Montgomery, Orange County,
-New York, July, 1854, in the same stable where Long Island
-Black Hawk had died four years before. The three great horses,
-Long Island Black Hawk, Kemble Jackson and Cassius M. Clay,
-died just as they entered on what should have been the period of
-their greatest usefulness, the first at the age of thirteen; the
-second at the age of nine; and the third at the age of eleven. If
-these horses had lived through the usual period of horse life,
-doubtless the records of performers would bear very different
-relations from what they do to-day, but the <i>really great sire</i> had
-not yet made his appearance.</p>
-
-<p>Considering the short period Cassius M. Clay was in the stud
-he left a numerous progeny, but only one of them, George M.
-Patchen, achieved greatness on the turf. He placed thirty-four
-heats in 2:30 or better to his credit and made a record of 2:23½
-in 1860, which was the fastest for any stallion of his day. This
-was the only one in the 2:30 list from the loins of Cassius M.
-Clay. Nine of his sons became the sires of eighteen trotters,
-and more than a dozen of his sons were named “Cassius M. Clay<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332"></a>[332]</span>
-Jr.” thus leading to great confusion and oftentimes uncertainty
-as to identity.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Neave’s).</span>—This was a brown horse
-foaled 1848, got by Cassius M. Clay; dam by Chancellor, son of
-Mambrino; grandam by Engineer, sire of Lady Suffolk. He was
-bred by Charles Mitchell, of Manhasset, Long Island, owned by
-Joseph Godwin, New York; stood in Orange County, 1852, in
-Dutchess, 1853, and was taken to Cincinnati that fall. He was
-owned by Mr. Neave, made a few seasons, broke his leg in the
-hands of Mr. McKelvy, and had to be destroyed. Mr. Godwin
-represented this horse to me as very fast until four years old,
-when by an accident he was thrown into the Harlem River when
-hot and was stiff ever afterward. He put four of his get into
-the 2:30 list, and four of his sons got ten trotters and one pacer.
-His early death was esteemed a great loss, for he was better bred
-than most of the other sons of his sire.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Clay Pilot</span>, by Cassius M. Clay (Neave’s), was out of a catch
-filly, whose dam was the famous Kate, the grandam of Almont.
-From the noted old trotting mare Belle of Wabash, whose history
-will be found in Chapter XXX. on the investigation of pedigrees,
-Clay Pilot got The Moor, himself a fast trotter and a successful
-sire. He died at ten years old, leaving among others the
-famous Beautiful Bells, 2:29½, that, mated with Electioneer, produced
-a remarkable family; and Sultan, 2:24, sire of the great
-Stamboul, 2:07½, and of thirty-eight other performers, and of
-thirteen producing sons and twenty producing daughters. The
-Moor founded an excellent family.</p>
-
-<p>From a sister to Crabtree Bellfounder, by imported Bellfounder,
-Neave’s Cassius M. Clay got the black stallion Harry
-Clay, 2:29, that was quite a reputable trotter in his day, and left
-five standard performers, sixteen producing sons and twenty-three
-producing daughters, among the latter the famous Green
-Mountain Maid, the dam of Electioneer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Strader’s).</span>—This was a handsome
-brown horse, foaled 1852, by the original Cassius, and his dam was
-a black mare by Abdallah, that passed through the hands of A.
-Van Cortlandt and afterward became the property of Joseph
-Godwin; grandam by Lawrence’s Eclipse; great-grandam the
-Charles Hadley mare by imported Messenger. This pedigree
-has been questioned without assigning any reasons or facts, but
-as it came to me circumstantially and from unquestionable sources<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333"></a>[333]</span>
-I have no reason to doubt it. He was bred by Joseph H. Godwin,
-of New York, and foaled the property of Dr. Spaulding, of
-Greenupsburg, Kentucky. He made some seasons in the hands
-of Dr. Herr, of Lexington, Kentucky, was bought 1868 by R. S.
-Strader, and passed to General W. T. Withers, of Lexington,
-where he died 1882. He was engaged in several races and made
-a record of 2:35¼. He put four in the 2:30 list, and he left sixteen
-sons that were the sires of forty-six trotters and seven
-pacers. His daughters have produced well, thirty-four of them
-having produced forty-two trotters and seven pacers. This
-shows him to have been a better horse than his sire and better
-than any of the other sons of his sire.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George M. Patchen</span> was a large bay horse, fully sixteen hands
-high and heavily proportioned. He was bred by H. F. Sickles,
-Monmouth County, New Jersey, for Richard F. Carman, of New
-York, the owner of his dam. He was got by the original Cassius
-M. Clay, and his dam was a light chestnut mare, owned and
-driven on the road by Mr. Carman. As the blood and origin of
-this mare was for many years unknown, it is necessary to go into
-some particulars concerning it. From 1835 two brothers,
-Thomas and Richard Tone, were contractors on the streets in the
-northern part of New York City. Two or three years afterward
-Richard bought or traded for a large, strong sorrel mare to work
-in one of their dirt carts. It was represented that she had lost a
-foal shortly before and she was thin in flesh and looked coarse.
-When she moved out of a walk she always went into a pace, and that
-seemed to be her natural gait. They kept this mare at work in
-the cart for several years and sometimes turned her out to pasture
-in a small field at the foot of “Break-neck” hill, adjoining
-a pasture owned by the Bradhurst family. One morning a two-year-old
-stallion colt, owned by Samuel Bradhurst, was found in
-the pasture with the big pacing mare. He had broken down the
-fence between the two pastures and gotten the big mare with
-foal. In due time she dropped a light chestnut filly, and when
-weaned, Thomas Tone bought this filly from his brother Richard,
-and at two years old commenced working her to his wagon. She
-had very severe treatment for so young an animal and went amiss,
-when Thomas sold her to James Scanlon, a blacksmith, and after
-a time he sold her to Richard F. Carman for a driving mare.
-Like her dam, when she started off she would pace, but after
-going some distance she would strike a trot and go very fast.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334"></a>[334]</span>
-Mr. Carman paid one hundred dollars for her and he drove her
-beside another that he paid fifteen hundred for, and his fast daily
-drives from Carmanville down to the city soon tested the respective
-merits of the two mares. The hundred-dollar mare could
-outlast the other and had to help her along toward the end of
-the drive. In time she was foundered and permanently stiffened
-and that was the reason she was sent to Mr. Sickles to be bred.</p>
-
-<p>We must now look after the two-year-old colt that was the sire
-of this mare. Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, owned the famous
-race mare, Betsey Ransom, and with others he bred from her
-the two fillies, Itasca and Frolic. In 1837 these two mares were
-owned by Samuel Bradhurst, who manifested a sporting disposition,
-very much against the wishes of his father. In 1837 he
-bred these two mares to imported Trustee, then standing at
-Union Course, Long Island, and the produce were Head’em
-and Fanny Ransom. It is not known what became of Fanny
-Ransom, but he continued to own Head’em for some years and
-ran him in 1841 at the Union Course and beat the imported colt
-Baronet, by Spencer. There seems to be no other trace of his
-running or his stud services. It was in 1840, therefore, that he
-jumped the fence and in 1841 that the dam of George M. Patchen
-was foaled. George Canavan, Mr. Bradhurst’s coachman,
-says there were no other foals of any description bred by Mr.
-Bradhurst. These facts were gleaned personally and separately
-from Tone and Canavan, and as they complement and sustain
-each other, they must be accepted as the best information extant
-on the breeding of this great horse. His dam was by Head’em,
-a son of Trustee, out of a mare by American Eclipse, a grandson
-of Messenger, and she was a pacer and a trotter. His grandam
-was a pacer of unknown breeding.</p>
-
-<p>In 1851 he was purchased for four hundred dollars from Mr.
-Sickles by John Buckley, of Bordentown, New Jersey, and a few
-months afterward he sold a half interest in him to Dr. Longstreet,
-of the same place, and he remained their joint property till
-1858, when Mr. Buckley sold his half interest to Mr. Joseph Hall,
-of Rochester, New York. He commenced his remarkable career
-on the turf in 1855 and it continued till 1863. In 1858 he was
-engaged in the first race that gave him a national reputation.
-This was against no less a celebrity than Ethan Allen, and he was
-distanced, leaving Ethan with a clear title to the stallion championship.
-In 1860 he turned the tables on his old rival and beat<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335"></a>[335]</span>
-him in straight heats in 2:25, 2:24, 2:29. The next week the
-contest was renewed and Patchen again won in straight heats,
-and this gave him the unchallenged right to the rank of the fastest
-trotting stallion in the world. His triumphs, however, were
-as wide as the trotting turf and not limited to sex. He was able
-to beat and did beat all the best but the indomitable little Flora
-Temple, and although he beat her twice, she was too fast for him
-and beat him many times. It is not my purpose to give a history
-of his achievements. It is sufficient to say he made a record of
-2:23½, with thirty-four heats to his credit in 2:30 and less, and
-two miles in 4:51½.</p>
-
-<p>It cannot be said that he was a very great success in the stud
-as we now measure success. Four of his get were able to enter
-the 2:30 list, and among them was the great Lucy, with her
-record of 2:18¼. Fifteen of his sons became the sires of sixty-two
-trotters and three pacers, and four of his daughters produced
-five trotters. It is hardly fair to compare the stud services of a
-horse of Patchen’s generation with many of the great sons of
-Hambletonian, but at the same time we must not forget that
-Patchen was foaled the same year as Hambletonian. On the
-first of May, 1864, when Dan Pfifer was preparing him for the
-racing season then about to open, he died of a rupture, just as
-his sire had died.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George M. Patchen Jr.</span> (California Patchen) was a bay
-horse by the foregoing; dam Belle by Top Bellfounder, a grandson
-of imported Bellfounder, of which little is known. He was
-bred by Joseph Regan, Mount Holly, New Jersey, and taken to
-California 1862 by William Hendrickson; returned to New York
-1866, sold to Messrs. Halstead, Poughkeepsie, 1867, and by them
-to W. A. Matthews in 1869, and taken to San Jose, California;
-then sold to P. A. Finnegan, of San Francisco, and died the
-property of J. B. Haggin, Sacramento, 1887. He was campaigned
-quite extensively during the years 1866 and 1867 in
-the East, and carried away a good share of the winnings from
-the best. His best record was 2:27. In the stud he was more
-successful than his sire, which may be accounted for by his more
-numerous progeny and his longer life. From his own loins he
-put ten trotters into the 2:30 list, and, although there was no
-Lucy among them, Wells Fargo made a record of 2:18¾; Sam
-Purdy, 2:20½; Vanderlyn, 2:21, etc., showing a better average
-than the get of his sire. Ten of his sons got twenty-three trotters<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336"></a>[336]</span>
-and two pacers, and eleven of his daughters produced twenty-five
-trotters and three pacers.</p>
-
-<p>Several of the other sons of George M. Patchen left valuable
-and fast trotting progeny, and among them I will name Godfrey
-Patchen, with nine trotters to his credit and his descendants
-breeding on; Henry B. Patchen, with seven to his credit; Seneca
-Patchen, with sixteen trotters and one pacer to his credit, perhaps
-more than he is honestly entitled to; Wild Wagoner, with
-four to his credit; and Tom Patchen with three and his family
-transmitting speed.</p>
-
-<p>In considering the founders of the Clay family, there are two
-or three important facts that should be kept in view, bearing
-upon the growth, or the decadence of the family. In a breeding
-sense this appears to be the longest line of <i>developed</i> speed that
-we have in any of our trotting families. While we know that
-there were developed trotters and pacers many years before
-Abdallah and Andrew Jackson were foaled, we are not able to
-connect them in lines of descent, generation after generation.
-As Andrew Jackson with his developed speed stands at the head
-of this line, the question naturally arises, Where did he get his
-ability to trot? The only answer we can give is, from the
-daughter of Messenger that was the grandam of his sire, and
-from the fast pacer, Charcoal Sal, that produced him. Even if
-we accept the pedigree of Young Bashaw, with his Messenger
-grandam, when we get to Andrew Jackson we are a long way
-from the Messenger source of trotting speed; hence, we must
-look to the pacing speed of his dam—Charcoal Sal from Ohio—as
-the more probable source.</p>
-
-<p>Andrew Jackson was bred upon the converted pacer Surrey,
-and produced Henry Clay, then Henry Clay was bred upon
-Jersey Kate, of unknown blood, but a producer of trotting
-speed, and produced Cassius M. Clay. Then Cassius M. Clay
-was bred upon a mare “full of Messenger blood” and produced
-Strader’s Cassius M. Clay—the best of the Clay name
-by the record. Cassius M. Clay (the original) was also bred on
-“Dick Carman’s mare” and produced the famous George M.
-Patchen. This Carman mare was by a running-bred son of
-Trustee. She was both a pacer and a trotter and her dam was a
-natural pacer. George M. Patchen was bred on the Regan mare
-and produced California Patchen. This mare was, practically,
-of unknown breeding. California Patchen was bred on Whiskey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337"></a>[337]</span>
-Jane and the produce was his best son, Sam Purdy. This mare
-Whiskey Jane was quite a trotter and she was undoubtedly pacing
-bred, but I will not here enter into the details of her origin.</p>
-
-<p>We have here before us a condensed view of the trotting inheritance
-of the Clay and the Patchen families from Andrew
-Jackson to Sam Purdy, and its most remarkable feature is its
-poverty in recognized trotting blood. On the maternal side, the
-pacing habit of action seems to prevail in almost every succeeding
-generation. The second thought is that the tribe has not
-held its vantage ground of the first and the longest line of developed
-trotting speed. The third is that it has failed to transmit
-speed with uniformity, but rather sporadically. This may
-be accounted for by the general character and uncertainty of the
-maternal side, and suggests the question whether animals so bred
-can be relied upon to transmit with uniformity an inheritance
-received sporadically. From its place in the first rank as to
-time and popularity, this family has not been able to hold its
-own and it has declined to a place among the minor families of
-trotters and bids fair to be absorbed by tribes of stronger trotting
-inheritance.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338"></a>[338]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.<br />
-<span class="smaller">AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding really unknown—A
-trotter of some merit—His stud career—His daughters noted brood mares—
-Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing Pilot—History and probable origin
-—Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training and races—Prepotency—Family statistics
-summarized—Grinnell’s Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing
-descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse Horse—
-Swigert and Blackwood.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Of all the hundreds of difficult and obscure pedigrees that I
-have undertaken to investigate and straighten out, I have given
-more time, labor and money to that of Seely’s American Star
-than to any other horse. In 1867 I got his pedigree from a gentleman
-in Morris County, New Jersey, who claimed to have bred
-him, and this pedigree and the history accompanying it embracing
-several details that were interesting, I published it, at full
-length, in the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>. This represented the horse
-as a light chestnut about fifteen hands high, with star and snip
-and two white hind feet. He was represented to have been foaled
-1837 and to be by a horse called American Star, son of Cock of
-the Rock, by Duroc; dam Sally Slouch by Henry, the race horse;
-grandam by imported Messenger. As there was no horse of that
-name, so far as I knew, by Cock of the Rock, but as there was
-one of that name by Duroc, I wrote to know whether this was not
-the breeding of the sire, and the answer came that it might have
-been so.</p>
-
-<p>After the appearance of this pedigree in the “Register” I was
-greatly surprised that nobody believed it, and the more a horseman
-knew of the horse and his history the more positive he was
-that it was a mistake. Several years passed away, and while I
-kept insisting it was true, the unbelievers became more persistent
-than ever in their opposition to the pedigree. The consensus of
-the opinions of horsemen seemed to be that the horse was part
-“Canuck,” and this was the view held by his owner, Edmund
-Seely, as long as he lived. At last the following story came to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339"></a>[339]</span>
-me from different responsible persons, all of whom were personally
-cognizant of the facts they related, as follows: On a certain
-occasion a street contractor had a force at work, grading with
-shovels and carts, near the foot of Twenty-third Street, I think,
-New York City. Among the cart horses there was a Canadian
-stallion and a frisky, high-strung bay mare that wouldn’t work
-kindly. One day during the noon hour, the “boys” for amusement
-brought this stallion and mare together and in due time the
-mare proved to be with foal, and she was sent over to Jersey the
-next spring. The foal she there dropped was Seely’s American
-Star. When I asked to whom the mare had been sent to be
-taken care of, the answer came back quickly naming the same
-man whom I had represented as the breeder. As the contractor
-had no use for the colt, as a matter of course, the keeper of the
-mare would take the colt for the keeping. There is nothing
-unnatural nor unreasonable in this story, and it bears a pretty
-strong resemblance to the way the dam of the famous George M.
-Patchen came into the world.</p>
-
-<p>When the horse was four or five years old he began to show a
-fine trotting step and he was sold to John Blauvelt, of New York,
-for a driving horse. His feet not being strong, in the course of
-a year or two he developed a couple of quarter cracks and he was
-sent back to the man who raised him to be cured. In the winter
-of 1844-5 he was sold to Cyrus Dubois, of Ulster County, New
-York, who kept him in the stud the seasons of 1845, 1846 and
-1847. His advertisement for the year 1847 reads as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“American Star is a chestnut sorrel, eight years old on the 11th day of April,
-1847, near 16 hands high, etc.... He was sired by the noted trotting
-horse Mingo, of Long Island, who was got by old Eclipse. American Star’s
-dam, Lady Clinton, the well-known trotting mare of New Jersey, was
-sired by Sir Henry.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Here we have the third pedigree of this horse, and now the
-question arises, Where did this pedigree come from? Cyrus
-Dubois is dead, but a living brother of his says this is the pedigree
-that Cyrus brought with the horse from New Jersey. As
-this same quasi-breeder was the man who delivered the horse to
-Dubois, the statement of the living brother comes very near
-proving that the first and the third of the pedigrees here given
-were the work of the same man. Again, in 1844, this same quasi-breeder
-kept this horse at Warwick and New Milford, in Orange
-County, New York, and nobody in that region seems to have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340"></a>[340]</span>
-ever heard of either of these pedigrees. And again, this quasi-breeder
-wrote me that after Edmund Seely had brought the horse
-to Goshen he went to see him, and after fully identifying him as
-the same horse he had bred he gave the pedigree to Mr. Seely as
-he had given it to me. If this be true it is a very strange thing
-that Mr. Seely never seemed to know anything about it, but persisted
-in giving the pedigree as by a Canadian horse and out of a
-mare by Henry. Upon the whole, I long ago concluded that my
-first and earliest correspondent on the question of American
-Star’s origin was unfortunate in having a mental organization
-that placed him “long” on the ideal, and “short” on the real.</p>
-
-<p>His stud services may be summarized as follows: In 1844 he
-was kept at Warwick and New Milford, Orange County, New
-York. In 1845, 1846 and 1847 he was in Ulster County, and on
-the borders of Orange. In 1848 and 1849 he was at Hillsdale,
-Columbia County, New York. In 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1853 he
-was at Goshen and other points in Orange County. In 1854 he
-was at Elmira, New York. In 1855, it is said on good authority,
-he was kept ten miles below Hudson. Others say he was at Piermont,
-Rockland County, that year. In 1856 he was at Mendota,
-Illinois. In 1857, 1859 and 1860 he was again in Goshen. In
-February, 1861, he died at Goshen, the property of Theodore
-Dusenbury. In Orange County his service fee ranged from ten
-to twenty dollars, and at last twenty-five dollars, and he was liberally
-patronized. An unusually large percentage of his foals were
-fillies, and he was essentially a brood-mare sire from the start.
-Opinions differ very widely among horsemen as to his capacity
-for speed, some maintaining that he could trot in 2:35 while
-others insisted on placing him ten seconds slower. In trying to
-harmonize these conflicting views it is probably safe to conclude
-that, when fit, which seldom occurred in his whole life, his speed
-was about 2:40. He was always a cripple from defective feet
-and limbs, and his whole progeny were more or less subject to the
-same troubles.</p>
-
-<p>He left four trotters that barely managed to get inside the 2:30
-list and eight sons that put sixteen inside of the list. But his
-strong point was in the producing character of his daughters.
-Thirty-six of these daughters left forty-five of their produce inside
-of 2:30. The disparity in the producing power of the sexes
-in this family is very remarkable and, in a breeding sense, very
-instructive. In the light of what has been developed in this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341"></a>[341]</span>
-family in the past fifty years, we are certainly ready to form a
-safe estimate of its value as a factor in the combination that goes
-to make up a breed of trotters. Star mares gave us a Dexter and
-a Nettie, and all the world thought that was the blood that was
-to live on and on in the new breed. But, while Hambletonian
-was able to get great trotters from Star mares, he was not able to
-get, through their attenuated trotting inheritance, sons that
-would be as great as himself. To his cover Star mares produced
-no such great sires as George Wilkes, Electioneer, Egbert, Happy
-Medium, and Strathmore. In the instances of Dictator and
-Aberdeen there was a reasonable measure of success, but all the
-others—and there were many of them—proved comparative
-failures. There is a lesson taught here that any one can interpret.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">American Star (Conklin’s)</span> was a chestnut horse, foaled
-1851, and got by Seely’s American Star, and his dam has been
-variously represented, with nothing established as to her blood.
-He was bred by a Mr. Randall, of Orange County, and was among
-the first from his sire to attract attention. He came into the
-hands of E. K. Conklin when young, and was taken by him to
-Philadelphia, and was owned by him during his lifetime. He
-gave early promise of making a trotter, and from 1865 to 1868 he
-was on the turf, more or less, and left a record of 2:33. His stud
-services were confined to the region of Philadelphia till the year
-1872, when he was taken back to Orange County and died there.
-Three of his get entered the 2:30 list; two of his sons got one
-trotter each and four or five of his daughters produced one each.</p>
-
-<p>At one time the name “American Star” was very popular, and
-quite a number of stallions were so named that were bogus; but
-his son Magnolia put two in the 2:30 list; one son got three trotters,
-and three daughters produced five performers. His son
-Star of Catskill got two performers, and his son King Pharaoh
-got four pacers and all of them fast. The family has not grown
-strong either in numbers or in merit. It has been carried, so
-far, by the influences of stronger blood, and it seems destined to
-complete absorption and extinction in more potent strains.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Pilot</span>, the head of the Pilot family, was a black pacing horse, and
-of later years he has been generally designated as “Old Pacing
-Pilot.” He was foaled about 1826, and nothing is known of his
-origin or his blood. From his make-up and appearance he was
-generally considered a Canadian, as was the custom at that time,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342"></a>[342]</span>
-and I think I have used this term myself in referring to the horse,
-but there is really no foundation for crediting him to that source.
-The earliest information we have of him is from an unpublished
-source, to the effect that he was well known to certain sporting
-men about Covington, Kentucky. He next appears in New
-Orleans, hitched to a peddler’s cart, but really looking for a
-match as a green pacer. To promote this object, Major Dubois,
-a sporting man, was taken into the confidence of his owner, and
-it is said the horse showed him a mile in 2:26 with one hundred
-and sixty-five pounds on his back, and the major bought him for
-one thousand dollars. In 1832 Dubois sold him to Glasgow &amp;
-Heinsohn, a livery stable firm of Louisville, Kentucky, and he
-remained the property of that firm till he died, about 1855. It
-has been asserted with some semblance of authority that he could
-trot as well as pace, but this seems to be wholly apocryphal, and
-on this point I am prepared to speak without hesitation or doubt.
-A large breeder in the vicinity of Louisville, whom I have learned
-to trust implicitly, through the intercourse of many years, has
-assured me repeatedly that he knew the horse and his master
-well, and that he had seen him very often, for years, that he
-would not trot, and that his master could not make him trot a step.
-On the occasion of a very deep fall of snow he was taken out to
-see whether that would not compel him to trot, and he went
-rolling and tumbling about with no more gait than a hobbled
-hog.</p>
-
-<p>He left a numerous progeny, most of them pacers, with some
-trotters. We know but little of their merits, as at that period
-pacing and trotting races were carried on, generally, on guerrilla
-principles, and no records kept, except at a few of the more
-prominent occasions. His fastest pacer, probably, was Bear
-Grass, and there is a little history here that will be interesting
-further on. My late friend, Edmund Pearce, had always, from
-childhood, been a great admirer of the grand old saddle mare,
-Nancy Taylor. She had been bred to Old Pilot and produced a
-colt foal, which Mr. Pearce bought when young and named him
-Bear Grass. This was the first piece of horseflesh he ever
-owned, and he didn’t think he had ever owned a better one.
-He was amazingly fast, and could go away from all competitors,
-but unfortunately an accident befell him that ended his career
-before he reached maturity. Bear Grass had a half-sister
-called Nancy Pope, being the daughter of Nancy Taylor, that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343"></a>[343]</span>
-was afterward bred to Old Pilot, and she produced the famous
-Pilot Jr., that was the fastest trotter from the loins of the old
-pacer. Pilot Jr. took the diagonal form of the trot from his
-dam and never paced. It is worthy of noting that Nancy Taylor
-and Nancy Pope—mother and daughter—produced old Pilot’s
-fastest pacer and fastest trotter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Pilot Jr. (Alexander’s)</span> was a grey horse, foaled 1844, “got
-by old Pacing Pilot; dam Nancy Pope, grandam Nancy Taylor.”
-This is the literal version of his pedigree as given by his first
-owners and as given by W. J. Bradley and others who had him
-in charge year after year in the region of Lexington, according
-to the different advertisements, and no change ever appeared till
-the horse was bought and taken to Woodburn Farm. Then, for
-the first time we learned that Nancy Pope was got by Havoc,
-thoroughbred son of Sir Charles, and that Nancy Taylor was got
-by Alfred, an imported horse. This was not the work of Mr. R.
-A. Alexander, an honorable man, but the work of the professional
-pedigree manufacturer, who exploited his inventive skill
-very widely through the early catalogues of that great establishment.
-As a matter of historic fact, Pilot Jr.’s dam was Nancy
-Pope, but nothing is known of her sire, and Nancy Pope was out
-of Nancy Taylor, about whose pedigree nothing whatever is
-known. But as the subject of Pilot Jr.’s pedigree is exhaustively
-treated in Chapter XXIX., the details need not be
-further dealt with here.</p>
-
-<p>The training of Pilot Jr. commenced when he was five years
-old, and after the close of his stud seasons he was kept at it, in a
-moderate way, for several years, and it is said he never manifested
-any inclination to strike a pace. He was engaged in some
-races, and his advertisement claims he won several, giving the
-names of horses he had beaten, but the time made seems to be
-carefully avoided. He could probably trot in about 2:50 or a
-little better. He and all his family, so far as I can learn, were
-willful and hard to manage in their training, and were, therefore,
-in danger of becoming unreliable, but they were fast for
-their day, and dead game campaigners. There is one particular
-in which this horse seemed to surpass nearly all others and that
-was in his power to eliminate the running instinct and to plant
-the trotting instinct in his progeny from running-bred mares.
-It is doubtless true that many of those mares, so classed, were
-only running bred on paper; but the fact still remains, and it is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344"></a>[344]</span>
-supported by a sufficient number of authentic instances, to justify
-the conclusion that his potency in this direction was remarkable.</p>
-
-<p>During the troublous times of the war many of his early progeny
-were lost or destroyed, but from his own loins he put eight
-performers in the 2:30 list and others not far away. Six of his
-sons became the sires of forty-one performers, and eighteen of
-his daughters produced forty-one performers. Although the
-official records do not show that Pilot Jr. got any pacers, it is
-nevertheless true that he did get some very fast ones. But when
-we get past the period when the pacer was considered a bastard
-and kept out of sight, we meet with some astonishing facts. As
-an example, take Miss Russell, the greatest of all the Pilots.
-First, she produced a pacer that was changed to the diagonal
-instead of the lateral step, and then stood for years as the champion
-trotter of the world. Second, her son Nutwood has placed
-twenty pacers in the 2:30 list; her son Mambrino Russell has
-placed five there, and her son Lord Russell has placed five there.
-This brief and hasty exhibit of what the descendants of Miss
-Russell are doing seems to upset all the laws of heredity, provided
-always that her dam was a thoroughbred mare. The evidence
-that the breeding of this reputed “thoroughbred” mare is wholly
-unknown is considered in another part of this volume.</p>
-
-<p>In a few odd instances, in the male lines of descent from Pilot
-Jr., the trotting and pacing instinct seem to be transmitted in
-stronger measure than in any of the other minor families, but the
-day of its submersion is not far distant. The survival of the
-fittest is the law of Nature.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Champion</span>, the head of the Champion family, was a beautiful
-golden chestnut, sixteen hands high and without marks. He was
-bred by George Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, and was foaled
-1842. He was got by Almack, son of Mambrino, by Messenger;
-dam Spirit, by Engineer Second, son of Engineer, by Messenger,
-and sire of the famous Lady Suffolk. This is enough Messenger
-blood to please the most fastidious, but I think there was still
-more beyond the Engineer mare. When eighteen months old
-this colt showed phenomenal speed when led behind a sulky, and
-when three years old he was driven a full mile to harness in 3:05,
-a rate of speed which, at that time had never been equaled by a
-colt of that age. This made him “champion” as a three-year-old
-and William T. Porter named him Champion. After this
-performance Mr. John Sniffin, a merchant of Brooklyn, bought<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345"></a>[345]</span>
-him, and in June, 1846, Mr. William R. Grinnell paid two thousand
-six hundred dollars for him and took him to Cayuga County,
-New York. After keeping Champion in that county till the
-close of the season of 1849, Mr. Grinnell concluded to sell the
-horse, as in all that time he had not covered one hundred mares.
-Mr. Grinnell complained that the farmers did not appreciate the
-horse, and many of them failed to pay for his services. But the
-fault was not all on the part of the farmers, for the price, to
-them, was very high, and he was a very uncertain foal getter.</p>
-
-<p>In April, 1850, he was sent to New York and kept in the stable
-of Mr. Van Cott, on the Harlem road. He had been very badly
-handled, and Mr. Van Cott says he had been abused and ill-treated,
-and when he came to his place he was as vicious and
-savage as a wild beast. The horse was kept there for sale, and in
-his daily exercise Mr. Van Cott says he could “show considerably
-better than 2:40 at any time.” In 1851 he was sent over to
-Jersey and kept for public use at a fee of fifty dollars, by Samuel
-Taylor, at Newmarket, Metuchen, Boundbrook and Millstone.
-After making three or four seasons in the region of Boundbrook,
-in the year 1854, Mr. Grinnell, who still owned him, sold him to
-Mr. James Harkness, of St. Louis, Missouri, for about seven
-hundred and fifty dollars. On reaching St. Louis he proved to
-be as dangerous as ever, and no man dared to go into his stall,
-except Mr. Harkness and one assistant. In 1858 Mr. Harkness
-sold him to Thomas T. Smith, of Independence, Missouri, for
-one thousand dollars. He was there stolen by “jayhawkers”
-and taken to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he made two seasons
-and died 1864. Although he lived to be old, he left comparatively
-few colts, but a large proportion of that few were of excellent
-quality and many of them trotters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Champion</span> (<span class="smcap">Scobey’s</span> also known as King’s Champion) was the
-best son of Grinnell’s Champion, the son of Almack, and he came
-out of a mare called Bird, by Redbird, son of Billy Duroc. He was
-foaled 1849, and was bred by Jesse M. Davis, then of Cayuga County,
-New York, and sold to David King, of Northville, New York,
-and by him in 1861 to Mr. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Michigan.
-He was repurchased by Messrs. Backus, Scobey and Burlew in
-August, 1865, and soon became the property of Mr. C. Scobey
-and died his in May, 1874. It has been claimed this horse had
-speed and a record of 2:42 in 1857, but I have no data to determine
-how fast he was. From his own loins he put eight performers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_346"></a>[346]</span>
-in the 2:30 list, two of which were phenomenally fast,
-although their records do not show it. Here I allude to Nettie
-Burlew and Sorrel Dapper, more generally known as “The
-Auburn Horse.” The latter was a long, leggy, light chestnut,
-with a tremendous stride, and Hiram Woodruff did not hesitate
-to say he was a faster horse than Dexter. This Champion was a
-sire of excellent quality, although but a few of his progeny were
-developed. He left six sons that were the sires of forty-four
-trotters, and seven daughters that produced nine performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Champion</span> (<span class="smcap">Gooding’s</span>) was a bright bay horse with black
-points, standing fifteen and three-quarter hands high. He was
-got by Scobey’s Champion, dam the trotting mare Cynthia, by
-Bartlett’s Turk, son of Weddle’s imported Turk; grandam Fanny,
-by Scobey’s Black Prince; great-grandam Bett, by Rockplanter,
-son of Duroc; great-great-grandam Kate, represented to be a
-Messenger mare. He was foaled 1853, and was bred by Almeron
-Ott, Cayuga County, New York, and traded to Mr. Stearns, from
-whom he passed to his late owners, T. W. and W. Gooding, Ontario
-County, New York. He died June, 1883. This horse was
-peddled about in Seneca County at a fee of five dollars, and had
-a very light patronage among the farmers. At last he was sold,
-with difficulty, at Canandaigua, for three hundred dollars to the
-Messrs. Gooding, and he brought them a handsome income as
-long as he lived. As his reputation as a sire of speed spread
-abroad, the quality of the mares brought to him improved, and
-among them were some with good trotting inheritance. Of his
-progeny, seventeen entered the 2:30 list, the fastest in 2:21, and
-they were good campaigners. It is a remarkable fact that only
-one of his sons proved himself a trotting sire, and he left but a
-single representative. On the female side of the house he was
-more successful, for six of his daughters produced seven performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Charley B.</span> was a bay horse, sixteen hands high, and was bred
-by Charles Burlew, of Union Springs, New York. He was foaled
-1869, and was got by Scobey’s Champion, son of Champion, by
-Almack, and proved himself the best son of his sire. He was
-out of a mare well known as “Old Jane” that was the dam of
-Myrtle with a record of 2:25½. Several pedigrees have been provided
-for this mare that did not prove reliable, and they were all
-careful to endow her with plenty of Messenger blood. After
-searching for the facts through some years, the only version of it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347"></a>[347]</span>
-that seemed to be worthy of credence showed that her sire was a
-horse called Magnum Bonum and there it ended. In his racing
-career this horse was started sometimes under the name of
-“Lark.” He has six heats to his credit in 2:30 and better, and
-a record of 2:25. From his own loins he has twenty-two trotters
-in the 2:30 list. Considering the respectable number this horse
-shows in the 2:30 list, his great nervous energy, his vigorous constitution,
-and the number of years he was liberally patronized in
-the stud, it is a most notable fact that he has but two sons that
-are producers. Six of his daughters have produced. As a propagator
-of speed in the coming generations, this horse seems to be
-even a greater failure than his half-brother, Gooding’s Champion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Night Hawk</span> was a chestnut son of Grinnell’s Champion.
-He was bred by John S. Van Kirk, of Newark, New Jersey, and
-his dam was by Sherman’s Young Eclipse, son of American
-Eclipse. He was foaled 1855-6. In 1862 Mr. Van Kirk took
-him to Kalamazoo, Michigan, thence to Paw Paw in 1872, and in
-1879 he was returned to Kalamazoo, owned by A. T. Tuthill.
-He was something of a trotter, and had a record of 2:36, under
-the name of Champion, when he was controlled by Mr. D. B.
-Hibbard, I think. He was shown at a State fair, held at Lansing,
-on a poor half-mile track, it is said, and trotted a mile in
-2:31¼, and for this performance he received a piece of plate from
-the society testifying to this fact. He has but two representatives
-in the 2:30 list, and three of his sons have five trotters to
-their credit, while six of his daughters have produced seven performers.
-He lived to an old age.</p>
-
-<p>The merits and demerits of this family are very marked. The
-head of it seems to have possessed great nerve force and an unmistakable
-instinct to trot, but he was irritable and vicious in his
-temper. Both these qualities—the desirable and the undesirable
-alike—he seems to have transmitted to his offspring. I have seen
-Gooding’s Champion, and he had the temper and disposition of
-his grandsire. It appears that the original Champion was a shy
-breeder, and I am disposed to think he inherited this infirmity
-from his sire, Almack, and whether the inability of his sons and
-grandsons to get sires of trotters may be accounted for from
-this cause would be a very difficult question to answer. There
-are several others of this family, East and West, that have single
-representatives in the 2:30 list, that I have not enumerated, but
-from the statistics, as they now stand, it seems probable that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348"></a>[348]</span>
-whatever is good in this family will be swallowed up in other
-tribes that are more prepotent and positive in the trotting instinct.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Norman, or the Morse Horse.</span>—This horse was originally
-named “Norman,” but in later years he was more generally and
-widely known as The Morse Horse. His family is not large, but
-some of his descendants have shown great speed and great racing
-qualities. His origin and breeding as given below have resulted
-from a wide and laborious correspondence, and, I think, can be
-accepted as trustworthy. He was bred by James McNitt, of
-Hartford, Washington County, New York, who was a large
-farmer and distiller. He was foaled 1834, got by European;
-dam Beck, by Harris’ Hambletonian; grandam Mozza, by Peacock,
-son of imported Messenger. He was fifteen and three-quarter
-hands high, a dark iron grey when young, and became
-white with age. He had plenty of bone, was handsome and a
-natural trotter. Something of the history of the animals entering
-into this pedigree is important and I will try to give it in as
-brief form as possible.</p>
-
-<p>The breeder, Mr. McNitt, was in the habit of visiting Montreal
-at least once a year with the products of his farm and his distillery.
-On one occasion he brought back three horses with him,
-two “Canucks” and a very elegant grey horse that he called
-European, that was evidently somewhat advanced in years and
-was a little knee-sprung from the effects of hard driving. The
-two “Canucks” were fast trotters, but European could beat
-either of them. Mr. McNitt represented that this horse had been
-imported into Canada from Normandy in France and doubtless
-he believed it, but there were none of the French characteristics
-about him. He was purchased in Montreal about 1829 and died
-in Washington County about 1836. The dam and grandam of
-the Morse Horse were bred by Mr. Joseph T. Mills, of the town
-of Argyle, in Washington County. Beck, the dam, was a bright
-bay mare about sixteen hands high. At weaning time Mr. Mills
-sold her to Robert Stewart, of Greenwich, and at three years old
-he sold her to Mr. McNitt. She was got by Harris’ Hambletonian,
-when he was kept by John Williams, Jr. This is established
-quite satisfactorily and circumstantially. Mozza, the dam
-of Beck, was a chestnut mare, without marks, and was got by
-Peacock, a son of imported Messenger that was owned by Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349"></a>[349]</span>
-Emerson in Saratoga County and was afterward burned up in his
-stable. This son of Messenger, called Peacock, was entirely new
-to me when I was investigating this pedigree in 1876 and I was
-disposed to reject it, but Mr. Mills certainly had a horse of that
-name and he represented him to be a son of Messenger, and he
-probably was, but I do not <i>know</i> that he was so bred.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. McNitt sold the colt at three years old to Martin Stover,
-who lived on his place, for eighty dollars; the next year Stover
-sold him to James Mills. In 1840 Mills sold him to Mr. Tefft
-and Zack Adams, and they sold him not long after to Philip
-Allen and Calvin Morse, of White Creek. Mr. Morse had him
-a number of years and when old sold him to Mr. Grant, and he
-died at Spiegletown in Renssalaer County, New York. He was
-a very perfect, natural trotter, and his speed was developed to
-some extent. In August, 1847 or 1848, Mr. Morse put him into
-the hands of John Case, of Saratoga Springs, the driver of Lady
-Moscow, to prepare him for the State Fair, at which he expected
-to meet the famous Black Hawk. Mr. J. L. D. Eyclesheimer, a
-very intelligent gentleman, formerly of the region of Saratoga,
-wrote that while the horse was in Case’s hands, he, with Mr.
-Morse, timed him a full mile in 2:40½. At the State Fair he was
-all out of fix and Black Hawk beat him in the second and third
-heats. He won the first heat in 2:52½. In the rivalries between
-stallions at agricultural fairs, however, is a very poor place to
-look for fair work and fair judgment, either from the stand or
-from the spectators.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">General Taylor</span> was a grey horse, foaled 1847, got by the
-Morse Horse, dam the trotting mare Flora, a New York road
-mare of unknown breeding. He was bred by the brothers Eyclesheimer,
-then of Pittstown, New York. He was taken to Janesville,
-Wisconsin, 1850, and thence to California, 1854, where he
-trotted thirty miles against time in one hour forty-seven minutes
-and fifty-nine seconds. He also beat New York a ten-mile race
-in 29:41½. This horse has no representative in the 2:30 list, but
-his blood has always been very highly esteemed in California for
-its speed, but more especially for its game qualities. Honest
-Ance was another son of the Morse Horse that did a great deal
-of racing in California, although he has no record in the 2:30
-list. He was a chestnut gelding, and was managed by the
-notorious Jim Eoff, who was always ready to win or to lose as the
-money seemed to suggest.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_350"></a>[350]</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Norman</span> (<span class="smcap">Alexander’s</span>) was a brown horse, foaled about 1846,
-got by the Morse Horse, son of European; dam one of a pair of
-brown mares purchased by John N. Slocum of Samuel Slocum, a
-Quaker of Leroy, Jefferson County, New York, and represented to
-be by Magnum Bonum. These mares passed to Mr. Russell, and
-from him to Titcomb &amp; Waldron, who bred the better of the two to
-the Morse Horse, and the produce was Alexander’s Norman. This
-colt passed through several hands till he reached Henry L. Barker,
-of Clinton, New York, and about 1860, he sold him to the late
-R. A. Alexander, of Woodburn Farm, Kentucky. He died 1878.
-The original version of this pedigree, as put upon Mr. Alexander
-and advertised by him, as were many others, was wholly fictitious
-on the side of the dam. He was not retained long at Woodburn
-Farm. He does not seem to have been a uniform transmitter of
-speed, but when it did appear it was apt to be of a high order.
-He left but two representatives in the 2:30 list, Lula, 2:15, with
-fifty-six heats, and May Queen, 2:20, with twenty-five heats. He
-left four sons that became the sires of fifty-eight performers and
-thirteen daughters that produced nineteen performers. Such
-sons as Swigert and Blackwood speak well for his transmitting
-powers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Swigert</span> was a brown horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s
-Norman, son of the Morse Horse; dam Blandina, by Mambrino
-Chief; grandam the Burch Mare, by Brown Pilot, son of Copper
-Bottom, pacer. He was bred at Woodburn Farm, Kentucky,
-and when young became the property of Richard Richards, of
-Racine, Wisconsin, where he remained many years and passed to
-F. J. Ayres, of Burlington, Wisconsin. As a prepotent sire this
-horse stands high in the list of great horses. This may be accounted
-for in great part by the speed-producing qualities which
-he inherited from his dam. I am not informed as to the amount
-of training he may have had, nor of the rate of speed he may
-have been able to show. He placed forty-four trotters and two
-pacers in the 2:30 list. Thirty-three of his sons became the sires
-of sixty-one trotters and fourteen pacers. Twenty-three of his
-daughters produced twenty-one trotters and six pacers. From
-the number of his sons that have already shown their ability to
-get trotters, it is fair to presume that his name will be perpetuated.
-He died in 1892.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Blackwood</span> was a black horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s
-Norman, son of the Morse Horse; dam by Mambrino Chief;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_351"></a>[351]</span>
-grandam a fast trotting dun mare, brought from Ohio, pedigree
-unknown. He was bred by D. Swigert, Spring Station, Kentucky,
-and foaled the property of Andrew Steele, of Scott County,
-Kentucky. At five years old he was sold to John W. Conley, and
-by him to Harrison Durkee, of New York, and was afterward
-owned at Ticonderoga, New York. He made a record of 2:31
-when three years old, which, at that day, was considered phenomenal
-for a colt of that age. His opportunities in the stud were
-not of the best, but nine of his progeny entered the 2:30 list;
-eleven of his sons got twenty performers, and twenty-five of his
-daughters produced thirty-seven performers.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_352"></a>[352]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His family rank—
-The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom Rolfe—Young Rolfe
-and Nelson—The Tom Hal family—The various Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The
-Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin Forrest—The Drew Horse
-and his descendants—The Hiatogas.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Blue Bull</span>, the real head of this family, was one of the most
-remarkable horses that this or any other country has produced.
-He was a light chestnut, just a little over fifteen hands high,
-with one hind pastern white and a star in his forehead. He was
-strongly built and his limbs were excellent, except perhaps a
-little light just below the knee. He was foaled 1858 and died
-July 11, 1880. He was bred by Elijah Stone, of Stone’s Crossing,
-Johnson County, Indiana. For a time he was owned by
-Lewis Loder and Daniel Dorrel, before he passed into the hands
-of James Wilson, of Rushville, Indiana, who kept him many years
-and whose property he died. At one time he stood at the
-head of the list of all trotting sires in the world, and yet he
-could not trot a step himself, but he could pace amazingly fast,
-and it was claimed he could pace a quarter in thirty seconds.
-He was the first and only horse that was ever able to snatch the
-scepter from the great Hambletonian family, but after a brief
-reign of a couple of years he had to surrender it again to that
-family, where, from present appearances, it is destined to remain.</p>
-
-<p>The breeding of this horse is very obscure, and after we have
-told all that is known about it we will not have given very much
-information. He was got by a large dun pacing horse that was
-known as Pruden’s Blue Bull, and he by a blue roan horse
-known as Merring’s Blue Bull, or Ohio Farmer. The latter was
-taken to Butler County, Ohio, from Chester County, Pennsylvania,
-and it has been said, without confirmation, that he was of
-Chester Ball stock. He was a large, strong farm horse, a natural
-pacer, as were many of his progeny, and dun and roan colors were
-very prevalent among them. He died the property of Mr. Merring<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_353"></a>[353]</span>
-about 1843. His son, Pruden’s Blue Bull, was of a dun
-color and a natural pacer, but his dam has never been traced.
-He was large, strong, rather coarse, and had some reputation as a
-fast pacer, for a horse of his size, and his color was quite prevalent
-among his progeny. He was bred in Butler County, Ohio,
-and about 1853 was taken to Boone County, Kentucky. In 1861
-he became the property of G. B. Loder, of the same county, and
-in 1863 he traded him to James Pruden, of Elizabethtown, Ohio.</p>
-
-<p>The pedigree of Wilson’s Blue Bull, the head of the family on
-the side of the dam, is equally unsatisfactory so far as the blood
-elements are concerned. We know that this dam was called
-Queen, that she was bred by Elijah Stone, and that she was got
-by a horse called Young Selim, but we know nothing about
-Young Selim. We also know that the dam of Queen was called
-Bet, and that Mr. Stone bought her of Mr. Sedan, and there all
-knowledge ends. Since the days of the great racing progenitor,
-Godolphin Arabian, of whose origin and blood nobody, living or
-dead, had a single shadow of knowledge, down to the day of Wilson’s
-Blue Bull, no horse equally obscure in his inheritance has
-ever been able to prove himself really great as a progenitor of
-speed.</p>
-
-<p>In the days of Blue Bull’s rising fame, and indeed till his death,
-there was developed such a condition of muddled morals as one
-seldom meets with in a lifetime. Whenever a horse of unknown
-breeding, in any one of three or four States, began to show some
-speed, his owner at once called him a Blue Bull, and if he went
-fast enough to enter the 2:30 list, he was at once credited to Blue
-Bull by his friends, and they were all ready to fight for it. If
-the books of Blue Bull’s services did not show that the dam of
-the “unknown” had ever been within a hundred miles of that
-horse, it was all the worse for the books. With a large number
-of men interested financially in Blue Bull stock, ready to claim
-everything in sight and anxiously looking for something more to
-appear, it became a most laborious task to keep this class of
-frauds out of the records. Another cause of dissent and dissatisfaction
-among the “boomers” of Blue Bull blood was the final
-discovery of the breeder in Elijah Stone and that there was no
-“thoroughbred” blood in his veins. At that time a very large
-majority of the horsemen of the country honestly believed that
-all speed, whether at the pace or the trot, must come from the
-gallop. It was not the <i>truth</i>, therefore, that these people were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_354"></a>[354]</span>
-looking for, but something to support that ignorant and stupid
-theory.</p>
-
-<p>A careful study of the statistics of this horse will teach a valuable
-lesson. He put fifty-six trotters into the 2:30 list, varying
-in speed from 2:30 to 2:17¼, and five of this number in 2:20 or better.
-He also got four pacers with records from 2:24½ to 2:16¼.
-It thus appears that this horse, without any known trotting
-blood, got fifty-four trotters to four pacers, which clearly shows
-that an inheritance of speed at the pace may be transmitted at
-the trot, as well as the pace. When we come to his progeny, we
-find that forty-seven of his sons have to their credit one hundred
-and four performers, making an average of a little more than two
-each. These sons are all past maturity and some of them dead
-of old age, and not one of them has ever reached mediocrity in
-merit as a sire. He left seventy-seven daughters that have produced
-one hundred and seven performers, and if we had time to
-trace out these performers we would find that they were generally
-by strains of blood stronger and better than the blood of
-Blue Bull. While, therefore, we can acknowledge Blue Bull’s
-greatness as a getter of speed from his own loins, we must
-acknowledge that his sons and daughters as the producers of speed
-are failures. It is possible that some representative of the tribe
-may spring up and restore the prestige of the family, but as
-the source is sporadic and as the country is filled up with trotting
-elements that are more prepotent, it is more likely to be swallowed
-up and lose its family identity.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Cadmus</span> (known as Irons’ Cadmus) was the head of a very
-small family that occasionally developed phenomenal speed either
-at the pace or the trot. He was a chestnut horse nearly sixteen
-hands high, strong and active, with four white feet. He was
-foaled 1840 and was got by Cadmus, the thoroughbred son of
-American Eclipse, and was bred by Goldsmith Coffein, Red Lion,
-Warren County, Ohio. His dam was a chestnut pacing mare
-that Mr. Coffein got in a trade, from a traveler, and nothing was
-ever known of her breeding. A pedigree was shaped up for her
-that seemed to make her thoroughbred and her son took a prize
-on it once, as a thoroughbred, but it was wholly untrue. Mr.
-John Irons of the same county became joint owner in this horse, and
-he became widely known as “Irons’ Cadmus.” To close this partnership
-he was sold, 1850, and taken to Richmond, Indiana; then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_355"></a>[355]</span>
-to George Shepher, of Butler County, Ohio, and next to a company
-in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he made two seasons,
-and was sold to St. Louis, Missouri, and died without further
-service, in 1858. From birth he was double-gaited, inclining
-more to the pace than to the trot. From unskillful handling his
-gaits became mixed up so that it was never known whether he
-might have been able to show any speed or not.</p>
-
-<p>Pocahontas, the pacer, was the most distinguished of his get,
-and if there were no others of merit from her sire this one alone
-would be sufficient to command a place in the volume. She was
-a large, strong chestnut mare with four white legs, a white face,
-and a splotch of white on her belly. She was bred by John C.
-Dine, of Butler County, Ohio, and was foaled 1847. Her dam
-was a very strong mare got by Probasco’s Big Shakespeare, a
-horse over sixteen hands and very heavily proportioned, a very
-valuable farm horse with good action, many of whose tribe were
-disposed to pace. The grandam was also a descendant of Valerius,
-that was brought to Ohio from New Jersey. Pocahontas
-passed through several hands at very low prices and was used for
-all kinds of heavy farming and hauling until she reached the
-hands of L. D. Woodmansee, when her speed began to be developed.
-She was soon matched against Ben Higdon, the fast
-pacing son of Abdallah, and beat him in 2:32. In December, 1853,
-she was taken to New Orleans, and beat several celebrities there
-early the next spring. Before her last race it was discovered she
-was in foal, and some two months afterward she dropped Tom
-Rolfe. In the autumn of 1854 she was brought to the Union
-Course, Long Island, and it was not till June, 1855, that her
-owners and managers could get a match with her. At last Hero,
-the famous son of Harris’ Hambletonian, met her for two thousand
-dollars, he to harness and she to wagon. In the first heat she
-distanced the gelding in 2:17½, and it was maintained by her
-driver that she could have gone at least five seconds faster, if it
-had been necessary. For racing purposes she was no longer of
-any value, for nothing would start against her. She was then
-sold and became a brood mare at Boston, Massachusetts, and
-produced the sires Tom Rolfe and Strideway, Pocahontas, 2:26¾,
-and the dams of May Morning, 2:30, and Nancy, 2:23½, thus ranking
-as a great brood mare.</p>
-
-<p>Shanghai Mary, that has become so famous as the dam of
-Green Mountain Maid, one of the very greatest of all brood<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_356"></a>[356]</span>
-mares, was probably a daughter of this same horse, Cadmus. This
-mare, Shanghai Mary, was a trotter of speed, not far from a 2:30
-gait, and she won some races, but she was hot-headed and unreliable.
-Notwithstanding continuous searches, for years, her origin remained
-a profound mystery, until of recent date certain facts
-point to Mr. Coffein as her breeder and Cadmus as her sire.
-This has not been established historically, but when the circumstances
-are understood and taken in connection with the internal
-evidences, which are amazingly strong, and had been pointed out
-and applied to this sire long before the recent developments,
-there remains hardly a moral doubt that she was by Cadmus.
-The fact that this mare is the maternal grandam of Electioneer,
-the greatest of all trotting sires to date, makes her pedigree a
-matter of special interest, and for details of the various investigations
-the reader is referred to <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, and to Chapter
-XXIX. of this volume.</p>
-
-<p>Pocahontas seems to have produced but five foals that reached
-maturity: 1855, Tom Rolfe, of which hereafter; 1859, Young
-Pocahontas, by Ethan Allen, a very fast trotter; 1860, May
-Queen, by Ethan Allen; 1861, May Day, by Miles Standish; 1863
-bay colt Strideway, by Black Hawk Telegraph. This was a very
-fast and promising young horse, and doubtless would have stood
-among the fastest stallions of his day, but he died on the very
-eve of his public appearance on the trotting turf.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tom Rolfe</span> had a checkered existence from his conception.
-His dam, Pocahontas, was bred to Pugh’s Aratus, by Abraham
-Pierce, her then owner, May 10, 1853, and ten days afterward
-she was sold without her new owner’s knowing she had been bred.
-He was thus carried in his mother’s womb, during her training
-and through her racing campaign in New Orleans, until a little
-over two months of the time he was dropped. During most of
-this period those handling the mare did not know she had been
-bred, and hence the story that Tom was a “catch” colt. He was
-a bay, about fifteen hands two inches high, and came to his speed
-with very little handling. In private trials, it is said, he had
-frequently shown a mile in 2:23. While on exhibition in a small
-ring at Dayton, Ohio, he met with an accident, from which he
-was ever afterward a cripple. In this condition however, he
-afterward made a record in 2:33½. His sire, Pugh’s Aratus, was
-a large, handsome farm horse, sixteen hands two inches high, and
-weighing one thousand three hundred pounds. He was got by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_357"></a>[357]</span>
-Phares’ Aratus, out of a fast pacing mare. There is no evidence
-whatever going to show that Phares’ Aratus was a son of Aratus
-by Director. The type of the family did not indicate the possession
-of any running blood. Tom Rolfe put four trotters and
-three pacers, all with fast records, into the 2:30 list, and three
-of his sons left twenty-nine performers. In the latter years of
-his life he was sold by Mr. Woodmansee to Mr. Wesley P. Balch,
-of Boston, and died 1877.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Young Rolfe</span> was the best son of Tom Rolfe. He was a bay,
-foaled 1876, and came out of Judith, by Draco, son of Young
-Morrill, and she out of Lady Balch, by Rising Sun. He was bred
-by Wesley P. Balch, passed to C. H. Nelson, of Maine, then back
-to John Sheppard of Boston, and died 1884, when only eight
-years old. He was one of the best horses of his day, as a race
-horse, and his early death was universally considered a great loss
-to the breeding interests of the country. He has to his credit
-nine representative trotters in the 2:30 list.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Nelson</span>, the great son of Young Rolfe, was bred and owned by
-G. H. Nelson, Waterville, Maine. He is a bay horse, foaled 1882,
-and out of Gretchen, the daughter of Gideon, by Hambletonian,
-10, and she out of the fast trotting mare Kate, by Vermont Black
-Hawk. This horse Gideon, the son of Hambletonian, was, like his
-sire, very strongly inbred to old Messenger, tracing through mares
-by Young Engineer and Young Commander, both grandsons of
-Messenger, to the William Hunter mare, that was by Messenger
-himself. When the pedigree of Nelson is compared with the
-pedigree of Hambletonian, according to the rules of arithmetic,
-it may be found to contain nearly or quite as much Messenger
-blood as Hambletonian possessed, but, unfortunately, we know
-nothing of the trotting capacity of the intervening mares. If
-we had a “One Eye” and a “Charles Kent Mare” coming next
-to the William Hunter mare, we would have much greater expectations.
-But, as it is, when we consider the superlative
-capacity of Nelson himself, with his record of 2:09, and his nineteen
-trotters and seven pacers already to his credit, it is probable
-he will found a large and valuable family.</p>
-
-<p>Through his son Blanco, sire of Smuggler, we have another
-notable line to Irons’ Cadmus. Smuggler was in his day the
-champion trotting stallion, taking a record of 2:15¼ when owned
-by Colonel Russell, of Boston, and driven by Charles Marvin,
-who after long and painstaking efforts converted him from his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_358"></a>[358]</span>
-natural gait, the pace, to the trot. Wearing twenty-four ounces on
-each fore-foot to keep him at the trot, Smuggler defeated all
-the best horses of his day, including Goldsmith Maid. He was
-by Blanco, out of a pacing mare of unknown blood. As might
-have been expected, he failed to found a great family, though
-fourteen of his get are standard performers, and twelve of his
-sons and seventeen of his daughters have produced thirty-eight
-performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tom Hal.</span>—The original Tom Hal was taken to Kentucky, as
-early, probably, as 1824, and as was the custom in those days, he
-was called a Canadian, like all other pacing horses. The tradition
-is that Dr. Boswell got him in Philadelphia and rode him home
-to Lexington, Kentucky. Another statement is that he was taken
-to Kentucky by John T. Mason, and this statement appears in the
-advertisement of the horse for the year 1828. As the horse was
-in the hands of William L. Breckenridge that year, and as his
-advertisement was practically a contemporaneous record, we
-must give the preference to the Mason representation. He was
-a roan horse, as I understand, a little over fifteen hands high, stout
-and stylish. He was very smooth and pleasant in his gait and a
-very fast pacer. He was for some time in the hands of Captain
-West, of Georgetown, Kentucky, and then passed to Benjamin N.
-Shropshire, of Harrison County, and after some years he died his
-property.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bald Stockings</span>, also known as Lail’s Tom Hal, was a chestnut
-horse with a bald face and four white legs. He was foaled
-early in the “forties,” and was got by the original Tom Hal, and
-his dam was by Chinn’s Copperbottom. He was bred by Higgins
-Chinn, Harrison County, kept for a time by John Lucas,
-and owned by Mr. Lail, of the same county. He was one of the
-prominent links between the old and the new, and was a fast
-pacer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sorrel Tom</span> was a son of Bald Stockings (Lail’s Tom Hal) and
-bore the same color and markings. He was bred and owned by
-John Shawhan, of Harrison County, Kentucky. His dam was a
-grey mare from Ohio, of unknown breeding. He was kept at
-Falmouth, Indiana, the seasons of 1857 and 1858, and was very
-widely known in that region as “Shawhan’s Tom Hal.” He was
-quite a large horse, and to take the description as given him,
-“he could pace like the wind.” He was then taken back to
-Kentucky, leaving a multitude of good colts behind him, among<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_359"></a>[359]</span>
-them the famous pacing gelding, Hoosier Tom, 2:19½. One of
-his Indiana sons passed into the hands of William Gray, of Rush
-County, Indiana, and became known as Gray’s Tom Hal. Nothing
-is known of the dam of this horse. He was the sire of Little
-Gipsey, trotter, 2:22, and Limber Jack, pacer, 2:18½, besides six
-daughters that produced nine performers.</p>
-
-<p>About 1863-4 Mr. Shropshire, Jr., a son of the owner of the
-original Tom Hal, brought a little roan Tom Hal horse to Rushville,
-Indiana, where he stood a number of years and was known
-as Shropshire’s Tom Hal. This horse was probably by Lail’s
-Tom Hal, as he was too young to be by the original of the name.
-He was a fast pacer, but nothing is known of his progeny or history.
-The locating of this Indiana branch of the family is of
-particular interest, for it shows a concentration of pacing blood
-that was doubtless a strong reinforcement to Blue Bull.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tom Hal</span> (<span class="smcap">Kittrell’s</span>) was a large bay horse and a pacer,
-bought by Major M. B. Kittrell in 1850 of Simeon Kirtly, near
-Centerville, Bourbon County, Kentucky, and taken to Middle
-Tennessee. His sire was represented to have been a large pacing
-bay horse that was brought from Canada, thereby implying
-that he was the original of the name, brought to Kentucky.
-While it is possible that the original Mason horse may have been
-the sire of Major Kittrell’s horse, the size and color of that horse
-do not correspond with what has been accepted as facts. It is
-altogether more probable that the sire of the Tennessee horse was a
-son of the original Tom Hal, as the roan color seems to be
-strongly fixed in all branches of the family.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tom Hal Jr.</span> (<span class="smcap">Gibson’s</span>) was a roan horse, foaled 1860. Got
-by Kittrell’s Tom Hal; dam (bred by John Leonard), by Adam’s
-Stump, pacer; grandam said to be by Cummings’ Whip, pacer.
-Bred by H. C. Saunders, Nashville, Tennessee; kept a number
-of years by T. D. Moore, Petersburg, Tennessee, afterward
-owned by Polk Bros. and Major Campbell Brown, of Springhill,
-Tennessee. Adams’ Stump was a roan horse and a fast pacer
-and he was not only the sire of Julia Johnson, the dam of this
-horse, but also of the dam of Bonesetter. He died of old age,
-July, 1890. The strong concentration of pacing blood in his
-veins gave him unusual power in transmitting his inherited habit
-of action. He put fourteen representatives in the 2:30 list, and
-what is unprecedented, they are all pacers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Brown Hal</span> is a brown horse, as his name indicates, foaled<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_360"></a>[360]</span>
-1879, got by Gibson’s Tom Hal; dam the pacing mare Lizzie, the
-dam of the pacer Little Brown Jug, by John Netherland, son of
-Henry Hal; grandam Blackie, by John Hal, son of John Eaton;
-great-grandam Old March, by Young Conqueror. Bred by R.
-H. Moore, Culleoka, Tennessee, passed to M. C. Campbell and
-Campbell Brown, Springhill, Tennessee. Here we have a still
-stronger intensification of the pacing instinct, for this horse not
-only has a pacing record himself of 2:12½, but he put twenty of
-his progeny into the standard list, and all of them pacers. It is
-not shown by the Year Book that either this horse or his sire has
-any trotters to his credit, but it can hardly be doubted that some
-of their progeny took naturally to the diagonal trot, and not
-showing encouraging speed, were never developed.</p>
-
-<p>If the question were asked, “What is to result from this intensely
-pacing family?” it would be very difficult to frame a satisfactory
-answer. At present this family shows all the vigor of
-youth in its new development, but, judging by others that have
-come and gone, it too, in its turn, will be submerged in more
-prepotent strains, that will more nearly meet the wants of their
-masters. The pacer has been lifted from obscurity and made the
-equal of the trotter as a race horse; his blood has contributed to
-an unknown extent in giving speed to the trotter, but he must be
-as good a horse for all uses as the trotter, or nobody will want him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Kentucky Hunter</span>, the head of the family bearing this name
-that, at one time, was very prominent in Central New York,
-was foaled 1822, and was bred by Louis Sherrill of New Hartford,
-New York, and was got by Watkins’ Highlander. His
-dam was a mare bought from a couple of dealers who were passing
-through New Hartford with some six or seven horses for
-sale, and they represented this mare to have been brought from
-Kentucky. On this representation she was called “a Kentucky
-mare.” She was a fine saddle mare and for this reason she was
-used chiefly for that service. From her superiority as a saddler,
-I think it is safe to conclude she was a pacer and could go the
-saddle gaits. Kentucky Hunter was a chestnut horse, a little
-above medium size. Mr. Sherrill sold him when young to
-Messrs. Bagg and Goodrich who kept him two years and sold him
-to William Ferguson, of Oriskany Falls, New York, and Mr.
-Ferguson continued to own him till he died in 1838.</p>
-
-<p>During the lifetime of this horse the pacing gait was considered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_361"></a>[361]</span>
-an evidence of bad breeding, and this prejudice has continued for
-many years. The saddle was going out of use and wheels were
-coming in. After Flora Temple electrified the trotting world,
-writers had a great deal to say of her origin and family, but no
-one ever intimated that her grandsire was a pacer. From sources
-that I have no reason to doubt, I have been informed he was not
-only a pacer, but a fast pacer. This habit of action was not
-popular with breeders, and Mr. Ferguson kept it concealed as
-much as possible. When the pacer, Oneida Chief, from his own
-loins, was beating Lady Suffolk, three miles in 7:44, to saddle,
-and many of the other cracks of that day, his sire was dead and
-nothing was then to be made by proclaiming from the housetops
-that Oneida Chief was by old Kentucky Hunter.</p>
-
-<p>Very little is known of Watkins’ Highlander, the sire of this
-horse. He was brought to Whitestown, New York, 1821, by
-Julius Watkins, from Connecticut. Some of the older men who
-knew the horse insist that Mr. Watkins represented him to be
-by a son of imported Messenger, and out of Nancy Dawson by
-imported Brown Highlander. This is possible, indeed probable,
-but it is not established.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bogus Hunter</span> was one of the younger sons of Kentucky
-Hunter. He was a chestnut horse of good size and came out of
-a mare by Bogus. But little is known of this horse, and that
-little is rendered still more uncertain by the unreliable character
-of his owners, the Loomis brothers, of Sangerfield, New York.
-It is certain, however, that a horse owned by the Loomises and
-called by this name was the sire of the famous world beater,
-Flora Temple. This fact rests upon the testimony of Mr.
-Samuel Welch, a reputable and trustworthy man who owned the
-dam of Flora and had her coupled with this horse, under his own
-eye.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Edwin Forrest</span>, the most prominent representative of this
-family, was a large and rather loosely made bay horse, foaled
-1851, got by Young Bay Kentucky Hunter, son of Bay Kentucky
-Hunter, that was by the original Kentucky Hunter. His dam,
-Doll, bred by Mrs. Crane, of Whitestown, Oneida County, New
-York, was by Watkins’ Highlander; grandam a chestnut mare
-owned in the Crane family, by Black River Messenger, son of
-Ogden’s Messenger. The identification of this grandson of imported
-Messenger was secured after the appearance of the fifth
-volume of the “Register.” This same mare, Doll, the next year<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_362"></a>[362]</span>
-produced Wamock’s Highland Messenger, that was taken to Kentucky,
-and was a valuable element in the road-horse blood of that
-State. Edwin Forrest was bred by Barnes Davis, Oneida, Madison
-County; owned two years by H. L. Barker, of Clinton, New
-York, sold to Marcus Downing, of Kentucky, by him to Woodburn
-Farm, and after a time he passed to a company at Keokuk,
-Iowa, and then to George W. Ferguson, of Marshalltown, Iowa,
-where he was burned up in 1874.</p>
-
-<p>It has been said this horse was a pacer and converted to a trotter,
-but this does not seem to be sustained by the facts. He was
-shown as a three-year-old at the Oneida County Fair, and he was
-then a square natural trotter and was considered very fast, for
-he was fully able to distance all the other colts of his age. The
-story of his being a pacer probably grew out of the fact that
-there was a strong pacing strain in the family, as the original
-Kentucky Hunter was undoubtedly a pacer. Many of the Kentucky
-Hunters were speedy travelers and a few of them were
-fast. Black River Messenger was a horse of very wide local
-reputation for the superiority of his progeny as rapid travelers.
-The union of the Messenger blood with pacing blood produced
-excellent results in this, as well as in thousands of other cases.
-As was the common usage before the establishment of the “Trotting
-Register,” this horse was advertised with two fictitious crosses
-added to his pedigree—his grandam was given as by Duroc, and
-his great-grandam as by imported Messenger. Only two from
-his loins were able to enter the 2:30 list; six of his sons got seven
-performers and twelve of his daughters produced fifteen trotters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Skenandoah</span> (afterward called Kentucky Hunter) was a bay
-horse, foaled 1854, got by Brokenlegged Hunter, son of the original
-Kentucky Hunter; dam not clearly established. He was
-bred by Mr. Sykes, near Canastota, and passed through several
-hands to Henry Dewey, of Morrisville, New York, who trotted
-him in a number of races in Central New York and then took
-him to California, where he was kept in the stud a number of
-years under the name of Kentucky Hunter, and died there 1871.
-He got one trotter; one son that left two performers and seven
-daughters that left nine performers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Drew Horse</span>, commonly called “Old Drew,” was a brown bay
-horse, foaled 1842, and was about fifteen and one-quarter hands
-high and well-formed. He was bred, or rather raised, by Hiram<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_363"></a>[363]</span>
-Drew, then of Exeter, Maine, who kept him all his life. The
-story of his supposed sire was one of those weakly devised fictions,
-so common in that day, and especially where the Canadian border
-could be made effective in rounding it out. To show that the
-mysterious colt that became the sire of Drew Horse was “thoroughbred,”
-the stereotyped “British Army officer” is made
-available, for the hundredth time, as having brought a mare
-from England in foal to a thoroughbred horse, the foal was
-dropped and at three years old he was traded by the aforesaid
-“officer” to the party that brought the colt to Maine. Unfortunately
-for the story, the party who made the trade and the
-story had a bad memory, and sometimes he located the trade at
-St. Johns and sometimes at Fredericton, New Brunswick. But
-the fiction served its generation and was not exposed till long
-after the Drew Horse was dead. The facts in the matter seem
-to be simply these: a stallion colt was running in a pasture adjoining
-Mr. Drew’s pasture, and that colt got over the fence, was
-found with Mr. Drew’s mare, and in due time she dropped the
-colt known as the “Drew Horse.” The fence-breaker was soon
-after made a gelding and sold, and nothing is known of him,
-either before or after this escapade. The dam of the Drew
-Horse was a bay mare about fifteen and one-half hands high,
-foaled about 1836, and bred by Mark Pease, of Jackson, Maine.
-Her sire was called Sir Henry and was represented to be by a son
-of American Eclipse, that was taken to Maine from Connecticut
-by Dr. Brewster and sold to General F. W. Lander. She was
-known as Grace Darling and afterward as Boston Girl. She was
-on the turf and was quite a trotter, and it is claimed she made a
-record of 2:37, and her dam was Lady Jane by Winthrop Messenger.
-While I don’t know what the inheritance of this horse
-was on the side of his sire, I do know that he had a trotting
-inheritance on the side of his dam. He lived till 1866 and then
-had to be destroyed on account of a broken leg.</p>
-
-<p>This horse was never trained, and it is not known what he
-might have been able to do as a trotter. He put two of his sons
-in the 2:30 list, Dirigo and General McClellan. Of his sons, two
-put five trotters and three pacers in the list, and of his daughters
-left six representatives there. Besides these he left a number of
-others with records a little short of the limit of speed, and many
-without records that were fast and very game roadsters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dirigo</span>, at first called George B. McClellan, under which name<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_364"></a>[364]</span>
-he made his record, was the best son of Drew Horse. He was a
-brown horse, and in appearance much like his sire. He was
-foaled 1856 and came out of a mare that has not been traced, but
-was doubtless a pacing mare. He was bred by Horace McKinney,
-Monroe, Maine, and passed to David Quimby, of Corinna, Maine,
-and died 1884. He made his record of 2:29 in a single heat and
-never was on the track again. Four trotters and two pacers by
-him entered the 2:30 list. Two of his sons became the sires of
-three trotters, and five of his daughters each produced a performer.
-He left others with and without records that were fast
-and stylish drivers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hiram Drew</span>, at first called Bay Morgan, was a son of Old
-Drew, and his dam was a small bay mare, owned near Bangor and
-said to be of Morgan blood. This horse was on the turf some
-years and was engaged in some locally important contests, but
-never was able to make himself standard either by his own or the
-performances of his progeny. His best performance, I believe,
-was 2:31½.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Winthrop</span> was a bay horse, foaled 1864, got by Drew Horse;
-dam by the Eton Horse and grandam by Stone or Simpson’s Messenger.
-He was bred by E. J. Greene, Newport, Maine; taken
-to California 1870, and there owned by Judge W. E. Greens and
-L. E. Yates, of Stockton. It does not appear that he ever was
-trained, and consequently has no record. His opportunities,
-probably, were not very great, but whether or not, he was not
-successful in the stud. He left one trotter and one pacer and
-the dams of one trotter and one pacer.</p>
-
-<p>This family never was large, and its popularity was up and
-down just as a few individuals might be successful or unsuccessful
-on the turf. To start with, it had a very weak inheritance
-of trotting instinct, and that weakness did not strengthen in succeeding
-generations. Of late years it has failed to maintain
-itself as a trotting family, and is now practically out of the
-reckoning of trotters.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hiatoga</span>, generally known as Rice’s Hiatoga, was a bay pacing
-horse and was bred in Rockingham County, Virginia, and
-taken to Fairfield County, Ohio, by Edward Rice, some time about
-1836. He had the reputation of being a fast pacer, and was sold
-to William Shiruo, of the same county, and by him to William
-Munger, in whose possession he died. He was got by a horse<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_365"></a>[365]</span>
-known in Virginia as Hiatoga, and also American Hiatoga, but
-nothing is known of the blood of his dam. Nothing is known of
-his speed or his progeny except through the two sons here given.</p>
-
-<p>Hiatoga, generally designated as “Old Togue,” was got by
-Rice’s Hiatoga; dam by Thunderbolt, grandam by Black or Bold
-Rover. He was foaled 1843 and was bred by David W. Brown, of
-Perry County, Ohio; sold 1849 to John Joseph, Kirkersville,
-Ohio, where he made some seasons and was sold 1855 to Alvah
-Perry, Lancaster, where he remained till 1863, and was sold to
-Harvey Wilson, and two years later to William McDonald,
-Columbus, Ohio, where he died 1871. This horse left excellent
-stock and many of them fast pacers, but they never cut much
-figure on the turf.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hiatoga</span> (<span class="smcap">Hanley’s</span>) was a bay pacing horse of good size and
-quality and was very popular as a sire. He was foaled 1849, got
-by Rice’s Hiatoga; dam an elegant bay mare sixteen hands high
-and represented to be of “Sir Peter and Eclipse blood.” This
-mare was formerly given as by Firetail, but the present rendering,
-whatever it may mean, comes from sources with opportunities
-to know. He was bred by John Bright, of Fairfield County, sold
-to Joseph Watt, and taken to Harrison County and then to Jefferson
-County, and sold to James Davis Tweed. He next passed
-through the hands of David Rittenhouse and Moses Hanley, of
-Hopedale, Ohio, and after three or four years in the stud Mr.
-Hanley sold him to David Rittenhouse, John Wiley and Samuel
-Hanley for two thousand five hundred dollars, and he died the
-property of Mr. Rittenhouse near Hopedale, Ohio, 1858. Two
-of his progeny entered the 2:30 list; three of his sons left thirteen
-performers, and three daughters produced five.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Hiatoga</span> (<span class="smcap">Scott’s</span>) was a bay pacer foaled 1858, got by Hanley’s
-Hiatoga; dam by Blind Tuckahoe (pacer); grandam by Consul.
-This horse was quite fast and paced under the name of
-Tuscarawas Chief. He was the best of the family and was bred
-and owned by Samuel Scott, East Springfield, Jefferson County,
-Ohio. He put five trotters and four pacers in the 2:30 list; seven
-of his sons and seventeen of his daughters were producers.</p>
-
-<p>The Hiatoga family seems to have no trotting inheritance except
-from the pacer. It is a useful family and still has vitality.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_366"></a>[366]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE BLACK HAWK OR MORGAN FAMILY.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original Morgan—The fabled
-pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin Morgan’s breeding hopelessly
-unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black Hawk—His disputed paternity—His
-dam called a Narragansett—Ethan Allen—His great beauty, speed and
-popularity—The Flying Morgan claim baseless—His dam of unknown
-blood—His great race with Dexter—Daniel Lambert, the only successful
-sire of the Black Hawk line.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Fifty years ago there was no family of horses so popular as
-the “Morgans.” They were carried into all parts of the country
-at high prices and they gave their purchasers general satisfaction.
-They were small, perhaps not averaging over fourteen and
-a half hands high, but compact, trappy movers and had most
-excellent dispositions. Many of them were ideal roadsters,
-where speed was not in great demand, for they were kindly,
-tractable and always on their courage. Many of them carried
-themselves in excellent style, and notwithstanding their diminutive
-size, it is not probable we will ever again see a better tribe of
-every-day, family horses. In all their outline and in every lineament
-they were the very opposite of the blood horse, and when
-bred on any strain outside of their own family, they almost universally
-failed to impress their own characteristics on their progeny.
-This failure I observed with deep regret more than forty
-years ago. The step could be extended and the speed increased
-by crossing with the long striders, but in securing this we lost
-the Morgan. In advance of their general distribution they had
-the misfortune to be heralded as great trotters, and in this respect,
-at least, they failed of meeting expectations. They went,
-largely, into the hands of inexperienced men, who knew nothing
-about how to cultivate speed, and the little, short, quick steps of
-their new trotters gave them all the sensations of going fast,
-without the danger incident to rapid traveling. In regard to the
-matter of speed, through the overzealous and not too conscientious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_367"></a>[367]</span>
-editors and others to say nothing of the advertisements of those
-who had them for sale, they suffered greatly by too much praise.
-The result is that the original type has been extinguished, and it
-is doubtful whether a fair specimen could be found, even among
-the mountains of New England. Next to the injury which the
-family sustained from the exaggerated claims of speed put forward
-by its too sanguine friends, there was another and even
-greater injury from the absurd and foolish claims made for his
-blood. It is impossible to make a thinking and sensible man believe
-that a little hairy-legged “nubbin” of a pony, weighing eight
-hundred and fifty pounds, hired for fifteen dollars a year to drag
-logs together in a clearing, at which employment he was a great
-success, had the blood of the race horse in his veins. This was
-always a stumbling block to my immature enthusiasm for the
-Morgan horse. From an experience of a great many years and
-from the developments of horse history during that time, I find
-the “stumbling block” no longer worries me, for it has rotted
-away and disappeared. Although the family has ceased to exist
-as a factor in current horse history, it had a history in the past;
-and, as a historian, I must consider its origin as well as the
-deeds it has accomplished or failed to accomplish.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Justin Morgan, the central figure in this investigation,
-was born in West Springfield, 1747, where he married and lived
-till 1788, when he removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died,
-March, 1798. He was a reputable citizen, fairly well educated
-for his time, and taught school for a living. He owned a house
-and lot in his native town, where he kept a wayside house of entertainment,
-and during the early summer he usually had a stallion
-to keep on the shares. In the spring of 1785 he had charge
-of the horse True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, and I will here
-add that three years later, John Morgan, Jr., had charge of the
-same horse at Springfield, for the seasons of 1788 and 1789.
-This John Morgan, Jr., removed to Lima, New York, late in
-1790 or early in 1791. Justin had sold his place in West Springfield
-to Abner Morgan, on long payments, and in the summer of
-1795 he came back to West Springfield to collect some money
-that was due him, presumably on the price of his former home,
-but he failed to get money and took two colts instead. One was
-a three-year-old gelding and the other was a two-year-old bay
-colt, entire. He led the three-year-old with a halter and the two-year-old
-followed. The date of this visit to the old home is the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_368"></a>[368]</span>
-key to the main question to be settled, and it is fixed by Justin
-Morgan, Jr., then a lad of the right age to remember such things,
-and by Soloman Steele and Judge Griswold, who fix the date in
-the late summer of 1795. The horse was sold and resold and
-sold again, as a foal of 1793, and that date never left him till he
-died in 1821. I look upon this date as perfectly immovable, and
-every attempt that has been made to overthrow it has not been
-based on any reasonable evidence, nor prompted by a desire to get
-at the truth, but only to make a fictitious sire a possibility. This
-was the original Morgan Horse, and this date was thoroughly
-fixed by Linsley, without knowing that it upset the pedigree he
-had labored so hard to establish. After a lapse of fifty years an
-attempt was made to fix up a pedigree for the “Original Morgan
-Horse,” claiming that he was got by True Briton or Beautiful
-Bay—represented to be a great race horse, stolen from the great
-race horse man, Colonel De Lancey, in the Revolutionary War.
-I must, therefore, consider, briefly, this part of the fiction.</p>
-
-<p>First—As a starting point in the pedigree, it is assumed that
-the race-horse in question was stolen, during the War of the Revolution,
-from James De Lancey, perhaps the largest and most
-widely known of all the colonial horsemen of that day. He was
-the first man to import race horses into this colony, and his name
-and the fame of his horses were discussed everywhere. He was
-very rich, in politics a Tory, and on the eve of hostilities he sold
-out every horse he owned, of whatever description, went back to
-England and never returned. This disposes of the false assumption
-that the sire of the original Morgan horse was stolen from
-him.</p>
-
-<p>Second—There was another James De Lancey, cousin to the
-preceding, and not a rich man, who was colonel of a body of
-Tory cavalry operating in Westchester County from 1777 to the
-close of the war in 1782. It is not known whether he ever owned
-a race horse in his life, but it is certain he was a dashing fighter,
-and at the head of the cowboys he was known to the inhabitants
-of all that region. His name is not to be found anywhere in connection
-with horses. He bore, in full, the same name as the distinguished
-horseman, and was mistaken for him, although he was
-on the other side of the ocean.</p>
-
-<p>Third—It is claimed that “one Smith” stole the horse in
-question from Colonel De Lancey and sold him to Mr. Ward, of
-Hartford, Connecticut, who kept him a few years and sold him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_369"></a>[369]</span>
-to Selah Norton, of the same place, and remained his till he died.
-Who was this “one Smith” and where did he belong? Where is
-the evidence that this “one Smith” stole a horse from Colonel
-De Lancey?</p>
-
-<p>Fourth—In the New York <i>Packet</i>, then published at Fishkill,
-under date of October 19, 1780, we find the following: “Last
-week Lieutenant Wright Carpenter and two others went down
-to Colonel James De Lancey’s quarters and lay in wait for his
-appearance. He accordingly came and having tied his horse at
-the door, went into the house; upon which Carpenter seized the
-horse and mounted. When De Lancey discovered him, he immediately
-alarmed his men, who pursued him to White Plains,
-but in vain,” etc., etc. This Lieutenant Carpenter was a dashing
-young fellow and was promoted next month to the position
-of first lieutenant in Captain Lyons’ company, of the Second
-Regiment of New York Militia, of Westchester County, and still
-commanded by Colonel Thomas. This is the man who stole the
-horse, this is the contemporaneous evidence of it, and “one
-Smith” had nothing to do with it.</p>
-
-<p>In these four points we have what may be considered the first
-chapter of this investigation and, as will be readily seen, each of
-them must be fatal to the pretentious claim that has been maintained
-for about a hundred years. Avoiding all circumlocution,
-I think it is safe to say that this so-called pedigree did not originate
-this side of Hartford. The Second Regiment of New York
-Militia, called “The Skinners,” was made up of Westchester
-County men, and as Colonel De Lancey had been sheriff of that
-county, everybody knew him and knew that he was not the race
-horse James. We must, therefore, look further on for the time
-when and the person by whom this pedigree was manufactured.</p>
-
-<p>In 1784 this horse was advertised at Lanesboro, Massachusetts,
-under the name of Beautiful Bay, and no attempt was made to
-give a pedigree or origin of the horse.</p>
-
-<p>In 1785 he was at West Springfield, Massachusetts, in charge
-of Justin Morgan, still called Beautiful Bay, and still no pedigree.</p>
-
-<p>In 1788 and 1789 he was in charge of John Morgan, Jr., of
-Springfield, Massachusetts, and here, for the first time, he is
-designated as “the famous full-blooded English horse, called
-True Briton or Beautiful Bay,” but no pedigree is given.</p>
-
-<p>In 1791 he was advertised at East Hartford, Connecticut, by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_370"></a>[370]</span>
-his owner, Selah Norton, and his pedigree is here given for the
-first time as follows: “True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, got by imported
-Traveler, dam De Lancey’s racer.” After advertising the
-horse for seven years without a pedigree, at last Mr. Selah Norton
-manufactures one and gives it over his own signature.</p>
-
-<p>In 1793 he is again called Beautiful Bay, but no pedigree, at
-South Hadley, Massachusetts.</p>
-
-<p>In 1794 and 1795 he was kept at Ashfield, Massachusetts, by
-Mr. Norton himself, and called Traveler, and his pedigree is
-again given in amended form as follows: “Sired by the famous
-old Traveler, imported from Ireland, dam Colonel De Lancey’s
-imported racer.”</p>
-
-<p>This is the last trace we have of the horse Beautiful Bay, for
-that seems to be his honest name, and now I must ask some
-questions. These advertisements cover a period of eleven years
-and they are worthy of careful study. From 1784 to 1791 there
-is no attempt at giving any pedigree at all. With the exception
-of three seasons he seems to have been let, probably on shares, to
-different keepers, in different parts of the country. From first
-to last Selah Norton seems to have been his owner. If he had
-received the pedigree, and the romantic story of his theft, from
-“one Smith,” as claimed, is it conceivable that he would have
-concealed that story from the public when it would have added
-so much to the patronage of his horse? How does it come that
-not a single man having this stallion in charge, except Selah
-Norton himself, ever gave his pedigree? What prompted Selah
-Norton to withdraw the horse from public service, in Hartford,
-immediately after he first gave his pedigree? Was it because
-everybody there knew it was a fraud? When the horse was taken
-to South Hadley in 1793, why did his keeper there refuse to
-accept either the name True Briton or the new pedigree? It will
-be observed he was advertised there simply as Beautiful Bay and
-no pedigree given. The next two years we find him at Ashfield,
-Massachusetts, to which point it would seem his owner had removed
-from Hartford. For some reason that can be better
-imagined than explained, the names Beautiful Bay and True
-Briton are there dropped and he is rechristened as Traveler. To
-this change of name the old pedigree is attached, with a very
-important change in that also, as follows: “Sired by famous old
-Traveler, imported from Ireland, dam Colonel De Lancey’s imported
-racer.” These three words, “imported from Ireland,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_371"></a>[371]</span>
-are very important in two particulars, for they not only knock
-out the “featherheads” who have been always maintaining that
-the imported Traveler meant Lloyd’s Traveler of New Jersey,
-son of Morton’s Traveler, that was imported from Yorkshire into
-Virginia about 1750, but it convicts Selah Norton of inventing
-this pedigree, for there was no such horse brought from Ireland.
-It is certainly unnecessary to say another word in illustration of
-Selah Norton’s character. When we study these advertisements
-it becomes as clear as the light of day that nobody believed him
-or the story that “one Smith” stole the horse from Colonel De
-Lancey. The crimes of horse stealing and desertion were exceedingly
-common during the period of the revolution and it is
-quite possible that “one Smith” may have stolen a horse out of
-somebody’s stable and sold him to Mr. Ward or Mr. Norton as
-the same horse that Lieutenant Carpenter stole from Colonel De
-Lancey, but neither “one Smith” nor “one Norton” knew anything
-more about his pedigree than he did about the man in the
-moon, and I will here end the second chapter of this investigation.</p>
-
-<p>I am clearly of the opinion that Justin Morgan was an honest
-man and that he would not tell a lie, even if he knew it might
-accrue to his present and personal advantage. He was poor,
-feeble in health, and had hard scuffling to get along. As a
-means of livelihood, in part at least, it seems to have been his
-business for a good many years to keep stallions on shares for
-different owners. As late as 1795 he had a horse from Hartford,
-Connecticut, called Figure, to which we will refer later on. In
-1788 he sold his little place in West Springfield, Massachusetts,
-and removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died in March,
-1798 In the autumn of 1795 he visited West Springfield again,
-for the purpose of collecting some money that was still due him
-there, probably some deferred payments of his former home, and
-as he was not able to get the money he took two horses in lieu
-thereof. One was a three-year-old gelding, and the other was a
-two-year-old bay colt, entire. He led the gelding beside the
-horse he was riding and the colt followed all the way. The evidence
-that fixes the date of this trip in the autumn of 1795 and
-the age of the colt that followed seems to me to be completely
-bomb-proof. This evidence not only embraces the recollections
-of Justin Morgan’s neighbors, but when he died the colt, in 1798,
-was sold by his administrators as a five-year-old. In all the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_372"></a>[372]</span>
-changes of ownership that took place through his life and at his
-death, in 1821, he was represented as foaled in 1793. He died
-from the effects of a kick that was neglected, and not from old
-age.</p>
-
-<p>The only serious attempt that has been made to controvert the
-date of 1793 was that made in the name of John Morgan, of
-Lima, New York, in 1842, he being then eighty years old, in the
-Albany <i>Cultivator</i>. Unfortunately the editor fails to publish the
-letter he professes to have received from John Morgan and only
-gives his construction of it, which any child knows is no evidence
-at all. The editor represents him to say “that the two-year-old
-stud which he (Justin) took with him to Vermont was sired by a
-horse owned by Selah Norton, of East Hartford, Connecticut,
-called True Briton or Beautiful Bay.” Justin Morgan removed
-to Randolph, Vermont, in the spring of 1788, and this John
-Morgan removed to Lima, New York, about February, 1790.
-They were not brothers, but distant relatives. If John means to
-say that Justin “took with him” when he removed to Vermont a
-two-year-old son of Beautiful Bay, that colt must have been
-foaled in 1786, which would make him twelve years old instead of
-five when he was sold upon the death of his owner, and thirty-six
-years old instead of twenty-nine when he died from a kick.
-Now, if we concede that Justin did take with him a two-year-old
-son of Beautiful Bay, the dates render it impossible that he
-should have been the founder of the Morgan horse family and we
-have no trace of him whatever.</p>
-
-<p>Another authority has very recently come to the front, and in
-order to avoid the difficulty of dates and still retain the possibility
-of the horse being by Beautiful Bay, insists that he was foaled
-1789 and bred by Justin Morgan himself. Under this new light
-he was foaled in Vermont and didn’t have to travel there at all.
-He insists further that he named the horse Figure and kept him
-in the stud till his death in March, 1798, when the horse was sold
-and his name changed to Justin Morgan. It is true that Justin
-Morgan, still seeking to make a living, kept a stallion two or
-three years owned in Hartford, Connecticut, and advertised him
-as “the famous horse Figure, from Hartford.” Now, if this
-horse was foaled the property of Justin Morgan and owned by
-him as long as he lived, why should he advertise him as “from
-Hartford?” All these efforts to fix dates by shifting about so as
-to make it possible for the bogus stolen horse to come in as a sire,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_373"></a>[373]</span>
-have already received more attention than their importance demands
-and I will therefore call this the close of the third chapter.</p>
-
-<p>There are several incidents connected with the life of the colt
-of 1793 that fixed his identity and age upon the recollections of
-the neighbors and friends of Justin Morgan. Solomon Steele,
-Evans, Rice and others who knew the colt well, all agree that the
-colt followed his companion and playmate from West Springfield
-to Randolph in the autumn of 1795 and that he was not then
-halter broken. They all agree that Evans hired him for fifteen
-dollars a year to draw logs in his clearing, in the place of a yoke of
-oxen. They all agree that Justin Morgan died in March, 1798,
-and that the colt was then sold as a five-year-old. The death was
-an immovable date fixer around which everything in connection
-with these events must be determined. And when the horse
-died in 1821 nobody had ever doubted that he was foaled 1793.</p>
-
-<p>Justin Morgan, Jr., was in his tenth year when the colt was
-brought home, and he was twelve years old when his father died.
-In 1842 Justin Morgan, Jr., in a communication to the Albany
-<i>Cultivator</i>, says: “One was a three-year-old gelding colt, which
-he led; and the other a two-year-old stud colt, which followed all
-the way from Springfield. The said two-year-old colt was the
-same that has since been known all over New England by the
-name of the Morgan Horse. I know that my father always, while
-he lived, called him a Dutch horse. I have a perfect recollection
-of the horse when my father owned him and afterward, and well
-remember that my father always spoke of him as of the best
-blood.”</p>
-
-<p>When he made these clean-cut and emphatic declarations
-Justin Morgan, Jr., was fifty-six years old, and it has been suggested
-that he was too young, at the time, to have remembered
-about the colt. This is a grave mistake, for farmer’s boys remember
-a thousand things better then than they ever do afterward.
-I don’t think that my own memory is remarkable, but today,
-at over three score and ten, I can, with the utmost distinctness,
-recall the names, color, markings, size, peculiarities and, in
-some cases, the history of most of the horses that were on the
-farm when I was eight years old. I can, therefore, have no hesitation
-in accepting Justin Morgan’s evidence on account of his
-youthfulness, at the time of which he speaks.</p>
-
-<p>Did Justin Morgan know what he was saying when he “always,
-while he lived, called his horse a Dutch horse?” And did he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_374"></a>[374]</span>
-understand the historical meaning of his words when “he always
-spoke of him as of the best blood?” To answer these questions
-we must make some reference to history. The Dutch horses
-were a breed wholly distinct from the horses of the other colonies.
-The colony of New Netherlands (New York) received its supply
-from Utrecht, in Holland, commencing in 1624 and a few years
-following. In forty years they had so increased that the colony
-was well supplied. These horses were about fourteen hands and
-one inch high, which was about one hand higher than the horses
-supplied to the English colonies. They were not only higher,
-but they had more bone and muscle, and, I think, more shapely
-necks. In every respect they were better, except that they were
-not so good for the saddle, for the reason, as I think, that they were
-not pacers. The standard that determined their superiority was
-the higher prices at which they were bought and sold, over the
-New England horses, as shown by the official reports of the
-colony. When the colony passed under British rule, the first
-governor immediately established a race course on Hempstead
-Plains, Long Island, and there in 1665 the first organized race in
-this country took place. This was long before the English race
-horse had reached the character of a breed, and a round hundred
-years before the first representative of that breed reached New
-York. The horses that ran at Hempstead Plains were undoubtedly
-Dutch horses, for the inhabitants of New York and
-Long Island attended these annual meetings in great numbers,
-and as they were nearly all Dutch they would not have gone a
-stone’s throw to see an English horse run. These annual race
-meetings were kept up a great many years by the successive
-governors.</p>
-
-<p>In 1635 two shiploads of Dutch horses, from the same quarter,
-chiefly mares, reached Salem, Massachusetts, and were sold at
-prices enormously high as compared with the prices of those sent
-from England to the same colony. These two shiploads added
-materially to the average size of the horses of the colony of Massachusetts
-Bay, as shown by statistics, as well as the other colonies
-getting their foundation stock from that source. We may
-safely conclude, I think, that some of the descendants of these
-shiploads were taken to the valley of the Connecticut when
-Hartford was planted, for we not infrequently meet with the
-term “Dutch horse” in the old prints of that valley. Besides
-this source the valley of the Hudson was full of them. They<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_375"></a>[375]</span>
-retained their distinctive appellation till about the beginning of
-this century.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. O. W. Cook, of Springfield, Massachusetts, did a great
-deal of fundamental investigation on the origin of this family,
-away back in 1878-9, etc., and I am under special obligations to
-him for being the first man to open my eyes to the great confidence
-game that has been played for a hundred years, and all originating
-in the fabulous story of “one Smith.” Among other important
-things he unearths an advertisement of Young Bulrock
-that was advertised to stand at Springfield, 1792, as follows:
-“Young Bulrock is a horse of the Dutch breed, of a large size,
-and a bright bay color, etc.” In speaking of his pedigree, Mr.
-Cook most pithily remarks: “In view of the three-fold concurrence
-of time and place and breed, it fits into the vacuum in the
-Morgan’s lineage as a fragment of pottery fits into its complement.”
-There was another horse advertised in Springfield that
-year, but he had neither name nor breed and in color he was
-gray. The advertisement of Young Bulrock fits in time, fits in
-color and fits in breed; and thus removes all reasonable doubt
-that he was the sire of the original Morgan horse. This is the
-reason why Justin Morgan “always, while he lived, called him a
-Dutch horse;” and the little scrap of history given above will
-show why he always spoke of him as “of the best blood.” He
-was right in the former and he was right in the latter declaration.
-It is not possible, at this day, to prove, technically, these
-matters of a hundred years ago, but after considering all the
-facts in the case, we must conclude that they are satisfying to
-the human understanding, and that Justin Morgan told the truth.</p>
-
-<p>For the past fifty or sixty years the breeding of the original
-Morgan horse has been a subject of apparently unending controversy.
-The real facts concerning his origin, however, have
-never been brought to light and fully developed until within the
-last few years, and it is probable that nothing of material value
-will ever be added to the foregoing tracing. We have found
-from contemporaneous history that Lieutenant Wright Carpenter
-stole a horse from Colonel James De Lancey and was successful
-in carrying him into the camp of the patriots at Fishkill, and
-that is all we know about that particular horse. After the war
-was over it is stated that “one Smith” sold a horse to Mr. Ward,
-of Hartford, and represented that he had stolen the horse from
-Colonel De Lancey, and Mr. Ward sold that horse to Selah Norton,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_376"></a>[376]</span>
-who seems to have owned him as long as he lived. It must
-be accepted as true that Lieutenant Carpenter captured a horse
-from Colonel De Lancey, but we cannot accept it as true that
-this was the same horse owned by Norton. We must first know
-how and where “one Smith” got him. Norton had this horse
-and advertised him in different parts of the country for public
-service seven or eight years before the romance of his history
-and pedigree was given to the world. As this romance would
-have been a grand feature in an advertisement of a stallion, Mr.
-Norton was too slow in evolving it, and when he did bring it out
-nobody believed it. At that period many portions of New England
-abounded in stallions with bogus pedigrees and histories,
-and if we judge Norton by his acts in giving his horse three
-different names at different times and places, we must conclude
-he was ready to conceal or invent anything that would add to
-his horse’s popularity and patronage.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sherman Morgan.</span>—In his history of the Morgan Horse, Mr.
-Linsley names this and three or four other sons of the original,
-that were kept for stock purposes, but none of them seems to
-have attained any eminence, except Sherman. As he never made
-any pretensions to being a trotter, he would have been forgotten
-long ago, had it not been for the lucky circumstances that he
-was the sire of Black Hawk, and thus his name has been preserved.
-He was scant fourteen hands high, with heavy body on
-short legs, and carried his head well up. He was a chestnut and
-foaled about 1809. There has always been a doubt in the minds
-of many as to whether he was the sire of Black Hawk, but that
-question will be considered when we reach that horse. His dam
-was a very handsome mare, brought from Narragansett, a pacer,
-and a very desirable saddle mare. In the trotting “Register,” three
-representations are given as to the breeding of this mare, namely,
-that she was of the Spanish breed; that she was an imported
-English mare; and that she was brought from Virginia on account
-of her beauty and speed. The first claim seemed to have
-the best historical support, and besides this she was brought from
-Providence, Rhode Island, and was a very fine pacer. The
-theory was then prevalent that the Narragansett pacers were of
-the “Spanish breed.” The elimination of that foolish notion
-from the history of the pacers does not affect the plain statement
-that she was a Narragansett pacer. It is not known that this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_377"></a>[377]</span>
-mare ever produced anything else, either by the original Morgan
-or by any other horse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Black Hawk.</span>—As his name indicates, this horse was a jet
-black, and was something over fifteen hands high. He was
-foaled 1833, was got by Sherman Morgan, and was bred by Benjamin
-Kelly, of Durham, New Hampshire. As the question of his
-paternity has been the subject of a great deal of bitter controversy,
-continued through many years, and participated in by
-men of intelligence, on both sides, I must give the history, as I
-understand it. Mr. Kelly kept a tavern at Durham and Mr.
-Bellows, the owner of Sherman Morgan, made this house one of
-his points of stopping as he traveled his horse, in his circuit of
-the season. Along with Sherman he had another horse called
-Paddy, black as a raven, that did some service at seven dollars,
-while the price for Sherman was fourteen dollars. On one of
-his visits, Mr. Kelly’s black mare, called “Old Narragansett”
-was bred to Sherman and proved to be in foal. Not long after
-this Mr. Kelly sold the mare to Mr. Shade Twombly, living
-about two miles from Durham, and a part of the agreement was
-that if the mare should prove to be with foal, Mr. Twombly was
-to pay for the services of the horse. The next spring the mare
-dropped a fine black horse colt, and Mr. Twombly claimed the
-colt was by Paddy and not by Sherman, hence, he refused to pay
-fourteen dollars for the services of Sherman, but was willing to
-pay seven dollars for the services of Paddy. This resulted in a
-lawsuit in which it was proved that Sherman was the sire of the
-colt, and Mr. Twombly’s estate had to pay the money. The colt
-was kept by Mr. Twombly’s heirs, at pasture in Greenland, New
-Hampshire, till he was about two years old, when he was sold at
-auction to Albert Mathes, of Durham, for seventy dollars and
-from him he passed to Benjamin Thurston, of Lowell, for two
-hundred dollars. In Thurston’s hands he became quite noted,
-locally, as a trotter, and in 1844 he became the property of David
-Hill, of Bridport, Vermont, where he became altogether the most
-popular stallion in the United States, and died there November,
-1856. He was the first horse to command one hundred dollars
-for his services; and many of the great mares of the country
-were sent to his embrace, among them the world-renowned Lady
-Suffolk, but unfortunately she failed to produce.</p>
-
-<p>To understand why the fight against the Sherman Morgan
-paternity of this horse should have been so bitter and so persistent,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_378"></a>[378]</span>
-we must consider the condition of the horse interests in
-New England at that time. When Black Hawk came to the
-front the Morgans of the real Morgan type had already attained
-some degree of popularity and here came a horse overtopping
-them all, with no trace of the Morgan type about him. He and
-his family attracted the attention of purchasers and threw a
-shadow of doubt over the little punchy, hairy-legged fellows that
-knocked out many a sale. Besides this, it was a serious and real
-question in the minds of a great many honest and intelligent
-men, as to whether Sherman Morgan, so typical of his family,
-could possibly have been the sire of a horse so completely outside
-of the family, not only in appearance and formation, but in his
-ability to trot. In 1847 Black Hawk was pitted against the
-Morse Horse, mile heats, best two in three, at the Saratoga State
-Fair. He won the first heat in 2:50½ and the second in 2:43½.
-He was then fourteen years old and this was very fast, for a
-stallion of that period. It is but justice to say that the Morse
-Horse contingent claimed that Black Hawk was set back in the
-first heat for running and that the heat was given to the Morse
-Horse in 2:52½ and that the second and third heats were won by
-Black Hawk in 2:54½ and 2:56. Just what the truth is in this
-disagreement I am not able to determine. As we look at this
-horse, so distinct from all his tribe; and as we consider the very
-indistinct knowledge of the laws of generation as held by the
-masses in that day, we cannot wonder that the paternity was so
-vehemently disputed. Neither can we wonder, as his descendants
-pass in review before us, that this dispute has never been
-settled to the satisfaction of the contending parties. The old
-Morgan type never reappears in the descendants of this family.</p>
-
-<p>But, we must not forget that we have considered only half of
-the inheritance of this horse. He had a dam as well as a sire.
-To that half of his pedigree we must now give some attention.
-The story of the “half-bred English mare, brought from New
-Brunswick” has had its day and we may as well lay it aside as a
-humbug. Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of Woodstock, Vermont, has
-brought out the facts with regard to this mare in a form that is
-very clear and satisfactory. In 1876 Mr. Thomson visited Albany
-for the purpose of examining everything that had been said in
-<i>The Country Gentleman</i> newspaper touching on the paternity of
-Black Hawk. In this search for the sire he would necessarily
-find many references to the dam and among these references he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_379"></a>[379]</span>
-was greatly surprised to find she had been described as “a pacing
-mare.” He goes on to say: “In our visit the same fall to Durham,
-Dover, Portsmouth and Greenland to learn more of her, we
-found a number that knew her when owned in Durham, and they
-said she was then known as the ‘Old Narragansett Mare.’ They
-said that Benjamin Kelly, deceased, brought the mare into Durham,
-that he had a son John L. living in Manchester, New
-Hampshire, and that he would know more about her, etc.”
-After learning that Mr. John L. Kelly was a very intelligent and
-responsible man, having been city marshal and mayor of Manchester,
-and known as “Honest John,” he wrote him and received
-the following reply:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In answer to your inquiries about the dam of Black Hawk, I will give you
-my best recollections, aided somewhat by a diary which I kept at that time. I
-returned to Durham from a sea voyage in the fall of 1830. In the following
-spring I went to Boston with my father with a lot of horses. We stopped
-over night at Brown’s Hotel, at Haverhill, Mass., where we met a teamster
-from Portsmouth, N. H., with a team of four horses. In the hind span was a
-large gray horse and a dark bay mare. Among father’s horses was one which
-was a good match for the gray horse. The man noticed it and told father that
-the mare was too fast for the horse, was worth two of him for speed and bottom,
-yet he would trade with father for his gray horse. After a good deal of
-talk, with the aid of Mr. Brown, the trade was made and we drove the mare
-in the carriage to Boston, leading the others. We found her to be a splendid
-roadster, and as she was not in good condition to sell, we took her back to Durham.
-At this time she was chafed and bruised up very badly with the heavy
-harness, yet in a few months she came out of it, with no traces of it, except a
-few white spots on her back and breast. The teamster said she was a Narragansett
-mare. She would weigh 1,000 pounds. Father kept her as one of his
-stable horses. She was found to have great speed as a trotter, and father was
-always bragging about her. One day, late in the season, Israel Esty, of Dover,
-drove up to Durham with a trotter, and bantered father for a trot, mile heats
-on Madbury Plains, between Durham and Dover. I had great faith in the
-mare and pleaded with father to accept his offer, and he did, and fifty dollars
-was staked on the race. John Speed was father’s hostler at the time, and he
-commenced getting the mare ready for the race. He had only three weeks to
-do it in. At the time specified, a large collection of people from Dover and
-Durham collected to witness the race. Dr. Reuben Steele was one of the
-judges. The Esty horse won the first heat, the Kelly mare won the next two,
-distancing the horse in the last one. In the spring of 1832 John Bellows came
-to Durham with the old Sherman Morgan, and I persuaded father to have the
-mare bred to him. He did, as I saw the horse cover her. I was 21 in 1832;
-went to sea again that fall. My recollection of the dam of Black Hawk is she
-was a very fine pointed dark mare, with a nostril so large, when excited, that
-one could put his fist into it.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">John L. Kelly.</span></p>
-
-<p>“Manchester, N. H., August 25, 1876.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_380"></a>[380]</span></p>
-
-<p>The only “trip” in this letter is where Mr. Kelly speaks of the
-mare as “a dark bay,” but as the identity of the mare is fully
-maintained by other witnesses, this shade of color is not material
-and is, doubtless a slip of the pen. We don’t know she was a
-Narragansett mare, but we do know that she was called a Narragansett.
-It is wholly possible she may have been a bastard Narragansett,
-or she may have been called a Narragansett merely
-because she was a pacer. At that date there were still many descendants
-of the old Narragansetts to be found, of greater or less
-degree of purity in their breeding. Among Mr. Thomson’s
-gleanings from persons who knew the mare there are some bearing
-upon her color and gait that are in order at this point of our
-inquisition. Mr. John Bellows, the owner of Sherman Morgan,
-says: “She was a good-sized black mare, a fast trotter, with a
-swinging gait, and resembled in appearance the Messenger stock
-of horses.” The following description was gathered from several
-persons who knew the mare well and among them Mr. Wingate
-Twombly, son of her former owner. “She was a large, rangy
-mare, a little coarse and brawny, did not carry much flesh, might
-have weighed some over one thousand pounds and was a trifle
-over fifteen and one-half hands high. Head and ears rather
-large, neck long and straight, withers low and thin, medium
-mane and tail, had more hair on the fetlocks than her son, was
-called black a little way off, but close to one could see her grey
-hairs mingled with her coat and close to she was called a steel
-mixed. She had a white strip in her face and some say a little
-white on one hind foot. She was smart to go, but her gait was
-not a smooth, square trot. Some called it a sort of a pace,
-others that she single-footed. She went with her head low when
-trotting fast. One person said it was about a straight line from
-her back to her head when she was going fast.” She was called
-the Narragansett Mare when Mr. Kelly owned her. From other
-sources and from men who personally knew the mare and had
-ridden beside her, we have undoubted evidence that she was very
-fast, but all through there is some confusion about the character
-of her gait. Mr. Bellows, who ought to know something about
-the gait of a horse, says: “She was a fast trotter, with a <i>swinging
-gait</i>.” Now just what he means by the phrase “swinging
-gait” is hard to determine. Putting all these bits of evidence
-together, the reasonable conclusion seems to be that she was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_381"></a>[381]</span>
-double-gaited, and when speeded she would go from the trot to
-the pace or from the pace to the trot as the case might be.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus14">
-<img src="images/illus14.jpg" width="700" height="525" alt="" />
-<p class="caption">ETHAN ALLEN.</p>
-<p class="caption">Son of Vermont Black Hawk.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>From this synopsis of all that has been developed in the blood
-lines of Black Hawk, there can be no longer any mystery about
-where he got the characteristics making him so intensely different
-from the representatives of the typical Morgan. His sire
-was out of a high-class Narragansett pacer, and his dam was probably
-a fast Narragansett pacer, thus giving him presumably
-seventy-five per cent. of Narragansett blood and twenty-five per
-cent. of Morgan blood. The fight that was made against him all
-his life, as not being a genuine Morgan, had its foundation in
-justice and truth. He was not a Morgan in either blood or character.
-He founded a very valuable line of trotters, something
-that no other branch of the Morgan family has ever accomplished,
-and of right his descendants should be designated as “the
-Black Hawk Family,” and not jumbled up with the heterogeneous
-mass of nondescripts still called “the Morgan Family.” Black
-Hawk’s gait was spluttery and uneven, rather than square and
-mechanical. A few of his progeny were very perfectly gaited,
-but a great many of them manifested their evil inheritance,
-which, together with unskillful handling, destroyed all possible
-value as trotters. He placed three in the 2:30 list; fourteen of
-his sons were sires of 2:30 performers, six of them with two or
-more, and two daughters produced 2:30 performers. He died
-November, 1856.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ethan Allen, 43.</span>—This was a handsome, bright bay horse,
-less than fifteen hands high, with three white feet and a star.
-He was foaled 1849, got by Black Hawk, 5; dam, a fast trotting
-grey mare of unknown pedigree. With a list of all the celebrated
-American horses before him, it would be very difficult, if
-not impossible, for the best informed horseman to select an animal
-that has been so great a favorite with the American people, and
-for so long a time, as the famous Ethan Allen. When four years
-old he gave the world a sensation by eclipsing everything that
-had appeared before him at that age; and again when he was
-eighteen years old he renewed and intensified the sensation by
-trotting in 2:15 with a running mate. These sensations of his
-youth and his old age, did much to give him a standing with the
-people; but his wonderful beauty and remarkable docility and
-kindness, with the elegance and ease of his action, made him the
-favorite of everybody. His trotting gait was recognized by the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_382"></a>[382]</span>
-best judges and experts as probably more perfect than that of
-any horse of his day. Others have gone faster singly, but no
-one has done it in greater perfection of motion. In his great
-flights of speed he was not bounding in the air, but down close
-to the ground, with a gliding motion that steals from quarter-pole
-to quarter-pole with inconceivable rapidity. He was bred
-by Joel W. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York, and as the result
-of a practical joke he played, for the purpose of annoying his
-uncle, David Hill, the owner of Black Hawk, against whom he
-had some pique just at that time, many well-meaning and no
-doubt honest people once believed, and possibly still believe, that
-Ethan Allen was by Flying Morgan and not by Black Hawk.
-The fact that Ethan Allen was the same color as Flying Morgan
-and that there was some resemblance in size and style of action
-of the two horses, lent a strong suggestion to the joke as a truth.
-I am indebted to Mr. I. V. Baker, Jr., of Comstock’s Landing,
-S. B. Woodward, then of Ticonderoga, and B. H. Baldwin, of
-Whitehall, New York, for the details of the way the Flying Morgan
-story started, and need only say the narrator was an eye-witness
-to the whole affair. In the spring of 1852, in the barroom
-of S. B. Woodward’s hotel, at Ticonderoga, quite a number of
-the villagers being present, Mr. Joel W. Holcomb came in and
-said he was going to write a letter to R. M. Adams, of Burlington,
-Vermont, the owner of Flying Morgan, and he was going to
-have some fun with him; and, going to the desk in the room, he
-wrote, substantially as follows: “I don’t know but I have made
-all the reputation for David Hill and old Black Hawk that I
-care to. I am willing to have the credit go where it belongs,
-and desire to let yourself and the public know that my colt Ethan
-Allen is got by your horse Flying Morgan.”</p>
-
-<p>“There,” he said, “you will see this in all the Vermont papers
-next week. Won’t Uncle David be mad?”</p>
-
-<p>“What!” exclaimed some of his neighbors, after hearing it
-read, “you won’t put your name to such a falsehood as that?
-It’s a shame.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, well,” said Holcomb, “I’ll add a postscript.” And
-going to the desk he wrote below his signature, leaving a good
-wide space between his signature and the following words:</p>
-
-<p>“Flying Morgan never covered the dam of Ethan Allen, never
-smelt of her and never saw her, consequently Ethan Allen was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_383"></a>[383]</span>
-not by Flying Morgan, but he can beat Flying Morgan or any
-other stallion in the State of Vermont.”</p>
-
-<p>The next fall Mr. Adams visited many of the fairs with his
-horse and showed Holcomb’s letter, and, it is said, with the postscript
-torn off. Every man in Ticonderoga knew as well as Mr.
-Holcomb how Ethan Allen was bred, and this letter created
-much indignation. But Holcomb was a reckless man and cared
-for nothing more than what he called a good joke, and the
-more it hurt any one’s feelings the better it suited him.</p>
-
-<p>This account of the “joke” was written down by Mr. Baker,
-at the dictation of Mr. Woodward, April 22, 1875, and I have
-implicit confidence in its substantial accuracy. It has been said
-that the reason Holcomb did this was out of ill feeling toward
-Mr. David Hill, the owner of Black Hawk, and Holcomb’s uncle,
-because he dunned him for payment of the horse’s services in
-getting Ethan Allen. One day at the Fashion Course, in the
-spring of 1867, as I was looking at Ethan while he was taking
-his daily exercise, either Mr. Holcomb or Mr. Roe, his partner—I
-knew them both by sight as the owners of Ethan Allen, but not
-well enough to distinguish one from the other, but I think it was
-Mr. Holcomb—came up to me and expressed a good deal of
-solicitude to know how I was registering the horse. He appeared
-gratified when I assured him I had no doubt he was a son
-of old Black Hawk and would so enter him. He remarked “that
-was right,” and said the Flying Morgan story originated in a
-practical joke and should not be permitted to go into history as a
-fact. This is the full history of the basis of the controversy,
-and certainly, to a reasonable man, it does not leave a single peg
-on which to hang a hope for the Flying Morgan story.</p>
-
-<p>But, the paternity of Ethan Allen is not left to the uncertainties
-of recollection nor to be trifled with by practical jokers.
-The books of Black Hawk’s services show that the dam of Ethan
-Allen was bred to him on a certain day or days of the season of
-1848, and was taken away believed to be in foal. This fact is conceded
-on all hands as wholly indisputable, but it is claimed that
-Flying Morgan was kept in Holcomb’s stable one night, after the
-mare returned from Bridport, and the two were there surreptitiously
-coupled. I have studied this claim in all its details, I
-have examined every detail minutely, and I do not hesitate to
-say there is not a single shadow of evidence to support the claim.
-In Vermont, as in Kentucky, there are many people who can remember<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_384"></a>[384]</span>
-things that never occurred, but in the former State these
-people are at a great disadvantage, for they are not able to get so
-many to agree with and support their remarkable memories.
-The Vermonters are very far from being all honest, but they are
-very much disposed to make up their own minds, whether right
-or wrong.</p>
-
-<p>In searching for the breeding of the little flea-bitten grey
-mare, “called a Messenger,” that produced Ethan Allen, I have
-not been sparing of either time or labor. I have assiduously
-followed every clew that presented itself, and waded through
-“sloppy” correspondence “knee deep,” but I never have been
-able to reach a single point that was relevant and tangible.
-From the first that is known of her at Hague, New York, her
-identity has been maintained by a spavin on one leg and one hip
-knocked down, and thus she has been traced through the hands
-of many owners till she reaches Mr. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga,
-New York. A pretence has been set up that she was by some
-Morgan horse, but this was only a wish of the originator, and not
-a fact founded on reasonable evidence. It is said she was quite
-a fast trotter, in her younger days, and that she could beat all
-the farmers’ horses against which she was started. That she
-had a trotting inheritance, and probably from Messenger, there
-can be no reasonable doubt.</p>
-
-<p>Ethan Allen made his first appearance as a trotter at the Clinton
-County Fair, as a three-year-old, and made a record, over a
-very bad track, of 3:20-3:21. In May following, then four years
-old, at the Union Course, he beat Rose of Washington in 2:36-2:39-2:42.
-This was then the fastest time ever made by a four-year-old.
-He then retired to the stud and did not again appear
-till October, 1855, when, over the Cambridge Park Course, he
-beat Columbus, Sherman Black Hawk, and Stockbridge Chief for
-the stallion purse in 2:34½-2:37. Three of the contestants here
-were sons of Black Hawk. The next season he defeated Hiram
-Drew twice, to wagon, making a record of 2:32¾. October 15,
-1858, at Boston, he beat Columbus Jr., and Hiram Drew, 2:37-2:35-2:33.
-The same month, on the Union Course, he beat
-George M. Patchen, to wagons, distancing him the first heat in
-2:28. At the Union Course, Long Island, July 12, 1860, he beat
-Princess, distancing her the second heat in 2:29½-2:25½. This
-is his fastest record. He was frequently beaten by George M.
-Patchen, Flora Temple, etc., and it was thought by many that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_385"></a>[385]</span>
-he could not take up the weight and “hold the clip” for the full
-mile out. His most famous performance was made in 1867, and
-as I had the pleasure of witnessing it, from a very eligible position,
-I will here repeat the description as then made:</p>
-
-<p>“On the 21st of June, 1867, on the Fashion Course, it was
-my good fortune to witness the crowning event of his life.
-Some three weeks before, with running mate, he had beaten
-Brown George and running mate, in very fast time, scoring one
-heat in 2:19. This made horsemen open their eyes, and there at
-once arose a difference of opinion, about the advantage to the
-trotter of having a runner hitched with him, to pull the weight.
-This resulted in a match for two thousand five hundred dollars
-to trot Ethan Allen and running mate against Dexter, who was
-then considered invincible. As the day approached the betting
-was about even; but the evening before the race, word came
-from the course that Ethan’s running mate had fallen lame and
-could not go, but they would try to get Brown George’s running
-mate, then in Connecticut, to take the place of the lame runner.
-As the horses were strangers to each other, it was justly concluded
-that the change gave Dexter a great advantage and the
-betting at once changed from even to two to one on Dexter.
-Long before noon the crowd began to assemble; the sporting men
-everywhere were shaking rolls of greenbacks over their heads,
-shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I met a friend from Chicago,
-who sometimes speculated a little, and when he told me he was
-betting two to one on Dexter, I took the liberty of advising him
-to be cautious, for I thought the team would win the race, and
-that its backers knew what they were doing. Before the hour
-arrived I secured a seat on the ladies’ stand, from which every
-foot of the course, and the countless multitudes of people, could
-be taken in at a glance. The vehicles in numbers were simply
-incalculable, and the multitudes were estimated at forty thousand
-people. Upon the arrival of the hour, the judges ascended the
-stand and rang up the horses, when the backers of the team
-came forward, explained the mishap that had befallen the runner,
-that they had Brown George’s mate on the ground, but, as
-he and Ethan had never been hitched together, they were unwilling
-to risk so large a sum, and closed the race by paying one
-thousand two hundred and fifty forfeit. When this announcement
-was made there was a general murmur that spread, step by
-step, through all that vast multitude. The betting fraternity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_386"></a>[386]</span>
-were just where they started and every spectator realized a feeling
-of disgust at the whole management. As soon as this had
-time to exert its intended effect upon the crowd, the backers of
-the team came forward again and expressed their unwillingness
-to have the people go away dissatisfied, and proposed a little
-match of two hundred and fifty a side, which was promptly
-accepted by the Dexter party; and when it was known there
-would be a race after all the shout of the multitudes was like the
-voice of many waters.</p>
-
-<p>“This being a new race, the betting men had to commence <i>de
-novo</i>. The surroundings of the pool stands were packed with an
-eager and excited crowd, anxious to get on their money at two,
-and rather than miss, at three to one on Dexter. The work of
-the auctioneers was short, sharp and decisive, and the tickets
-were away up in the hundreds and oftentimes thousands. But
-the pool-stands did not seem to accommodate more than a small
-fraction of those anxious to invest, and in all directions in the
-surging crowd, hands were in the air, filled with rolls of greenbacks,
-and shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I was curious to
-note what became of these noisy offers, and I soon observed that
-a quiet-looking man came along, took all the party had to invest
-and then went quietly to another of the shouters, and then another
-and so on, till I think that every one who had money to invest,
-at that rate, was accommodated. The amount of money bet was
-enormous, no doubt aggregating a quarter of a million, in a few
-minutes.</p>
-
-<p>“When the horses appeared on the track to warm up for the
-race, Dexter, driven by the accomplished reinsman Budd Doble,
-was greeted with a shout of applause. Soon the team appeared,
-and behind it sat the great master of trotting tactics, Dan Mace.
-His face, which has so often been a puzzle to thousands, had no
-mask over it on this occasion. It spoke only that intense earnestness
-that indicates the near approach of a supreme moment.
-The team was hitched to a light skeleton wagon; Ethan wore
-breeching, and beside him was a great strong race horse, fit to
-run for a man’s life. His traces were long enough to allow him
-to fully extend himself, but they were so much shorter than
-Ethan’s that he had to take the weight. Dexter drew the inside,
-and on the first trial they got the send off without either one having
-six inches the advantage. When they got the word, the flight of
-speed was absolutely terrific, so far beyond anything I had ever<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_387"></a>[387]</span>
-witnessed in a trotting horse, that I felt the hair rising on my
-head. The running horse was next to me, and notwithstanding
-my elevation, Ethan was stretched out so near the ground that
-I could see nothing of him but his ears. I fully believed that,
-for several rods at this point, they were going at a two-minute
-gait.</p>
-
-<p>“It was impossible that this terrible pace could be maintained
-long, and just before reaching the first turn Dexter’s head began
-to swim and the team passed him and took the track, reaching
-the first quarter-pole in thirty-two seconds, with Dexter three or
-four lengths behind. The same lightning speed was kept up
-through the second quarter, reaching the half-mile pole in 1:04,
-with Dexter still farther in the rear. Mace then took a pull on
-his team, and came home a winner by six or eight lengths, in
-2:15. When this time was put on the blackboard, the response
-of the multitude was like the roar of the ocean. Although
-some distance away, through the second quarter of this heat I
-had a fair, unobstructed side view of the stallion and of his action,
-when going at the lightning rate of 2:08 to the mile. I could
-not observe that he received the slightest degree of propulsion
-from the running horse; and my conviction was then, and is now,
-that any such propulsion would have interfered with his own unapproachable
-action, and would have retarded rather than helped
-him. The most noticeable feature in his style of movement was
-the remarkable lowness to which he dropped his body and the
-straight, gliding line it maintained at that elevation.</p>
-
-<p>“The team now had the inside, and in the first attempt they
-were started for the second heat, but they did not appear to me
-to be going so fast as in the first heat. Before they had gone
-many rods Ethan lost his stride and Dexter took the track at the
-very spot where he had lost it in the first heat. The team soon
-got to work, and near the beginning of the second quarter collared
-Dexter, but the stallion broke soon after and fell back, not
-yards, nor lengths, but rods before he caught. Incredible as it
-may seem, when he again got his feet, he put on such a burst of
-speed as to overhaul Dexter in the third quarter, when he broke
-again and Mace had to pull him nearly to a standstill before he
-recovered. Dexter was now a full distance ahead and the heat
-appeared to be his beyond all peradventure. I was watching the
-team in its troubles very closely and my idea of the distance lost
-was the result of a deliberate and careful estimate at the moment;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_388"></a>[388]</span>
-and the query in my mind then was whether the team could save
-its distance. At last the old horse struck his gait, and it was
-like a dart out of a catapult, or a ball from a rifle. The team
-not only saved its distance, but beat Dexter home five or six
-lengths in 2:16.</p>
-
-<p>“In the third heat Mace had it all his own way throughout,
-coming home the winner of the race in 2:19. The backers of
-Dexter, up to the very last, placed great reliance on his well-known
-staying qualities; but the last heat showed that the terrible
-struggle told upon him more distressingly than upon the
-team. It is said by those who timed Dexter privately that he
-trotted the three heats in 2:17, 2:18, and 2:21. As an opinion,
-I will say that if ever there was an honest race trotted this was
-one, but there was such an exhibition of sharp diplomacy, of the
-“diamond cut diamond” order, as is seldom witnessed, even
-among the sharp practices of the turf. It is not probable that
-Ethan’s running mate fell amiss at all, the evening before, as
-represented; and if she did, it was not possible to send to Connecticut
-for another horse and have him there early in the morning
-as was pretended. This was a mere ruse put out to get the
-advantage of the long odds. The managers of the team knew
-just how the horses would work and knew they had speed enough
-to beat any horse on earth. When the race was called and they
-came forward and paid forfeit, it was merely to give the ‘two to
-one on Dexter’ money encouragement to come out. It did
-come out most vociferously and was all quietly taken. It was
-said John Morrissey was the manager in chief, and that his share
-of the winnings amounted to about forty thousand dollars.”</p>
-
-<p>I have here given my personal impressions of this race, not because
-the performance was of any special value, as a test of
-speed, but because the time was then phenomenal, even with this
-kind of hitch, and as an illustration of what certain horses can
-do when relieved of all weight. This was among the first of the
-contests of this kind, and although some effort was made to introduce
-this plan by which a poor horse could beat a good one, it
-never has received much encouragement. With all his perfection
-of gait and wide popularity, extending from early life to old
-age, Ethan Allen was not a success as a progenitor of speed. He
-placed but six in the 2:30 list, and the best—Billy Barr—with a
-record of 2:23¾. He left but one son equal to himself as a sire,
-and several daughters that became the producers of single performers.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_389"></a>[389]</span>
-He was kept several seasons in Kansas and died there
-September, 1876.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Daniel Lambert, 102</span>, was a chestnut horse, foaled 1858; got
-by Ethan Allen, 43; dam Fanny Cook, by Abdallah; grandam by
-Stockholm’s American Star, etc. His color was a light chestnut,
-and his mane and tail were of the yellow, flaxen shade. He was
-about fifteen hands high and long and light in the body, with no
-indications of Morgan blood about him unless it was in the
-kinkiness of his mane and tail. But why should he not resemble
-almost anything else than the little nondescript Morgan, when
-he had only one-sixteenth of his blood in his veins? He had
-more Messenger than Morgan blood, and according to the rules of
-arithmetic it is a misnomer to call him a Morgan. More than
-this, his dam was a daughter of the great Abdallah, far and away
-the greatest trotting sire of his generation. When we consider
-that he had four times as much of the blood of Abdallah as he
-had of the original Morgan, we can see the absurdity of sticking
-to the right male line after that line has been wiped out by other
-lines far more potential. Lambert was bred by Mr. John Porter
-of Ticonderoga, New York, and as a colt he showed great promise
-on the ice, and was thought to be the fastest and best of the get
-of Ethan Allen. He was known far and wide as the “Porter
-Colt,” and he was the popular heir to very great expectations.
-To have created so much enthusiasm he must have shown great
-speed for a youngster, and he is credited with a record of 2:42 as
-a three-year-old. As a sire of trotters he stood very high at one
-time and was even with Blue Bull in his number of representatives
-in the 2:30 list, but in the end the little “plebeian” pacer
-outstripped him a long way. Lambert put thirty-seven trotters
-into the 2:30 list, but when we come to study this list we are not
-very favorably impressed, for about one-third of the animals have
-but a single heat inside of the mark, with only five or six reputable
-campaigners and a single one—Comee—that ranked among the
-real good ones. Comee had seventy-one heats to his credit and a
-record of 2:21¼. Thirty-three of Daniel Lambert’s sons have put
-one hundred and thirty-six in the list, and forty-four of his
-daughters have produced seventy-four performers.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_390"></a>[390]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER, AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Orloffs the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis Orloff, founder of the
-breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff began breeding in 1770—Smetanka,
-Polkan, and Polkan’s son, Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire—The
-Russian pacers—Their great speed—Imported Bellfounder—His history
-and characteristics—Got little speed—His descendants—The English
-Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The old Norfolk trotters—Hackney
-experiments in America—Superiority of the trotting-bred horse
-demonstrated in show-ring contests.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It may be a little outside of the field of our discussion to include
-the Orloff Trotter, but as a few of them have been brought
-to this country, and as that is the only organized and recognized
-<i>breed</i> of trotters in all the world beside our own, it seems to be
-necessary to give a brief synopsis of the origin and history of
-that breed, so far as we may be able. An additional and probably
-a more cogent reason for making this foreign detour is the
-fact that there are now many American trotters on the turf in
-Europe, and practically their only competitors, whether on the
-turf or in the breeding studs, are the Orloffs of Russia.</p>
-
-<p>“Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” the first volume of
-which was issued in 1871, was an individual enterprise. Two
-years afterward the director-in-chief of the Russian Imperial
-Studs submitted a series of questions to different scientific gentlemen,
-whose studies were in the right direction, soliciting their views,
-on the practicability and advisability of establishing a governmental
-standard by which the Orloff trotters should be classed and
-officially registered. The report was favorable and the Russian
-trotting register was established under governmental direction.
-This was the second movement toward establishing a <i>breed</i>; not
-merely by writing a lot of names in a book, but by writing those
-names on the turf of two continents. A delegation from France
-once visited me to consult about establishing a Register in that
-country, and to learn how to commence such an enterprise.
-When I asked them what strains of blood they had that could<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_391"></a>[391]</span>
-trot, they did not seem to know of any particular strains, or any
-one strain better than another, to serve as a foundation, but they
-were sure they had plenty of trotters. This was the first I ever
-had heard of French-bred trotters, and it was the last I ever
-heard of the French trotting register.</p>
-
-<p>The stalwart Alexis Orloff took a very active part in making
-Catherine II. Empress of Russia—for which he was loaded with
-honors as well as lucrative offices. In the war with the Turks in
-1772 he was given command of the Russian fleet, and with the
-assistance of the English fleet under Admiral Elphinstone, he
-achieved a great victory and captured the pasha in command of
-the Turkish fleet. Owing to some unusual kindness Count Orloff
-was able to extend to the captured Turkish commander, or his
-family, he presented the count with a pure white stallion, said
-to be a Barb, which he took home with him and placed in his
-stud of horses, that he had established but a short time before.
-Another story is that the count bought this white horse, which
-he called Smetanka, while he was in Greece and paid a large
-price for him. I am not able to say which representation is the
-more probable, and it is not material to our history, as there is
-no dispute about the identity of Smetanka as the nominal head
-of the Orloff breed of horses, and neither story gives any information
-about his blood. No doubt he was a Turk. Count Alexis
-commenced his breeding stud in 1770, and there appears to have
-been a good deal of system about it or else a large amount of
-very free guessing. When first established, the horse breeders
-say, it consisted of stallions and mares as follows: Arabs, 12 stallions,
-10 mares; Turkish, 1 stallion, 2 mares; English, 20 stallions,
-32 mares; Dutch, 1 stallion, 8 mares; Persian, 3 stallions,
-2 mares; Danish, 1 stallion, 3 mares; Mecklenburg, 1 stallion,
-5 mares. From this it will be seen that he had more English running
-blood than all the other varieties put together, and yet no
-trotters came from that source. From this great variety of composite
-material the count had free rein in his grand experiment
-of producing the type of horse that best pleased his fancy. As a
-matter of course the indiscriminate commingling of these different
-strains and types would produce a mongrel lot, from which a
-few superior animals might be selected, and doubtless were
-selected, for breeding purposes.</p>
-
-<p>The different writers who have discussed the result of this
-experiment seem to agree, substantially, that two distinct types<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_392"></a>[392]</span>
-were the result—the galloper for the saddle and the trotter for
-harness—but they assume what appears to me to be a very unreasonable
-conclusion that both these types were indebted to the
-super-excellence of Smetanka. The count was one of the most
-prominent sporting men of his day, an inveterate horse-racer and
-cock-fighter, and under this kind of management it is hardly
-credible that the twenty English thoroughbred stallions should
-have been put aside for the little white horse of positively unknown
-origin. But whatever may have been the predominating
-blood in the saddle department, it is certain that the trotter is
-lineally descended from Smetanka. He was bred on a Danish
-mare and produced Polkan (Volcan), without anything new or
-striking in his characteristics. Polkan was bred on a Dutch mare
-and produced Barss, and this was the first to manifest a disposition
-to extend himself to his utmost at the trot and to stick to it.
-Barss became a great favorite with his master; for, although stumbled
-upon, he was a new creation and is the real progenitor of all
-the horses that bear the name Orloff. His component elements
-are easily expressed. He had twenty-five per cent. of the blood
-of Smetanka; twenty-five per cent. of the blood of the Danish
-mare, and fifty per cent. of the blood of the Dutch mare, it
-seems to be reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the trotting
-instinct must be found in the unknown elements of the Dutch
-mare.</p>
-
-<p>Some years ago Prof. —— (the name I cannot now recall),
-from the Imperial Agricultural College, near Moscow, Russia,
-paid me several visits for the purpose of gathering up what information
-he could obtain about the origin and history of the American
-Trotter. He was very intelligent and thorough in his
-methods of obtaining information, and each succeeding day he
-came back to me with a new series of questions hinging upon
-previous interviews, and all carefully prepared. These questions
-were so admirably shaped to reach the vital points of the subject
-that I became greatly interested in the man. When it came my
-turn to ask questions, my first one was, What was the origin and
-lineage of the Dutch mare that produced Barss? He replied, “Ah,
-the scientific men of Russia would give a great deal to be able to
-answer that question.” We both agreed, perfectly, that the living
-instinct of the trotter came from that mare, but he was not
-able to tell me anything of her history or habits of action. He
-told me there were many pacers in Russia and that the best ones<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_393"></a>[393]</span>
-came from the province of Viatka and from the region of the
-Volga River.</p>
-
-<p>As the true source from which the Russian trotters have
-drawn their ability to trot fast has not been developed nor determined
-by history, we must consider the problem in the light of
-the surrounding conditions, and possibly our American experiences
-may lead to its solution. In 1873 Prof. Von Mittendorf,
-at the request of the director-in-chief of the imperial stud, prepared
-a very able paper on the scientific questions involved in
-the establishment of a Government Register for the Orloff trotters.
-In this paper he discusses the pace and the trot as both
-original and natural gaits and insists that there are no outward
-indications in form or shape by which the animal, when at rest,
-can be decided to be a pacer or a trotter. In his own words he
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In answer to the question whether, from the form of a horse at rest, it
-can be ascertained what gait would be easiest assumed by it, viz., trotting or
-pacing, I must confess that I have never seen, read or heard of such marks,
-and, indeed, there never are any symptoms or signs of inclination for pacing
-in the proportions of any horse with the single negative exception, viz., that
-great speed in one-sided motion does not agree with a large frame, which is
-more adapted to leaping, and hence fast pacers are never found among large
-horses.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This is the view as taken by a Russian scientist of the distinction,
-or rather lack of distinction, between the trotter and the
-pacer. I have not quoted this paragraph from Prof. Mittendorf
-because it contained anything new in the economy of breeding,
-but to prove that there were pacers in Russia and that their relation
-to the trotter was considered in the formation of the rules
-of admission to the Orloff trotting register. A very intelligent
-writer, evidently a Russian and one who knew what he was talking
-about, contributed an interesting article to the New York
-<i>Sun</i> of July 9, 1877, from which we get a clear and strong light
-on the practical side of the Russian pacer, and I will here again
-quote:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Up to the middle of the last century horses in Russia were not scientifically
-bred; they ran wild in many parts of the country. Those caught on
-the steppes of the river Don, and in the wilderness of the district of Viatka,
-obtained early celebrity, which they still maintain. The Don horses are those
-famous Cossack steeds about which so much has been written of late. The
-Viatka horses, or Bitugues, as they are called are the genuine trotters of
-Russia. They are all pacers, equally remarkable for their speed and their endurance.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_394"></a>[394]</span>
-But since the Orloff breed has been introduced, the Bitugues have
-been excluded from all matches, on the ground that their pacing is not
-orthodox.</p>
-
-<p>“It is with these Bitugues that the peculiar troika team, of which a specimen
-was shown in Fleetwood Park, on Saturday, originated. A fast, sturdy
-Bitugue is put in shafts, and a light running horse from the steppes harnessed
-on each side of him. A good Bitugue trots so fast that the wild steppe runners
-have to be whipped all the time to force them to keep up with him. The
-idea of putting an Orloff trotter in the place of a Bitugue is very queer, as no
-square trotter can equal the speed of those famous pacers of Viatka, and keep
-abreast with side runners.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From these three several sources we learn a number of facts
-that may have a more or less important bearing upon the true
-origin of the Orloff trotter. (1) That there are now, and have
-been for generations past, plenty of pacers in Russia. (2) That
-these pacers have a common habitat, north and east of the Don.
-(3) That they are a very old race, running back in the centuries
-away beyond the knowledge of man or the records of history.
-(4) That they are a very fast and very enduring race, and that
-they have been trained for generations as the shaft horses of the
-troika and their speed so well developed as to require good running
-horses to keep abreast with them. (5) That they are of
-smaller size than the average and lack symmetry, and thus, notwithstanding
-their great speed and bottom, they and their blood
-are excluded from registration with the Orloffs. (6) That they
-are also excluded from competing for any prizes that may be
-offered, and no other reason is suggested than that they would be
-sure to win.</p>
-
-<p>Russia and America both have pacers and they are both carrying
-forward the breeding and development of the trotter with
-great intelligence and success. No other nation has been able
-to make even a beginning in this field of animal economy except
-by the introduction of the foundation stock from one or other of
-these two countries. It may be taken as historically true, and
-as applying to every nation on the face of the earth, that where
-there are no pacers there are no trotters. Hundreds of unmistakable
-experiences in this country go to show that the pacer is
-a great source of trotting speed. At one time a pacing stallion
-of obscure pacing origin stood at the head of the list of all stallions
-as the sire of the greatest number of trotters with fast
-records. A great multitude of our fastest trotters at maturity
-were foaled pacers from trotting parents. It is no longer a matter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_395"></a>[395]</span>
-of wonder or surprise that with two animals from the same
-parents one of them should be a fast trotter and the other
-a fast pacer. Neither is it any longer remarkable that a fast
-trotter with a very fast record should turn around and make just
-as fast a record at the pace. The American people are just beginning
-to realize, in its full force, the declaration of more than
-twenty years ago; that the trot and the pace are simply two forms
-of the same gait, in the economy of motion. The only difference
-that has been observed as between two brothers, the one a
-pacer and the other a trotter, is that with the same skill in handling
-the pacer will come to his speed much quicker than the
-trotter, which is of itself a strong suggestion at least that the
-pace is the more natural and easier form of the one gait.</p>
-
-<p>Now, in view of the fact that Smetanka was of Saracenic origin—a
-strain of blood that has always been antagonistic to the pacer,
-and never produced a pacer or a trotter; and in view of the fact
-that his grandson, Barss, is accepted as the first of all Orloff
-trotters; and in view of the further fact that in thousands of
-American experiences the trotter has come from the pacer, it
-seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the “Dutch Mare” that
-produced Barss had a strong pacing inheritance, and possibly
-had her speed fully developed, as the Bitugue in the count’s own
-team.</p>
-
-<p>Among all the pleasures which Count Orloff derived from his
-experiments in breeding, whether of gamecocks, or race horses,
-or saddlers, or trotters, Barss was his greatest favorite because he
-was his highest achievement in the art of breeding. This judgment
-of his master has been confirmed in the experiences and
-history of all succeeding generations for a hundred years, and the
-name of Barss will be known through the coming centuries as
-the founder of a mighty breed of trotters. I once possessed a
-fine picture of Barss hitched to a sleigh and driven by his
-breeder, Count Orloff, himself; and I have seen it stated somewhere
-that this picture was a copy of a bronze statue erected to
-the memory of the Count Orloff and the greatest horse of Russia.</p>
-
-<p>It has been stated by some writers, but with what measure of
-authority I do not know, that for about thirty years after the
-appearance of Barss his daughters were bred to English thoroughbreds,
-to Arabs, to Anglo-Arabs, and, indeed, to all the
-highly bred crosses that the great establishment was able to
-furnish, and there was no improvement in either the quality or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_396"></a>[396]</span>
-the speed of the produce. From this it is evident that the
-count and his managers were at that period entangled in the
-same foolish notions that befogged the minds of so many very
-worthy gentlemen in this country some years ago, viz., that the
-way to improve the trotter was to go to the runner—the horse
-that never could trot. This foolish notion, that never had a
-spark of reason in it, naturally and necessarily weakened the
-trotting instinct of the descendants of Barss, and would have
-wiped it all out if it had been followed persistently, and there
-would have been no Orloff trotters to-day.</p>
-
-<p>After this narrow escape from the annihilation of much of the
-good that Barss had done, the management then began to look
-for the same blood and the same habit of action that the “Dutch
-Mare” transmitted to her son, and, with this element to the
-front, progression was resumed. Out of his great variety of
-forms and of strains of blood the count and his managers could
-pick and choose for the size, shape and forms they wanted, but
-they were not able to transfer with the size, shape and form the
-instincts and psychical nature of the horse. The count seems
-to have carried forward his great enterprise rather with a view
-to experimentation than its commercial possibilities. Smetanka
-lived but a year or two, and when he stumbled upon the production
-of Barss, a magnificent individual and a great trotter, his
-head seems to have been turned, as he evidently supposed that
-he could breed any kind of horse he wished to breed, and be able
-to do anything he wished him to do. At his death, in 1808, he
-left no male heir to succeed him, but he provided in his will that
-his stud should not be dispersed. It was kept intact till about
-1845, when it was purchased by the government, and finally
-divided among a number of prominent breeders in different portions
-of the empire.</p>
-
-<p>Without having any knowledge on the subject that is definite
-and specific, I am led to infer that the rules on registration and
-racing in Russia are a hindrance to the breeding and development
-of the trotter. As I understand it, no horse can be registered
-unless he is purely descended from Barss. And I understand
-further, that he must possess the same requirements in
-order to enter and start in a public race against the Orloffs. If
-it be true that these restrictions are really in existence and are
-enforced, we can understand why the American trotter is so far
-ahead of the Orloff in speed and in the markets of Europe. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_397"></a>[397]</span>
-Orloff is restricted to certain lines of blood and is protected
-against competition from others that might beat him. The
-American is free from all restrictions of blood and gathers up
-all that is best and fastest. He neither asks nor accepts protection
-from any quarter, but throws down the glove to all comers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bellfounder</span> was imported from England, July, 1822, by
-James Boott, of Boston, Mass. He was placed in the hands of
-Samuel Jaques, Jr.—a very shrewd manager who understood the
-use of printer’s ink and did not hesitate about employing it liberally.
-In his advertisement for 1823 he says: “This celebrated
-horse is a bright bay with black legs, standing fifteen hands
-high.” From this we are safe in concluding he was not more
-than fifteen hands, and from another contemporaneous source
-it is learned that he was a little below that measurement. On
-this point the recollections, or perhaps impressions, of Orange
-County horsemen are not very trustworthy, as one of them places
-his height at sixteen hands and others at fifteen and a half.
-His pedigree was given on the card which was distributed by his
-groom in the form following: “Got by old Bellfounder, out
-of Velocity by Haphazard, by Sir Peter out of Miss Hervey
-by Eclipse.” “Velocity trotted on the Norwich road in 1806,
-sixteen miles in one hour, and although she broke five times into
-a gallop, and as often turned round, she won her match.” Although
-after diligent search I have not been able to find this
-performance of Velocity, it may be true that a mare so named
-may have trotted as represented, but she was not a daughter of
-Haphazard. The dates make this utterly impossible, and Mr.
-Jaques was smart enough never to put this humbug pedigree in
-his elaborate advertisements that appeared in the leading agricultural
-papers of the country, year after year.</p>
-
-<p>As the great mass of people of that day knew nothing and
-cared but little about pedigrees, the astute manager of the horse
-struck an expedient in the way of advertising that was very
-effective. He had a cut made of a horse trotting loose on the
-road, at the rate of a hurricane, and in the background was an
-entablature with the legend “Seventeen and a half miles an
-hour,” which anybody and everybody would interpret to mean
-that this was a record made by imported Bellfounder, and there
-he was doing it. This cut in reduced form went the rounds of
-the agricultural press, and in 1831 made its appearance in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_398"></a>[398]</span>
-“Family Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge.” This dodge was
-exceedingly effective, and as it appeared in a book it must be true.
-Thousands of people interpreted the picture to mean that imported
-Bellfounder had trotted seventeen and a half miles in an
-hour. Mr. Jaques did not say this in letters and figures, but he
-said it even more plainly in a picture. The basis of this deception
-is found in the advertisement itself, where, in speaking of
-the speed of old Bellfounder in England, he says: “His
-owner challenged to perform with him seventeen miles and a half
-in one hour, but it was not accepted.” Here we have a possible
-challenge of the sire transmuted into an actual performance of
-the son, for the sole purpose of securing public patronage.</p>
-
-<p>There can be no doubt that this horse was a true representative
-of what was then known as the Norfolk Trotters and at this time
-designated as Hackneys or Cobs. Bellfounder was of a quiet,
-docile disposition, with a display of great nervous energy in his
-movements when aroused. His knee and hock action was high
-and showy, giving the impression of a great trotter, without
-much speed. At several points his form was measurably reproduced
-in Hambletonian, especially in his low, round withers and
-his great, meaty buttocks. In seeing these points so plainly developed
-in his idol it is not remarkable that Mr. Rysdyk should
-have placed too high an estimate on Bellfounder blood as a factor
-in the American trotting horse. If he had thoughtfully asked
-himself the question, What has Bellfounder blood done in its
-own right in the way of getting trotters? the illusion would have
-vanished.</p>
-
-<p>Bellfounder was in the control of Mr. Jaques for six years, and
-never in my knowledge of trotting stallions have I known one so
-widely and successfully advertised. The name “Bellfounder”
-was heard and known everywhere. From 1829 to 1833, inclusive,
-he was under the control of Mr. T. T. Kissam, of Long Island.
-After that time he seems to have gone “a-begging” wherever
-there seemed to be a chance to earn his oats. At last, at
-Jamaica, Long Island, he died, having made twenty-one seasons
-in this country—one more than Messenger. The question was
-once raised as to where Hambletonian got his aversion to the
-chestnut color, and it was flippantly assigned to Bellfounder.
-The truth is, quite a number of Bellfounder’s get were chestnuts,
-perhaps as large a percentage as would naturally come from the
-average stallion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_399"></a>[399]</span></p>
-
-<p>It is the testimony of several gentlemen who were familiar with
-trotting affairs in the time of the Bellfounders, that a number of
-them were skillfully and persistently trained and none of them
-could trot faster than about 2:50. The one exception to this fact so
-widely established is the case of the dam of Hambletonian. After
-this filly passed into the hands of Peter Seely he gave some attention
-irregularly to the development of her speed, and before
-he sold her he gave her two trials to saddle on the Union Course
-and she trotted in 2:43 and 2:41. As she was then but four years
-old it is safe to conclude that she would have made a trotter, beyond
-all doubt. This is the only one, old or young, from the
-loins of Bellfounder that ever trotted so fast. I once put the
-question directly to Mr. Rysdyk as to whether the Kent Mare
-was as good and as fast as her dam, One Eye, and he promptly replied
-that One Eye was much the faster and greater mare. To
-this answer he added that One Eye, under the same circumstances,
-would have been the equal of Lady Thorn or any other
-that ever lived. This may account for the superiority of the
-Kent Mare over all the other Bellfounders, and it may account
-for the superiority of Hambletonian over all other stallions.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Bellfounder (Brown’s or Kissam’s)</span>, was a bay horse, foaled
-1830, got by imported Bellfounder; dam Lady Alport, by Mambrino,
-son of Messenger; grandam by Tippoo, son of Messenger;
-great-grandam by imported Messenger. With such breeding he
-should have been a great horse. He was bred by Timothy T.
-Kissam, of Long Island, and sold along with a full brother one year
-younger, named Bellport, about 1834-5, to L. F. and A. B. Allen,
-of Buffalo, New York. Bellfounder was a bay horse, sixteen
-hands high, and Bellport was sixteen and one-half hands, but was
-poisoned and died at four years old. Bellfounder passed into
-the hands of some parties at Cleveland and then to Mr. Brown, of
-Columbus, Ohio, made most of his seasons in that portion of the
-State, and died September, 1860. This was altogether the most
-valuable son the imported horse left—indeed the only one that
-made any mark in the world. He was not much of a trotter and
-did not get trotters, but got colts that were excellent types of
-the coach horse, and for that purpose was very highly esteemed.
-Some of his sons and daughters, especially the latter, are met
-with sometimes in trotting records as having produced something
-that had more or less speed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Conqueror</span> was a bay gelding, foaled 1842, and got by La Tourrett’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_400"></a>[400]</span>
-Bellfounder, a grandson of the imported horse, and out
-of Lady McClain by imported Bellfounder, and she out of Lady
-Webber by Mambrino, and she out of a mare brought from
-Dutchess County and represented to be a daughter of imported
-Messenger. This gelding had been pounded about in slow races
-for years and had the reputation of being a stayer. In 1853 a
-match was made with him to trot a hundred miles in nine hours.
-The race was started and the horse won in 8h. 55m. and 53s.,
-and he died three or four days afterward. This is the only instance
-that I know of in which the advocates of Hackney blood
-can point to a trotting record made in this or indeed in any
-other country.</p>
-
-<p>In closing the account of this family—for out of courtesy we
-have called it a “family”—we find we have nothing left but a
-name with nothing in it. The name that was more widely known
-than that of any other horse of his generation has now practically
-ceased from the earth, with nobody so poor as to do it
-reverence.</p>
-
-<p>The type of horse now known as the “Hackney” is found
-chiefly in the shires bordering the northeastern coast of England—Norfolk,
-Lincoln and Yorkshire. The name now given is not
-only new but it is appropriate and applies to any one part of
-England as well as another, and applies to any one horse, suited
-to the general use of a Hack, as well as another, no difference
-what his blood or what his country. The name “Norfolk Trotter”
-fifty or a hundred years ago was often applied to horses of
-this type coming from that part of the country, but it did not
-follow that they were “trotters.” In the discussions of the association
-preceding the adoption of a name it was urged that the
-qualifying word “trotter” would imply the ability to trot fast,
-and as the material to be registered could not do this, it would
-subject the whole movement to ridicule and contempt. It was
-also urged that the name “Norfolk” would give that particular
-region an advantage over all other parts of England in the prospective
-sales of registered stock, and thus the old title was fully
-disposed of. When the name “cob” was suggested, it was conceded
-that it represented just what they had, but it was too common,
-as everybody in all England, rich and poor, had “cobs.”
-Then came the term “Hackney,” which meant the same kind of
-a horse as the cob, but as it was not in such universal use it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_401"></a>[401]</span>
-adopted. On this point it must be admitted that it is an honest
-name.</p>
-
-<p>The Hackney is a good horse for all the uses to which he is
-adapted. He is short on his legs and stout, with a good share of
-nervous energy. He is symmetrical, and, we might say, handsome,
-if we can use that word without any show of fine breeding,
-for he is far short of the ideal blood horse. But he is not a saddle
-horse, he is not a hunter, he is not a runner, and he is not a
-trotter. As against these desirable and useful qualifications, he has
-been bred and trained when in action to jerk up his limbs to the
-highest point anatomically possible, and put them down again
-with a thud at a point but little removed from where he started.
-In this showy, undesirable action he exhausts his nervous energy,
-pounding the earth without covering much of the distance. In this
-excessive knee action every element of easy, graceful and rapid
-progression is wanting. This fad will have its day and then along
-with the barbarous excision of the caudal appendage they will
-disappear together as they came, and we will know them no more
-forever.</p>
-
-<p>There are two points in advocating the merits of the Hackney
-with which every Englishman is thoroughly familiar and which
-he will call to your attention on the slightest provocation: (1)
-Bellfounder was a Hackney and it was his blood that gave us the
-greatest trotting sire that the world has ever produced. This is
-the Englishman’s estimate of Bellfounder when he has a Hackney
-for sale, and especially if the prospective purchaser be an American.
-(2) He is descended from a long line of distinguished
-trotters. To the first of these reiterated and parrot-like claims
-an answer will be found in the chapter relating to that horse,
-where his twenty-one years of stud service have been carefully
-considered, and where he is shown to have been a monumental
-failure. In the second claim there is some truth and we must
-consider it very briefly.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the elements entering into the families of horses locally
-and indefinitely called Norfolk Trotters, there were two that
-might be looked upon as the founders—Useful Cub and Shales—for
-they were more conspicuous and valuable than any others.
-Mr. John Lawrence was not only a practical horseman, but he
-was the most intelligent and reliable of all the writers on the
-horse in the latter part of the last century. He was the only
-one who gave any attention to the trotter and trotting affairs.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_402"></a>[402]</span>
-He says: “To old Shales and Useful Cub the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire
-and Norfolk are indebted for their fame in the production
-of capital Hackneys.” Useful Cub was bred by Thomas
-Jenkinson, of Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, and was foaled about
-1865-70, and was got by a Suffolk cart horse, doubtless a light
-weight, and his dam was by Golden Farmer, a son of the famous
-half-bred Sampson, that was the great-grandsire of Messenger
-and beat most of the best horses of his day. Mr. Lawrence knew
-Useful Cub well, and was beaten by him in Hyde Park. We
-have no details of this horse’s performances, but it seems to be
-conceded that he trotted fifteen, sixteen and seventeen miles in
-the hour. Old Shales, or Scott’s Shales, as he is sometimes
-called, is described by Lawrence as “the bastard son of Blank,”
-son of Godolphin Arabian, but Mr. Euren, the compiler of the
-Hackney Stud Book maintains that he was the son of Blaze and
-not the son of Blank. The reasons given for this change I do
-not remember, but they would have to be well founded before I
-could throw overboard the contemporaneous evidence of Mr.
-Lawrence. It will not do to say that Mr. Lawrence mistook the
-name Blaze for Blank and so wrote it by mistake, for he knew
-all about both horses. This distinction, however, is of but little
-practical value. The horses Shales and Useful Cub were both fast
-and successful trotters, in their day, and they both became distinguished
-sires of trotters. By this I do not mean that they
-were the sires of all the trotters, for there were many that were
-wholly unknown in their breeding.</p>
-
-<p>Judging from the numbers of leading contests that were reported
-in the <i>Sporting Magazine</i> and other publications, we must
-conclude that trotting contests reached their height as well in
-numbers as in public interest about the last decade in the last
-century. The contests were all to saddle, on the road, and the
-leading ones were made under the watch and over a long distance
-of ground, specifying such or such a distance to be made inside
-of an hour. To form a correct estimate of the speed of those
-horses, I will copy one paragraph, entire, from the description
-given by Mr. Lawrence concerning his own mare Betty Bloss:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“My own brown mare, known by the name of Betty Bloss, was the slowest
-of all the capital trotters, but at five years old trotted fifteen miles in one
-hour, carrying fourteen stone, although fairly mistress of no more than ten.
-She afterward trotted sixteen miles within the hour, with ten stone, with
-much ease to herself and her rider. She was nearly broken down at four<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_403"></a>[403]</span>
-years old, had bad feet, and, besides, too much blood for a trotter, having been
-got by Sir Hale’s Commoner, out of a three-part-bred daughter of Rattle, son
-of Snip.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In this paragraph, from the best-informed man of his generation,
-it will be noted incidentally that the cry, “no more running
-blood in the trotter,” is not new, but more than a hundred years
-old. The best performances were about sixteen miles in the
-hour, but there was an occasional one that reached sixteen and
-a half. A black gelding called Archer was recognized as the fastest
-of that period, and on one occasion under a stop watch he trotted
-the second one of two miles in a little less than three minutes.
-From my gleanings I find but a single instance from which we
-might be able to approximate the money value of trotting horses of
-that day, and this is given as a phenomenal price, viz., Marshland
-Shales, a paternal grandson of the original Shales and out of a
-mare by Hue and Cry. He had beaten Reed’s Driver in a match
-of seventeen miles for 200 guineas. He was foaled 1802 and in
-1812 he was sold at auction for 3,051 guineas—$15,255. He was a
-great horse, but this price was just as startling to Englishmen of
-that day as the $105,000 was in our own day, when Axtell was
-sold. This seems to have been the culmination of the “boom”
-in Norfolk Trotters, and from then till the present there has been
-a steady deterioration in the trotting step of the Norfolk horse.
-In the earlier part of this period of eighty or ninety years, possibly
-some exceptions may be found, but they are only individual
-exceptions and do not controvert the broad fact that must be apparent
-to all observers. They had been breeding and training
-their horses to strike their chins with their knees—the up-and-down
-motion—instead of getting away and covering some ground
-in their action. I have stood and watched scores of them in the
-show-ring, on their native heath, with their grooms at the ends
-of long lines running and yelling like wild Indians to rouse up
-their horses, and they called this training the trotters. When I
-privately expressed the wish that saddles might be put on a few
-of the best and the ring cleared so that the trotting action might
-be studied, I was very kindly and politely assured that they did
-not show their trotters that way in England. Thus with the
-taut check-rein, the long leading-line and the whoops of the
-groom they got the up-and-down action upon the perfection of
-which the prizes were awarded. This explained why the splendid<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_404"></a>[404]</span>
-foundation of a breed had been lost by non-use and why England
-had produced no trotters in the past fifty or eighty years.</p>
-
-<p>While our English cousins know they have no trotting horses
-of their own they seem to be exceedingly anxious, possibly for
-commercial reasons, to make it appear that the American trotting
-horse is the lineal descendant of the Norfolk Trotter. This
-effort is not restricted to the idle twaddle about Bellfounder,
-which everybody on this side of the Atlantic estimates at its true
-value, but it has taken an official and wider range, which, trifling
-though it be, my duty as a historian impels me to expose. Mr.
-Henry P. Euren, the compiler of the Hackney Stud Book, wrote
-to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C., in
-1888, taking exceptions to some conclusions reached in an article
-written by Mr. Leslie E. Macleod, in my office, on “The National
-Horse of America,” and published in the report of the Department
-of Agriculture for 1887; Mr. Euren claiming that the American
-trotting horse came originally from Norfolk, in England.
-In proof of this he says: “I beg to inclose you a cutting which
-confirms my idea.” And now for the “cutting” which he offers
-as proof:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“It appears from an Act of Parliament, passed December 6, 1748, in the
-Legislature of the State of New Jersey, America, that on and after the publication
-of this Act, all Norfolk pacing or trotting of horses for lucre or gain,
-or for any sum or sums of money at any time (excepting such times as are
-hereafter expressly provided for by this Act), shall be and are hereby declared
-public nuisances, provided always that at all fairs that are or may be held within
-this province, and that on the first working day after the three great festivals
-of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The act passed by the provincial legislature of the colony of
-New Jersey in 1748 embraced very stringent regulations against
-dice, lotteries, etc., as well as horse racing. It is divided into
-several sections, and at Section 4 we reach the provision against
-racing as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that after the
-publication of this Act, all horse racing, pacing or trotting of horses for lucre
-or gain, or for any sum or sums of money at any time (excepting such times
-as are hereafter expressly provided for and allowed by this Act), shall be and
-are hereby declared public nuisances, and shall be prosecuted as public
-nuisances, in manner hereinbefore directed. Provided always, and it is the
-true intent and meaning of this Act, that at all fairs that are or may be held
-within this province, and that on the first working day after the three grand
-festivals of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_405"></a>[405]</span></p>
-
-<p>These quotations are sufficiently extended to afford an unmistakable
-comparison, and on their face evidence that cannot be
-doubted for one moment that they both purport to be copied
-from the same act of the Jersey Colonial legislature. In the
-official printed copy which is before me as I write, the mandate
-is against “all horse racing, pacing or trotting of horses for
-lucre or gain.” In Mr. Euren’s “cutting” the mandate is
-against “all Norfolk pacing or trotting of horses for lucre or
-gain,” etc. The substitution of the word “Norfolk” instead of
-“horse racing,” is in the nature of a forgery, and I cannot believe
-that Mr. Euren would be guilty of any such execrable
-piece of trickery. It must have been conceived and written by
-some horse sharp who was trying to sell a Hackney to an American
-with a pocket full of money, and after he had effected his sale
-he could mutter quietly, when at a safe distance from his victim,
-the couplet from “Hudibras:”</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-  <div class="stanza">
-    <div class="verse indent0">“The paltry story is untrue</div>
-    <div class="verse indent0">And forged to cheat such gulls as you.”</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Unfortunately, however, for Mr. Euren, he indorsed the
-trick, and not only indorsed it, but sent it to the Commissioner
-of Agriculture with the hope and possible expectation that it
-would receive public recognition and become part of the horse
-history of this country. Did he not know that somebody would
-be nosing round among the old laws and expose the dirty deception?
-But, on the basis that Mr. Euren was deceived by this
-wretched interpolation of a fraud into the law, could he not see
-that the date of the law—1748—was before old Shales or Useful
-Cub was foaled, and long before the very first “Norfolk trotter”
-was ever heard of either in Norfolk or in any other part of England?</p>
-
-<p>The exposure of this foolish attempt, wherever it originated, to
-incorporate into an old New Jersey statute a fiction, or a forgery,
-as it may be called, carries with it a punishment that should be
-felt by the most unscrupulous of horse sharps; but when we find
-it unequivocally indorsed and given to the world as true by
-the compiler of the Hackney Stud Book, it destroys all confidence
-in the accuracy and reliability of that work. This is a
-misfortune that the friends of the Hackney in England as well as
-in this country must feel as a blow at the value of the whole
-interest. Opinions may change with new light, and opposing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_406"></a>[406]</span>
-conclusions may be honestly reached from different standpoints,
-but running against a fixed and certain date, as in this case, is
-like running against a two-edged sword.</p>
-
-<p>In conclusion, the Hackney is merely the dear-bought and far-fetched
-fashion of the hour. A few years ago he was “something
-new in horses,” just as the modiste has “something new in
-dresses.” He was found in England, where there are no flies,
-without a tail, and as that was the fashion in England we must
-have horses in America without tails, notwithstanding the millions
-of torments they have to endure without the natural means
-of defense. As hack-a-bouts they are good horses, but their
-“churn-dasher” style of action will never become acceptable to
-the American people.</p>
-
-<p>A few years since a quite persistent attempt, backed by unlimited
-wealth and all the prestige that metropolitan “fashion”
-and “society” could bestow, was made, particularly in New
-York, to create a Hackney “boom” in America. All that element
-in the social life of our great cities that affects a disdain for
-things distinctively American, and particularly for American
-horses, and that glories in the stultifying habit of aping things
-“English, ye know,” took up the Hackney fad with unbounded
-enthusiasm. As a park and road horse the American horse—the
-incomparable trotting-bred driver—was to be incontinently
-crowded out of the driveways, the markets and the shows. The
-National Horse Show Association, whose annual show at Madison
-Square Garden is the great social <i>fête</i> of the year in New
-York, lent all its powerful influence to forward the Hackney
-“boom,” which was, it must in fairness be said, consistent; for
-the miscalled National Horse Show has always catered more to
-foreign horses and foreign customs in horsemanship than to
-American horses and horsemen. Men of great wealth and prominence
-established extensive Hackney studs, imported famous
-prize-winning stallions and mares, and there was only one thing
-left to be done, and that was to convert the American people to
-the belief that the driving horse they had been breeding and
-developing with a special purpose and care—the fleetest and most
-versatile harness horse in the world—was inferior to an imported
-nondescript. In that attempt the Hackney advocates have failed
-in America as completely as did Mr. Blunt and others in England,
-when they sought to make racing men believe that the
-Arab was a better race horse than the English thoroughbred.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_407"></a>[407]</span></p>
-
-<p>Perhaps nothing illustrates better what I have called the
-versatility of the trotter than this contest with the Hackney in
-the latter’s own especial field—if he may be said to have any.
-Of course there could be no contest between the horse of a special
-breed and the nondescript as a harness horse for speed or usefulness
-on the road, whether the distance were half a mile or a
-hundred miles; but in the show-ring the Hackney men claimed
-absolute pre-eminence for their “high-acting” horses. They
-did not dare contest with the trotter in the matter of road speed,
-so to have any contest at all the trotting horse men had to
-“carry the war into Africa.” This they have done with a vengeance.
-They have taken the pure-bred trotting horse, dressed
-him in the fashion dictated by the Hackney “faddists,” taught
-him the Hackney tricks, the preposterous Hackney action and all
-that, and have beaten the Hackneys not once but time and again
-right on their own ground, viz., at the National Horse Show in
-Madison Square Garden. In almost all cases in classes where
-trotters have been admitted to compete with Hackneys, the
-former have carried off the honors within the past two years.
-Many notable instances might be cited, but one will suffice. At
-the National Horse Show, 1896, a class was offered for “half-bred
-Hackneys,” sires to be shown with four of their get. The Hackney
-end of the argument was upheld by Mr. A. J. Cassatt’s renowned
-prize-winner, imported Cadet, with four of his get.
-Against him was entered the well-known trotting sire Almont
-Jr., 2:26, with four of his get, and though the judges were gentlemen
-identified more or less with the Hackney interest, so
-superior in form, action and style were the four youngsters by
-the trotting sire that they carried away the honors from the
-chosen progeny of one of the most noted Hackney show horses in
-the world.</p>
-
-<p>In the sale ring this verdict has been corroborated. The
-highest prices—the record figures—paid in the fashionable New
-York market for park horses, “high steppers,” or by whatever
-name the merely spectacular harness horse may from time to
-time be called, have been paid for trotting-bred horses: and in
-advertised sales of “Hackneys” it has become somewhat common
-to encounter half-trotting-bred and full-trotting-bred horses.</p>
-
-<p>While no genuine American and horseman can without regret
-see a typical American horse mutilated and his action perverted
-in the manner required to bring him into “Hackney” classes at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_408"></a>[408]</span>
-the National Horse Show, or in the markets where New York
-society people buy their stub-tailed horses, it is some compensation
-to know that these experiments have demonstrated the
-superiority of the American-bred horse even in the field claimed
-as especially that of the Hackney. And the Hackney “fad” in
-America, while it lasted, accomplished a good end in so far as it
-directed the attention of American breeders more to the importance
-of form and style, and taught them that in their own trotting
-families they have the material from which may best be
-produced, in form and style and quality as well as in speed,
-pre-eminently the most excellent park horses in the world.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_409"></a>[409]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.<br />
-<span class="smaller">INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Tendency to misrepresentation—The Bald Galloway and Darley Arabian—
-Godolphin Arabian—Early experiences with trotting pedigrees—Mr.
-Backman’s honest methods—Shanghai Mary—Capt. Rynders and Widow
-Machree—Woodburn Farm and its pedigree methods—Victimized by
-“horse sharps” and pedigree makers—Alleged pedigree of Pilot Jr.
-conclusively overthrown—Pedigrees of Edwin Forrest, Norman, Bay
-Chief and Black Rose—Maud S.’s pedigree exhaustively considered—Captain
-John W. Russell never owned the mare Maria Russell—The deadly
-parallel columns settle it.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>A few years more than forty have slipped away since I first
-began to give serious attention to the subject of horse history
-and to contribute an occasional article to the press on that subject.
-Among my very earliest observations, or I might say, experiences,
-was the realization of the fact that exaggeration as a
-habit of thought and utterance was practically universal among
-horsemen. Sometimes I have thought this tendency to the untrue
-resulted from the ammoniacal exhalations of the stable, but
-this thought is not a satisfactory solution, for some of the greatest
-liars about horses have never known anything about stables.
-Then, again, I have thought that a really skillful metaphysician
-might write a learned disquisition of the question and satisfy
-himself as to the cause of this moral delinquency, but nobody
-would be able to understand him when he had completed it.
-This wretched vice, so prevalent everywhere, was not restricted
-to the professional country “hoss jockey,” ready to “swap” with
-every man he met on the road, but it reached up to men of
-otherwise excellent character, and these men would “stretch the
-blanket” tremendously about the blood and other qualities of
-the horses they were selling. The only way we can account for
-an otherwise honest and truthful man exaggerating the merits
-and blood of his horses must be (1) in the fact that he has become
-attached to him and thinks him better than he is, or it may
-be (2) that he bought with a false pedigree and without examining<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_410"></a>[410]</span>
-it, he assumes it is true and represents it accordingly. But
-underlying all this, the representation cannot be disproved, and
-(3) it may add to the market value of the horse.</p>
-
-<p>This weakness of human nature, so pervasive of all interests
-connected with the horse, did not originate in this country, but
-came from the old world. We inherit it from our ancestors.
-“The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth
-are set on edge.” Take the case of the little bald-faced, pacing-bred
-horse known in the old records as “The Bald Galloway” and
-while it is not probable he had a single drop of Saracenic blood
-in his veins, he is fitted out with a grand pedigree, full of that
-blood. Although I have already referred to this horse as an exemplification
-of the dishonesty of the early records of English
-pedigrees, I will again look at it in a more specific manner. He
-was nothing more nor less than a little native horse, belonging
-to a tribe of noted pacers in the southwestern part of Scotland
-and in the northern part of England. These Galloways were
-probably the very last remnant of pacers to be found in Great
-Britain. He is represented in the books to have been by a horse
-called “St. Victor’s Barb;” dam by Whynot; grandam a Royal
-Mare. The Bald Galloway was foaled not later than 1708, and it
-was probably a few years earlier. His reputed sire, “St. Victor’s
-Barb,” is not to be found anywhere and was probably fictitious.
-His dam was represented to be by Whynot, and this horse was not
-foaled till 1744—thirty-six years <i>after</i> his grandson was foaled.
-The grandam is given as a “Royal Mare,” which in that day
-was a convenient way of rounding out a pedigree, just as we now
-attempt to round them out when we know nothing of the blood
-by saying “dam thoroughbred.” “The Bald Galloway” was one
-of the most successful stallions of his day, and yet he was nothing
-in the world but a good representative of the old pacing Galloways
-of that portion of Scotland then called Galloway. He
-was low in stature, but he was esteemed as one of the greatest
-and most valuable racing sires of his generation. One of his
-sons—the Carlisle Gelding—was still a race horse when he was
-eighteen years old.</p>
-
-<p>“The Darley Arabian” was contemporaneous with the Bald
-Galloway, and they commenced service in England about the
-same year. It is said he was brought from Aleppo, in Syria, or,
-perhaps I had better say Asia Minor. Aleppo is but a short distance
-from the borders of ancient Cappadocia and Cilicia, countries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_411"></a>[411]</span>
-that were famous in history for the great numbers of fine
-horses that they produced far more than a thousand years before
-the first horse was taken to Arabia. This horse is called an
-“Arabian,” and in the brief record of his importation we have
-the same venerable “chestnut” served up to us that has served
-so many generations of speculators in “Arabian blood.” The
-record says that Mr. Darley had a brother who was an agent for
-merchandise abroad, who “became a member of a hunting club,
-by which means he acquired interest to procure this horse.”
-This “gag” has been played too often to give <i>éclat</i> to horses
-claimed to be brought from Arabia, in the past two hundred
-years, to have much effect on the minds of people who have any
-sense. That it required great social or political influence to induce
-the old Arab sheik to part with him, was intended merely
-to secure the attention of prospective customers to his superlative
-excellence in order to obtain their patronage. This horse
-probably never was within five hundred miles of the nearest part
-of Arabia, and to call him an Arabian is a misnomer wholly unjustifiable.
-He came from a country where horses were abundant
-and cheap on all sides, and of a quality far superior to any
-Arabian. He was simply a Turk, he was for sale, and it required
-no influence to buy him except the contents of the purchaser’s
-purse. This horse has always been classed as one of the two
-great founders of the English race horse. His progeny from
-well-bred mares were not numerous, and his greatest distinction
-is in the fact that he was the sire of Flying Childers. In accordance
-with the truth, he should be known in the records as
-“Darley’s Turk.”</p>
-
-<p>The horse bearing the dishonest misnomer of “Godolphin
-Arabian” was really the greatest regenerator and upbuilder of
-the running horse that England ever possessed. There seems to
-be no historical doubt that he was brought from France, and that
-is all we know about his origin and early history. It may be laid
-down, therefore, as a safe proposition, that the odds are as a thousand
-to one that he was a French horse. The only evidence that
-can ever be furnished as to the strain of blood that he may have
-possessed must be found and studied in his portrait, which appears
-in this volume. I believe this portrait to be a correct and
-true delineation of the horse, and there is not a single lineament
-in or about it that indicates the blood of either the Arabian or
-the Barb. His pedigree is in his picture, and, from what is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_412"></a>[412]</span>
-known in history and from what has been preserved in art, instead
-of “Godolphin Arabian” his true title should be “Godolphin
-Frenchman.” But this subject has been discussed at greater
-length in the chapter on the English Race Horse, to which my
-reader is here referred.</p>
-
-<p>In the chapter on the American Race Horse, I think sufficient
-attention has been given to the frauds and impossibilities that
-are to be found everywhere in the extended pedigrees of our own
-running horses to satisfy any one that the remote extensions of
-pedigrees are a great mass of dishonest rubbish, with scarcely a
-speck of truth to be found. I will, therefore, pass along to the
-consideration of some of the difficulties, of the same nature, that
-have been developed in investigating and recording the pedigrees
-of the American Trotting Horse. In entering the untrodden
-wilderness of trotting-horse history it became the ambition of
-my life to reach the truth in every possible instance and to cut
-off and reject all frauds wherever they showed their heads. This
-meant war from the beginning with a great many horsemen, but
-it also meant the enthusiastic support of a great many honest
-men. The trouble, at this point, was in the fact that a number
-of prominent, wealthy and influential breeders insisted upon
-their right to state their pedigrees in their own way and thus
-compel me to indorse them by inserting them in the Trotting
-Register. When at work on the early volumes of the Register,
-especially the first, if a man of unblemished reputation and intelligence
-sent me a list of his stock to be registered, I assumed
-that he had too much regard for his reputation and standing as
-a breeder to print a lot of pedigrees in his catalogue that he did
-not <i>know</i> to be correct, and hence I accepted many a pedigree
-that was based upon fiction. In course of time it began to dawn
-upon my understanding that there were many men in the world
-of unsullied reputation, as they were known in their business
-relations, who would stand up boldly for a fiction or a fraud in
-the pedigrees of their stock. It is but just to say that all the men
-who uttered fraudulent pedigrees were not equally guilty, for in
-some cases the owners had been victimized by unscrupulous
-rogues from whom they had purchased, and in others they had
-been betrayed by the still more unscrupulous rogues whom they
-had employed to make up their catalogues on the supposition
-that they were capable and honest. This state of things soon
-developed another line of thought and observation in my mind<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_413"></a>[413]</span>
-which evolved a rule by which I could determine the difference between
-the degrees of honesty among horsemen. One man, when
-a fiction in a pedigree was pointed out, would go to work and
-carefully investigate it; while another would hang and higgle
-about it and finally investigate, not to find the truth, but to find
-how many old rummies, swipes and negroes he could get together,
-who would support his claim and swear to it for a half-dollar
-each. The first man investigates to find the truth wherever
-it may lead; while the second man investigates merely, not
-to find the truth, but to find some kind of evidence to sustain
-the untruth. In the everyday affairs of life these two men may
-stand on the same plane, but, at heart, the one is honest and the
-other a rogue.</p>
-
-<p>When Mr. Charles Backman founded the great Stonyford
-breeding farm in Orange County, New York, he was an excellent
-horseman, in a general sense, although he did not pretend to
-know much about pedigrees. About 1869 he placed all his pedigrees
-in my hands with the request that I would give them a
-careful examination, strike out everything that was wrong and
-note everything that was doubtful or uncertain, that it might be
-investigated and the truth fully determined, no difference where
-it might lead. Many investigations followed which were conducted
-by his secretary, Mr. Shipman, either by mail or
-by personal visitation—so many, indeed, that Mr. Shipman
-became quite an expert in this kind of difficult work. As
-an illustration of the methods pursued, one instance will
-serve to show how it was done, and more than this, it is a
-very interesting history in itself. In the first volume of the
-Register I had entered Green Mountain Maid, the dam of the
-famous Electioneer and all that family, as “by Harry Clay, dam
-said to be by Lexington.” This was the form in which Mr.
-Backman had received the pedigree, except that it was stated
-positively and without any “said to be” that the dam was by
-Lexington, the great running horse. After a time I called Mr.
-Backman’s attention to this “said to be” and suggested that if
-the mare was really a daughter of Lexington she could certainly
-be traced and established. The next day, Mr. Shipman started
-to Western New York and to Ohio. On his trip he found the
-mare had been known in Western New York as the “Angelica
-Mare” and afterward as “Shanghai Mary,” that she was a trotter,
-well known locally, and that she had trotted a race and won<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_414"></a>[414]</span>
-at a State fair, in very fast time for that day. She had been
-brought from Ohio by some sheep-dealers, who were able to give
-her exact age, and it was thus found that she was older than her
-reputed sire. Several expert horsemen, from a picture secured
-by Mr. Shipman on his trip, have not hesitated to give it as a
-strong conviction that she belonged to the Cadmus family, in
-Southern Ohio. In the last two or three years a correspondent
-of the Chicago <i>Horse Review</i> brings out some local facts that
-make it almost morally certain that she was bred by Goldsmith
-Coffein, of Red Lion, Ohio, and that she was got by Iron’s Cadmus,
-the sire of the great Pocahontas. The final nail has not
-been clinched in establishing this pedigree, and probably never
-will be, but the circumstances are so fully detailed as to scarcely
-leave room for a doubt that she was a half-sister to the famous
-Pocahontas.</p>
-
-<p>From what has here been said about the methods of Mr.
-Backman, the leading breeder of that period, in the North,
-it should not be inferred that all Northern breeders were
-like him. The first real battle I ever had against fraudulent
-pedigrees originated in Orange County, New York, with the
-notorious Captain Rynders, in which the pedigree of the once
-famous Widow Machree, the dam of Aberdeen, was involved. The
-pedigree of this mare had been registered as obtained from Mr.
-James W. Hoyt, who once owned her, and her dam was given as
-by Durland’s Messenger Duroc. When Aberdeen came before
-the public for patronage, his owner, Rynders, advertised him as
-out of Widow Machree and she out of a mare by Abdallah.
-This was challenged as untrue by Mr. Guy Miller and Mr. Joseph
-Gavin, of Orange County, and I was called upon to demand the
-evidence upon which the change had been made from Messenger
-Duroc to Abdallah. As a matter of course “the fat was in the
-fire” at once, and out came Rynders with a terrific explosion of
-anger, abounding in threats and denunciations against anybody
-and everybody who attempted to interfere with his “business.”
-The good names of Guy Miller and Joseph Gavin carried too
-much weight as against that of Isaiah Rynders, and, as his last
-card, he brought out a duly and formally executed affidavit,
-sworn to by a man whose name I will not here mention, stating
-that he bred the Abdallah mare; all of which was the very rankest
-perjury, which was so easily exposed that it did Rynders far
-more harm than good. At last the whole truth came out in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_415"></a>[415]</span>
-form that was complete and conclusive, showing that the mare
-in question was bred by Garrett Duryea, of Bethel, Sullivan
-County, New York, and was got by a horse known as Pintler’s
-Bolivar. Rynders had been a leader in New York politics so
-long that he knew just how to manage things where the truth
-must be suppressed. He was a liberal advertiser, the two sporting
-papers were needy for patronage in that line, and their
-columns were closed to any and all communications against his
-side of the question. But all this failed to suppress the truth
-and uphold a fraud, and I doubt whether there is a man living
-to-day who does not believe that the fight was fairly and honestly
-won. This contest taught me a very important lesson, and that
-was, that if I expected to fight bogus pedigrees I must have a
-channel of communication of my own. Hence <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>,
-which, in its day, was not only able to expose bogus pedigrees,
-but lead intelligent thought and experience on all breeding subjects,
-till it fell into the hands of an unscrupulous neocracy,
-where it soon died for want of brains.</p>
-
-<p>Having given a very brief illustration of the methods which
-governed Mr. Backman in ascertaining and determining the
-blood elements which entered into the foundation of his great
-breeding establishment, and the care and promptness with which
-errors were eliminated, it is now in order to take a glance at the
-methods pursued at the great Woodburn Farm, founded by R.
-A. Alexander in Kentucky. These were the two earliest establishments,
-of any prominence, for breeding the trotter, in the
-whole country. The one was the northern center of the interest
-and the other the southern, and they together may be considered
-as representative of both sections. Mr. Alexander, I think, was
-reared and educated in Scotland, and there inherited a large
-estate. Upon coming into this inheritance he determined to
-transfer his interests to Kentucky, where he bought up a cluster
-of farms and shaped them for the purpose of building up a mammoth
-establishment for the breeding of all varieties of domestic
-animals of the highest type and excellence. I think his fancy
-ran more to Short Horn cattle than to any other line of breeding,
-probably because he knew more about the value and merit of
-the different tribes of that breed than he did of any other variety.
-The founding of an establishment so immense, and for the grand
-purpose of the breeding and improving the varieties of domestic
-animals, was the agricultural sensation of the period, and everybody,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_416"></a>[416]</span>
-from one end of the land to the other, soon knew of and
-applauded the great enterprise. There had been great enterprises
-on similar lines before, and there have been even greater
-ones since, but Mr. Alexander’s Woodburn Farm, of Kentucky,
-may always be looked upon as the real pioneer in stock breeding
-on a large and methodical scale, and without limit as to resources.
-A university education in Scotland, with all its training
-in the refinements of logical distinctions, did not bring to
-Mr. Alexander a knowledge of the pedigrees of Kentucky horses,
-nor did it train him in the detection of the tricks of Kentucky
-horse dealers, and thus as a purchaser of his breeding stock he
-was looked upon by the “sharps” as a fat goose, ready to be
-plucked. After these “sharps” had secured their pluckings,
-Mr. Alexander called in a professional pedigreeist to put the
-lines of the blood he had purchased in order and print a catalogue.
-This “professional” was not a pedigree <i>tracer</i>, for he
-never traced anything in his life, but a pedigree <i>maker</i>, and
-wherever he thought that anything was needed he added it,
-whether true or not, and it went to the world in that form. This
-is more conspicuously true in the department of trotting pedigrees,
-as will appear below. Thus the acts of an incapable and
-dishonest employee were given the indorsement of an honorable
-and eminent name; falsehoods were made to appear as truths;
-counterfeits were put in circulation that are still circulating as
-genuine coin, with many people. Under the circumstances, Mr.
-Alexander could hardly be blamed, for, knowing nothing of such
-matters of his own knowledge, he employed what he supposed
-was the best authority then to be found. For my own part,
-when I came to register the Woodburn stock, I was ready to
-accept as true whatever I found in the catalogue, believing that
-Mr. Alexander was incapable of publishing to the world a misrepresentation.
-In this estimate of his character I was right, and
-I have never changed my opinion on that point, but when I came
-to examine the structure of his catalogue I found there was rotten
-wood all through it. A few examples that have been carefully
-investigated will serve to show the value of the work done
-by the “pedigree maker” for Mr. Alexander.</p>
-
-<p>Pilot Jr. was a gray horse, foaled 1844, was got by Old Pacing
-Pilot and attained the distinction of being the head of a well-known
-family of trotters. He was foaled 1844, bred by Angereau
-Gray, and owned a number of years by Glasgow &amp; Heinsohn, of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_417"></a>[417]</span>
-Louisville, Kentucky. He was kept a number of years about
-Lexington, Kentucky, by Dr. Herr, Mr. Bradley, and perhaps
-others, and always advertised as “by Pilot (the pacer), dam
-Nancy Pope, grandam Nancy Taylor.” Nobody then ever pretended
-to know what horse was the sire of either Nancy Pope or
-Nancy Taylor. He was then owned by the parties who afterward
-sold him to Mr. Alexander, and it is evident they did not then
-know anything about the sires of these mares. Mr. Alexander
-bought him in 1858, and immediately his “pedigree maker”
-furnished the sires of these two mares; Nancy Pope was given as
-by Havoc, son of Sir Charles, and Nancy Taylor as by imported
-Alfred. The controversy about this pedigree was long and
-sharp, the one side, headed by the modern management at Woodburn,
-as usual laboring to sustain the infallibility of the Woodburn
-catalogues, and the other to reach the exact truth, whatever
-it might be. The Board of Censors of the National Breeders’
-Association sent out a call for information on certain abstract
-points and finally reached a decision as follows: (1) That Havoc,
-the reputed sire of Nancy Pope, the dam of Pilot Jr., died in
-1828. (2) That Nancy Pope was not foaled till 1832. (3) That
-the breeding of Nancy Taylor, the dam of Nancy Pope, was unknown.
-These dates were fixed by undoubted evidence, and, as
-afterward developed, another might have been added with equal
-authenticity. Imported Alfred, the reputed sire of Nancy Taylor,
-was not imported till several years after Nancy Taylor was
-foaled, and thus it was clearly shown by the absolutely insuperable
-difficulties of dates that both the sires inserted in the pedigree
-were nothing more than very stupid fictions.</p>
-
-<p>Edwin Forrest seems to have held second place in the list of
-stallions in the Woodburn Stud at that period, and the remote
-extensions of his pedigree were also fictitious. His grandam
-was represented to be by Duroc, the famous son of imported
-Diomed, and his great-grandam by imported Messenger. The
-first two crosses were technically inaccurately stated, but the
-second two, as given here, were purely fictitious.</p>
-
-<p>Norman, the third stallion in the catalogue, had his sire correctly
-given as the Morse Horse, but his dam was given as by
-Jersey Highlander and his grandam as by Bishop’s Hambletonian,
-son of Messenger, both of which were wholly fictitious.
-His dam was by a horse called Magnum Bonum, a representative
-of a family of that name, and that is all that is known of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_418"></a>[418]</span>
-pedigree. A full showing of this pedigree will be found in the
-“Trotting Register,” Vol. III.</p>
-
-<p>Bay Chief was a bay son of Mambrino Chief, with a bald face,
-and was often called Bald Chief. He was the sensational trotter
-of the whole Mambrino Chief family, and I believe it is true that
-when four years old he showed a half-mile on Mr. Alexander’s
-track in 1:08 and repeated in 1:08½. In the catalogue he is
-given as foaled in 1859, got by Mambrino Chief, dam by Keokuk,
-son of imported Truffle; grandam a thoroughbred mare by Stamboul
-Arabian. As this was found in Mr. Alexander’s catalogue
-I took it for granted it must be true, but I never had heard of a
-running horse called Keokuk before, and I kept hunting for ever
-so many years without finding hide nor hair of him, until 1885,
-when the whole mystery was developed. Mr. Richard Johnson,
-of Scott County, Kentucky, had business interests in Keokuk,
-Iowa, in the early fifties, probably locating land warrants, and he
-bought a pair of mares in Keokuk to travel over the prairies, and
-when he was through with his work he brought the team home
-with him to Scott County. He knew nothing whatever of the
-breeding of those mares, but they were a good pair of drivers
-and one of them was quite a smart roadster that he called “Old
-Keokuk.” He bred this mare, Keokuk, in 1858 to Mambrino
-Chief, and in 1859 she produced the colt called Bay Chief. In
-1862 he was bred to some sixteen or eighteen mares, and the fall
-of that year Mr. Alexander bought the colt at public auction,
-paying one thousand dollars for him. He was taken to Woodburn,
-put in training and never covered any more mares. In the
-spring of 1865 he was killed in a raid of Southern troops upon
-the horse stock at Woodburn. (For further particulars of this
-little sketch the reader is referred to <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for 1885,
-page 285.) To fix up a pedigree for the maternal side of this
-colt was no easy matter, but Mr. Alexander’s “pedigree maker”
-proved himself fully equal to the occasion. There was the nasty
-name Keokuk fastened to the old mare, and it would stick as
-tight as wax to the end of her days, coming from a region where
-there was no drop of running blood; so he made a “thoroughbred”
-horse, right on the spot, and gave him the name of Keokuk,
-which would account for the name of the mare, and pronounced
-him a son of imported Truffle. To supply a “thoroughbred”
-grandam was comparatively easy, for Mr. Johnson had long been
-a resident of Scott County, and the horse Stamboul had been kept<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_419"></a>[419]</span>
-in that county, hence there could be no doubt that she was a
-“thoroughbred” daughter of that horse. With this review of
-the misfortunes of Mr. Alexander in placing the arrangement
-and, I might say, care of his pedigrees, in dishonest hands, we
-will pass whatever may remain of his early stallions, and take a
-glance at some of the pedigrees of his brood mares.</p>
-
-<p>Black Rose proved to be one of the best brood mares ever
-owned at Woodburn. I am told she was a pacer, and certainly
-all that is known of her blood was pacing blood. She was sought
-after and procured by Mr. Alexander because she had produced
-several trotters, and it can be read all through his purchases for
-the trotting stud, that he had undoubting confidence in the
-theory that trotters must come from trotters. When this mare
-first appeared in the Woodburn catalogue no dam was given to
-her, but meantime the “pedigree maker” had come around, and
-the next year she was fitted out with the following, in fine style.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Black Rose, bl. m., foaled about 1847; got by Tom Teemer; dam by Cannon’s
-Whip; g. d. by Robin Gray, son of imp. Royalist.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The pedigree stood in this form a number of years, and probably
-would still be so standing had it not been that in trying to
-learn something more about the sire, Tom Teemer, I received
-some intimations that made me doubtful about the maternal side.
-On a certain occasion I asked Mr. R. S. Veech, of Kentucky, what
-he knew about it, and he replied that he had made a trip to
-Clark County for no other purpose than to trace and investigate
-the pedigree of Black Rose, and he was not able to get a single
-syllable of information about her dam, any more than if she never
-had a dam. Some time afterward I wrote to Mr. Brodhead,
-manager at Woodburn, inquiring where the pedigree of Black
-Rose as given and perpetuated in the Woodburn catalogues came
-from and on what basis it rested. He replied promptly and
-briefly that Mr. Veech had made a trip to Clark County in search
-of this pedigree and the result of that search was what appeared
-in the catalogue. These are the facts, substantially, as given
-me by these two gentlemen, and this is the first time I have ever
-given them to the public. I have known Mr. Veech intimately
-and trustingly for twenty-eight years and I know him to be eminently
-truthful. I have not known Mr. Brodhead so long, and if
-he had not published the fraudulent extension of this pedigree
-in his catalogues every year for more than ten years, before Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_420"></a>[420]</span>
-Veech made his trip to Clark County, I might at least express
-my sympathy with him in having so bad a memory. Mr. Brodhead
-had nothing to do with either the original construction or
-utterance of this fraud, for he was not then connected with the
-management of Woodburn. My readers can employ their own
-terms in characterizing, as it deserves, the fraudulent act of
-manufacturing a pedigree out of whole cloth; and they can also
-exercise their own ethical discrimination in determining whether
-the man who executes the fraud is any worse than the man who
-maintains and supports it after he knows it is fraudulent.</p>
-
-<p>We pass on to Sally Russell, the grandam of Maud S. It is
-not a pleasant task to review an old controversy, whatever it
-might bring to light; but a controversy which involves the true
-lines of descent of so great a family as that of Maud S., Nutwood,
-Lord Russell, etc., is worth preserving for the enlightenment of
-future generations. It all turns upon the breeding of Sally
-Russell and the identity of her breeder. She was a little chestnut
-mare, represented to have been foaled 1850, got by Boston
-and out of Maria Russell, by Rattler, and so on, claimed to be
-thoroughbred. She was bought by Mr. Alexander from the foreman
-on Captain John W. Russell’s farm, with the pedigree given
-as above. The name of her breeder was not given to Mr. Alexander,
-I think, but Bruce has it that her dam, Maria Russell, and
-this mare Sally Russell were both bred by Benjamin Luckett. In
-1863 this mare was offered, with others, to the highest bidder, at
-Mr. Alexander’s annual sale, being then thirteen years, old according
-to the records of the establishment, and the auctioneer
-was not able to coax a bid of ten dollars on her and she was led
-out unsold. Five years later—1868—I attended the Woodburn
-sale, and a little scrubby-looking old mare was brought into the
-ring, represented to have been stinted to imported Australian,
-and when this was announced a subdued whisper went round
-the ring, “She’ll never raise another foal.” The auctioneer was
-eloquent upon the value of the Australian blood on the Boston
-blood, and the possibilities of the coming foal, but all to no purpose,
-as the mare was led out of the ring the second time, with
-no person willing to bid a dollar. I was astonished that such an
-animal should have been put up at auction, for she had all the
-appearance of being twenty-eight instead of eighteen. She died
-that summer, apparently of old age, and I have no shadow of
-doubt that she sank under the weight of years. On two separate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_421"></a>[421]</span>
-occasions great crowds of practical horsemen had, in this manner,
-proclaimed that Mr. Alexander had been victimized in the
-age of the mare, and fifteen years later I determined to settle the
-question as to whether this judgment was right.</p>
-
-<p>As the supposed age and breeding of Sally Russell has been
-made to turn and rest upon the ownership of her dam, Maria
-Russell, it is important that we should have the antecedent circumstances
-set out in the plainest possible manner. Captain
-John A. Holton and Captain John W. Russell were farmers in
-Kentucky, living a few miles apart, and I think they were both
-river men at one time or another; certainly Russell was in command
-of a snag boat on the Ohio and Mississippi along about
-1836-40. Like many other Kentucky farmers, they both bred a
-few running horses, but not enough, singly, to justify the expense
-of separate training establishments, so they united their
-strings in one stable, sharing the expense and dividing the
-profits, if any, equally. The partnership did not extend to the
-joint ownership of any of the horses, but simply to the losses or
-profits of training and racing, and Major Benjamin Luckett was
-in their employ as trainer.</p>
-
-<p>Before going to work in earnest on this investigation, I learned
-that Mr. Llewellyn Holton, a son of Captain John A. Holton,
-still resided on the old farm and that he was old enough to know
-all about the origin and history of Maria Russell, as well as the
-other stock belonging to his father at that time. This was very
-encouraging, but I wanted to know whether he was a man who
-could be relied upon to tell the truth. On this point I addressed
-an inquiry to the late Colonel R. P. Pepper, and his reply is as
-follows: “Your letter of the 29th received. I regard L. Holton,
-of this county, as a man of honor, integrity and intelligence, and
-the peer of any gentleman of my acquaintance. In my opinion
-any statement he will make upon any subject, as to his own
-knowledge, will be accepted in this community as readily as that
-of any gentleman in it. He is a man who sometimes gets on
-sprees from intoxicating liquors, but I have never heard of it
-affecting his intelligence, honor or integrity, and, as above
-stated, his word will be accepted in this community at this time
-as soon as the word of any gentleman in this county or community.”</p>
-
-<p>With this very high indorsement I did not hesitate to send a
-commissioner to interview Mr. Holton and get from him the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_422"></a>[422]</span>
-exact facts in the case, without any leading questions and without
-any shading of the truth or bias on either side. What this
-commissioner learned will be given further on.</p>
-
-<p>Let us now turn to the other side and see how Mr. Brodhead
-manages to get Maria Russell into the ownership of Captain
-John W. Russell. Under date of April 30, 1883, he wrote to the
-<i>Turf, Field and Farm</i> as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“A Colonel Shepherd, of the South—New Orleans, I think—gave or sold to
-Captain J. W. Russell and Captain J. A. Holton a Stockholder mare, out of
-Miranda, by Topgallant, etc. This mare was called Miss Shepherd. They owned
-and bred this mare in partnership. Among the produce thus owned were
-Maria Russell by Rattler, Mary Bell by Sea Gull, and Swiss Boy by imported
-Swiss. Captain Russell sold his half of Swiss Boy to Mr. Taylor, son-in-law of
-Ben Luckett, for $750. Maria Russell was owned and run as a partnership
-mare by Holton and Russell, but was trained by Major Ben Luckett.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Then follows a lot of stuff, without any relevancy whatever,
-going to show that Ben Luckett trained her at three years old,
-but had no connection whatever with the family, all of which is
-known to everybody, and then he again asserts that “in the division
-of the partnership property, Maria Russell fell to Captain
-Russell.” The next dash that Mr. Brodhead makes is for a negro
-seventy-five years old, who had been in the Russell family from
-his birth, named Jesse Dillon. Jesse was no exception to his
-race, or indeed to many of the white race, for whenever any information
-is wanted from them they are always ready to give it,
-as they expect at least one half-dollar, and if they tell the story
-“right up to what is wanted” they expect two. Jesse was sharp
-enough to discover just what his interviewers were after, and he
-was ready to supply “the long-felt want.” Jesse was able to tell
-just how the mare got her eye knocked out and just how he took
-her to Blackburn’s and had her bred to Boston. In all this, including
-the loss of the eye and the trip to Blackburn’s, Jesse
-may have had in his mind Captain Russell’s one-eyed mare, Mary
-Churchill, while his interviewers were thinking about Maria
-Russell. It is no uncommon thing for white people as well as
-black, at seventy-five, to get names of forty or fifty years past
-confused.</p>
-
-<p>This is all of Mr. Brodhead’s case so far as what he presents
-has any relevancy to the point at issue, namely, the identity and
-ownership of the mare Maria Russell. The pedigree was not
-made at Woodburn; Mr. Alexander in this case as in many others<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_423"></a>[423]</span>
-was simply the victim of the sharper. The only shadow of evidence
-that has been presented that the pedigree might be true is
-the evidence of a superannuated negro, Jesse Dillon. For the
-Woodburn side of the case the reader is referred to <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i> for June, 1883, page 366. In replying to this case I will
-try to summarize the different considerations as briefly as possible.</p>
-
-<p><i>First.</i> The case is opened with the assumption that Colonel
-Shepherd presented the mare Miss Shepherd, by Stockholder, to
-Captain J. W. Russell and Captain J. A. Holton. We might
-laugh at this by asking which half he gave to Russell and which
-half to Holton? This is merely constructing a theory by which
-the ownership of Russell might be maintained. It is safe to say
-the mare was given to Holton and to Holton alone, and here is
-the proof of it. There is a silver cup, now in possession of Mr.
-Bowen, grandson of J. A. Holton, with this inscription: “J. A.
-Holton, awarded by Franklyn Agricultural Society, 1836, for
-filly Maria Russell.” Where is Captain J. W. Russell’s ownership
-at that date?</p>
-
-<p><i>Second.</i> When S. D. Bruce was compiling his Stud Book, Captain
-John W. Russell had his thoroughbred stock entered there.
-There were several brood mares with their produce under them,
-but where were Maria Russell and her daughter Sally Russell?
-They appear as the property of Ben Luckett, when everybody
-knows he had nothing to do with them. As Captain Russell did
-not have them entered when he was entering his other stock, I
-must take it as <i>prima facie</i> evidence that he did not own them
-at that time.</p>
-
-<p><i>Third.</i> It is now in imperishable evidence that John W. Russell
-did not own Maria Russell in 1836, and that he did not own
-her at the time Bruce was compiling his Stud Book, and now
-the question is, was there ever a time when he did own her? To
-answer this question we must turn to Llewellyn Holton, the only
-man then living who knew and had a right to know all about
-the history of this mare. His statement is as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Forks of Elkhorn</span>. May 24, 1883.</p>
-
-<p>“This is to certify that my father, Captain John A. Holton, was, for a number
-of years, interested with Captain John W. Russell in a number of thoroughbreds,
-and they raced them in partnership. When they dissolved and divided
-the stock, I am positively certain that my father retained all the descendants
-of the Stockholder mare—among them Maria Russell, and all her produce—and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_424"></a>[424]</span>
-I know to my certain knowledge that Captain Russell never owned or had
-in his possession the mare Maria Russell, or any of her produce; and I further
-know to my certain knowledge that said mare, Maria Russell, had two good
-eyes from the time of her foaling until the day of her death. If my father
-bred a mare to Boston in 1848, I incline to the opinion that it was a bay mare
-called Limber, for the reason that she, Limber, was very uncertain, having
-missed several seasons. There is one point, however, that I feel very certain
-upon, and that is that neither my father nor Captain Russell, during their racing
-or breeding career, ever owned a Boston filly. As Boston was the most
-famous horse of his time, it is not at all possible that there could have been a
-Boston colt or filly on my father’s farm and I not knowing of the fact. I was
-born in the old homestead the 15th of November, 1820, and have resided either
-there or adjoining all my life; therefore I had constant opportunity to know
-all about my father’s stock of horses.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">L. Holton</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“I hereby attest that the above is my father’s signature.—<span class="smcap">J. A. Holton</span>, son
-of Llewellyn Holton.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><i>Fourth.</i> With the foregoing clear and decisive statement before
-us, it is not necessary to determine whether the partnership between
-Holton and Russell embraced the joint ownership of the
-racing stock or whether the running colts of the two farms were
-brought together from year to year, and as a matter of economy
-and profit, trained and raced as one stable. This latter view of
-the question seems to be made plain. In his interview with Mr.
-Holton my commissioner reported as follows: “The horses were
-always trained by Captain Holton at his private track at the
-Forks of Elkhorn. That he, Llewellyn Holton, always went
-after the colts that were on the Russell farm when the training
-season commenced, and at the close of the racing campaign of
-the year he always took those back that came from the Russell
-stock, while those from Captain Holton’s stock were kept on the
-home farm. When the partnership between Captain Holton
-and Captain Russell was dissolved, Mr. Llewellyn Holton is positively
-certain that Captain Russell retained his own stock and
-Captain Holton his own, the latter consisting of the produce of
-the Stockholder mare, among them Maria Russell, and all her
-produce. And he is still more positively certain that neither the
-mare, Maria Russell, nor any of her produce was ever in the
-hands of Captain Russell.” At the close of each season the
-owners, respectively, took their own stock home till the next
-spring, and after a series of years each owner took his own stock
-home, and that was the end of the arrangement.</p>
-
-<p><i>Fifth.</i> In the summer of 1883 I met Mr. John W. Russell,
-son of Captain Russell, at the house of Mr. R. S. Veech, near<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_425"></a>[425]</span>
-Louisville, Kentucky, and we had some conversation on the
-question of the pedigree of Sally Russell, which had then been in
-hot controversy for some months. The subject was not a pleasant
-one to him and he either parried or negatived the few questions
-I asked. A year or two after this I met him at the Galt
-House in Louisville, and we had a very pleasant conversation.
-The controversy about Sally Russell had then subsided, and I
-asked him if he remembered his father’s thoroughbred mare
-Mary Churchill. “Oh, yes,” he said, “she was the first horse I
-ever rode, and my folks were very much afraid I would fall off
-and get hurt.” I then asked him if Mary Churchill was blind of
-one eye, and he answered he “could not remember.” My next
-question was, whether he recollected anything about Maria Russell,
-and his reply was: “Nothing that is definite.” Then followed
-the inquiry, “whether there were any traditions in the
-household going to show that his father ever owned Maria Russell,”
-and he replied: “There are no traditions that are reliable.”
-These replies were a most grateful surprise to me, and if I have
-not given the precise words used I certainly have given the precise
-meaning.</p>
-
-<p><i>Sixth.</i> Llewellyn Holton was sixty-three years old in 1883 and
-he was afflicted with physical paralysis, but his mind seems to
-have been perfectly sound and memory good for a man of his age.
-Before he had the slightest intimation that a pedigree was being
-investigated that might call him into controversy, he was asked
-about Maria Russell by one of the most prominent and distinguished
-of all the breeders of Kentucky, and that breeder wrote
-me as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I have seen Mr. L. Holton, the son of Captain John A. Holton, of this
-county, and he says his father bred and owned Maria Russell; that she was
-by Rattler, and out of a mare by Stockholder, and was foaled 1834. He says
-he thinks a man by the name of William Duvall can give some information
-about these mares. I will see him to-morrow, and write you.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>As this information about Maria Russell was elicited from Mr.
-Holton on the spur of the moment, and as he gave her pedigree
-correctly, and not only this, but gave the year in which she was
-foaled correctly, his memory, at least so far as this mare is concerned
-seems to have been remarkably good.</p>
-
-<p><i>Seventh.</i> My correspondent wrote a few days later: “I have
-just learned from William Duvall, who trained for Captain J. A.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_426"></a>[426]</span>
-Holton in 1842, that he remembers the mare Maria Russell, and
-he thinks she was by Seagull, and out of Limber, by Whipster;
-he also remembers a mare owned by Holton that was by Rattler,
-but cannot remember any more about her.” This confirms Mr.
-Holton’s recollections in a very striking and satisfactory manner.
-As a trainer Mr. Duvall did not handle the brood mares, but
-only their produce. He recalled a Seagull mare and a Rattler
-mare, that Captain Holton owned, but he attached the name
-“Maria Russell” to the wrong one. This kind of impromptu
-inaccuracy is almost always an element of strength, for it goes to
-prove that the witness has not been “coached.” He remembered
-there was a mare by Rattler in the field, and as there was no
-other Rattler mare owned by either Holton or Russell, the identity
-of Maria Russell is clearly established as the property of
-Captain Holton in 1842.</p>
-
-<p><i>Eighth.</i> With the high indorsement of Mr. Llewellyn Holton
-as a man of truth and honor, given on page 421 of this chapter;
-and with the evidence before me of his clear and unclouded
-memory in giving correctly not only the pedigrees but the year
-in which Maria Russell was foaled, and all this before there was
-any pressure or suspicion on his part as to where his disclosure
-might lead, I cannot, as an honest man, fail to believe that he
-told the truth. Thus, after leaving out all the minor evidences,
-we have the three major points fully and clearly established,
-namely, (1) the inscription on the silver cup that Captain Holton
-owned her in 1836; (2) the evidence of William Duvall that
-he owned her in 1842; and (3) the statement of Llewellyn Holton
-that he owned her always and that she died his.</p>
-
-<p><i>Ninth.</i> At the Woodburn sale of 1863 and 1868 there were certainly
-at least two hundred experienced horsemen and breeders
-present who were able to discriminate concerning a mare represented
-to be thirteen years old when she looked ten years more;
-or concerning a mare represented to be eighteen years old when
-she looked as if she were twenty-eight. Hence, no man was
-willing to bid five dollars on her. This I take it, was the personal
-judgment of every man who thought anything about it,
-and when she died a few weeks after the last sale, nobody could
-doubt that she died of old age, and nobody could doubt that Mr.
-Alexander represented her to the public just as she had been
-represented to him, both in age and breeding, by the rogue who
-victimized him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_427"></a>[427]</span></p>
-
-<p>The mare Sally Russell, the grandam of Maud S., had been
-sold to Mr. Alexander by the foreman of Captain Russell’s farm,
-and it does not appear that he represented her as having been
-bred by Captain Russell. Indeed, it was not claimed at Woodburn
-that Captain Russell bred her until a representative of that
-establishment called at my office to examine the service books of
-Boston and there found that “John Russell’s one-eyed mare”
-had been bred in 1849. If a fraud, therefore, was established
-the Russell family must bear the odium. Hence all evidence
-from that source must be considered in the light of the fact that
-every member of the family is deeply interested. But notwithstanding
-the efforts of the Russell family to preserve the father’s
-name from obloquy, and notwithstanding the trip in search of
-some superannuated darkey who could remember anything and
-everything in consideration of the <i>pour-boire</i> that would be forthcoming,
-there stood that terrible statement of Llewellyn Holton
-that could not be met by evidence. The whole matter was
-against him, and Mr. Brodhead was not happy. He knew he
-could not prove him wrong, and the only course left open was
-to get him to take back certain things that he had said on the
-ground that his memory had failed and that the fight was between
-“Old Kaintuck” and outside parties who had no business
-to interfere with Kentucky affairs. On an appointed day, therefore,
-all who were supposed to have any influence with Mr. Holton,
-in the whole countryside, met Mr. Brodhead, and they came
-down on “the poor old paralytic” hammer and tongs. They
-asked him what he remembered about all the horses, each in his
-turn, in the whole neighborhood, whether he had ever heard of
-them before or not. This was kept up a long time, but they
-could not prevail on him to take back a single specific statement
-he had made. He had said Captain Russell had never owned
-Maria Russell or any of her produce, and he would not take it
-back. He had said Maria Russell had two good eyes when she died,
-and he would not take it back. At last when the poor old invalid
-was worn out they sprung the patriotic dodge of “Kentucky
-against the world” upon him and this had some effect, but not
-enough to save the anxious “bulldozers” from a feeling of great
-depression. At last Mr. Brodhead seized a pen and indited a
-letter for him to sign, addressed to me, with the request that I
-would publish it. I am not able to say how many attempts were
-made to get such a letter as he would be willing to sign, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_428"></a>[428]</span>
-several different drafts were made, and sick and worried, and in
-order to get rid of his tormentors, he signed, and the letter came
-to me, and I published it as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Forks of Elkhorn</span>, June 12, 1883.</p>
-
-<p class="noindent">“Mr. <span class="smcap">J. H. Wallace</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: In answer to your letter to my son, of May 21, 1883, there are
-three points suggested. First, in regard to her produce (Maria Russell’s). I
-have no recollection any further. I have no data from which I could find out
-concerning them. Second, I have no remembrance of her death nor the manner
-of it. Now, in regard to the statement I made to Mr. John K. Stringfield.
-I think he has made it too strong, for I told him my statement was from memory
-only, and that I could not nor would not swear to it. Since that time I
-have had sufficient proof to overbalance my memory, and circumstances called
-to mind that have convinced me I was in error. I simply stated what I
-believed to be true at that time. I have no interest in the matter whatever—only
-want to be understood. I trust that you will oblige me by publishing the
-above letter.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">L. Holton</span>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It must have been a most pitiful sight to see six or eight able-bodied
-men, headed by the stalwart Brodhead, acting as chief
-inquisitor, circling round the reclining form of a poor old invalid,
-trying to convince him that he had no memory and that he was
-a liar, prodding him with questions about horses that he never
-had heard of, and when he failed to tell them, torturing him with
-remarks that if he couldn’t answer that question how could he
-know so well about Maria Russell? But with all their tortures
-they couldn’t force him to say his father did not own Maria Russell
-all her life and that she did not die with two good eyes. It was
-simply a little Spanish Inquisition on the waters of the Elkhorn
-from which came the cry, “Recant, Recant,” dinged into the
-ears of the helpless paralytic. Still, helpless as he was against
-so many, he obeyed his conscience and maintained his integrity,
-notwithstanding all the satanic arts of Torquemada. When all
-else had failed the war-cry was shouted in his ear: “New York is
-trying to destroy the breeding interests of Kentucky, and all true
-Kentuckians must stand by each other or we all go under.”
-The old man brightened up and said: “I’m a Kentuckian, but
-you mustn’t try to make me a self-convicted liar.” The piece of
-patchwork given above, in the shape of a letter, was then
-shaped up by his tormentors, for the old man was not able to
-write a line, and dispatched to the office of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>,
-where it was printed just as it was received. Each one of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_429"></a>[429]</span>
-tormentors made a copy of it, and no one of them was satisfied
-with it; even the inquisitor-general said it fell far short of what
-they wanted, but that by industriously speaking of it as a recantation,
-the public would soon come to treat it as a recantation.</p>
-
-<p>When, after years of fruitless effort, Mr. Brodhead, manager
-at Woodburn Farm, got control of registration, he made an early
-move to have the cloud removed from the pedigree of the stallion
-Lord Russell, and brought the matter before the neocracy of
-his own creation, of which he was himself the head and brains,
-and the action thereon was published in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for
-February, 1893. The presentation is imposing in length and
-abounds in many things that have no possible bearing on the
-question at issue. Unfortunately I have no means of determining
-the extent to which the crime of the interpolation or excision
-has been made manifest except in two of the exhibits which I
-will give. In Exhibit 1 (Holton’s letter above) the following
-words are interpolated: “and in justice to all I correct my statement.”
-These words are not very important to the meaning,
-but they are very important as indicating the accuracy, and hence
-reliability, of a witness. In the same exhibit Mr. Brodhead says:
-“I insist that you will oblige me,” etc., while the original uses
-the word “trust” instead of “insist.” Again, Mr. Brodhead has
-his letter dated June 11, 1893, instead of June 12, 1883, as it is
-in the original. The variation of the dates here seems to have
-had a purpose, whatever it may have been. This letter must
-have been a great trouble, for I have seen three or four copies
-of it, so called, and no two of them alike.</p>
-
-<p>I was duly notified that the question of Sally Russell’s pedigree
-would be brought up at that meeting, and requested to be there
-to sustain my view of that question. The court and the jury
-were made up of Brodhead’s creatures, and organized simply to
-register his edicts. The wise man said, “Surely in vain the net
-is spread in the sight of any bird.” The bird looked on, from a
-safe distance, and saw the fowler impaled in his own snare, by his
-own act, and his true character revealed to the world. It is very
-difficult to understand just why it should have been deemed
-necessary to cut out the very pith and heart of Mr. Holton’s
-letter, when he knew that it would make no difference with his
-court whether there was any evidence at all. Under the law of
-retribution, a man’s character may be determined by his own
-acts.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_430"></a>[430]</span></p>
-
-<div>
-
-<div class="left">
-
-<h3>HOLTON’S TRUE STATEMENT.</h3>
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Forks of Elkhorn</span>, May 24, 1883.</p>
-
-<p>“This is to certify that my father,
-Captain John A. Holton, was for a
-number of years interested with Captain
-John Russell in a number of
-thoroughbreds, and they raced them
-in partnership. When they dissolved
-and divided the stock, I am positively
-certain that my father retained all the
-descendants of the Stockholder mare—among
-them Maria Russell and all
-of her produce AND I KNOW
-TO MY CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE
-THAT CAPTAIN RUSSELL NEVER
-OWNED OR HAD IN HIS POSSESSION
-THE MARE MARIA
-RUSSELL, OR ANY OF HER PRODUCE.
-And I further know to my
-certain knowledge that said mare,
-Maria Russell, had two good eyes
-from the time of her foaling until
-the day of her death. If my father
-bred a mare to Boston in 1848, I incline
-to the opinion that it was a bay mare
-we owned called Limber, for the reason
-that she, Limber, was very uncertain,
-having missed several seasons.
-There is one point, however, that I
-feel very certain upon, and that is,
-that neither my father nor Captain
-Russell, during their racing or breeding
-career, ever owned a Boston filly.
-As Boston was the most famous horse
-of his time, it is not at all possible
-that there could have been a Boston
-colt or filly on my father’s farm and I
-not knowing of the fact. I was born
-in the old homestead the 15th of November,
-1820, and have resided either
-there or adjoining all my life; therefore
-I had constant opportunity to
-know all about my father’s stock of
-horses.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">L. Holton.</span></p>
-
-<p>“I hereby attest that the above is my
-father’s signature.—<span class="smcap">J. A. Holton</span>, son
-of Llewellyn Holton.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="right">
-
-<h3>BRODHEAD’S REPRESENTATION OF IT.</h3>
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Forks, Elkhorn</span>, May 24, 1883.</p>
-
-<p>“This is to certify that my father,
-Captain John A. Holton, was for a number
-of years interested with Captain
-John Russell in a number of thoroughbreds,
-and they raced them in partnership.
-When they dissolved, and divided
-the stock, I am positively certain that
-my father retained all the descendants
-of the Stockholder mare, among them
-Maria Russell and all her produce, and
-I know to my certain knowledge that
-said Maria Russell had two good eyes
-from the time of her foaling until the
-day of her death. If my father bred a
-mare to Boston in 1848, I incline to the
-opinion that it was a bay mare he
-owned called Limber, for the reason
-that she, Limber, was very uncertain,
-having missed several seasons. There
-is one point, however, that I feel very
-certain upon, and that is that neither
-my father nor Captain Russell during
-their racing or breeding career ever
-owned a Boston filly. As Boston was
-the most famous horse of his time, it
-is not at all possible that there could
-have been a Boston colt or filly on my
-father’s farm and I not knowing of the
-fact. I was born in the old homestead
-the 15th of November, 1820, and have
-resided either there or adjoining all my
-life; therefore I had constant opportunity
-to know all about my father’s
-stock of horses.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">L. Holton.</span></p>
-
-<p>“I hereby attest that the above is my
-father’s signature.—<span class="smcap">J. A. Holton</span>,
-son of L. Holton.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_431"></a>[431]</span></p>
-
-<p>The deadly parallel columns tell the whole story. The central
-and most important fact in Mr. Holton’s statement has been deliberately
-and carefully cut out by Mr. Brodhead, and the evidence
-that he did so cannot be wiped out either by money or by
-the torture of invalids. The testimony of cold type remains forever.
-Has Mr. Brodhead, it is asked, professed to have given
-the whole of Mr. Holton’s statement, and suppressed a vital part
-of it? He has given every word and letter of the statement,
-from the date line to the signature, except the one sentence that
-is the life and soul of the whole statement, and that sentence I
-have printed above in capital letters, so that it may be easily distinguished
-and compared. For years I have known that Mr.
-Brodhead possessed most remarkable visual powers. When he
-wanted to see a thing he could see it through a stone wall and
-without any assistance from the “X-rays,” and when he didn’t
-want to see a thing he couldn’t see it even when held up to his
-very nose under an arc light. The deception practiced here
-might justly be designated by a harder name, for it was deliberately
-planned and carried out in order to gain an end by suppressing
-the truth. Why did he not free himself from his marvelous
-powers of vision, and looking out of the natural eyes of his mind,
-see the imminent danger of a terrible exposure? In keeping back
-part of the truth with the pretension that he had given it all,
-how could he avoid recalling the fate of Annanias and Sapphira
-for keeping back part of the price with the pretension that they
-had given it all?</p>
-
-<p>As an exercise in ethical athletics I will submit the following
-abstract question to the debating clubs, especially in Kentucky,
-viz., “Is the man who suppresses the truth in order to sustain a
-fraudulent pedigree any more worthy of belief than the man who
-made the pedigree and sold the horse upon it?”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_432"></a>[432]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.<br />
-<span class="smaller">INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.—(<i>Continued</i>.)</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree making in
-that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas Jefferson—True
-origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts about the old-time gelding
-Prince—The truth about Waxy, the grandam of Sunol—Remarkable attempts
-to make a pedigree out of nothing—How “Jim” Eoff worked a
-“tenderfoot”—Pedigree of American Eclipse—Pedigree of Boston—Tom
-Bowling and Aaron Pennington—Chenery’s Gray Eagle—Pedigree of
-George Wilkes in doubt.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>At Louisville, Kentucky, October, 1860, a ten-mile race was
-trotted which excited a good deal of local interest and comment.
-The contestants in this race were entered as follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>“Captain Magowan, by imp. Sovereign, dam by American Eclipse.”</li>
-<li>“Gipsy Queen, by Wagner, dam by imp. Glencoe.”</li>
-<li>“Belle of Wabash (Indiana Belle), by Bassinger, dam by imp. William.”</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>The names of the parties making the entries are given in the
-entries of the first and second, and the Louisville <i>Journal</i> of the
-week before remarks that “J. J. Alexander will represent his
-State honorably with the Belle of Indiana.” Captain Magowan
-held the lead from start to finish, and at the end of the eighth
-mile, some say the seventh, Belle of Wabash was drawn. It will
-be observed that, so far as given, each one of these animals was
-furnished with a first-class race-horse pedigree; for it was then
-held as firmly as any religious tenet that no horse could go that
-distance at any gait unless he was strictly thoroughbred, and, in
-Kentucky, if he did not have such a pedigree they gave him one
-on the spot. At that time they never bothered their heads hunting
-up the breeder of an animal to learn how it was bred. They
-simply wanted to see the performance and then make the pedigree
-to suit it. These three pedigrees were all bogus in all their
-elements, and I knew so little of the ways of the horse world, at
-that time, that I accepted and recorded them as genuine.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_433"></a>[433]</span></p>
-
-<p>Captain Magowan was a roan gelding, willful and bad tempered,
-and all that seems to be known about his origin is the conceded
-fact that he was bred in Kentucky and that he was probably
-descended from the tribe of Copperbottoms, or possibly the
-Tom Hals. The roan color prevailed in both tribes and the
-horse himself looked like the Copperbottoms.</p>
-
-<p>Gipsy Queen, at the time of the above race in 1860, was
-owned by a “sporting man” named George Bidwell, of Chicago,
-or at least she raced under his direction. About the time of this
-race, Mr. Thomas J. Vail bought the mare and took her to
-Hartford, Connecticut. He bred her to Toronto Chief and she
-produced a black colt. The mare and colt afterward passed into
-the hands of Mr. William B. Smith, and this colt grew up to be
-the famous Thomas Jefferson—“The Whirlwind of the East.”
-In connection with Mr. Smith I devoted a good deal of labor to a
-futile search for the origin and pedigree of this mare, and the result
-of our search amounted to nothing more than a reasonable
-probability that she was bred at Rochester, New York; was got
-by a son or grandson of Vermont Black Hawk and was taken
-from there to Chicago. This latter point of the transfer to
-Chicago seemed to be quite circumstantially fixed in Mr. Smith’s
-mind.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of Woodstock, Vermont—a man of
-great industry and a lover of the truth for the truth’s sake—also
-made an exhaustive search, and from a recent contribution to the
-press he evidently thinks he has found it, and possibly he has;
-but while I generally agree with Mr. Thomson’s conclusions, and
-prize them as honest and carefully reached, I am forced to dissent
-in this case. Without going into details, he brings the
-mare from Williamstown, Vermont, and takes her to Woodstock,
-Illinois, where she is paired with another black mare, and after
-passing through two or three hands they at last land in a public
-livery stable in Chicago, and there the identity of the suppositious
-Gipsy Queen is lost, and so far as known she never came
-out of that stable. One or two years afterward a black mare
-from Chicago, in possession of George Bidwell, appeared in some
-public races, notably the one given above, and the conclusion is
-at once reached that this black mare, Gipsy Queen, was the
-black filly brought from Williamstown, Vermont. To this all
-the intermediate owners between Williamstown and Behrens’
-livery stable were ready to insist that this black mare was the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_434"></a>[434]</span>
-Williamstown filly, but not one of them had ever seen the mare
-that George Bidwell was handling, and some of them evidently
-were not worthy of belief if they had seen her. There is the
-“missing link” between Behrens’ stable and George Bidwell, that
-has not been supplied and probably never can be supplied. The
-chances that the Williamstown filly was the real Gipsy Queen,
-all things considered, seem to stand as about one to a thousand.
-We must, therefore, conclude that we have no satisfactory information
-as to how or where this mare was bred.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Belle of Wabash.</span>—My first inquiry about this mare was
-made more than twenty-five years ago, and I did not then suppose
-that her pedigree would ever become a question of any general
-interest. In the first volume of the Register I had entered her
-as a black mare, foaled 1852, got by Bassinger, son of Lieutenant
-Bassinger, and dam said to be by imported William IV. She was
-then owned by George C. Stevens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
-After her son—The Moor—proved himself a great sire of trotters
-in getting Beautiful Bells, Sultan, and other good ones, her
-pedigree became a question of very great importance. As the
-search for it would occupy more space, in detail, than I can give
-to it in these pages, I will here give the references in <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i>, where the principal correspondence may be found: Vol.
-XIV., p. 510; XV., p. 441; XVI., p. 43; and for a complete understanding
-of the matter the references here given should be
-carefully examined.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. S. D. Puett, of Indiana, was the first to give me a starting
-point in the investigation of the pedigree of this mare. In all
-that had been said about her I never was able to find a man who
-really knew anything about her origin, until Mr. Puett gave me
-the address of Cyrus Romaine, who had owned her when very
-young and handled her for speed. He says “she was sired by a
-colt from her own dam, that was got by a Copperbottom stallion
-from Kentucky.” He was not able to give any information
-about the sire of the dam, and as to the gait of the dam he says:
-“Her dam was a natural pacer. I cannot say as to her sire, as he
-was unbroken at the time.” He bought the mare at three years
-old, handled her one year and sold her to Mr. J. J. Alexander,
-of Montezuma, of the same county (Parke), in 1856. Mr. Alexander
-still owned her in 1860 when she trotted in Louisville, and
-after his death Williams, his trainer, married his widow and still
-controlled the mare. Mr. Romaine failed to give the name of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_435"></a>[435]</span>
-the breeder of the mare, which will be explained further on.
-Soon after he wrote, April 26, 1880, he removed to Nebraska
-and I have not heard from him since. In 1857 she was trained
-for Mr. Alexander by John Williams on Stroue’s track at Rockville,
-Indiana, the county seat of Parke County. In 1860 she
-was entered by Williams in several races at Indianapolis and at
-other points, and made a record of 2:40. About 1865, or perhaps
-a year or two earlier, she became the property of George C.
-Stevens. In his catalogue for 1868 she is entered merely as “Old
-Belle,” and he know nothing of her origin or history till I gave
-it to him, along with the humbug pedigree that I had copied
-from the entries at the Louisville ten-mile race.</p>
-
-<p>Through the kindness of Mr. Puett I received the following
-letter from Mr. Henry C. Brown, a very reputable business man
-and a grain dealer in Rockville, Parke County, Indiana. This
-letter from Mr. Brown has in it such evidence of candor and intelligence
-that I will here insert it entire:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: In reply to your inquiry of the 23d ult., as to what I know of
-the ‘origin and history of the mare called Belle of Wabash,’ I will give you
-the following <i>facts</i>:</p>
-
-<p>“In the year 1855, or ’56, I am not positive which, this mare, when a three-year-old,
-was purchased by Cyrus Romaine, then a resident of this county, of
-an old farmer in Clay County, this State, paying $85 for her. This farmer
-lived at that time about a mile and a half north of Brazil, the present county-seat
-of Clay County.</p>
-
-<p>“As to this farmer’s name, neither myself nor Romaine can tell. He was
-an old man at that time, and undoubtedly has gone to his reward long ago.
-<i>Neither do we know anything at all about the pedigree of the mare.</i></p>
-
-<p>“There is no person living, so far as I or Romaine know, that can tell anything
-about her ancestors, and in my opinion it would be impossible, at this
-late day, to find any one in Clay County that could give us any information in
-regard to her.</p>
-
-<p>“The country around Brazil at that time was almost a wilderness; now the
-city is spread out, and covers, no doubt, the farm where the mare was foaled.
-Clay County is now the center of the Indiana coal-fields, and, of course, the
-entire face of the country about there is changed wonderfully since 1856; consequently
-it would be almost if not quite impossible to find the exact location.</p>
-
-<p>“After keeping the mare eight or nine months, Romaine sold her to John
-Alexander, of Montezuma, this county, for $160. Alexander soon after commenced
-training her, and in about one year I think he, or his trainer, John
-Williams, took her to Kentucky, and entered her there in some kind of races.
-Since then you know her history much better than I do.</p>
-
-<p>“At the time Romaine bought the mare he and I were trading in stock together,
-boarding at the same house and sleeping in the same bed. I mention,
-this only that you may understand that I know what I am writing about.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_436"></a>[436]</span></p>
-
-<p>“I am truly sorry that I cannot give you the true pedigree of the mare, but
-it cannot be done. There is no man here or anywhere else that can tell you
-anything more than I have stated herein.</p>
-
-<p>“You will no doubt think that there is considerable of superfluous matter
-in this letter, but I do not see how I could tell you what I wanted to in fewer
-words.</p>
-
-<p>“Everything stated herein is <i>truth</i>, and, if necessary, I am willing to make
-affidavit to the same at any time.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Very truly yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Henry C. Brown</span>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Romaine’s representation amounted to nothing definite or
-satisfactory about the pedigree of Belle of Wabash, because he
-failed to give the name and location of her breeder, but Mr.
-Brown’s letter clears this all up on the grounds that Mr. Romaine
-really did not know the breeder’s name. Whatever her sire and
-whatever her dam, we may feel sure they were not trotting-bred,
-although she was a trotter. We are left, therefore, to conclude
-that, as in a thousand other cases, this mare was a pacing-bred
-trotter. The one point that is vital is settled by Mr. Brown, as
-he was with Mr. Romaine when he bought the mare and knew
-all about the transaction. He cannot remember the breeder’s
-name, but he locates him as “living a mile and a half north of
-Brazil,” and that it is now all cut up into residence and mining
-lots. This seems to fix the location of the breeder beyond all
-doubt. This old man seems to have been a pioneer in a very
-poor county and still a comparative wilderness when this transaction
-took place. At that time the coal fields had not been
-touched, and it is wholly beyond belief that he took his unknown
-old mare out of his own county, across the adjoining county of
-Parke and into Vermilion County, wherever in it Mr. Weisiger
-lived, to have her bred to his part-bred stallion Bassinger. And
-then when he came to sell the foal at three years old for $85,
-when horses were high, can we believe he would do so without
-ever mentioning how the filly was bred? The chain of
-ownership is complete, as she passed from her unnamed breeder
-to Mr. Romaine, from him to Mr. Alexander, in whose hands
-she did her trotting, and then to Mr. Williams, and there is no
-place for the Louisville humbug pedigree to come in. She got
-her bogus pedigree at the same time and in the same way that
-Magowan and Gipsy Queen got theirs, and there was not a single
-shadow of truth in any one of them. The tenacity with which
-some people hold on to a “thoroughbred” origin for their trotters
-when the evidence is all against them has long been a mystery<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_437"></a>[437]</span>
-to honest folks, who are able to look at things as they are;
-but it is not difficult to understand the phenomenon when we
-analyze the reasons for it. First, the owner is anxious to hold
-on to all he can possibly claim in the way of aristocratic descent
-with the hope that it may help his sales; and second, there are
-always a few “featherheads” with golden pockets ready to buy
-that kind of stuff, because they have never gone far enough in
-horse history to be able to kick themselves loose from the swaddling
-clothes of their infantile prejudices.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Prince.</span>—The chestnut gelding Prince was one of the great
-trotters in the early “fifties.” He was pitted against Hero, the
-pacing son of Harris’ Hambletonian, Lantern and others. As
-usual at that time he was given a thoroughbred pedigree, which
-I was then led to accept, without really knowing anything about
-his origin. He was represented to have been bred in Kentucky,
-and owned by R. Ten Broeck of that State. Then would naturally
-follow a thoroughbred pedigree coming from that State, and
-nobody doubted it for a long time. He was represented to be by
-Woodpecker, son of Bertrand; dam by imported Sarpedon;
-grandam said to be thoroughbred. When he started in his ten-mile
-race against Hero, William T. Porter said he was by Woodpecker,
-and out of that grew the pedigree above. In the old
-<i>Spirit of the Times</i>, of October 11, 1856, there is a short communication
-signed “Hiram,” in which is the only circumstantial
-account of the origin of Prince that I have ever seen. It is implied
-by the writer that he was bred by a Mr. Dey, of Chautauqua.
-County, New York, for he says he was got by “an old chestnut
-horse called Duroc, from Long Island,” and came of the Dey
-Mare. It seems that Dey sold the colt to a young man named
-Worden, and he was first known as “the Worden colt.” He was
-then sold to Manley Griswold, and from Griswold to Daniel Vanvliet,
-who sold him in Buffalo to Bennett &amp; Jones (or Thomas),
-for one thousand dollars, and they sold him to William Whelan,
-of Long Island, for fifteen hundred dollars. “Hiram” carries
-the history of the horse no further, as he had then placed
-him in the hands of the great artists of the trotting world.
-Of his sire, “Old Duroc,” he says he was taken from Long Island
-to Villenova, in Chautauqua County, by a merchant of that
-place, named George Hopkins, and after getting about twenty
-colts he died. Among these twenty we find Prince and another
-afterward known as the Walker Horse, which achieved a high local<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_438"></a>[438]</span>
-reputation as a sire of trotters and I have frequently met with his
-cross in the pedigrees of good animals. This showing is not absolutely
-complete, but it is infinitely better than any other that
-has over been given to the public.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Waxy</span>, the grandam of Sunol. When the two-year-old filly
-Sunol in 1888 came out and trotted a mile in 2:18, it fairly took
-one’s breath away, and the first question on every tongue was,
-“How is she bred?” She was represented to be by Electioneer,
-out of Waxana by General Benton, and she out of Waxy by Lexington,
-and “thoroughbred.” When asked who bred her and how it
-was known that Waxy was by Lexington, the answer came back
-that the breeder was not known—that she had been taken across
-the plains by a man who died on the way. The search then
-commenced for the breeder of Waxy and the identification of her
-dam. As the search progressed there were some very curious
-things developed. When it started in the spring it was a yearling
-stallion colt, and when it reached California, in the fall, it
-was a two-year-old filly. More than this, it was shown by indubitable
-proofs, such as they were, that she had two dams, and
-then shown that she had no dam at all. With such a Kentucky
-muddle on hand there was an excellent opportunity for a controversy
-that might possibly become somewhat heated. This controversy
-is famous in the history of the exposures of untruthful
-pedigrees, and I will give a brief outline of it, with some specimens
-of the evidence adduced to sustain it.</p>
-
-<p>Early in the spring of 1864 Mr. John P. Welch, an intelligent
-man, trained to the profession of civil engineer, reached the blue
-grass region of Kentucky for the purpose of securing and taking
-across the plains a band of well-bred horses to California. In
-this venture he was backed by Mr. John Anderson, a wealthy gentleman
-of the latter State. Mr. Welch was successful in perfecting
-his arrangements, and when on the very eve of starting he
-sent forward a complete inventory of all the animals he had in
-his band and sent this inventory to the <i>California Spirit of the
-Times</i>, in which paper it was published May 14, 1864, and is as
-follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>&nbsp;1. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Glencoe, g. d. Ann Merry.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;2. Bay filly, 3 years, by Vandal, dam Miss Singleton by Old Denmark, g. d. Bellamira by Monarch.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;3. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Commodore.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_439"></a>[439]</span></li>
-<li>&nbsp;4. Bay horse, 3 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Gray Eagle.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;5. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam (dam of Capitola) by Margrave.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;6. Bay mare, 9 years old, by imp. Glencoe, dam by Rudolph, g. d. Belle Anderson.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;7. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Revenue, dam Sally Morgan by Emancipation.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;8. Chestnut filly, 4 years old, by Vandal, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d. Churchill.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;9. Chestnut mare by Wagner (dam of No. 11).</li>
-<li>10. Bay mare by Sovereign.</li>
-<li>11. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam No. 9, by Wagner.</li>
-<li>12. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Jack Gamble, dam Betty King by Boston.</li>
-<li>13. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Mirabeau, g. d. Arabella.</li>
-<li>14. Captain Beard, b. s., 9 years old, by imp. Yorkshire, dam by imp. Glencoe, g. d. by imp. Leviathan, g. g. d. by Stockholder.</li>
-<li>15. Gray mare by Gray Eagle, dam Mary Morris, by Medoc.</li>
-<li>16. Hope, ch. m. by Glencoe, dam Susette by Aratus.</li>
-<li>17. Bay mare by Sovereign, dam by Gray Eagle.</li>
-<li>18. Chestnut filly, 2 years old, by Bob Johnson, dam by Brawner’s Eclipse.</li>
-<li>19. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam by Gray Eagle.</li>
-<li>20. Bay colt, one year old, by Lexington, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d. Mary Morris.</li>
-<li>21. Ch. c., 2 years old by Ringgold, dam Hope by Glencoe.</li>
-<li>22 and 23. Pair 3:00 six-year-old trotting mares.</li>
-<li>24. Black mare, trotter, 8 years old; time, 2:50.</li>
-<li>25. Bay gelding, trotter, 5 years old; time, near 3:00.</li>
-<li>26. Bay mare for show, but not to go.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>From this inventory we must conclude that Mr. Welch was a
-careful and methodical man. He knew he had twenty-six animals
-ready to start, and after he had written off the descriptions and
-pedigrees of these twenty-six animals he verified his work by
-numbering them from one to twenty-six inclusive, and then he
-knew he had not omitted any one. This inventory is the basis of
-the whole truth in this matter, and is the only evidence in the
-wide world of what animals Mr. Welch started with to California.
-As this is the vital and only starting point to reach the truth, I
-trust my readers will examine it again carefully and see whether
-it includes any filly or mare by Lexington, of any age. When
-you ask any of these “more-running-blood-in-the-trotter” people
-who took Waxy, the phantom daughter of Lexington, to
-California, you will get an evasive answer, and when pressed
-they will at last say, John P. Welch. Now, as to John P.
-Welch, “he being dead yet speaketh.” From his unknown grave
-he tells these people they are trying to establish what is not true,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_440"></a>[440]</span>
-and with his ghostly finger points to the inventory and demands,
-“Where is the Lexington filly in that list? You are trying to
-displace the truth with a falsehood,” and he drives this charge
-home to the heart of each one of them.</p>
-
-<p>Here we might close this case and leave it to the enlightened
-judgment of all intelligent and honest people, for there is not
-a scintilla of evidence that any two-year-old daughter of Lexington
-was taken to California in 1864. Until this evidence is adduced,
-no attempt to overthrow the contents of John P. Welch’s
-inventory has a single peg to stand on. But I am not yet done
-with some of the peculiarities that have been developed in this
-case, for long ago I learned in this pedigree business,</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-  <div class="stanza">
-    <div class="verse indent0">“That for ways that are dark,</div>
-    <div class="verse indent0">And for tricks that are vain,</div>
-    <div class="verse indent0">The heathen Chinee is peculiar.”</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>At this point the case bifurcates, one fork leading to the Grey
-Eagle mare as the dam of Waxy, and the other to the Brawner’s
-Eclipse mare, and I think my language will not be wholly unparliamentary
-when I pronounce them both frauds. Mr. Levi S.
-Gould, a worthy business man of Boston, whom I have always
-esteemed as honest, was the first to dig up this whole matter in
-the columns of the <i>California Spirit of the Times</i>, and the first to
-give the above inventory to the public. He traveled thousands
-of miles and claimed to have traced Waxy to the stable of her
-breeder, Philip Swigert, of Frankfort, Kentucky. The full
-account of his laborious trip was published in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>
-for March, 1889, p. 17. In the inventory he found one animal
-got by Lexington, but this was a bay colt of 1863, and out of the
-Grey Eagle mare, but he wanted a chestnut filly. After studying
-the matter over, he concluded that this “bay colt” was a
-typographical error for “chestnut filly” and that this established
-the pedigree of Waxy. He interviewed a number of people who
-had known of, or had been in some way connected with, the
-Welch venture, and they were all able to confirm his discovery of
-the typographical error, and could recount to a nicety their distinct
-recollections of the sorrel filly by Lexington, out of the
-Grey Eagle mare. These people seemed to possess the most astonishing
-memories, and the color, breeding and age of a filly they
-had not seen nor heard of for a quarter of a century all came
-back to them with as much freshness as though the events had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_441"></a>[441]</span>
-occurred yesterday. Then there was a peculiar element in their
-memories, for they could recall everything about this one filly
-and nothing about any of the others. At last Mr. Gould reached
-Mr. Brodhead, of Kentucky, where the “finishing touches” were
-put upon the pedigree of Waxy. Mr. Satterwhite did not reach
-Woodburn till after Mr. Gould had left, but that did not prevent
-him from making a “statement” that exactly fitted the theory of
-the pedigree as matured by Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead. He
-had been Mr. Philip Swigert’s foreman in 1864, and had a right
-to know something of the transfer of some eight or ten head of
-stock from Mr. Swigert to Mr. Welch in the spring of that year.
-Satterwhite was quite too good a witness, as he disclosed his
-cramming frightfully. He remembered “the light chestnut filly,
-by Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare,” with great distinctness
-and was sure she was foaled in 1863. In no single case
-was he certain except in the filly by Lexington, and in no single
-case was he able to give the ages of the other young things correctly.
-After Satterwhite made his visit to Woodburn, Mr.
-Brodhead wrote Mr. Gould as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Satterwhite says Dick Jackson was with Welch. I think, with what you
-have, the pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved, and you can get your article
-ready. The sooner it is published the better. I forwarded some letters
-to you, and I hope they gave you additional information.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It will be remembered that Mr. Gould started out on the assumption
-that, as there was but one animal in the inventory by
-Lexington and that was a bay colt of 1863, that “colt,” he argued,
-was a typographical error, and instead of “bay colt” it should
-read “sorrel filly.” On this very uncertain basis he worked
-throughout. On this basis he collected all his futile statements.
-On this basis, and to lend a helping hand, Satterwhite testified;
-and on this basis Brodhead wrote, “With what you have, the
-pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved.” Now that Mr. Brodhead
-is satisfied and that Mr. Bruce promptly entered Waxy in
-his Stud Book as by Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare,
-we must drop the whimsical idea of the “typographical error”
-and consider whether the bay colt of 1863, by Lexington, did
-really become a sorrel filly of 1862 when he reached California a
-few months later.</p>
-
-<p>1. The bay colt, No. 20, of the inventory, was the only animal
-in the band by Lexington. He was a foal of 1863, and was a year
-younger than any of the others.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_442"></a>[442]</span></p>
-
-<p>2. In speaking of the losses, by death on the route, of some of
-the more noted animals, Mr. Anderson enumerates the noted
-stallion Captain Beard, and a very fine yearling colt by Lexington,
-called Frank. Here perished the only foal by Lexington in
-the band, and we may as well bury Mr. Gould’s and Mr. Brodhead’s
-“typographical error” with him, for the colt kicked it to
-death before he died.</p>
-
-<p>3. When the band reached California there were several additions
-smuggled into it as being part of the originals from Kentucky,
-and among these additions was the light chestnut filly that
-has been since known as Waxy, given as a foal of 1862, and got
-by Lexington, dam unknown.</p>
-
-<p>4. As Mr. Brodhead had proved conclusively, from the records
-at Woodburn, that Mr. Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in
-1862, the “typographical error” parties found themselves placed
-“between the devil and the deep sea.”</p>
-
-<p>This outside filly that had been smuggled into the band of
-Kentuckians was advertised along with them, as a foal of 1862,
-in the fall of 1864; she was sold as a foal of 1862; she was entered
-in a sweepstake for three-year-olds as a foal of 1862; she was exhibited
-at a horse show as a foal of 1862; she started to run the
-only race she ever attempted as a foal of 1862, and proving herself
-utterly worthless as a race mare, she was given away on the
-spot as a foal of 1862.</p>
-
-<p>As the only representative of Lexington in the band was “the
-yearling bay colt Frank,” as shown by Mr. Anderson, the partner
-of Mr. Welch; and as the records at Woodburn had clearly and
-distinctly shown that Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in
-1862, the bottom was out of the conspiracy and it was abandoned.
-There was a little fussing about the possibility that there might
-have been a mistake and that Waxy might have been a foal of
-1863 after all, but it amounted to nothing more than the enfeebled
-squeak of an asthmatic mouse and then all was quiet.</p>
-
-<p>Before passing to the other branch of the investigation, this
-seems to be the proper place to speak of the incidents of the sale
-and its sequences at the Fair Grounds at San Jose, January 3,
-1865. There were some twelve or fifteen head, that had been
-previously advertised, offered at public sale, and a number of
-those were sold, all indeed in which this inquiry has any interest.
-When the stock arrived at San Jose, there was a good deal of
-confusion, and it is just possible that some of them were not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_443"></a>[443]</span>
-correctly placed. The only discrepancy which I have found between
-Mr. Welch’s inventory and the facts is in the color of the
-filly No. 18, that appears in the inventory as a chestnut, but is
-advertised and sold as a bay. This mistake in color is not infrequent
-in the spring of the year before the old coat is shed, and I
-think it may be reasonably accounted for on this ground. James
-L. Eoff, well known from ocean to ocean as the king of all “horse
-sharps,” seems to have taken a good deal of interest in assorting
-the animals and in picking up scraps of information from the
-boys who had come with them. At the same time he was an excellent
-judge of racing stock, and as silent as the grave to the victims
-whom he sought to mislead and then beat. In this way he
-soon knew more about the breeding of the animals than those in
-charge of them. Mr. William Woodward seems to have been his
-friend (?) with plenty of money, but a perfect “tenderfoot” in
-the mysteries of the race horse. No doubt he pointed out to Mr.
-Woodward the so-called Lexington filly and advised him to buy
-her, assuring him that he wanted her himself, but if he wanted
-to take a little fly in racing he would not bid against him. The
-sale came off, and Eoff ran up the Revenue filly, out of Sally
-Morgan, to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and got her, it
-is said, for Theodore Winters. When they came to the filly by
-Bob Johnson, out of the mare by Brawner’s Eclipse, Eoff bought
-her at two hundred and fifty dollars for himself, and named
-her Lilly Hitchcock. The next animal sold was the filly by Lexington,
-dam unknown, and she was bought by William Woodward
-at two hundred and fifty dollars, and he named her Waxy.
-The sale was slimly attended and much of the stock was bid in
-for the owner, Mr. John Anderson. That night the wine flowed
-very freely, as it was the initiation of the “tenderfoot,” Mr.
-Woodward, into the ranks of running-horse men. After they all
-“got hot” (except Eoff), a sweepstakes was opened for the three
-fillies, Ada C. (the Revenue filly), Lilly Hitchcock and Waxy, at
-two hundred and fifty dollars each, and Eoff was careful to see
-that it was made “play or pay.” The race was a dash of a mile
-and a quarter, and it took place nearly twelve months after the
-match was made. Eoff won easily with Lilly Hitchcock, and
-Waxy was so badly beaten that Woodward gave her away on the
-spot and “swore off” ever owning another running horse. Thus
-Eoff’s cunning carried his plot through, without a break at any
-point. From the hour he bought this filly he stoutly maintained<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_444"></a>[444]</span>
-she was by Lexington and out of the Brawner’s Eclipse mare.
-She ran all her races under this pedigree and never was challenged,
-and if ever there was a mare in California bred in this
-way, this is likely to be the mare. We can understand just how
-he could have discovered where Waxy came from, and that she
-never saw Kentucky, and on this knowledge he based the game
-he played on poor Woodward.</p>
-
-<p>After the failure to establish the claim that Waxy came out of
-Philip Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare and publicly confessing that
-the evidence upon which Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead based
-their conclusions was fallacious and the conclusions themselves
-incorrect, the advocates of “more running blood in the trotter”
-pulled themselves together for another bout. What purported
-to be an old document was dug up somewhere—indeed I am told
-there were two of them dug up, one in Kentucky and the other
-somewhere on the Pacific coast—purporting to be duplicates of an
-agreement entered into, in March, 1864, between John P. Welch,
-of California and Philip Swigert, of Kentucky, by which Welch
-agreed to take certain blood horses to California and sell or breed
-them on the shares, etc. This document possessed all the
-paraphernalia of authenticity, with government stamp, witnesses
-to the signatures of the contracting parties, etc. This document
-(I don’t know which “duplicate”) was shown to me in
-April, 1891, and at the first glance, and without reading a word
-except the date, it astounded me. There was a paper purporting
-to be twenty-seven years old, and it looked as bright and fresh as
-though it had been written within twenty-seven hours. There
-was no fading of the luster of the ink and there was no ageing in
-the color of the paper. Having devoted a great deal of time to
-the examination of writings, varying in age from one day to a
-hundred years and more, and this experience extending through
-many years, I ought to be a fairly competent judge of the effects
-of age on ink and paper. Here was a paper purporting to be
-over a quarter of a century old with all the newness of yesterday,
-and when Mr. J. C. Simpson showed it to me I was impressed
-with the belief, on this one point of evidence alone, that it was
-spurious, and that Mr. Simpson had been made a victim by some
-rascally scrivener. With so much for the appearance of the paper,
-on its face, we will now examine the contents and see whether
-any evidence can there be found that will throw further light on
-the question of its authenticity. Unfortunately I have not what<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_445"></a>[445]</span>
-purports to be the original of this document before me, and I
-must therefore depend upon my memory and upon what Judge
-Halsey, as attorney for Mr. Brodhead, has printed as the contents.
-In giving the list of animals I will follow the order of the
-“document” and place before each one, for convenience of reference,
-the number attached to that animal in Mr. Welch’s original
-inventory.</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>15. One gray mare, by Grey Eagle, out of Mary Morris.</li>
-<li>16. One sorrel mare, Hope, by Glencoe.</li>
-<li>17. Sovereign filly, out of Grey Eagle mare, four years old.</li>
-<li>&nbsp;8. Vandal filly, out of bay Grey Eagle mare, four years old.</li>
-<li>18. One two-year-old filly, by Bob Johnson, out of bay Grey Eagle mare.</li>
-<li>19. One two-year-old filly by Lexington.</li>
-<li>20. One yearling colt, by Lexington, out of Grey Eagle mare.</li>
-<li>21. One two-year-old filly, by Ringgold, out of Hope.</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>In looking over this list there are several points suggested for
-remark and they all have a bearing, more or less direct, on the
-question at issue. The list seems to have been prepared, if prepared
-by Mr. Swigert, very hurriedly and without sufficient regard
-to completeness or accuracy. He started off, possibly to
-make a careful list, as he gave the color of the two-year-old mares
-at the head and then dropped all purpose of completeness and
-gave no colors nor descriptions to those that followed. He gives
-No. 21 as a filly when it was a colt, and so appears in the inventory,
-was sold as a colt with pedigree at San Jose, January, 1865,
-and again, with the same pedigree, at The Willows, February,
-1866. Under ordinary conditions the statement of the breeder
-should be conclusive against all others, but in this case the evident
-hurry and absence of descriptions have destroyed the value
-of the whole list, in great degree, as evidence that could be accepted
-with safety. We must, therefore, look for something
-in the way of evidence more deliberative and descriptive in its
-preparation, and this we find in the joint work of Mr. Swigert and
-Mr. Welch, as embodied in the inventory. When the descriptions
-of the animals were taken, both men were equally interested
-in accuracy and completeness, both were present, and probably
-the animals were before them. Hence my infinitely greater confidence
-in the deliberative work of the two, as found in the inventory.</p>
-
-<p>The one point about which all this hubbub has been raised is
-the so-called “Lexington filly,” that appears as the sixth in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_446"></a>[446]</span>
-above list. She has no number attached to her name, and this
-means that she was not in the inventory, and it means more than
-this; for it is, in a manner, the dying testimony of an honest man
-that he took no Lexington filly to California, and fortunately
-this testimony has been preserved. The methods introduced to
-prove that Welch did take her are the methods of the imbecile.
-Let us admit, for the moment, that Swigert had a Lexington
-filly and that she was in a contract with Welch to be taken to
-California; does that prove that Welch took her, when he says
-he did not? There are hundreds and hundreds of people every
-year who buy steamship tickets to go to Europe who fail to go.
-The records of Mr. Swigert’s ticket office show that the ticket
-was bought, but they fail to show that the purchaser went aboard
-the ship. You must go to Purser Welch and get a list of passengers
-actually on board in order to determine who did and who
-did not go. Accidents, sickness and death are all factors in the
-movements, of horses just as they are in the movements of human
-beings. It is the observation of a long lifetime that horsemen
-are never so near their best as fools as when they attempt to
-establish a fraudulent pedigree by evidence that utterly fails to
-cover the case. They claim to have found a ticket that would
-carry Waxy to California, and whether genuine or counterfeit
-they rely wholly on this ticket as evidence that she went. The
-master of the vessel affirms she was not aboard his vessel, and in
-support of this he shows a complete list and description of the
-passengers numbered from one to twenty-six inclusive. This is
-the whole thing in a nutshell. The proof is clear and conclusive
-that Mr. Welch did not take any daughter of Lexington to California.
-Now, will the prominent and active supporters of Waxy’s
-pedigree, as a daughter of Lexington, come forward and in a
-manly way answer this question of five words? “<i>Who took Waxy
-to California?</i>” If Welch, prove it. If anybody else, prove it.
-We may be able to catch a few gulls with chaff, the first attempt,
-but we can’t repeat it. If the question can be answered, it is
-well, and if not, honest people will form their own conclusions
-that it is not sustained and is no more worthy of belief than the
-“Grey Eagle mare” form of the same pedigree, which is now
-universally conceded to be a fiction.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">American Eclipse.</span>—It is not my purpose to frighten people
-by overthrowing landmarks that have stood for years, but it is
-my purpose to tell the truth and expose falsehood in pedigrees<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_447"></a>[447]</span>
-wherever I meet it. As a satisfaction and guide to breeders in
-the future it is important to know just how the early stock were
-bred, although they may have belonged to past generations. A
-breeder never can know too much of the lines in which he is
-operating. This great horse was a good chestnut, with a star
-and left hind foot white. He was stout, with heavy limbs, and
-somewhat coarse, and not of the best quality, but possibly better
-than the average of the Durocs. He was a fraction of an inch
-below fifteen two. He was foaled 1814, got by Duroc, son of imported
-Diomed; dam Miller’s Damsel, by imported Messenger;
-grandam a mare by Pot8os, imported by Mr. Constable along
-with the horse Baronet, in 1795. This is just as far as we can go
-with any certainty, and this leaves the greatest race horse of his
-day far short of being thoroughbred. When Mr. Constable
-bought the Pot8os mare in England he got no certificate of
-pedigree, but he was told there she was out of a mare by Gimcrack.
-Mr. Cadwallader R. Colden was the best-informed man
-of his day on the history, blood, and performances of the blood-horse,
-was a very intimate and warm friend of Mr. Constable, and
-he did everything that could be done to straighten out and extend
-this pedigree, but he utterly failed. He thought it probable
-that the mare was thoroughbred, but he believed the Gimcrack
-cross was a fiction. Some eighteen or twenty years ago,
-when in London, Mr. Tattersall suggested to me that if Lord
-Grosvenor bred a filly by Pot8os in 1792 that was thoroughbred,
-there could hardly be a doubt that she was entered in some of
-the stakes for three-year-olds. Then and there we searched the
-old records, but nothing could be found to support the supposed
-pedigree. It was not till 1832 that any special effort was made
-to establish the pedigree through the press, and in January of
-that year the famous Patrick Nesbit Edgar, of North Carolina,
-wrote as follows to Mr. Skinner, editor of the <i>American Turf
-Register</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“The authority I had for sending the remote pedigree of American Eclipse
-for publication was that it was furnished me lately by a gentleman in England,
-who put himself to uncommon pains to procure it. He resides near
-Bath, in that country. All the authority requisite I have at this time in my
-possession. The Pot8os mare was got by Pot8os; her dam, foaled in 1778, by
-Gimcrack, out of Snap-Dragon, sister to Angelica by Snap. (See English Stud
-Book.)”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr. Edgar wrote more on the same subject, after he was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_448"></a>[448]</span>
-pressed to it by Mr. Colden, but he failed to produce any evidence
-whatever that he was telling the truth. According to his
-representations his correspondence on the subject had been very
-extensive, and he complained that he had paid out forty shillings
-in postage.</p>
-
-<p>It will be observed how cleverly Mr. Edgar conceals the sources
-of his information while he pretends to give them, and that has
-been the favorite “dodge” of all rascally “pedigree makers”
-from that day till the present. Mr. Constable always insisted
-that the mare was bred by Lord Grosvenor, and that she was by
-Pot8os, but he did not insist that she was out of a mare by Gimcrack.
-As Lord Grosvenor was one of the most prominent of
-all breeders of race horses in his day, and as he evidently kept
-the records of his stud with more care than most of his contemporaries,
-we might reasonably expect to find some trace of this
-mare if she was thoroughbred. After a careful and diligent
-search of all the records of that period, it is found that Lord
-Grosvenor never bred a Gimcrack filly to Pot8os. This disposes
-of Mr. Edgar’s humbug story, and when we state the pedigree of
-American Eclipse we can simply say he was got by Duroc; dam
-Miller’s Damsel by Messenger, and grandam the imported Pot8os
-mare, and there we must stop.</p>
-
-<p>For years past I have observed that the less a man knows about
-horse history and horse achievements, the more importance he
-attaches to the word “thoroughbred;” and of all the millions
-and millions of lies that have been told about pedigrees
-nine-tenths have been concocted and circulated for the one
-purpose of enhancing the supposed value of the animal by claiming
-“thoroughbred” blood. The “instinct” to lie about pedigrees,
-so common among certain classes of horsemen, seems to
-be “the sum of inherited habits” that has come down from generation
-to generation. If you ask one of these mendacious gentlemen
-whether American Eclipse was a thoroughbred he will
-answer, with a strong marked expression of contempt and pity
-for your ignorance on his countenance, “Certainly he was thoroughbred.”
-If you then ask him about his pedigree he will answer,
-“I don’t know anything about his pedigree.” Then you venture
-to ask how he knows he was thoroughbred if he does not
-know anything about his pedigree, and he will squelch you completely
-by saying, “No horse not thoroughbred could ever have
-done what American Eclipse did.” Here we get at the real basis<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_449"></a>[449]</span>
-of the universal mendacity on this subject. The preacher wrote
-a great book called “The Perfect Horse” in which he maintained
-that the Morgan Horse was thoroughbred. The lawyer wrote
-another great book on “The American Roadster” in which he
-maintained that Dexter was a thoroughbred. With two gentlemen
-of intelligence and education writing such miserable stuff,
-what are we to expect from the masses?</p>
-
-<p>Now here is the horse American Eclipse, the greatest horse of
-his day in his racing achievements, that in his blood is very far
-from being “thoroughbred,” under any rule that has ever been
-suggested or devised. Now, with this taint on his escutcheon,
-it follows that no one of his descendants for at least five generations
-can be classed as thoroughbred. As a progenitor, Eclipse
-cannot be considered a great horse, either in his immediate or
-more remote descendants. Medoc was about his best, and he was
-better than his sire. Another son, called Monmouth Eclipse, was
-grandly bred on the side of his dam, was sold, it was said, for
-fifteen thousand dollars for stock purposes, and proved a most
-lamentable failure, never having got a colt that was worth fifteen
-dollars as a race horse. The great fame of American Eclipse,
-therefore, rested upon what were then designated as “his mighty
-achievements upon the turf.” A reasonably complete history of
-this horse may be found in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for March, 1877,
-p. 160. His great race against Henry, in which he represented
-the North as against the South, was doubtless the most memorable
-turf event that ever took place on this continent, and a very
-brilliant description of it will be found at the reference given
-above. This race of four-mile heats took place on the Union
-Course, Long Island, May, 1823, for twenty thousand dollars a
-side, and it was, in effect, Eclipse against the world. Eclipse,
-fit or not fit, must start, while his opponents had several prepared
-to start against him and all they had to determine was to select
-the fastest and best of the whole party. At the last hour Henry
-was chosen as the champion of the South, and he won the first
-heat by about a length in 7:37½. A change was made in the
-rider of Eclipse and he won the second heat by about two lengths
-in 7:49. In the third heat the instructions to the rider of Henry
-were not to hurry the gait, but to trail to near the finish and
-then pull out and win in a rush. The rider of Eclipse understood
-the tactics of the enemy and he hurried the pace every step
-of the way, in order to tire out his younger opponent. When<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_450"></a>[450]</span>
-near the finish Henry made his dash and covered Eclipse’s
-quarter with his head, but he could get no further and abandoned
-the contest. Eclipse had been punished unmercifully from start
-to finish, and the time of the heat was 8:24. This shows an
-average rate of speed in the third heat of two minutes and six
-seconds to the mile, a rate which half a dozen trotters and a
-round dozen of pacers have beaten for a single mile. It shows
-also the cruelty, to say nothing of the absurdity, of heat racing
-at the distance of four miles. Still American Eclipse was the
-greatest running horse of his generation.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Boston</span> was a chestnut horse, foaled 1833, and bred by Mr. John
-Wickham, the very eminent jurist, of Richmond, Virginia. He
-succeeded to the great fame of American Eclipse, and although
-about two generations, in a racing sense, after him there was no
-horse between them that was the equal of either of them. He
-was a terror to all competitors whether of the North or the South.
-But it is only my purpose here to put on record the real facts
-about his pedigree and to expose a glaring fraud that has been
-propagated concerning his breeding for many years. Mr. Wickham,
-the breeder of Boston, bought a mare by imported Alderman
-(1802 or 1803) from John Randolph, of Tuckahoe (not
-“Roanoke” as sometimes stated). This mare was out of a mare
-by imported Clockfast, and here, to sum it up and give Mr.
-Wickham’s exact language, as he wrote in 1827: “This mare, a
-dark bay, foaled about 1799, was got by Alderman, her dam by
-Clockfast, out of a mare said to be full-blooded, of the Wildair
-blood.” This Alderman mare he bred to Florizel, and she produced
-the race horse Tuckahoe, and a filly that was bred to
-Timoleon and produced Boston. Then Boston’s pedigree stands;
-Got by Timoleon; dam by Florizel; grandam by imported Alderman;
-great-grandam by imported Clockfast; great-great-grandam
-“said to be of the Wildair blood.” This is down to “hard pan,”
-and there is no authority in the wide world to add anything to it.
-If we admit the Wildair mare to be genuine and authentic we
-are still one degree short of the thoroughbred standard. The
-six additional crosses that have been added to this pedigree are
-entirely fictitious. They were copied from the advertisement of
-a stallion descended from this maternal line, that had neither
-indorsement nor name attached to it. This was seized upon by
-the late Benjamin Bruce, and boasted of as a “discovery” of the
-extension of Boston’s pedigree. After the appearance of this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_451"></a>[451]</span>
-advertisement Mr. Wickham prepared and published a full list of
-his stock, with their pedigrees, from the first of his breeding operations,
-and when he reached the Wildair mare he stopped, just as
-I have stopped at that point. Here we have the two authorities—Mr.
-John Wickham, distinguished for his eminent character as
-a man and a jurist; or a nameless stallion advertisement without
-any shadow of truth or responsibility.</p>
-
-<p>Timoleon, the sire of Boston, was one of the most distinguished
-sons of the great Sir Archy, his dam was by imported Saltram, and
-his grandam by Wildair, but beyond that the pedigree is a hopeless
-muddle, embracing some features that are absolutely impossible.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tom Bowling and Aaron Pennington.</span>—The first of these
-horses was by Lexington, the second was by Tipperary, son of
-Ringgold, and they were both out of Lucy Fowler, by imported
-Albion, grandam-by imported Leviathan, great-grandam by Top
-Gallant, great-great-grandam Eli Odom’s saddle mare, which
-means, in that country, she was a pacer. Tom Bowling was
-probably the best race horse of his year, and Pennington may be
-classed as mediocre, but as the latter is credited with some pacers
-or trotters that have come within the 2:30 list, his pedigree becomes
-of interest on this account. I will, therefore, give the
-facts in some detail, which go to show the truth about what the
-pedigree contains and what it does not contain.</p>
-
-<p>In 1869 the late William R. Elliston, of Nashville, Tennessee,
-furnished me the following facts, which he obtained personally
-from Mr. Eli Odom. It was very fortunate that Mr. Elliston obtained
-these facts when he did, for Mr. Odom was advanced in years
-and died not long afterward. He was a brother-in-law of the
-once very famous breeder and race horse man, Colonel Elliott, of
-Tennessee, and in early life had charge of his establishment and
-knew more about Colonel Elliott’s stock than he did himself.
-He lived to old age, highly respected by all who knew him, and
-was a man of truth. He kept for his own use a pacing saddle
-mare whose blood he knew nothing about, and he bred her to Top
-Gallant, son of Gallatin, and the produce was a filly. This filly
-he bred to imported Leviathan, and in due time there came another
-filly which he bred to imported Albion, and the next filly
-was Lucy Fowler. This filly passed through the hands of a Mr.
-Fowler and perhaps one or two others, and at last became the
-property of Price McGrath, of Lexington, Kentucky, and was the
-dam of Tom Bowling, Aaron Pennington and others. Starting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_452"></a>[452]</span>
-in with the pacing mare, Mr. Odom bred all that followed until
-we reach Lucy Fowler, and there we find she had seven parts of
-running blood and one part of pacing blood. While an animal
-bred in this way is certainly not “thoroughbred,” nobody can
-deny that he is “running-bred,” for there are hundreds of instances
-on record where animals of even shorter pedigrees than
-Tom Bowling have been noted race horses. But there is another
-fact connected with this family that is very interesting.
-When the running qualities of Pennington were exhausted,
-McGrath presented him to a kinsman of his, somewhere in Western
-Missouri. After awhile I began to hear of an occasional trotter
-from this horse and I wrote his owner (whose name I cannot now
-recall), and he replied that “he went all the saddle gaits and was
-a pacer.” Here was a tidbit that I thought well worth looking
-after, and I wrote the owner again for specific information of the
-character of his pace and whether it was a clean and pronounced
-side action, but for some reason or other I never was able to get
-a reply to my questions. There can be no mistake about his
-going the “saddle gaits,” but whether this was the result of
-training or whether he took to them naturally as inherited from
-Mr. Odom’s old pacing mare, is a point about which I have never
-been fully satisfied.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Grey Eagle</span> (<span class="smcap">Chenery’s</span>).—When Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery,
-of Boston, bought this horse, about 1866, he got with him the
-following pedigree.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Got by Grey Eagle; dam by imp. Trustee; g. d. by Columbus; g. g. d. by
-Stockholder; g. g. g. d. by Pacolet. Bred in Kentucky, and passed through
-many vicissitudes, both as a runner and a trotter, beating his competitors at
-both gaits; owned for a time in Ohio, now the property of Winthrop W.
-Chenery &amp; Co., Boston.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This was a correct type of the pedigrees of that time, lacking
-date, location, breeder and all other things necessary to trace and
-determine its value. The horse had certainly trotted in 2:31,
-and he had trotted two miles to wagon in 5:09½, and to this evidence
-of his trotting ability it was claimed that he had run and won
-many races at all distances. This was such a combination of abilities
-as I never had heard of before, and in attempting to solve the
-riddle I became deeply interested. The search then instituted
-has been kept up ever since, and I must say that after all these
-years I know absolutely nothing about the breeding of this
-horse. His first known owner was a petty gambler and general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_453"></a>[453]</span>
-outlaw in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, Ohio, and the story
-he told will be found in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, Vol. I., p. 53, and Vol.
-VII., p. 597, besides other references. The search has been so
-barren that I have not even the shadow of a theory as to what
-his blood may have been. He got two or three trotters and one
-or two pacers, I think, and here we have to leave him as the most
-completely unknown horse in all my experience.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">George Wilkes.</span>—It is a grievous misfortune that the pedigree
-of this great progenitor should be in doubt. The misfortune
-is not in the fact that his descendants lose the supposed
-Clay cross in his dam, for that was not of very great value, but
-in the fact that we should not know just what belongs in its place.
-In December, 1877, I had the good fortune to meet with Mr.
-Harry Felter and Mr. William L. Simmons at a breeders’ banquet,
-and it was not long until we were in conversation about the blood
-of the dam of George Wilkes. I knew that the breeding of that
-horse had never been established, but I was greatly surprised
-that these two gentlemen—one the breeder and the other the
-owner of Wilkes—had never made any effort to trace and establish
-so important a fact. Mr. Felter stated that he had bought
-the mare from Mr. W. A. Delevan, and that Mr. Delevan had
-bought her from Mr. Joseph S. Lewis, of Geneva, New York.
-Thereupon I wrote to Mr. Lewis and the following is his response:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Some twenty-six years since I bought a brown mare from a gentleman by
-the name of James Gilbert, then living in the town of Phelps, in this county,
-for a friend, and very soon after sold her to W. A. Delevan, of New York.
-She was then about five years old, a fine roadster, and could speed in about
-3:30. He took her to New York, and after driving her some time sold her to
-my esteemed friend, Harry Felter. I think she passed into the hands of his
-father, and met with an accident. She was put to breeding, and had a colt by
-Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, that grew up to be the famous George Wilkes. For
-the benefit of many persons in New York I lost no time in looking about to
-learn the pedigree of the mare and of the horse that got her. On seeing Gilbert
-I learned that he got the mare of an old man who is now dead, by the
-name of Josiah Philips, of Bristol, in this county. I lost no time in sending
-a man, who lived with us at the time, by the name of John S. Dey, to Bristol,
-to get all the facts in the mare’s pedigree that he could get hold of. He learned
-through Philips that the father of this mare was the old Wadsworth Henry
-Clay, owned for many years by General Wadsworth, of Genesee. There is
-no mistake about this, as I have since learned from his neighbors that she was
-a Clay colt. Philips further stated that the mother of the mare was got by a
-horse called Highlander, a good horse, and owned in that section of country.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_454"></a>[454]</span>
-I have no doubt about this, as there was such a horse in that section about
-that time. When I go to Buffalo, where Gilbert now lives, I may be able to
-get at more facts in regard to your inquiry, and if I can get hold of anything
-that will give more light on the subject before I am down in New York, I will
-drop into your office to see you.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Very truly yours, etc.</p>
-
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">J. S. Lewis</span>.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The receipt of this letter, so straightforward and clean-cut in
-its statements, developed a mystery that was incomprehensible
-to me. Dates, names, places, circumstances, all stand out as evidences
-of the truth of the representations, and also as evidences
-that Mr. Lewis had fully investigated the matter, and given the
-results of his investigations to his friends in this city; still, those
-friends had never heard the facts, or had entirely forgotten them.
-As there was a strong prejudice against Clay blood in certain
-quarters, it occurred to me that possibly that cross had been left
-in abeyance so long that it really had been forgotten. This did
-not clear up the mystery, however, and I determined to have the
-whole matter investigated from a different starting point. I
-submitted the matter to Mr. John P. Ray, a very capable and
-very honest man, and he kindly and without reward undertook
-the investigation. The Philips family lived in the vicinity of
-Bristol, and the first of the family met by Mr. Ray was Mr. E. V.
-Philips, nephew and adopted son of Joshua Philips (not Josiah,
-as Mr. Lewis had it), and he enumerated several head of Clays
-that had been owned by his uncle Joshua, among them a mare
-that was bred by Mr. Clark Philips, bought of him when a yearling
-by E. V. Philips, sold as a four-year-old to his uncle Joshua,
-and by him the next year to “some man from the eastern part
-of the country.” He next met Mr. Clark Philips, who fully
-confirmed E. V. Philips about the Clay filly already referred to
-and said she was got when old Henry Clay was owned by Kent
-and Bailey of Bristol, and that her dam was “Old Telegraph” by
-Highlander, etc. In his original report to me of his investigation
-Mr. Ray uses the following language:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“When Henry Clay was being brought from the East to his home in Western
-New York, he stopped one night at the hotel then kept in Bristol by Dr.
-Durgan, deceased (the breeder of Castle Boy), and made a season at this place
-the following year, when he became the property of Kent &amp; Bailey. He was
-kept in that town for several years, etc.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Now, as between the original and voluntary statement of Captain
-Lewis and the investigation carried through by Mr. Ray,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_455"></a>[455]</span>
-there is no conflict and all is smooth sailing, and upon the information
-derived from these two sources the pedigree of George
-Wilkes was decided as established by the Board of Censors. But
-more recent discoveries made by Mr. Ray, in which I have no
-doubt he is thoroughly conscientious and possibly thoroughly
-right, have raised a conflict that is irrepressible, for dates are
-involved and insisted upon that make the pedigree impossible.
-In his original statement Mr. Ray says that Henry Clay made
-the season of 1846 at Bristol, “when he became the property of
-Kent &amp; Bailey. He was kept in that town for some years.”
-Up to this point there is no contradiction and no impossibility;
-Ray agrees with Lewis and Lewis agrees with Ray. But in the
-past two or three years Mr. Ray believes he has secured additional
-information, and this places Captain Lewis in a very unenviable
-position. The whole point of Clark Philips’ evidence is
-that he bred his mare “Old Telegraph” to Henry Clay when that
-horse was owned by Bailey Brothers, of Bristol, and I suppose
-they were the successors of Kent &amp; Bailey of an earlier date.
-Now, as Mr. Ray told us in his first investigation that Henry Clay
-passed into the hands of Kent &amp; Bailey in 1847, and as he tells
-us later that he did not pass into their hands till nine or ten
-years after that date and then fails to fix the precise year, it must
-be conceded by all that his information is not wholly satisfactory.
-Recollections may be ever so honest, but they are of various
-degrees of reliability. The best and final evidence is the service
-book of the horse. My best judgment of the whole matter is
-that Mr. Ray’s later information is probably correct, but until
-all doubt is removed by the production of some contemporaneous
-record covering the case there must remain an element of uncertainty
-attaching to the pedigree.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_456"></a>[456]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Early trotting and pacing races—Strains of blood in the first known trotters
-—The lesson of Maud S.—The genesis of trotting-horse literature—The
-simple study of inheritance—The different forms of heredity—The famous
-quagga story not sustained—Illustrations in dogs—Heredity of acquired
-characters and instincts—Development of successive generations necessary
-—Unequaled collections of statistics—Acquired injuries and unsoundness
-transmitted.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>As preparatory to taking up the consideration of the breeding
-problem, it may be well to look back a little and see what had
-transpired in the trotting-horse world, leading up to the serious
-consideration of how he was bred. It has been generally accepted
-as true that there were no trotting contests in this country
-till about the second decade of the present century, but this
-impression has grown out of the fact that the newspapers, down
-to that period, failed to report such contests. It is historically
-true that pacing races were a common amusement among the
-people of different portions of the colonies nearly two hundred
-years ago. This is established by the legislative action of some
-of the colonies, in the first half of the last century, in suppressing
-all “pacing and trotting races.” It is well to note, in passing,
-that pacers and trotters of that early period were commingled,
-just as they are to-day, with the former the more prominent,
-and the more highly prized. Of that hundred years of silence
-we have no details and but few historical references that were
-contemporaneous with the events. Hence we are practically dependent
-upon the legislative action of the colonies to establish
-the truth beyond question.</p>
-
-<p>When we reach the period when the newspapers began to report
-some of the more conspicuous and important trotting events
-about Philadelphia and New York, we find a condition of things
-for which we are hardly prepared. The pacer has lost his prominence
-and is but little in evidence, and all the best trotters seem<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_457"></a>[457]</span>
-to be descended from the imported horse Messenger. The best
-performers of that period were as follows:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Topgallant</li>
-<li>Paul Pry</li>
-<li>Dutchman</li>
-<li>Jersey Fagdown</li>
-<li>Commander (Bull)</li>
-<li>Gipsy</li>
-<li>Bull Calf</li>
-<li>Lady Warrenton</li>
-<li>Betsy Baker</li>
-<li>Sir Peter</li>
-<li>Screwdriver</li>
-<li>Chancellor</li>
-<li>Whalebone</li>
-<li>Lady Suffolk</li>
-<li>Andrew Jackson</li>
-<li>Fanny Pullen</li>
-<li>Washington</li>
-<li>Sally Miller</li>
-<li>Greenwich Maid</li>
-<li>Charlotte Temple</li>
-<li>Confidence</li>
-<li>Rattler</li>
-<li>Lady Salisbury</li>
-<li>Modesty</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>These were all descended from Messenger, and with the exception
-of Edwin Forrest and one or two others, believed to be descended
-from pacing blood, they were the leading performers of
-their day. All of the above animals were not equally strong in
-Messenger blood as three of them were by sons and out of
-daughters of Messenger, five were by sons of Messenger, and all
-the others had more or less of his blood. More than eighty years
-ago the descendants of Messenger, wherever known, were recognized
-as a family of trotters and this broad fact became a kind of
-universal belief among horsemen. This belief, being founded on
-a truth, was all right, but a plausible deduction from it, which
-was not a truth, inflicted a terrible penalty upon the pockets of
-otherwise intelligent men for a period of more than fifty years
-before they discovered their error. The postulate was in this
-form: “Messenger was a thoroughbred horse and founded a
-great family of trotters, hence, any other thoroughbred horse,
-under the same conditions, would have accomplished the same
-results.” This “stock” form of the argument was plausible and it
-was in everybody’s mouth from one end of the land to the other.
-Every stable boy, every breeder, every editor believed the deduction
-was sound, and, I may as well own it, I believed it myself
-until I had gathered together all the accessible trotting statistics
-of this country and reduced them to order and method, so that
-they might be studied and their true teachings be drawn from
-them. As an illustration of the ignorant intolerance and dishonesty
-with which certain editors and their followers maintained,
-less than twenty years ago, that all that was of any value
-in the trotter was inherited from the runner, take the following:
-In the autumn of 1878 the famous Maud S., then four years
-old, came out and trotted a mile in 2:17½, which was then a
-world’s wonder. She was a pacer of the plastic type, but she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_458"></a>[458]</span>
-had to wear toe-weights through all her brilliant career to keep
-her on her gait as a trotter. Everybody was astounded at this
-phenomenal performance and went wild over it as something
-that had never been done before, by a four-year-old, and probably
-never would be done again. On this performance I simply
-remarked, in the <i>Monthly</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Her trotting inheritance is very strong and well defined on both sides of
-the house, and she has a right to trot, and trot fast, and her 2:17½ shows that
-she trots instinctively, and without much training; and in this she is phenomenal.
-She is simply a little in advance of her time; for no truth is more fully
-sustained by analogy and reason than that, in a few generation of judicious
-selections, such mares will not be phenomenal.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From this four-year-old record of 2:17½ in 1878, we pass on to
-the two-year-old record of 2:10¾ in 1891. A four-year-old now
-trotting in 2:17½ is only commonplace. It was not a gift of
-“prophecy” nor an overwrought enthusiasm, therefore, that
-enabled me to determine that 2:17½ for a four-year-old would
-become commonplace, but a study of the laws of breeding in the
-light of all past trotting experiences. When this performance
-was made the late B. G. Bruce, of Lexington, Kentucky, then
-editor of a sporting paper, went into ecstasies over it and was at
-once able to show, to his own mind, that it was all owing to the
-running blood in Maud S. that enabled her to show phenomenal
-speed. He figured this all out and showed that she possessed
-eleven-sixteenths of what he called “pure blood,” to five-sixteenths
-of what he called “cold blood.” In winding up his
-article, he says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In conclusion we deem it evident from her form and action that the great
-power of Maud S. comes from her pure blood; that her breeding back on the
-form and action, courage and endurance of the blood horse is the very reason
-why she is so superior to all four-year-olds that have ever appeared. And another
-point is obvious: the pure blood matures so much earlier than the cold
-blood that years are gained in development over the cold-blooded trotter.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Now instead of Maud S. possessing eleven-sixteenths of “pure
-blood,” as claimed by Mr. Bruce, it has never been shown and
-never can be shown that she possessed one single drop of “pure
-blood.” When Sally Russell, the grandam of Maud S., was sold
-to Mr. R. A. Alexander, she was sold under a fraudulent pedigree,
-and when Pilot Jr. was sold to Mr. Alexander an utterly
-impossible pedigree was manufactured for him. In both cases
-he was the victim of sharpers, for in his life and character he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_459"></a>[459]</span>
-stood away above all suspicion. The pedigrees of Pilot Jr. and
-Sally Russell have been fully considered in Chapter XXIX. of this
-volume.</p>
-
-<p>After publishing “The American Stud Book” in 1867, and the
-first volume of the “Trotting Register” in 1871, and having carefully
-compiled all past trotting races and trotting experiences,
-up to the close of 1872, it began to dawn upon me that possibly
-I had been handling a great many fictions and thereby given
-them an indorsement to the world as truths. This “gave me
-pause,” as well as many a sleepless night and anxious day. The
-old adage, “What everybody says must be true,” gave me no comfort,
-for I had just found that Mr. “Everybody” was a great liar.
-Then a higher and purer maxim suggested itself to my mind,
-“One, with the truth on his side, is a majority,” and under this
-banner I enlisted for the war which I knew was coming. Having
-compiled the pedigrees of all running horses and all trotting
-horses, so far as known, up to 1870, and more especially having
-gathered up all past trotting experiences and statistics, I felt
-that I was equipped to enter the lists with everybody against me.
-I knew I was liable to meet antagonists on every side, and some
-of them of great ability, but at the same time I knew they had
-neither the armor of truth nor the weapons of facts at their command.
-Mere prejudices and the limping opinions that spring
-from them have no force in an earnest combat. The platform
-upon which I stood was aggressive, but simple and easily comprehended,
-viz., “The English horse Messenger, in his own right
-and by his own power, founded a family of trotters—something
-which no other English horse had ever been able to take the first
-step toward accomplishing.” This was the central point around
-which the battle raged, and to it I added the pacer as a subsidiary
-or minor source of speed, equally certain in fact, but not equally
-well defined in lines of descent, nor equally important in numbers
-and value. From these major and minor sources it is literally
-true that all our trotters have descended. In confirmation
-of this, a very capable and careful writer in the New York <i>Sun</i>,
-within the past few months, has said: “Hambletonian is the progenitor
-of ninety per cent. of the fast trotters now on the turf.”
-When we start with Hambletonian, the triple great-grandson of
-Messenger, we are safely within the period of records of both
-blood and performances, and we are relieved from some possible
-uncertainties in the earlier period of Messenger himself, hence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_460"></a>[460]</span>
-the writer quoted above is at bed-rock in the sources of his information.
-This makes my major proposition so plain and so
-triumphantly sustained that it is doubtful whether there is now
-living an intelligent horseman who would even think of disputing
-it.</p>
-
-<p>In the spring of 1872 I wrote a series of articles under the
-caption of “How shall we breed the Trotting Horse?” which was
-published in the <i>Spirit of the Times</i> in February and March
-of that year. These papers were revised and enlarged and published,
-as an introductory treatise on breeding the trotter, in the
-second volume of the “American Trotting Register.” This
-treatise is the genesis of all discussions in which the laws governing
-the breeding of the trotter are considered. Up to that period
-contributions to the press on breeding subjects were generally
-transient and confined to the writer’s own experience. If he was
-trying to breed trotters a comparison of his material always
-corresponded with his arguments, and the only thing he demonstrated
-was his own inability to see over the fence surrounding
-his own paddocks. I love a man who loves his horse, and, as a
-man, I cannot dislike him because he thinks his horse is the very
-acme of all equine perfection, although he may be a worthless,
-brute; but when a man spends a whole lifetime in trying to breed
-trotters from blood that cannot trot, I lose all respect for his mental
-operations. The man who cannot widen out and take profit
-from the demonstrated experiences of the whole trotting world,
-had better turn his attention to some business suited to his
-capacity. Not a single thought advanced nor a position taken
-in the article referred to has ever been successfully controverted,
-although they excited much opposition. An attempt was made
-to laugh the phrase “trotting instinct” out of court, but that
-little phrase not only held the fortress, but became, as it were,
-the basis of the whole system of thought represented in the
-treatise. It had a meaning and a fitness in what it meant that
-put it in everybody’s mouth, and there it stays for all time. Instinct
-is “the sum of inherited habits;” and these five words express
-the best practical definition of its meaning that I have ever
-met with.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">The Laws that Govern.</span>—In all animal life the resemblance
-of the offspring to the parents is the universal law. The law is
-not only true in the physical conformation of the offspring, but
-it is also true in the mentality and instinctivity of the offspring.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_461"></a>[461]</span>
-In former years it was very aptly termed the law of inheritance,
-but the more general usage is now the law of heredity. In
-casting about for a definition of this newly coined word, I have
-not been able to find anything more comprehensive and expressive
-than that given by Ribot, in the opening sentence of his work
-on this subject. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Heredity is that biological law by which all beings endowed with life tend
-to repeat themselves in their descendants; it is for the species what personal
-identity is for the individual. By it a groundwork remains unchanged amid
-incessant variation; by it Nature ever copies and imitates herself.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This has been the law ever since the command went forth,
-“Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind,
-cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind.”
-Hence sprang the varieties, species, genera and orders into which
-naturalists have sought to classify the animal kingdom. In generations
-long past our ancestors used such phrases as “Like
-father, like son,” “Trot father, trot mother, trot colt,” “Like
-begets like,” etc., meaning just what we mean to-day by the
-word “heredity.” While heredity is a universal law of animal
-life, it must be remembered that its results cannot be pre-determined
-by any rule of arithmetic. Every colt has a sire and a
-dam, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and then
-sixteen, and next thirty-two progenitors. Here we have five
-generations embracing sixty-two different animals, and the experiences
-of many years have gone to show that if these sixty-two
-animals are all purely bred in the breed which you are seeking to
-secure there is a reasonable certainty that your prospective colt
-will be a good representative of that breed. By this I mean that
-with this number of generations there is but little danger of your
-colt following some undesirable type outside of and beyond these
-five generations. The only way to study this problem intelligently
-and with satisfaction is to tabulate the pedigrees of the
-two animals you propose to couple and then study each individual
-of the different generations and see what each one has done in
-the direction you are breeding. If you are breeding for a Derby
-winner you want every one of the sixty-two to have proved himself
-or herself a first-class runner, and you don’t want a single drop of
-outside blood in any of them. If you are breeding for the two-minute
-trotter, you don’t want any blood but the fastest trotting
-blood. If you are breeding for the two-minute pacer you want<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_462"></a>[462]</span>
-nothing but the fastest pacing blood. But, possibly you may be
-breeding for size, style, and beauty, and in that case you must be
-particularly careful to have your tabulation full of animals possessing
-these qualifications. In times past many breeders have
-been led to their own hurt in making ill-considered attempts at
-improvement by mating animals of antagonistic instincts. The
-fast runner and the fast trotter have nothing in common between
-them in the way of gait. In physical structure there may be no
-antagonism that we can see, but in mental or psychical structure
-there is nothing but what is inharmonious. Each animal and
-each line of blood must be considered as it stands separate from
-the other, and the question must be not only asked but answered:
-“What has this line of blood done in its own right and by its own
-power?”</p>
-
-<p>In studying these tabulations it certainly is not necessary to
-remind any thinking man of the comparative value of near and
-remote individuals. The first and second generations are the
-important factors in the character and value of the proposed colt,
-and, as a rule, the four grandparents are not given that weight
-in making up a sound judgment to which they are entitled. A
-tabulated pedigree may show a general equality or average goodness
-all over, in the direction we are looking; although it may
-embrace but few stars it is not a pedigree that should be hastily
-rejected. The student should never lose sight of the truth that
-bad qualities are just as certain to be transmitted as good ones.
-Bad feet, bad limbs, bad eyes and bad respiration should be
-sufficient cause for prompt rejection. Derangement or unhealthiness
-of the internal viscera or any of them is just as likely to be
-transmitted as an external malformation or disease.</p>
-
-<p>In some instances the qualities sought seem to emanate
-entirely from the sire or the dam, and this prepotency seems to
-appear more frequently as the work of the sire than of the dam,
-perhaps because the opportunities are greater in the number of
-services. Thousands of stallions have failed to get trotters out
-of running-bred mares, but as many as you could count on the
-fingers of one hand, probably, have succeeded in a few instances.
-Of these Pilot Jr., Almont and Electioneer occur to me at this
-time as the most prominent. These horses, so far as we know
-the lines of their blood, were strictly trotting and pacing bred,
-with no tincture of running blood in their veins. On a certain
-occasion Senator Stanford wished to demonstrate to the writer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_463"></a>[463]</span>
-that Electioneer could get trotters out of running-bred mares,
-and after showing the step of the famous Palo Alto, he remarked:
-“None of my other stallions can do that. Electioneer alone has
-the power to get trotters out of some thoroughbred mares, but
-not all.” This ability to get a trotter out of a running mare is
-the highest test to which the prepotency of a trotting sire can be
-put, as is shown by the very small number that have ever
-succeeded.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Direct Heredity.</span>—While it is true that all inheritance must
-come through the parents, it is also true that phenomena of form,
-character and quality are not infrequently presented that the
-parents do not seem to possess, and upon looking further we find
-those phenomena in some of the more remote ancestors. When
-we find the character of the offspring a practical reproduction of
-one or both the parents, we designate this as a case of “direct
-heredity” merely for the convenience of description and elucidation.
-Ideal or perfect heredity never has been reached and never
-will be. There are two sources to the life of the new being, and
-each of these sources is made up of never-ending variations.
-There may seem to be a very complete coalescence of the elements
-of the sire and dam in the foal, but it is not like either of them
-and yet it may resemble both. A mere physical resemblance to
-a great sire is no evidence that the colt will be equally great. I
-have seen many of the sons of the great Hambletonian, and among
-them all the one that bore the strongest physical resemblance to
-him was of the least value, either as a performer or a progenitor.
-Hambletonian left many great sons behind him, some of them
-even greater than himself, and while they all possessed certain
-family characteristics, I cannot recall a single one that strikingly
-resembled him in his physical conformation. From this incident,
-as well as a thousand other similar ones, we cannot avoid
-the conclusion that heredity controls the whole animal, man or
-beast, in his mental as well as in his physical constitution.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Cross Heredity</span> is one of the forms of direct heredity, and
-is not very well exemplified in trotting experiences, nor very
-valuable in the lessons it is supposed to teach. In its first form
-it embraces instances where the character of the sire is transmitted
-to his daughters and the character of the dam is transmitted
-to her sons. Long ago I established a table in the “Year
-Book” to embrace the sires of mares that produced two or more
-animals in the 2:30 list, but had failed to place any representative<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_464"></a>[464]</span>
-there from their own loins. The development of this table
-simply showed an array of sires that were not able to get 2:30
-trotters, but when their daughters were bred to horses of stronger
-inheritance, horses indeed that were able to get trotters from
-almost any kind of mares, they produced foals that came within
-the circle. This was a grandsire’s table and depended upon
-second causes, that is, the horses that gave it life occupied
-secondary positions in it, and it presented but little that was of
-value to the student of horse history. In the discussion of this
-particular form of heredity the books are filled up with instances
-of vicious fathers begetting vicious daughters and vicious mothers
-producing vicious sons, with more or less uncertainty as to the
-individual origin of the parties in question.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Indirect and Collateral Heredity.</span>—When a child or a
-colt does not resemble its parents, but “takes after” the grandfather
-or some more remote ancestor, it is said to be a case of
-atavism, or indirect or collateral heredity. Twenty years ago I
-visited, by appointment, a branch of my family at the old homestead
-of my great-grandfather, on the maternal side. There
-never had been any knowledge of each other or intercourse between
-these two branches of the family. On arriving at my
-destination I was warmly greeted by a gentleman who came forward
-from the crowd and named me. As there were a good
-number of people alighting from the train at the same time I
-asked my cousin how he knew me, and he replied that I bore
-such a striking resemblance to my grandfather that at a single
-glance he could have picked me out of a hundred men. This
-grandfather was the father of my mother and he died when I was
-a small boy. But there was a still greater surprise awaiting me.
-My kinsman was an intelligent man of excellent sense, and during
-the few days I spent in his family he was to me a most interesting
-study. In a hundred ways he reminded me of my brother,
-not in resemblance of face, for there was, practically, no resemblance;
-but in the action of his mind, in his way of putting things,
-and especially in his unstudied and peculiar gestures of his hands
-in conversation, the one seemed to be a perfect reproduction of
-the other. They were both born and reared on farms, they were
-both heads of families, and they were both elders in the Presbyterian
-church. The one was the third and the other the fourth
-remove from their common progenitor. I have read carefully
-descriptions of many cases of mental heredity, but this case,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_465"></a>[465]</span>
-coming under my own observation and deliberate study, seemed
-to be more thoroughly convincing than any or all others.</p>
-
-<p>The fact that certain qualities may lie dormant through several
-generations and then be unexpectedly developed was well known to
-the ancients more than two thousand years ago. Plutarch mentions
-a Greek woman who gave birth to a negro child and was brought
-to trial for adultery, but it was discovered that she was descended
-in the fourth degree from an Ethiopian. Montaigne expresses
-his astonishment at this, and remarks:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Is it not marvelous that this drop of seed from which we are produced
-should bear the impression, not only of the bodily form, but even the thoughts
-and inclinations of our fathers? Where does this drop of water keep its infinite
-number of forms? How does it bear these likenesses through a progress
-so haphazard and so irregular that the great-grandson shall resemble the great-grandfather,
-the nephew the uncle?”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The most prolific and satisfactory sources of evidence in support
-of indirect or reversionary heredity are to be found in the
-crosses between the white and the black races. They abound in
-all quarters wherever the two races are to be found, and many a
-proud family has been humbled to the dust when the long-concealed
-“black drop” makes its unexpected appearance. There are hundreds
-of such cases in the world, and it is impossible to make even
-an approximation of the number of generations that would be
-required to wash out the stain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heredity of Influence.</span>—When the subject of “How to Breed
-the Trotting Horse” was in its infancy there was a wonderful
-amount of mystery about it. Nobody could understand why one
-horse of the same general conformation should not trot just as
-fast as another. When it was found that this way of looking at
-the problem would not meet the facts, one thought it was owing
-to the length of certain bones, another that it was all in the hind
-quarters, another that it was “the trotting pitch,” another that
-it was “a happy nick,” etc. When it was all made plain that a
-horse was able to trot fast because his ancestors were able to trot
-fast, the seekers for the mysterious had nothing left that suited
-their taste but the effects of first impregnations, resting on
-Lord Morton’s story of the quagga and the mare, which is here
-dignified with the title “Heredity of Influence.” Now, just
-how “influence,” two or three years after the event, should become
-a controlling factor in the paternity of a colt, is a mystery
-sufficiently profound to satisfy our friends of earlier years, so<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_466"></a>[466]</span>
-intent upon finding something mysterious. For about three-quarters
-of a century the story, coming from so reputable a
-source, has been cited in many scientific bodies and accepted by
-many scientific men and writers without a question or doubt.
-No writer, so far as I know, has ever attempted to controvert it,
-and if the facts be well founded it demolishes in its conclusions
-all the laws of generation, to say nothing of the universal
-law of heredity. The point to be considered is, whether the first
-impregnation influences the offspring of subsequent and different
-impregnations. In other words, whether the children of a widow
-by her second husband will partake of the characteristics of her
-first husband. Ribot says “that from the psychological point of
-view, we are skeptical in regard to this form of heredity. The
-fact seems to be perfectly out of the order of things.” He then
-goes on to consider it as though it might be true, and cites any
-number of the veriest fables in support of it, without ever stopping
-to inquire whether they have any foundation of truth. In
-every assemblage of breeders brought together for the purpose
-of discussing how best to breed and rear our domestic animals at
-a profit, there is always somebody to bring in the everlasting
-story of the mare and the quagga, not because it may have any
-relevancy to the subject, but it is an opportunity not to be lost
-to show one’s learning. As this story has served the purpose of
-showing off the learning of so many thousands who never saw it,
-I will here give it in its original and official form. A communication
-from the Earl of Morton was read before the Royal Society
-of London, November 23, 1820, and published in “Philosophical
-Transactions” for 1821, p. 20, and is as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I yesterday had an opportunity of observing a singular fact in natural
-history, which you may, perhaps, deem not unworthy of being communicated
-to the Royal Society.</p>
-
-<p>“Some years ago I was desirous of trying the experiment of domesticating
-the quagga, and endeavored to procure some individuals of that species. I
-obtained a male; but being disappointed of a female, I tried to breed from the
-male quagga and a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, and
-which had never been bred from; the result was the production of a female
-hybrid, now five years old, and bearing both in her form and in her color very
-decided indications of her mixed origin. I subsequently parted with the seven-eighths
-Arabian mare to Sir Gore Ousley, who has bred from her, by a very
-fine black Arabian horse. I yesterday morning examined the produce, namely,
-a two-year-old filly and a year-old colt. They have the character of the Arabian
-breed as decidedly as can be expected, where fifteen-sixteenths of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_467"></a>[467]</span>
-blood are Arabian; and they are fine specimens of that breed; but both in their
-color and in the hair of their manes they have a striking resemblance to the
-quagga. Their color is bay, marked more or less like the quagga, in a darker
-tint. Both are distinguished by the dark line along the ridge of the back, the
-dark stripes across the forehand, and the dark bars across the back part of the
-legs. The stripes across the forehand of the colt are confined to the withers,
-and the part of the neck next to them. Those on the filly cover nearly the
-whole of the neck and the back as far as the flanks. The color of her coat
-on the neck adjoining the mane is pale, and approaching a dun, rendering the
-stripes there more conspicuous than those on the colt. The same pale tint appears
-in a less degree on the rump; and in this circumstance of the dun tint
-also she resembles the quagga.</p>
-
-<p>“The colt and filly were taken up from grass for my inspection, and owing
-to the present state of their coats I could not ascertain whether they bear any
-indications of spots on the rump, the dark pasterns, or the narrow strips on
-the forehead, with which the quagga is marked. They have no appearance of
-the dark lines along the belly or the white tufts on the side of the mane.
-Both their manes are black; that of the filly is short and stiff, and stands upright;
-and Sir Gore Ousley’s stud groom alleged it never was otherwise; that
-of the colt is long, but so stiff as to arch upward, and to hang clear of the
-side of the neck, in which circumstance it resembles that of a hybrid. This is
-the more remarkable, as the mane of the Arabian breed hangs lank and closer
-to the neck than those of most others. The bars across the legs, both of the
-hybrid and of the colt and filly, are more strongly defined and darker than those
-on the legs of the quagga, which are very slightly marked; and though the
-hybrid has several quagga marks which the colt and filly have not, yet the
-most striking, namely, the stripes on the forehand, are fewer and less apparent
-than those on the colt and filly. These circumstances may appear singular,
-but I think you will agree with me that they are trifles compared with the
-extraordinary fact of so many striking features which do not belong to the
-dam, being in two successive instances communicated through her to the progeny
-not only of another sire, who also had them not, but to a sire probably
-of another species; for such we have very strong reasons for supposing the
-quagga to be”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This is Lord Morton’s original quagga story without abridgement,
-the substance of which has been quoted and printed millions
-of times, but I never have seen anything like an analysis of
-it, either for or against its value as determining any fact or principle
-in breeding. The elements are: a young chestnut mare,
-“seven-eighths Arabian blood,” was bred to a quagga and produced
-a hybrid. She was afterward bred to a black “Arabian”
-and produced a colt and a filly that were supposed to be marked
-like the quagga; hence, first impregnations influence all subsequent
-foals; and hence “the heredity of influence,” as called by
-some scientists. Lord Morton has given an intelligent and, no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_468"></a>[468]</span>
-doubt, faithful description of the colt and the filly that came out
-of the mare that had previously produced the hybrid quagga; but
-he has failed to show that none of the near-by ancestors of the
-sire and dam of this colt and filly were of a dun color and were
-marked just as the colt and filly were marked. Until it is shown
-that the peculiar markings of this colt and filly could not have
-been inherited from their natural ancestors, the half-formed
-theory that they were the result of the coupling with the quagga,
-years before, wholly fails to satisfy the human understanding.
-When Lord Morton tells us that the dam was seven-eighths, and
-the sire full Arabian, he seems to think he has covered that
-point; but he has not, for he has not shown that there was a single
-drop of Arabian blood in either of them. It must not be forgotten
-that at the period here referred to all Eastern and Southern
-horses were called Arabians, when not one in fifty of them
-ever saw Arabia either through his own eyes or through the eyes
-of any of his ancestors. The composite material out of which
-the English race horse was built up was of all colors, including
-the dun, with the dark stripe on his back, the short stripes or
-patches on his shoulders, and the transverse bars on his legs.
-A horse of this color, I am told, once won the Derby. The
-Kattywar horses of Northwestern India, Mr. Darwin informs us,
-are from fifteen to sixteen hands high, of all colors, with the
-several shades of dun the most common, and when one of them
-fails of having the spinal stripe, the shoulder stripes, and the leg
-stripes the purity of his breeding is doubted. This is the type
-of horse the British officers ride, and when their term of service
-expires sometimes bring home with them. There are many
-duns in Persia and in Eastern Asia Minor, I am informed, and
-the stripes seem to belong to the color. In Norway the color of
-the native horse is dun and the stripes are considered evidence of
-pure breeding. Many of the mountain horses of Spain are duns,
-with the stripes. The dun color prevailed, to a greater or less
-extent, among the native English horses of three hundred years
-ago, and some of them were brought to this country in the early
-colonial period. Mr. Darwin, in his “Animals and Plants under
-Domestication,” fully describes the dun horses of Devonshire, and
-in order to be clearly understood he figures one of them showing
-the dark stripes on the shoulder and the transverse bars upon the
-legs. I have seen numbers of dun horses so marked, in this
-country, the most conspicuous that I can now recall being Wapsie,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_469"></a>[469]</span>
-the distinguished son of Green’s Bashaw. The fact that horses
-of this color and marking are to be found in all parts of the
-globe, has led many thoughtful writers to the conclusion that
-these characteristics are among the very earliest in the history of
-the horse. To bring this instance to a close, I must say:</p>
-
-<p>1. Beyond the color alone of the sire and dam of this colt and
-filly, there is no evidence whatever that they might not have
-inherited, by ordinary generation, the color and markings from
-some of their ancestors.</p>
-
-<p>2. The miscegenous breeding of the ass upon the mare has
-been practiced, we know, for more than three thousand years,
-and yet in all that time, and down to our own day and experiences,
-there has been no established indication that the first impregnation
-of the filly by the ass had any influence whatever upon her
-subsequent produce by the horse.</p>
-
-<p>This theory of the first impregnation having an influence on
-all subsequent produce is probably more generally maintained
-among dog fanciers than any other class of breeders. In some
-instances when a valuable maiden bitch gets astray she is
-banished from the kennel and either destroyed or given away.
-For this foolish notion some antique authority might be cited.
-Burdach, a French writer on physiology, says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“If a bitch be once put to a dog of another race, every litter of puppies
-afterward will include one belonging to that other breed, except the first time
-she be put only to dogs of her own breed.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This is a kind of pseudo science that is only calculated to mislead,
-for the vital facts are omitted. What was the pedigree of
-the bitch? She may have looked like a well-bred pointer and a
-high price may have been paid for her, but her sire may have
-been a mongrel, or, possibly, a miserable cur. No dog breeder
-or dog dealer has ever been known to drown the results of a
-<i>mésalliance</i> if it was a fairly good-looking puppy. It goes into
-the records as a thoroughbred and finds a market. When a dog
-and a bitch, seeming to be well-bred and costing a high price,
-bring into the world a litter of puppies showing a mixed inheritance,
-the fancier at once jumps to the conclusion that there is
-something mysterious about it, and as he has heard of the evil
-results of first impregnations, he thinks he has discovered the
-source of the trouble and straightway this is another example
-resulting from first impregnation. He then goes back on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_470"></a>[470]</span>
-dealer, or possibly the breeder, and there to conceal the fact that
-the blood of his kennel was not pure, he would naturally play
-the rogue and admit that the young bitch might have got astray.
-This satisfies the unsophisticated owner, and another trick of an
-unscrupulous “dog jockey” goes on record as a case of “heredity
-of influence,” when in fact it was nothing more nor less than a
-dirty fraud in the breeding of the dog or bitch, or both.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the early French writers on scientific subjects, as
-Burdach, Michelet, etc., advanced the theory more than a hundred
-years ago that the children of a second marriage, in some
-cases, inherited the resemblance and character of the first husband.
-In the nature of things this theory could have but very
-feeble support and that chiefly among scandalmongers. In connection
-with this phase of “heredity of influence” I will give a
-little instance of my personal experience. Twenty years ago, or
-more, I was making an address before an association, in a New England
-city, on the subject of “How to Breed the Trotting Horse.”
-The audience was very large and composed exclusively of gentlemen.
-At the opening it was announced that at the close of each
-specific topic an opportunity would be given to any one in the
-audience to ask questions on the thoughts presented. The signal
-had hardly been given when a gentleman arose in the audience
-and raised the question whether I had not omitted an important
-fact in heredity? He then went on to rehearse the everlasting
-quagga story, with a most confident flourish of his learning and a
-sure grasp on a triumph.</p>
-
-<p>“The quagga story,” I remarked, “is well known to everybody,
-but there are some facts about it that are not known to anybody.
-The mare herself may have been from a dun tribe of horses, or
-the horse to which she was afterward bred may have been from
-such a tribe, hundreds of which have stripes on the back, the
-shoulders and the legs, and thus the stripes might be accounted
-for by indirect heredity; not because the quagga had stripes, but
-because the dun horse ancestry had stripes. Most people, probably,
-look upon it as a freak of nature, and as the case has never
-duplicated itself, in all the years before or since, it fails to be a
-practical question, and in our personal experiences as breeders,
-we need not be afraid of suffering harm from it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Your explanation,” replied my interlocutor, “fails to cover
-the case, I think, for I have seen, with my own eyes, instances
-of it in the human family and I will relate one. A dozen years<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_471"></a>[471]</span>
-ago, or more, a friend of mine married a lady who was a brunette
-in complexion, with black eyes and black hair. He was of florid
-complexion, with blue eyes and sandy hair, just about the color
-of my own. After three or four years the husband died leaving
-two children of his own complexion and color of eyes and hair.
-In course of time the widow married a man with black hair and
-black eyes, and there came a second set of children that were as
-perfect reproductions of the first husband as his own children
-were in complexion and color of hair.”</p>
-
-<p>“How long have you personally known this family, and have
-you ever seen these two sets of children?”</p>
-
-<p>“I have known the family intimately ever since the first marriage
-and I have seen both sets of children very often.”</p>
-
-<p>“You certainly have had abundant opportunity to know
-whereof you affirm, and the facts seem so plain that it would be a
-refinement on folly to undertake to contradict them; but there
-is one element in this case that has not been explained, and it is
-a vital one. How are we to know whether some man of ‘sandy
-complexion’ and with ‘hair and eyes just the color of yours,’ is
-not the father of this second set of children?”</p>
-
-<p>This ended the colloquy in a “roof-raising” shout, and I never
-have been called upon since, in a public meeting, to even allude
-to the “heredity of influence.” With the experiences of thousands
-of years of miscegnatious breeding between the ass and the
-mare and no indication among the writers of the ancients as to
-the evil and abiding effects of first impregnations; and with the
-experiences of more than a century in this country, with the
-same results, we are compelled to throw over all claims of this
-kind until furnished with full and complete pedigrees of the sire
-and dam, showing the color and markings of each individual for
-a number of generations.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heredity of Acquired Characters and Instincts.</span>—On
-this point there is a lack of unanimity among the promoters of
-the “primordial germ” theory, and the principal advocate of the
-negative side of this question appears to be Professor Weismann.
-Mere opinions of men, no difference how profound their learning,
-cannot be of any value, unless they are sustained by actual experiences,
-on questions of this kind. To determine this matter
-we are not dependent upon any of the explanations of the central
-Darwinian hypothesis of creation without a Creator, for we
-have all around us, safely within the historic period of human<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_472"></a>[472]</span>
-observation and experience, mountains of evidence, so to speak,
-heaped upon us, going to show that “acquired character and instincts”
-are transmitted and become hereditary.</p>
-
-<p>Dr. Pritchard, in his “Natural History of Man,” gives the
-following illustration on this point:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“Two other very important observations made by M. Roulin, in
-South America, were pointed out by M. Geoffrey St. Hillaire, in his report
-to the Academy of Sciences. They refer to the fact of the hereditary
-transmission of habits originally impressed with care and art upon the
-ancestors. Of this fact I will adduce other examples in the sequel; at present
-I only advert to M. Roulin’s observations. The horses bred on the grazing
-farms of the table-lands of the Cordillera are carefully taught a peculiar pace,
-which is a sort of running amble. This is not their natural mode of progression,
-but they are inured to it very early, and the greatest pains are taken to
-prevent them from moving in any other gait; in this way the acquired habit
-becomes a second nature. It happens occasionally that such horses becoming
-lame, or no longer fit for use, it is then customary to let them loose, if they
-happen to be well grown stallions, into the pasture grounds. It is constantly
-observed that these horses become the sires of a race to which the ambling
-pace is natural, and which requires no teaching. The fact is so well known
-that such colts have received a particular name; they are termed ‘aguilillas.’”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The fact that there were some pacers in South America came
-to me from many sources, and especially from gentlemen of intelligence
-and character who had spent years in that country, and
-was for a long time a puzzle to me. All the evidences of history
-went to show that the horse stock of South America was Spanish,
-and no evidence could be found that the Spanish horse was a
-pacer, or that there was any tendency to pace in the blood of the
-Spanish horse. This report to the French Academy of Sciences
-was made in the early part of this century and is really the first
-information I have ever had of Spanish horses pacing. Dr. Pritchard
-was one of the earlier modern writers on natural history
-and stands very high as a man of conscience as well as learning.
-The surprising feature in this South American experience is the
-wide and, apparently, immediate measure of success that seems
-to have followed the training to the pacing gait in its transmission.
-It may be taken as a rule that the changing of the gait
-from the diagonal to the lateral, or <i>vice versa</i>, is a slow process,
-and it seems to me that with few exceptions it would require
-several generations before the new habit of action would become
-fixed in the breed. It is just possible, however, that there may<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_473"></a>[473]</span>
-have been a tincture of pacing blood in the Spanish horses of the
-sixteenth century. The Visigoths, one of the early Asiatic hordes
-that overran Europe, first settled in Scandinavia, and the southern
-part of Sweden is still called “Gothland.” After a long stay
-in that country they became dissatisfied with soil and climate
-and determined to seek another. According to the historians,
-they first migrated in a southeastward direction and from
-there in a southwestward till they reached the southern part of
-France, from which they soon passed over into Spain, which they
-subdued, and established there a dynasty which lasted two hundred
-years. In <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 711 the Saracens from Africa crossed over,
-and after a very bloody battle lasting two days, defeated Rhoderic,
-the last of the dynasty, and cut his army to pieces. In Scandinavia,
-and especially in Norway and Sweden, we find plenty of dun
-horses that are pacers, and they are recognized as a very old
-breed. In the mountains of Spain we also find small dun horses,
-and it is, perhaps, not an unreasonable possibility that the
-Visigoths may have carried some of their horse stock with them
-in their migration from the North to the South of Europe, and
-thus this habit of action that may have remained for centuries
-latent in the breed may have been unusually plastic in its restoration.
-This, however, is a mere surmise as to a possibility
-and cannot displace the historic observations reported by M.
-Roulin and presented before the French Academy. The gait of
-the South American pacers, as I understand it, is not that of the
-pure pace, with two strokes completing the revolution, but is
-more like the “saddle gaits” that we find in the West and Southwest
-of our own country. The true pace seems to be exceptional,
-because that is not a saddle gait. It is a fact often observed in
-this country that foals from parents trained to the saddle gaits
-will take to those gaits naturally and as soon as they are dropped.
-In a preceding part of this work I have given some consideration
-to the fact that three or four hundred years ago the horses of our
-English ancestors were largely pacers, and to the methods adopted
-in that day for changing the action from the diagonal to the
-lateral gait—the hopples, rattles, weights, etc. The descendants
-of those horses, brought to this country by the colonists, as will
-be seen at another place, were nearly all pacers.</p>
-
-<p>The following letter, addressed by Dr. William Huggins to
-Charles Darwin and by him published in “Nature” twenty years
-ago, very strongly illustrates the heredity of instincts, and as it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_474"></a>[474]</span>
-is authentic and true beyond question I will here insert it. Dr.
-Huggins says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“I wish to communicate to you a curious case of mental peculiarity. I possess
-an English mastiff, by name Kepler, a son of the celebrated Turk out of
-Venus. I brought the dog, when six weeks old, from the stable in which he
-was born. The first time I took him out he started back in alarm at the first
-butcher’s shop he had ever seen. I soon found he had a violent antipathy to
-butchers and butchers’ shops. When six months old a servant took him with
-her on an errand. At a short distance before coming to the house she had to
-pass a butcher’s shop; the dog threw himself down (being led by a string),
-and neither coaxing nor threats would make him pass the shop. The dog was
-too heavy to be carried, and as a crowd collected, the servant had to return
-with the dog more than a mile, and then go without him. This occurred about
-two years ago. The antipathy still continues, but the dog will pass nearer to
-a shop than he formerly would. About two months ago, in a little book on
-dogs, published by Dean, I discovered that the same strange antipathy is shown
-in the father, Turk. I then wrote to Mr. Nichols, the former owner of Turk,
-to ask him for any information he might have on the point. He replied: ‘I
-can say that the same antipathy exists in King, the sire of Turk, in Turk, in
-Punch (son of Turk), out of Meg, and in Paris (son of Turk out of Juno).
-Paris has the greatest antipathy, as he would hardly go into a street where a
-butcher’s shop is, and would run away after passing it. When a cart with a
-butcher’s man came into the place where the dogs were kept, although they
-could not see him, they all were ready to break their chains. A master
-butcher, dressed privately, called one evening on Paris’ master to see the dog.
-He had hardly entered the house before the dog (though shut in) was so much
-excited that he had to be put into a shed, and the butcher was forced to leave
-before seeing the dog. The same dog, at Hastings, made a spring at a gentleman
-who came into the hotel. The owner caught the dog and apologized, and
-said he never knew him to do so before, except when a butcher came to his
-house. The gentleman at once said that was his business. So you see that
-they inherited these antipathies, and show a great deal of breed.’”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Some ancestor, not far removed, of these three generations of
-dogs must have suffered a life of oppression and cruelty at the
-hands of an unfeeling master, and that master must have been a
-butcher. We fail to understand and appreciate the mentality of
-the dog and the horse, and as they are above the average of the
-brute creation we fail of a word midway between instinct and
-reason to express that mentality. We call it “instinct,” and correctly,
-too, but this grade of instinct requires a more expressive
-word to represent it. That a feeling of antipathy should have
-been so deeply seated in the nature and life of a dog that the
-resentment and hatred should have been transmitted to his descendants<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_475"></a>[475]</span>
-for three generations in succession is a very remarkable
-instance of the heredity of instinct. As a companion piece
-to the foregoing and as showing the difference between the
-hatred of one dog and the gratitude and love of another, I will
-relate an instance that came under my own observation and
-knowledge more than forty years ago. General John G. Gordon
-was a merchant in Muscatine, Iowa, and Dr. George Reeder was
-a physician of great skill and very large practice. These two
-gentlemen were among my most intimate personal friends. On
-a certain occasion one of Gordon’s well-to-do farmer customers
-brought him a puppy a few months old as a present. He had
-no use for a dog and didn’t want one, but he was not willing to
-forfeit either the good wishes or the custom of his farmer
-friend, so he accepted the gift with thanks. When he took the
-puppy home in the evening there was consternation in the household,
-and in a family conference it was decided that he should
-not be allowed to run through the house with his dirty feet, and
-thereupon he was consigned to the cow stable, and that became
-his home as long as he lived. Every night and morning he got
-a liberal ration of milk fresh from the cow and they soon became
-inseparable friends. In cold nights, as if by mutual agreement,
-he always slept cuddled up close to the cow. At that time in
-the history of the town, the country was open and pasture abundant
-in every direction, and everybody kept a cow. In the mornings
-these cows would start out to their grazing grounds, in
-bands, radiating in every direction, and in the evenings could be
-seen “the lowing herds wind slowly o’er the lea.” Gordon’s
-dog never missed a day for years in going with his friend the
-cow and returning with her in the evening.</p>
-
-<p>Dr. Reeder used two or three horses in his practice, and his stable
-was on the same alley, and some ten or twelve rods distant from
-Gordon’s cow stable. One day in winter time he was having his
-bins filled with corn in the ear, and to make room for it all he
-had to fill up a large dry-goods box that stood in one corner of
-the stable. While he was supervising the delivery of the corn
-Gordon’s dog came in, reared up on his hind legs, seized an ear
-of corn and made off with it. The doctor was very much surprised
-at this act of the dog as he never had seen or heard of a
-dog eating corn. While he was thinking about this strange act
-of the dog, he came back again and seized another ear and made
-off with it. This time the doctor watched him, and he carried it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_476"></a>[476]</span>
-direct to his friend the cow, dropped it before her, and she soon
-made away with it. This phenomenal exhibition of the attachment
-of one animal to another of entirely different nature aroused the
-doctor’s desire for a further confirmation of what he had seen.
-Concealing himself behind the door he awaited further developments
-and in a little while the dog came back, seized the third
-ear, and whipping past some other cows, carried it safely to his
-friend. I have seen this dog a hundred times, and he was a
-mongrel nondescript, about the size of the average pointer, with
-nothing remarkable about his appearance; but in all the illustrations
-of all the naturalists I have not met with any authenticated
-instance where character in a dumb animal was so beautifully
-exhibited. In history we have many touching examples of the
-attachment of the dog to his master and of his heroism in defending
-the weak against the strong, but this case seems to be
-unique. Here is a character developed that is far more than “the
-sum of inherited habits.” We may call it instinct, but that word
-fails to express it. In whatever light we view this character, it has
-in it an element of reason and we have no word that expresses it.</p>
-
-<p>The oldest written evidence we have of the origin of the setter
-dog dates back about two hundred years, in which we find John
-Harris agreeing to teach Henry Herbert’s “spaniel bitch Quand”
-to set game. Allusions are made in the old writers to dogs used
-for this purpose long before, but the setter certainly has an
-ancestry dating back at least two hundred years. The pointer
-is of much more recent origin and seems to have come from an
-ancestry wholly distinct from that of the setter, and yet, in the
-field, it would be very difficult for the most competent jury to
-decide which stands to his game with the greater steadiness. It
-is agreed, I think, among experienced sportsmen and breeders
-that the best dogs are the result of couplings made in the midst
-of the hunting season when the instincts of the parents are aroused
-and active under the gun. Puppies so bred are already half-trained
-when they are whelped. The instinct to point the game
-instead of rushing upon it is an instinct acquired at an earlier or
-later date, well within the historic period, and we know that it is
-transmitted and inherited under the laws of heredity. We know
-also that this instinct is strengthened and improved by training
-and use; and at the same time it is weakened, if not obliterated,
-by neglect and non-use for a few generations.</p>
-
-<p>The Scotch collie, with plenty to do, is altogether the most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_477"></a>[477]</span>
-useful, and hence, in a utilitarian sense, the most valuable of all
-the varieties of the canine race. In understanding his master’s
-commands and the motions of his hand in the management of the
-flock, he evinces an intelligence, an instinct, that is almost human.
-There is a marked distinction between the instinct of the pointer
-and the collie. The former acts chiefly by his innate mental
-endowments, while the latter is at his best when carrying out the
-will of his master. In both cases the instinct was acquired in
-comparatively recent years, and it is now fixed in the breeds and
-is transmitted with great certainty.</p>
-
-<p>The most remarkable results in the development and use of an
-instinct that was practically latent, or never developed, are to be
-found in the history of the American Trotting Horse. Fifty-one
-years ago Lady Suffolk was the first trotter to cover the mile in
-2:29½. Four years later Pelham, a converted pacer, trotted in
-2:28, and four years still later Highland Maid, a converted pacer,
-trotted in 2:27. In 1859 Flora Temple trotted in 2:19¾; in 1874
-Goldsmith Maid trotted in 2:14; in 1885 Maud S. trotted in
-2:08¾; in 1892 Nancy Hanks trotted in 2:04; and in 1894 Alix
-trotted in 2:03¾. But a greater performance than any of these
-was that of the two-year-old colt, Arion, when in 1891 he covered
-the mile in 2:10¾. I have no hesitation in pronouncing this the
-greatest performance ever made, to this date, not because it was
-the fastest, as shown by the watch, but because it was made by a
-two-year-old, and from this fact there had been no time for prolonged
-and skillful training. He was essentially the product of
-heredity and not the result of education.</p>
-
-<p>Fifty-one years ago there was but one animal in the 2:30 list,
-and at the close of 1896 there were over fifteen thousand within
-that limit and far more than fifteen thousand others hovering on
-its border. This astounding result must be attributed primarily
-to a trotting inheritance, but this inheritance has been constantly
-strengthened, reinforced, fortified by the acquired capacities resulting
-from the development of the trotting speed of succeeding
-generations. This is not a mere estimate of what has resulted
-from acquired characters and instincts, for if we put all the
-observations of all the writers on subjects of natural history,
-large and small, together, they make but a meager and unsatisfactory
-showing when compared with the fifteen thousand actual
-experiences, officially noted and recorded on the spot and printed
-in “Wallace’s Year Book.” In all the world there is no other<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_478"></a>[478]</span>
-collection of statistics so vast, so accurate and so valuable as is
-there to be found, touching the question we are considering.</p>
-
-<p>While the heredity of acquired characters and instincts is thus
-clearly and fully established, there is another truth intimately
-connected with it that should not be forgotten. In an inheritance
-springing from recent acquisitions there seems to be less of
-adhesive strength than in one that has come down through many
-generations. This being true, it follows that whether the lines
-of inheritance be long or short there must be an intelligent and
-constant exercise of good judgment in strengthening them
-by bringing the best and strongest together and uniting them in
-the prospective foal. When this has been done it is possible that
-the foal may not be of much value, but the chances of success
-are in exact proportion to the strength of all the lines of inheritance
-that are united in the foal. Beyond the chance of failure
-and beyond the average chance of an average production, there
-is a chance for something better than any of the ancestors. This
-latter hope always has been and always will be the inspiration of
-the breeder. In his structure and form he may be an improvement
-on his parents, but his value as a trotter can only be determined
-by the development of his instincts and speed as a
-trotter. Without such development he may transmit what he
-inherits, but he adds nothing to his inheritance except by the development
-of his own powers. These accretions, growing out of
-the development of succeeding generations, are the material cause
-that has placed the American Trotter at the very edge of two
-minutes to the mile, and with wise management will eventually
-carry him away beyond that rate of speed. This whole topic
-may be summed up in a single sentence: every acquisition of
-eminence and superiority adds something to the value of what
-is transmitted.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Heredity of Bad Qualities, Unsoundness, etc.</span>—Under the
-laws of inheritance no distinction can be made between the desirable
-and the undesirable, nor between the earlier or later
-acquisitions, as they are all liable to be transmitted and to become
-hereditary. The bitter must go with the sweet. Dropping
-below is just as liable to occur as rising above what might be considered
-the average inheritance of the immediate parents. This
-may result from following or throwing back to some undesirable
-or unsound cross that may exist in some of the lines of inheritance
-which possibly may be distant several generations. As a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_479"></a>[479]</span>
-practical consideration it makes but little difference whether a
-tendency to, or a fully developed, unsoundness has been in the
-inheritance for generations, or whether it may be the result of
-some recent accident or injury, it is liable to be transmitted. It
-is known to everybody that the great running horse Lexington
-was blind, and it was urged that his blindness was not congenital,
-but the result of an accident; hence it was argued by those interested
-that it would not be unsafe to breed to him. It was
-stated and repeated a hundred times that while in training he
-got loose in his stable and stuffed himself at the oats bin, and
-without knowing this his trainer took him out next morning and
-ran him a trial of four miles, from the effects of which he lost
-his sight. Without giving full credence to this as the cause of
-his blindness, it is nevertheless true that he filled the country
-with blind horses. If, for example, a joint or a ligament or a
-muscle of the hind leg be sprained by overexertion or by a misstep,
-a spavin or a curb may develop, or possibly something still
-worse, and this is a blemish and generally an unsoundness that is
-likely to be transmitted, if not in a developed form, then in an
-unmistakable tendency in that direction, which, in turn, will
-make its appearance in succeeding generations. The horse world,
-and I might say, the whole animal kingdom under domestication,
-abounds in examples, seen and unseen, of unsoundness originating
-in injuries to the parents.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_480"></a>[480]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED (<i>Continued</i>).</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Trotting speed first supposed to be an accident—Then, that it came from
-the runner—William Wheelan’s views—Test of powers of endurance—The
-term “thoroughbred” much abused—Definition of “thoroughbred”—How
-trotters may be made “thoroughly bred”—How to study pedigrees—Reward
-offered for the production of a thoroughbred horse that
-was a natural pacer—The trotter more lasting than the runner—The
-dam of Palo Alto—Arion as a two-year-old—Only three stallions have
-been able to get trotters from running-bred mares—“Structural incongruity”—The
-pacer and trotter inseparable—How to save the trot and reduce
-the ratio of pacers—Development a necessity—Table proving this
-proposition—The “tin cup” policy a failure—Woodburn at the wrong
-end of the procession.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>Before the question of speed in the trotter began to be considered,
-either from a historical or a philosophical standpoint, or,
-in other words, a question involving scientific truths, there was a
-universal concurrence in the idea that speed at the trot was an
-accident and that there was nothing of inheritance or heredity
-about it. This idea was greatly strengthened by the performances
-of such horses as Boston Horse, Rattler, Edwin Forrest, Dutchman,
-Confidence, Moscow, Pelham, Flora Temple, Tacony, etc.,
-whose origin and blood were wholly unknown, while they were
-on the turf. Contemporaneous with these there were such
-splendid performers as Topgallant, Screwdriver, Lady Suffolk,
-Sally Miller, O’Blennis and many others that were known to be
-descended from Messenger, a horse that was looked upon by
-everybody as a “thoroughbred.” Hence, the conclusion that the
-flying trotter was either an accident in breeding, or his speed
-qualities came from the English running horse. The fact that
-such champion trotters, in their day, as Pelham, Highland Maid,
-etc., had originally been pacers and changed from the lateral to
-the diagonal gait was sedulously concealed from the public, during
-their day, and only after they had passed away was this bar-sinister<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_481"></a>[481]</span>
-in their origin brought to light. Doubtless this same
-fact might have been developed in the origin of Edwin Forrest
-and others, if action had been taken in time. In that day—say
-the first half of this century—it is not remarkable that the
-plebeian origin of some of our most famous early trotters was concealed,
-for everybody was claiming a thoroughbred ancestry, and
-the more famous the performer the more certain he was to be
-furnished with a thoroughbred pedigree.</p>
-
-<p>“Whatever is of value in the trotter must come from the runner,
-and whatever is of value in the runner must come from the
-Arab,” was the view that was universally accepted when I was
-a boy. And yet there were thousands of fast trotters and fast
-pacers in this country long before the first running horse was
-brought from England, and England itself was abundantly supplied
-with horses several hundred years before there was a horse
-in Arabia. These two facts are historical, and the dates make
-them incontrovertible. Some forty or fifty years ago William
-Wheelan, a successful trainer and driver of trotting horses in this
-country, took some trotters over to England, to try his “luck,”
-as others had done before him, in making matches and winning
-stakes. He was quite successful, and when he came home he was
-kept busy answering questions about English horses and why
-they did not have more trotters there. He replied that “there were
-plenty of horses that could trot as well or better than our American
-horses, if they were trained; they had plenty of blood and
-most of them good limbs and feet, with all the substance that
-was needed.” This made William Wheelan an authority, and
-his opinion was quoted all over the land; which went to prove
-that the way to breed the trotter was to get plenty of running
-blood into his veins. About this time the English running horse
-Trustee was bred on a famous trotting mare, Fanny Pullen, a
-daughter of Winthrop Messenger, of Maine, and the produce was
-the gelding Trustee, the first to trot twenty miles within the
-hour, or at least the first to make that distance regularly and to
-rule. This gave a tremendous “boost” to running blood, as
-everybody except Hiram Woodruff ascribed the result to the
-great powers of the imported running horse. All subsequent experiences
-fully demonstrated that Hiram Woodruff, although
-alone, was right; for although Trustee’s blood commingled more
-kindly with trotting blood than most of the other running
-horses, he left no trotters but this one. The highest rate of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_482"></a>[482]</span>
-speed of which this gelding was capable was about 2:40, and at
-last, in a race of mile heats with some fifth-rate old pelter, at
-Cincinnati, Ohio, on a very hot day, he fell exhausted on the
-track and died from the effects of the heat. But the great fame
-of being the only horse able to trot twenty miles within the hour
-did not long remain with this son of imported Trustee. Five
-others have done the same thing, viz., Captain Magowan, Controller,
-John Stewart, Mattie Howard, and Lady Fulton, all of
-whom went faster than Trustee, except Lady Fulton.</p>
-
-<p>There have been many crucial tests of the “staying qualities”
-of running blood in the trotter, as against the trotter without
-any running blood, in which the running blood has uniformly
-been worsted. The last of these which I now recall was a match
-for two thousand dollars between Scotland, a half-bred son of
-imported Bonnie Scotland, and Lizzie M., by Thomas Jefferson,
-and out of a pacing mare. The race was two-mile heats, best
-three in five—a very unusual race, and admirably adapted to test
-the staying powers of the contestants. Scotland was a fast and
-well-seasoned trotter; while the mare had, probably, a little
-higher flight of speed she never had been tried at such a distance,
-and in her breeding she was short, and had not a single drop of
-running blood in her inheritance. The mare won the first and
-second heats in 4:56—5:03, and the gelding the third heat in
-4:55½, the fastest in the race, but he was not able to come again,
-and the last heat was won by the mare in 4:58½. This race took place
-at Philadelphia in 1883, and if, at that time, there still remained
-any advocates of “more running blood in the trotter,” they have
-not since been in evidence, with two or three addle-pated exceptions.</p>
-
-<p>In looking back over the many years I have devoted to the literature
-of the horse, and especially to the breeding of the trotting
-horse, I can find no word in the English language that has been
-so much abused as the word “thoroughbred.” A minister wrote
-a great, pretentious book on the horse in which he maintained
-that the Morgan horse was a “thoroughbred.” A lawyer wrote
-another pretentious book in which he maintained that the trotting
-horse Dexter was a “thoroughbred.” With these two
-shining lights in the learned professions writing books on the
-horse and pronouncing this family or that individual “thoroughbred”
-without knowing the meaning of the term, we should not
-deal too severely with uneducated men for following their example.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_483"></a>[483]</span>
-The minister and the lawyer evidently had always heard
-the term “thoroughbred” applied to what men considered the
-best, and when they were discussing their favorites which they
-considered the best, they naturally called them “thoroughbreds”
-without knowing what they were saying. This was more than
-twenty years ago, and was really the popular conception of the
-meaning of the term at that time. Not one man in a thousand
-then knew that the term had any other meaning than the individual
-superiority of the animal, and that it applied only to the
-pedigree, or concentration of blood in the veins of the animal,
-was quite foreign to the popular conception. After the founding
-of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> the light began to dawn on this as well
-as on many other questions, and to-day the true meaning of the
-term is very generally understood.</p>
-
-<p>To constitute a “thoroughbred” of whatever variety or species
-the animal must possess a certain number of uncontaminated
-crosses of his own breed, and this applies to all kinds of domestic
-animals that are bred for special uses or qualities. There is no
-law determining the number of these uncontaminated crosses,
-except the law of usage. The cattle men, I think, were the first
-to establish a rule on this subject, in this country, and they did
-it on enlightened and scientific principles. It was found in experience
-that the danger of atavism, or throwing back to some
-undesirable ancestor, was diminished in the ratio of the number
-of pure crosses through which the animal was descended. At
-two crosses it was found that there were many reversions to some
-type outside of the breed; at three crosses there were not so
-many; at four there were very few, and at five reversions had
-practically disappeared. While some required another cross the
-majority drove the stake at the fifth generation, proclaiming
-thereby that an animal bred through five uncontaminated generations
-of ancestors was free from the dangers of reversion, and
-hence was “thoroughly bred.” This is the formula and this is
-the principle, and it applies with equal propriety to the colt, the
-calf, the pig, the puppy, the chick, or the birdling. In this
-phrase “thoroughly bred” we have the origin, reason and meaning
-of the term “thoroughbred.” The formula of this rule, if
-tabulated, would show two parents: next, four grandparents;
-next eight great-grandparents; next sixteen ancestors and next
-thirty-two, making in all sixty-two ancestors, all of which must
-be “thoroughly bred.” This rule of breeding is not limited to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_484"></a>[484]</span>
-the running horse alone, but applies to all the varieties of our
-domestic animals; and whenever the point is reached at which
-the danger of reversion has been overcome the animal is “thoroughly
-bred,” and the term “thoroughbred” applied just as
-properly to one kind of domestic animal as to another.</p>
-
-<p>The question here arises as to whether the American Trotting
-Horse can be so thoroughly bred as to be entitled to be ranked as
-a thoroughbred trotter? This question is already affirmatively
-answered when we say the rule “applies to all the varieties of
-our domestic animals.” This is the general fact, but the trotting
-horse has a qualification, already determined, that serves as
-a fixed starting point in giving him rank. The standard as
-originally adopted and honestly administered was the mighty
-engine that wrought the revolution in breeding the trotter.
-It fixed a certain qualification that had to be complied with before
-an animal could be admitted to standard rank, and that
-qualification was in brief to either perform or produce a performer
-that could cover a mile in 2:30. It excluded no strains
-of blood, but it admitted the animals only that had fully demonstrated
-the ability to trot or to produce trotters. The standard
-is now antiquated, and far behind the speed of the trotters, which
-is a clear demonstration of the wisdom of its construction and
-adoption, but to this topic I will refer at another place more at
-length. With the standard, then, and the unmistakable evidence
-it furnished of the possession of what we will call “trotting
-blood,” we have a more definite and satisfactory starting point
-than can be claimed for any kind or variety of domestic animal.
-With this demonstrated ability to trot fully established, we can
-commence to count the generations of standard animals in a trotting
-pedigree, and if we find five generations of ancestors, with
-every animal standard bred, we can safely and intelligently say
-the animal is “thoroughly bred” as a trotting horse. With those
-sixty-two progenitors all legally established as standard animals,
-who will say this is not a thoroughbred trotting horse? He is not
-only thoroughbred, but he is more distinctly and completely
-thoroughbred than any other domestic animal, because the fifth
-generation of his ancestors, and the fourth and the third and the
-second and the first have all proved that they are either trotters
-or the producers of trotters. No other breed has ever been
-established on so good a foundation, for they have fairly won
-their initial honors by what they have done. But this is one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_485"></a>[485]</span>
-degree higher and embraces one generation more than the formula
-usually prescribed as necessary to constitute the rank of
-thoroughbred. Five “generations of ancestors” do not include
-the representative product of those generations. The product
-would be the sixth generation, which is one more than the generally
-accepted usage requires. An animal representing five
-generations of standard trotting blood, complete and without
-contamination, is “thoroughly bred” and is justly entitled to be
-classified as a “thoroughbred trotting horse.” At this point of
-breeding it is considered that the danger of reversion is practically
-eliminated, and hence this distinctive classification. At the
-time of this writing (1897) there should be, in this country, quite
-a number of youngsters fully entitled to rank as thoroughbreds.</p>
-
-<p>All intelligent breeders have long been aiming at this point,
-not merely for the name “thoroughbred,” but for the greater
-certainty of uniformity in producing what they want—the
-ability to perform; and the quality of these thoroughbred trotters
-must be determined by the ability to perform and the quality of
-each and every one of the ancestors. If each and every one of
-the four or five generations of ancestors was able to go out and
-win himself or herself, there could hardly be a doubt that the
-colt could do the same, but some of those ancestors may be in the
-standard merely from reflected honors, which are good, but not
-a crucial test of superiority in the individual. There is nothing
-like the animal that “has gone out and done it” himself, over
-and over again, and when we sit down to the study and comparison
-of pedigrees in the thoroughbred rank we find great differences
-in the quality of the lines of descent. The reflected honors
-of an uncle or an aunt are of much less value than the honor of
-a direct ancestor. While the blood of all the ancestors is tested
-blood, the individuals may not all have been tested, and hence
-are less certain in transmitting the true trotting instinct. While
-the standard has done wonders in teaching the true art of breeding,
-like all other human devices it has its imperfections. Just
-like the runner, the trotter may be strictly thoroughbred, and
-yet in taking after some of the imperfections of one or more of
-his ancestors, he may be of but little value as a performer. This
-truth has been verified in a thousand experiences in the runner, and
-it is just as liable to be verified in the trotter. Hence the supreme
-importance of looking well to the qualities and capacities of
-every animal in the inheritance.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_486"></a>[486]</span></p>
-
-<p>At the very inception of the idea that the trotting horse could
-be bred and developed into a breed, an opinion prevailed everywhere
-that it could not be done. The theory that speed at the
-trot came from speed at the gallop was universally held and
-advocated. In 1868 I made a tour among the breeders and
-horsemen of Tennessee and Kentucky, for the purpose of gathering
-information about both runners and trotters. Those States
-were then beginning to pull themselves together after the war.
-At General Harding’s, among others, I was shown a large, heavy-boned
-colt, and the General remarked that if he did not make a
-race horse he would make a capital stallion to take to the West
-and breed on trotting mares. At Balie Peyton’s I was shown a
-great big, coarse horse that had run some races and won in very
-slow time, and that was unsound at many points. He was over
-sixteen hands high, and had very bad limbs. Mr. Peyton remarked
-that “he was too big for a race horse, but he would do
-well in the West as a trotting sire.” This was the remark everywhere
-as applied to big colts that couldn’t run. About the same
-time Mr. Joseph Cairn Simpson, then in the employ of a sporting
-paper in New York, as an editorial writer, expressed his
-sorrow that Hambletonian did not have a thoroughbred cross,
-close up, and his opinion that such a cross would have made him
-a much greater sire. Thus, East and West, North and South, the
-opinion prevailed everywhere that the way to breed the trotter was
-to go to the runner. This universal belief, wholly without foundation,
-soon generated the cry, “more running blood in the trotter,”
-and the instincts of all the rogues in the country were quickened to
-make their pedigrees conform to the popular belief of what was best.
-This resulted in a period of fictitious claims, for when a man had a
-colt out of a mare of unknown breeding the rule was to say, “dam
-thoroughbred,” and if the owner was unusually conscientious
-and knew the breeding for one or two crosses, he would give them
-correctly, but seldom failed to tack on two or three thoroughbred
-crosses that were wholly fictitious. After all my years of experience
-with the pedigrees of horses, it is my deliberate and candid
-opinion that no word in the English language has been so much
-abused as the word “thoroughbred.” It has been the medium
-of more deceptions and downright falsehoods than any other
-word in the vocabulary. For many years it was the word above
-all other words that the unscrupulous jockey employed to defraud
-his inexperienced victim. And if there had been no strong hand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_487"></a>[487]</span>
-to take the improper and dishonest use of the word by the throat
-there would be no breed of trotters, and the whole business of
-breeding and developing the trotting horse would be to-day just
-where it was thirty years ago. The old, threadbare stock argument
-was in everybody’s mouth, to the effect that “Messenger
-was an English thoroughbred and he founded a family of trotters,
-hence any other English thoroughbred could do the same thing
-under the same circumstances.” When this ancient formula
-was submitted to the test it was found to be fatally unsound at
-both ends, as has been shown in another chapter. Messenger
-was found to be far short of being thoroughbred in his inheritance;
-forty other English thoroughbreds had been in competition
-with him and bred upon the same mares, yet no other English
-thoroughbred, in the experiences of a hundred and fifty years,
-ever founded a family of trotters. The two ablest advocates of
-“more running blood in the trotter” that this country has produced,
-Mr. Charles J. Foster and Mr. Joseph Cairn Simpson, when
-challenged to produce an English thoroughbred horse that had
-founded a family of trotters, conceded the whole contention by
-naming Bishop’s Hambletonian and Mambrino, both sons of
-Messenger and the principal channels through which Messenger
-had founded his family of trotters. This knocked all the noise
-out of the famous formula, and instead of the braying of an ass
-we have heard nothing since on this subject but an occasional
-and very feeble squeak of a mouse.</p>
-
-<p>In the earlier portion of the period when the American Trotter
-was beginning to assume the shape and character of a breed, the
-term “thoroughbred,” meaning English racing blood, was adhered
-to with astonishing tenacity, as an indispensable element
-in the breeding of the trotter. A few men of clear and independent
-minds commenced to study the question in the light of experiences,
-and they were not long in reaching the truth; but, as a
-rule, the less a man knew of the question, whether a breeder or
-a writer, the more blatant and vociferous he was in maintaining
-that all trotters were dependent for their speed on the blood of
-the “thoroughbred English race horse.” When Maud S. made
-her four-year-old record and astonished the world, the acclamations
-of this class went up in tremendous volume pointing to the
-Boston blood of her grandam as the element that did it. Now,
-it never has been shown, and it never can be shown, that there
-was a single drop of Boston’s blood in her veins. Besides all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_488"></a>[488]</span>
-this, Boston was not a thoroughbred horse, for neither his sire
-nor his grandam was thoroughbred. A curious phase of the interest
-attached to the mere word “thoroughbred” was brought
-out by a Catholic priest, in New Jersey, in a very cranky and
-ill-natured letter addressed to the editor of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>
-protesting against the frequent use of the term “running-bred”
-instead of “thoroughbred.” Priests are generally educated men,
-but this poor man struck out into a field where he was entirely ignorant.
-A horse with two or three immediate and direct running
-crosses may be properly and truthfully called “running bred,”
-because that blood predominates in his veins, but to be justly
-and truthfully called “thoroughly bred” he must have at least
-five direct and distinct crosses, and each and every one of them
-pure and without any contamination from any other blood. As
-an illustration of what results from this definition of the word
-“thoroughbred,” we may take the very cream of our old American
-racing families and not one in fifty is “thoroughly bred.”
-American Eclipse was far short of being thoroughbred, even if
-we admit that Messenger was thoroughbred. Timoleon, the
-greatest son of Sir Archy, had an impossible and untruthful
-pedigree on the side of his dam. His great son Boston was short
-and deficient on both sides, and with these taints how could he
-get the great blind horse Lexington and make him a thoroughbred?
-These horses were distinctively “running bred,” but not
-technically “thoroughbred.” It is not to be presumed the priest
-was angry because I preferred not to use a word that conveyed
-an untruth and to use one that told the exact truth, for he was
-not qualified to judge which was true and which was not true,
-but like hundreds of others he feared the value of his property
-might be affected by the refusal to apply the term “thoroughbred”
-to some supposable cross in some of his pedigrees.</p>
-
-<p>“More running blood in the trotter” was a “fad” that has
-been completely extinguished by all the experiences of later years.
-It was a freak that never had any foundation either in nature or
-in reason. No animal can transmit to his posterity qualities and
-capacities which he has not inherited, or which he does not
-possess by acquirement. This is a rule which seems to be perfectly
-plain to the comprehension of everybody, and in observation
-and experience it proves itself true every day of the year.
-To breed a horse that can go fast at the trotting or pacing gait
-we must go to the horse and the blood that has gone fast at one or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_489"></a>[489]</span>
-the other of these gaits. It seems like a needless work to
-expend any time or space on what is self-evident in all human experiences.
-A few years ago I offered a money reward, of sufficient
-amount to justify some labor in a search, to any one who would
-report to me any thoroughbred running horse, with the proofs,
-that had ever made a trotting record of a mile in three minutes,
-and there was no response. Some years later I renewed the
-offer, doubling the amount of the former offer, and still there
-came no response. I regret now that I did not make the offer
-for a mile in four minutes instead of three, for I very much
-doubt whether there ever was a thoroughbred horse able to trot
-a mile in four minutes. What is the use, then, of giving further
-attention to the consideration of the value of thoroughbred running
-blood in the trotter?</p>
-
-<p>But after conceding that the instinct to stick to the trot and
-the step of the trotter must come from the trotter, the advocates
-of “more running blood in the trotter” plant all their heavy
-guns on the proposition that running blood is needed to give the
-trotter more courage, endurance, and beauty of form. In all
-the past years we have had so many grand panegyrics on the will
-power and undying courage of the “courser of the desert” that
-they have become threadbare and have an “ancient and fish-like
-smell,” and we would prefer to exchange them for something
-more recent and practical. When we go to a race meeting and
-see so many contests at various distances less than a mile, a few at
-something over a mile, and all these merely single dashes, we
-naturally and justly conclude that the distance of ground to be
-covered in each contest is adjusted to the courage and stamina
-of the racers. I cannot conceive of any fairer criterion by which
-to determine the measure of gameness and pluck of running
-horses than simply to consider the distance chosen, and that for a
-single dash. Trainers and owners know just where each horse will
-quit, if hard pressed, and they will not enter him in any distance
-beyond the point where they know his courage will fail. With
-the data of distances for these single dashes already fixed for
-the accommodation of horses with different degrees of staying
-qualities, and after making a liberal allowance for age and lack
-of condition, we seem to have a solid foundation for a safe conclusion
-that the crucial test of the speed of the average race
-horse fails him before he reaches the first mile-post.</p>
-
-<p>When the trotter starts out for his summer’s campaign he has no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_490"></a>[490]</span>
-choice as to the length of his races, and he is not looking about for
-single dashes of four, five, six or seven furlongs, but enters the field
-boldly and throws down the glove to all the best strains of trotting
-and pacing blood. Every race will be mile heats, best two
-in three or three in five, and it often requires six, seven or eight
-heats before the victor is declared. This experience is repeated,
-week after week, during the whole season. Such a weekly experience
-as this, continued through twenty consecutive weeks,
-would probably destroy the best and stoutest running horse now
-living. This is the test to which the trotter is subjected, and
-no man can say it lacks in severity in determining his qualities
-as a race horse, in his stamina, his courage and his gameness.
-In touching this point I will here take the liberty of entering my
-protest against what I consider the unnecessary severity of this
-test. We want all these tests, and from the standpoint of the
-breeder we cannot progress without them, but we want them to
-stop short of injury to the animal. When a contest is drawn out
-to six, eight or ten heats, it not only becomes cruel as a sport,
-but it is liable to inflict irreparable injury to the soundness of
-the animal. Unsoundness, either external or internal, is liable to
-result from all such abuses. This is a dominant fact, and while
-we may not be able to see the injury with the eye, we are likely
-to see the evil results in the progeny. Animals of the kind most
-likely to be subjected to this over-severity of test are the hope
-of the future as producers, and by all means wise and possible we
-should seek to preserve them in their pristine soundness and
-vigor. As breeders we cannot afford to let them go without
-development and test, neither can we afford to impair or destroy
-their producing qualities, in the test. This can be done only by
-shortening the race; not the distance of ground, but the number
-of heats that can be trotted. With an inflexible rule that not
-more than five heats should be trotted in any race, and that at
-the conclusion of the fifth heat the money should be divided according
-to the places of the contestants, I would not be particular
-as to whether the race was for the best two in three, or the best
-three in five. The invariable results have been that in long-drawn-out
-contests of many heats there have been bargains and
-combinations for or against certain horses, and all managed by
-and in the interest of the so-called “speculators.” If this were
-done the combinations of the gamblers would be checkmated,
-the cruelty of the sport would be eliminated, and our best horses<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_491"></a>[491]</span>
-would come through the campaigns ready and fit to propagate
-their species.</p>
-
-<p>In breeding for a particular purpose or qualification all experience
-goes to show that the elements entering into the new creature
-must be carefully selected as possessing the quality that we
-seek to propagate. Nobody would think of breeding a running
-mare to a trotting horse if he was seeking to breed a running
-colt. No thoughtful and intelligent man would think of breeding
-a running horse upon a trotting mare if he were seeking to
-breed a trotting colt. The runner to the runner and the trotter
-to the trotter has been demonstrated ten thousand times as the
-right way. The cross-bred or half-and-half-bred animal may be
-something of a trotter or something of a runner, doing neither
-well; and this uncertainty never can become a certainty as to
-which it may be till you try him. The evil of half-and-half
-breeding does not cease with the life of the animal, for the division
-in his own inheritance will manifest itself in his progeny for
-generations, or till it is bred out. But, strange as it may seem,
-there are still a few old men living who, from pride of opinion advanced
-in their younger days, still maintain that trotting speed
-must come from the “thoroughbred” and “point with pride” to the
-great horse Palo Alto as the complete illustration of their belief.
-In relation to the breeding of Palo Alto I will here tell a little
-story, premising that I neither accept it as true nor reject it as
-false, for I know nothing about it. The late Mr. William H.
-Wilson, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, was in many respects a remarkable
-man. He was full of energy and push, and his brain seemed
-to teem with formidable ideas, chiefly relating to his prospects,
-and the management of his own business. He was intelligent in
-horse matters, and very well informed on local horse history. He
-did a great deal of work for me in the way of straightening out
-tangled skeins, and in tracing obscure pedigrees. In this way I
-came to know Mr. Wilson very well, and as I never found him
-wrong on these questions I came to place great confidence in his
-word and his judgment in all pedigree matters that he had investigated.
-Some time about 1889, probably, he asked me to investigate
-the pedigree of Dame Winnie, the dam of Palo Alto,
-for, he said, he had every reason to believe she was not by Planet,
-but by a trotting-bred horse that he named, but that name has
-escaped me. I replied that I had not time then, but I would
-think about it. Some months afterward he was again in my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_492"></a>[492]</span>
-office and he again urged the investigation. My reply was that
-there were some very upright and honest men in Kentucky as
-well as some great rogues, and if I were to undertake to investigate
-this pedigree the rogues could get forty men, if so many
-were necessary, for a bottle of whisky or a half-dollar a head,
-who could remember just what it was necessary to remember,
-and forget just what it was necessary to forget in order to prove
-that the mare was by Planet. I recalled my experience with
-suborned evidence in the past, and knew just what I might
-expect in the future, and so I had concluded to make no more
-investigations in certain portions of Kentucky until I had an
-opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses. Dame Winnie was
-a plain, common-looking mare, with nothing about her to indicate
-high breeding, and if we lay aside Mr. Wilson’s story and
-accept the pedigree as usually given she was strongly running
-bred, but at several points in her pedigree she fails of being thoroughbred.
-The internal evidence as to the breeding of this
-mare, brought to light in the performance of her produce, suggests
-very strongly the probability that she possessed some trotting
-blood, from some source not far removed. She has five
-representatives in the 2:30 list, and this of itself strongly supports
-Mr. Wilson’s untold story, that I would not listen to. In passing
-I will say I would be glad to listen to it now; for this solid
-foundation of experience is so stoutly corroborative of what he
-suggested as to justify an effort to reach the exact truth. When
-it was known in Kentucky that Senator Stanford had sent his
-representative down there to gather up a lot of “thoroughbred”
-mares from which to breed trotters in California, every dealer in
-the State had just what he wanted. He was looking for pedigrees,
-and it was a very easy matter to shape up the pedigrees
-just to suit him.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever may have been the breeding of his dam, Palo Alto
-was a great horse, but he came to his speed slowly, and this
-would seem to indicate that if his dam had any trotting inheritance
-it was weak in the direction of attaining a high rate of
-speed. From the day he was weaned till the day he died he was
-Senator Stanford’s idol, and with this horse as an object lesson
-he was going to teach the world how to breed the trotter. At
-two years old he was driven a mile privately in 2:22¾, and his
-owner, feeling that his dream was realized in breeding the greatest
-horse the world had produced, named him “Palo Alto,” as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_493"></a>[493]</span>
-he deemed him worthy of being at the head of the greatest breeding
-establishment of the world. He was in the hands of the
-most skillful and careful of all trainers, and the training went
-on without respite, year after year. When four years old he
-went through the Eastern circuits, winning the larger share of
-his purses, and making a record of 2:20¼. Now let us consider
-for a moment whether the Senator did not make a great mistake
-and select the wrong horse as the typical representative of his
-great establishment. In 1888 he bred a colt by Electioneer out
-of Lula Wilkes, grandam the famous trotting mare Lula, 2:15,
-by Norman, etc., intensely trotting bred, and when he was three
-years old he made a record of 2:16. This is better than 2:20¼ as
-a four-year-old, for this fellow had not to take one-half the training
-that Palo Alto was subjected to. The next year he bred another
-colt by Electioneer called Arion, out of a mare by Nutwood; she
-out of a sister to Voltaire, 2:20¼, by Tattler, 2:26; and she out of
-the famous trotting brood mare Young Portia, by Mambrino
-Chief; and the next dam Portia by the pacer Roebuck.
-This colt came out and trotted a mile in 2:10¾ as a two-year-old.
-The four-year-old had a great “boom” and was considered by
-many as the phenomenal colt of his year, but when we place his
-record of 2:20¼ beside the 2:16 of the three-year-old, it looks
-very sickly, and when we compare it with the 2:10¾ of the two-year-old
-it is shaded into a deathly pallor. The four-year-old is
-largely the result of skill and art; the two-year-old is the result
-of nature. Arion is the best horse, by the record, that the world
-has ever produced, and the Senator was mistaken in his dream.
-We must judge of the value of a fast performance by the degree
-of naturalness which it represents and the measure of its freedom
-from the arts of the trainer. The “born trotter” is what we
-want, and at two years old Arion, or any other colt, was at the
-right age to determine whether a fast performance was the result
-of nature or of art.</p>
-
-<p>It is a fact well known to everybody that some trotting-bred
-stallions have shown greater power in controlling the action of
-their progeny than others that seemed to be equally well bred.
-If out of the great mass of stallions, past and present, that have
-been more or less successful as trotting progenitors, we pick out
-thirty of the very best, as shown by their progeny, it will probably
-surprise many of my readers to learn that only three of that
-number have been able to triumph in the supreme test of getting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_494"></a>[494]</span>
-trotters out of running-bred mares. Of these three Electioneer
-stands first, Almont second, and Pilot Jr. third. After making
-all allowance for the anxiety of certain Californians and certain
-Kentuckians to prove the need of “more running blood in
-the trotter,” and their manifest willingness to help along with
-pedigrees in that direction, I am fully convinced that these three
-horses, in some cases, were able to meet and overcome the hostile
-elements of the galloper. Not in every case, certainly, nor in a
-majority of cases. When Senator Stanford was showing me the
-step of Palo Alto, on his own track, as a three-year-old, I remarked,
-“Well, Electioneer certainly triumphed in that case,”
-and the Senator replied, “Yes, but none of my other stallions
-can do it, and there are some thoroughbred mares upon which
-Electioneer can’t do it.” When approached by others on this
-subject in the riper years of his experience, he was in the habit
-of replying: “There are thoroughbreds and thoroughbreds; some
-of them will produce trotters to Electioneer, and some will not.”
-He accepted everything as thoroughbred that had been bought
-by his agents as thoroughbred, whether in Kentucky or California,
-and he claimed to be able to pick out those that would
-produce trotters by their appearance. When pressed to give the
-characteristics by which he was able to make his selections, he
-spoke of the shape of the animal, in a general way, and especially
-by the head and the expression of countenance. In selecting his
-mares to put in the trotting stud by their “appearance” he
-would naturally select such as had the “appearance” of trotters,
-and as he personally knew no more about their pedigrees or
-the inheritance of the animals than the mares knew themselves,
-he was very liable to be deceived in the breeding of the animals
-as he selected them. In selecting a mare by “appearance” as
-indicating that she might throw trotters to Electioneer, there is
-a strong suggestion that this “appearance” may have been a
-legitimate “inheritance” sought to be covered up by that sadly
-abused term “thoroughbred.” Whether this suggestion ever
-entered the Senator’s mind I have no means of determining.
-But whether some of the mares called “thoroughbred” had really
-a mixed inheritance or not, the fact remains that the three horses
-named above did succeed in getting some trotters from mares
-that were strongly running bred. Then the question arises: Why
-did these three horses succeed where all others failed? We are
-not able to give an answer to this question that is complete and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_495"></a>[495]</span>
-irrefutable, for there is so much in the laws of generation that
-we do not and cannot know. Take two brothers, for example,
-and one is a great success and the other a great failure, and
-often the failure is the better formed and the better looking
-horse of the two. All that science teaches us here is that one
-took after some ancestor, near or remote, that was good, and the
-other after some ancestor that was not good. Electioneer, Almont
-and Pilot Jr. all had short pedigrees composed exclusively
-of trotting and pacing blood, except possibly a few drops of running
-blood that may have trickled down from the runner through
-trotting or pacing channels. Their instincts to stick to the trot
-had been encouraged and more or less completely developed.
-Electioneer and Almont both had pacing blood some distance
-away, and Pilot Jr., so far as we know, had nothing but pacing
-blood, and yet he never paced a step in his life. This embraces
-all we know of the three horses that proved themselves the most
-prepotent in overcoming all antagonisms of race or blood. Others
-equally great, no doubt, have come up since their day, but as
-breeding is now better understood and as the laws of nature are
-now more carefully followed, tests of this kind are not often
-made.</p>
-
-<p>After all the “wiring in and wiring out” of the tortuous advocates
-of “more running blood in the trotter” had found that
-their efforts had borne no fruit and that all intelligent breeders
-had left their theories away behind, a remarkably brilliant genius
-struck out a new line of thought and argument, which unfortunately
-died “a bornin’” just as the attention of all intelligent
-breeders was turning away from “more running blood in the
-trotter” as a senseless “fad,” and looking to the pacer as a possible
-source of increased trotting speed. In formulating and exploiting
-his idea, our genius seems to have reasoned after this
-manner: “The crisis is here, the breeders are all turning away
-from the thoroughbred as a source of trotting speed and considering
-the pacer, and now if I can convince them that the pacer is
-at least half-thoroughbred I will beat the standard and win the
-day.” Here we have the motive and the subject, and now we are
-ready for the manipulation. In due time the article appeared,
-and I must do the writer the justice of saying I never have been
-fully satisfied that he believed a single word of it himself. He
-starts out to show that the pace is not the result of hereditary
-transmission but the result of “structural incongruity.” He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_496"></a>[496]</span>
-declared that this “structural incongruity” is the result of
-breeding the thoroughbred horse on the slab-sided, ill-shapen
-mares of the West and Southwest. From the inheritance, part
-of the animal is structurally formed to run and the other part
-structurally formed to trot, and between the two a compromise
-is made on the pace. In this “structural incongruity,” between
-the two parts the pacing gait originated, and hence whatever
-speed the pacer may possess comes from the “thoroughbred;”
-and, therefore, of necessity, whatever speed the trotter gets from
-the pacer comes from the “thoroughbred.” There are many
-humbugs in the literature of the horse, but this is the craziest
-humbug I have ever met with. What a pity he left his work unfinished,
-and failed to tell us which end of the horse was running
-bred and which end trotting bred, so that we might locate the
-“incongruity” and cut it out! But to look at this “structural
-incongruity” seriously, it lacks but little of a scandal on the intelligence
-and honesty of American writers on the horse. Here is
-a gentleman of reputed intelligence, who wields a facile pen and
-has been writing on breeding subjects for about thirty years, and
-much of his work was well done; and now at the close of the
-nineteenth century he undertakes to tell us how the pacer originated
-in this country. The veriest tyro in horse history knows
-that pacers abounded in England in the twelfth century, and
-indeed long before that. Every colony in this country was full
-of pacers a hundred years before the first thoroughbred crossed
-the Atlantic. But wild and absurd theories can safely be left to
-the public judgment.</p>
-
-<p>It required several years of labor and iteration to convince the
-breeding public that the trot and the pace were simply two forms
-of one and the same gait. When first advanced it was received
-by the more intelligent breeders as an abstraction that had nothing
-practical in it, while those of less ability to think for themselves
-only laughed at it. Since then the inevitable processes of
-experience have demonstrated its truth, and the question of today
-is how to separate these two forms of the same gait and to
-breed either form, as we may desire, as a distinct and certainly
-transmissible gait. With a few it will still remain a matter of
-indifference whether the colt comes a pacer or a trotter, but with
-the great mass of breeders the question of profit in breeding the
-harness horse must be considered. Everybody knows that in the
-market for road horses the clean-stepping trotter is worth more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_497"></a>[497]</span>
-than the smooth-gliding pacer. This is not a question to be determined
-by fashion, but a fact of universal experience that the
-trotting action is better suited to harness and the pacing action
-better suited to the saddle. Fashions may change, but these two
-facts are unchangeable, for they are founded in the nature and
-mechanism of the two forms of action. The difficulties in the
-way of separating the diagonal from the lateral form of the trot
-are very great, and there is no use or wisdom in attempting to
-blink this fact. Speed at both forms of the gait comes from the
-same source, the same blood, the same inheritance; and source,
-blood and inheritance, in a breeding sense, are the hardest things
-in nature to overcome. So far as experience teaches there is but
-one method or treatment that has ever been successful in wiping
-out the pacer. In the first half of the seventeenth century England
-was full of pacers, and about a hundred years later she did
-not have one. The trouble about this remedy is that the trotters
-were wiped out also, and today England has neither a pacer nor
-a trotter. When she now wants a trotter she has to send to this
-country and get some of the blood of the little despised pacer
-that was shipped from her own shores in the early colonial days.
-The blood of the Saracenic horse has not lost its potency as a
-pacing expunger, as shown by modern experiments, and all our
-breeders have to do is to use it in copious effusions, and we will
-soon be rid of the pacer, and the trotter along with him. The
-pacer and the trotter are never found separate from each other,
-so far as my information goes. In Russia they breed trotters
-methodically, and they have a full supply of very fast pacers
-that are used as shaft horses in their droskies. As in the past,
-so in the future, we never need expect to see the two forms of
-the gait entirely separated.</p>
-
-<p>Our people, however, are not ready, and as long as the horse is
-used for business and pleasure never will be ready to dispense
-with the trotter; and even though some considerable number
-might deplore the presence and prominence of the pacer, every one
-of them would welcome him with great joy if they knew he was
-a necessary adjunct of the trotter. When we consider the
-problem of reducing the ratio of pacers and increasing the ratio
-of trotters in what we produce, there is so much that is old and
-still imperfectly known in what we incorrectly call our “earlier”
-period of trotting that we find nothing encouraging in the
-study. The origin of the principal trotters of the early part of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_498"></a>[498]</span>
-this century, except the direct descendants of Messenger, was so
-sedulously concealed that it was entirely natural for so many
-men to conclude that the trotter was not bred, but made by the
-trainer. When Flora Temple was the queen nobody knew that
-her speed came from a pacer. Old Kentucky Hunter was a very
-fast pacer. When Pelham was king nobody knew he had been
-a pacer. When Highland Maid eclipsed all records nobody knew
-she was pacing bred and had been a pacer herself. When Vermont
-Black Hawk was the most popular sire of his day nobody
-knew that his dam was “Old Narragansett,” a pacer. When Ethan
-Allen stood at the head of all young trotters the old grey mare,
-his dam, was, and still remains, entirely unknown, but everybody
-believes that a large share of his speed came from that mare.
-Andrew Jackson, the head of the great Clay family, was out of a
-fast pacing mare. And thus we might extend the list indefinitely.
-But away back, more than a hundred years before the period of
-which we are here speaking, pacing and trotting races had become
-so numerous that they had to be suppressed by legislative
-enactment. More than two hundred years ago there were pacing
-races and trotting races in this country, and then as now it
-seems evident that the form of the action of the prospective colt,
-whether lateral or diagonal, was uncertain until it appeared.
-This condition of uncertainty about the secrets of the womb has
-existed for centuries, as it exists today; and if we were furnished
-a complete list of all the great trotters of the last two decades
-that were born pacers we would hardly be willing to believe our
-own senses. The following short list of such animals as have
-gone fast at both forms of the gait will serve to illustrate the
-oneness of the two forms:</p>
-
-<table summary="Animals that have gone fast at both pacing and trotting, with their times">
-  <tr>
-    <th></th>
-    <th><span class="smcap">Pacing.</span></th>
-    <th><span class="smcap">Trotting.</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Jay-Eye-See, bl. g. by Dictator</td>
-    <td>2:06¼</td>
-    <td>2:10</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Direct, bl. h. by Director</td>
-    <td>2:05¼</td>
-    <td>2:18¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Monbars, b. h. by Eagle Bird</td>
-    <td>2:16¾</td>
-    <td>2:11¾</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George St. Clair, b. h. by Betterton</td>
-    <td>2:10¼</td>
-    <td>2:15¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Heir-at-Law, bl. h. by Mambrino King</td>
-    <td>2:07½</td>
-    <td>2:12</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Ottinger, br. g. by Dorsey’s Nephew</td>
-    <td>2:11½</td>
-    <td>2:09¾</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Bert Oliver, b. h. by Ashland Wilkes</td>
-    <td>2:08¾</td>
-    <td>2:19¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Vassar, gr. h. by Vatican</td>
-    <td>2:07</td>
-    <td>2:21¾</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Pilgrim, br. h. by Acolyte</td>
-    <td>2:10½</td>
-    <td>2:20¾</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>San Pedro, bl. g. by Del Sur</td>
-    <td>2:10¾</td>
-    <td>2:14½</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wardwell, b. g. by Almont Jr.</td>
-    <td>2:16¼</td>
-    <td>2:14¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Gazette, b. h. by Onward</td>
-    <td>2:09¾</td>
-    <td>2:23¾</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Welcome, b. h. by Arthur Wilkes</td>
-    <td>2:10½</td>
-    <td>2:27¼<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_499"></a>[499]</span></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Story’s Clay, b. b. by Everett Clay</td>
-    <td>2:14¾</td>
-    <td>2:18¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Captain Crouch, ch. h. by General Smith</td>
-    <td>2:13</td>
-    <td>2:25</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Red Bud, ch. h. by Redfern</td>
-    <td>2:12½</td>
-    <td>2:14½</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Cleveland S., b. h. by Montgomery</td>
-    <td>2:10</td>
-    <td>2:24</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Connor, bl. h. by C. F. Clay</td>
-    <td>2:14</td>
-    <td>2:13¼</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Babette, b. m. by Sir John</td>
-    <td>2:12¼</td>
-    <td>2:22¼</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>This exhibit might be further extended, but the foregoing will
-suffice for the purpose intended. The only remark that seems
-needed by way of explanation is that all the animals named, except
-two (San Pedro and Wardwell), made their records first as trotters.</p>
-
-<p>In surveying the whole situation there is but little encouragement
-in attempting to solve the problem of how to reduce the
-ratio of the pacers and at the same time avoid the reduction of
-the speed of the trotters. The central point in the problem is
-the development of speed; and so long as the pacer comes to his
-speed so much quicker and easier than the trotter, and so long as
-the best pacer is a little faster, as he has always been, than the
-best trotter, there is no probability that his speed will not be
-developed. All efforts at repression or exclusion of the pacer
-from contesting for prizes at public meetings would be futile and,
-in a sense, unjust. Moreover, this would not be in the province
-of the breeder and he must work out his plans within the boundaries
-of his own domain. The laws of heredity apply to either
-of the two forms of the trot—the lateral and the diagonal—just
-as certainly as they apply to the two forms united. This is the
-breeder’s opportunity, and if he grasps it he will make progress
-slowly but surely. In his breeding selections he must lay it
-down as an inviolable rule that all pacers, especially pacers with
-their speed developed, must be excluded, no difference how
-strongly they may be bred in the best trotting lines. If a horse
-produces some fillies that, like Maud S., Sunol and hundreds of
-others, are halfway, or more than halfway, inclined to pace, he
-must rigorously keep them at the trot and nothing but the trot,
-unless he sells them. He must study intelligently the pedigrees
-and produce of the generations away back, and make such selections
-as are most likely to promote his object and least likely to
-violate the rule laid down. Of all the varieties of the horse on
-the face of the globe the American trotter is the typical harness
-horse. Our civilization no longer requires the saddle to climb
-through mountain passes, and to follow seldom-trodden paths<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_500"></a>[500]</span>
-through the wilderness. For either business or pleasure we
-travel on wheels, and we want the bold, bounding trotter to
-propel us. The pacer is the early and only saddle horse in the
-world, but he is not a harness horse. Aside from the few that
-will be used as gambling machines, his value will recede while
-that of the trotter will always advance. In the hands of a man
-of intelligent and fixed purpose it is certainly possible to breed a
-family of trotters in which the appearance of a pacer from birth
-would be of rare occurrence, and the longer such careful selections
-and purposes are continued the more rare will be the recurrence
-of the lateral habit of action.</p>
-
-<p>That the development of the speed of the parents was very
-important, if not necessary to the increased speed of the progeny,
-was a proposition that was long disputed. Generally, as on other
-questions, each man argued it from the standpoint of his own
-stable, but not a few men of clear minds took that side of the
-question without regard to the potency of the law of heredity.
-In the early stages of the discussion of this question it was a
-difficult one to handle effectively. At that time very few sires,
-and still a less proportion of dams, had ever been regularly
-developed as trotters, hence the field for generalization was
-narrow and many of the instances quoted were disputed. For a
-time the battle raged quite fiercely around Hambletonian, as he
-was the most prominent stallion of that period, and if a man was
-trying to build up another family he would rave till he got black
-in the face against “Bill Rysdyk’s bull.” It is but just to say
-that the man who led in all this froth and fury against Hambletonian
-was engaged in breeding what he called “Clay Arabs,”
-and after dodging his creditors for a number of years his last
-hoof was sold from him by the sheriff. On the other hand, Hambletonian
-made his master a rich man, and he left a large estate.
-Hambletonian was only partially developed, but sufficient to show
-he was a fast colt for his period. (For full particulars see his
-history in another chapter.) Abdallah was a very great sire of
-speed and he was not a developed trotter, but his dam, old
-Amazonia, was quite fully developed. She won many races and
-was the fastest trotter of her day. Whether her speed came
-from a fast pacing ancestry, or whether it came from the reputed
-“son of Messenger,” as stated when she was bought near Philadelphia,
-never can be determined. The “son of Messenger”
-story seemed to be straight, but her form was coarse and plain,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_501"></a>[501]</span>
-and her legs were so hairy that many who knew her best condemned
-the story; hence, all we can say about her is simply that
-she was a fast developed trotter. Andrew Jackson had but little
-trotting inheritance from his sire, and his dam was a fast pacing
-mare of unknown breeding, but his speed was very fully developed
-as a trotter, and he became the progenitor of the Clay and
-the Long Island Black Hawk families, that became famous in
-trotting history. While this reasoning was true in experience
-and sound under the canons of science, it was not strong and
-convincing, for the one and only reason that the basis of the
-generalization was too narrow and lacked in a sufficient number
-of cases to convince the understanding of the skeptical. We
-have had to wait for the accumulation of the experiences of a
-number of years, and now we have the evidence that is so complete
-as to be really startling and which no man can gainsay.
-The following little table embraces all the breeding farms in this
-country that have produced three or more trotters with records
-of 2:15 or better, and here the rate of speed is certainly high
-enough and the foundation is certainly broad enough to furnish
-just and safe conclusions:</p>
-
-<table summary="Farms that have produced three or more trotters with records of 2:15 or better">
-  <tr>
-    <td>Leland Stanford</td>
-    <td class="tdr">18</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Fashion Stud Farm</td>
-    <td class="tdr">13</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>William Corbitt</td>
-    <td class="tdr">9</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wm. H. Wilson</td>
-    <td class="tdr">8</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>C. J. Hamlin</td>
-    <td class="tdr">7</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Glenview Farm</td>
-    <td class="tdr">6</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Timothy Anglin</td>
-    <td class="tdr">5</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Henry C. Jewett</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Wm. C. France</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Woodburn Farm</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Robert G. Stoner</td>
-    <td class="tdr">4</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>R. S. Veech</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>C. W. Williams</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Highland Farm (Lee, Mass.)</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Fairlawn Farm</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>E. W. Ayers</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Charles Backman</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>George H. Ely</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Mrs. S. L. Stout</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td>Monroe Salisbury</td>
-    <td class="tdr">3</td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>Quite a number of other breeders have produced one or two
-that have made records in 2:15 or better, but I think the above
-list embraces all that have bred three or more with trotting
-records of 2:15 or better. The table will be a surprise to everybody,
-but I doubt whether it will be a greater surprise to anybody
-than it is to myself. At the head of the list stands the late
-Senator Stanford’s great establishment with eighteen to its
-credit, but this is not a fair basis of comparison with any other
-establishment in the whole country, for he had about three hundred
-mares in the trotting department of his breeding stud—about
-six times as large as the average of the larger studs of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_502"></a>[502]</span>
-country. The average number of horses in training, the year
-round, was about eighty, exclusive of yearlings and the kindergarten.
-In attempting to institute a comparison, therefore, with
-the average breeders of the country, we might as well compare
-the daily receipts of John Wanamaker’s store with those of the
-little green-grocer on the corner. But at the head of this establishment
-stood the great Electioneer with his strong breeding
-and trotting speed well developed, and indeed, in many respects
-the greatest horse of his generation. He was the sire of eleven
-in the list, and the remainder were either by his sons or out of
-his daughters.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Henry N. Smith, of New York, a prominent Wall Street
-man, became greatly interested in trotting sport, and in 1868 he
-organized a trotting stable of his own, which contained some remarkable
-animals, as will be seen below. His stable was very
-successful, and this success naturally increased his attachment
-to the trotting interests. He then determined to establish a
-breeding farm, and about the year 1869 he purchased the famous
-old Fashion Course adjoining Trenton, New Jersey, embracing
-one hundred and forty-five acres of land and provided with an
-excellent mile track and much stabling that had been constructed
-years before for running horses. This property he very appropriately
-named the “Fashion Stud Farm,” and on it he placed
-the grandest assemblage of developed trotters, for breeding purposes
-only, that had ever been brought together in this or any
-other country. His stallions were Jay Gould, 2:20½, Tattler,
-2:26, and Gen. Knox, 2:31½. This was Knox’s fastest record,
-but it was known he had trotted miles, in races, faster than this.
-The speed of all three horses was developed, and it is evident
-at a glance that there was only one first-class horse among them.
-But the great strength of the establishment was in the grand
-galaxy of mares, some of which I will enumerate, namely. Goldsmith
-Maid, 2:14, Lady Thorn, 2:18¼, Lucy, 2:18¼, Lady Maud,
-2:18¼, Rosalind, 2:21¾, Belle Strickland, 2:26, Western Girl, 2:27,
-Idol, 2:27, Big Mary, 2:28½, Daisy Burns, 2:28, Music’s Dam (that
-had produced 2:21½ speed), besides others with slower records or
-known to have had their speed developed as fast road mares,
-making in all about thirty mares on the farm, and Mr. Smith
-claimed that every one of them had shown more or less speed as
-trotters.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Smith neither knew nor cared much about pedigrees, in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_503"></a>[503]</span>
-general sense, and when you came to talk to him about “nicks”
-and “trotting pitch” and all that kind of tomfoolery, his mind
-simply recurred to the old adage uttered generations ago: “Trot
-father, trot mother, trot colt.” His whole philosophy was
-wrapped up in the one central truth that the horse that could go
-out and trot fast, when bred on the mare that could go out and
-trot fast, would produce a colt that would go out and trot fast.
-This was sufficient for him or indeed for anybody else, for it contains
-and expresses the whole substance of the laws of heredity.
-Mr. Smith’s great mares acquired in their training and development
-new characters and new capacities which they never would
-have possessed had it not been for the care and skill expended in
-their training. Here we touch the very marrow of a question
-around which the scientists of today are warring. Darwin
-taught that such acquisitions were transmissible, of the truth of
-which I have no doubt, but a post-Darwinian school has arisen
-which controverts this position, and claims that it weakens and
-destroys the whole evolution theory of creation. But it matters
-not about the hypothesis of evolution concerning things we
-know, for it is simply an attempt to show how all things might
-have been created without a Creator. I have read a great deal
-about evolution and the transmissibility of acquired characters,
-but in all I have read I never have met with a lesson so broad and
-so strong as that furnished by Henry N. Smith’s great mares,
-proving that acquired characters are transmitted.</p>
-
-<p>In instituting a comparison between the high-class products of
-the Palo Alto and the Fashion Stud Farms, it seems to be necessary
-to place the premier stallions of the two side and side.
-They were half-brothers on the side of the sire, but Electioneer
-had the greatest speed-producing dam of her generation. She
-was a fast natural trotter herself, and was out of a fast and fully
-developed trotter. Jay Gould was out of a good road mare by
-American Star, but nobody has ever said she had any speed, and
-she was out of a nondescript mare that we know nothing about.
-Gould’s dam never produced any other trotter with a reputable
-rate of speed, so far as I have been able to learn. Electioneer
-was trained and developed by Mr. Backman, but he never was in
-a race, and consequently he has no official record. After he
-was taken to Palo Alto he was given quite regular work, and
-it is beyond all doubt that when in stud condition he could show
-a quarter in a little better than a 2:20 gait. The difference in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_504"></a>[504]</span>
-the rate of speed, therefore, as between the two horses was not
-very great, but whatever it was must go to the credit of Jay
-Gould. But the offspring of Electioneer had a very great advantage
-over those of Jay Gould in the methodical and skillful development
-of their speed. In his maternal inheritance as a trotter,
-as already indicated, Electioneer had a marked superiority,
-and on an equally high class of developed mares he would have
-far outstripped his rival. Now, with this attempt at a clean-cut
-description of the two horses, we are ready to consider the question
-in its arithmetical elements, and it will be found a plain
-question of “simple proportion” which anybody can solve in a
-minute, as follows: “If the Fashion Stud Farm from thirty
-mares produced thirteen trotters with public records of 2:15 or
-better, how many of equal capacity should the Palo Alto Farm
-have produced from three hundred mares?” The answer is one
-hundred and thirty, but the facts, up to the close of 1896,
-furnish us with the beggarly number of eighteen.</p>
-
-<p>The grand assemblage of so many great trotters at the Fashion
-Stud Farm, and all for the purpose of breeding, was the subject
-of much comment among breeders from one end of the land to
-the other, and not a few pronounced it all wrong and that it
-would be succeeded by failure. Mr. Smith lacked some of the
-elements that go toward making a man popular, and hence, in
-many cases, there was not much sympathy between him and his
-brother breeders, but he held tenaciously to the central truth
-that the way to breed high-class trotters was to mate high-class
-trotters. His experience has clearly demonstrated the soundness
-of this canon of breeding, and it has just as clearly demonstrated
-the unsoundness of the notion that high-class trotters can be
-bred from animals that never trotted and never could be made to
-trot. The law, as we have taught it for years, has been vindicated,
-and that by experiences so wide and so complete that it
-can no longer be controverted. Mr. Smith has achieved a great
-honor, and as a producer of high-class speed he stands at the head
-of all American trotting-horse breeders.</p>
-
-<p>As we have now considered a great triumph, with the causes
-that led up to it and the lesson it has taught, it seems to be in
-order to give an example of a great failure and the causes which
-have produced it. For more than forty years Woodburn Farm,
-in Kentucky, has been breeding trotters, and up to the close of
-1896 just four with records of 2:15 or better have hailed from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_505"></a>[505]</span>
-that great establishment. During all these years, and until Palo
-Alto Farm was established, Woodburn was the largest establishment
-in this country. With thousands of broad acres of the most
-productive soil, with the possession and control of money without
-limit, and with the experiences of forty years in which to
-select and breed only to the best, it is the natural and reasonable
-expectation of everybody interested in the question of breeding
-the trotter to look to Woodburn as leading all other establishments
-in the whole world in the production of first-class trotters.
-And what has Woodburn done? With her experiences of forty
-years, with all her broad acres and boundless wealth, up to the
-close of 1896 she has produced just four trotters with records of
-2:15 or better. Instead of leading all others, she is at the wrong
-end of the procession, and if we consider the proportional advantages
-involved, we find that “all others,” little and big, are leading
-her. By referring to the above list of breeders that have
-produced three or more with records of 2:15 or better, we find
-that Henry N. Smith has produced thirteen, that William Corbett,
-from his little stud in California, has produced nine, and
-that the late William H. Wilson, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, from
-his little band of mares, and without either broad acres or money,
-has produced eight within the past twelve or fifteen years, and
-all except one by the same horse. This places Mr. Wilson first
-among all Kentucky breeders. In the short period of its existence
-Glenview Farm produced six, and the quite unpretentious
-farmer, Mr. Timothy Anglin, produced five; W. C. France and
-Colonel R. G. Stoner produced four each—the same number as
-Woodburn—but they did not require forty years to accomplish
-it. Thus the breeding world, with “the little fellows” on top,
-has gone away ahead and left Woodburn to mumble over her
-“tin cups,” and exult in the many triumphs she has won against
-the watch in 2:30. The policy of Woodburn for years past
-seems to have been to hold the lead of Kentucky breeders in
-the production of 2:30 trotters, and to this end the youngsters
-are put in training in the early spring and kept at it till the frosts
-come, when such of them as are sure to win are brought out and
-started against the watch, for a “tin cup,” and these are the victories
-that Woodburn wins. Nobody has ever heard of Woodburn
-entering a youngster in a stake where he would have to win
-on his merits. That would be bringing him down to an equality
-with the colts of such people as William H. Wilson, Colonel R.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_506"></a>[506]</span>
-G. Stoner, Farmer Timothy Anglin, and all the other “little
-fellows.” Woodburn has made a great deal of money out of
-these humbug tin-cup records, and as registration and the
-standard are now absolutely under the control of her manager,
-the 2:30-tin-cup still remains the evidence of a fast trotter,
-worthy of standard rank. True, everybody nowadays laughs
-at the idea that 2:30, with the “tin cup,” is any evidence of even
-reputable speed, but as they have given a certain kind of pre-eminence
-and made money in the past, the twins will not be
-separated, but will hold their places just as long as the standard
-is under the present control.</p>
-
-<p>From this brief examination of the symptoms I think a safe
-diagnosis can be made. The trouble seems to be twofold, or it
-may be said there are two troubles, either one of which is dangerous,
-but the two together may prove fatal in the end. It is a
-well-known fact in veterinary science that there are certain diseases
-among horses that may be communicated to the men who
-have them in charge. There is one disease, vulgarly called “big-head,”
-that comes creeping upon its victim before he is aware
-of its existence or approach, and against the insidious steps of
-this destroyer the manager at Woodburn should be affectionately
-warned. Sham records of 2:30 for standard rank are no longer
-welcomed with enthusiasm in this country. The other trouble
-is not so much with the manager as with the material which he
-manages, which seems to be affected with what may be called
-“dry-rot.” This view of the non-productive character of the
-Woodburn breeding stock, when measured by first-class performers,
-seems to be borne out by the fact that the names of those
-gentlemen who have depended most largely on Woodburn blood
-do not appear on the foregoing list as the producers of first-class
-trotters. For about forty years the fame of Woodburn as the
-greatest of all our breeding establishments has been as wide as
-the boundaries of the nation. But notwithstanding the weight
-and influence which great wealth and an unblemished name may
-have secured, the records up to the close of the year 1896 have
-deposed her from the first rank as a breeder of trotting horses,
-and sent her away to the rear, where she now occupies her true
-place in the eighth rank. It is well known to everybody that,
-since the days of the first Mr. Alexander, Woodburn has never
-entered a colt in a stake nor started one against other people’s
-colts, prize or no prize. This air of assumed superiority is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_507"></a>[507]</span>
-sought to be explained on high moral grounds against the evils
-of horse-racing. This is like the man who never tasted whisky
-for conscience’ sake, in view of the great evil it was doing in the
-world, and yet he was the chief owner in a large distillery. At
-the great local meetings in Kentucky practically all the breeding
-establishments of that region, except Woodburn, are represented
-in the stakes, and while they are being contested Woodburn
-will come in with a string of youngsters, between the heats,
-and win sham records in 2:30 for “tin cups.” Depending on
-this kind of test and this kind of development, it is not remarkable
-that all the small breeders of the State have left Woodburn
-in the rear. This shining example of failure teaches unmistakably
-the necessity of honest and full development of breeding
-stock in order to produce high-class trotters.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_508"></a>[508]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII.<br />
-<span class="smaller">HOW THE TROTTING HOUSE IS BRED (<i>Continued</i>).</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Breeding the trotter intelligently an industry of modern development—Plethora
-of turf papers, and their timidity of the truth—The accepted theories,
-old and new—Failure of the “thoroughbred blood in the trotter” idea—“Thoroughbred
-foundations,” and the Register—“Like begets like,” the
-great central truth—Long-continued efforts to breed trotters from runners
-—New York the original source of supply of trotting blood to all the
-States—Kentucky’s beginning in breeding trotters—R. A. Alexander, and
-the founding of Woodburn—The “infallibility” of Woodburn pedigrees—Refusal
-to enter fictitious crosses in the Register and the results—The
-genesis and history of the standard—Its objects, effects and influence
-—Establishing the breed of trotters—The Kentucky or “Pinafore” standard
-—Its purposes analyzed—The “Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book” and
-how it was compiled—Failure and collapse of the Kentucky project—Another
-unsuccessful attempt to capture the Register—How honest
-administration of the Register made enemies—The National Breeder’s
-Association and the Chicago Convention—Detailed history of the sale and
-transfer of the Register, the events that led up to it, and the results—Personal
-satisfaction and benefits from the transfer, and the years of rest
-and congenial study in preparing this book—The end.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>All that American breeders know about producing the trotting
-horse they have learned in the past twenty-five years. In
-that short period this interest has developed from practically
-nothing into a great national industry that has placed this country
-in front of all the nations of the earth in the character, quality
-and speed of the light harness horse. It is true we had the
-“raw material” out of which to build up this new breed, and this
-had been in our possession we may say for generations, but we
-didn’t know how to use it. There may be some apparent indelicacy
-in making the remark, but I think every intelligent man
-who is acquainted with the subject will sustain me in saying that,
-had it not been for the compilation of the “Trotting Register”
-and <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, with the facts, statistics and reasonings
-which were developed through them, we would know no more
-about the trotter today than we did thirty years ago. The trotting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_509"></a>[509]</span>
-horse, therefore, as we contemplate him in his position of
-superiority to all others of his kind, is simply the result of great
-labor in collecting the facts and sound reasoning from the lessons
-taught by those facts. With all the facts placed in his hand,
-any breeder of intelligence, if he were honest, could not fail to
-reach the truth; but, unfortunately, all breeders have never
-learned to divest themselves of their prejudices, and to accept
-the plain teachings of the facts, just as they are.</p>
-
-<p>To be able to think intelligently and honestly and to reason
-soundly, is the first requisite to success in breeding the trotter.
-It is a seeming paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that many
-men who are able to think a little are not able to think honestly.
-It is easy to understand why a man may act dishonestly, for there
-is the hope of gain to impel him; but why he should think dishonestly
-is not so apparent. Let us illustrate this matter of
-thinking dishonestly. On an occasion a correspondent asked a
-breeding journal to give a list of the thoroughbred horses that
-had sired trotters. A list of horses, represented as thoroughbred
-in the reply, was given, embracing some ten or twelve, about half
-of which were either unknown or dependent upon the most flimsy
-kind of representation as to their blood. It is not with the
-actual misrepresentation of the blood of most of the animals
-named, but with the use that was made of the list that I will now
-speak. After accepting the list as true and genuine, the correspondent
-comes before the public with his conclusions. He
-shows that these dozen performers from about as many horses
-made an average record of 2:24 and a fraction, and then triumphantly
-raises the question whether any single trotting-bred sire
-can show as many performers with as low an average record.
-Having satisfied himself that all the running-bred sires, real and
-imaginary, put together could more than equal any one trotting-bred
-sire in the average high rate of speed, he reaches the profound
-conclusion that the way to breed the trotter is to go to the
-runner. This is a real and not an imaginary instance of a few
-years ago. No doubt this man thought he was thinking when he
-reached this conclusion, and that he had solved the problem of
-breeding the trotter; but, poor man, he was simply trying to
-advertise a half-and-half-bred stallion he had in his stable.</p>
-
-<p>I have no old scores to pay off against the breeding and sporting
-press, for I generally managed to pay them off as we went
-along, and the triumph of the views I advanced and sustained<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_510"></a>[510]</span>
-has become sufficiently complete to satisfy the most fastidious.
-It seems to be a real misfortune that there are so many weekly
-journals in this field and most of them leading a precarious existence.
-It may be observed in most directions that the management
-of these journals is hesitating and timid, as though afraid
-that somebody might be offended and a five or ten-dollar advertisement
-lost thereby. It is all right to make the advertising
-patronage remunerative, but it is all wrong when that department
-is placed in control of all the others, from the fear that
-somebody may be offended if the truth be told. In the present
-depressed condition of the breeding interests, and indeed of all
-interests, the horsemen of the whole country feel that they are
-carrying too heavy a burden in supporting so many papers, and
-the question of the “survival of the fittest” is already imminent.
-But, whatever the present financial and intellectual condition of
-the breeding and sporting publications of the country may be, a
-number of them have had their part in the discussions and
-wrangles that were naturally coincident with the progress of the
-revolution on the question of breeding the trotter, which finally
-brushed everything out of its way and fully established the truth
-of the laws of inheritance. Twenty-five years ago there was a
-good number of intelligent and capable writers on the horse, and
-they were either engaged in editing horse papers or contributed
-to them, and one and all they were handicapped with the idea,
-inherited from their fathers, that whatever of excellence that was
-found in the American horse came from the English race horse, and
-that all the speed, at any gait, that he was able to show came from
-the same source. From this absurd fallacy, it naturally followed
-that speed at the trot was merely the result of accident or of the
-persistent skill of the trainer. This was, substantially, the view
-of the general public at that date.</p>
-
-<p>When, therefore, it was announced that the horse was far more
-than a mere machine, that he had a mental as well as a physical
-organization, that these were both equally matters of inheritance,
-that one horse ran fast because his ancestors ran fast and that
-another horse trotted fast because his ancestors were able to trot
-fast, and that no fast runner was ever a fast trotter, there was a
-tremendous hubbub. This was a new gospel, and it threatened
-to annihilate the stupid Anglo-Arabian fetish that all that was
-good in horsedom must of necessity come from that source. For
-generations the belief had been universal that the only way to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_511"></a>[511]</span>
-improve the horse for any purpose under the sun was to “breed
-up” to the running horse and thus get back to the blood of the
-pure Arabian. On the other hand, and as opposed to this ancient
-fallacy that the way to breed the trotter was to go to the runner,
-it was urged, with a thousand proofs at the back of it, that the
-way to breed the runner was to go to the horse that could
-run, and the way to breed the trotter was to go to the horse that
-could trot. Here was a direct issue squarely made, and it was
-not to be expected that such men as Charles J. Foster, Peter C.
-Kellogg, Joseph O. Simpson, etc., all writers of ability, would
-quietly surrender without a battle. They had committed themselves
-to the running-blood traditions, some rich men had shaped
-their breeding studs in that direction, and without deciding
-whether a rich man had necessarily more sense than a poor one,
-they knew instinctively that a rich man could be more liberal in
-advertising, and that he could be more generous in properly
-recognizing the little courtesies that might be extended in the
-way of keeping his establishment before the public in an approving
-light. Thus, with an eye to the weather-gauge, the editors
-were able to maintain their own consistency. As the experiences
-of every succeeding year added thousands of proofs to the plain
-proposition that the trotter inherits his speed from a trotting
-ancestry, the “irreconcilables” began to shift their ground, conceding
-that there must be trotting blood to give the action, but
-that there must be “speed-sustaining” blood from the thoroughbred
-to give courage and endurance. This was the second position,
-and in a commercial sense it was shrewdly chosen for the
-advantage of certain localities. This position furnished the
-“thoroughbred foundation” argument, and for a time it had its
-supporters. This theory also furnished its promised commercial
-advantages to such localities as had formerly bred running horses,
-and it was but a week till everybody in those localities had
-“thoroughbred foundations” for their trotting pedigrees, and
-those who did not have them could easily procure them. This
-brought an avalanche of pedigrees, especially from Kentucky,
-with “thoroughbred foundations,” consisting of long strings of
-dams by famous horses, but without names, dates, breeders or
-histories, and many of them impossible. To checkmate this
-inundation of manufactured foundations, in the office of the
-Register, a rule was adopted requiring satisfactory identification
-and history of each dam, and where that could not be given the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_512"></a>[512]</span>
-pedigree would be cut off. This rule saved the “Trotting Register”
-from becoming the mere dumping place for countless frauds,
-but it aroused such a feeling of antagonism on the part of the
-manager of Woodburn Farm that he, at once, started an opposition
-Register to be compiled at the farm, under his own personal
-direction. Of this, and what came of it, I will speak further on.
-It is but just that I should say here, that from a wide knowledge
-of men and from a study of their moral fiber extending through
-many years in connection with horse affairs, I have found many
-Kentuckians that were thoroughly truthful and reliable in pedigree
-matters; but at the same time it must be admitted that the
-conditions there for generations past have not been favorable,
-among horsemen, for the cultivation of the highest type of truthfulness.
-Many of them have been making their own pedigrees
-for so long, and padding them out with nameless dams by suppositious
-sires, to suit themselves—and the market—that they
-don’t take kindly to any restraint in what they consider their own
-business.</p>
-
-<p>The great central truth in reproduction, whether of animals
-or plants, is summed up in the homely but axiomatic phrase,
-“like begets like.” With the rank and file of intelligent breeders
-who were able to think, this axiom was soon accepted as a fundamental
-and basic truth. The phrase “trotting instinct” was
-soon in everybody’s mouth, and the broad, plain distinction between
-that and “running instinct” was so palpable and easy of
-practical comprehension that the fallacy of a “thoroughbred
-foundation” was buried out of sight. When it was considered
-that the instinct of the one was to put forth his supreme effort
-at the trot, and of the other to put forth his supreme effort at
-the gallop, the irreconcilable antagonism between the two gaits
-was apparent. The cumulative evidences furnished year after
-year by the official records of performances on the tracks, and all
-going to show that the trotting horse must have a trotting inheritance,
-soon became so overwhelming in the uniformity of
-their teachings, and so completely unanswerable in the force of
-numbers, that no man able to observe and think could any longer
-doubt the truth of the position taken. But, unfortunately, some
-men can neither observe nor think, and, what is still more unfortunate,
-they not infrequently undertake to fill the rôle of
-public teachers and leaders of public thought. We can understand
-how a man of average intelligence may be wise in many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_513"></a>[513]</span>
-things and foolish in others. When we come to study the
-phenomena he presents, we find he has studied the subjects on
-which he is wise, and he is ignorant on the subjects on which he
-is foolish. Like “Brother Jasper,” the negro preacher, he is
-ready to maintain against all comers that “the sun do move.”
-Another class of men in the writing fraternity, but fortunately
-they are restricted in numbers, have brains enough to apprehend
-the facts surrounding them and their teachings, but they have
-not conscience enough to lift them above their toadying instincts,
-for fear they might miss the crumbs from a rich patron’s table.
-Another type of man, generally a beginner in the breeding business,
-has a half-and-half-bred stallion at the head of his little
-stud, and he is uniformly an enthusiast for the “thoroughbred
-foundation.” As might be expected, he fills the columns of all
-the papers accessible with his “views of breeding,” which are
-always shaped to fit his own stallion and bring him patronage.
-We might here go on and point out other types of would-be
-“teachers” that would be entertaining, but certainly not profitable
-or instructive. We might follow the vagaries of different
-writers and show the origin and reason for those vagaries, but as
-the breeding world has become far more intelligent, and I think
-more honest, than it was twenty-five years ago, one vagary after
-another has disappeared and been buried out of sight. All such
-trumpery as, “to breed the trotter you must go to the runner,”
-“more running blood in the trotter,” “thoroughbred foundation,”
-etc., are phrases that are never heard in our day among
-intelligent breeders. A mile in two minutes and thirty seconds
-is “played out” as an evidence of trotting speed, but it is still
-held in its place as such evidence to suit the blood and methods
-of development at one particular establishment, and to gather in
-the money for registration from the little fellows.</p>
-
-<p>Anything slower than “two-twenty” is no longer looked upon
-as of any value in a trotting sense.</p>
-
-<p>This astonishing increase of speed has come hand in hand with
-a closer and more careful observance of the law of inheritance,
-or heredity. If we breed the merino ram upon a merino ewe, we
-know that the produce will be a merino. If we breed the
-cotswold on the cotswold we know the produce will be a cotswold,
-but if we breed the merino on the cotswold the produce will be a
-mongrel. The physical inheritance is destroyed, and in propagating
-from this mongrel confusion, uncertainty and disappointment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_514"></a>[514]</span>
-always follow. If we go a step higher and consider those
-types of domestic animals endowed with a species of mentality
-that we call instinct, we find the illustrations still more marked
-and effective. The finely bred greyhound coupled with the
-finely bred pointer produces neither a greyhound nor a pointer,
-but only a nondescript cur. Sometimes the instincts of the
-greyhound and sometimes the instincts of the pointer may be the
-more masterful, but the inheritance is broken and divided, and
-the mongrel should never be used for propagation. If we couple
-the very best specimen of the English race horse with the very
-best and fastest American trotting mare, the produce would be
-literally half-and-half bred. The sire never could trot a mile in
-four minutes and the dam never could run a mile in two minutes,
-and what is the produce good for? Once in a hundred times the
-running instinct might predominate and develop something of
-a runner, and once in a hundred times the trotting instinct
-might predominate, as in the case of Bonnie Scotland and Waterwitch,
-and produce something of a trotter, but of what value
-would the half-and-half progeny be for breeding purposes?
-Whatever might be the characteristics of their progeny, physically,
-they would undoubtedly and invariably inherit and transmit
-not only divided, but antagonistic, instincts that would require
-generations of careful selection and training to get rid of. While
-the “featherheads” may, for the sake of personal consistency,
-which is a very weighty matter of public concern, still advocate
-“more running blood in the trotter;” and while one great concern
-may still look one way, on this question, and row the other,
-it being literally true that she has not added a single drop of
-running blood to her trotting stud in a quarter of a century, it
-is safe to say that the whole body of intelligent breeders of this
-country have come to accept and obey the great central truth
-that the American trotter has reached his present state of perfection
-by the development of his unbroken and undivided trotting
-inheritances. These inheritances have been cumulative and thus
-made stronger in each developed generation of ancestors, and if
-this high development of speed is kept up for a series of successive
-generations the speed of the American trotter will be placed
-at a point of which we have never yet dreamed. The inherited
-and developed instinct to stick to the trot as the fastest gait of
-which the horse is conscious, coupled with skillful preparation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_515"></a>[515]</span>
-and handling, are the two factors that will always put the American
-trotting horse in the front rank and keep him there.</p>
-
-<p>In the early chapters of this work we have considered the
-horse in his original habitat and his distribution among the
-different peoples of the then known world, but we have not considered
-the distribution of the trotter through the different
-regions of our own country. Fifty or sixty years ago the trotting
-horse was hardly known outside of a limited territory embracing
-the cities of New York and Philadelphia. In the New
-England States the trappy little Morgan filled the place of the
-driving horse with very great acceptance, but he had no speed as
-a trotter. We then began to see and hear something of the
-“Maine Messengers,” that were trotters in reality and able to
-demonstrate their speed and courage on the track. Occasionally
-a converted pacer would strike a trot and show speed that was
-phenomenal in that day, but it was uniformly treated as “accidental.”
-There was a great deal of high-class trotting blood in
-the region of Philadelphia, and for a time that was the leading
-center of the trotting interest, but it did not receive that measure
-of encouragement and support that was necessary to its permanent
-growth, and the seat of empire was transferred to Long Island
-and Orange County, New York. South of Mason and Dixon’s
-line the trotter was tabooed, as a mongrel nondescript, and “not
-worthy of the attention of a gentleman, sah.” They had runners
-and they had pacers, and as all excellence in the shape of a
-horse, at whatever gait, as they argued, must come from the
-running horse or his progenitor, the Arabian, they had already
-the very best material in the world for the production of the fast
-trotter. The belief as expressed in their motto, “Speed at the
-gallop was a guarantee of speed at any other gait required,” pervaded
-all minds and directed all action in matters of breeding.
-Thus they worked away for years trying to breed trotters from
-blood that never could and that never did trot, and, strange as
-it may seem, there are still some people in that region, at the
-close of the nineteenth century, trying to breed trotters from
-runners. From New York as a common center all the breeding
-States obtained their supplies of trotting blood, and they in time
-became sources of supply. The only exception to this is that of
-the pacer, which eventually developed into a trotting element
-of some prominence and value, especially in the West and South.</p>
-
-<p>The prominence of Kentucky as a breeding center is wholly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_516"></a>[516]</span>
-due to the trotting blood she obtained from New York. She had
-plenty of pacing blood that was good, of its kind, but it was so
-uncertain and sporadic that it did not commend itself to the
-breeders of that section as a source of trotting speed. From an
-early period in the history of the State the habits and fancies of
-the people, in the richer portions, had been “horsey,” from their
-knowledge and familiarity with running races for many years,
-and thus when the demand came for trotters they struck out
-vigorously to meet that demand. When Mr. R. A. Alexander
-organized the great Woodburn Farm he established a department
-of trotters, which was among the very first of any magnitude in
-the State. As he had been reared abroad he knew nothing about
-American pedigrees, and in making his purchases of breeding
-stock he was victimized by every sharper who came along with a
-brood mare to sell. He was a man of honest purpose and excellent
-natural judgment which told him to buy such breeding
-animals as could trot themselves or had produced trotters, and if
-he had been content to stop with what little he knew of their
-breeding he would have been all right; but, meantime, the professional
-pedigree-maker—the successor to the famous Patrick
-Nesbitt Edgar—came along and tricked them out in an excellent
-quality of pinchbeck pedigrees containing plenty of running
-blood that had never trotted nor produced a trotter. When the
-first Mr. Alexander died he was succeeded in the proprietorship
-of the great estate by his brother, a very worthy gentleman who
-made it a law to the establishment that none of his horses should
-ever start in a race. His fancy and knowledge were all in the
-line of cattle, and he seemed to neither know nor care anything
-about horses. Soon after this change in the ownership of the
-estate a new manager was placed in charge, and it was soon
-manifest that however absurd and untruthful the pedigrees of
-breeding stock might be, they must not be questioned nor corrected
-by any authority whatever. This doctrine of infallibility
-as applied to Woodburn pedigrees was wholly incompatible with
-what I conceived to be my duty to the breeding public. I had
-accepted the Woodburn pedigrees, at the start, as trustworthy,
-on the grounds of the eminence and high character of the first
-Mr. Alexander, and it was far more than a surprise to me when
-I discovered something of the extent to which the pedigrees of
-the whole establishment had been honeycombed with the dishonesty
-of “sharpers” and “pedigree-makers.” These fictions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_517"></a>[517]</span>
-antedated any compilation or known authority of trotting pedigrees,
-and there can be no doubt they were accepted as honest
-statements of the blood of the animals in question, while many
-of them were wholly fictitious and all of them contained crosses
-on the maternal side that were merely imaginary. These embellishments,
-to call them by no harder name, were uniformly in
-one and the same direction, all stretching out to embrace as
-much of the blood of the running horse as possible, and often a
-great deal that was impossible. Here I may state the general
-fact that all Kentuckians had claimed and exercised the right so
-long to shape up their pedigrees to suit themselves and to bring
-the most money in the market that a number of them still
-claimed that as a right and became somewhat restive when told
-that their pedigrees would be recorded just as far as they were
-proved, and no further. Two or three breeders expostulated
-against this rule, and in reply they were assured that they had a
-perfect right to shape their pedigrees as they pleased, but that insertion
-in the Register was the same as my personal indorsement,
-and that this indorsement could not be given to any pedigree
-that I did not know or believe to be honest and true. This
-ended all doubts about the position and character of the Register,
-and I think that every breeder of any standing in Kentucky
-submitted to the rule, with the solitary exception of Woodburn
-Farm. The manager of that establishment was not only unwilling
-to have the infallibility of Woodburn pedigrees called in
-question, but he aspired to the control of the pedigrees of all
-other breeders in the whole country. When the National Association
-of Trotting Horse Breeders was organized in December,
-1876, he was not only asked, but pressed, to become a member
-and take part in its management and control. But no, he would
-be “boss,” or he would be nothing. New York was not the
-right place to organize it. It should be organized in Kentucky,
-and with the manager of Woodburn at the head of it. The
-arrogance of this young manager was something amazing, his
-intrigues to get control of registration were continued for a number
-of years, and the means employed to accomplish his ends
-were of such a character as clearly to demonstrate that of all the
-men in the world he was the last one who should be placed in
-the control of such a trust. As this controversy extended
-through the period of building up the breed of trotters, it is of
-necessity a part of the literature of the formation of that breed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_518"></a>[518]</span>
-and as some of the more salient points seem to be of sufficient
-importance to hand down to future generations, I will here consider
-them very briefly. In doing this I am conscious of some
-feeling of embarrassment on account of the personal matters that
-must enter into the recital, but it is a part of the trotting history
-of the times, and I prefer that the truth may be preserved, whatever
-may be the teachings of the canons of taste.</p>
-
-<p>In the collection and registration of pedigrees that seemed to
-be more or less closely allied to trotting blood, embracing all
-contained in the first, second and third volumes of the “Trotting
-Register,” there was no guide or rule to determine what was
-worthy of registration, in a trotting sense, and what was unworthy.
-I had a general conception of the families that had
-produced trotters and those that had not, but I had no rule by
-which I could decide what to admit and what to reject, except
-that all actual performers of reputable speed must be admitted.
-To undertake, on individual responsibility, to determine what
-amount of trotting blood should be requisite to admission, and
-how that amount should be measured, was quite too hazardous,
-except when backed by a strong moral and numerical force of
-breeders. Hence my active interest in the organization of the
-National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and my earnest
-desire that it might be composed of breeders of high standing
-and character from all parts of the country. Upon the organization
-of the association, its character was so entirely acceptable to
-me that I did not hesitate to place in its hands the supervisory control
-of the registration of pedigrees for the “Trotting Register,”
-to be exercised by a Board of Censors to be appointed annually.
-The first board was appointed and entered on its functions January
-15, 1877, by formulating the first set of rules relating to the
-requisites necessary to the acceptance of pedigrees, in their form
-and completeness. The third volume was then approaching
-completion and the Board of Censors commenced their supervisory
-duties on that volume.</p>
-
-<p>The members of the Breeders’ Association were generally men
-of intelligence, and capable of thinking, and every suitable opportunity
-was improved to get their individual views on the question
-as to whether a set of rules could be adopted by the association
-that would distinguish between animals that had trotted
-themselves or produced trotters in say 2:30, and animals that
-had not. Not many had ever thought of the subject, but all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_519"></a>[519]</span>
-were ready to think of it more. The only objection urged was
-that such a scheme would certainly reduce the fees for registration
-in large degree. To this I assented as doubtless true for the
-time being, though in the end it would largely increase them,
-but declared that it was not for the fees I was working, but to
-establish a breed of trotting horses. When satisfied that a good
-number of the leading breeders were thinking favorably of the
-subject, it was presented to the public in a very modest and unpretentious
-way. In discussing “The Future of the Breeders’
-Association,” in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for April, 1878, the following
-language occurs:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>“In addition to the thought and labor necessary to secure such an organization
-as the interest demands, there is another topic that will require great
-deliberation and wisdom, in the near future. The association must fix a standard
-of admission to the official record of pedigrees. Up to the present time
-there has been no standard of blood requisite to secure a place in the Register.
-This matter has been left wholly to the compiler, without even so much as
-advice on the subject. The Register, therefore, has no value as a classification
-of blood, but only as a reliable record of the pedigrees of the animals it
-contains, whatever their blood may be.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>This is the first intimation ever given to the public, so far as
-I know, that any body of men ever contemplated the construction
-of a standard to control the admission of trotting horses
-to specific rank and registration. The question was thus placed
-openly before the public and it was looked upon favorably by
-those most immediately interested. In due time, at a meeting
-of the Breeders’ Association, a committee was appointed to whom
-was referred all the suggestions that had been made for the proposed
-scheme. Soon afterward (November 19, 1879) the committee
-reported the standard to a large, enthusiastic and harmonious
-meeting of the Association, and it was unanimously
-adopted as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="center">THE STANDARD OF ADMISSION TO REGISTRATION.</p>
-
-<p class="center">(Established by the National Association of Trotting-Horse Breeders,
-November 19, 1879.)</p>
-
-<p>In order to define what constitutes a trotting-bred horse, and to establish a
-<span class="smcap">breed</span> of trotters on a more intelligent basis, the following rules are adopted
-to control admission to the records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the
-requirements of admission and is duly registered, it shall be accepted as a
-standard trotting-bred animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_520"></a>[520]</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">First.</span>—Any stallion that has, himself, a record of two minutes and thirty
-seconds (2:30) or better; provided any of his get has a record of 2:40 or better;
-or provided his sire or his dam, his grandsire or his grandam, is already a
-standard animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Second.</span>—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Third.</span>—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record of 2:30 or
-better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fourth.</span>—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record of 2:30 or
-better; provided he has either of the following additional qualifications:</p>
-
-<p>1.—A record himself of 2:40 or better.</p>
-
-<p>2.—Is the sire of two other animals with a record of 2:40 or better.</p>
-
-<p>3.—Has a sire or dam, grandsire or grandam that is already a standard
-animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fifth.</span>—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of 2:30 or
-better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sixth.</span>—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard mare.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Seventh.</span>—The progeny of a standard horse out of a mare by a standard
-horse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Eighth.</span>—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare whose dam
-is a standard mare.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ninth.</span>—Any mare that has a record of 2:40 or better, and whose sire or
-dam, grandsire or grandam is a standard animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Tenth.</span>—A record to wagon of 2:35 or better shall be regarded as equal to
-a 2:30 record.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>In this, its original form, the standard was administered successfully
-and smoothly through the period of the compilation of
-volumes four, five, six, and seven of the “Trotting Register,”
-when it was revised by the Breeders’ Association as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p class="center">THE STANDARD.</p>
-
-<p class="center">(AS REVISED AND ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TROTTING-HORSE
-BREEDERS, DECEMBER 14, 1887.)</p>
-
-<p>In order to define what constitutes a trotting bred horse and to establish a
-<span class="smcap">breed</span> of trotters on a more intelligent basis, the following rules are adopted
-to control admission to the records of pedigrees. When an animal meets the
-requirements of admission and is duly registered it shall be accepted as a
-standard trotting-bred animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">First.</span>—Any stallion that has himself a record of two minutes and thirty
-seconds (2:30) or better, provided any of his get has a record of 2:35 or better,
-or provided his sire or his dam is already a standard animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Second.</span>—Any mare or gelding that has a record of 2:30 or better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Third.</span>—Any horse that is the sire of two animals with a record of 2:30 or
-better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fourth.</span>—Any horse that is the sire of one animal with a record of 2:30 or
-better, provided he has either of the following additional qualifications: (1) A
-record himself of 2:35 or better. (2) Is the sire of two other animals with a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_521"></a>[521]</span>
-record of 2:35 or better. (3) Has a sire or dam that is already a standard
-animal.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Fifth.</span>—Any mare that has produced an animal with a record of 2:30 or
-better.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Sixth.</span>—The progeny of a standard horse when out of a standard mare.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Seventh.</span>—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare by
-a standard horse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Eighth.</span>—The female progeny of a standard horse when out of a mare
-whose dam is a standard mare.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ninth.</span>—Any mare that has a record of 2:35 or better, and whose sire or
-dam is a standard animal.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>From the indefinite and unsatisfactory starting point, and
-without any rule or guide as to what should be admitted, except
-the pointless phrase, “well related to trotting blood,” it soon became
-evident that the Register would soon contain as much chaff
-as wheat. Through the <i>Monthly</i>, which was established for
-that purpose, I did not despair of the success of my aim in leading
-the intelligent breeders of the country up to the point of
-recognizing and establishing the American trotting horse as a
-<span class="smcap">breed</span>. The road was long, steep, rough in places, and beset
-with prejudices on all sides, but labor conquers all things, and
-we have in the standard and its revision, as given above, the
-culmination and perfection of the implements that were to effect
-this purpose. To reject a horse from registration merely because
-he was running bred would have been “flying in the face” of the
-prejudices of nearly everybody, but to reject him because neither
-he nor any of his tribe had ever been able to trot, was philosophical
-and just; and as it gave no section of the country an advantage
-over any other section, and no theory an advantage over a
-fact, no man could gainsay or criticise its justice or its truthfulness.
-This was the wedge that split the rock of ignorance and
-prejudice, and thus exploded the theories of generations as to the
-value of running blood in the trotter. As I look at it to-day,
-the undertaking to gather up a great lot of fragments and convert
-them into a breed was a tremendous one, and although it
-was backed up with brains and influence, it is doubtful whether
-many of its promoters had any very clear conception of the results
-that would follow—either its success or its failure. It
-assumed to direct and control the trotting-horse breeding interest
-of the whole country, and to leave its impress for all time. It
-required no gift of prophecy to see this as the result of success,
-and neither did it require any gift of prophecy to foresee that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_522"></a>[522]</span>
-failure would wipe out the work already done in both the Register
-and the <i>Monthly</i>. It was the crucial period in the history of
-these publications. A misstep or an unwise provision would
-have brought a disastrous end. To found a breed of horses resting
-primarily and wholly upon performance and the blood descended
-directly from performers, or the producers of performers,
-was something that never had been attempted in the world. The
-basis was wholly unique, but it commended itself to the public
-judgment as a just one, and as the only foundation upon which
-the proposed breed could be successfully established. The basis
-was wisely chosen and the superstructure erected thereon was
-equally wise in all its provisions. Never have we known a set of
-men to work more earnestly or more unselfishly for the common
-purpose.</p>
-
-<p>After very careful consideration in a large and intelligent committee,
-the finished labors of that committee was reported to the
-Association on November 19, 1879, at the Everett House, in this
-city, and the standard was then and there adopted without so
-much as a question and without a voice or a vote being raised
-against it. Thus the standard was launched in unity and wisdom,
-and from that day it went forward on its mission of educating
-the people. The “Trotting Register” has done much and the
-<i>Monthly</i> has done something in the way of education, but the
-standard has been the special formula through which all these
-teachings have been brought home to the breeder, great and
-small, in a manner that educated both his mind and his pocket.
-If we could conceive of the brightest mind directing the most
-pointed pen for the period of a hundred years in the special
-department of how to breed the trotting horse, we feel sure he
-would fail to accomplish as much as this little, practical formula
-called the “Standard” accomplished in the first dozen years of
-its existence.</p>
-
-<p>When the standard was adopted and put in operation there was
-a material advance in the market value of all animals registered
-under its requirements, and it thus became not only a matter of
-honor, but of profit, to breed only in the standard ranks. Everybody
-was willing to pay more for a good horse that was standard
-in his breeding than for one equally good that was not standard
-in his breeding. A record of 2:30 was then accepted as evidence
-of a high rate of speed, everywhere. There was a grand rush for
-standard rank and the number of fraudulent performances sent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_523"></a>[523]</span>
-forward in order to secure such classification was overwhelming.
-This led to many rejections of performances, adroitly shaped up
-to deceive, and every rejection made a batch of enemies. But
-great as this evil was, there was another that began to manifest
-itself very strongly. The Register was rapidly filling up with
-colts under rules seven and eight, and everyone of them, as soon
-as he was able to stand up, wanted his number, for he was to be
-kept as a standard stallion. The public attention was urgently
-called to the preponderating numbers of these feebly bred colts,
-as a menace to the hitherto unimpeded progress of the grand
-purpose of establishing a breed. The Breeders’ Association
-thereupon took up the standard and revised it, wholly in the
-direction of higher qualifications and more stringent requirements.
-By comparing the revised standard with the original,
-above, it will be observed that rule ten was stricken out, and
-that rules seven and eight were restricted to fillies only, thus
-cutting off the source of danger altogether. The rates of subsidiary
-speed were advanced and there was a tightening up of the
-requirements in other directions. This revision did not suit all
-interests, especially beginners who were just starting to breed
-their first colt by a standard horse, but as every one knew there
-would never be a time when there would not be just such groundless
-complaints, the action received the hearty indorsement and
-support of all breeders who kept in view the central object of
-the standard in building up a breed of trotters.</p>
-
-<p>When fast horses began to multiply by the thousand, annually,
-say about 1890-91, we began to hear an increasing number of
-gibes at the standard as “a slow coach,” “away behind the times,”
-“a 2:30 horse was no longer considered a trotter,” etc., and
-every one of these taunts had an element of truth in it. The
-standard, as the teacher of the breeders of the country, had not
-only produced trotters, but <i>great</i> trotters, with marvelous rapidity.
-At one time it was the ambition of all breeders to place
-their stock inside of the limits of the standard, not only because
-it was an honor, but because it added materially to the bank account
-and to the value of every animal, so bred, in the establishment.
-But breeders both great and small are no longer stimulated
-to enter a standard with the antiquated 2:30 rate of speed
-that is everywhere received with a sneer. When the standard
-was formed on the basis of 2:30, it was within about fifteen
-seconds of the fastest performance, and if the same ratio were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_524"></a>[524]</span>
-now preserved, “2:30” would be stricken out and “2:20” inserted
-instead. The breeders would again be stimulated to look forward
-with hope, and not backward with regret.</p>
-
-<p>Of the numerous criticisms of the standard after its adoption,
-there were none of any special force or practicability, but from
-one source there was a persistent war made upon it, not because
-it was unfair in its principles or administration, nor because it
-lacked vigor in its support, but evidently because it was not controlled
-in Kentucky, and that the pivotal authority of that control
-was not placed in the hands of the manager at Woodburn.
-It is but just that I should say here that many of the stanchest
-and most enthusiastic supporters of the standard and the Register
-were Kentuckians, and with the exceptions of two or three
-breeders who stood well in their community, and a few others
-who were bankrupt in character and morals, there were no
-enemies to engage in this war. I would gladly skip over this
-period, for it is of necessity more or less personal, but to omit it
-would leave the history of the times and of the formation of the
-breed of trotters incomplete, and liable to misrepresentation by
-those who may come after us.</p>
-
-<p>The first public suggestion or demand for a standard, and
-the first use of the word “standard” in connection with rules for
-registration, was addressed to the Breeders’ Association, in the
-paragraph quoted above, from the <i>Monthly</i> for April, 1878. In
-that paragraph, while no specific rules were formulated, the
-whole scope of such rules was foreshadowed.</p>
-
-<p>In the course of correspondence with breeders all over the
-country as to their views about the provisions of the proposed
-standard, I received from Mr. Henry C. McDowell, of Kentucky,
-a little slip of paper, perhaps as large as your hand, marked
-“copyrighted,” on which were printed a number of rules that
-purported to be rules for the admission of certain animals, trotters
-and runners, to some book that was not named or described.
-This little paper was courteously received and commended as a
-step in the right direction.</p>
-
-<p>The idea of inserting the word “copyrighted” seemed to be
-that it might serve as a “scare head” and thus deter all makers
-of books from attempting to make a book under the provisions of
-these rules. These rules were strictly tentative, and they were
-peddled about for months, and changed several times to see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_525"></a>[525]</span>
-whether they would be acceptable or not, and every revised and
-corrected edition was marked “copyrighted.”</p>
-
-<p>Some of the rules that were, we might say, self-evident, were
-not very objectionable, but others again were simply intended to
-give Woodburn and those who had their breeding stock from that
-establishment a great advantage over all other breeders. The
-selfish object of the fourth rule is palpable, as follows: “Any
-mare, the dam of any mare or stallion that has produced or sired
-a horse, mare or gelding, with a record of two minutes and thirty
-seconds or better.”</p>
-
-<p>To the original draft of six rules, “rule seven” was afterward
-added, which reads: “The full sister of any animal entered under
-rules one, two, three, and four.” This was the capsheaf of absurdity,
-for it not only made the grandams of trotters standard
-trotting brood mares, but all their sisters also. This not only
-embraced a large number of running mares, genuine and bogus
-alike, in Kentucky, but it reached across the Atlantic and made
-one of the greatest of English dams of running horses, and all
-her famous sisters, standard trotting brood mares in America.
-Bonnie Scotland, the great racing sire, never was able to get a
-trotter except from old Waterwitch, and upon the strength of
-that scratch, his sisters and his mother and his aunts were all
-made standard trotters. No wonder this marvelously stupid
-production came to be known as the “Pinafore Standard.” [A
-more extended review of the “Pinafore Standard” may be found
-in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for December, 1879, page 831.]</p>
-
-<p>But when we come to consider the ultimate result intended to
-be reached, the scheme was not “marvelously stupid”—it was
-not the work of a fool, but of the other kind of fellow. The
-admission of the grandmothers and all their sisters was not
-specially intended to bring in the great English racing mare and
-all her sisters as standard-bred American trotters, but it was intended
-to bring in a great host of Kentucky running-bred mares
-that never could trot a mile in four minutes, and place them on
-an exact equality of rank with mares that had records of 2:20 or
-less. This would not only place Kentucky away ahead of the
-North in the length of her lines of inheritance, but would place
-Woodburn away above all competitors, either North or South, and
-with a little help of the Edgar-Bruce type, we would soon have
-had “twelfth dam, fifteenth dam,” etc., not one of them named
-and not one of them honest. Great local, and especially personal,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_526"></a>[526]</span>
-advantages were to accrue, and the theory that Kentucky running
-blood was not the best trotting blood in the world was to be
-smashed, and here we reach “the milk in the cocoanut.” So
-far as we can understand the conditions as they then existed and
-so far as we can analyze the facts developed, this seems to be a
-fair interpretation of the impelling motive. In an unfortunate
-hour I took up this buntling of the young manager and exposed
-its absurdities, addressing the exposure to a highly esteemed
-personal friend whose name was connected with the movement,
-and just as soon as the gentlemen interested could be got together,
-every vestige of the “Pinafore” features was eliminated,
-the poor old grandmothers and their sisters being ruthlessly
-turned out in the cold. This was the first set-back which Mr.
-Brodhead received in his enterprise, which was to accomplish so
-much for Woodburn, and which ended so disastrously.</p>
-
-<p>There was another feature embraced in the “Pinafore,” and
-protected by the same “copyright,” that was of special significance.
-It was provided that time made in a public trial, against
-the watch, should be accepted as of equal value with time made
-in a race with other horses. It is not worth while to stop to consider
-the question as to whether these two kinds of performance
-are of equal merit, and should receive equal honor, for every
-honest man will call such a claim a bald absurdity on its face.
-Then why has Woodburn, from time immemorial, it will be
-asked, always refused to enter a colt in a stake or start one
-against others? If you ask the manager he will tell you that Mr.
-Alexander, the owner, is opposed to racing in all its forms. Then
-why does Woodburn, in one form or other, hold so much stock
-in the Kentucky Breeders’ Association, one of the most notorious
-gambling concerns in the whole country? We will not press this
-question too closely. There can be no shadow of doubt, therefore,
-that this feature of the “Pinafore” was the special product
-of the mind of the manager at Woodburn, for no one of the other
-gentlemen would be willing to own it.</p>
-
-<p>The quasi-organization from which, nominally, the “Pinafore
-Standard” emanated consisted of the five gentlemen following:
-Lucas Brodhead, Henry C. McDowell, Richard S. Veech,
-James C. McFerran, and Colonel Richard West. The names of
-these five gentlemen when appended to any matter connected
-with their enterprise and given to the public had no rank assigned
-to them, except “Committee on Rules.” This implied that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_527"></a>[527]</span>
-there was an organization behind them that had appointed them
-to this duty, but there never was even a shadow of such an organization.
-Mr. Brodhead was manager at Woodburn and ambitious
-to control the trotting pedigrees of the whole country,
-and for the methods employed the reader is referred to page 430
-of this volume. Mr. McDowell is simply Mr. Brodhead’s echo.
-In December, 1877, he attended the annual meeting of the National
-Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and out of compliment
-to Kentucky he was elected president. He was about
-the city two or three days, and before he left for home he resigned
-without ever intimating any reason why he resigned. Mr. Veech
-is a man of undoubted integrity and plenty of brains, and was
-identified with the Breeders’ Association from the start. Mr.
-McFerran and Colonel West are both dead, and while it was not
-my privilege to know them intimately, I knew enough of them
-to trust them as honorable and honest men. Not long after the
-appearance of the original suggestion in the <i>Monthly</i>, as given
-above, that a standard of qualifications for admission to registration
-was of paramount importance, and that the preparation of
-such a standard was in the special province of the National Association
-of Trotting Horse Breeders, Manager Brodhead caught
-the idea and the situation, and with Mr. McDowell hurried away
-to spend a night with Mr. Veech, near Louisville, and thus forestall
-the action the Breeders’ Association might take in the
-premises. They were all of one mind as to the importance of
-keeping Kentucky in the foremost position as a breeding State,
-but they were not all of one mind as to the means best adapted
-to that end. Mr. Veech was very clear and pronounced in his
-views that the way to breed the trotter was to go to the trotter
-and not to the runner, but what Brodhead said McDowell said,
-and that left him in the minority. Seated around a table, each
-with a copy of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> containing the table of 2:30
-trotters under their sires, they commenced forming some rules.
-With “The Great Table” before them they could not fail to strike
-the self-evident requirements of a standard, and two or three of
-their rules were very good, but as a matter of course the scheme
-of the majority to get in all the running-bred mares possible and
-enter them as standard trotting mares had to prevail. Hence
-the provision for admitting the grandams. Imported Bonnie
-Scotland was kept many years in the trotting latitudes, and just
-got one trotter and no more at any rate of speed, hence he was a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_528"></a>[528]</span>
-standard horse according to this scheme, and his dam, Queen
-Mary, in England, was a standard trotting brood mare. Now if
-the dam thus became a standard trotting mare, why should not
-Iago, his sire, become a standard trotting sire? This would have
-been too glaring and open, and would have been ridiculed as an
-absurdity by everybody. The trick had to be carried through
-quietly or it could not succeed. At a later period the sisters of
-all the standard mares were made standard, and then came the
-very appropriate and expressive title of the “Pinafore Standard,”
-for it literally embraced “his sisters and his mother and his
-aunts.” This scheme would have admitted a vast herd of so-called
-trotting mares in Kentucky that had no trotting inheritance, had
-never trotted themselves, and never produced a trotter. This
-part of the scheme was certainly not the work of the “Committee
-on Rules,” but the work of an individual for the purpose of
-carrying out a selfish and inadmissible scheme to promote
-local and personal interests. When the exposure of this scheme
-came out Woodburn, with all its influence in Kentucky, could
-not stand against it an hour, and every “Pinafore” feature was
-promptly eliminated.</p>
-
-<p>When the processes of emendation and change in the “Pinafore,”
-and each change “copyrighted,” were going forward, the
-views of the different members of the “Committee on Rules” did
-not always harmonize, and when it came to the selection of a
-man to do the work, part of the committee insisted the work
-should be placed in the hands of John H. Wallace, and after
-some discussion a committee consisting of Mr. Brodhead and
-Mr. McDowell was deputed to tender this work to Mr. Wallace
-on such terms as would be equitable and just. In due time a
-communication was received from these gentlemen, informing
-me of the business upon which they had been appointed and
-wishing to know for what compensation I would engage to compile
-the book, laying down the conditions upon which it must be
-done. Without having a copy of this correspondence before me
-I can only give the substance from memory. First, the copyright
-was to be in the committee or some member of it; second,
-the compilations were to be as the committee directed; and third,
-the book was to be the property of the committee when completed.
-This was a stunner, but I concluded to play out the rôle
-they had assigned me and see what they would do. In my reply
-I put the case substantially as follows: “Your proposed book,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_529"></a>[529]</span>
-if ever made, must be made almost, if not quite wholly, from the
-first three volumes of the “Trotting Register,” and these volumes
-are carefully protected by copyright. I have spent several years
-of hard labor in compiling them, and a large amount of money
-in traveling over the country tracing and verifying the facts
-which they contain. You ask me, in effect, to take my three
-volumes and to skim all the cream out of them to make one
-volume for you. Now, before going an inch further, we must
-understand what you are willing to pay for my property, before
-I can entertain any proposition to dump it into the lap of your
-committee.” Sometimes I have been disposed to lament my
-hard fate in coming so near the exalted position of “hired-man”
-to two such distinguished characters as Henry C. McDowell and
-Lucas Brodhead, but I missed it. To this letter I never received
-any reply, nor did these gentlemen ever make any report of their
-negotiations with me to the “Committee on Rules.”</p>
-
-<p>The next news we had from the “Pinafore” was the announcement
-that the book would be compiled at Woodburn, by LeGrand
-Lucas, and on inquiry as to his capacity and knowledge of the
-subject it was learned that he was a young kinsman of Brodhead’s,
-perhaps still in his “teens,” who was employed there as a
-kind of clerk or bookkeeper. He was evidently an innocent lad,
-for he had been installed in his new office only a very few days
-when he wrote me for certain numbers of the <i>Monthly</i>, in duplicate.
-In reply I wrote him that each volume of the “Register”
-and each number of the <i>Monthly</i> was legally covered by copyright
-and that I could not consent to his taking my property to
-make up his new book, and that he must do as I had done—commence
-at the beginning and hunt for himself. Poor boy, what
-could he do? If he were debarred from the use of the Wallace
-publications, where on the face of the globe could he get the
-information? If cribbing had to be done in order to carry out
-the scheme, it would be very indiscreet to do it under the very
-roof of Woodburn and under the supervision of its manager.
-Thus the work languished for months, and little or no progress
-was made.</p>
-
-<p>In Chicago there was one James H. Sanders, publishing a
-paper, whom I had known for years. He never had an idea of
-his own in the world, but he was one of the most notorious and
-shameless plagiarists that I have ever known. As an illustration
-of what I knew about him in this department of industry and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_530"></a>[530]</span>
-thought, I will give a single example that will honestly represent
-many others in my own experience. At one time he was employed
-several months as editor of <i>Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times</i>,
-and during that time I wrote an article for that paper that had
-some pith and point in it, but I was afraid to send it for fear
-Sanders would steal it, so I called in a capable friend and told
-him the situation, had him read it carefully and make some notes
-of the order of thought that he might know it if he ever saw it
-again. The paper was then signed and sent forward. In two or
-three days I received an acknowledgment of the communication
-effusively thankful for the favor, remarking that by a singular
-coincidence our minds had been running in the same channel and
-that when my communication was received he already had an
-article in type taking the same view of the subject. When the
-paper came my friend looked it over and remarked “that man is
-nothing more than a shameless plagiarist.”</p>
-
-<p>In a short time work on the book, if it were ever begun, came
-practically to an end for want of material, and this was probably
-brought about by a hint from the proprietor, Mr. Alexander,
-that Woodburn, with all its strength, could not afford to sacrifice
-its good name for honesty, by taking the property of another
-man, without his consent. At this juncture J. H. Sanders, of
-Chicago, wanted a job, for ready money, and knowing the situation
-in Kentucky, published an editorial going to prove that
-pedigrees could not be copyrighted, for they belonged to the owners
-of the horses, or some other such brainless argument as this.
-Brodhead and his echo saw in this the opportunity of their lives,
-for Sanders wanted the job, and if my work were to be appropriated
-they could blame it all on him. So they hied away to Chicago, and
-the three worthies, all fully inspired with the <i>animus furandi</i>,
-were not long in reaching an agreement. Sanders did not want
-any share in the book or in the profits it might yield, but he
-was ready to do the work for a fixed compensation, in cash, and
-to be free from all responsibility for damages or loss. The compensation,
-as represented by Sanders, was three thousand dollars.
-The negotiations were consummated, announced through the
-press with a brilliant flourish of trumpets, and the two gentlemen
-returned to Kentucky in high feather. Work on the compilation
-(?) was soon commenced, and, as related by an eyewitness,
-the methods were very simple and expeditious. Mr.
-Sanders sat at one side of a table with the three volumes of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_531"></a>[531]</span>
-“Wallace’s Trotting Register,” and <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> open before
-him, and as he read out the pedigrees in their alphabetical
-order, his clerk, on the opposite side of the table, wrote them
-down. In a very few weeks the work was done and Sanders put
-his three thousand dollars in his pocket. Thus the clerk was paid,
-his employers were in possession of his dishonest work, and J. H.
-Wallace was robbed of the labor of years, but the instinctive
-honesty of the public conscience had not yet been reckoned with.</p>
-
-<p>The book was published under the title of “The Breeder’s
-Trotting Stud Book.” The clerical work was well done, closely
-following the copyrighted sources from which it was drawn, so
-closely indeed as to furnish strong <i>prima facie</i> evidence that it
-was copied. But this feature of excellence, if that word can be
-applied to theft in any form, furnished literally hundreds of
-evidences, clear, unmistakable and conclusive, that from beginning
-to end it had been copied from the “Register” and the
-<i>Monthly</i>. Like all works of the kind, those volumes were not
-free from errors, the spelling of a name might be wrong, the
-initials of a name might have been misplaced or reversed, a date
-or a location may have been incorrect, and as all these errors were
-copied and not one of them corrected, and there were hundreds
-of them, each one stood up as a competent and undisputed witness
-and told the story of the theft. But, knowing the character
-of the people with whom I had to deal, I was prompted to adopt
-the methods of the detective in using marked bills, and then
-finding those bills on the person of the culprit. Fortunately
-there was a very easy way of applying this effective and conclusive
-method and I adopted it. Instead of marking bills, I
-marked pedigrees, by inserting imaginary crosses. As an illustration,
-there was a horse in Delaware called Frank Pierce Jr.
-Nobody ever knew anything about the blood of his dam, and I
-supplied the place with “dam by Tom Titmouse, pacer,” and
-then waited for my marked pedigrees to make their appearance.
-Nobody ever heard of a horse called “Tom Titmouse” in Delaware
-or any other country. In due time the book appeared and
-there my “marked bills” came to light in the possession of Lucas
-Brodhead and Henry C. McDowell. The piracy was a clean sweep
-and the evidence of it was just as complete as the depredation
-itself. As a matter of course I did not delay in raising the shout
-“stop thief,” and after one or two broadsides from the <i>Monthly</i>
-giving the extent of the theft and examples of the evidence to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_532"></a>[532]</span>
-sustain the charge, the moral sense of the breeders of the whole
-country, including Kentucky, was aroused, and I was really surprised
-at the sudden death of the bantling and its burial out of
-sight, but still more surprised that no man opened his head in
-explanation or defense of the piracy, and thus was practically confessed
-the truth of all that was charged against them. It is said
-that Mr. Alexander, the proprietor of Woodburn, tightened the
-reins on his over-ambitious manager, at this point, and admonished
-him that his course had done great injury to the good name
-of Woodburn, and that he must change it, and not attempt any
-defense of what he had done. Whether this really occurred or
-not I am not able to say, but it was just such a course as any
-wise employer would adopt toward a reckless employee whose
-course was destroying the good name of an establishment. It
-then appeared to be my duty to go forward and under a decree
-of the courts have this stolen property confiscated and destroyed,
-according to law, but as the bantling was already very dead and
-growing deader every day, with nothing left of it but a trace of
-its putrescence in the nostrils of all honest men, I concluded that
-the game was not worth the candle.</p>
-
-<p>Among the amusing things that were developed in the progress
-of this controversy was Mr. Brodhead’s peculiar views as to what
-“copyright” really meant. He got the idea of restricting admission
-to the “Register” to animals possessing certain qualifications
-from the <i>Monthly</i>, and he formulated this idea into five or
-six rules, expressed in eight or ten short printed lines and, as he
-claimed, copyrighted this idea. He evidently seemed to think
-he had invented a rat-trap and got his patent on it, and that no
-man dare make any rules restricting registration, so long as he
-safely held the patent on his rat-trap. He could see no difference
-between a patent right and a copyright. An “idea” cannot
-be copyrighted, no difference whether it be expressed in one
-printed line, or in a dozen. The copyright law is constructed
-for the special and only purpose of protecting the author in the
-results and products of his labor. The work of seeking, tracing
-and establishing the pedigrees of trotting horses had been pushed
-forward persistently, laboriously and expensively for more than
-twelve years, and it had grown into a vast accumulation of facts
-of imperishable value to the whole horse world, and every line
-of it was protected under the copyright law; but because it didn’t
-conform to his “rat-trap” idea he seems to have persuaded himself<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_533"></a>[533]</span>
-that it would be justifiable to hire and pay a man to transfer
-it from my possession to his own.</p>
-
-<p>During its very short life and while the memory of the book
-was retained in the recollections of the horsemen of that period,
-it was very generally, if not invariably, spoken of as “The Tom
-Titmouse Stud Book.” It has already been suggested how this
-name would aptly fit in among my “marked bills,” but the
-reason for it has not been made apparent. In Warren’s romance
-called “Ten Thousand a Year,” his “delectable,” or to speak
-soberly, his “detestable” hero was named “Tittlebat Titmouse,”
-and as one of the gentlemen involved in this controversy strongly
-reminded me of Warren’s hero, by his arrogance and ignorance,
-I involuntarily wrote in the “marked bill” “dam by Tittlebat
-Titmouse;” but upon looking at it I concluded it was not good
-bait, for it was doubtful whether any man in the world who ever
-owned a horse would name him after so contemptible a character.
-Hence, to make it less conspicuous it was changed to read “dam
-by Tom Titmouse, pacer,” and the bait was swallowed in a
-twinkling. The Kentucky scheme, from its very inception, had
-its motive in securing a local and personal advantage over the
-breeders of every other section of the country and hence the
-provisions of the “Pinafore” standard, from which the promoters
-were only driven by exposure and ridicule. The piracy was consummated
-as proved by a hundred witnesses that will never die,
-and of which the “marked bill” element, such as “Tom Titmouse,
-pacer,” is an unmistakable representative. With the inception
-and consummation both understood and named, how could we find
-another name so fit as “The Tom Titmouse Stud Book?” To
-this might be added, on an amended title-page: “Edited by a
-clerk employed by Lucas Brodhead and Henry C. McDowell of
-Kentucky.”</p>
-
-<p>Some three or four years after the death and burial of the “Tom
-Titmouse” book and when its odoriferous memory had become
-less offensive, another effort was made to get control of the registration
-business, by the same parties in Kentucky. Mr. Brodhead
-did not appear prominently in this move, but worked
-through his echo, McDowell. The plan was to present a monster
-petition to the National Trotting Association, composed chiefly
-of track owners and track followers, to establish a trotting register.
-This petition purported to be from breeders, but in fact it
-embraced all the “swipes” and stable-boys about Lexington and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_534"></a>[534]</span>
-Woodburn, I was told, and there were very few actual breeders
-in the list, and that few were men who were trying to breed trotters
-from runners. The movement was inspired and engineered
-in good degree from Woodburn, and Brodhead’s friends were at
-work in all directions securing the names of the “rag, tag and
-bobtail” whose names appeared on the petition, and a very great
-noise was raised about what was going to be done. Whether the
-association took any action on the petition, or what it was, I have
-no recollection, but whatever the disposition made of the petition,
-it never was heard of again. To the reader not familiar
-with the condition of things in Kentucky at that time, these
-persistent and renewed attempts to get control of the registration
-of trotting horses can hardly be comprehended. They did
-not grow out of ruffled tempers merely, as the result of friction,
-but out of strictly <i>business</i> considerations. Kentucky had a
-great variety of brood mares from which they were trying to
-breed trotters, and practically every one of them was tricked out
-with more or less running blood as tail-pieces to their pedigrees,
-while others were paraded with pedigrees showing a dozen or
-more successive crosses by thoroughbred horses, and not one of
-them with a name, a history or a breeder. There were many
-purchasers flocking to Kentucky with more money than knowledge
-for the purpose of buying a few animals to serve as the
-nucleus for a breeding stud, and it was no uncommon thing for
-such purchasers to estimate the value of a pedigree by its length.
-When the purchaser got home with his stock, his next step was to
-send them to me for registration, and here came in the “business”
-consideration. The pedigree having reached the office of the
-“Register,” unless it were already known to me, every cross had to
-be established circumstantially and specifically before it could be
-accepted, and at the precise point where reasonable information
-failed the pedigree was cut off. The purchaser then goes back
-upon the seller, and there the trouble begins. He writes me an
-indignant letter. “You’re interfering with my business, sah;
-that pedigree is just as I got it from Colonel Jones, sah; and he’s
-a gentleman, sah.” It was very seldom, indeed, that a man of
-this type could be mollified by assuring him that all pedigrees
-were judged by the same rule and requirement, whether they
-came from Maine or California or Kentucky. He generally remained
-an enemy to the “Register” because “it interfered with his
-business.” From early in the century, three or four counties<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_535"></a>[535]</span>
-out of about one hundred and twenty in Kentucky bred running
-horses and grades and raced them, but no records were kept of
-their breeding and nobody knows with certainty to-day anything
-about the more remote crosses. For a time the union of two or
-three trotting horses upon the top of a line of nameless dams extending
-ten or fifteen generations was looked upon as the perfection
-of a trotting pedigree. This notion, foolish as it was, gave
-Kentucky a great advantage over the breeders of all other sections
-of the country, and every exposure, with the evidence, that
-in nine cases out of ten these lines of nameless dams were in
-whole or in part pure fictions, was cutting the ground from under
-their supposed superiority in the breeding of their trotters.
-Under the arguments and illustrations of the <i>Monthly</i>, supported
-by the incontrovertible statistics of the “Year Book,” the Kentucky
-cry for “more running blood in the trotter,” was silenced
-as the child of ignorance and prejudice, and instead of looking
-for pedigrees tracing back to Godolphin Arabian, everybody began
-to look for pedigrees that traced to individuals and families distinguished
-for producing trotters, no difference what blood they
-possessed. Here the public mind reached the truth, and in
-grasping it the boasted predominance of Kentucky was crushed,
-and producing trotting blood was again placed on an equality in
-all parts of the land. The loss of the pretensions of one section
-could not be of any specific pecuniary advantage to any other
-section, but the establishing of the truth was of inestimable advantage
-to all. The loss of mere “pretentions” would not, in
-ordinary affairs, be considered a very great loss, but in this instance
-it was looked upon as a grievous wrong, because it interfered
-with their “business.” Every slippery fellow who failed to
-pass a bogus pedigree complained that it interfered with his
-“business.” Every gang of cheats that got together and hired
-the use of a track for a few days for the purpose of giving their
-horses bogus records, when detected, cried out vigorously that
-this was interfering with their “business.” Besides these, there
-were scores, perhaps hundreds, of others, ready for some such
-game to cheat the public, but when they learned the ordeal was
-severe, their courage failed and they contented themselves by
-threatening the “Register” for interfering with their “business.”
-Here was an army of jockeys and cheats, and all they needed to
-make their numbers formidable was a leader with courage and
-money, and whose “business” was their own, to seize registration<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_536"></a>[536]</span>
-and thus recoup the losses they had sustained in their
-“business.”</p>
-
-<p>In considering the conspiracy that resulted in the sale and
-transfer of the Wallace publications to the American Trotting Register
-Association, which means simply Lucas Brodhead, there are
-some antecedent conditions connected with these publications
-that need a brief explanation. The first volume of “Wallace’s
-American Trotting Register” was published in this city in 1871
-and the second in 1874. An office was opened in this city in
-1875 and the first number of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> was issued in
-October of that year. The National Association of Trotting
-Horse Breeders was organized December 20, 1876. The attendance
-was large and many of the States were represented by men
-of influence and standing. Mr. Charles Backman was elected
-president, and L. D. Packer secretary. From the favor with
-which the idea of a national organization was received and from
-the character of the men participating in it, I voluntarily and
-without judicial advice placed in the association the authority to
-appoint annually a Board of Censors to examine and decide all
-questions relating to disputed pedigrees sent for registration.
-The plan worked smoothly and satisfactorily for several years,
-in some of which there was not a single case to be examined. My
-publications were soon past the critical point, and they seemed to
-grow from their inherent strength, and not from pushing or advertising.
-The Breeders’ Association seemed to take the opposite
-chute, and after three or four years it became merely a name.
-At first there was trouble in finding a man to take the presidency,
-but at last a rich dry goods merchant was found who was willing
-to take the presidency, and add five hundred dollars a year to
-some stake for the honor conferred; and the secretary, L. D.
-Packer, was the mere satellite of the president, and was willing
-to give two weeks’ work every year for the privilege of drawing
-a thousand dollars a year from the treasury. The annual meetings
-became a mere formality, with an attendance of three or
-four and the two officers, who seemed to re-elect each other year
-after year, until the association was finally buried somewhere out
-in Michigan, I think, and the money that had accumulated in
-the treasury was, on his petition, donated to the secretary in
-consideration of his valuable services for so many years in carrying
-the association from the cradle to the tomb.</p>
-
-<p>Owing to my relations to the Breeders’ Association, I felt that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_537"></a>[537]</span>
-I was in honor bound to maintain its good name in the minds of
-the people, while every publication in the whole country was
-laughing at it, and that this was my duty as well as my interest
-until the time came for a final separation from it. True, when
-I made these efforts to uphold it I had to put my tongue in my
-cheek, for I knew that its management, like “the Old Man of
-the Sea,” was riding it to death. As my business continued to
-grow and prosper, I began to consider the propriety of forming a
-joint stock company of breeders, to own and control the property
-absolutely when I was ready to retire. Greatly to my surprise
-this proposition gave offense to the two gentlemen who managed
-the association, for I had not alluded to that in any possible
-manner. When explained to me it became perfectly plain that
-the offense was in the fact that making a legal corporation to
-own and control the property would leave no “position” for the
-president, no salary for the secretary and no further need for the
-N. A. of T. H. B.</p>
-
-<p>The Wallace Trotting Register Company, in due time, was incorporated
-under the laws of the State of New York, and commenced
-business October 1, 1889. The publications of the company
-were the “Register,” the <i>Monthly</i> and the “Year Book.”
-The capital stock of the company was fixed at one hundred thousand
-dollars, and as work came pouring in upon us more rapidly
-than we could handle it, labor became a burden and I had no
-time to distribute this stock among the breeders of every State,
-as I intended. This was the condition of things in the office in
-the following spring when, to my horror, I discovered I had been
-robbed of something over fifty-four thousand dollars and the thief
-escaped to Cuba. The blow was a stunner, and messages of
-sympathy came pouring in from all quarters, with many tenders
-of pecuniary assistance all of which were thankfully acknowledged,
-but all tenders of assistance were declined.</p>
-
-<p>The capitalization at one hundred thousand dollars, and the
-robbery of fifty-four thousand dollars, and the company still not
-crushed, gave Mr. Brodhead a new view of the possibilities of the
-future, and inspired him with a new hope that he might yet reach
-the ambition of his life and gain control of the registration of all
-the trotting pedigrees of the country. Without much violence
-to the processes of Brodhead’s mind we can imagine the way in
-which he reasoned out the problem. “This has become a valuable
-property and is bound to be still more valuable,” he doubtless<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_538"></a>[538]</span>
-reasoned, “and it is possible it can be bought, but if bought it must
-be done before that stock is scattered among the breeders of the
-different States. There are Russell Allen and Malcolm Forbes
-and a whole lot of rich fellows just coming into the trotting
-horse business and I can show them that this property would be
-a good investment. With the money in one hand and the bluff
-of starting an opposition Register in the other, it is possible the
-property might be got for something like its value.” He next
-probably reasoned: “The first thing to consider here, is how to
-make that bluff sufficiently imposing and effective, in an authoritative
-way; and shall it be a mass meeting or a delegate meeting,
-and where shall it be held? I have seen Packer and he evidently
-wants to know what there is in it for him and Mali, in case
-they agree to call a National convention. They want to perpetuate
-their offices in their present so-called National Association.
-If it should be a mass convention, and held at Chicago, I could
-send up a few carloads of farmers’ sons from around here and
-every one of them would swear he was a breeder. If it should
-be a delegate convention from State Breeders’ Associations, there
-are several States that have no such associations, but I could get
-a few friends to organize for the purpose of sending delegates.
-The horse papers would be a unit on our side, for they have been
-‘set on’ so often and so hard that they would like to see the old
-bear superseded. Beside this, every one of those papers has at
-least the one man who is competent to succeed Wallace, and
-every editor who has been in the business six months thinks he
-is fully qualified for that place. But the real roar of the shouting
-would come from the angry men whom Wallace has disappointed
-in refusing to accept their pedigrees or their performances
-because they were irregular. These men are very numerous
-and we must have as many of them present as possible. I
-think this plan will work,” he doubtless reasoned with himself,
-“if we can only keep Wallace in the dark till we get things fixed,
-and to throw him off his guard I will send him three or four
-pedigrees to register.”</p>
-
-<p>Thus the plan of the conspiracy, with all the elements to be
-employed, were evidently matured in Mr. Brodhead’s mind.
-There were two points about which he was specially solicitous.
-The first was that I should be kept wholly in the dark as to his
-movements and purposes, and the second was some apparently
-official authority for calling a convention at Chicago that would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_539"></a>[539]</span>
-be of a nominally “national” character. On invitation Secretary
-Packer visited Woodburn, and for a promised consideration it
-was all arranged that the President and Secretary of the N. A. of
-T. H. B. would call a convention. With the initial step thus
-safely provided for, Mr. Brodhead was everywhere, east and west,
-north and south, beating up recruits. In a short time, evidently
-by preconcerted arrangement, there was an unusual number of
-horsemen in town, some of them very rich men, while the greater
-number were blowers of the Dr. Day type with a grievance. The
-horsemen were hustled together by Secretary Packer, in what
-was called an impromptu meeting, and there President Mali,
-after some apparent hesitation, fulfilled his part of the agreement
-and called the convention at Chicago, and thus Mr. Brodhead
-secured his share—and we will see how the other side fared
-further on.</p>
-
-<p>When the convention assembled at Chicago it was indeed a
-motley mass. President Mali took his place as president, and
-called the convention to order, and Secretary Packer took his
-place as secretary. This, as I understand, was not by the choice of
-the convention, but by virtue of their positions in the N. A. of T.
-H. B. It was eventually determined that the meeting should be
-composed of delegates from State associations, and when the associations
-were called, several of them had never been heard of
-before and never have been heard of since. They were bogus
-associations, and were gotten up especially for the occasion.
-Some of the delegates bore names that never had been heard of
-in the office of the “Register,” and it may be inferred they never
-bred a standard horse. The names of others, again, were well
-known in the office from their efforts to get spurious and unknown
-crosses accepted. All these men were anxious for a new
-management. One man whom I had discharged from my office
-a few weeks before represented a New England State. He was
-guilty of a flagrant attempt at deception. He was a fawning
-sycophant, always laughing at his own supposed wit, and he was
-known in the office as “Uriah Heep.” The man who dominated
-the convention from beginning to end had not been appointed
-a delegate by his own association. The whole thing, as
-a convention, was about as hollow a sham as was ever enacted in
-Chicago. Next behind the gentlemen who by courtesy may be
-designated as delegates, sat the moneyed men who were anxiously
-looking for a good investment for some of their loose funds, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_540"></a>[540]</span>
-Brodhead had told them this property was paying twenty-five
-per cent. on a capitalization of one hundred thousand dollars, and
-he thought it could be made to pay more. Like many other
-fools, they thought it was a machine that when fired up in the
-morning would run itself. Next to the rich men sat a good
-sprinkling of farmers’ sons, some carloads of whom had been
-brought from Kentucky, and all ready to swear they were breeders.
-As Brodhead explained this incident to a gentleman who
-stated it to me: “If there was any attempt to pack the convention
-he was ready to do some packing himself, with these young men
-he had brought from Kentucky.”</p>
-
-<p>On the outside circle there was a large number of young men
-and some older ones watching the proceedings with great intensity.
-They were restless, and some of them looked hungry,
-and every one of them was looking for a place if the purchase
-went through. One had a copy of the Bungtown <i>Bugle</i> in his
-pocket containing a report of the racing at the last county fair,
-written by him, and he thought that was sufficient evidence that
-he was qualified to take charge of the <i>Monthly</i>. Another had
-made, with his own hands, as he asserted, a tabulated pedigree on
-a large scale and shaded the letters beautifully and artistically
-with pokeberry juice; and what evidence could be more satisfactory
-that he was qualified to take charge of the department of
-registration? Every one of them seemed to think that there
-would be a good place for him in the new deal, and hence his
-enthusiasm at every incident that seemed to point in that direction.
-Thus the little cormorants as well as the big cormorants
-were all anxious for the prey.</p>
-
-<p>While the soreheads were wrangling over how best to get hold
-of my property, and what they would do with it when they got
-it, I had several hours in the privacy of my own apartments to
-look over all the conditions of the situation, and the conclusions
-I then reached I have never had reason to change. It, therefore,
-may be of interest to all to know just what I thought at
-that crucial period, and I will give these thoughts as contemporaneous
-with the event:</p>
-
-<p>“This meeting is a miserable sham, but the action of Mali and
-Packer has given it a pseudo-type of regularity as a national
-convention of horsemen, and this idea of ‘regularity’ will carry
-weight with many who know nothing of the bottom facts.</p>
-
-<p>“The members of the press will, substantially, be a unit against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_541"></a>[541]</span>
-me, and ring all the changes on ‘the National convention’ at
-Chicago, and labor to make it appear as an uprising of the horsemen
-of the whole country against me.</p>
-
-<p>“The meeting is packed by Brodhead with his own satellites
-whose expenses he has paid, and embraces a good many rogues
-who have failed in passing upon me dishonest pedigrees and
-spurious records. Besides these there are several men here, and
-very active, whose names have never been heard of before in the
-horse world.</p>
-
-<p>“Taking these elements together, they are in numbers more
-formidable than dangerous, but when led by Brodhead, with
-what they consider a fair price in one hand and a club in the
-other, with the demand ‘take the price or we’ll take the property,’
-the occasion becomes serious.</p>
-
-<p>“The latter alternative means a battle that may last ten years.
-Ten years ago these same people employed a man who purloined
-my literary property and it was found in their possession. The
-evidence of the piracy was so clear that it never was denied.</p>
-
-<p>“Have I time enough, am I strong enough, am I young enough
-to enter upon this long battle? Ten years ago I was robbed of
-my property, but I was then vigorous and strong; one year ago
-another thief robbed me of my money and it was a terrific and
-lasting strain upon my vitality.</p>
-
-<p>“The days of my years number nearly threescore and ten, so
-there is no time to enter upon the uncertainties ‘of the law’s
-delays.’ From overwork and the anxieties growing out of family
-afflictions and the robbery, my health is shattered. It is time,
-therefore, that I should seek to rest rather than to struggle.</p>
-
-<p>“And what about the work to which I have devoted the best
-years of a long life? Will it be attacked? Certainly it will be
-attacked for the reason that it does not suit Woodburn. Will it
-be overthrown? No, the laws of nature cannot be overthrown.
-The trotter can come only from the trotter and nobody but an
-ignoramus or a fool can doubt the truth of this declaration.
-The experiences of every year, of every track, and in every race
-confirm this central truth and will continue to do so as long as
-the world stands.”</p>
-
-<p>From the above reasonings and conclusions, when the offer of
-one hundred and thirty thousand dollars was made, in a business
-form, it was accepted.</p>
-
-<p>When the property was transferred it was on the individual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_542"></a>[542]</span>
-and joint responsibility of some half a dozen rich men, and they
-were as gleeful and happy over their investment as though they
-had obtained a gold mine for a song. But, while these men were
-rejoicing over their acquisition, there were many others cursing
-the deception that had been practiced upon them by promising
-them places and perquisites and, in short, whatever they wanted
-in order to secure their adherence to the conspiracy. Of all this
-numerous class, Messrs. Mali and Packer had so little sense as to
-make the nature and terms of their agreement public, namely,
-that they were to be clothed with the power to annually appoint
-the Board of Censors for the new organization. Poor fools! they
-didn’t know Brodhead. For a consideration of place they had
-betrayed a trust to him that as honorable men they should have
-sacredly guarded, and the more they complained the more bitterly
-they were condemned by all right-thinking men. Hence,
-after they had served his purpose he kicked them aside as he
-would an old shoe, and thus he punished the traitors with whom
-he had dealt. When the multitude of writers, statisticians, etc.,
-who had received private assurances of “something equally as
-good” in the new deal, saw the fate of Mali and Packer, they
-had sense enough to keep their mouths shut. A man who knew
-anything about the trotting families and their lines of descent
-was not the kind of man that Mr. Brodhead wanted to put in
-charge of registration. The only man who could suit Mr. Brodhead
-was the man who would implicitly and without doubt follow
-his instructions, right or wrong. When Mr. J. H. Steiner was
-appointed Registrar it was wholly evident that this was the purpose
-of the proprietor, for of all the men in my knowledge, in
-any way connected with trotting horse interests, Mr. Steiner
-seems to be the most profoundly ignorant of horse history and
-horse lineage, and till this day he does not seem to have learned
-anything thereof.</p>
-
-<p>At this point the public confidence received a shock from
-which it has never recovered, and never will recover. From that
-day till the present the estimate of value of the publications
-of the company, in the minds of breeders, has been on the
-“down grade,” and coupled with this is the ever-obtruding doubt
-as to whether these publications are managed for the advantage
-of the general breeding public, or for the little clique of which
-Woodburn is the center. The lack of knowledge displayed has
-resulted in a profound disgust. This has been shown most conclusively<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_543"></a>[543]</span>
-in the fate of the poor old <i>Monthly</i>. It started out
-under its new owners to controvert breeding history and breeding
-law in which the public had been thoroughly and conscientiously
-indoctrinated. The sham pretense of using the title <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i> instead of <i>Brodhead’s Monthly</i> was “too thin” to deceive
-any one except the most ignorant. The labored productions of
-the weaklings hired to overthrow the truth only tended to deepen
-the disgust. The price was lowered as an inducement to support,
-but nobody wanted the miserable thing about his house,
-and thus it died without a tear except from the eyes of the rich
-fools who put their money into it supposing it would live and
-prosper in the hands of ignorant and incompetent men.</p>
-
-<p>It is natural for the rich men who put their money so gleefully
-into this publishing enterprise, at the instigation of Mr. Brodhead,
-to try to get some of it back before the final smash, which is evidently
-not far removed, and hence the ignorant and blundering
-emasculation of the Year Book, in order to reduce its cost.
-“The Great Table,” as it was called for years, embraces all
-others, and all others are merely subsidiary to that. This table
-should be restored in its entirety, for it is worth the whole of
-them and double as many more. With every other table thrown
-out and this one restored, complete, the breeders would be content.
-The Year Book—the great instructor of the past—I have
-just learned is no longer published for the breeders or for the
-press, but for the tracks. The operation is explained as follows:
-Every year the secretaries of the National and the American
-Trotting Associations send out by express a lot of blank
-books, blanks, etc., to each track in good standing and in this
-outfit for the year is a copy of the Year Book, which is charged
-at the long price. The tables of fastest records, I am told, are
-quite carefully made in the offices of these associations themselves,
-and the book is thus made a convenience for the tracks.
-Thus, by this system of forced loans on the tracks, the Year
-Book is kept alive. This method of financing the company will
-not last long.</p>
-
-<p>A different method has been adopted in order to secure funds
-from registration. Money for registration must come from the
-breeders themselves directly, and there is no way of forcing them
-to put up through the manipulation of intermediary officials.
-Hence the plan has been tried of scaring them into it, but with
-what success I am not informed. At the annual meeting in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_544"></a>[544]</span>
-April, 1895, I think it was, a committee was appointed, consisting
-of Messrs. Brodhead and Boyle, if I remember, to consider
-and report to the next meeting amendments to the standard advancing
-the requirements for registration, and everybody was
-advised to hurry in their pedigrees or they might be excluded.
-At the meeting in 1896 the committee did not report, but Mr.
-Brodhead reported in a series of resolutions, in which the number
-of standard dams was advanced, which suited Woodburn
-exactly, but there was no advance in the time to be made, and
-the tin-cup record against time was carefully protected. The
-resolutions were adopted unanimously, and went before the
-breeding public as the new advanced standard that would be decided
-at the next annual meeting. From time to time the breeders
-were duly informed of the proposed advance and cautioned
-many times to get in while they could. The annual meeting in
-April, 1897, came, and instead of a rush of breeders interested one
-way or another in the proposed advance, the same stereotyped
-half a dozen men were there who had been manipulating the
-scare for two years, and not one of them, even Brodhead himself,
-voted for the advance. This is no advance at all, in a practical
-sense, and would accomplish nothing, and would do no good to
-anybody except Woodburn or some other establishment that like
-her has been breeding trotters for forty years. It was merely intended
-for a scare, and it failed under such circumstances as to
-fully disclose the object in placing it before the breeders. The
-scare is all out of this kind of humbug and deception, and now
-what? When the standard was adopted on the basis of 2:30 that
-rate of speed was sixteen seconds behind the fastest record then
-made. To-day if the standard were placed at 2:20 it would be
-about sixteen seconds slower than the fastest time now on record.
-But this real advance, which is imperatively demanded by all the
-considerations of philosophy and progress, will never be made so
-long as the standard is under the control of Woodburn. The
-reason for this is made obvious by reference to page 504, etc.
-Mr. Brodhead’s ambition has been fully gratified, he is in full and
-absolute control of the registration of the country, he has completely
-demonstrated his incompetency for such a position, and
-he has the satisfaction of knowing, if it be a satisfaction, that no
-sensible business man on the face of the globe would be willing
-to pay ten per cent. of the cost for the property he now controls.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_545"></a>[545]</span>
-And who will say this is not a righteous retribution for the disreputable
-means employed, first and last, to obtain this control?</p>
-
-<p>My life-work in building up a breed of trotting horses and
-thereby adding many millions to the value of the horse stock of
-the country had been more effective than I had even hoped for.
-I knew that I had laid the foundation on the bed-rock of truth,
-and I knew that the superstructure had been honestly erected,
-but I did not know what a deep root my teachings had taken in
-the minds of all intelligent and thinking men. In transferring
-the property the chief source of my unhappiness was in the
-thought that heaven and earth would be moved to destroy what
-I had done and overthrow what I had taught. But I had
-builded wiser and stronger than I knew, and when the “feather-weights”
-were hired to pull the house down and tear up the very
-roots of the seed I had planted, the people would not listen to
-them and nobody would read their vapid utterances. And thus
-the effort ended in the death of the <i>Monthly</i>. The harvest of
-thought was much nearer the reaping time when the transfer was
-made than I had supposed, and since then it has been ripening
-and ripening, and to-day if any man were heard advocating more
-running blood in the trotter, he would with very great unanimity
-be pronounced either an ignoramus or a fool, on that question at
-least.</p>
-
-<p>But, much as I disliked to surrender my life-work to a man
-whose moral fiber I had tested and found brittle, the transfer
-was really “a blessing in disguise.” It gave me rest, it gave me
-health, and it gave me leisure to prosecute the study of the horse
-of history in fields hitherto untrodden. The years thus employed
-in digging after the very roots of history in the libraries, at home
-and abroad, have glided by, affording a continuous enjoyment in
-the discovery of many things that are very old and yet entirely
-new to this generation. Very often, when the work went slowly,
-I thought I could again hear the quiet, sympathetic voice of a
-Pennsylvania Friend gently prompting me with the remark,
-“Thee should remember that thee is no longer a young man.”
-And now that my long-promised and pleasant undertaking is
-completed, it is my very earnest wish that the thousand friends
-who have been waiting for it may enjoy the pleasant surprises it
-will furnish them as much as I have enjoyed their exhumation
-from the archives of long-buried centuries.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_546"></a>[546]</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_547"></a>[547]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX<br />
-<span class="smaller">HISTORY OF THE WALLACE PUBLICATIONS.<br />
-BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR.</span></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter-head">
-
-<p>Mr. Wallace’s early life and education—Removal to Iowa, 1845—Secretary
-Iowa State Board of Agriculture—Begins work, 1856, on “Wallace’s
-American Stud Book,” published 1867—Method of gathering pedigrees—Trotting
-Supplement—Abandons Stud Book, 1870, and devotes exclusive
-attention to trotting literature—“American Trotting Register,” Vol. I.,
-published in 1871—Vol. II. follows in 1874—The valuable essay on breeding
-the forerunner of present ideas—Standard adopted 1879—Its history—Battles
-for control of the “Register”—<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> founded 1875—Its
-character, purposes, history, writers, and artists—“Wallace’s Year
-Book” founded 1885—Great popularity and value—Transfer of the Wallace
-publications, and their degeneration.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>The history of the series of works known as the Wallace publications,
-even in the brief form here contemplated, involves in a large degree the
-biography of Mr. Wallace. It is indeed more than the sketch of a long
-and indefatigably industrious life-work. It involves as well, in the forty
-years of creative labor, the development of a great productive industry,
-and of a distinct branch of literature. Mr. Wallace’s labors in the field
-of gathering and systematizing American horse history began at a day
-when there was no breed of trotters, or no trotting literature. When he
-laid aside active work there were both, well established and clearly defined
-factors in the nation’s progress, and in all the years from the commencement
-he was the central figure in the work of establishing a breed of trotters,
-and incomparably the clearest and strongest force in the direction
-and upbuilding of a trotting literature. That is the simple truth of history,
-which the verdict of time will render it puerile to deny.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">John H. Wallace</span> was born August 16, 1823, and reared on a farm
-in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. As a boy he evinced no particular
-liking for farm work, but had a great fondness for reading. He
-was educated chiefly at the Frankfort Springs Academy, where he was
-prepared to enter the junior class at college. There occurred a little
-incident at this time that illustrates how seemingly slight a thing may
-change the current of a life. The then member of Congress for that district,
-Mr. Dickey, a scholarly man, advised Professor Nicholson, of the
-Academy, that if he had a young man in his institution whom he could
-recommend, he (Mr. Dickey) would appoint him a cadet to West Point.
-Mr. Wallace was selected, provided his father’s consent was forthcoming.
-When Mr. Wallace, Sr., was approached on the subject his reply was,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_548"></a>[548]</span>
-“John, I think there is some better employment in the world for you than
-studying the most approved methods of killing men”—and that ended the
-West Point incident. Young Mr. Wallace, about this time, became
-alarmed, however, at his then persistently delicate health, and decided to
-seek an outdoor life rather than one of study. In 1845 he married Miss
-Ellen Ewing (who died in 1891), of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and
-settled on a farm at Muscatine, Iowa. Iowa was then a new country, and
-Mr. Wallace did much in the way of organizing the industrial and educational
-interests of the State. There, as related below, he began work in
-the line in which he became famous. With an invalid wife he returned to
-Allegheny in 1872; and in 1875 in company with the late Benjamin Singerly,
-of Pittsburg, started <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> at New York, which has been his
-home ever since. Mr. Wallace in 1893 married Miss Ellen Wallace Veech,
-a niece of the first Mrs. Wallace; and since his retirement from active business
-he has spent his time, at home and abroad, chiefly in prosecuting
-investigations into the horse history of the remote periods, the results of
-which are seen in this, his crowning life-work.</p>
-
-<p>We will endeavor here to sketch, in the abstract, the history of Mr.
-Wallace’s publications to as great a degree as possible separately, though
-they cannot be entirely separated. The “Trotting Register” was an outgrowth
-of the “Stud Book,” and <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> and the “Year Book”
-outgrowths of the “Register,” and both auxiliary thereto. The career
-and usefulness of all were intertwined, yet each had its own peculiar mission,
-and to that extent their histories will be kept distinct.</p>
-
-<h3>“<span class="smcap">Wallace’s American Stud Book.</span>”</h3>
-
-<p>During the early “fifties” Mr. Wallace, then in the prime of early manhood,
-was Secretary of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture, and as such had
-much to do with the management of State fairs. He was thus frequently
-called upon for information about the pedigrees of animals, and the need
-of an authority on horse pedigrees was pointedly and constantly forced
-upon his attention. If the pedigree of a cow was asked for he had only
-to turn to the “American Herd Book” to find it, but when the breeding
-of a horse was wanted there was no authority to which to turn. Mr. Wallace
-had been dabbling more or less in such horse literature as there was
-at that day, and in 1856 began collecting information with the ultimate
-purpose of publishing a stud book of thoroughbred horses—for the thoroughbred
-was then here, as in England, supreme as the only horse of
-literature. He already possessed certain of the publications that were the
-best horse authorities of the day—a file of the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>, Skinner’s
-<i>American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine</i>, and a number
-of volumes of the “English Stud Book,” and English <i>Sporting Magazine</i>.
-Added to these, later, were other sources of information and misinformation
-most notable in this latter class being the alleged “Stud Book” published
-by Patrick Nesbitt Edgar, of North Carolina, in 1833—an utterly unreliable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_549"></a>[549]</span>
-work, but the only American stud book in existence prior to Wallace’s.
-From these, and every other available source, Mr. Wallace began to glean
-and systematically compile the pedigrees of thoroughbred and so-called
-thoroughbred horses. Of these sources by far the most valuable was
-Skinner’s periodical, begun in Baltimore in 1829. Novice as he was at
-the time, Edgar’s work was regarded with more than suspicion by Mr.
-Wallace, and, as a matter of caution as well as of honesty, whenever he
-borrowed pedigrees from Edgar they were so credited.</p>
-
-<p>Modern methods of investigating pedigrees were not dreamed of by our
-compiler then. His principal aim seems to have been to get as large a
-collection as possible, and whatever was found in print, whether newspaper,
-book, or hand-bill, was taken for granted; and pedigrees gathered
-from private sources were, like the others, submitted to little scrutiny.
-Neither men’s motives nor their knowledge of what they represented to
-know were questioned, and in this way, after years of labor, a great mass
-of pedigrees was gathered, written in new form and order, and the thoroughbred
-stallions numbered—which was the first instance of numbering
-horses in registration. While compiling the thoroughbred pedigrees, Mr.
-Wallace also incidentally seized upon such information as he found about
-trotting pedigrees and records, and these he arranged as an appendix
-to his work. Finally, in 1867, “Wallace’s American Stud Book,” a
-great, handsome volume of 1,017 pages, bound pretentiously in green and
-gold, was published in New York.</p>
-
-<p>The trotting supplement embraced about 100 pages, and that the editor
-was pretty well satisfied with it is shown by a sentence in the preface:
-“It is believed that this compilation of trotting horses, embracing over
-700 animals, is very nearly perfect, but it is not claimed to be entirely so.”
-Of course, from the method of its compilation it was decidedly imperfect,
-but it was the best and only compilation of trotting pedigrees up to
-that time.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile Mr. Wallace was pushing forward the compilation of the second
-volume of the “Stud Book,” and in this traveled much, making personal
-investigations. In 1870 this was completed, all the ground up to
-that year having been gone over, but in the course of the work “a great
-light” began to dawn upon the compiler. He found that he had been
-proceeding on a wrong plan entirely. Experience in compiling and investigating
-taught him that a pedigree may be printed in a newspaper, or
-even in a book, and still not be true. He discovered that the sources from
-which he had drawn were largely unreliable, that hundreds of pedigrees,
-through ignorance or dishonesty, or both, were fabrications and frauds,
-especially in their extensions in the maternal lines, and with the realization
-in full force of this knowledge came the determination, even though
-the last page of the manuscript for the second volume of the “Stud
-Book” was complete, that it should never see the light.</p>
-
-<p>At the same time Mr. Wallace had discovered that the trotting supplement<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_550"></a>[550]</span>
-was the part of his “Stud Book” most used and appreciated.
-He saw that the trotter was coming to be the horse of the American
-people, and that there was a great and new field opening in which a literature
-had yet to be formed. His experience with the “Stud Book” gave
-him the training necessary for the work before him, and thus equipped,
-with little capital outside of his newly acquired knowledge, and marvelous
-natural industry and perseverance, with an unusual capacity for
-hard work, he turned in 1870 to the work before him—the literature of the
-trotter.</p>
-
-<h3>“<span class="smcap">Wallace’s American Trotting Register</span>.”</h3>
-
-<p>He had as a nucleus the supplement to Volume I. of the “Stud Book,”
-added to which was the work done and knowledge gained in compiling
-the second volume, together with an increasing library and written data.
-Thus in incidentally adding a few pages of trotting pedigrees to his “Stud
-Book,” Mr. Wallace had builded better than he knew, but he even now
-had little conception of the extent and richness of his new field of exploration.
-He traveled all over the country, levying upon every source of information
-for his “Trotting Register;” but, taught in the dear school of
-experience, depended chiefly upon personal investigation, taking monthly
-and yearly less and less for granted. He gradually became more trained
-in meeting the natural human fondness for embellishing, extending and
-completing pedigrees without reference to fact or evidence, and the
-equally common predilection for stating as known facts those things concerning
-pedigrees that were only of common report. This work was
-excellent training for the more extended duties of the future, and it gave
-Mr. Wallace an insight into methods of the olden time, and a knowledge
-of men and horses that later made him, backed by uncompromising
-honesty, absolute fearlessness, and a quite unusual disregard for “policy,”
-a “terror to evil-doers” in the realm of manufacturing in whole or in
-part fraudulent pedigrees.</p>
-
-<p>Still the knowledge, the caution, the system that made it almost impossible
-in the last years of Mr. Wallace’s administration to impose a fraud
-upon the “Register” were of slow, gradual, but constant growth. The work
-improved with every volume, with every year of experience, and the evidence
-that would be accepted in the compilation of the early volumes
-would not suffice later. Mr. Wallace had also the quality of just as remorselessly
-overthrowing his own errors as those of others, and thus a
-system of correction was continually going along, in which work <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i>, founded in 1875, was a particularly effective agency.</p>
-
-<p>The first volume of the “Trotting Register” was published in 1871, and
-was a neat book of 504 pages. It contained, besides the pedigrees gathered,
-tables of all trotting and pacing performances up to the close of 1870, and
-this was the first time in which the records of the trotting turf were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_551"></a>[551]</span>
-collected and published. This part of the work entailed a vast amount of
-research, including a thorough review of all sporting papers, annuals and
-other sources where contemporaneous record of racing would be liable to
-be made, but it was a very valuable feature; and, besides serving as a
-basis for Mr. Wallace’s future compilations, was unscrupulously seized upon
-by imitators who, from time to time, sought to publish “record books.”</p>
-
-<p>There was also an introduction to the volume entitled, “An Essay on
-the True Origin of the American Trotter,” which showed a glimmering of
-understanding of the truths of history and of breeding as now understood
-by students well grounded in the subject. In the second volume, however,
-was an essay that marks an epoch in the literature of breeding.
-Written less than three years after the introduction to Volume I., it betrays
-the fact that in the intervening years the author had risen suddenly
-and broadened infinitely in his study of the science of breeding, and his
-understanding of the application thereto of the facts of trotting history.
-It advanced then entirely new views, and it was the first article published,
-as far as the writer is aware, that rose to an appreciation of the supremacy
-of biological laws in horse breeding, and suggested such a thing as
-psychical heredity in the transmission of habits of action. It originated
-the term “trotting instinct,” so generally used thereafter, began the discussion
-of the problem of the increasing number of fast trotters from
-pacing ancestors, and wound up with ten sound propositions or conclusions
-based throughout on the law that like begets like. It opened up new and
-endless lines of investigation and thought, and at once elevated the discussion
-to a scientific plane. This article, written by Mr. Wallace originally
-for the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>, marked the advent of the school of
-thought on breeding now almost universal.</p>
-
-<p>The second volume of the “Register” was published in 1874, and the third
-in 1879. The first three volumes of the “Register” contained about 10,000
-pedigrees, and the statistical tables in the second and third volumes were
-greatly improved and amplified over those in the first. Volume II. gave
-a table of sires of 2:30 horses, with the number to the credit of each sire,
-and the number of heats to the credit of each performer—a sort of vague
-foreshadowing of the famous “Great Table of Trotters under their Sires,”
-later to be conceived and developed by Mr. Wallace, and destined to become
-the most valuable single trotting compilation yet designed, and the
-one now universally used, adopted and imitated. This volume also gave
-a table of 2:25 trotters to the close of 1873, arranged in the order of their
-speed. The first table of trotters under their sires was published in
-<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, covering the statistics to the end of 1877.</p>
-
-<p>The third volume was much larger than its predecessors. The industry
-of breeding trotting and pacing horses was, under the stimulus of the
-“Register” and <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, and other agencies with which Mr.
-Wallace was identified, and of a general era of prosperity then dawning,
-advancing and extending now at rapid strides, and about this time certain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_552"></a>[552]</span>
-events of almost inestimable influence on the future of the business
-transpired.</p>
-
-<p>In the autumn of 1876 there was formed at New York the National
-Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, an organization in which Mr.
-Wallace’s influence predominated from its inception until a short time
-before its dissolution, for lack of an excuse for existence. This organization
-was broadly representative of the best elements in the breeding business
-in its virile and useful days, and accepted a sort of advisory and
-supervisory control over the “Trotting Register;” and Volume III. and subsequent
-volumes were compiled under its authority. Questions of disputed
-pedigrees and other such issues affecting breeding and the record
-of pedigrees were decided by a Board of Censors appointed by this association;
-and, aside from its usefulness in connection with the “Trotting
-Register,” it contributed largely to the advancement and encouragement of
-breeding by inaugurating colt stakes, and other stakes designed more
-especially to attract the breeder than the professional campaigner.</p>
-
-<p>Before the third volume was through the press the need of some measure
-for restricting registration became apparent to Mr. Wallace. The economics
-of the “Register” demanded it, but beyond this the need of systematizing
-and establishing a specific breed called for some definition as to
-what rightfully belonged to that breed. Up to this time the only rule was
-the indefinite provision that “anything well related to trotting blood”
-might be acceptable as eligible by the compiler of the “Register.” The
-problem that confronted those who took a broad and comprehensive view
-was to educate public opinion up to that point where the possibility of
-establishing a breed of trotters would be appreciated. As early as April,
-1878, <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> strongly urged the necessity of a standard, and
-this was the first suggestion of one that had been made. At the November
-meeting of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders that
-year the Board of Censors in their report presented a letter from Mr.
-Wallace advising the adoption of a standard, a recommendation which the
-Board indorsed. Meanwhile the matter was being agitated and discussed
-in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>, and affairs were gradually shaping for action. In
-the March, 1879, number of the <i>Monthly</i> a standard formulated by certain
-Kentucky breeders and forwarded by Major H. C. McDowell was printed
-and commented upon. It was fair on its face, but under discussion its
-weak points were made clear. For instance, its fourth rule made standard
-“Any mare the dam of any mare or stallion that has produced or
-sired a horse, mare, or gelding with a record of 2:30.” It was pointed
-out that under this rule the celebrated English thoroughbred mare
-Queen Mary would become a standard trotter, for her son, the race horse
-Bonnie Scotland, had sired the trotter Scotland. As other provisions
-made the sisters and brothers of standard animals standard, the defects of
-the Kentucky standard were made patent, and the Breeders’ Association
-failed to approve it. Instead, at a meeting at the Everett House, New<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_553"></a>[553]</span>
-York, November 19, 1879, the standard as printed on pages 519-20, in the
-framing of which Mr. Wallace and General B. F. Tracy did the active
-work, was unanimously adopted.</p>
-
-<p>Under this standard the work of compiling Volume IV., which involved
-bringing forward animals registered in preceding volumes, that met its
-requirements, and numbering stallions, was carried on.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, some Kentucky gentlemen failed to acquiesce in the standard
-decision, and had, or believed they had, other grievances against the
-compiler of the “Register.” They proceeded to plan to control the “Register.”
-but as in the last chapter of this work Mr. Wallace gives full details
-of this and subsequent battles for the control of registration, this history
-need not be here repeated.</p>
-
-<p>In the meantime the breeding interest was enjoying remarkable prosperity,
-and this was reflected upon and through the “Trotting Register”
-and <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>. In 1882 Volume IV. was published, Volume V.
-in 1886, and Volume VI. in 1887, these containing about 6,000 pedigrees
-each. Volume VII. appeared in 1888, Volume VIII. in 1890, and
-Volume IX., the last published by Mr. Wallace, appeared in 1891.</p>
-
-<p>While an adequate discussion of the standard is neither necessary or
-possible in this article, it was so obviously part and parcel of the “Trotting
-Register” that its history must be briefly outlined. The standard
-formulated in 1879 served its purpose well, but it was but an initial step,
-and it was fully recognized by Mr. Wallace at the time that it would have
-to be revised and strengthened from time to time so as to keep pace with
-the progress of the breeders. If the standard to-day is held in slight
-esteem, or even in contempt, it is clearly because it has been allowed to
-lag far behind the progress of the breed.</p>
-
-<p>Evils grew out of the standard, even in its early years, simply through a
-quite general misunderstanding of its purposes and its full meaning. Standard
-rank became instantly so popular and so sought after that thousands of
-breeders aimed solely to breed into the standard, without much regard for
-other necessary qualifications. They seemed to forget that it was merely a
-definition of the blood that was eligible to the “Register,” and not,
-nor ever intended, to be taken as a general measuring stick of value. Soon
-after its adoption an era of great prosperity came in trotting affairs, with
-recklessly high prices for standard animals. With an apparently insatiable
-market there came an abnormal expansion of the industry. Thousands of
-men began breeding without knowing anything, either practically or
-theoretically, about the industry, except how to get into the standard.
-Hence the overproduction of not only standard trotting horses, but all
-kinds of trotting horses of inferior breeding and little excellence, and the
-subsequent break in prices, for all of which the standard has been by
-inconsiderate persons blamed.</p>
-
-<p>Not long after its adoption Mr. Wallace saw these dangerous tendencies,
-and in the <i>Monthly</i> warned the breeders against them, and early began<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_554"></a>[554]</span>
-agitating for a revision of the rules. But nothing could stem that rising
-tide, and at first the opposition to any change in the rules was vehement
-and general. The obviously easy gateway into the standard was through
-rule seven, and this became the storm center of the discussion. Mr. Wallace
-led in the call for the abolition of this rule, and did it so persistently
-and well that gradually the leading breeders and thinkers were won over,
-but the outcry against a change was so earnest and so general among the
-smaller breeders that the National Association hesitated long. Though a
-Committee on Revision was appointed as early as December, 1885, it was
-not until December 14, 1887, that a revision was finally effected, the
-standard being then adopted as printed on pages 520-21.</p>
-
-<p>Every reader can observe, by comparison with the previous standard,
-that there was a wise and conservative strengthening of the rules all along
-the line. The next step contemplated by Mr. Wallace was not only a further
-restricting revision on blood lines, but also an increase in the speed rate
-required, an advance from 2:30 to 2:25, then ultimately to 2:20, his purpose
-being that the standard should keep pace with the progress of the
-breed. But before any of these steps were made the “Register” passed
-into other hands—and other theories and practices have prevailed, with
-the result that the standard is to-day held in derision and the value of the
-“Register” has sunk to the vanishing point. But before reaching this
-phase of our history some account of Mr. Wallace’s other publications is in
-order.</p>
-
-<h3>“<span class="smcap">Wallace’s Monthly.</span>”</h3>
-
-<p>At a very early period in the history of the “Trotting Register” Mr.
-Wallace perceived the necessity of there being some medium of communication
-with the breeders which he could control. This was one of several
-reasons, which need not here be detailed, the outcome of which was the
-establishment of the publication which has played a greater part than any
-other in developing the trotting literature of to-day, and in leading American
-thought on the science of breeding—<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i>. The first
-number came out in October, 1875, with Benjamin Singerly, publisher,
-and John H. Wallace, editor. Mr. Singerly was an uncle of Hon. William
-M. Singerly, of the Philadelphia <i>Record</i>, and had large printing establishments
-in Harrisburg and Pittsburg, Pa. The first twelve numbers of
-<i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> were printed in Harrisburg, though published from the
-outset from New York. Benjamin Singerly died in August, 1876, from
-which time Mr. Wallace carried on the publication himself, from the little
-office at 170 Fulton Street, overlooking St. Paul’s churchyard.</p>
-
-<p>In accordance with the time-honored custom in journalism, the first
-number of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> contained a salutatory outlining its purposes
-and its policy, and in almost every detail that policy was honestly lived up
-to while Mr. Wallace controlled the magazine. The horse was to be made the
-leading, but not the exclusive feature; full trotting and running summaries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_555"></a>[555]</span>
-with indexes were to be published; correspondence was invited; and, as a
-cardinal principle of policy, gambling in any and all forms was to be uncompromisingly
-fought against. This last detail of policy Mr. Wallace
-rigidly adhered to always. He opposed public betting in any form and
-under any pretense, and believed, and acted up to the belief, that if racing
-could not be maintained without betting it were better that grass should
-grow on the tracks. The first number of the <i>Monthly</i> contained a
-descriptive article by “Hark Comstock,” and some selected matter, but
-was chiefly the editor’s work—mostly concise historical matter, dealing
-with the early progenitors of the trotting breed.</p>
-
-<p>With each number the <i>Monthly</i> strengthened, until soon it had gathered
-around it the brightest writers in the country. Notwithstanding this,
-however, the editorial department was always its strongest feature, and it
-rapidly became a power in the land. Among the earliest contributors were
-“Hark Comstock” (Peter C. Kellogg), always a fluent writer, and one of
-the most versatile special pleaders on horse topics known to the turf press;
-Charles J. Foster, the gifted “Privateer,” whose work, from a literary
-standpoint, was oftentimes a model of finish; “Yah Amerikanski” (Spencer
-Borden), and “S. T. H.” (S. T. Harris), both brilliant, especially in
-controversy; H. T. Helm, Levi S. Gould, and many others prominently
-known in turf literature a quarter of a century ago.</p>
-
-<p>Spirited controversy early became a feature of the <i>Monthly</i>, and in these
-passages-at-arms the editor was generally found taking a leading hand.
-As a writer Mr. Wallace was always above all things forceful. He fortified
-himself in theory and fact amply, and his style was so direct, yet comprehensive,
-that every shot told, and even those who disagreed with him were
-forced to read and admire these spirited discussions. Mr. Wallace moreover
-early impressed the public with his uncompromising honesty, and
-with the fact that, above all things, he had the courage of his convictions.
-There was no dodging issues, no dallying or compromising with humbug
-of any sort; a spade was called a spade, and no consideration of “policy”
-brought a note of indirection into the <i>Monthly’s</i> editorial pages. The
-personality of the editor was ineffaceably stamped on his magazine, and
-its influence became potent for good far beyond the limitations of mere
-circulation.</p>
-
-<p>The magazine became quickly the leader in thought on breeding subjects,
-and hardly an advanced idea that to-day prevails in this field of
-literature but can be found first suggested in the <i>Monthly</i>. The first
-table of trotters under their sires was published in <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> for
-1877; the standard was first suggested in its pages; the pacer as an origin
-of trotting speed was first advanced in February and March, 1883; it was
-the first to formulate and advocate and put to the test a scale of points for
-judging horses; and above all it was the power that educated breeders to
-an understanding of breeding on truly scientific principles, and brought
-about an acceptance and appreciation of the laws of heredity as applied to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_556"></a>[556]</span>
-breeding the trotter. And, interspersed with this continual seeking for
-the light and the right, there was an amount of historical matter published
-that would make the compilation of a valuable book on the American
-trotter possible from the <i>Monthly</i> alone. It was, moreover, continually
-exposing frauds of history and of pedigrees, and was as potent in
-guarding as it was in discovering the truth. It was the recognized enemy
-of fraud, of humbug, of false pretense everywhere, and attacked them in
-high places as well as low, and that its editor incurred the enmity of many
-whose designs attracted the <i>Monthly’s</i> searchlight, and were thwarted
-by it, is a fact known of all men.</p>
-
-<p>This, in brief, was the character of the <i>Monthly</i> from its foundation,
-until it passed out of Mr. Wallace’s hands. To follow its detailed history
-through the nearly sixteen years of Mr. Wallace’s editorship is not the
-purpose of this article, but the rather to group the salient factors that
-made it what it was, and that have secured for it an enduring place in
-trotting history.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Monthly</i> was from the first illustrated, and the progress in horse
-art is well demonstrated by tracing through its pages. Its first drawings
-were made by James C. Beard, who came of a race of artists, but whose
-attempts at horse portraits were wretched caricatures, one and all. Still,
-they seemed to be the best, or rather the least bad, then obtainable. Mr.
-Wallace, however, was painfully cognizant of the lack of truthful portraits
-of horses, and was not less delighted than surprised when, one September
-day in 1878, a young man came into his office, and exhibited
-drawings that were so obviously truthful portraitures that they were a
-revelation in horse art. A rapid questioning as to whether he had drawn
-them, and where he had hidden his light so long, developed that the young
-genius was Herbert S. Kittredge, of Pennsylvania. He was immediately
-engaged, and his work in the <i>Monthly</i> was the first reputable horse portraiture
-in American literature. This gifted, self-educated genius died in
-May, 1881, long before his prime, and when his powers were daily developing.
-He was the forerunner of Whitney, Dickey, Morris, and others
-whose ability to faithfully portray horses is acknowledged to-day. He
-had not the mechanical aids—notably the camera—or processes which
-they so freely call into play, but in true artistic ability to draw faithfully,
-it is doubtful whether this undeveloped master was the inferior of any
-artist who has yet made horse portraiture a specialty in any country.</p>
-
-<p>From year to year the contributory staff of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> increased,
-and always had in its membership a number of the leading breeders and
-students. For many years Mr. Wallace did practically all the editorial
-work himself, as in fact he did the registration work. But this gradually
-outgrew him, and soon his office staff began to increase. First he removed
-the office to 212 Broadway, not far from its first location. Then in May,
-1887, the final move was made to commodious offices in the Stewart Building,
-at Broadway and Chambers Street, when the office staff had grown<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_557"></a>[557]</span>
-until more than a dozen assistants were employed on all the publications.</p>
-
-<p>Among the earliest editorial assistants on the <i>Monthly</i> was C. T. Harris,
-later trotting editor of the <i>Spirit of the Times</i>, and still more recently of
-<i>The Horse Review</i>, a faithful and conscientious worker. Later Gurney O.
-Gue, a clever writer, and exceptionally well grounded in facts of pedigree
-and record, occupied a desk with the <i>Monthly</i>, and is now one of Mr.
-Dana’s “bright young men” on the <i>Sun</i>. In 1886 Leslie E. Macleod became
-associate editor, and continued in that capacity until 1890. He
-subsequently became managing editor of <i>The Horseman</i>, and later editorial
-writer of <i>The Horse Review</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Of contributors, among the best known may be named, in addition to
-those enumerated as identified with the <i>Monthly</i> at the start, General B.
-F. Tracy, Allen W. Thompson, Samuel Hough Terry, “Mark Field” (Jas.
-M. Hiatt), “O. W. C.” (O. W. Cook), Thos. B. Armitage, “Mambrino”
-(H. D. McKinney), Otto Holstein, “Bill Arp,” “Aurelius” (Rev. T. A.
-Hendrick), A. B. Allen, “Fidelis,” Harvey W. Peck, Benjamin W. Hunt,
-“Roland” (Leslie E. Macleod), Major Campbell Brown, F. G. Smith,
-Judge M. W. Oliver, Prof. Chas. T. Luthy, Colonel F. G. Buford, John
-P. Ray, “Vision” (W. H. Marrett), H. C. Goodspeed, and others.</p>
-
-<p>The last number of <i>Wallace’s Monthly</i> issued under Mr. Wallace’s
-editorship was published in July, 1891. It then passed to the American
-Trotting Register Company, at Chicago, and its degeneration was rapid,
-and in a few months it died for lack of brains. Robbed of its virility and
-of its purpose, without editorial direction, and aiming only to lead a
-<i>harmless</i> existence, and to say or do nothing to offend any one of a score
-of directors and hundreds of stockholders, it soon began to lead a <i>useless</i>
-existence, and dropped out of the notice of thinking men. It became the
-antithesis of all that it had been, and its end was a pitiable one for a
-publication with a history of sixteen years of fearless, honest, able
-direction.</p>
-
-<h3>“<span class="smcap">Wallace’s Year Book.</span>”</h3>
-
-<p>Early in the history of the <i>Monthly</i> Mr. Wallace decided to drop running
-summaries, and give exclusive attention to trotting and pacing
-statistics. These grew so rapidly that they soon became burdensome, and
-an outlet became inevitable. Furthermore the adoption of the standard,
-depending as it did on records of performances, necessitated for its application
-a bureau of statistics, and these considerations and others—not the
-least of which was the recognition of “a long-felt want”—prompted Mr.
-Wallace to start “Wallace’s Year Book.” The first volume of this valuable
-annual was published in May, 1886, covering the performances for
-1885, and contained, besides summaries of all races in which a heat was
-trotted in 2:50 or less, a 2:30 list for the year, and the Great Table of
-Trotters under their sires. The book contained 273 pages, was bound in
-flexible cloth, and sold at $1.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_558"></a>[558]</span></p>
-
-<p>An improvement of the greatest value and importance was made in the
-Great Table in the first volume of the “Year Book.” This was the addition
-after the list of performers under each sire of the names of his sons
-that had sired performers, with the number to the credit of each, and of
-the performers out of his daughters. It furnished at a glance what a
-horse had done, not only of himself, but through his sons and daughters,
-and the Great Table thus improved became at once the gauge of trotting
-blood by which breeders everywhere estimated the comparative values of
-the different families and different sires. It was the most clear, condensed,
-yet comprehensive and perfect summing up of all the facts and
-experiences of trotting history imaginable, and so apparent is this fact
-that nothing original has ever been attempted to replace it, while all compilers,
-without exception, imitate it. The Great Table of itself would
-have carried any book to success.</p>
-
-<p>The second volume of the “Year Book,” 330 pages, contained in addition
-to the same class of matter as its predecessor, tables of sires and
-dams, great brood mares, and fastest records. Still further improvements
-were made in every year. Volume VI., published for 1890, was a handsomely
-bound book of 642 pages, with summaries of all races in which
-heats were trotted or paced in 2:40 or better, list of best records slower
-than 2:40, complete 2:30 lists with extended pedigrees, the Great Table
-with the pedigrees of the sires extended, list of 2:20 trotters according to
-records, list of 2:20 trotters under their sires, list of great brood mares,
-sires of dams, mares the dams of producing sons or daughters, tables of
-fastest records, champion trotters from 1845 to 1890, champions at all
-ages from yearlings to five-year-olds, champion stallions, table of 2:20
-pacers, and of 2:30 pacers under sires. No such comprehensive and
-valuable mass of statistics was ever arranged, and this volume was in
-itself a perfect encyclopedia of trotting literature.</p>
-
-<p>No eulogy of the “Year Book” is necessary, for every farmer’s boy
-knew before it was three years old that it was indispensable to all horsemen.
-It instantly bounded into a place of authority, and to thousands
-who felt the “Register” out of reach it was at once “Stud Book” and
-“Racing Calendar,” and none of Mr. Wallace’s creations performed a
-wider public service, or attained a popularity so broadcast and sudden.
-The new work was peculiarly fortunate in having back of it the authority
-of the “Register,” and the prestige of a name that had already become
-world-wide as rendering everything it bore authoritative—but even allowing
-for these advantages the quick popular indorsement of the “Year
-Book” was an eloquent testimony to the wisdom of its plan.</p>
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Conclusion.</span></h3>
-
-<p>The Wallace Trotting Register Company, with a capital of $100,000, was
-organized in 1889, and October 1, of that year, all the publications became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_559"></a>[559]</span>
-the property of this company. The last chapter of this book details
-the final transfer to the American Trotting Register Association in 1891.</p>
-
-<p>With the fortunes of the Wallace publications since that transfer it may
-be, perhaps, questioned whether this sketch has anything to do, and yet
-it would seem incomplete without the sequel. As already stated, <i>Wallace’s
-Monthly</i> degenerated to nothing and died. The “Year Book” has been
-emasculated until it is but a shadow, incomplete and unsatisfactory, of
-what it was, and is notoriously published at a loss. Its once great tables
-are cut from their complete state to be merely the tables of a single year,
-and where one complete “Year Book” was in the Wallace <i>régime</i> the
-only hand-book necessary, now the student must rummage through half
-a dozen, more or less, to ascertain the simplest series of facts. The
-standard has been mismanaged, revisions have been made and rescinded,
-and no advance has been made in the speed qualifications, though 2:20
-trotters are as common to-day as 2:30 trotters were in 1891. In consequence,
-registration has fallen away, and from being a good purchase
-at $130,000 in 1891, the “Register” properties to-day are rated so
-dubiously far below par as to make the expression of their value
-in figures hardly possible. That a period of “hard times” came shortly
-after the purchase of the “Register” is true—but the practical wrecking
-of the Wallace publications cannot be accounted for solely on the theory
-of business depression.</p>
-
-<p>Such in brief outline has been the story of the founding of these works,
-which in their own upbuilding helped incalculably to upbuild one of the
-nation’s great industries. The present works may be destroyed or pass
-away, but the true Wallace works cannot. Mr. Wallace’s works have a
-place in horse history, secure, unique, alone. Created, we might say from
-nothing, they each and all grew and prospered in his care and guidance,
-and became powers for good and auxiliaries of industry. If he is a benefactor
-who causes two blades of grass to grow where one grew before, how
-much the more is he whose labor and genius have enriched ten thousand
-farms, and been the most potent single influence in developing a productive
-industry the extent of which can only be estimated in millions. Mr.
-Wallace’s works will live after him. In speaking once on the transient
-nature of fame, a distinguished lawyer, a man of national reputation, said:
-“After I am gone I will be remembered as a successful lawyer among
-many other successful lawyers, but Mr. Wallace’s name will live as long as
-a horse exists on the earth.” We rarely judge contemporaries justly. It
-needs the softening perspective of time in which to lose the dimming prejudices
-of the present; and however much these works may be appreciated
-to-day, their true worth, what they accomplished, and the productive
-genius, purposeful industry, and plain, consistent honesty from which they
-were evolved will only be clearly seen and fully conceded by the historian
-of the future.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_560"></a>[560]</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_561"></a>[561]</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">INDEX.</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<ul class="index">
-
-<li class="ifrst">A</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aaron Pennington, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abdallah, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a
-href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a
-href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a
-href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Abdallah">Abdallah (Alexander’s), History
-of, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>,
-<a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abdallah Chief (Roe’s), <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abdallah, History of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a
-href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abdallah Mambrino, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abdallah Pilot, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aberdeen, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abiri (strong horses), <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Abraham in Egypt, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Acquired Characters and Instincts, <a
-href="#Page_471">471</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Acrelius, Rev. I., Colonial Writer, <a
-href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ada C., <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adams, L. B., <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adams, R. M., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a
-href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adams’ Stump, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adams, Zach., <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Administrator, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adrian Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Adval, Johannes, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Advance of Standard, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>, <a
-href="#Page_524">524</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Advertiser, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aguilillas, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Albert W., <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Albion, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a
-href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alcantara, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alcyone, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alderman, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aleppo, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a
-href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander, A. J., <a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a
-href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander, R. A., <a href="#Page_295">295</a>,
-<a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a
-href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a
-href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a
-href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a
-href="#Page_506">506</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander, J. J., <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a
-href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander’s Abdallah. (See <a
-href="#Abdallah">Abdallah, Alexander’s</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander’s Edwin Forrest. (See <a
-href="#Edwin_Forrest">Edwin Forrest</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander’s Norman. (See <a
-href="#Norman">Norman</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alexander’s Pilot Jr. (See <a href="#Pilot_Jr">Pilot
-Jr.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alfred (Imported), <a href="#Page_343">343</a>. <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Algeria, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alix, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a
-href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allen, A. B., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allen, A. B. &amp; L. B., <a
-href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allen, Philip, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allen, William Russell, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allerton, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allerton, Isaac, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a
-href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allie Gaines, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Allie West, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Alley, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almack, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a
-href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almonarch, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almont, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a
-href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almont, History of, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almont Jr. (1764), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almont Jr. (1829), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a
-href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Almont’s Leading Sons, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Altamont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ambassador, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Amble, The, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a
-href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a
-href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a
-href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ambling Horses, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>,
-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a
-href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a
-href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ambulatura, The, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“America Dissected.” Extract from, <a
-href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Commander, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Eclipse, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>,
-<a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a
-href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a
-href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a
-href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Eclipse. Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_446">446-450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Girl, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Hiatoga, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Native Race Horses, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>,
-<a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Pacer and Relation to American Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_172">172-189</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Race Horse, Origin of, <a
-href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96-105</a>, <a
-href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Race Horse, The, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a
-href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90-107</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Saddle Horse, <a
-href="#Page_190">190-195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="American_Star">American Star (Seely’s),
-<a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a
-href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a
-href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a
-href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a
-href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Star (Conklin’s), <a
-href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Star Family, <a
-href="#Page_338">338-341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Star (Seely’s), History of, <a
-href="#Page_338">338-341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Star’s Services, <a
-href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Stud Book (Bruce’s), <a
-href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Stud Book. (See also <a
-href="#Wallace_ASB">Wallace’s American Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Stud Book (Wallace’s), <a
-href="#Page_101">101-104</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Trotting Register, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>,
-<a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a
-href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Trotting Register Association, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Turf Register, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">American Wild Horses, <a
-href="#Page_196">196-204</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Amy, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ancestors of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_205">205-221</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anderson, John, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a
-href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andrew Jackson, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>,
-<a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a
-href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andrew Jackson, History of, <a
-href="#Page_323">323-325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andrew Jackson, Jr., <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andrus Horse, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andrus, Mr., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Andy Johnson, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Angelica Mare, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anglin, Timothy, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anteeo, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Anteros, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Antevolo, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Antiquity of American Racing, <a
-href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Antiquity of Narragansett Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Antiquity of the Pacing Horse, <a
-href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154-171</a>, <a
-href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Antiquity of Trotters and Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arab Barb, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Arabia">Arabia (see also <a
-href="#Arabia_Felix">Arabia Felix</a>, <a href="#Arabia_Deserta">Arabia
-Deserta</a>, and <a href="#Yemen">Yemen</a>), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,
-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a
-href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a
-href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a
-href="#Page_44">44-95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabia (no horses at Christian era), <a
-href="#Page_27">27-42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Arabia_Deserta">Arabia Deserta (see also
-<a href="#Arabia">Arabia</a>), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a
-href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Arabia_Felix">Arabia Felix (see also <a
-href="#Arabia">Arabia</a>, <a href="#Arabia_Deserta">Arabia
-Deserta</a>, and <a href="#Yemen">Yemen</a>), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,
-<a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a
-href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabia, First Horses in, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
-
-
-<li class="indx">Arabian Blood (see also <a href="#Arabia">Arabia</a>,
-etc.), <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabian Horse, The, <a href="#Page_51">51-66</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Arabians,” so-called (imported), <a
-href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabian Horse. (See <a href="#Arabia">Arabia</a>, <a
-href="#Arabia_Deserta">Arabia Deserta</a>, <a href="#Yemen">Yemen</a>, <a
-href="#Arabs">Arabs</a>, etc.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabian (Lindsay’s). (See <a
-href="#Lindsays_Arabian">Lindsay’s Arabian</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arab Horses, A. Keene Richards’, <a
-href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a
-href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_562"></a>[562]</span>Arabian Traditions, <a
-href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arab Horses, President Grant’s, <a
-href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arab Horses in America, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a
-href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Arabs">Arabs (English Foundation Stock), <a
-href="#Page_68">68-72</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arabia, Wild Horses of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ararat, Mt., <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aratus (by Director), <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aratus (Phare’s), <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Aratus (Pugh’s), <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Archer, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Argyll, Captain, Raids Port Royal, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arion, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a
-href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a
-href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Armenia, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a
-href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a
-href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a
-href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Armenian Kings, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Armitage, Thomas B., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Arnold, Azariah, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a
-href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Art in Portraying Horses, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Amazonia, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a
-href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Appendix: History of the Wallace Publications, <a
-href="#Page_547">547-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ashford, W. H., <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Asia Minor, Eastern, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Asia, Western, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Assyria, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Astor, Henry, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Athanio, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Atkinson, William, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Atlantic, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Auburn Horse, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Aurelius,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Australian (Imported), <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Austin, G. A., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ayers, E. W., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ayres, F. J., <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Axtell, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Azote, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">B</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Babcock, Mr., <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Backus, Scobey &amp; Burlew, <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Backman, Charles, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>,
-<a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a
-href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Badger (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bad Qualities, Heredity of, <a
-href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bagg &amp; Goodrich, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bailey Brothers’ English Racing Register, <a
-href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Baker, I. V., Jr., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Balch, Wesley P., <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bald Chief. (See <a href="#Bay_Chief">Bay
-Chief</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bald Galloway, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,
-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bald Stockings (Tom Hal), <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.
-<a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Baldwin, B. H., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bancroft, Historian, on Wild Horse, <a
-href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Barbs (English Foundation Stock), <a
-href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a
-href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Barbs">Barbs, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a
-href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Barker, Henry L., <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Baronet (Imported), <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Baronet, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Baron Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Barnes, Mr., <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Barss, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a
-href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bartlett’s Turk, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bashaws, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bashaw (Imported), <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Bashaw">Bashaw (Green’s), <a
-href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a
-href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bashaw Jr., <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bashaws and Clays, <a href="#Page_321">321-337</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bassinger, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a
-href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bathgate, A., <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Bay_Chief">Bay Chief, <a
-href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bay Chief, Pedigree of, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bay Kentucky Hunter, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bay Messenger (Downing’s), <a
-href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bay Morgan, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beard, James C., Artist, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bear Grass, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Beautiful_Bay">Beautiful Bay (True Briton or
-Traveler), <a href="#Page_367">367-763</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beautiful Bells, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beck, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beckwith, Mr., <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belgrade Turk, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bell Bird, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bell Boy, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle (dam of Green’s Bashaw), <a
-href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle (dam of Belmont), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle (by Top Bellfounder), <a
-href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle Brandon, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a
-href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle F., <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle Lupe, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle Rice, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle Strickland, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belle of Wabash, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>,
-<a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a
-href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belleflower, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bellfounder (Imported), <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a
-href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bellfounder Family, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>,
-<a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a
-href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Bellfounder">Bellfounder (Brown’s), <a
-href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bellfounder (Kissam’s), <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bellfounder (La Tourrett’s), <a
-href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bellows, John, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a
-href="#Page_380">380</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belmont, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Belmont’s Leading Sons, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Benedict, James W., <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Benger, Thomas, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a
-href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ben Higdon, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ben Hur, Famous Pen Picture from, <a
-href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bennett &amp; Jones, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bertrand, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bet, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bett, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Betty Bloss, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Betsy Baker, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Betsy Ransom, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beuzetta, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a
-href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Beverley’s History of Virginia, <a
-href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bidwell, George, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Big Mary, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Big Shakespeare (Probasco’s), <a
-href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Bill Arp,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Billington, Mr., <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Billy Duroc, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bird, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bishop, Isaac, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bishop’s Hambletonian. (See <a
-href="#Hambletonian_B">Hambletonian</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bitugue Horses (Russian), <a href="#Page_393">393</a>,
-<a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black and All Black, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Arab Barb, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Bashaw, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Black_Hawk">Black Hawk, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>,
-<a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a
-href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a
-href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Hawk Family, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a
-href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Hawk (Vernol’s), <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a
-href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Hawk (Seely’s), <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Hawk Prophet, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blackie, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Jin, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a
-href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Messenger, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black River Messenger, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Prince (Scobey’s), <a
-href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Rose, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Black Warrior (Warrior), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a
-href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blackwood, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blanco, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a
-href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blandina, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blank, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blauvelt, John G., <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a
-href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blaze, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a
-href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a
-href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blessing, The, Voyage of, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blind Tuckahoe, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bloody Buttocks, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Blue_Bull">Blue Bull (Wilson’s), <a
-href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a
-href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blue Bull, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blue Bull Family, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a
-href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blundeville, Thomas, Early English Writer,
-<a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a
-href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a
-href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Blunt, Wilfred S., Experiences of, with Arabian
-Horses, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>,
-<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a
-href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Board of Censors, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a
-href="#Page_552">552</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bob Johnson, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a
-href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bodine, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bogus, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_563"></a>[563]</span>Bogus Hunter, <a
-href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bolingbroke, Lord, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bolivar (Pintler’s), <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bonesetter, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bone Swinger, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bonita, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bonner, A. A., <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bonner, David, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bonnie Scotland, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>,
-<a href="#Page_514">514</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>, <a
-href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Boott, James, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Borden, Spencer, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a
-href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Boston, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a
-href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a
-href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Boston Girl, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a
-href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Boswell, Dr., <a href="#Page_358">358</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bourbon Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bradhurst, Samuel, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bradley, W. J., <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brasfield, George, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brawner’s Eclipse, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a
-href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breckenridge, William L., <a
-href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breeders Association, National. (See <a
-href="#National_ATHB">National A. T. H. B.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breeding the Trotter a New Industry, <a
-href="#Page_508">508</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breeding the Trotting Horse, <a
-href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breeding from Developed Parents, <a
-href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Breeders of 2:15 Trotters, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="BTSB">Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book. <a
-href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brewster. Dr., <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brickmaker (Andrew Jackson), <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bright John, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bright Phœbus, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a
-href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bristol Horse, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bristol Grey, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Britain, Early Horses, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a
-href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Britain, First Horses of, <a
-href="#Page_157">157-171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Britain, Time of Julius Cæsar, <a
-href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">British Horses, Early, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a
-href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brodhead, Lucas, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>,
-<a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a
-href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a
-href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a
-href="#Page_526">526</a>, <i>et seq</i>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brokenlegged Hunter, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown, Mr., <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown, David W., <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown, Henry C., <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a
-href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown, Major Campbell, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown’s Bellfounder. (See <a
-href="#Bellfounder">Bellfounder</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown George, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown Hal, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown Highlander (Imported), <a
-href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown Pilot, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Brown Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bruce (traveler), <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bruce, G. Benjamin, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a
-href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bruce’s Stud Book, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bruce, Sanders D., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>,
-<a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a
-href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Buckley, John, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Buffon, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Buford, Col. F. G., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bull Calf, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bullock, Mr., <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a
-href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bunbury, Sir Charles, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burch Mare, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burckhardt (traveler in Arabia), <a
-href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burdach, <a href="#Page_469">469</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burlew, Charles, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burlew, Scobey &amp; Backus, <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burton, Abram, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burton Horse, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Burtsell, Dr. Alex, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bush, Charles, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bush, Philo C., <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a
-href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bush Messenger, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bush Messenger. (See <a href="#Ogden_Messenger">Ogden
-Messenger</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Bush Messenger. (See <a href="#Messenger_B">Messenger,
-Bush’s</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Byerly Turk, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">C</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cade, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cadet, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cadiz (Gades), <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cadmus (by American Eclipse), <a
-href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Cadmus">Cadmus (Iron’s), <a
-href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">California Patchen. (See <a
-href="#George_M_Patchen_Jr">George M. Patchen Jr.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Camel (“the ship of the desert”), <a
-href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Camilla, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Campbell, M. C., <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Campdown, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canada, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a
-href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canada, Early Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canadian Maritime Provinces, <a
-href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canadian Pacer, Origin of the, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a
-href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a
-href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Canavan, George, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cannon’s Whip, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cappadocia. (See <a
-href="#Cappadocian_Horses">Cappadocian Horses</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Cappadocian_Horses">Cappadocian
-Horses, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>,
-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a
-href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a
-href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Captain Beard, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Captain Lyons, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Captain Magowan, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a
-href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carlisle Gelding, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carman, Charles, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carman Mare, <a href="#Page_333">333-336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carman, R. F., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a
-href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carpenter, Lieutenant, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a
-href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carpenter, Powell, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Carthage, Horses of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a
-href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Case, Jerome I., <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Case, John, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cassius M. Clay, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cassius M. Clay, history of, <a
-href="#Page_330">330-333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cassius M. Clay, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a
-href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Neave’s), <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cassius M. Clay Jr. (Strader’s), <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a
-href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cedar Park (Estate), <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Celtæ and Iberi (Spanish tribes), <a
-href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Centaur, False Pedigree Given, <a
-href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Central Truth in Breeding, <a
-href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chamich, Rev. M., <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Champion_Grinnell">Champion (Grinnell’s),
-<a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Champion (807), <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Champion Family, <a href="#Page_344">344-348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Champion_Gooding">Champion (Gooding’s),
-<a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a
-href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Champion (Nighthawk), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Champion_SK">Champion (Scobey’s or King’s), <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charcoal Sal, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a
-href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charles Hadley Mare, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charles Kent Mare. (See <a href="#Kent_Mare">Kent
-Mare.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charles II., King, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>,
-<a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a
-href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a
-href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a
-href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Charley_B">Charley B., <a
-href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charlotte Gray, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Charlotte Temple, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chenery, W. W., <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chenery’s Grey Eagle. (See <a href="#Grey_Eagle">Grey
-Eagle.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chestnut Arabians, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chestnut Hill, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chestnut Hill Farm, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Childers (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Childers. (See <a href="#Flying_Childers">Flying
-Childers.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chimes, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chincoteague Ponies, The, <a
-href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chincoteague Wild Horses, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a
-href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Chinn, Higgins, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cholmondeley, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cilicia, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a
-href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clara (Crazy Jane), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clara (Dexter’s dam), <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clark Chief, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a
-href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clays and Bashaws, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a
-href="#Page_321">321-337</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clay, James B., <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clay Pilot, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cliff Dwellers, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Clockfast, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cobs, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a
-href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cobwebs, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cock, Daniel T., <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a
-href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cock, Townsend, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a
-href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cock of the Rock, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cockroft, James M., <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coffein, Goldsmith, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a
-href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_564"></a>[564]</span>Coke, Mr., <a
-href="#Page_70">70-73</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colden, Cadwallader R., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,
-<a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a
-href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colden’s Magazine, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coles, Gen. Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>,
-<a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a
-href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Collateral and Indirect Heredity, <a
-href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colonial Horses, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a
-href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108-141</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_108">108-141</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Colonial Running-Stock, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Columbus (Old), <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Commander, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Commissioner of Agriculture, <a
-href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Committee on Rules,” The Kentucky, <a
-href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a
-href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Commodore, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Compton Barb, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conductor, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conestoga Horses, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conklin, E. K., <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conley, John W., <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a
-href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Connecticut, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_131">131-133</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Conqueror, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Constable, Mr., <a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a
-href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Constantius, Emperor, Sends Horses to
-Arabia, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>,
-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a
-href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Consul, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Contemporaries (Runningbred) of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Controller, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Copperbottom, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Copperbottom (Chinn’s), <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Copperbottoms, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Copeland, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cook, O. W., <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a
-href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coomb Arabian, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cooper, Amos, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cooper, Benjamin B., <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cooper, J. F., Describes Narragansett Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cooper, Richard Isaac, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cooper’s Gray, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Corbitt, William, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cossack Horses, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cortez Expedition and Horses, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>,
-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Coriander, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Count Byram, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Count Thoulouse, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crabstick, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crabtree Bellfounder, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crane, Mrs., <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Crazy Jane (Clara), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Croft’s Bay Barb, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cropped Fagdown, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cross Heredity, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cruger, H. N., <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cuba, Pacers Exported to, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>,
-<a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cullen Arabian, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cumberland, Duke of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a
-href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cumming’s Whip, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cummins, Col. F. M., <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Curwen’s Bay Barb, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cuyler, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Cynthia, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">D</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dabster (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Daisy Burns, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dame Winnie, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a
-href="#Page_492">492</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dam of Ethan Allen, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dam of Jay Gould, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dam of Messenger. (See <a
-href="#Messenger">Messenger.</a>)</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Daniel_Lambert">Daniel Lambert, History of, <a
-href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Daniel D. Tompkins, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Daniels, P. F., <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Danish Horses, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a
-href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">D’Arcy White Turk, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">D’Arcy Yellow Turk, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Darius, the Mede, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a
-href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Darley, Mr., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a
-href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Darley Arabian, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>,
-<a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a
-href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a
-href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Darwin, Charles, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a
-href="#Page_471">471</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dauntless, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Davis, Jesse M., <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Davis, Barnes, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dean, Silas, on American Saddle-Horse, <a
-href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dearing, Jas., <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">DeLancey, Mr., Early Turfman, <a
-href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">DeLancey, James. <a href="#Page_368">368</a>,
-<a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a
-href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a
-href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Delevan, W. A., <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Delight, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Denmark (Gaines’), <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a
-href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Descendants of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Description of Electioneer, <a
-href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Description of George Wilkes, <a
-href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Description of Hambletonian (10), <a
-href="#Page_268">268-270</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Description of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_226">226-228</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">De Soto, Ferdinand, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">De Soto, Expedition and Horses, <a
-href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Developed Speed, Breeding from, <a
-href="#Page_499">499-507</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Development, Value of, <a
-href="#Page_499">499-507</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dewey, Henry, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dexter, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a
-href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dexter’s Race with Ethan Allen, <a
-href="#Page_385">385-389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dey, Mr., <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Deyr, Syrian Horse Market, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a
-href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dickey, Robert L., Artist, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dictator, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dictator, History of, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a
-href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dillon, Jesse, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dine, John C., <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Diomed (imported), <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Direct Heredity, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Direct, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Directum, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dirigo, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Disputed Pedigrees, Investigation of, <a
-href="#Page_409">409-455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Distribution of Horses, Early, <a
-href="#Page_36">36-50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Distribution of Trotters in United States, <a
-href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Doble, Budd, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dodsworth, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Doherty, Mr. (see <a href="#Royal_George">Royal
-George</a>), <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dole, Charles S., <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Doll, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dolly, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dolly Spanker, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a
-href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Don Horses, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dorrel, Daniel, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dover Messenger, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Downing, Marcus, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Draco, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Draft Horses of Pennsylvania, <a
-href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Drennon (Brinker’s), <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Drew_Horse">Drew Horse, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>,
-<a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Drift, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Driver, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Driver (Reed’s), <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dubois, Cyrus, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dubois, James, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dubois, Major, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duke of Cumberland, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duke of Leeds, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duke of Newcastle, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>,
-<a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a
-href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a
-href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duke of Newcastle. (See <a
-href="#Newcastle">Newcastle</a>).</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Durgan, Dr., <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Durkee, Harrison, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a
-href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duroc, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duryea, Garrett, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dusenbury, Theodore, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dutch Horses, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>,
-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a
-href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a
-href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a
-href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dutch Horses in America, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>,
-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a
-href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Dutch Horses in New England, <a
-href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Duvall, William, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a
-href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">E</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eagle (Hunt’s), <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Earl of Cumberland, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Bird, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Distribution of Horses, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>,
-<a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early English Racing, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_565"></a>[565]</span>Early British Horses, <a
-href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a
-href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a
-href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early English Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_158">158-171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Exportations of Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Colonial Pacing Races, <a
-href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Pacing, Philadelphia, <a
-href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Thoroughbred Importations, <a
-href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early American Trotters, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a
-href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Early Horse History, Canada, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eastern Asia Minor, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Echo, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eclipse (Lawrence’s), <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eclipse (Brawner’s), <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edgar’s Stud Book, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>,
-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a
-href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a
-href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a
-href="#Page_549">549</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edsall, Major, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edsall’s Hambletonian, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Edward Everett, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Edwin_Forrest">Edwin Forrest, <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Egbert, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Egmont, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Egotist, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Egypt, First Horses of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,
-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a
-href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a
-href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eldridge, Richard, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Electioneer, History of, <a
-href="#Page_289">289-294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Electioneer, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>,
-<a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a
-href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a
-href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a
-href="#Page_504">504</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Electioneer’s Leading Sons, <a
-href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elector, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elgin Marbles, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elliot, Colonel, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ellzey, Prof. M. C., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Elphinstone, Admiral, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ely, George H., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Emerson, Mr., <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Emma Mills, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Emperor Constantius, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Enchantress, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Enemies Made by Honest Methods, <a
-href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a
-href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Engineer (English), <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Engineer, History of, <a
-href="#Page_241">241-243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Engineer II., <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a
-href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Engineer (Burdick’s), <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a
-href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">England, First Horses of, <a
-href="#Page_157">157-171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Foundation Stock, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a
-href="#Page_68">68-72</a>-<a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Race Horse, The, <a
-href="#Page_67">67-89</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Race Horses, Native, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>,
-<a href="#Page_86">86-92</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a
-href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="ESB">English Stud Book, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>,
-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a
-href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a
-href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a
-href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a
-href="#Page_548">548</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Pacers, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,
-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a
-href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Race Horses, First Importation of, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Trotters, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">English Hackney, The, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a
-href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eoff, James L., <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a
-href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ericsson, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eros, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Escape, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Esopus Horses,” <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ethan Allen, History of, <a
-href="#Page_381">381-389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ethan Allen, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a
-href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ethan Allen’s Race with Dexter, <a
-href="#Page_385">385-389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ethan Allen (Drury’s), <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eton Horse, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Euren, Henry F., <a href="#Page_169">169</a>,
-<a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a
-href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">European, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Exportation of Pacers, Early, <a
-href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Extreme Speed, Breeders of, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Eyclesheimer, J. L. B., <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ezekiel, Prophet, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">F</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fagdown, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fairlawn Farm, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fallis, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Family of Mambrino Chief, <a
-href="#Page_315">315-320</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fancy (by Messenger), <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fanny, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fanny Cook, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fanny Kemble, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fanny Pullen, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a
-href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fanny Ransom, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fantasy, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fashion Stud Farm, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>,
-<a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a
-href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Favorite Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Feagles, David R., <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Felter, Col. Harry, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a
-href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ferguson, George W., <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ferguson, William, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fictions in Early Pedigrees, <a
-href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fictitious Pedigrees, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>,
-<a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a
-href="#Page_535">535</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Fidelis,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Finnegan, P. A., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Firetail, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Horses in Arabia, <a
-href="#Page_28">28-31</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Horses Brought to America, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Importations in New York, <a
-href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a
-href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Horses in New England, <a
-href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a
-href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First American Racing, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>,
-<a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a
-href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a
-href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First American Race Course, <a
-href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Racing in Virginia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>,
-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First American Horse Advertisement, <a
-href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Race-Horses in South Carolina, <a
-href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Trotting Races, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a
-href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Importations of Thoroughbreds, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Impregnations, Influence of, <a
-href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">First Consul (Bond’s), <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a
-href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fisk, A. C., <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fitz, Stephen, Early English Writer, <a
-href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a
-href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Flanders Horses, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Flanders Mares, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Flora, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Flora Temple, <a href="#Page_235">235-306</a>,
-<a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a
-href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Florizel, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Flying_Childers">Flying Childers, <a
-href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Flying Morgan, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a
-href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Forbes, J. Malcolm, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Forshee Horse, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Foster, Charles J., <a href="#Page_99">99</a>,
-<a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a
-href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a
-href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a
-href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Foundation Stock of England, <a
-href="#Page_68">68-72</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Foundation Saddle Stock, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a
-href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Founders of Trotting Families, <a
-href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">France, Early Horses of, <a
-href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">France, William C., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Frank, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Frauds in Early Pedigrees, <a href="#Page_96">96-97</a>,
-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Fred Crocker, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a
-href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Frolic, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">G</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gades (Cadiz), <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gage, D. M., <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gaits of Saddle Horses, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a
-href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gaits, Mechanism of, <a href="#Page_154">154-156</a>, <a
-href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185-186</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gait, The Ambling, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>,
-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a
-href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a
-href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gaits of Colonial Horses, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,
-<a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gait, The Pacing, <a href="#Page_157">157-163</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gallatin, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Galloway, Samuel, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Galloway, R. F., <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Galloways” in Virginia, <a
-href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Galloway Breed, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,
-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a
-href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a
-href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gambetta Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gameness, Trotter and Runner, <a
-href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a
-href="#Page_491">491</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gano, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gavin, Joseph, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">General Benton, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">General Butler, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">General Knox, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">General McClellan, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">General Taylor, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gentry, John R., <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George B. McClellan, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George M. Patchen, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>,
-<a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a
-href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George M. Patchen, History of, <a
-href="#Page_333">333-336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="George_M_Patchen_Jr"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_566"></a>[566]</span>George M. Patchen, Jr., <a
-href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335-336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George Wilkes, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George Wilkes, History of, <a
-href="#Page_284">284-289</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George Wilkes, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">George Wilkes’ Sons, Table of, <a
-href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gibson’s Tom Hal, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a
-href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gideon, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gilbert, James, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gilmore, David W., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gilmore, Frank, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gimcrack, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gipsey Queen, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a
-href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glasgow and Heinsohn, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glencoe (imported), <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glencoe Chief, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Glenview Farm, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gloster, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godfrey Patchen, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godwin, Joseph H., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a
-href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godolphin Arabian, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>,
-<a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a
-href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-78</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a
-href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a
-href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godolphin Arabian, History of, <a
-href="#Page_72">72-78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godolphin Arabian, Pictures of, <a
-href="#Page_73">73-78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Godolphin, Lord, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>,
-<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a
-href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gog Magog (Estate), <a href="#Page_70">70</a>,
-<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a
-href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Golden Farmer, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Goldsmith, Alden, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>,
-<a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a
-href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Goldsmith Maid, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>,
-<a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a
-href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gomer, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a
-href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gooding’s Champion. (See <a
-href="#Champion_Gooding">Champion</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gooding, T. W. &amp; W., <a
-href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Goodspeed, H. C., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Goodwin Watson (Strathmore), <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gordon, Gen. John G., <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gould, Ebenezer, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gould, Jay, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gould, Levi S., <a href="#Page_440">440</a>,
-<a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a
-href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Governor Nicolls Establishes Racing, <a
-href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Governor Sprague, History of, <a
-href="#Page_312">312-314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grace Darling, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grand Bashaw, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grandsons of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_284">284-314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grand Sultan, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grant’s (General) Arabs, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grant, Mr., <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gray, Angereau, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gray, William, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gray’s Tom Hal, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Great Table of Trotters, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>,
-<a href="#Page_551">551</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a>, <a
-href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Great Table of Trotting Families, <a
-href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green, A. C., <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greene, E. J., <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green, Joseph A., <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a
-href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greene, Judge W. E., <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green, Roger, Pioneer of North Carolina, <a
-href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green’s Bashaw. (See <a href="#Bashaw">Bashaw</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green Mountain Maid (by Harris’ Hambletonian), <a
-href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Green Mountain Maid, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>,
-<a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a
-href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gretchen (by Gideon), <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Grey_Eagle">Grey Eagle (Chenery’s), <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey Eagle Mare, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>,
-<a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a
-href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey Figure, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey Harry, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Greyhound, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grey Mambrino, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grinnell, William R., <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grinnell’s Champion. (See <a
-href="#Champion_Grinnell">Champion</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Griswold, Judge, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Griswold, Manley, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Grosvenor, Lord, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>,
-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a
-href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Growth of 2:30 List, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gue, Gurney C., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Gunn, General, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Guy Miller, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a
-href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">H</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hackney, The English, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a
-href="#Page_400">400-408</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hackney Stud-Book, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>,
-<a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a
-href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haggin, J. B., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haic (Haicus), <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a
-href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haight, Daniel B., <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a
-href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haight, Nelson, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Halcorn (Peters’), <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hall, George C., <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hall, Joseph, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Halstead, Messrs., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hambletonian_B">Hambletonian (Bishop’s),
-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a
-href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a
-href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Bishop’s) Stud Services, <a
-href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hambletonian_H">Hambletonian (Harris’),
-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a
-href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a
-href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (10), History of, <a
-href="#Page_267">267-283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian Speed and Training, <a
-href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (10), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>,
-<a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a
-href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a
-href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a
-href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323-329</a>,
-<a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a
-href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Green’s), <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian Jr., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Andrus’), <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian’s Sons and Grandsons, <a
-href="#Page_284">284-314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian’s Sons (table), <a
-href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Wood’s), <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Judson’s), <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Parris’), <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hambletonian (Sprague’s), <a
-href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hamlin, C. J., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hanchett Horse, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hancock, Joseph, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a
-href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hanley, Moses, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hanley, Samuel, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hanley’s Hiatoga. (See <a
-href="#Hiatoga_H">Hiatoga</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hannibal’s Cavalry, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a
-href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haphazard, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Happy Medium, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>,
-<a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harbinger, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harding, General, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Hark Comstock” (Peter C. Kellogg), <a
-href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harkness, James, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harmor, Mr., Colonial Writer, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harold, History of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harris, Charles T., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harris, S. T., <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harris’ Hambletonian. (See <a
-href="#Hambletonian_H">Hambletonian</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harris, Russell, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harrison, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harry Clay, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harry Wilkes (Conn’s), <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hartford, First Settlement, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>,
-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Harvey, Dr. Elwood, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Haselton, William, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hattie Woodward, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Havoc, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hawkins, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hayward, Alvan, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a
-href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hazard, I. T., <a href="#Page_174">174</a>,
-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a
-href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hazard, Robert, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Head’em, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Helena, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Helm, H. T., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a
-href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Helmsley Turk, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hempstead Plains Race Course, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>,
-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hendrick, Rev. T. A., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hendrickson, William, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hendryx, H. J., <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a
-href="#Page_449">449</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry Clay, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a
-href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a
-href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry Clay, History of, <a
-href="#Page_327">327-330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry Clay Jr., <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry Hal, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry, Mason, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry B. Patchen, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Henry VIII., Law of, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heredity, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heredity of Acquired Habits and Instincts, <a
-href="#Page_471">471</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heredity of Bad Qualities, <a
-href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Heredity of Influence, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Herbert, Henry, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hero, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_567"></a>[567]</span>Heroine, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Herr, Dr. Levi, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>,
-<a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a
-href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Herschell, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hetzel, Joseph, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hiatoga_O">Hiatoga (“Old Togue”), <a
-href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hiatoga_R">Hiatoga (Rice’s), <a
-href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hiatoga_H">Hiatoga (Hanley’s), <a
-href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Hiatoga_S">Hiatoga (Scott’s), <a
-href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hiatt, James M., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hibbard, D. B., <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Higbee Brothers, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">High Asia Not Original Habitat of Horse, <a
-href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Highland Farm, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Highland Maid, <a href="#Page_477">477-498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Highland Messenger (Wamock’s), <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Highlander (Watkin’s), <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a
-href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hill, David, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a
-href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hill’s Black Hawk. (See <a href="#Black_Hawk">Black
-Hawk</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hinda Rose, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Hiram,” <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hiram Drew, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hiram, King of Tyre, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a
-href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History, Colonial Horse, <a
-href="#Page_108">108-141</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Abdallah, <a
-href="#Page_255">255-261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Alexander’s Abdallah, <a
-href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Almont, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Andrew Jackson, <a
-href="#Page_323">323-325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Imported Bellfounder, <a
-href="#Page_397">397-400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Belmont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Black Hawk, <a
-href="#Page_377">377-381</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Cassius M. Clay, <a
-href="#Page_330">330-332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Daniel Lambert, <a
-href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Dictator, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Electioneer, <a
-href="#Page_289">289-294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Ethan Allen, <a
-href="#Page_381">381-389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of George M. Patchen, <a
-href="#Page_333">333-335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of George Wilkes, <a
-href="#Page_284">284-289</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Governor Sprague, <a
-href="#Page_312">312-314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Hambletonian (10), <a
-href="#Page_267">267-283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Happy Medium, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Harold, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Henry Clay, <a
-href="#Page_327">327-330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Jay Gould, <a
-href="#Page_307">307-309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Justin Morgan, <a
-href="#Page_367">367-376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Kemble Jackson, <a
-href="#Page_325">325-327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Long Island Black Hawk, <a
-href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Mambrino Chief, <a
-href="#Page_315">315-317</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_222">222-231</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of the Orloff Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_390">390-397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of the Pacing Horse, <a
-href="#Page_154">154-171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Pilot Jr., <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of the Standard, <a
-href="#Page_518">518-524</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Strathmore, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Tippo, <a href="#Page_145">145-147</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Volunteer, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of Wallace’s Monthly, <a
-href="#Page_554">554-557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">History of the Wallace Publications, <a
-href="#Page_547">547-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoagland, Sim D., <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hobbie, The Irish, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>,
-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a
-href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a
-href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hobgoblin, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holbert Colt, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holcomb, Joel W., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a
-href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holstein, Otto, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holton, John A., <a href="#Page_421">421-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Holton, Llewellyn, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>,
-<a href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a
-href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a
-href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>, <a
-href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Honest Ance, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Honest John, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Honesty, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Honeywood Arabian, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hook, Thomas, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hooker, Rev. Thomas, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoosier Tom, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoover, Jonas, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hopkins, George, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hopples, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hopson, Seth P., <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Horse Advertisement, First American, <a
-href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Horseman, The, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Horse Portraiture, Improvement in, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Horse Racing, First in Virginia, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a
-href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Horse Review, The,” <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hotspur, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Houghton Hall, Norfolk, Eng., <a href="#Page_76">76</a>,
-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">How the Trotting Horse is Bred, <a
-href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Howard, Rev. Erastus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a
-href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Howard, James, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Howard, Sanford, on Winthrop Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoyt, Hezekiah, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a
-href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hoyt, James W., <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hudson, Henry, Explorer, <a
-href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huggins, Dr., <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hulda, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hulse Mare, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hunt, Benjamin W., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hunt, John W., <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hunt’s Eagle, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hunter Mare, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huntress, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Husted, Jacob, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hutchinson, Mathias, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Huxley, Professor, on Primal Horse, <a
-href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Hyksos. (See <a href="#Shepherd_Kings">Shepherd
-Kings</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">I</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Iberi and Celtæ (Spanish tribes), <a
-href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Idol, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importation of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importations, Early, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importations, First, <a href="#Page_8">8-16</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importations, First to Virginia, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a
-href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importations of Race Horses, <a
-href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Importations of Thoroughbreds, First, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Impetuous, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Independent (Mott’s), <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indiana Belle, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indian Hill Farm, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Indirect and Collateral Heredity, <a
-href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Infidel, English Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Influence of First Impregnations, <a
-href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Inheritance, Laws of, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a
-href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Instincts and Characters, Acquired, <a
-href="#Page_471">471</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Investigating Pedigrees, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Investigation of Disputed Pedigrees, <a
-href="#Page_409">409-455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Iola, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Irish Hobbies, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>,
-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Irons, John, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Irons’ Cadmus. (See <a href="#Cadmus">Cadmus</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Isaiah Wilcox Mare, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Itasca, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">J</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jackson, Josiah, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jackson, Tim T., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a
-href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jackson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jackson, Thomas, Jr., <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">James I. King, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>,
-<a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Janus (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a
-href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Japheth, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jaques, Samuel, Jr., <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a
-href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jay Bird, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jay Gould, History of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_307">307-309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jay Gould’s dam, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a
-href="#Page_504">504</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jefferson, President, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a
-href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jeffries, Daniel, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a
-href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jenkinson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jennet, The Spanish, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>,
-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a
-href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jenny Duter, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jenny Lind, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jerome Eddy, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jersey Fagdown, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jersey Highlander, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jersey Kate, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a
-href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jersey Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jewett, H. C., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jigg, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jim Munro, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“J. M.,” <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_568"></a>[568]</span>Job, the Patriarch, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">John Anderson, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">John Dillard, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">John Hal, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">John Netherland, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">John Stewart, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Johnson, Dick, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a
-href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Johnston, Mr., <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jolly Roger (Imported), <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, Hugh, Colonial Writer, <a
-href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, Major William, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>,
-<a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a
-href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, David W., <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,
-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a
-href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a
-href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, Peter W., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Jones, Richard B., <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Joseph (Patriarch), <a href="#Page_29">29</a>,
-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a
-href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Joseph, John, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Joshua, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Judge Brigham (Jay Gould), <a
-href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Judge Fullerton, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Judith, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Judson, Dr. Nathan, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Julia Johnson, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Juliet (by Pilot Jr.), <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Julius Cæsar’s Invasion of Britain, <a
-href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Justin Morgan, <a href="#Page_367">367-376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">K</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kate (by Pilot Jr.), <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Katy Darling, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a
-href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kattywar Horses of India, <a
-href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kellogg, Peter C., <a href="#Page_267">267</a>,
-<a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a
-href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kellogg, Mr. (Battle Creek), <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kelly, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_377">377-379</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kelly, John L., <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kemble Jackson, History of, <a
-href="#Page_325">325-327</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kemble Jackson Check, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kennebec Messenger, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kent, Charles, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kent &amp; Bailey, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Kent_Mare">Kent Mare, History of, <a
-href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a
-href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Hunter, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a
-href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Hunter. (See <a
-href="#Skenandoah">Skenandoah</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Methods, Early, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>,
-<a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a
-href="#Page_535">535</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Stud-Book. (See <a href="#BTSB">Breeders’
-Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Kentucky_Standard">Kentucky Standard,
-The, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>,
-<a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a
-href="#Page_528">528</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Trotting Pedigrees, Early, <a
-href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kentucky Union, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Keokuk">Keokuk, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kerner, Charles H., <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King Almont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King, David, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King James Arabian. (See <a
-href="#Markham_Arabian">Markham Arabian</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King Pharaoh, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King Rene, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kings of Armenia, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">King’s Champion. (See <a
-href="#Champion_SK">Champion</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kirk, Jacob, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kissam, B. T., <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kissam, T. T., <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a
-href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kittredge, Herbert S., Artist, <a
-href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kittrell, M. B., <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kittrell’s Tom Hal, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Koontz, John A., on the Wild Horse, <a
-href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kosciusko, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Kremlin, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">L</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Alport, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Balch, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Clinton, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Fulton, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Irwin, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady McClain, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Maud, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Moscow, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Moore, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Patriot, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Sanford, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Shannon, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Suffolk, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>,
-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a
-href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Surrey, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Thorn, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a
-href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a
-href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Vernon, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Waltermire, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Warrenton, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lady Webber, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ladd, Mr., <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lakeland Abdallah, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Land of Uz, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lander, Gen. F. W., <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lantern, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lark. (See <a href="#Charley_B">Charley B</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Last Pacers in Britain, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lath, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Laurence’s Eclipse, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lawrence, John, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>,
-<a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a
-href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a
-href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a
-href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a
-href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Laws of Breeding, <a href="#Page_512">512-514</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Laws that Govern, The, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Law of Heredity, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leading Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah, <a
-href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leading Sons of Almont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leading Sons of Belmont, <a
-href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leading Sons of Electioneer, <a
-href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leading Sons of George Wilkes, <a
-href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leavens, Louis T., <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a
-href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leedes’ Hobby, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leonard, John, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Leviathan, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lewis, Enoch, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a
-href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lewis, Joseph S., <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a
-href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lewis, Mr., <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lexington, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a
-href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a
-href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a
-href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a
-href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a
-href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a
-href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Like Begets Like, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a
-href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lilly Hitchcock, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Limber, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a
-href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Limber Jack, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lincoln, President, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Lindsays_Arabian">Lindsay’s Arabian,
-<a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a
-href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lindsay, Captain, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Linsley, Mr., <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a
-href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Little Albert, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Little Brown Jug, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Little Gipsey, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lizzie (by John Netherland), <a
-href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lizzie M., <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Loder, G. B., <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Loder, Lewis, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Logan, Thomas, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Long Island Black Hawk, History of, <a
-href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a
-href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Longstreet, Dr., <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Loomis Brothers, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lord Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lord Nelson, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lord Russell, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lord Russell, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Louis Napoleon, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Love, Joel F., <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lovejoy, Mr., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lovelace, Governor, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lucas, John, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lucas, Le Grand, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lucia, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Luckett, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>,
-<a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lucy, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lucy Fowler, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lula, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a
-href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lula Wilkes, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lumps, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Luthy, Prof. Charles T., <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lynne Belle, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Lyons, Captain, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">M</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_569"></a>[569]</span>McDonald, William, <a
-href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McDowell, H. C., <a href="#Page_304">304</a>,
-<a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a
-href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a
-href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>, <a
-href="#Page_533">533</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mace, Dan, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a
-href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McFerran, J. C., <a href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a
-href="#Page_527">527</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McGrath, Price, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McKinney, H. D., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McKinney, Horace, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McKinstry Mare, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McLaughlin, Sam, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Macleod, Leslie E., <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McLoyd, Charles, on the Wild Horse, <a
-href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McNitt, Mr., <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a
-href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">McSparran, Rev. Dr., <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,
-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a
-href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a
-href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Magog Hills (Estate), <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Magnolia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Magnum Bonum, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a
-href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mag Taylor, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maine Messengers, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maine Messenger. (See <a
-href="#Winthrop_Messenger">Winthrop Messenger</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Major Edsall, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mali, H. W. T., <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a
-href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a
-href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Chief, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>,
-<a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a
-href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Chief and His Family, <a
-href="#Page_315">315-320</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Chief Jr., <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino (English), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>,
-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a
-href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino (Grey), <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino, History of, <a
-href="#Page_235">235-237</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Jr., <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Messenger, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Patchen, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a
-href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Paymaster, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>,
-<a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a
-href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a
-href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Pilot, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a
-href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambrino Russell, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mambritonian, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Manetho, Egyptian Historian, <a
-href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mannol, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Manzanita, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maria Russell, <a href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marion’s Guerrillas, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a
-href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maritime Provinces (Canada), <a
-href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Mark Field,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Markham_Arabian">Markham Arabian, <a
-href="#Page_57">57-70</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a
-href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Markham, John, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a
-href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Markham, Gervaise, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>,
-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a
-href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a
-href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marksman, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marquis of Cholmondeley, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marrett, W. H., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marsh’s Primal Horse, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marsh, Professor, of Yale, <a
-href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marshall or Selaby Turk, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marshall, Mr., Studmaster, etc., <a
-href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marshland Shales, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Marvin, Charles, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a
-href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Bell, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Churchill, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Gray (Imported), <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mary Morris, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maryland, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maryland, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maryland, Racing Prohibited, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>,
-<a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mason, John T., <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maspero, Professor, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Massachusetts, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_128">128-131</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Masterlode, <a href="#Page_275">275-311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mathes, Albert, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Matthews, W. A., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Matlack, T., <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mattie Howard, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maud S., <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a
-href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a
-href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a
-href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Maud S., Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">May Day (by Miles Standish), <a
-href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">May Fly, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">May Morning, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">May Queen, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a
-href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Meander, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mecklenburg Horses, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Media, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a
-href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Median Horses, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>,
-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a
-href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Medoc, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Merring, Mr., <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Messenger">Messenger (Imported), History of, <a
-href="#Page_222">222-231</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger and His Ancestors, <a
-href="#Page_205">205-221</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger’s Descendants, <a
-href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger, Description of, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,
-<a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger as a Race-Horse, <a
-href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger’s Stud Services, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>,
-<a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger’s Sons, <a href="#Page_232">232-254</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger, (Imported), Reference to, <a
-href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a
-href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a
-href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a
-href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a
-href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Messenger,” (the name abused), <a
-href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Austin’s), <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Blauvelt’s), <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Messenger_B">Messenger (Bush’s), History of, <a
-href="#Page_243">243-245</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Coffin’s), <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Cooper’s), <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Cousins’), <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Hutchinson’s), <a
-href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Nesthall’s), <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Ogden’s), <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Pizzant’s), <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Simpson’s), <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger (Stone’s), <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger’s Runningbred Contemporaries, <a
-href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger Duroc, <a href="#Page_275">275-289</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger Duroc (Backman’s), <a
-href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger Duroc (Durland’s), <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger Duroc (Laurence’s), <a
-href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Messenger Duroc (Stevens’), <a
-href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Middletown, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miland, Colonel, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miller, Guy, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miller, James, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miller’s Damsel, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>,
-<a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a
-href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Millington, Dr., <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mills, James M., <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a
-href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mills, Joseph T., <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Minchin, John, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mingo, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Minor Families, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miss Hervey, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miss McLeod, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miss Russell, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>,
-<a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Miss Shepherd, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mittendorf, Prof. Von, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Modesty, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohammed, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohammed, Flight from Mecca, etc., <a
-href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a
-href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a
-href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohammed’s Mares, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohammedanism in Northern Africa, <a
-href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mohawk, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Monaco, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Monkey (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Monroe, “Jim,” <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Montaigne, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Moore, Hon. Ely, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Moore, R. H., <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Moore, T. D., <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Moors, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morden, Isaac, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a
-href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan Family, <a href="#Page_366">366-389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan Horse, The, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a
-href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan Tiger, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, Abner, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, John, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, John, Jr., <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a
-href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morgan, Mr., <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morris, Lewis, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morris Family, Turfmen, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morris, George F., Artist, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morrissey, John, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morse, Calvin, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Morse_Horse">Morse Horse (Norman), <a
-href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a
-href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Morton, Earl of, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>,
-<a href="#Page_466">466</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>, <a
-href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mound Builders, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mount Ararat, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_570"></a>[570]</span>Mount Holly, <a
-href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mozza, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muley, Ishmael, King of Morocco, <a
-href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Munger, Frank. (See <a href="#Royal_George">Royal
-George</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Munger, William, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Munson, Isaac, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a
-href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Munson Mare, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Muir, William, Historian, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Murray, Dr. J. H., <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Murrier, D., English Artist, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>,
-<a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Music’s Dam, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Mustang, The, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">N</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nancy, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nancy Dawson, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nancy Hanks, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a
-href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nancy Pope, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a
-href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nancy Taylor, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a
-href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Narragansett Pacers, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>,
-<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a
-href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a
-href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a
-href="#Page_173">173-182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="National_ATHB">National Association of Trotting
-Horse Breeders, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>,
-<a href="#Page_519">519</a>, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>, <a
-href="#Page_527">527</a>, <a href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a
-href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">National Horse Show, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a
-href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">National Trotting Association, <a
-href="#Page_533">533</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Native British Horses, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a
-href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Native English Race Horses, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>,
-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a
-href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Natural History of Man,” <a
-href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Neapolitan Horses, <a href="#Page_81">81-168</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nelson, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nelson, C. H., <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nestor, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nettie Burlew, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New Amsterdam (New York), <a
-href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New Brunswick, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Newcastle">Newcastle, Duke of, <a
-href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a
-href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a
-href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a
-href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a
-href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New England, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128-134</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New Jersey, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New Jersey, Racing Prohibited, <a
-href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Newmarket, The American, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a
-href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New Netherlands, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New York, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_120">120-127</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New York, First Horses of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>,
-<a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">New York the Source of Supply of Trotting Blood, <a
-href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nicolls, Governor, Establishes Racing, <a
-href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nichols, Mr., <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Night Hawk, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Niles, Stephen, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a
-href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nissæum, Horses of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a
-href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Noble, Henry D., <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nonpareil, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norfolk Trotters, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>,
-<a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a
-href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norlaine, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Norman">Norman (Alexander’s), <a
-href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norman Family, <a href="#Page_348">348-351</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norman. (See <a href="#Morse_Horse">Morse
-Horse</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norseman, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">North American, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">North Carolina, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Northern Africans, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a
-href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Northern Kings,” Horses of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>,
-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Northern Syria, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norton, Selah, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>,
-<a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a
-href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norval, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a
-href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nova Scotia, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Norwegian Horses, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nubian Horses, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Numidian Cavalry, Hannibal’s, <a
-href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nutwood, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a
-href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Nutwood, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">O</li>
-
-<li class="indx">O’Blennis, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Odom, Eli, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ogden, Judge David, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a
-href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Ogden_Messenger">Ogden Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ohio Farmer, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Columbus, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Drew. (See <a href="#Drew_Horse">Drew
-Horse</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Old Duroc,” <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Jane, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Old Keokuk.” (See <a href="#Keokuk">Keokuk</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old March, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Old Narragansett,” <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Pilot. (See <a href="#Pacing_Pilot">Pacing
-Pilot</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old St. Lawrence, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Shales. (See <a href="#Shales">Shales</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Sorrel. <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Old” Spirit of the Times, <a
-href="#Page_99">99-101</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Telegraph, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a
-href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Theories of Breeding, <a
-href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Old Togue. (See <a href="#Hiatoga_O">Hiatoga</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Old Turfman” (C. R. Colden), <a
-href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oliver, Joseph, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a
-href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oliver, Judge M. W., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">One Eye, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a
-href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a
-href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oneida Chief, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oneness of Trotting and Pacing Gaits, <a
-href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Oneness of Trot and Pace, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>,<a
-href="#Page_156">156</a>,<a href="#Page_184">184</a>,<a
-href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Onward, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Origin of American Race Horse, <a
-href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a
-href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Origin of English Race Horse, <a
-href="#Page_86">86-92</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a
-href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Origin and History of the Standard, <a
-href="#Page_518">518-524</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Original Habitat of the Horse, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,
-<a href="#Page_24">24-35</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Orloff, Count Alexis, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a
-href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Orloff Trotter, The, <a
-href="#Page_390">390-397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Orser, Sheriff, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Osborne, Lord Francis Godolphin, <a
-href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ott, Almeron, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“O. W. C.,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">P</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pace, The, <a href="#Page_161">161-189</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pace and Trot, Varieties of One-Gait, <a
-href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a
-href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a
-href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacer of Canada, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>,
-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a
-href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacer, The, in Relation to Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_172">172-189</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers in Colonial Period, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>,
-<a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a
-href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers, Early American, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,
-<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a
-href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a
-href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a
-href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a
-href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers, English, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,
-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a
-href="#Page_157">157-171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers, Last in Britain, <a
-href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers of Rhode Island, <a
-href="#Page_173">173-182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacers in Russia, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a
-href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacing Ancestry of Saddle Horse, <a
-href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacing Gaits, Mechanism of, <a
-href="#Page_154">154-156</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a
-href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacing Horse, History and Antiquity of, <a
-href="#Page_154">154-174</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Pacing_Pilot">Pacing Pilot, <a
-href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a
-href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a
-href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacing Pilot, History of, <a
-href="#Page_341">341-343</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pacing and Trotting, Oneness of, <a
-href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a
-href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Packer, L. D., <a href="#Page_536">536</a>, <a
-href="#Page_539">539</a>, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Paddy, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Palgrave, Historian, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Palo Alto Farm, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>,
-<a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a
-href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a
-href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Parris Horse, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Parthenon at Athens, Frieze of, <a
-href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pasacas, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Patchen, George M., <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a
-href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Paul, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Paul Pry, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a
-href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Peabody, Warren, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Peacock, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a
-href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pearce, Edmund, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pearl, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pease, Mark, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Peck, Harvey W., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of American Eclipse, <a
-href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Alexander’s Norman, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Bay Chief, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Black Rose, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of George Wilkes, <a
-href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Lord Russell, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_571"></a>[571]</span>Pedigree of Maud S., <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_205">205-221</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Miss Russell, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Nutwood, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Pilot Jr., <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Sully Russell, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Sunol, <a href="#Page_438">438-446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Tippoo, <a href="#Page_145">145-147</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigree of Waxana, <a href="#Page_438">438-446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigrees, Early Fictions, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigrees, Early Frauds in, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>,
-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a
-href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pedigrees, Investigation of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>,
-<a href="#Page_409">409-455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pelham, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Penn, William, Arrival of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a
-href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pennsylvania, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_135">135-138</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pepper, Col. R. P., <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a
-href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Perkins, Mark D., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Perry, Alvah, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Persian Horses, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>,
-<a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a
-href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pet, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Peyton, Balie, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pfifer, Dan, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Phallas, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Phallamont, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pheasant, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Phidias, Greek Sculptor, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a
-href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philadelphia, Early Pacing at, <a
-href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philips, Clark, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a
-href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philips, E. V., <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philips, Josiah, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Philostorgius, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>,
-<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Phœnicia. (See <a href="#Phoenician_Merchants">Phœnician
-Merchants</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Phoenician_Merchants">Phœnician
-Merchants, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>,
-<a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40-48</a>, <a
-href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Photius, Early Writer, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a
-href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pick’s Turf Register, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>,
-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a
-href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pictures of Horses, First Correct, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Piedmont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pierce, Abraham, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pilot Family, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Pilot_Jr">Pilot Jr., <a href="#Page_274">274</a>,
-<a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a
-href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a
-href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pilot, Pacing, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Pinafore Standard,” (See <a
-href="#Kentucky_Standard">Kentucky Standard</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pixley, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Place’s White Turk, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Plato, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Plow Boy, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Plutarch, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pocahontas, <a href="#Page_355">355-358</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pocahontas (Young), <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Polk Brothers, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Polkan">Polkan (Volcan), <a
-href="#Page_392">392</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Polonius, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Polybius, Historian, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Polydore Virgil, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a
-href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pope Mare, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Porter Colt. (See <a href="#Daniel_Lambert">Daniel
-Lambert</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Porter, John, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Porter, Judge J., <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Porter’s <i>Spirit of the Times</i>, <a
-href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Porter, William T., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,
-<a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a
-href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Portia, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Port Royal, N. S., Raid on, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Portraits of Horses, First Correct, <a
-href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pot8os, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Potomac (by Messenger), <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pray Colt, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pray, Ebenezer, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pratt, John, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a
-href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Primal Horse, The, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a
-href="#Page_195">195-197</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Prince, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Prince Edward Island, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Prince of Wales’ Arabian Horses, <a
-href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Princeps, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Princess, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pritchard, Dr., <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Privateer,” <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Prophet’s Mares, The, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a
-href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Pruden, James, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Purchas, Samuel, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Puett, Mr., <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Purposes of Kentucky Standard, <a
-href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>, <a
-href="#Page_526">526</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Q</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Quagga Story, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Quaker Lass, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Quarter Racing, Colonial, <a
-href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Queen Ann, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Queen Mary, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a
-href="#Page_552">552</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Queen of Sheba, Visit to Solomon, <a
-href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Queen (dam of Blue Bull), <a
-href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Quimby, David, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">R</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Race Horse. The American, <a
-href="#Page_90">90-107</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Race Horse, The English, <a
-href="#Page_67">67-89</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Race Horses, Native American, <a
-href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Races, Early Colonial Pacing, <a
-href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing in America, Antiquity of, <a
-href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing in England, Early, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing, First, in America, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>,
-<a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a
-href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a
-href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing, First Established American, <a
-href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing, First in Virginia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>,
-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing Prohibited in Maryland, <a
-href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing Prohibited in New Jersey, <a
-href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing Prohibited in Pennsylvania, <a
-href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Racing Register, Bailey’s English, <a
-href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rack, The, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ralph Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Randolph, John, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ranger (Lindsay’s Arabian), <a
-href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rattler, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a
-href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Raudenbush, George W., <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ray, John P., <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a
-href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Raynor Colt, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Raynor, George, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a
-href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Red Bird, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Red Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Reeder, Dr. George, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Regan, Joseph, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Register Association, The American Trotting, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Regulus, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Regulus Mare and Produce, <a
-href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Relf, C. P., <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Remington Horse, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a
-href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Reynolds, Edward, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Reynolds, G. U., <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rhode Island. Colonial Horse History. <a
-href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rhode Island Pacers, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>,
-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a
-href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a
-href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a
-href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a
-href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rhode Island and Virginia Pacing Races, <a
-href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ribot, Th., <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rice’s Hiatoga. (See <a
-href="#Hiatoga_R">Hiatoga</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rice, Edward, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a
-href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Richards, A. Keene, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>,
-<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a
-href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a
-href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Richard, John, Publisher, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Richards, Richard, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ridgeway, Benjamin C., <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rip Van Dam’s Pacer, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>,
-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a
-href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rising Sun, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rittenhouse, David, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Robert Fillingham (George Wilkes), <a
-href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Robert J., <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Robin Gray, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Robinson, Governor of Rhode Island, <a
-href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rockhill &amp; Brother, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rockingham (Imported), <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rockplanter, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Roderick, King of Visigoths, <a
-href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rodes, Levi T., <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Roe, Seely C., <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a
-href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Roebuck, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Roland,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Romaine, Cyrus, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a
-href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Romans in Britain, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a
-href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rosalind, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_572"></a>[572]</span>Rosalind Wilkes, <a
-href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Roulin, Mons., <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rous, Admiral, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a
-href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Roxana, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a
-href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Royal_George">Royal George, <a
-href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Royal Mares, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>,
-<a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ruins, Prehistoric American, <a
-href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Running Blood in the Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_481">481-496</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Running Gait, The, <a href="#Page_154">154-156</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Russell, Capt. John W., <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Russell, Col. H. S., <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Russell, Mr., <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Russian Pacers, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a
-href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rylander, Mr., <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rynders, Capt. Isaiah, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Rysdyk, Wm. M., <a href="#Page_272">272</a>,
-<a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a
-href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">S</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sabæans, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Gaits, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a
-href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Horse, American and English, <a
-href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Horse, Ancestry of the, <a
-href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Horse, English, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a
-href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Horse Register, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Horse, The American, <a
-href="#Page_190">190-195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saddle Stock, Foundation, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>,
-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sager Horse (Young Sportsman), <a
-href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Bel, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Hillaire, Geoffrey, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Julien, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Lawrence (Old), <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Marks, Venice, Bronze Horses of, <a
-href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">St. Victor’s Barb, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saladin, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sale of Wallace Publications, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Salisbury, Monroe, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sally Anderson, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sally Miller, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a
-href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sally Russell, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_420">420-431</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sally Slouch, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saltram, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sam Hazzard, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sam Purdy, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a
-href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sampson, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a
-href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a
-href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sanders, James H., <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a
-href="#Page_530">530</a>, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sanders’ Trotting Stud Book. (See <a
-href="#BTSB">Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Santa Claus, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saracenic Horse. (See <a href="#Arabs">Arabs</a>, <a
-href="#Turks">Turks</a>, <a href="#Barbs">Barbs</a>, etc.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saracens, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saracens Overthrow Visigoths, <a
-href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saracens in Spain, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saratoga, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sarpedon, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Satterwhite, Mr., <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Saunders, H. C., <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scandinavian Horse, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scanlon, James, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scape Goat, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a
-href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scobey, Backus &amp; Burlew, <a
-href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scobey, C., <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scobey’s Black Prince, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scobey’s Champion. (See <a
-href="#Champion_SK">Champion</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scotland, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scott, Samuel, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scott’s Hiatoga. (See <a
-href="#Hiatoga_S">Hiatoga</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Scott’s Shales. (See <a href="#Shales">Shales</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Screwdriver, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seagull, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a
-href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sears, Richard, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sedan, Mr., <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sedley Arabian, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely Abdallah, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Daniel, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, David R., <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Jonas, Jr., <a href="#Page_267">267</a>,
-<a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a
-href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Jonas, Sr., <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Ebenezer, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a
-href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Edmund, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a
-href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely, Peter, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a
-href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seely’s American Star. (See <a
-href="#American_Star">American Star</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Selaby (or Marshall Turk), <a
-href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seneca Patchen, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sentinel, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Serls, Wilson, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a
-href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Services of American Star, <a
-href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Services of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Services of Messenger, <a
-href="#Page_229">229-230</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Seward, W. H., <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shaftsbury, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Shales">Shales, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a
-href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shanghai Mary, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>,
-<a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a
-href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shark, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shawhan, John, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shawhan’s Tom Hal, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shawmut, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sheldon V., <a href="#Page_146">146-248</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shepherd, Colonel, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shepherd, John, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Shepherd_Kings">Shepherd Kings, <a
-href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a
-href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sherman, B. B., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sherman Morgan, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a
-href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sherrill, Louis, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shipman, George, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Ships of Tarshish.” (See <a
-href="#Tarshish">Tarshish</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shiruo, William, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shropshire, Benjamin N., <a
-href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Shropshire, Mr., Jr., <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sickles, H. T., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a
-href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sidon, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Silvertail, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a
-href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a
-href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Simmons, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Simmons, William L., <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a
-href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Simmons, Z. E., <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Simpson, Joseph Cairn, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>,
-<a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a
-href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>, <a
-href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Singerly, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_554">554</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Archy, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a
-href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Charles, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a
-href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a
-href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Peter, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Solomon, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a
-href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Wallace, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir Walter (by Hickory), <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a
-href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sir William, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Size of Horses, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>,
-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a
-href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a
-href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a
-href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a
-href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a
-href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a
-href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a
-href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a
-href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Skenandoah">Skenandoah, <a
-href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Skinner, John S., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>,
-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a
-href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Skinner’s Turf Register, etc., <a
-href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a
-href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a
-href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Slasher, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Slocum, John N., <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smetanka, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a
-href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a
-href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, Capt. John W., Pioneer, <a
-href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, F. G., <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, H. N., <a href="#Page_308">308</a>,
-<a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <a
-href="#Page_503">503</a>, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>, <a
-href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, J. F. D., Colonial Writer, <a
-href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, Thomas T., <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smith, William B., <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Smuggler, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Snap Dragon, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Snediker, Isaac, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sniffin, John, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Solomon, King, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>,
-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a
-href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Somers, George, Early Pioneer, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah (table), <a
-href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Almont (table), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Belmont (table), <a
-href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Electioneer (table), <a
-href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of George Wilkes (table), <a
-href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Hambletonian (table), <a
-href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons and Grandsons of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_284">284-314</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sons of Messenger, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sophonisba, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sorrel Dapper, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sorrel Tom (Shawhan’s Tom Hal), <a
-href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_573"></a>[573]</span>South Carolina, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sovereign (Imported), <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical History, <a
-href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spain, Early Horses, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a
-href="#Page_46">46</a>. <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spanish Horses, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>,
-<a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a
-href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a
-href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a
-href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spanish Jennets, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>,
-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a
-href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spaulding, Dr., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Speed of Hambletonian, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Speed, John, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Speed of Narragansett Pacers, <a
-href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sphinx, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spirit, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spirit of the Times, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a
-href="#Page_551">551</a>, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spirit of the Times (Old), <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a
-href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spirit of the Times (Porter’s), <a
-href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Spirit of the Times (Wilkes’), <a
-href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a
-href="#Page_530">530</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sprague &amp; Akers, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sprague, Hon. Amasa, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sprague (Rounds’), <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Squire Talmage, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stamboul, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>. <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stamboul Arabian, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stamina, Trotter and Runner, <a
-href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a
-href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Standard, First Suggestion of the, <a
-href="#Page_519">519</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Standard, Origin and History, <a
-href="#Page_518">518-524</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Standard, The, <a href="#Page_542">542</a>,
-<a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a href="#Page_545">545</a>, <a
-href="#Page_552">552</a>, <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a
-href="#Page_554">554</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Standard, The Kentucky. (See <a
-href="#Kentucky_Standard">Kentucky Standard</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Standard, The “Pinafore.” (See <a
-href="#Kentucky_Standard">Kentucky Standard</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stanford, Leland, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>,
-<a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a
-href="#Page_492">492</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stanford University, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stanley, Colonel, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Star of Catskill, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">State of Maine, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Statue of Washington, Union Square, <a
-href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Staying Qualities in Trotter and Runner, <a
-href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>, <a
-href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stearns, Mr., <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steele, Andrew, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steele, Solomon, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a
-href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steiner, J. H., <a href="#Page_542">542</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steel, Robert, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Steinway, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stephanides, William (Fitz Stephen), <a
-href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stevens, Robert L., <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stevens, John Austin, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stewart, Robert, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“S. T. H.,” <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stockholder Mare, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stone, Elijah, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a
-href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stoner, Col. R. G., <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stoner, Martin, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stonyford Stud, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stout, Mrs. S. L., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strabo. Greek Historian, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,
-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a
-href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a
-href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a
-href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strader, R. S., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strathmore, History of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strype, John, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strideaway, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a
-href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stringfield, John K., <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Structural Incongruity,” <a
-href="#Page_495">495</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Strumpet, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stubbs, English Artist, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a
-href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stud Book, Breeders’ Trotting. (See <a
-href="#BTSB">Breeders’ Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stud Book, Edgar’s, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>,
-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a
-href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stud Book, English. (See <a href="#ESB">English Stud
-Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stud Book, Sanders’. (See <a href="#BTSB">Breeders’
-Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stud Book, Wallace’s, <a
-href="#Page_101">101-104</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Stump (Adams’), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Subscription Purses, Early, <a
-href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sultan, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sutton, Lewis J., <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sun, The, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sunol, Pedigree of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>,
-<a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a
-href="#Page_438">438-446</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Surrey, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a
-href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swedish Horses, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a
-href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swedish Horses of Pennsylvania, <a
-href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sweepstakes, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swigert, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swigert, Daniel, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swigert, Philip, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>,
-<a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a
-href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Swiss Boy, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Sykes, Mr., <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">T</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Founders of Great Trotting Families, <a
-href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Sons of Alexander’s Abdallah, <a
-href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Sons of Almont, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Sons of Belmont, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Sons of Electioneer. <a
-href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tables—Sons of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tacony, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a
-href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tappan, George, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Tarshish">Tarshish, Ships of, <a
-href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a
-href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tattersall, Mr., <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tattler, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>, <a
-href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Taylor, G., on Early New England Horses, <a
-href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Taylor, Mr., <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Taylor, Samuel, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tefft, Mr., <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ten Broeck, R., <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Terry, Samuel Hough, <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Texas, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“The American Roadster,” <a
-href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“The Blessing,” Voyage of, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">The Conqueror, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">The King, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">The Moor, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>. <a
-href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“The Perfect Horse,” <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Theopholis, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thomas, Colonel, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thomas Jefferson, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a
-href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thomson, Allen W., <a href="#Page_378">378</a>,
-<a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thorne, Edwin, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a
-href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thorndale, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbred Blood in the Trotter, <a
-href="#Page_481">481-496</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbreds, First in America. <a
-href="#Page_95">95</a>. <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbreds, First in New York, <a
-href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbred Foundations, <a href="#Page_511">511</a>,
-<a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbred, The Term, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>,
-<a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a
-href="#Page_486">486</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>, <a
-href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoroughbred, What Constitutes a, <a
-href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a
-href="#Page_485">485</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thoulouse Barb, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thurston, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Thutmosis I., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a
-href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Timoleon. <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a
-href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Tin-cup” Records, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tippoo (by Messenger), <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tippo, Canadian Progenitor, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>,
-<a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tippo Saib, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a
-href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tippo Sultan, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a
-href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Titcomb &amp; Waldron, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Titmouse Stud Book.” (See <a href="#BTSB">Breeders’
-Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Togarmah, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a
-href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a
-href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Togarmah, Land of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Bowling, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a
-href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal Family, <a href="#Page_358">358-360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal (Gray’s), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal Jr. (Gibson’s), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a
-href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal (Kittrell’s), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal (Lail’s), <a href="#Page_358">358</a>. <a
-href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal (Shawhan’s), <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Hal (Shropshire’s), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Patchen, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Rolfe, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a
-href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Teemer, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Thumb, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Tom Titmouse Stud Book.” (See <a href="#BTSB">Breeders’
-Trotting Stud Book</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tom Titmouse, Pacer, <a href="#Page_531">531</a>, <a
-href="#Page_533">533</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_574"></a>[574]</span>Tone, Richard, <a
-href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tone, Thomas, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Topgallant, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a
-href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Torgom, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Toronto Chief, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a
-href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tracy, Gen. B. F., <a href="#Page_553">553</a>, <a
-href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Training of Hambletonian, <a
-href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trajan, Emperor, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Transfer of Wallace Publications, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Travels Through the States,” <a
-href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Traveler (Imported), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Traveler (Lloyd’s), <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Traveler (Morton’s), <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Traveler. (See <a href="#Beautiful_Bay">Beautiful
-Bay</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tredwell, Alfred M., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tredwell, John, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a
-href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tredwell Mare, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a
-href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trot and Pace, Varieties of One Gait, <a
-href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a
-href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a
-href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotter in Relation to Pacer, <a
-href="#Page_172">172-189</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a
-href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotters in England, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotters in 2:15 List, Breeders of, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Gait, Mechanism of, <a
-href="#Page_154">154-156</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a
-href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Horse, How He is Bred, <a
-href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Instinct, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Races, Early, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Races, First in America, <a
-href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Register, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>,
-<a href="#Page_518">518</a>, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>, <a
-href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a
-href="#Page_531">531</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Register Association, The American, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Register, Enemies Made by, <a
-href="#Page_511">511</a>, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>, <a
-href="#Page_534">534</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a
-href="#Page_543">543</a>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a>, <a
-href="#Page_545">545</a>, <a href="#Page_559">559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trotting Register, Transfer of, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trouble, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Troye, Animal Painter, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">True Briton. (See <a href="#Beautiful_Bay">Beautiful
-Bay</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">True John, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Truffle (Imported), <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Trustee (Imported), <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a
-href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tucker, Joseph, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a
-href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tulip Hill (Estate), <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turf Mare. (See <a href="#Messenger">Messenger</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turf Papers, Timidity of, <a
-href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turf Papers Too Numerous, <a
-href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turf Register, Pick’s, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a
-href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turk, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turk (Bartlett’s), <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turk (Weddle’s), <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Turks">Turks, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>,
-<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a
-href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Turks (English Foundation Stock), <a
-href="#Page_68">68-72</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tuscarawas Chief. (See <a href="#Hiatoga_S">Scott’s
-Hiatoga</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tuthill, A. T., <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tweed, James Davis, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tweedie, General, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Twenty-Mile Trotters, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Twombly, Shade, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Twombly, Wingate, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Tyre, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a
-href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">U</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Udell, Colonel, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Underhill, Judge, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Underhill, R. C., <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Updike, Mr., Writer, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Upton, Major, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a
-href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Useful Cub, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a
-href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Utica, Algeria, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Utter Horse, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Uz, Land of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">V</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vail, Thomas J., <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a
-href="#Page_434">434</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Valentine, Native English Runner, <a
-href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Buren, President, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Cortland, A., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Cott, W. H., <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vanderbilt, Commodore, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van der Donck’s Description of New Netherlands, <a
-href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Kirk, John S., <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Ranst, C. W., <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a
-href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vanvliet, Daniel, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Van Wyck, Z. B., <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vatican, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Veech, R. S., <a href="#Page_303">303</a>,
-<a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a
-href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a
-href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a
-href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Velocity, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vergennes Black Hawk, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vermont, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vermont Black Hawk. (See <a href="#Black_Hawk">Black
-Hawk</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vernon Arabian, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Viatka Horses (Russian), <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a
-href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Victor Bismarck, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a
-href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a
-href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, Beverley’s History of, <a
-href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, Colonial Horse History, <a
-href="#Page_108">108-119</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, First Importations to, <a
-href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a
-href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, First Racing in, <a
-href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia, First Settlement of, <a
-href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virginia and Rhode Island Pacing Races, <a
-href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Virgo, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Visigoths and Saracens, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Vision,” <a href="#Page_557">557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Vixen, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Volcan. (See <a href="#Polkan">Polkan</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Voltaire, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Volunteer, History of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a
-href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Von Mittendorf, Professor, <a
-href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">W</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wadsworth, General, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a
-href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wagner, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Walk, Mechanism of the, <a
-href="#Page_154">154-156</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Walker Horse, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Walker, J. H., <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace, Gen. Lew., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace, John H., <a href="#Page_528">528</a>, <a
-href="#Page_547">547-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace Publications, History of, <a
-href="#Page_547">547-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace Publications, Transfer of, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Wallace_ASB">Wallace’s American Stud Book, History
-of, <a href="#Page_548">548</a>, <a href="#Page_549">549</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace’s American Trotting Register, History of, <a
-href="#Page_550">550-554</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace’s Monthly, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>,
-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a
-href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a
-href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a
-href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>. <a
-href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a
-href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>, <a
-href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a
-href="#Page_483">483</a>, <a href="#Page_519">519-525</a>, <a
-href="#Page_527">527-531</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace’s Monthly, History of, <a
-href="#Page_554">554-557</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wallace’s Year-Book, History of, <a
-href="#Page_557">557-559</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Walpole, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wapsie, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Ward, Mr., <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a
-href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Warlock, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Warrior (Black Warrior), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a
-href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Washington, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Washington Statue, Union Square, <a
-href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Waterloo, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Waterwitch, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Watkins, Julius, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Watson, John F., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a
-href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Watt, Joseph, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Waxana, Pedigree of, <a
-href="#Page_438">438-446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Waxy (grandam of Sunol), <a
-href="#Page_438">438-446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weatherby, Mr.. Compiler of English Stud
-Book, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>,
-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a
-href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a
-href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a
-href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a
-href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a
-href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weaver, John, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Webster (by Medoc), <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wedgewood, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weights, First Use of, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a
-href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weisiger, Mr., <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Weismann, Professor, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Welch, Aristides, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Welch, John P., <a href="#Page_438">438</a>,
-<a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a
-href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a
-href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Welch, Samuel, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wesley Grey, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">West, Col. R., <a href="#Page_297">297</a>,
-<a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a
-href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a
-href="#Page_526">526</a>, <a href="#Page_527">527</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a
-id="Page_575"></a>[575]</span>Western Asia, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a
-href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Western Girl, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whelan, William, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a
-href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whip (Cannon’s), <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whip (Cumming’s), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whisky Jane, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a
-href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whitehall, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a
-href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whitney, Frank, Artist, <a href="#Page_556">556</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whynot, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a
-href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whynot Messenger, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Whyte, Mr., English Author, <a
-href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wickham, Mr., <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a
-href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Widow Machree, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a
-href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilcox, Isaiah, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilcox Mare, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a
-href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilcox, Mr., <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wildair, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wildair Mare, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wild Deer, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wild Horses of America, <a
-href="#Page_196">196-204</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wild Horses of Arabia, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wild Wagoner, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wiley, John, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilkes Boy, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilkie Collins, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilkes (Mr.), George, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times, <a
-href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilkins, Richard, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">William (Imported), <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">William Hunter Mare, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, C. W., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, G. T., <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, John, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a
-href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, John, Jr., <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, Mr. (Owner of Godolphin Arabian), <a
-href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, Roger, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a
-href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams’ Turk, Sir J., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Williams, Warren, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilson, James, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir R., <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilson, William H., <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a
-href="#Page_501">501</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilson’s Blue Bull. (See <a href="#Blue_Bull">Blue
-Bull</a>.)</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wilton, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Winthrop, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Winthrop_Messenger">Winthrop Messenger,
-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a
-href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Winthrop Messenger, History of, <a
-href="#Page_237">237-241</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wiser, Hon. J. P., <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Withers, Gen. William T., <a href="#Page_297">297</a>,
-<a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a
-href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodburn Farm, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>,
-<a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a
-href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420-431</a>, <a
-href="#Page_516">516-532</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wood, W. H., <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodford, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodford Mambrino, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a
-href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodford Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodmansee, L. D., <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodnut, H. C., <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodpecker, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodruff, George, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a
-href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodruff, Hiram, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a
-href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodward, S. B., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a
-href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Woodward, William, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>. <a
-href="#Page_444">444</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wootton, English Artist, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a
-href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Worden, Mr., <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Wyllis, Colonel, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Y</li>
-
-<li class="indx">“Yah Amerikanski,” <a href="#Page_555">555</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Yates, L. E., <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Year-Book, Transfer of, <a
-href="#Page_536">536-545</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx" id="Yemen">Yemen, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a
-href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Yemen (see also <a href="#Arabia">Arabia</a>),
-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a
-href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Youatt on the Pace, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a
-href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Andrew Jackson, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Bashaw, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>,
-<a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a
-href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Bay Kentucky Hunter, <a
-href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Bulrock, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Commander, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a
-href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Conqueror, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young, Daniel, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Eclipse (Sherman’s), <a
-href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Engineer, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young, George A., <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Jim, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Morrill, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young One Eye, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a
-href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Patriot, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Pocahontas (2:26¾), <a href="#Page_355">355</a>,
-<a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Portia, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Rolfe, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Selim, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Sportsman (Sager Horse), <a
-href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Young Wilkes, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
-
-<li class="ifrst">Z</li>
-
-<li class="indx">Zachary Taylor, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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