AN ERA OF EXPANSION. 425 



2d, of Kingscote breeding. Australia was also 

 buying freely in the mother country about this 

 period, paying the Duke of Devonshire $5,000 

 for 24th Duke of Oxford (31002). 



The first public sale of cattle ever held at 

 Dexter Park, Chicago, occurred this year, the 

 herd of Mr. E. P. Brockway of Wisconsin, that 

 acquired considerable reputation in the show- 

 ring, going under the hammer at an average 

 price of $693 per head. Col. William S. King 

 sold twenty-eight females at auction at an av- 

 erage of $452, the show heifer Booth's Lancas- 

 ter bringing $1,700 from Messrs. Parks of Glen 

 Flora Farm, Waukegan, 111., and the imported 

 cows Henrietta and Countess Oxford going to 

 the same noted herd at $1,500 and $1,000 re- 

 spectively. Booth's Lancaster was resold later 

 to S. R. Streator of Cleveland, 0., for $2,000. 



It was during this year also that J. H. Pick- 

 rell sold imp. British Flag 13211,* bred by Messrs. 

 Dudding, for $1,800, and Baron Lewis, a Phyllis 



* British Flag- was one of an importation made in 1871 by a Capt. Pratt, 

 that passed into the possession of Mr. Pickrell. Baron Lewis was the first 

 Short-horn bred and reared in Illinois to bring: so great a price. At this 

 sale a very persistent stranger bid for Baron Lewis against Mr. Sodowsky, 

 and when the $2,500 notch was reached the excitement was intense. Turn- 

 ing to his opponent Mr. S. said: "Well, stranger, you must have lota of 

 money." The only reply was an advance of the bid. The belligerent Ver- 

 milion County breeder, however, had some " sand," as well as means, him- 

 self, and forced his rival out at $3,000. The stranger did have money sure 

 enough, or at least he represented it, for he was the agent of the Hon. John 

 Wentworth of Chicago. " Long John," as he was familiarly called, was 

 fond of sending " unknowns " out after valuable cattle offered at public 

 sale, and in this instance only repeated his tactics as already noticed in his 

 purchase of the 15th Duke of Airdrie some years previous. 



