446 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



nerve of the gentlemen who were to contest with them the 

 honors of the day. "Eleven thousand dollars" was said by one 

 of them in an agitated voice, so uncertain and tremulous that 

 Mr. Page for the moment was uncertain whether the bidder 

 meant it or not, and then their heads were laid together in anx- 

 ious consultation. A number of Kentuckians also gathered around 

 Mr. Megibben, and on both sides of the ring there was a group of 

 anxious faces. With those around him Mr. Megibben made a 

 private arrangement for the service of the bull in case he fell to 

 him, and to carry him (as we afterward learned) past $17,000 be- 

 fore surrendering him. As the group of Kentuckians separated 

 Mr. Megibben raised the bid to $12,000, and still the Englishmen 

 consulted. It was evident they wanted the bull ; but the females 

 were more valuable, and they were of the opinion that if they ad- 

 vanced the price of him to the point to which the Kentuckians 

 were prepared to go the price of the females might be correspond- 

 ingly advanced, and perhaps put altogether beyond their reach. 

 Their minds were quickly made up on this point, and the 3d Duke 

 of Oneida was knocked off to Mr. Megibben at 112,000, the highest 

 price ever paid to that moment for a Short-horn. Then the cheers 

 rose, peal on peal, and the more distant seats of the stand were 

 deserted and their occupants gathered closer to the scene and 

 clustered like bees around the auctioneer. 



1st Duchess of Oneida was then led in. She was a red-and- 

 white, calved Jan. 24, 1870, got by 10th Duke of Thorndale (28458) 

 out of 8th Duchess of Geneva by 3d Lord of Oxford (22200), and in 

 calf since Dec. 10 to 2d Duke of Oneida. The Clark Co. (Ky.) com- 

 Jbination started her at once at $15,000, which Lord Skelmersdale 

 of England raised at once to $30,000, shutting out a bid of $25,000 

 proffered by Mr. George Murray of Racine, Wis. His Lordship 

 was evidently informed that the Clark County gentlemen had 

 brought $60,000 for the purpose of buying three, and his bid called 

 upon them to place the half of it on the head of a single animal. 

 This took them by surprise, and to gain a moment's time for re- 

 flection they interposed an additional bid of $100, upon which his 

 Lordship promptly placed another $100. The Kentuckians con- 

 cluded to follow her no further, and then Mr. Kello, the represen- 

 tative of Mr. Davies of England, advanced the $200 bid to $300, 

 which Lord S. promptly made $400. Mr. Kello and Mr. Brodhead 

 (the representative of Mr. Alexander), who was quietly smoking 

 in the rear of the English party, which by this time had gathered 

 inside the fence, bid $500 simultaneously, and $30,600 was his Lord- 

 ship's response. All were now done and she was quickly knocked 



