546 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



At the same time there were not only in Great 

 Britain but America certain sturdy characters 

 who refused to be stampeded at the crack of 

 fashion's whip. There were in nearly every 

 State in the Union, as well as in Canada and 

 Great Britain, devoted lovers of the breed who, 

 often at great apparent cost to themselves, 

 maintained the sacred fires of the early Short- 

 horn faith. True to the principles of those 

 who gave the breed to the world they persist- 

 ently pursued individual excellence in the ani- 

 mal as the corner stone of all progress; and to 

 these men the breed owes its preservation from 

 those who were unintentionally poisoning the 

 very fountains of its vitality. 



The spur of opposition. Several causes con- 

 spired to bring American breeders to their 

 senses about this period. Coincident with the 

 declining merit for practical purposes of those 

 tribes that were most frequently in the public 

 eye came the invasion of the markets of the 

 West by two of Britain's most distinguished 

 beef types; to- wit.: the Herefords and black 

 polls. The establishment of the American 

 Fat-Stock Show at Chicago, which occurred in 

 1878, gave these new candidates for public 

 favor an opportunity of which they were not 

 slow to take advantage. "White-faces" and 

 "doddies" began to appear in force for the first 

 time in the history of American cattle-breed- 



