184 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



not been pressed with any vigor or with any partic- 

 ular success. POTTS and a few showmen here and 

 there were breeding from Aberdeenshire anteced- 

 ents, but had not succeeded specially, as GEORGE 

 ADE would say, in "breaking into polite society" 

 with their low- headed, compactly- fashioned, beefy 

 favorites, many of which had plain horns and 

 ''dumpy" quarters. They were "plebeian" by birth, 

 and the bulls could not see over a fence! They 

 had big middles, that was true, but they were bad 

 at both ends! Moreover, they would not milk! They 

 were all right for a plodding farmer perhaps, but as 

 ornaments to a gentleman's park or pasture not to 

 be seriously considered. Such were some of the 

 comments of the entrenched powers of that time. 

 The large holders of the BATES blood looked upon 

 them with undisguised contempt, or at least so 

 pretended. Down in their hearts many of them 

 realized that the fine cattle they had received at 

 the hands of the preceding generation had not been 

 fairly or judiciously handled. They had indeed sown 

 the wind, and were now about to reap the tornado 

 invited by their own indifference, and in due course 

 it came from Kansas. 



Among those who had protested earnestly against 

 the rapidly accelerating loss of stamina and practi- 



