236 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



tions maintained in idleness, the marvelous effects 

 of the Brilliant blood, the incursion into the coach 

 horse field, the building of Oaklawn House, the enter- 

 tainment of innumerable parties of distinguished vis- 

 itors, the tragic death of the great architect of the 

 Percheron fortunes these and collateral matters 

 of incidental interest cannot be drawn in detail into 

 this reference. He was probably the greatest sales- 

 man the horse-breeding interests of America have 

 ever known. 



Mr. DUNHAM'S death in February, 1899, at 57 

 years of age, in the very prime of his mature man- 

 hood, was a distinct calamity to his country. It 

 occurred as a result of blood-poisoning from infection 

 communicated in the course of an examination of 

 an infected hoof. I was alone with him for an hour 

 the afternoon before his death. His mind was clear; 

 his facing of his fate heroic. He could not lie down, 

 so great his suffering. Propped up in an invalid's 

 chair he talked not of himself, but of my own little 

 concerns, and I might here give an instance of his 

 always self-sacrificing way, when anyone in whom 

 he was interested was involved. 



Secretary WILSON during the winter of 1898-9 

 had asked President McKiNLEY to appoint me a 

 member of the United States Commission to the 



