274 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



ELLIOTT & KENT of Des Moines had a herd of 

 BATES and BATES-topped Shorthorns on exhibition, 

 all red as cherries and nicely fitted, and I found 

 myself wandering around to their stalls every day 

 absolutely lost in admiration. P. R. MCMILLAN & 

 SON of Washington were showing Poland-Chinas. 

 The son was a lad named HORACE, destined in his 

 mature years to lead the Percheron horsemen of 

 the United States out of the mazes of a Stud 

 Book registration tangle such as no other important 

 breed ever had to face in the history of American 

 stock breeding. They had been as successful with 

 their pigs as we had been with ours. The Illinois 

 State Fair was to be held on the following week at 

 Peoria, and the feelings of both HORACE and myself 

 can better be imagined than described when it was 

 announced that both herds were to be shipped and 

 shown there, and we were to be allowed to go! 

 Father and MCMILLAN pere went on ahead to arrange 

 the entries and the necessary accommodations, and 

 we were to go by freight with the live stock. No 

 trip around the world ever yielded any human beings 

 greater excitements than did this expedition to these 

 two Iowa youngsters. I was not just sure that the 

 great steel bridge over the Mississippi at Burlington 

 was going to stand up under the strain of our 



