102 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



time please the interests of those who hired him to 

 bolster up the merits of the stock they were breed- 

 ing to sell. He maintained that the dam of Samp- 

 son, the grandsire of Messenger, was a pacing 

 mare, and hence Messenger's capacity to trans- 

 mit the trot to his progeny. He further affirmed 

 that the trot and the pace were the same gait; but 

 of this I will speak later when I get to the Stand- 

 ard Bred Trotters. Now, as a matter of fact, the 

 Godolphin progenitor of Messenger through the 

 female line was a Barb, and Barbs are apt to 

 pace, though if Thoroughbreds pace I have yet to 

 see one. 



So many fictions have grown up about Mes- 

 senger that he seems more like a hero of ro- 

 mance than a flea-bitten gray horse of not very 

 fine finish, and worth, according to the records of 

 sales, in the neighborhood of $4500. Indeed, the 

 record of his landing is so obscure that I have 

 not been able to determine whether it was in New 

 York or Philadelphia. But he was in the stud for 

 nineteen years and left many sons and daughters. 

 He was kept in various places near Phila- 

 delphia, on Long Island, in Orange County, New 



