THE ARABIAN HORSE. 65 



and it could not fail to regenerate the American race horse. He 

 did not stop to inquire whether either of his great ideals might 

 have had a drop of Arabian blood in his veins, but he started for 

 Arabia at once. He brought home a few stallions and felt sure 

 he was on the eve of the greatest triumph of his life. When the 

 half-Arab produce of his strong and elegantly bred race mares 

 were old enough to run the jockey club allowed the half-breeds 

 seven pounds the advantage in weight and they were beaten. 

 The club then allowed them fourteen pounds and they were 

 again beaten; and finally the allowance was raised to twenty-one 

 pounds, and they were still in the rear rank. Under these hu- 

 miliating defeats a careful man would have hesitated before he 

 went further, but he at once jumped to the conclusion that his 

 defeat was not in the fact that Arab blood could not run fast 

 enough to win, but in the fact, as he supposed, that the rascally 

 Arabs had sold him blood that was not Arab blood. In a short 

 time he was off for Arabia again, taking with him as companion 

 and adviser the distinguished animal painter, Troye, who had a 

 long and successful experience as a delineator of race horses and 

 knew all about the anatomy of the horse. They spent several 

 months among the different tribes, and in order to get "inside of 

 the ring," as it were, they ate with the Arabs, slept with the 

 Arabs, and worshiped with the Arabs, as Mr. Richards told me 

 himself. They came home full of the highest expectations, bring- 

 ing several mares as well as stallions with them, and fully assured 

 that every one was of the highest caste and the best form for rac- 

 ing that could be found on all the plains of the desert. After 

 the foals of this importation were old enough to start in the 

 stakes, they were given the same advantages in weight as before, 

 and they proved no better than the first lot. Poor Mr. Richards 

 was crushed in spirits, not only by the vanishing of his air castles, 

 but by the importunacy of his creditors. In his heroic, but mis- 

 guided, efforts to improve the American race horse by infusions 

 of pure Arabian blood, he involved his once handsome estate, 

 and he died hopelessly insolvent. He had bred a number of pure 

 Arabs of several generations, but the abundant feed and luxuriant 

 blue grass of Kentucky did not increase their size, for when they 

 came under the auctioneer's hammer they were but little 

 ' 'tackeys," and they brought only the price of little "tackeys." 



The number of horses brought to this country, whether as 

 gifts to statesmen or as private ventures, and called "Arabians," 



