256 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



enough on her legs to stuff a mattress/' that she was "a muddy 

 sorrel," etc., were all urged to prove that she was not by a son of 

 Messenger. It is true that many entered into this controversy 

 who never saw the mare and who knew nothing about her appear- 

 ance, but there were others who knew her perfectly, among them 

 my venerable friend David W. Jones, to whom we are all indebted 

 for so many treasures from his storehouse of very valuable 

 memories. 



On the other side there were some little scraps of history, that 

 at the vital point may have been history or may have been fiction. 

 In the certificate of Sale of Abdallah, April 27, 1830, to Mr. Isaac 

 Snediker, his breeder, Mr. John Tredwell, says: "And believe him 

 to be the very best, bred trotting stallion in this country, and be 

 it enough to know that his sire was Mambrino and his dam Ama- 

 zonia." It has been argued that it would be very inconsistent for 

 a man of Mr. Tredwell's standing to certify that Abdallah "was the 

 very best bred trotting stallion in this country," if he knew nothing 

 of the blood of his dam, drawing the inference that he must 

 have known and believed the representations of his nephew, B. 

 T. Kissam, from whom he got Amazonia. The story of the 

 original purchase of Amazonia by B. T. Kissam and given to me 

 by his brother, Timothy T. Kissam, in 1870, is as follows: Ama- 

 zonia was purchased by B. T. Kissam, a dry goods merchant of 

 New York, when on an excursion of pleasure in the vicinity of 

 Philadelphia about 1814. She was brought out of a team and 

 was then four years old past, his attention having been called to 

 her as an animal of much promise. He used her for his own 

 driving a short time and sold her to his uncle, John Tredwell. 

 "Amazonia was represented to my brother to have been a get of 

 imported Messenger." 



Now, in considering whether this scrap of history is probably 

 true, the geographical question has been urged with telling effect. 

 Messenger had been kept a number of years on both sides of the 

 Delaware, right on the way to Philadelphia, his fee had been 

 above that of any other stallion, and a large percentage of his 

 colts had been kept entire. In no part of the country, perhaps, 

 were there so many sons of Messenger seeking public patronage. 

 The geography and the chronology of the question, therefore, 

 both sustain the probability of its truthfulness. Whether Mr. 

 Kissam crossed the river at Trenton, or Burlington, or Camden 

 he was right in the hotbed of the sons of Messenger. "If 



