414 THE HOKSE OF AMERICA. 



at a State fair, in very fast time for that day. She had been 

 brought from Ohio by some sheep -dealers, who were able to give 

 her exact age, and it was thus found that she was older than her 

 reputed sire. Several expert horsemen, from a picture secured 

 by Mr. Shipman on his trip, have not hesitated to give it as a 

 strong conviction that she belonged to the Cadmus family, in 

 Southern Ohio. In the last two or three years a correspondent 

 of the Chicago Horse Review brings out some local facts that 

 make it almost morally certain that she was bred by Goldsmith 

 Coffein, of Red Lion, Ohio, and that she was got by Iron's Cad- 

 mus, the sire of the great Pocahontas. The final nail has not 

 been clinched in establishing this pedigree, and probably never 

 will be, but the circumstances are so f ally detailed as to scarcely 

 leave room for a doubt that she was a half-sister to the famous 

 Pocahontas. 



From what has here been said about the methods of Mr. 

 Backman, the leading breeder of that Deriod, in the North, 

 it should not be inferred that all Northern breeders were 

 like him. The first real battle I ever had against fraudulent 

 pedigrees originated in Orange County, New York, with the 

 notorious Captain Rynders, in which the pedigree of the once 

 famous Widow Machree, the dam of Aberdeen, was involved. The 

 pedigree of this mare had been registered as obtained from Mr. 

 James W. Hoyt, who once owned her, and her dam was given as 

 by Durland's Messenger Duroc. When Aberdeen came before 

 the public for patronage, his owner, Rynders, advertised him as 

 out of Widow Machree and she out of a mare by Abdallah. 

 This was challenged as untrue by Mr. Guy Miller and Mr. Joseph 

 Gavin, of Orange County, and I was called upon to demand the 

 evidence upon which the change had been made from Messenger 

 Duroc to Abdallah. As a matter of course "the fat was in the 

 fire" at once, and out came Rynders with a terrific explosion of 

 anger, abounding in threats and denunciations against anybody 

 and everybody who attempted to interfere with his "business." 

 The good names of Guy Miller and Joseph Gavin carried too 

 much weight as against that of Isaiah Rynders, and, as his last 

 card, he brought out a duly and formally executed affidavit, 

 sworn to by a man whose name I will not here mention, stating 

 that he bred the Abdallah mare; all of which was the very rankest 

 perjury, which was so easily exposed that it did Rynders far 

 more harm than good. At last the whole truth came out in a 



