422 THE HOUSE OF AMERICA. 



exact facts in the case, without any leading questions and with- 

 out any shading of the truth or bias on either side. What this 

 commissioner learned will be given further on. 



Let us now turn to the other side and see how Mr. Brodhead 

 manages to get Maria Russell into the ownership of Captain 

 John W. Russell. Under date of April 30, 1883, he wrote to the 

 Turf, Field and Farm as follows: 



"A Colonel Shepherd, of the South New Orleans, I think gave or sold to 

 Captain J. W. Russell and Captain J. A. Holton a Stockholder mare, out of 

 Miranda, by Topgallant, etc. Thismare was called Miss Shepherd. Theyowned 

 and bred this mare in partnership. Among the produce thus owned were 

 Maria Russell by Rattler, Mary Bell by Sea Gull, and Swiss Boy by imported 

 Swiss. Captain Russell sold his half of Swiss Boy to Mr. Taylor, son-in-law of 

 Ben Luckett, for $750. Maria Russell was owned and run as a partnership 

 mare by Holton and Russell, but was trained by Major Ben Luckett." 



Then follows a lot of stuff, without any relevancy whatever, 

 going to show that Ben Luckett trained her at three years old, 

 but had no connection whatever with the family, all of which is 

 known to everybody, and then he again asserts that "in the divi- 

 sion of the partnership property, Maria Russell fell to Captain 

 Russell." The next dash that Mr. Brodhead makes is fora negro 

 seventy-five years old, who had been in the Russell family from 

 his birth, named Jesse Dillon. Jesse was no exception to his 

 race, or indeed to many of the white race, for whenever any in- 

 formation is wanted from them they are always ready to give it, 

 as they expect at least one half-dollar, and if they tell the story 

 "right up to what is wanted" they expect two. Jesse was sharp 

 enough to discover just what his interviewers were after, and he 

 was ready to supply "the long-felt want." Jesse was able to tell 

 just how the mare got her eye knocked out and just how he took 

 her to Blackburn's and had her brsd to Boston. In all this, in- 

 cluding the loss of the eye and the trip to Blackburn's, Jesse 

 may have had in his mind Captain Russell's one-eyed mare, Mary 

 Churchill, while his interviewers were thinking about Maria. 

 Russell. It is no uncommon thing for white people as well as 

 black, at seventy-five, to get names of forty or fifty years past 

 confused. 



This is all of Mr. Brodhead's case so far as what he presents 

 has any relevancy to the point at issue, namely, the identity and 

 ownership of the mare Maria Russell. The pedigree was not 

 made at Woodburn; Mr. Alexander in this case as in many others. 



