INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES. 429 



tormentors made a copy of it, and no one of them was satisfied 

 with it; even the inquisitor-general said it fell far short of what 

 they wanted, but that by industriously speaking of it as a re- 

 cantation, the public would soon come to treat it as a recantation. 



When, after years of fruitless effort, Mr. Brodhead, manager 

 at Woodburn Farm, got control of registration, he made an early 

 move to have the cloud removed from the pedigree of the stal- 

 lion Lord Eussell, and brought the matter before the neocracy of 

 his own creation, of which he was himself the head and brains, 

 and the action thereon was published in Wallace's Monthly for 

 February, 1893. The presentation is imposing in length and 

 abounds in many things that have no possible bearing on the 

 question at issue. Unfortunately I have no means of determin- 

 ing the extent to which the crime of the interpolation or excision 

 has been made manifest except in two of the exhibits which I 

 will give. In Exhibit 1 (Holton's letter above) the following 

 words are interpolated: "and in justice to all I correct my state- 

 ment." These words are not very important to the meaning, 

 but they are very important as indicating the accuracy, and hence 

 reliability, of a witness. In the same exhibit Mr. Brodhead says: 

 "I insist that you will oblige me," etc., while the original uses 

 the word "trust" instead of "insist." Again, Mr. Brodhead has 

 his letter dated June 11, 1893, instead of June 12, 1883, as it is 

 in the original. The variation of the dates here seems to have 

 had a purpose, whatever it may have been. This letter must 

 have been a great trouble, for I have seen three or four copies 

 of it, so called, and no two of them alike. 



I was duly notified that the question of Sally Russell's pedigree 

 would be brought up at that meeting, and requested to be there 

 to sustain my view of that question. The court and the jury 

 were made up of Brodhead's creatures, and organized simply to 

 register his edicts. The wise man said, "Surely in vain the net 

 is spread in the sight of any bird." The bird looked on, from a 

 safe distance, and saw the fowler impaled in his own snare, by his 

 own act, and his true character revealed to the world. It is very 

 difficult to understand just why it should have been deemed 

 necessary to cut out the very pith and heart of Mr. Holton's 

 letter, when he knew that it would make no difference with his 

 court whether there was any evidence at all. Under the law of 

 retribution, a man's character may be determined by his own 

 acts. 



