438 THE HOUSE OF AMERICA. 



reputation as a sire of trotters and I have frequently met with his 

 cross in the pedigrees of good animals. This showing is not abso- 

 lutely complete, but it is infinitely better than any other that 

 has ever been given to the public. 



WAXY, the grandam of Sunol. When the two-year-old filly 

 Sunol in 1888 came out and trotted a mile in 2:18, it fairly took 

 one's breath away, and the first question' on every tongue was, 

 "How is she bred?" She was represented to be by Electioneer, 

 out of AVaxanaby General Benton, and she out of Waxy by Lexing- 

 ton, and "thoroughbred." When asked who bred her and how it 

 was known that Waxy was by Lexington, the answer came back 

 that the breeder was not known that she had been taken across 

 the plains by a man who died on the way. The search then 

 commenced for the breeder of Waxy and the identification of her 

 dam. As the search progressed there were some very curious 

 things developed. When it started in the spring it was a year- 

 ling stallion colt, and when it reached California, in the fall, it 

 was a two-year-old filly. More than this, it was shown by in- 

 dubitable proofs, such as they were, that she had two dams, and 

 then shown that she had no dam at all. With such a Kentucky 

 muddle on hand there was an excellent opportunity for a con- 

 troversy that might possibly become somewhat heated. This con- 

 troversy is famous in the history of the exposures of untruthful 

 pedigrees, and I will give a brief outline of it, with some speci- 

 mens of the evidence adduced to sustain it. 



Early in the spring of 1864 Mr. John P. Welch, an intelligent 

 man, trained to the profession of civil engineer, reached the blue 

 grass region of Kentucky for the purpose of securing and taking 

 across the plains a band of well-bred horses to California. In 

 this venture he was backed by Mr. John Anderson, a wealthy gen- 

 tleman of the latter State. Mr. Welch was successful in perfect- 

 ing his arrangements, and when on the very eve of starting he 

 sent forward a complete inventory of all the animals he had in 

 his band and sent this inventory to the California Spirit of the 

 limes, in which paper it was published May 14, 1864, and is as 

 follows: 



1. Bay inare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Glencoe, g.d. Ann 

 Merry. 



2. Bay filly, 3 years, by Vandal, dam Miss Singleton by Old Denmark, g.d. 

 Bellatnira by Monarch. 



3. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Commodore. 



