488 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



this, Boston was not a thoroughbred horse, for neither his sire 

 nor his grandam was thoroughbred. A curious phase of the in- 

 terest attached to the mere word "thoroughbred" was brought 

 out by a Catholic priest, in New Jersey, in a very cranky and 

 ill-natured letter addressed to the editor of Wallace's Monthly 

 protesting against the frequent use of the term "running-bred" 

 instead of "thoroughbred." Priests are generally educated men, 

 but this poor man struck out into a field where he was entirely ig- 

 norant. A horse with two or three immediate and direct running 

 crosses may be properly and truthfully called, "running bred," 

 because that blood predominates in his veins, but to be justly 

 and truthfully called "thoroughly bred" he must have at least 

 five direct and distinct crosses, and each and every one of them 

 pure and without any contamination from any other blood. As 

 an illustration of what results from this definition of the word 

 "thoroughbred," we may take the very cream of our old Ameri- 

 can racing families and not one in fifty is "thoroughly bred." 

 American Eclipse was far short of being thoroughbred, even if 

 we admit that Messenger was thoroughbred. Timoleon, the 

 greatest son of Sir Archy, had an impossible and untruthful 

 pedigree on the side of his dam. His great son Boston was short 

 and deficient on both sides, and with these taints how could he 

 get the great blind horse Lexington and make him a thorough- 

 bred? These horses were distinctively "running bred," but not 

 technically "thoroughbred." It is not to be presumed the priest 

 was angry because I preferred not to use a word that conveyed 

 an untruth and to use one that told the exact truth, for he was 

 not qualified to judge which was true and which was not true, 

 but like hundreds of others he feared the value of his property 

 might be affected by the refusal to apply the term "thorough- 

 bred" to some supposable cross in some of his pedigrees. 



"More running blood in the trotter" was a "fad" that has 

 been completely extinguished by all the experiences of later years. 

 It was a freak that never had any foundation either in nature or 

 in reason. No animal can transmit to his posterity qualities and 

 capacities which he has not inherited, or which he does not 

 possess by acquirement. This is a rule which seems to be per- 

 fectly plain to the comprehension of everybody, and in observa- 

 tion and experience it proves itself true every day of the year. 

 To breed a horse that can go fast at the trotting or pacing gait 

 we must go to the horse and the blood that has gone fast at one or 



