HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED. 533 



self that it would be justifiable to hire and pay a man to transfer 

 it from my possession to his own. 



During its very short life and while the memory of the book 

 was retained in the recollections of the horsemen of that period, 

 it was very generally, if not invariably, spoken of as "The Tom 

 Titmouse Stud Book." It has already been suggested how this 

 name would aptly fit in among my "marked bills," but the 

 reason for it has not been made apparent. In Warren's romance 

 called "Ten Thousand a Year," his "delectable," or to speak 

 soberly, his "detestable" hero was named "Tittlebat Titmouse," 

 and as one of the gentlemen involved in this controversy strongly 

 reminded me of Warren's hero, by his arrogance and ignorance, 

 I involuntarily wrote in the "marked bill" "dam by Tittlebat 

 Titmouse;" but upon looking at it I concluded it was not good 

 bait, for it was doubtful whether any man in the world who ever 

 owned a horse would name him after so contemptible a character. 

 Hence, to make it less conspicuous it was changed to read "dam 

 by Tom Titmouse, pacer," and the bait was swallowed in a 

 twinkling. The Kentucky scheme, from its very inception, had 

 its motive in securing a local and personal advantage over the 

 breeders of every other section of the country and hence the 

 provisions of the "Pinafore" standard, from which the promoters- 

 were only driven by exposure and ridicule. The piracy was con- 

 summated as proved by a hundred witnesses that will never die, 

 and of which the "marked bill" element, such as "Tom Titmouse, 

 pacer," is an unmistakable representative. With the inception, 

 and consummation both understood and named, how could we find 

 another name so fit as "The Tom Titmouse Stud Book?" To 

 this might be added, on an amended title-page: "Edited by a 

 clerk employed by Lucas Brodhead and Henry C. McDowell of 

 Kentucky." 



Some three or four years after the death and burial of the "Tom 

 Titmouse" book and when its odoriferous memory had become 

 less offensive, another effort was made to get control of the regis- 

 tration business, by the same parties in Kentucky. Mr. Brod- 

 head did not appear prominently in this move, but worked 

 through his echo, McDowell. The plan was to present a monster 

 petition to the National Trotting Association, composed chiefly 

 of track owners and track followers, to establish a trotting regis- 

 ter. This petition purported to be from breeders, but in fact it 

 embraced all the "swipes" and stable-boys about Lexington and 



