538 THE HORSE OF AMERICAo 



reasoned, "and it is possible it can be bought, but if bought it must 

 be done before that stock is scattered among the breeders of the 

 different States. There are Russell Allen and Malcolm Forbes 

 and a whole lot of rich fellows just coming into the trotting 

 horse business and I can show them that this property would be 

 a good investment. With the money in one hand and the bluff 

 of starting an opposition Register in the other, it is possible the 

 property might be got for something like its value." He next 

 probably reasoned: "The first thing to consider here, is how to 

 make that bluff sufficiently imposing and effective, in an authori- 

 tative way; and shall it be a mass meeting or a delegate meeting, 

 and where shall it be held? I have seen Packer and he evi- 

 dently wants to know what there is in it for him and Mali, in case 

 they agree to call a National convention. They want to perpetu- 

 ate their offices in their present so-called National Association. 

 If it should be a mass convention, and held at Chicago, I could 

 send up a few carloads of farmers' sons from around here and 

 every one of them would swear he was a breeder. If it should 

 be a delegate convention from State Breeders' Associations, there 

 are several States that have no such associations, but I could get 

 a few friends to organize for th'e purpose of sending delegates. 

 The horse papers would be a unit on our side, for they have been 

 'set on' so often and so hard that they would like to see the old 

 bear superseded. Beside this, every one of those papers has at 

 least the one man who is competent to succeed Wallace, and 

 every editor who has been in the business six months thinks he 

 is fully qualified for that place. But the real roar of the shout- 

 ing would come from the angry men whom Wallace has disap- 

 pointed in refusing to accept their pedigrees or their perform- 

 ances because they were irregular. These men are very numer- 

 ous and we must have as many of them present as possible. I 

 think this plan will work," he doubtless reasoned with himself,, 

 "if we can only keep Wallace in the dark till we get things fixed, 

 and to throw him off his guard I will send him three or four 

 pedigrees to register." 



Thus the plan of the conspiracy, with all the elements to be 

 employed, were evidently matured in Mr. Brodhead's mind. 

 There were two points about which he was specially solicitous. 

 The first was that I should be kept wholly in the dark as to his 

 movements and purposes, and the second was some apparently 

 official authority for calling a convention at Chicago that would 



