388 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



To make matters worse a protest by Mr. Culbert- 

 son alleged that this steer McMullin was ineligible 

 to show in the three-year-old ring, that as a matter 

 of fact he was a four-year-old. This was disallowed 

 further proof, of course, to Hereford eyes that 

 the management was " packed" against their inter- 

 ests. And so the great event of the cattle year, the 

 show for the grand championship of the Hall, came 

 on. The same committee that had preferred the 

 Shorthorn to the Hereford was ordered to tie the 

 ribbon. This was. almost more than the Hereford 

 partisans could bear. They made indignant protest, 

 but to no avail. The author remembers well the 

 suppressed excitement of the hours that followed. 

 A good part of the afternoon was consumed by the 

 five men constituting the judicial bench, but from 

 the beginning there was only one outcome possible 

 under the circumstances. Only by stultifying them- 

 selves could the jury reverse the previous decision; 

 and yet they knew that a veritable volcano was 

 ready to explode the moment they ordered the prize 

 to McMullin. This they did amidst the mingled 

 cheers and maledictions of the victors and van- 

 quished.* 



War to the Knife. At a meeting of the Here- 

 ford association held at the Grand Pacific Hotel on 

 Friday night after this contest, showing a member- 



*At this show Mr. Marshall Field, Chicago's dry-goods mer- 

 chant prince of that period, offered a prize of $250 for best pen 

 of five cattle of any age or breed, and Mr. Miller won it, a de- 

 cision which atoned somewhat for the defeat of Conqueror. Mr. 

 Field afterwards stocked a Nebraska ranch with Herefords, 

 which for a long series of years were under the able manage- 

 ment of Mr. Thomas Mortimer. 



