404 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



looked good to butchers who counted wastes. Mr. 

 Gillett 's McMullin was of course impossible. It was 

 almost a crime to bring him back, but he had a 

 pasture-brother called Storm that was possibly the 

 best steer, from the viewpoint of the "progres- 

 sives" of that day, that Mr. Gillett had ever pro- 

 duced, standing much nearer the ground than was 

 customary with the Gillett cattle. Then there was 

 Mr. Earl's imported Wabash, back again at a 

 weight of 2,350 pounds. 



It is doubtful if there has ever been a ring of 

 cattle judged in America where the issue was await- 

 ed with greater interest than this championship of 

 the Chicago show of 1883. The short leet (those 

 drawn for final adjudication) contained not one sin- 

 gle specimen of the old-time type. Their day was 

 almost done. Weight was still in evidence, but it 

 was carried in smaller compass and on shorter legs. 



Two votes were finally cast for Eoan Boy, and 

 that of the other committeeman for Wabash.* The 



"The author, as a young man, had the task of reporting this 

 show, and turning back to our old notes we find the following: 



"In Roan Boy's vacant stall, cool and collected, Mr. Culbertson 

 sat awaiting the result. No outward sign betrayed the intense 

 interest which he, above all others, must have felt in the de- 

 cision. The Hereford yell reached his ears, but scarcely sooner 

 than the swift-footed Clark, who was tl\e first to convey the 

 news of victory and grasp the hand of the man to whom Here- 

 fords owe more than to any other in America. An impromptu 

 levee was in an instant begun; and without the least show of 

 exultation, the fortunate owner of the prize animal, Grant-like, 

 lit a cigar and received the congratulations of his friends, dis- 

 patching 'Charlie' to cable the news to Mr. Price, at Bingley 

 Hall, Birmingham, Eng. 'It was a famous victory'; but the 

 champion's roan coat reflected a share of the glory back upon 

 his mother's Shorthorn ancestry." 



Roan Boy was sold to H. M. Kinsley, proprietor of the leading 

 restaurant of that date in Chicago, who pronounced the beef the 

 finest he had ever seen. His horns were saved, mounted and pre- 

 sented by Mr. Culbertson to "The Breeder's Gazette," and have 

 ever since decorated a space in the walls of the office of that 

 publication. 



