THE SHOCK OF SHOWYARD WAR 543 



Hereford was peculiar. They were strangers in a 

 strange land. To three out of five people on the 

 fair grounds their cattle were an utter novelty, and, 

 while it was believed that honest decision would be 

 rendered, it was scarcely anticipated that people 

 born and bred to another ideal in cattle would dis- 

 card at first sight all they had been led to admire in 

 a beef animal and award the palm to beasts differing 

 so widely in essential characteristics from the Blue 

 Grass Shorthorn. One man would object that cattle 

 built like these Heref ords ' couldn 't get through mud 

 at all, ' while others condemned for what they pleased 

 to term their 'lack of style. ' The * white face ' failed to 

 carry his head high enough to suit the average spec- 

 tator, while the fact that they were so superior in 

 front, heart, crops, rib, back and loin, and so well 

 let down in the twist, could not atone apparently 

 for any weakness about the rump. They were called 

 small, too, by many who had never seen a deep- 

 fleshed, short-legged Hereford weighed, and, while 

 the Shorthorn section abounded in animals deficient 

 in more vital points than those which were objected 

 to in the Herefords, there were few who could ad- 

 mit that the latter were the equal of the old-time 

 favorites. There were some notable exceptions, how- 

 ever, and more than one farmer was heard to ex- 

 press a desire to try the Hereford on Kentucky soil ; 

 so that, while it cannot be said that the visitors did 

 more than insert an entering "wedge, they have 

 i broken the ice' in such a manner as to lead them 

 to expect a more encouraging reception another 

 year. 



"A dozen animals filed into the arena in compe- 

 tition for the male championships of the yard, and 

 as they fell into the semi-circular line formed by 

 the amphitheatre with a Hereford for a base at 



