PROSPERITY REGAINED 923 



in this connection. Suffice it to say that, everything 

 considered, he has had no superior as yet in the 

 ranks of American breeders of Hereford cattle. The 

 dispersion of the old herd has already been referred 

 to. In "The Breeder's Gazette " for June 7, 1911, 

 the author of this volume endeavored to pay a suit- 

 able tribute to Mr. VanNatta 's memory, from which 

 we may here extract the following: 



' ' Mr. VanNatta will live in American agricultural 

 history as one who contributed heavily to the sum 

 total of progress registered in his chosen field dur- 

 ing the span of his activities. His career as one of 

 the greatest cattle breeders this country has yet pro- 

 duced abounds in inspirations for those who would 

 follow in his footsteps. But the one mountain peak 

 standing out in bold relief in the outlines of his 

 progress is unswerving tenacity of purpose. One 

 can but admire the indomitable pluck, the infinite 

 patience that characterized his unfaltering devotion 

 to the cause he had espoused throughout all the al- 

 ternating periods of adversity and depression. The 

 lesson of his life is just this: It pays to stand by 

 one's colors; it pays to keep one's head during 

 'booms/ and one's nerve during depressions; it pays 

 to be ruggedly honest always. The fact may as well 

 be admitted first as last that, as a people, we are 

 not possessed in high degree of that quality of 

 dogged persistence that finds probably its best na- 

 tional expression in the life of Gen. U. S. Grant. 

 William S. VanNatta became convinced in the early 

 '70 's that the ' white faces' were the best beef cattle 

 of the day, and in their cause he enlisted not for 

 * ninety days' but 'for the war'; and upon that line 

 he fought it out to a finish that not only brought 

 fame to himself but honor to the Hereford name. ' ' 



