TROTTING FAMILIES. 25 



Arab foundation. At all events, he was superlatively 

 excellent both as a race horse and as a sire, and Mes- 

 senger inherited most of his good qualities, but not his 

 extreme speed. Messenger, though running bred, was 

 a natural trotter, — the more so, perhaps, on account 

 of his somewhat straight shoulders and low withers. 

 It is true indeed that certain of our very fastest 

 trotters, notably Axtell and Palo Alto, have sloping 

 shoulders and fairly high withers ; but the Messenger 

 or Sampson conformation is that of the typical trotter. 

 Maud S., 1 Sunol, 2 and Nancy Hanks 3 are built thus. 



Messenger was an animal of great soundness and 

 vigor. One who saw him taken off the ship was ac- 

 customed to relate that three other horses, his com- 

 panions on the long voyage, "had become so reduced 

 and weak that they had to be helped and supported 

 down the gang-plank ; but when it became Messenger's 

 turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, rushed down, with 

 a negro on each side holding him back, and dashed up 

 the street at a stiff trot, carrying the grooms along in 

 spite of all their efforts to bring him to a standstill." 

 "When Messenger charged down the gang-plank," 

 Hiram Woodruff declared, " the value of not less than 

 one hundred million dollars struck our soil." 



Messenger died of colic, at Oyster Bay on Long 

 Island, in January, 1808, being then twenty-eight 

 years of age, and having attained such a height of 

 equine reputation that he was buried with military 

 honors, and a charge of musketry was fired over his 

 grave. 



1 Her record is 2.08|. 



2 Her record is 2.08^ on a kite-shaped track. 



3 See page 87. 



