CHAPTER XXV 



THE AMERICAN HORSE 



Was our civil war so immensely destructive of our best 

 horses, Count ? 



' Alas, yes ! the war almost depleted the country of its 

 thoroughbreds. I had not yet found a home in America, 

 but all Europe rang with accounts of the hearty response, 

 and self-forgetting rush to arms, which was made by men 

 of all classes, in defence of their country and its honoured 

 institutions.' 



Ah, Count, that was but the practical expression of a 

 noble patriotism ! There are many large and generous 

 hearts in America, and each individual man and woman 

 longed to help, if only a little. I know that the farmers 

 and owners of valuable breeds offered willingly to the 

 government their most precious possessions, their horses, 

 and begged President Lincoln to accept them. The pro- 

 portion of horses to men was one hundred to one, and 

 it seems incredible that so many should have been 

 slain ! 



' It seems so, and those offered were the best and 

 finest in the land, and were the staUions and geldings. 



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