GENERAL GRANT'S HORSES 121 



sway as a racehorse, especially in the small Western towns. 

 Here and there I have discovered a horse with excellent 

 blood-Unes in the most obscure places. Only the other 

 day, in this almost deserted village, I was attracted by the 

 step and air of a little black mare pulling a butcher's cart. 

 FaUing into conversation with her owner, the butcher, I took 

 a quick mental survey of the mare, and was convinced that 

 she only needed proper training to do a day's work at fast 

 trotting, which means one hundred miles in twelve con- 

 secutive hours.' 



Have you ever known a horse to make such time as 

 that? 



'Yes, I knew of one who had no special record who 

 travelled one hundred miles in ten hours and forty-five 

 minutes. That is where the Arab will always win over the 

 English thoroughbred. The latter may outrun the Arab in 

 the races for which he has been trained, but when the 

 thoroughbred begins to show signs of fatigue the Arab is 

 just "getting down" to work.' 



Have many Arabian horses come to us since the close of 

 the war ? 



' You have heard, of course, of Leopard and Linden Tree, 

 presented to General Grant by Abdul Hamid, the Sultan of 

 Turkey ? No American was more fully alive to the fact of 

 the sad reduction in numbers and quality of American 

 horses during the war, and no man ever Uved who more 

 dearly loved a good horse than General Grant. His accept- 

 ance of the Arabs was in a great measure influenced by 

 their special worth in the stud, realising that the race in 

 America must be rebuilt.' 



Did you not say there was some doubt about General 

 Grant's horses being the true-bred sons of the desert ? 



