THE TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA. 87 



and longevity. Messenger covered some twenty seasons in 

 this country ; and as he had plenty of mares, and was a 

 sure foal-getter, he must have been the sire of about a 

 thousand horses. Then conies the fact that his sons were 

 as long-lived and as thoroughly employed in the work of 

 increase as himself, and that his grandsons continued to 

 possess the fine qualities and peculiar gifts which he owned 

 and conferred. In this way, and taking into account the 

 singular faculty these horses have had of stamping the 

 living image of their line upon their produce, and of infus- 

 ing into their sons and daughters the less tangible but not 

 less real attributes of pluck, resolution, and endurance, we 

 shall be enabled to make some .estimate of the incalculable 

 influence Messenger has had upon the trotting-stock of this 

 country. 



It has been found that the blood of this famous horse 

 " hits " with almost any other strain ; perhaps it would 

 be more correct to say, that the constitution of the Messen- 

 gers is so good, and their individuality so strongly marked, 

 that, in the produce of their crosses with other families, their 

 blood always predominates. With the Stars it is of the 

 greatest value. The noted horse Brown Dick, whose trot- 

 ting education was received during the three or four years 

 he was in the hands of Dan Pfifer, was the first of this 

 cross that attracted my notice. His history is this : A man 

 named Dubois, who lived up in Orange or Duchess 

 County, had a colt by Star, that was wicked, and not 

 thought much of. Dubois, being in New York, bought 

 an old gray mare of the Messenger blood, out of a 

 cart, and, taking her home, had her covered by the Star 

 colt before he was made a gelding. The produce was 

 Brown Dick. His dam was a pacer; but the colt soon 

 became a fast and reliable trotter under Pfifer's manage- 

 ment. He first trotted at six years old. His best race 

 was against Patchen ; and he won it in 2.28, 2.25, 2.28. 

 He and Patchen and Miller's Damsel trotted another 



