HISTORY OP HEREFORD CATTLE 



185 



The facts were so plain to a practical breeder, 

 and, when coming before the public, though 

 startling, the more they were stirred, the more 

 plainly the proof appeared. The way Mr. Mat- 

 thews sifted Mr. Bates' pedigrees in the "Na- 

 tional Live Stock Journal" and stating unde- 

 niable facts of their mixed-up alloys were suffi- 

 cient proof of his intentional misleadings. Judge 

 T. C. Jones and J. H. Sanders, publishing these 

 articles without comment, were at the same time 

 insane on Bates and his "top crosses," neither 

 of them being capable of detecting which alloy 

 had the advantage. 



The mania cry was "pure Bates," "absolutely 

 pure," and men went headlong into this "pur- 

 ity" like maniacs released from an asylum, 

 proof of which was so palpable at the New York 

 Mills sale, that "he who runs could read." 

 Bates and his clique consisted of the men I have 

 named ; the tongues and pens of those who had 

 but little money were freely exercised by favor 

 of those who had. 



Mr. John R. Page was a special pleader. He 

 made in-and-in pedigrees pure, assisted by L. 

 F. Allen and Ambrose Stevens; to make this 

 more sure he sketched very flattering portraits 

 of pet animals, and Lewis F. Allen placed them 

 in the Herd Book, which was sufficient to create 

 an excitement. John R. Page had just the tools 

 to do it. (ff 90) (fl 91) His pencil and ruler 

 could draw straight lines out of an original 

 crookedness. He had a faultless art of making 

 crooked side-lines straight, could make high 

 hips low, coarse bone fine, smoothen rough shoul- 

 ders, transfer thin necks into prominent neck 

 veins; "sweet heads" was a specialty with him, 

 as he invariably carries that pattern in his eye, 

 and his brain -was always addled with it. He 

 always patronizes "up-standing style," conse- 

 quently could not shorten the legs to change 

 that character in the fashionable Dukes, but he 

 made their bone finer and much out of pro- 

 portion. John could not make a picture in 

 Shorthorns without excessive flattery no matter 

 how uneven the original was ; the one on paper 

 was all straight lines, and thus they appeared 

 in the Herd Book and sale catalogue, which 

 were John's principal advertisers, assisted by 

 Lewis F. Allen's and Ambrose Stevens' tongues 

 and pens. Examine all his pictures there and 

 you will find a straight furrow along the back 

 of those so-called breeding animals, as if made 

 up of blubber and over-ripe for Christmas show. 



Here let me ask any practical man who has 

 seen the original Dukes (j[ 92) whether they 

 ever saw a full neck vein, a smooth shoulder 

 point, a straight under-line or full crops on 

 either of them all strong signs of constitution 



and quality? Then look in the Herd Book and 

 see how John R. Page has straightened them and 

 blended each together, so that the picture on 

 paper appeared ideal. Can any reasonable man 

 see such transactions with such proof before 

 him in any other light but that of deception ? 

 But it fully corresponds with the "ins and outs" 

 of the Bates pedigrees, and thus all went hand- 

 in-hand. I am exceedingly sorry that the best 

 Shorthorns should be abused by novices which 

 brought a curse upon them. 



The next position was that John should be 

 the Bates auctioneer. I saw him at . his first 

 appearance on the nostrum sell the noted herd 

 of Mr. Haines of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. 

 His audience was looking for a strong "opening 

 speech" on the Dukes, and "pure breeding," but 

 were much disappointed. On going to the scaf- 

 fold, raised for his exaltation, all eyes were upon 

 him, expecting great things to come to pass in 



BEN HERSHEY, MUSCATINE, IA. 



(Member Organization Committee American Hereford Cattle 

 Breeders' Association.) 



the Shorthorn world, and from the tongue of 

 him who professed to be "the Herd Book in 

 breeches," the infallible man of Bates. 



No sooner had he shuffled himself into posi- 

 tion, he stood erect as if studying attitude. In 

 this state of mind he resembled an automaton. 

 He then moved gracefully, flourishing his right 



