COMPARATIVE VALUE 343 



retained in full measure that wonderful power of trans- 

 mitting his virtues which has made his impress so strong 

 on all the stock we most prize at home. But he has never 

 been intelligently bred by the Arab world at large. We 

 may not, perhaps, deny that a few of the Arabs of the 

 Syrian desert have kept his qualities unsoiled ; but there 

 is no proof that he is any better to-day than he ever was. 

 We know that our thorough-bred stock is better than it 

 used to be, better than its desert ancestry. We know that 

 whenever our second-raters have met the best Arabians 

 they have conquered them even on their own soil, in their 

 own climate, and at their own distances. So far as such 

 things can be measured, we know that our performances 

 in England and America are quite unequalled by the Ara- 

 bian ; and we have good cause to believe that, for our 

 purposes, our common run of horses as much excel in 

 usefulness the common run of Arabians as they do in 

 size. Moreover, I do not believe that there was ever an 

 Arabian foaled which could perform the feat of the little 

 El Paso Chihuahua express pony. I am quite ready to 

 be corrected by a proper record. 



Eight here let me disclaim any value which may be 

 placed on the recent so-called Cowboy Race from Ne- 

 braska to Chicago. It was not a cowboy race, but a S. P. 

 C. A. race. Fancy sixty miles a day being the winning 

 gait ! Why, a decent cavalry brigade can march sixty 

 ' miles a day for a month. I speak on behalf of those men 

 who know the real value of broncos and plains horses, and 

 the real capacity of the cowboy to ride. For a man to 

 ride a distance race with an agent of the S. P, C. A. at 

 his elbow to keep him from committing Berghlary savors 

 keenly of the ridiculous. 



