"LEOPARD" AND "LINDEN TREE." 15 



about the stable, for that is the place the disposition is improved or 

 spoiled. When two years old, my daughter could drive the son of 

 Leopard anywhere, for he was fearless and reliable. 



I will now speak particularly of the colors of Arabian horses. I 

 have before said that one of General Grant's stallions had been re- 

 ported through a leading daily paper as "jet-blacky Hundreds who 

 read that, will believe it and report it for fifty years to come, until it 

 becomes traditional. It is a bad mistake, as a black Arabian is an 

 unusual color, and denotes inferiority. I will quote again from Sir 

 W. S. Blunt: "Bay with black points, and with generally a white foot, 

 or two or three white feet, and a snip or blaze down the face, are 

 prominent among the Anazeh or Bint El Ahwaj breed. Grays are 

 also common, then chestnut of different shades. The spotted, or pie- 

 bald, or parti-colored horses are unknown among the pure Arabs. 

 The pure white is very highly prized." 



At birth, the gray horse is black ; and the true black horse is born 

 of a brown shade. In the first moulting, the proper color shows itself to 

 the breeder. The dapple-gray will show gray at the first moulting, but 

 the blue-gray and black-gray will carry a black coat into the second 

 and third moulting, the black hairs always shedding first, so that the 

 novice is frequently puzzled to tell what colored horse he is to have at 

 maturity. The blue-gray grows to a white gray, but the dapple-gray 

 holds its distinctive color longest, as a rule. 



Having bred my mares to General Grant's Arabs in the spring of 

 1880, I became quite anxious to know all particulars relating to them, 

 lest in future days some as yet unborn writer should tell his readers 

 that General Grant's horses were genuine imported Barbs, or maybe 

 Andalusian horses, when any old man knowing to the contrary would 

 be disputed into silence. The pedigrees of our horses credit Arabian 

 blood frequently in some of the fastest and most valued animals ; but 

 attempt to unravel such breedings, and one lands among the "said to 

 be's," which is not the case in England, or in Russia, or in France. 

 They breed thoroughbreds of various kinds, and tell you how they are 

 bred to a certainty; while with us, the time standard for the present 

 generation settles it all, in which blood is of no value except in the 

 black article known as printers' ink. 



In fifteen years after Seward's Arabs were imported, any authentic 

 information as to their blood and breeding, their whereabouts, or their 

 get, was a difficult matter to get at. The same was the case with those 

 of James K. Polk, and so it has been in many instances where I have 



