I 5 GENERAL GRANTS ARABIAN STALLIONS, 



investigated. If Arabian blood was of value to England, to France, 

 and to Russia, so it could be to America, for certainly we have not the 

 self-sustaining types in horses to do credit to any civilized country as 

 have the nations cited. Should we export our present horses ? 



Having obtained all I could from Paymaster Smith, I awaited Gen- 

 eral E. F. Beale's return from California. From him I did not get 

 what I wanted. I then wrote to General Grant himself, and give below 

 his reply. 



" Long Branch, N. J., July 28, 1882. 

 " Randolph Huntington, Rochester, N. Y. 



" Dear Sir, — About my Arabian horses, I cannot answer all your questions, 

 but what I know I will give you. 



"I was in Constantinople in March, 1S78, and visited the Sultan, and with 

 him his stables. 



" All of his horses were of the most approved and purest blood (and there 

 were about seventy horses in the stables I visited). I was told that the pedigrees 

 of all of them ran back from five to seven hundred years (in breed). 



" Two of the horses that I then saw were sent to me as a present from the 

 Sultan by the first steamer directly to the United States from that port. I do 

 not know the name of the steamer, nor the date of its departure or arrival. They 

 (the horses) were consigned to General E. F. Beale, of Washington City, who can 

 probably inform you upon those points. Leopard was five years old when I first 

 saw him, and Linden four, I think. I am certain as to the age of the first, and 

 think I am right about the age of the second. 



" The fact of these horses being from the Sultan's own private stables, and 

 being a present from him as an appreciation of our country among the nations 

 of the earth, is the best proof of the purity of their blood. 



" Very truly yours, 



"U. S. GRANT." 



I now knew that neither General Grant, General Beale, nor Pay- 

 master-General Smith could give me the identifying facts I wanted for 

 fifty years hence. 



I remembered hearing my cousin, Mrs. Dr. Anderson, of New 

 Haven, Connecticut, say to me one day while visiting there, that Gen- 

 eral Grant had two horses arrive at that port by a foreign vessel, and 

 that they were said to be Arabians. Upon which she went to the doc- 

 tor's desk and took out some nails his blacksmiths had given him when 

 they removed the shoes to re-shoe the stallions. 



As these remarks were incidental with other subjects at the time, 1 

 paid no special attention to them ; but memory often comes to our help, 



