RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



ments at the Windsor, I found him a picture of de- 

 spair. Photographs of the dead boy were much in 

 evidence, and tears ran down the cheeks of the father 

 when he spoke of his loss. I tried to divert the 

 thoughts of the Senator into brighter channels, but 

 there was always a quick return to the one engrossing 

 subject. Several times I arose to go, but was urged 

 to remain. It looked as if grief had caused the foun- 

 dations of strength to crumble. Could it be possible 

 that the tottering man before me had been one of 

 the stalwart figures who had joined the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific by bands of steel, who for years had 

 shaped the destinies of California in the executive 

 chair at Sacramento and in the Senate chamber at 

 Washington; who had helped to turn the hills and 

 valleys of a great territory into mines of wealth more 

 enduring than those of silver and gold, and who had 

 mastered, as no other man of his time had done, that 

 most difficult of problems, the moulding of equine 

 form to balanced action? Fortunately this period 

 of demoralizing depression did not last, and the next 

 time I met Senator Stanford he outlined the plans 

 of the great university at Palo Alto in memory of his 

 son. He said nothing of perpetuating his own mem- 

 ory, but coming generations, who look upon the 

 stately group of buildings in the valley where Elec- 

 tioneer achieved greatness, will think of the father 

 rather than of the son. 



The breeding and development theories of Senator 

 Stanford, which had stood the test of ridicule, were 



92 



