Speaking Generally 3 



part of which sprung from a feeling of companionship so 

 common to horse and rider on long journeys through 

 nature's heart. With both young men and young women 

 in the young South horseback riding was a fashion and 

 an art long since displaced. In seeking to checkmate his 

 rival who rode a thoroughbred the gallant who did not 

 was apt to win no greater stake than an invitation to his 

 own "funeral." No creation of man's ingenuity in devi- 

 sing means of transportation has ever excited greater pop- 

 ular interest or wrought a greater or more beneficent 

 influence upon the customs and habits of the people. 

 What the half-tone is to literature the thoroughbred was 

 to the entire social fabric. He raised existence above the 

 humdrum and the commonplace. He gave a new mean- 

 ing to life a new reason for sunshine and green grass. 



To determine the best stock to breed from, tests on the 

 race course were deemed necessary. "We can only judge 

 correctly of the intellectual and moral worth of our great 

 men when we view them on the world's stage in competi- 

 tion with distinguished competitors," said Gen. Har- 

 ding. "Without a theatre the world could never have 

 known those distinguished delineators of human character 

 whose names now fill many an honored page in human 

 history. Without a race course the breeder could not 

 know the superior horses and the best strains to propa- 

 gate, and without this knowledge his improvement would 

 cease and deterioration begin. The race course is a neces- 

 sity." This was the view of breeders generally, from the 

 foundation of the industry in the United States, and the 

 same rule has always prevailed in everything from cab- 

 bages to kings. 



In these tests of individual types and families, with the 

 view of propagating the best stock, competition and ri- 

 valry between owners, communities and states as to the 



