In 1900, referring to their early career 

 with this bull (Breeder's Gazette, Aug. 

 1, 1900), the Messrs. Robbins wrote: 



"When Gay Monarch arrived at our 

 farm he was severely criticised for being 

 heavy in the horn, crooked in the hind 

 legs and drooping in the rump. Many 

 other defects were found by those self- 

 constituted critics who came to see him, 

 but we took him to our county fair 

 (Decatur county, Indiana) and there he 

 had to take second place, being beaten 

 by Prize Cup, a red Young Mary bull 

 bred by Colonel Moberly, which could 

 almost stand astraddle of our little, 

 short-legged bull. At Seymour, Ind., 

 however, we fared better, having a judge 

 who had respect for short legs, and he 

 gave him his class ribbon and the cham- 

 pionship, too. As a 2-year-old he was 

 turned down in class at Terre Haute, 

 but by another judge awarded the cham- 

 pionship, and the rest of the season 

 (1889) was a winner. As a 3-year-old 

 he came out a hard bull to beat, and 

 his calves were with him, winning as 

 well as he, and from that time until 

 he was retired from the shows his his- 

 tory is pretty well know^n, as he Tvas 

 only shown at the best shows of the 

 country, and his winnings are a matter 

 of history." 



In a sketch of Gay Monarch it will be 

 appropriate to refer to his more impor- 

 tant show ring record. Perhaps his first 

 appearance in a really great fair was 

 in 1889 as a 2-year-old at the Indiana 

 state fair, where he met no competition 

 in class, but was received with much 

 favor. Up to this time he had won four- 

 teen prizes. He passed over the promi- 

 nent 1890 circuit, coming out again at 

 the Indiana show in 1891, where in the 

 aged bull class he was placed second, 

 William Warfield being judge. At the 

 same show, however, he w^as later made 

 sweepstakes bull over all beef breeds, 

 but not by the same judge. In 1892 he 

 was made first-prize aged bull at the 

 Ohio and Indiana state fairs, showing 

 at the latter place against Toung Ab- 

 botsburn. This is the only instance in 

 which Gay Monarch defeated Toung 

 Abbotsburn, and this award was not in 

 accordance with the evidence. These 

 two great bulls met on various occasions 

 in the show ring, and the general con- 

 sensus of opinion was that the latter was 

 the superior show animal of the two. 

 This same season Gay Monarch was sec- 



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