FIRST PAT STOCK SHOWS 395 



was fitting that the last honor to be paid should fall 

 to Mr. Gillett. Throughout all the Mississippi Val- 

 ley states he had for almost a generation carried 

 high the banner of good blood as an essential ele- 

 ment in successful cattle-feeding. He was now ap- 

 proaching the close of his career as the acknowl- 

 edged leader in his field. He had followed the 

 standards of his time to their highest possible devel- 

 opment and was too far advanced in years either 

 to change his type of cattle or to forsake the Short- 

 horn for any substitute. He made these first fat 

 stock shows possible. He was as gracious in defeat 

 as in an hour of triumph, and bravely fought the 

 battle for the big ones to the very end. 



No less than forty-one steers were contributed by 

 Mr. Gillett to the show of 1882, among them being 

 McMuUin, champion of 1881, brought back at a 

 weight of 2,565 pounds. This impressive demon- 

 stration was backed up in royal fashion by Iowa's 

 crown prince of cattle feeders, D. M. Moninger, Mr. 

 Gillett 's most distinguished disciple, with twenty 

 massive corn-fed bullocks that were rich enough to 

 sate the stomach of the heartiest John Bull in all 

 Britain. Both of these exhibits represented the last 

 word in the open-air, com-and-grass-made beef of 

 the period. They represented prime-beef produc- 

 tion upon a large commercial scale. The day of the 

 hand-fed, sugar-stuffed, blanteted and pampered 

 beauties from the basement boxes of professional 

 showmen bad not yet struck, although near at hand. 



Mr. Moninger 's Tom Brown was declared best 



