OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 111 
FULFILLER OF SHOWYARD DREAMS 
39. The court of ultimate resort in the affairs of animal indus- 
try has, since the first of the present century, been located in 
the International Livestock Exposition held at Chicago each 
year. The burden of developing this institution was laid on 
the shoulders of Mr. WiLuiam E. SKINNER, in the spring of 1898. 
In company with Messrs. Ropert B. OciLvie (6), MorTIMER 
LevEriING (40), and G. Howarp Davison (8), at one of the 
Toronto Livestock Expositions, the idea of the International 
was generated, and on Mr. SKINNER was conferred the title of 
General Manager of the exposition, a title that became obsolete 
with his departure as a compliment to the wealth of his service. 
Mr. SKINNER is a native Canadian, his birthplace being Water- 
town, Ontario, on June 24, 1864. His father was a physician, 
but various circumstances prevented his receiving the customary 
public school education, and at twenty years of age, he crossed 
the border to become a citizen of the United States, a fact accom- 
plished in 1886. His first work was with the Erie & Western 
Railway, afterward a part of the Erie System. In 1884 he came 
to the Union Stock Yards in Chicago, and entered into duty 
with the Stock Yard Company, the beginning of an experience 
with the livestock market that has occupied the major years of 
his life. After three months in Chicago he transferred his alle- 
giance to the Street Stable Car Line, and personally conducted 
the first stable car across the Missouri river to Cheyenne. 
During his three years with this company his headquarters were 
at Cheyenne, and he lived an integral part of the boom days of 
the cattle country. In 1887 he entered the service of the Omaha 
Stock Yards Co. and so intimate did he grow into the market 
interests of the early cattle barons, that today he is known by 
his first name and wholesomely loved wherever cattle graze 
between Omaha and Cheyenne. The year prior to the Colum- 
bian Exposition he was sent to Fort Worth to help organize the 
