THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTER 153 



fact and that in Imported Messenger originated 

 the best strains of trotting blood now in our 

 country. But how little this was then understood 

 or appreciated is shown by the fact that Abdallah, 

 now honored as the sire of that greatest of Amer- 

 ican trotting sires, Rysdyk's Hambletonian, was 

 allowed to die through neglect and starvation on 

 a sandy beach on Long Island. Apart from the 

 pathetic spectacle of the grand old horse perish- 

 ing in this ignominious and miserable way, the loss 

 thus unconsciously occasioned to the interests of 

 trotting-horses is a matter for deep regret and 

 recalls the scriptural text, " My people are de- 

 stroyed through lack of knowledge." 



There was a great deal of groping in the dark 

 in the breeding that followed and a great many 

 bitter disappointments and heart-sickening fail- 

 ures. A constant difficulty was that many of 

 the stallions in use were of such mingled strains 

 of blood that they were uncertain in transmitting 

 their qualities to their progeny. The principle 

 that " like begets like " is only operative among 

 animals of a pure breed, and when a stock-horse 

 is of such mixed lineage that his son or daughter 

 is liable to " take back " to any one of a dozen 

 ancestors, all different, there is little pleasure or 

 satisfaction in breeding. The introduction of 

 more thorough blood would have added to the pre- 



