FOREST AND STREAM, 



Ms material services, will thank this gentleman for his 

 efforts, and heartily second them. In the Forest and 

 Stream he will find an earnest coadjutor. After reviewing 

 the efforts within the current year of the National Associ- 

 ation, of which Amasa Sprague, of Providence, is Presi- 

 dent, and of the Trainer's and Driver's Protective Associ- 

 ation, to improve the management of the turf, he makes 

 the following just strictures upon the evil of pool-selling, 

 which he properly regards as the great curse of the course. 

 He says: — 



"It weighs like an incubus on the turf. It affords the 

 straight-laced an opportunity to declare that the chief end 

 and aim of racing is gambling. It brings a noisy and un- 

 clean class into prominence. The chronic rogue and the 

 brazen-faced swindler are inveterate pool-buyers. The 

 ^harpers combine to fleece the unsuspecting public whenever 

 they can. They tamper with the horses" and the drivers, 

 and hesitate at nothing to accomplish their designs. The 

 pool-box is responsible for three-fourths of the frauds which 

 take place on the turf. The largest breeders and owners of 

 horses do not haunt the pool -stand. As a rule, our most 

 eminent breeders are not betting men. The men most bene- 

 fitted by pool-selling are sharpers, who make a business of 

 following the horses from meeting to meeting. So long as 

 pool-gambling is made a prominent and an offensive feature 

 of the course, there are thousands of people of religious 

 training who have a natural fondness for fast horseflesh, 

 who will object to going themselves or to taking their fami- 

 lies to view the races. We should enjoy sport for sport's 

 sake, and not make it subservient to a gambling interest. 

 The faint roar of the revolut ion, I am pleased to write, is 

 heard. There is a strong movement to do away with the 

 pool-stand, and as this movement is gaining strength all the 

 while, its final success seems to be but a question of the 

 future," 



The same writer specifies the most prominent Trotting 

 Parks in the country, which are the Buffalo, at Buffalo; 

 Narragansett, at Providence, R. I. ; Prospect, near Brook- 

 lyn; Fleetwood, near New York; Hamden, at Springfield, 

 Mass.; Dexter, Chicago; Utica, at Utica, N. Y. ; Herdic, 

 at Williamsport, Penn. : Point Breeze, at Philadelphia, 

 Beacon, at Boston, and the Buckeye, at Cincinati. Al- 

 most every important town in the Northern States has 

 its trotting course. In the Southern States the trotting 

 course is not so popular, running races being more largely 

 patronized there. 



He also names the following celebrated breeding farms : 

 Stonyford, in Orange county; Waldberg, near Haverstraw, 

 on the Hudson; Thorndale, in Dutchess county; Spring 

 Hill near Flushing, Long Island; The Home Farm, near 

 Boston; Fairview, Woodburn, and Forest Park, in Ken- 

 tucky. Tke strength of the prominent breeding establish- 

 ments, averages from eighty to one hundred and twenty- 

 five head of horses. At Waldberg as well as Stonyford the 

 animals number 200. With from thirty to fifty brood mares 

 constantly producing, the stables and paddocks would 

 overflow were not the ranks thinned out by annual sales. 

 Mr. Busby's account of the long and fierce rivalry of Mr. 

 Bonner and Mr. Vanderbilt is interesting. This rivalry be- 

 gan some fifteen years ago. 



Whenever a promising horse was heard of the agents of Bon- 

 ner and Vanderbilt were after him without delay. Mr. Bon- 

 ner was the most wide-awake, and then he had the pluck 

 to pay all sorts of prices. His first great triumph was in 

 purchasing the celebrated Lantern. Next he purchased 

 Lady Woodruff for the sum of $3,300, the Lady and Lan- 

 tern making a team hard to beat. Flatbush Maid was the 

 next acquisition, the price paid for Jier being $4,000. Lady 

 Palmer was the fourth purchase, Mr. Bonner giving his 

 check for $5,000 for her. He had now two unrivaled double 

 teams. Commodore Vandervilt was not idle all this while. 

 He sought for good horses but was not as successful as the 

 newspaper man in making acquisitions to his stable. The 

 Commodore nevertheless boldly asserted that he was ready 

 at any time to match his team against Mr: Bonner's for 

 $10,000 a side, owners to drive. But Mr. Bonner, although 

 passionately fond of fast horses, would not bet or trot for 

 money. He had conscientious scruples against anything 

 that looked like gambling; and no taunts could drive him 

 from his position. In August, 1362, he drove over to the 

 Fashion Course, with Flatbush Maid and Lady Palmer. It 

 was a public race-day, and the grand stand was full of 

 people. Among those present was Commodore Vanderbilt, 

 Mr. Bonner determined to prove to his rival the mettle of 

 his pair. He drove on the track, and requested several 

 gentlemen, the Commodore especially, to hold their watches 

 while he made a trial. The challenge was immediately 

 accepted. The mares started at the word, and they trotted 

 with remarkable steadiness, finishing two miles without 

 skip or break in the unparalled time of 5 :01i, the last mile 

 was done in 2:28|. It was. a great performance, and 

 very naturally Mr. Bonner was much elated. On re- 

 turning to the judges stand with his horses he stood 

 up in his wagon and proclaiming to the hearing 

 of all that while it was a rule with him never to make 

 a bet, he would present $10,000 as a gift to any gentleman 

 who owned a team if he would drive them in the time just 

 recorded by Lady Palmer and Flatbush Maid. Everybody 

 knew that this was meant for Vanderbilt, and it readily can 

 be imagined that the challenge was not calculated to act as 

 oil poured on troubled water. It excited the Commodore, 

 and made the rivalry more intense. The years went by, 

 and Vanderbilt made a bold attempt to turn the Ledger flank 

 by purchasing the famous Mountain Boy. Bonner rose equal 

 to the occasion. He purchased Dexter, and was invincible. 

 Finding that the Commodore thought so much of Mountain 

 Bo3% Bouner took his rival by surprise in the perchase of 

 Edward Everett, the sire of Vanderbilt's horse. The Led- 

 ger man now blandly smiled when he explained that he 

 "owned the stalion which begot the horse which the Com- 

 mode claimed was the best in the world. It cost Mr. Bon- 

 ner twenty thousand dollars to indulge in this pleasant 

 little boast. Vauderbilt has given up the fight at last. He 

 still takes pleasure in driving on the road, but his Mountain 

 Boy is dead, and the blood of the old man is tamer than it 

 once was. 



We quote from the New York Tribune this sketch of a 

 Kentucky horseman and a medium: 



" Some years ago it seems that Mr. McGrath got quite in- 



terested in spiritualism. There wasn't much racing'going 

 on, so he could give the subject his undivided attention. He 

 invited a friend to go with him and see Foster— or some 

 other circulating medium— and my friend went, But he told 

 me that it surprised him very much to see Mr. McGrath slip 

 a full deck of cards in his 'coat pocket before starting. If 

 scarcely seemed possible that Mr. McGrath intended to pro- 

 pose a game of spiritual seven-up, or to attempt to beat 

 some unhappy t ghost out of every rap he had at draw- 

 poker — which is supposed to be an emphatically blue-grass 

 game. Well, away they sailed, and found Foster in. 1 

 found him out at once, immediately alter finding him in. 

 Foster gave them his usual circus, and Mr. McGrath sat it 

 through" in solemn awe and silence. Sometimes a shade of 

 impatience was visible, but his face looked radiant at the con- 

 clusion. 'Mr. Foster,' he said, as he laid the usual honora- 

 rium down on the table, 'this is wonderful, and you deal a 

 square game, you do, I believe. But there's just one thing 

 more I want you to try, and if you do it, and I don't give, you 

 just the best farm in* Kentucky, my name ain't Price Mc- 

 Grath, 'and down went his hands into his coat pocket and 

 out he fished the pack of cards. ' There,' giving them a 

 scientific blue-grass shuffle, and slapping them down on the 

 table backs up. 'You just tell me what the first card is 

 without turning it over;' and his breath came slow in expec- 

 tation, Price McGrath's did. • Foster couldn't, and Mr. Mc- 

 Grath turned sadly away, leaving the cards behind him in 

 his bitter disappointment. ' If Foster could just a-told me 

 what that card was,' he said to my friend as they slowly 

 walked up Broadway, ' I'd just made our everlasting fortune. 

 I'd a-taken him with me* and we'd a-bustcd every faro 

 bank in the country. And then if I wouldn't a-made their 

 hair curl at Baden-Baden and Moneco, I'll be Dee-Deed.' 

 Mr. McGrath always says he'll be Dee-Deed when he feels 

 solemn and wants to round a sentence handsomely. 



turn. 



The news from the army this week is almost entirely sav- 

 age in character, and those in sympathy with the Peace 

 Commission policy will now perhaps see their error. The 

 month of August has been one series of Indian fights, and 

 the fate of the Modocs, and the utmost exertions of the 

 Peace Commissioners have not in the least interfered with 

 the sportive nature of our savage friends. There is one 

 consolation, however, a few have been laid "lo," but not 

 altogether by the hand or arms of the army, but by those of 

 their own kind, as witnessed in the desperate fight between 

 the Sioux and Pawnee tribes, which took place the first of 

 the month within one hundred and twenty miles of the city 

 of Grand Island, Nebraska, These two tribes have long- 

 been bitter in their hatred, and the younger portion of tin? 

 Sioux tribe have patiently waited an opportunity to "get 

 even" with the Pawnees, and were this time anxious to be 

 on the offensive. Therefore, when, on the morning of the 

 2d of August, a Sioux Indian scout came into camp and re- 

 ported the Pawnees as camping on the Ree fork of the Re- 

 publican river, the Sioux camp became greatly excited, and 

 •'Little Wound" asked the Indian agent in charge if he 

 had any orders which would interfere with his attacking 

 them, and was informed that he had not. The Indian agent 

 endeavored to pacify the excited Sioux, and offered to go 

 with him and see the Pawnees, but to no purpose. The 

 young men of the Sioux tribe considering that now was the 

 " accepted time," while the Pawnees were off their reserva- 

 tion and away from'wkite men. The following morning 

 the Sioux warriors started for the camp of their adversary, 

 which they reached in two days, meanwhile being joined 

 by the Brules. On the morning of the 4th they made a des- 

 perate attack on the Pawnee camp, killing between fifty 

 and one hundred, mainly women and children. At the 

 time of the attack the greater part of the Pawnee men- were 

 absent hunting, so that despite a brave resistance, the Paw- 

 nees were overpowered, the attacking tribe numbering be- 

 tween five and six hundred. This fight was a perfect 

 slaughter of Indian innocents, and will be the means of 

 destroying the peaceful overtures made by the Government 

 agents, a council of the chiefs having been arrranged to 

 convene this fall to establish a permanent peace between 

 the two tribes. The Pawnees were on their annual hunt on 

 the waters of the Republican, and had killed many buffalo, 

 and secured much game. But the return of the huntsmen 

 was made sad by the destruction of their camp and the kill- 

 ing of their squaws and papooses who were thrown in heaps 

 and in some instances burned. The fight was thoroughly 

 Indian in its savage nature, and we trust the "young men " 

 of the Sioux persuasion are now "square "with their old 

 foe. This fight, however, and its ruthless .character, has 

 aroused the worse feelings of ' the Pawnees, who probably 

 before this have planned an attack on the Sioux tribe. Our 

 troops in almost every direction find the Indians as usual 

 thieving and treacle <*us and without the least idea of ever 

 keeping their promises. The attempt to secure a notorious 

 thief and murderer named Sancha, of the Southern Apache 

 tribe, in New Mexico, by Captain Chilson's command, of 

 the Eighth Cavalry, was recently resisted, although the chief 

 had promised to aid in his arrest. But when the Indian 

 agent attempted to take him at the reservation, he was sur- 

 rounded by about thirty Indians, and the chief refused to 

 allow his arrest. The Apaches then talked " much " fight 

 to the soldiers, but the little squad, valuing their hair too 

 highly, refused. 



These very Indians are supported in idleness by the Gov- 

 ernment, furnished food, clothes, etc., and at the same time 

 are allowed to steal and murder, while off the reservation, at 

 will. The Government is at the expense of keeping troops 

 all over the Indian country, who, when they are not fight- 

 ing, are largely used in protecting those who wish to "talk," 

 or hold a council with the savages whose promises are mere 

 ropes of sand. Our army is small, if is true, but we would 



not actually require one half as large, were ift not for the 

 constant depredations of the great American Indian. 



General Irving McDowell, the intelligent cjommander of 

 the Department of the South, is at present|sojourning al 

 Newport, where his family has a cottage. Few officers of the 

 army are more generallyfrespected than the first commander 

 of the army of the Potomac. It was agMons and a well 

 deserved tribute when, some few years^jHhce, his comrades 

 at the meeting of the Army of the^Koinac Association 

 relieved him from all responsibility for\the defeat of that 

 army at the first Bull Run. 



The social intercourse between the oflicerV of the United 

 States service and those of England is more cordial than 

 any other nations. AVhy should it not be ^p? Do they not 

 speak our own tongue, is not England the "mother coun- 

 try," even if we are termed "American cousins." 



First Lieutenant Asa Bird Gardner, of the First Artillery, 

 has been appointed a Judge Advocate of the army, vice 

 Major and Brevet Lt. Colonel De Witt Clinton, who died at 

 St. Paul, Minn., August 13. Maj. Gardner at the time of the 

 appointment was acting as aid on the staff of the commander 

 of the Division and Department of the South, and has filled 

 most acceptably recently the position of Acting Assistant 

 Adjutant General of the Division. During his service in 

 the army since 1868, his time has been mainly devoted to 

 the duties of the judge advocate's office, and in numerous 

 instances his superior knowledge of 'military law in all its 

 branches has brought him in contact with, and in defense 

 of, important governmental cases. His services are inval- 

 uable to the Government and the army, and the promotion 

 to the rank, and particularly the pay of a Major of Cavalry 

 is very acceptable in these dull times. It would have taken 

 Major Gardner perhaps twenty-five years to have _attained 

 this rank by way of regular promotion. 



Early in the winter the War Department will issue a 

 revised edition of Upton's Tactics, as prepared by the board 

 appointed some time since. The neAV tactics will combine 

 the movements of the three arms of the service, and will 

 undoubtedly be the newest military thing out. 



Probably most of the West Point graduates know the 

 returned bugler Benz, a German wlio has been in ser- 

 vice, at the Academy for the past forty years, and is 

 therefore known by nearly every Officer in the army, as his 

 position, that of cadet bugler has brought him in contact 

 with nearly every cadet who has been at the Academy dur- 

 ing this period. A great many stories are related of Benz's 

 experience with the cadets, among them the following; 



When President Grant was a cadet at the Academy, learn 

 ing the art of war, he one day sent Benz to the store to 

 purchase fifty cents worth of Cavendish. Benz, however, 

 in his haste did not hear correctly, but thought the order 

 Was candies, and accordingly invested the fifty cents in the 

 toothsome article. On returning and handing over his 

 purchase to Grant, the latter became angry at the ridicu- 

 lous mistake and spoke rather sharply to Benz, who in turn 

 feeling his old age insulted replied, " I don't doubt but 

 what you will be President of the United States yet if you 

 keep on." Grant turned at once towards Benz and laugh- 

 ingly said, ' ' Well Benz, if I do I shall appoint you my Secre- 

 tary of War." Doubtless the cadets who were landing 

 near at the time this occurred well remember the incident. 

 Events have shown, however, that President Grant has 

 failed to fulfill his promise, and Benz of course has always 

 been too modest to even ask for the appointment, thinking 

 no doubt, that blowing his own bugle is much better than 

 running the War Department, 



Whenever General Sherman visits the Academy, he 

 always has a kindly word for the old man, and has many 

 times offered him a better position, but Benz would rather 

 pass his remaining days where he passed his youth. He 

 still blows the bugle, almost as well he did forty years ago. 



The battalions of the Eighth and Ninth Infantry, with 

 the Yellowstone expedition, have been ordered to be re- 

 leived. Company C, Sixth Infantry, was also ordered to 

 be relieved and to return and be posted at Fort Buford. 



Captain Anson Mills, of the Third Cavalry, escorting the 

 Yale College exploring party under Prof. Marsh, in Ne- 

 braska, at latest report had not met with any Indians and 

 did not anticipate any trouble. They had no desire to make 

 the acquaintance of Mr. Lo ! 



The Tenth Cavalry has some highly colored stories to 

 relate regarding its adventures in Texas and the Indian 

 country. 



Lt, Col. A. Montgomery, D. Q. M. G., is to be relieved 

 from duty at headquarters of the Military Division of the 

 East, New York, and will take Post No t 30, in the Depart- 

 ment of Arizona, as Chief Quartermaster. 



Colonel Orlando B. Willcox, of the Twelfth Infantry, 

 has been detailed to assume control of the general recruiting- 

 depot, New York city. 



Second Lt. Gilbert P. Colton, of the First Artillery, has 

 been detailed as Professor of Military Science and Tactics 

 at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, Chester, Pa. The 

 First Artillery contains many of the " shining lights " of 

 the service. 



The oldest American skull is one found at New Madrid, 

 Missouri, and it must have belonged to a contemporary of 

 the mound diggers. It came from a depth of thirty feet 

 below the surface of a mound, on which were growing the 

 oldest trees of the primitive forest. Near it were discovered 

 the relics of a mastodon. Anthropologists have decided 

 that it must have belonged to a very beautiful woman, 



