151 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



learnedly on what constitutes a good boot-jack, treating it 

 in the most aesthetic way, constructing boot- jacks from his 

 inner consciousness, though utterly incapable of sawing 

 out a real boot-jack- 



— Now, in the pleasant autumn weather of merrie England, 

 under the spreading oaks, across the green lawn, speed 

 the arrows, and the targets of gold are thickly studded with 

 the shafts. Pleasant autumn weather? Not always. Just 

 as an example 01 pluck and endurance, showing that Eng- 

 lish ladies will not melt like sugar, here we see that the 

 Mersey bowmen, almost all of them women, ,shot eight 

 dozen arrows in a furious and gusty day, a drizzling rain 

 falling all the time. Imitate that if you dare, ye frailer 

 American ladies ! Whether by courtesy, or not, when one 

 reads the names of the winners, the ladies at the English 

 archery meeting always carry off the prizes. There is a 

 contest now going on in regard to length of range; a dis- 

 tance of 100 yards would seem to us quite a long range, but 

 it is being advocated. It is argued that as all things must 

 have had a precedent, that it was Robin Hood's shooting 

 distance, and that if Robin Hood, or Eriar Tuck, or Little 

 John had attempted to get a fat buck in Sherwood Forest 

 at a less range, they probably would have had no venison 

 pastry for their suppers. When next year, as we sincerely 

 hope, archery will be introduced and our ladies may draw 

 their bows, we will be satisfied with less distances. 



— + — 



— The American Jockey Club held the second day of the 

 autumn meeting at Jerome Park, on October 8th. The 

 weather was delightful, the track rather heavyand the attend- 

 ance unusually large for an " off " day. Those who enjoy rac- 

 ing as an amusement will always find it to their advantage 

 to visit Jerome Park on a quiet day, so as to avoid the im- 

 mense crowds and inconveniences attending them. The 

 first race was for a purse of $500. Seven horses 

 started; distance one mile and five-eighths. True Blue 

 won easily by ten lengths. Warlike second. Time, 2:574-. 

 The second race, the Hunter stakes, distance, one mile and 

 three-quarters, for three-year-old fillies, which brought to 

 the post two, Katie Pease and Lizzie Lucas, was an excit- 

 ing match. They ran together neck and neck, Lizzie Lu- 

 cas finally winning by a length. Time, 3:17f. The third 

 race was for the Maturity stakes, for four-year-olds; dis- 

 tance three miles. Eour horses started. Mate led all Hie 

 way round and came in the winner in 5:51. The fourth 

 race was for a purse of $500, for- two-year-olds; distance, 

 five furlongs. After several false starts, they all jumped 

 off together to a fairly even start, King Amadeus leading, 

 with the others close up. On coming past the stand the 

 race result" 1 in a match between McDaniel's entry by As- 

 teroid, and Amadeus, the former winning by the shortest 

 of heads in 1 :06|. The fifth race was a handicap steeple- 

 chase; distance about two miles and a half over an excel- 

 lent imitation of a hunting course. The horses started evenly, 

 o-oing at slow pace, Duffy leading, George West second, 

 but on going over the stone wall a little to the right, of the 

 stand his horse struck his near fore foot on the top of the 

 wall, throwing his rider and rolling over him, but for- 

 tunately the jockey was scarcely hurt at all, and in a min- 

 ute or so walked to the stand. Duffy continued on over 

 the course and finally won in 5 :55. - 



The American Jockey Club held its third day of the 



Autumn meeting at Jerome Park, Fordham, on October 

 11th. The day was fine, the attendance large and fashion- 

 able, perfect order and decorum were observed every where, 

 and altogether it teaches the old country a lesson so far as 

 respectability, good feeling, and politeness are concerned. 

 The first race was the Annual Sweepstakes for three year 

 olds of $300 each; distance, two miles. Only two horses 

 came to the post— Tom Bowling and Mart Jordan. Tom 

 Bowling won in a canter, and Mart Jordan, with his head 

 between his fore-legs, 120 yards behind. Time B :37£. The 

 second race was the Grand National Sweepstakes of $100 

 each, half forfeit, with $1,000 added by the club; distance 

 two miles and a quarter. Four-horses started — Harry Bas- 

 sett, Preakness, Fellowcraft and Galway. Harry Bassett 

 took the lead, but failed to keep it, as Preakness came past 

 the post an easy winner by three lengths. The third race 

 was the Champagne Stakes for two year olds, $100 each 

 and $500 added by the club; distance three-quarters of a 

 mile. Ten youngsters came to the post. They all started 

 pretty evenly, and ran together at a fine racing pace all the 

 wav round, and on coming up the homestretch three of 

 them were abreast, and on passing the post the judges de- 

 cided Grinstead first, Dublin second, Weathercock third. 

 Time 1 :17f - The fourth race was for a purse of $700, 

 mile heats. There were seven horses started. First heat, 

 Minnie Mc won and Springbok second. Time 1 :48i. Sec- 

 ond heat the horses reversed, Springbok first, Minnie Mc 

 second, the others distanced. Time 1 -.48. Third heat, the 

 start was very even, the filly and the colt running side by 

 side but the pace of the colt was too strong for the filly, 

 Springbok winning easily. Time 1:48*. The fifth race 

 was a Sweepstakes, $50 each, with a piece of plate of the 

 value of $300 given by the club, members of the club tc 

 ride, welter weights; distance one mile and an eighth. 

 Three horses started— Gray Planet, Stockwood and Village 

 Blacksmith. The members of the club rode extremely 

 well, showing good judgment and skill, and notwithstand- 

 ing the apparent unconcern on the part of the people, taking 

 into consideration the weight of the riders, it was one of 

 the best if not the best ridden race of the day. Gray Planet 

 won and was ridden by Mr. Purdy. Mr. D. J. Bannatyne 



rode the second horse, Stockwood, and Mr. J. Wadsworth 

 rode Village Blacksmith. The distance apart of the three 

 horses at the finish was scarcely two and a half lengths. 



— The Fleetwood Park four year old colt race took place 

 on October 8th, and was a very private affair. The Sweep- 

 stakes, for four year old colts, mile heats, best three in five, 

 in harness, for a $1,000 purse, was won by D. Mace's Mid- 

 dletown, winning the three last heats in 2:53, 2:53|, 2:44. 



— The Beacon Park commenced their autumn meeting on 

 the grounds near Boston on October 8th, but owing to the 

 cold weather the attendance was very small. The first race 

 was for horses of the three minute class, and was won by 

 the bay gelding Howard Snow. On October 9th the first 

 race was for 2:30 horses, which was postponed from Octo- 

 ber 7th on account of the darkness, Frank Palmer and 

 Rex Patchen having each one heat, and Fannjr two. The 

 fifth heat was won by Fanny, Rex Patchen taking the sec- 

 ond money, Frank Palmer the third, and Rowe's Tommy 

 the fourth. The second race was for horses that never beat 

 2:40. Eight horses started. Stenly won the race, Pearl 

 taking second money and Flora third. Time — 2:41^, 2:41, 

 2:40, 2:39. Third race, 2:35 horses; five horses started. 

 The first heat was won by John F. Russell in 2 :40, and the 

 last three by Brown Kenney in 2:38, 2:38, and 2:37f.. Oc- 

 tober 10th there was a much larger attendance, and the 

 trotting was excellent. The race for 2 :50 horses was won 

 by Howard Snow, beating Modoc Chief, Eddy, Gray Eagle, 

 Tontine Bell, Peter Simple, and Thought in the same order. 

 Time— 2:40,}, 2:43|, 2:42, 2:43. Eddy took the second 

 money, and Tontine Bell the third. The race for 2:31 

 horses was a grand exhibition of fair trotting. Colonel 

 Moulton won the first heat in 2:35, and Rex Patchen the 

 last three in 2:32^, 2:34, and 2:34. Mr. Rowe, of Hartford, 

 protested against the third heat being given to Patchen, and 

 declared he would outstart his (Rowe's) horse Tommy for 

 another heat. The judges were unanimous in awarding 

 him the heat, and upon Mr. Rowe's refusing to start in the 

 last heat, enforced the rule laid down for such cases, and 

 expelled both horse and owndfc from all National Associa- 

 tion tracks. 



— About four thousand persons attended the Amenia 

 races at Poughkeepsie October 9th. The first race was for a 

 purse of $800, which was carried off by Gulnare, who won 

 the first, third, and fourth heats, Jupiter winning the sec- 

 ond. Time— 2 :44, 2 :41£, 2 :41i, 2 :43|. The purse of $1, 200 

 was won by Tom Keeler in three straight heats. Time — 

 2:31i, 2 -Ml, 2:30£. October 10th, Tanner Boy won the 

 postponed race in 2 :34f . In the three minute race Mystery 

 won the first heat and Rifleman the three next. Time — 

 2:54, 2:52, 2:52, 2:52. The 2:50 race was won in three 

 straight heats by White Cloud. Time— 2:41|, 2:40-1, 2:4L}. 

 The 2 :25 race was won in three straight heats by Crown 

 Prince. Time— 2:32, 2:32±, 2:30^. 



—At the Winchester (Va.) Fair, October 9th, Mr. S. D. 

 Long's sorrel filly won the running race and took the pre 

 miums. Mr. John F. Sower's three year old colt Buckskin 

 won the trotting race. At the start of the first race 

 Mr. Upton G. Long, of Cumberland, Md., was thrown from 

 his horse and fatally injured. The horse shied the track, 

 jumped the fence, pitched him over head foremost, and fell 

 upon him as he landed on the opposite side, breaking all 

 his left ribs. He died that evening. Mr. Long is the sec- 

 ond rider this horse (Harkaway) has killed within a year. 

 The fair of the Agricultural Society closed to-day, October 

 10th, with the trial of speed racing. T. Collin's Lady 

 Alice won the trotting race, best three heats in five, and 

 took the $200 premium. The best time made was 2:43. 

 In the running race to-day Upton G. Long's horse Harka- 

 way, who killed his owner yesterday, won the best two in 

 three mile heats, and took the $100 premium. Time— 1 :57. 



— October 10th was the sixth and last day of the Nash- 

 ville (Tenn.) Blood Horse Association. The weather was 

 clear and pleasant, and the track in splendid condition. 

 The attendance was large. The first race was for the Max- 

 well House stakes for three year olds, mile heats. Four 

 horses started. Nellie Green won. Time— 1 :48, 1 :46f , 1 :45i. 

 The second race was for the Association purse of $300, mile 

 heats. Planchette won. Time — 1:45, l:45f. The time of 

 the first heat was the fastest ever made over the Nashville 

 course. The third race was for the Association Purse, 

 mile and a quarter dash. Lamp won in 2 :14£. 



Pittsburg, Oct. 9. — The races to-day were well attend- 

 ed. The trotting race for a purse of $1,250 was won by 

 Tom Brittonin three straight heats. Time 2:39£, 2:37, 2:38. 



How to Manage a Horse.— A beautiful and high-spirited 

 horse would never allow a shoe to be put on his feet or any 

 person to handle his feet. In an attempt to shoe such a 

 horse recently he resisted, all efforts, kicked aside every- 

 thing but an anvil, and came near killing himself against 

 that, and finally was brought back to his stable unshod. 

 This defect was just on the eve of consigning him to the 

 plow, where he might work barefoot, when an officer in 

 our. service, lately returned from Mexico, took a cord about 

 the size of a common bed-cord, put it in the mouth of the 

 horse like a bit, and tied it tightly on the animal's 

 head, passed his left ear under the string, not pain- 

 fully tight, but tight enough to keep the ear down and the 

 cord in its place. This done, he patted the horse gently on 

 the side of the head and commanded him to follow, and 

 fnstantly the horse obeyed, perfectly subdued, and as gentle 

 and obedient as a well-trained dog, suffering his 'feet to be 

 lifted with entire impunity, acting in all respects like an old 

 stager. The gentleman who thus furnished this exceed- 

 ingly simple means of subduing a very dangerous propen- 

 sity intimated that it is practiced in Mexico and South 

 America in the management of wild horses. — Commercial 

 Advertiser. 



THOROUGH-BRED HORSES. 



THE word u thorough-bred" has an artificial and a 

 natural, a technical and a practical, significance. Tech 

 nically considered, the thorough-bred horsels one whose ned 

 igree can be traced back through imported stock to the 

 English stud-books and through these to the East, whence 

 the modern English thorough-bred horse ancestrally came 

 This is what I call the artificial or technical significance of 

 the word "thorough-bred." It does not prove that a horse 

 is a good animal, for many, both in this country and in 

 England, whose pedigree can be traced back to an Arabian 

 source, are comparatively of little value, In England yon 

 can find hundreds of "weedy" colts, with neither lungs nor 

 legs able to stand the necessary work to fit them for {Trace 

 or, indeed, of any considerable value any way; and the same 

 is true with us. To buy a horse simply because he has a 

 long and noble pedigree is to buy as a i'ool buycth. \nd 

 especially does this hold true in the case of breeding f or 

 which purpose, none but the best specimens of the family 

 you desire to cross with should be purchased. A poor 

 horse is a poor horse the world over, in all families, and in 

 spite of pedigree. A good animal with a good pedigree 

 is what the breeder needs ; and this rule shoukf he 

 closely adhered to. To vary from this principle is to 

 risk all. 



Beyond this technical sense, the word "thorouo-h-bred n 

 has another and practical significance, which I will now ex- 

 plain. In the practical sense, the word stands for and sym- 

 bolizes certain indispensable qualities which give value to 

 the animal, and decide his rank and place in the grade to 

 which he belongs. Among these may be mentioned beauty 

 of form, toughness of bone and muscular structure, vivacity 

 and docility of temperament, intelligence, and above all 

 perhaps, in value, the paper of endurance, and the desire to do- 

 what horsemen express by the word "game." All pedi- 

 grees are worthless save as they indicate and warrant that 

 the horse with the noble ancestry is noble himself. It is a 

 help to the judgment, as to the value of a colt, to know 

 that its dame is a Star mare ; because a Star mare is a 

 daughter of American Star ; and American Star -was sired 

 by Henry, who ran against Eclipse in the famous match be- 

 tween the North and South. To a breeder such a pedigree 

 is of the iitmost value, because it is a guarantee that "the 

 colt oat of such a mare will have, to some extent at least, 

 the noble qualities which made his ancestors famous. ]S T ow^ 

 then, the cjuestion comes back to us, "what makes a thor- 

 ough-bred!" And I say, that, for all practical purposes 

 a horse which, has a certain perfection of form, a certain 

 degree of intelligence, the power to do great deeds when 

 called upon, together with the high courage to attempt 

 and to actually perform them, is a thorough-bred horse 1 

 That is my answer to the question; and I think that 

 it will recommend itself to the common sense of the 

 reader. Observe, then, what are the facts of the case as 

 connected with the trotting-horse. The facts are these: 

 that, beginning with Dutchman, and coming down through 

 Lady Suffolk, Flora Temple, George M. Patchen, Ethan 

 Allen,. "Dexter, and Goldsmith's Maid, we have had for the 

 last fifty years, in this country, a race of horses of trotting- 

 action, of as fine a spirit, and as great powers of endurance, 

 as any that were ever bred. In perfection of structure, in 

 symmetrical adjustment of all the parts, in intelligence, — that 

 surest proof of good breeding — in dauntless resolution 

 that stopped not short of death itself in the hour of supreme 

 performance, these horses, and countless others like them, 

 were, I claim, second to none that ever delighted the eye 

 and made proud the heart of man. I hold that it is unjust 

 to these noble horses, to call them of vulgar or basely 

 tainted blood. They were kings and queens in that order 

 of life to which they belonged, and proved their royal 

 qualities on many a contested field, when the lookers-on 

 stood breathless. I object, both on the ground of sentiment 

 and proper classification, to such a definition of thorough- 

 bred,, that, in order to be just to the one class of horses, one 

 must be unjust to the other. Where they are equal in per- 

 formance, they should be equal in honor. Who shall say 

 that Old Topgallant, when he went against Whalebone 

 four mile heats, and trotted them in 11:16, 10:06, 11:17, and 

 12:15; that is, making his sixteen miles in forty-five minutes 

 and forty-four seconds, which is just 2:52£ to the mile, and 

 that, too, when he was twenty-two years of age,— is not 

 worthy to stand beside Eclips'e, or Henry, or any other 

 horse that ever ran a race? There is a right and wrong to 

 this thing; and, for one, I assert that the nomenclature is 

 faulty, and the classification vicious, which covers Longfel- 

 low and Harry Bassett with laurel, and leaves Dexter and 

 Goldsmith's Maid without a spray. There are, therefore, 

 as I understand the merits of the case, two great families of 

 thorough-bred horses, instead of one, in this country. The 

 one is the thorough-bred running-horse; the other is the 

 thorough-bred trotting-horse. The time has come for horse- 

 men to understand this, and no longer be fretted by a clas- 

 sification applicable only to a country where the trotting- 

 horse is not known or honored. The English stud-books 

 are sufficient for England, where the running-horse embodies 

 all excellence; but they are entirely insufficient in this 

 country, where the trotting-horse finds his ancestry, his 

 birthplace, and the field of his glory. There is, therefore, 

 in this country a family of horses possessing the very qual- 

 ities for which the English running-horse has so long been 

 noted, and in as great a degree, as the history of their per- 

 formances show, but which are distinguished from the 

 English thorough-bred by their style of going; and to this 

 family, by every law and rule of justice, the same honora- 

 ble nomenclature should be given.— From Mr. Murray * 

 Book on "The Perfect Horse.''' 



—Dr. Willett in a lecture the other night, told a droll 

 story of himself. He said that at one time, when he was 

 a connoisseur in bird-stuffing, he used to criticise other 

 people's bird-stuffing severely. Walking with a gentleman 

 one day, he stopped at a window where a gigantic owl was 

 exhibited. "You see," said the doctor to his frienci 

 "there is a magnificent bird utterly ruined byunskiinu 

 stuffing. . Notice the mounting! Execrable isn't it? JNO 

 living owl ever roosted in that position. And the eyes are 

 fully a third larger than any owl ever possessed.' At tins 

 moment the stuffed bird raised one foot and solemnly 

 blinked at his critic, who said very little more about stufleo 

 birds that afternoon. 



—The woodchuck of New England and the Middle 

 States is the eastern representative of the well-known 

 prairie dog, and somowhat resembles it. 



