102 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



published in the Daily American of this 

 city, in the year 1854, and re-published 

 by request a few days since, on the event 

 of the death of this general favorite of 

 the sporting community, and from con- 

 sultation with several gentlemen well ac- 

 quainted with the horse. " Dandy" (for 

 that was his name) was raised in the 

 town of Greece, in this count}', by Harry 

 Oimstead, and was put into a livery stable 

 for the first time, in the year 1835, at 

 seven years of age, and continued in that 

 service for a period of twenty-one years, 

 almost without the loss of a day. He 

 was never sick, never disabled, and al- 

 ways ready on the spur of the moment, 

 to undertake any service in the line of 

 his duty as a roadster. The endurance 

 of this horse was includible to those not 

 acquainted with his powers. He has been 

 driven seventy-five miles, time and time 

 again, between breakfast and tea, and at 

 one time, several years since, he was 

 driven, by one of our millers, sixty-eight 

 miles a day for five days in succession. 



During the whole period of his service 

 he was never at grass, for the reason that 

 having been stabled so long he lost all 

 relish for it; and on more than one occa- 

 sion when turned loose in a field, he leap- 

 ed the fence snd reached home before 

 the person who took him out could return 

 himself to the city. Dandy has been 

 owned and used in harness successively 

 by Mr. Christopher, Geo. Waldbridge, 

 and Geo. Charles ; and was in the pos- 

 session of the latter gentleman when he 

 died. It is stated that this horse earned 

 for his several owners during the twenty- 

 one years he was in their service, no less 

 a sum than ten thousand dollars ! 



It may be said of him, what is figu- 

 ratively sometimes said of men, that he 

 died in the harness, for, up to the last week 

 of his life, he has been driven on the 

 road. During two or three of the last 

 days, he had been sick, and, on the morn- 

 ing of his death, was laying down unfas- 

 tened in his stall; hearing some noise, 

 or from some other cause, he got up 

 walked to the office which opens into the 

 stable, thrust his head into the door, and 

 took a survey of the inside ; he then 

 went back to his stall, pawed the straw 

 with his feet, laid down and died. The 

 stable-keepers say they would have given 

 Dandy an honorable burial? only that the 

 ground was so frozen and covered with 



snow as to render it out of the question \ 

 so the brave old roadster's remains went 

 the way of all horse flesh, that is to say, 

 he was drawn off into an open field, and 

 left to the dogs and crows. He would 

 have been twenty-eight years old in the 

 spring. 



ft is a matter of regret that an animal 

 of such remarkable powers of endurance 

 could not have been preserved as a stal- 

 lion ; but it occurred in his case, as it 

 does in many others, that his rare quali- 

 ties were undeveloped or at least un- 

 known until after he had been gelded. 

 In the case of mares, we are protected 

 from this misfortune, and, when an ani- 

 mal proves herself remarkable, she can 

 be set aside as a breeder; but in the case 

 of the horse, the matter is past remedy. 

 We have then only an individual of rare 

 qualities, but one deprived of the power 

 of reproduction. 



One thing, however, still remains in 

 our power, and that is this: the parents 

 and kin of such a horse stiould be dili- 

 gently sought out, and if any of them 

 possess the qualities for which the indi- 

 vidual is noted, care should be taken to 

 have them perpetuated. Family resem- 

 blances and characteristics pervade the 

 lower classes of animals as well as the 

 human species ; and every one knows 

 how decisive these are here. An observ- 

 ant stranger will frequently be able to 

 pick out brothers and sisters in a crowd 

 from similarity of form and feature. We 

 ourselves remember an instance of two 

 brothers, who had been absent from home 

 several years, one at the East and the 

 other at the West. On returning simul- 

 taneously, the}' were several times mista- 

 ken, each for the other, by their own 

 townsmen and former acquaintances. 



So it is with the horse, the ox, the 

 sheep, and, in fact, all animals. Our dai- 

 ry women will bear us witness to the in- 

 terest they feel in the progeny of a favor- 

 ite cow, and the traits they so often see 

 in such instances re-developed. If old 

 " Dandy's" family were still in existence, 

 i we might reasonably expect to find in 

 khem, more or lesfi developed, his remark- 

 able traits. — Wool Grower. 



1 The Working Man, an excellent agricultural 

 .paper, published in Indianapolis, Ind., states 

 | that the crop of clover seed in that vicinity was t 

 | a complete failure last year, the grasshoppers 

 . having destroyed what little the drought left. 



