PRACTICAL PAPERS—HORSES. 
305 
is that the country is overrun with a drove of Hambletonian, Ab¬ 
dallah, Mambrino, Clay and Messenger stallions, to the detriment 
of horse morality and to the confusion of would-be breeders. If 
this deceptive nomenclature is persisted in, a trotting pedigree will 
become a delusion and a snare, and a trotting stud book a tangled 
impossibility. It will be noticed that the animals that really per¬ 
form under the public eye have, with rare exceptions, names of 
their own, while those secluded lords of the horse harem, whose 
reputation shines with a dubious and reflected light, appear to be 
too valuable to be frittered away in the frivolous sports of the 
course. The prevailing trotting-horse usage hereabouts is to pro¬ 
cure an inferior stallion, to placard the unsuspecting and guiltless 
brute with the name of some celebrated strain or strains, and 
thereafter to carefully prevent his qualities being known by pub¬ 
lic exhibition in a race. The practice of running men, on the 
other hand, is to give, as I said before, to each horse a name of 
his own, to train and try the animal on the track, and, if success¬ 
ful, to put him to the stud. This last is the sifting process of 
breeding, or what Mr. Darwin would call the survival of the fit¬ 
test. It is this that has made the raising of runners a science, 
and an approximative certainty ; and trotting breeding will never 
reach that dignity until the same tests are applied. 
To conclude, I ask your attention to the irrational attitude of 
what we call the respectable portion of the community in regard 
to horse matters in general, and racing in particular. They appear 
to be in the position of Peeping Tom of Coventry; they are eager 
to look upon the unadorned charms of the passing beauty, but 
they shrink from being caught in the act. They want to see the 
horses go, but they prefer to peek over the top of the fence rather 
than come in at the gate and be contaminated. 
There are doubtless many evil influences that hang about a race 
track. The correct thing for right-minded people to do, however, 
is to come straight in and help cut them off. In so doing, let them 
bear this in mind, that in no case is that generous animal, the 
racer at fault; and that whatever they may achieve in the eleva¬ 
tion of the turf, is in the interest of humanity’s next friend, the 
horse. 
20 
