The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-10-05
TEXAS.

gathering OIL people tnuu nave ever
: met-aHd have since seen many dis
tinguished crowds. The show of man.
ufactured goods was very meager; but
that of animals was fine. There were
. the native cows, as gentle as the best of
treatment by their owners could make
them-superb mixers. There were
the small-boned, smooth-skinned swine,
in which every feed told, in the produc-
ton of as fine pork as the world could
show.
There were the Devon oxen, as intel
ligent, capable, and as useful teams as
could be found anywhere, bright red,
smooth, well-made, soft skinned, not
fat, but in good flesh, and as fine step
pers as ploughboy could ask, and as
intelligent, docile and ready as New
foundland dogs.
There were Merino sheep, with those
= fleeces even, fine and strong; feeces
that have since been noted throughout
the land. But above all there was the
Vermont horse. Vermont was settled
by soldiers of the old French war, who
had passed through the state on their
way to and from Canada, and after the
war went there to settle. Many took
very little except the horses that had
In their hand-to-hand struggle with
want they had no supcrfluous proper
ty, and their horses were worked to the
utmost capacity and never beyond it,.
Far-off Vermont was the Texas of those
times, whittier fugitives from Justice
fed through stretches of wilderness, to
concealment as complete as if in New
Mexico to-day. And fleeing thither
they often took the best horses with
them. Often, too, soldiers escaping
from Canadian garrisons, brought to
Vermont the fleetest horses, of Norman
or English stock, that they could steal
i'm Canada. Often settlers, going back
to their former homes to sell property
or collect debts, brought back choice
horses from the older states. In this
way, just after the Revolution, one JUS
tin Morgan had brought to Montpelier,
Vermont, colt that was afterwards
called by his name, Justin Morgan, and
became celebrated as the progenitor of
the finest race of horses in the world.
Magnuom Bonumx, Cock of the Rock
and other SONS of Imported Messenger,
were brought to Vermont and were
thoroughly appreciated and patronized
by the intelligent farmers. And this
, fair had been started as the shrewdest
of advertising lodges, to make known
to the world the surprising beauty,
grace and capacity of new family of
Morgan horses-the Black Hawks.
And it succeeded. 1t brought together
over three hundred Morgan horses,
mostly of the Black Hawk family, every
one of which was miracle of symme-
try, style, docility, and fleetncss. Yer
mont had not Il single race track within
her borders, but there probably was
never assembled in the world set OF
horses that, with proper age and sea-
soning, would so gallantly have carried
. an army of princes to the conquest of a
nation. OF these horses was driving,
as thought, the very best, pair OF
Black Hawks, five and six years old
full brothers, that even in that superb
ring, challenged marked attention
There were the very horses that, within
the next five years, at Cleveland, Gin
cinnati, Louisville, st. Louis, and a
= multitude of other fairs throughout the
. land, were greeted with shouts that
). made the welkin ring, as the most
- graceful and beautiful animals that had
? ever been seen in harness. But of these
r thought those | was driving n little
5 more docile, graceful, intelligent, and /;
trifle more majestic in their movements
than any others. had just taken frs
premium on yearling Merinos, and {
special premium OH well broken steers
And yet, boy as | was, l was almos
'' weeping. Nay, in spite of me, tears
had trickled down my face occasionally
all the day. The horses belonged tC
DIR. lIarwood, of Brandon, sixtccl
miles south of Middlebury. | was al
A orphan boy of fifteen, and had been liv
. ing with him as son for seven years
He had been sick for a year, and wa
n out of funds, and the horses were hi
D. sole resource for raising money. III,
had been offered eleven hundred dollar
for them, but as many inferior one
!, were selling at more than that apiece
- he had refused it, and had mortgage,
t. them for seven hundred dollars. An,
now, just before the fair when the
were to be sold, one had begun to lim]
/ and the other to weep, most unaccount
Il ably. The mortgagee, a miserable jockey
g had offered to take them for the debt
ID but had objected to their coming to tn
fair, and when there, to their bein
made at all prominent, lest drivin
should excite them and aggravate thei
injuries. The doctor had left it wit
me to try to get higher price for them
and | was to have half of all got owe
-. twelve hundred.
r. Here | was with the best and fieetes
A. of horses and yet compelled to driv
y them at snails pace and very little 6
that, and unable to sell them, and tn
w mortgagee around, telling of his ba
luck i'll having so much risked on theI
: and spelling every prospect of sal,
= The doctor was the most generous an
,s ess noble of men, and had offered to give III
IS half that they brought over twelve huI
C. dred, to go to college on, while the otl
er half was to send his daughter Allie
To Holyoke, and the five hundred wa
to keep the wolf from his own door.
lie was always doing the most genei
ous deeds, and why he should lose til
L. means of doing them just now when L
IN needed it so much was to me a gri,
and mystery. | was mortified at c,
r hibiting the team at all in their presei
condition, and was, with boys sham,
iacedness, looking at them rather tina
- those around, when CHEEKY voice ca
led out:
"Ilalloo, -Edward-whaCs Il
matter? Are you driving a hearse?"
looked up, and there in the crow
s OF spectators sat young man who
n n features were strange and yet famiia
~ on horse the precise counterpart
4 those | was driving.
The horse manifestly belonged i'm Il
- Black Hawk line, and next TO Blat
Hawk himself. AS he and the old hor
I stood together afterwards, an Englii
hostler remarked:
Il "Them ARE two horses look and a
nlnGf IN nfsa xril li 4