Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-12-29
Fat. Edgar undertook to supply the afiirma-

/ eral years Afterwards publisneu IN MS ttu'i-
book. and which Mr.. Haskins could not
! have seen. by which he IL made TO assert
that tho printed pedigree, which be never
saw, was the true pedigree of old Potomac.
He certified thuswse on his sacred honor.
| Assuming (what Was impOssiblel that he
/ certified the pedigree rs afterward printed,
what sort of honor" was that which WAS
/ thus solemnly invoked!
MORE ABOUT FAIygY AND SOMETHING ABOUT
HrR DAM NANCY MCULLOCK.
The certificate was dated on November
! &c. 1921. thirty years after Potomac's dam
Fairy was foaled and at least fifty years
after the mythical incident OF the wagon
| horse occurred. Mr. Haskins had given
FAIRY to his son-in-aw. Edward Dennis, Of
Brunswick county, lying on the southern
border OF Virginia. The Haskinses are
/ Necklenburg and Brunswick county peO-
pie. Mr.. Thomas Haskins having. 1t seems.
gone TO Prince Edward--a county or two
northward. Fairy. by this gift, had gone
I back IL Is 10 be suppOsed. 70 her native
county. The son-in-law, after receiving
the mare, encouraged by her good quail
ties. had sent her more than q hundred
miles from his home, near the North Caro-
/ lima border 10 Tree Hill in HcnricO cOun-
ty. near Richmond, north Of James river,
to the high-prlced Diomed, then making
| his season there. Mr.. Dennis had thereby
obtained the colt Potomac from FAIRY.
which at two wears old and untried, he had
sold to his ncighbor. AIr. Burwcll Wllks. a
leading turfman Of that day, for the then
extraordinary price OF $1,000 seller and
I purchaser believing him TO be full-blOOd
horse. Potomac had proved to be the most
/ prominent horse of his day after SIR ArchV,
renowned "a "A racer and generously pa
troniZed with nearly $50 mares annually IN
his stud. He bad died leaving much stock
I Al. In 70
patrons of the turf. The racing and breed
/ ING public had regarded the phenomenal
| Potomac a. bred horse. His Of
spring had outrun those of more
/ than half q dozen imported horses that
had stood in Southern Virginia and
! in the neIChhOring region of North
Carolina. and had made enemies for Po-
tomac of many of the very influential class
of breeders who had bred 10 the imported
animals. After all this. and in an evil hour,
Mr. Edgar applied 10 the breeder Of FAIRY
/ for her pedigree: who, upon honor. put II
/ in Mr.. Edgars power TO make Potomac APP
pear 10 be half-hred. What sort OF
honor was it that broke rho silence Of
quarter OF century, and iInpellcd Mr..
Haskns to come forward or submit 70 be
dragged forward. 10 protest that Potomac
hal been sailing under false cOlorsl Where
is there "A case more appropriate for the APP
plicatiOn of that stern maxim Of equity
jurisprudence, that he 'rhO rfDlGiHS silent
,rheIa conscience calls on hmt 10 speak snail
no, he h,,lrd 1rAHs conscience bids han to Je
Sibnt2
THERE Is JUDGE MADE LAW, AID HISTORIAN
WADE HISTORY.
But acduit MIR. Haskins Of all dishonor-
able intention IN the transaction. The
great historian Mommsen admits that his
tory is mainly the work of Imagination.
4 81. g
toran's task In working up his material j.
largely the creation Of conjecture. MIR.
Edgar was the historian Of Potomacs
pedigree ! am absolutely convinced from
all the circumstances of tins certificate
that Nh HasEins really gave the true
pedigree Of Potomac a / have stated II
above, with the addition of the Silver Eye
dam and that Mr.. Edgar. in full faith that
he bncw with the historians intuition that
his embellishments were proper, ana That
his traud Wa piOus fraud. intcrpolated
the words " half-hrcd " "cOld blood. and
common wagou-horse' IN the pedigree
~ he printed it, and a. you have copied II.
he certainly exposed an animus hostile TO
the horse by volunteering the note, un
usual in compilcrs Of pcd.Grees, by which
A. "complerh he adds what / have shown
t. pc untrue. that " Potomac got very few
race-horscs. and injured the breed OF race
horses IN an eminent degree"
The error of the historian consisted in
th's-that il was Mr.. Edgar and not the
decried Potomac who was the lnlureT Of
the blood-stock OF America 1t - the
book, not the horse. thar now casts a shade
upon III RiD RAJ. tho best colt of to-day.
But Mr.. Edgar overdid HIS part. His pub
lcation of such d pedigree calls upon rs
to believe that in perod-l1o0 TO 1875
when breeders were careless OF preserving
the pedlgrecs even Of animals Of the best
blood, some clerical old ancestor Of Mr..
IIashins was diligently registering the
breeding Of cold-blooded mare5--dam.
granddam. and grcat-eranddam Of Fairy.
Surely this IS too improbable statement
for credcuce.
NOTABLE RACE-HOEsT REGION.
lived fortcu or twelve wears of my early
youtb-lSZ8 10 lSi0--when Edgar was IL
old age, in Halifax. Va. border county.
next to Mecklenburg on the east and ,ltt-
sylyania on the west. II adJOlncd Person,
a border county Of North Carolina. Colonel
White, who afterwards imported Fly-by-
Night. was breeding IN Pittsylyania from
largraye. Fylde. and Ike horses; Mr..
Brodnax. author of the Annals Of the
Turf" had "a fine stable In Person: his
brother William f., had made a fortune
on bloodcd stock in Mcckienhurg; aud the
two IoWuses, breeders and turlmCu, were
his neghhOrs, as were also the AleXanderS;
the Merits were importing MargTaye. Cha
teau Margaux. Eowton. SarpcdOn, Luz
borough. Priam. and bait dozen
other English horses, and were breeding
from them IN Brunsw ok; the stud of
John Randolph, replete with eXquisItely-
bred horses, was in Charlotte county. adj
Joining Halifax and Mecklenhurg. and WAS
about to be dissolved 10y Mr.. kandolph's
death: and William r. Johnson was IN his
prime and in the heydev at success run
ming the sous and daughters Of SIT Archy,
Potomac, aud their contemporaries IN all
the race meetings. IT was a race-horse Te-
eion IN Tace-horso period. hut not more
so than IT had been for fifty years. The
slave population far exceeded the white;
and the negroes, yOu know. had great way
of making gentlemen OF their masters.
Ihave strained my memory. and IN al that
region | do not IecollCct c0ld-blcOced
horse ever making season. There were
hut very few poor folks "; ana l dont
believe there was any man VINO was fool,
mean, and poor enough 10 keep or patron
ize such an animal.
Mr.. Edcar's embellishments Of POto-
macs pedigree were inccngruous with the
habits and sentiments of those times and
that country. and conflict with all manner
of probabilities. He breaks n QuixOtlc
lance with every reasonable possibility
when he introduces INTO his fiction the
lfitN-'liHA', Ail' '''i'i''+'t4 " - +4-i-'-
the "cold- bloodod" Silver Eye. and the
"half-bred" lorIck." II Is snid OF Baron
Munchausen that lie religiously believed
in the truth OF his own whopplng fahrica-
tons The Munchausenism- OF Mr.. Edgar
were as afectionately cherished 10y their
eccentric author.
PERFORMANCES TIP TRUE TEST or BLOOD.
For q long period in the history of the
blood horse, English as well as American,
performances III field and stud were &C
copied. necessarily accepted. as the best
test of blood OF necessity we must have
some other test for the many years when
there were great horses and no records
than the very proper one now obtaining of
recorded pedigree back to the fifth dam"
Suppose We apply the severe test TO which
We subject Potomac to the Godolphm
Barb, the barley Arabian. and the Byerly
Turk. that royal triad of the English stud.
Potomac's fourth dam was an estray
mare of unknown breeding, who was used
in pillow. What was the Godolphin him.
self when discovered but the drawer of a
water-cart in the streets OF Paris? Who
knows anything of the pedigrees Of the Go
dolphin, the barley, or the Bycrly horses,
who were the stripes of the grandest equine
prog ny ever bred in England or America ?
What but performance, and that only in