Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-08-17

Regis ter has at last been issued. III Is
cumbrous volume of more than 800 pages,
and no more beautiful press work has
ever been seen. TIE volume, which is
largely in the nature of preface to the
numbers which will succeed it (Vol. II.
being almost ready for the press, is
filled with interesting matter pertaining
to the early Morgan horses and their
more prominent descendants. Much of
this will no doubt prove highly valuable,
and a-great deal of it is the result of
patient research on the part of Mr.. Bat
tell. No one of sound mind now under
estimates the great value of Morgan
blood. but it is valued just as Is all other
blood, for what it has done. And 1t has
done much, probably far more than has
been placed to its credit. That it has
had great aid is true; and, for that mat
ter, so has every other strain of blood in
the light harness horse, hence Mr.. Bat
tell, we believe, falls into bad way in
protesting too much for Morgan blood,
while conservative men give it its proper
high value, yet do not claim for it that
to which it is not entitled. As stated,
there is no disposition on the part of
thinking men to deprive the Morgan of
his Just deserts, and it is the thinkers
who will welcome the volume under con
sideration, and who will be able to weed
out that in it which is of no value either
in its history or its deductions. The
volume shows vast amount of research
and personal investigation. 1t contains
a great deal which has never before been
published, and will probably lead to end
less discussion.
The illustrations curiously cover every
section of the United States and Canada,
the diversity being due, no doubt, to the
fact that Morgan blood has penetrated
every known locality on the continent,
including Arkansas, from which highly
cultivated field comes the king of the
Morgans, Lord Clinton 2 :09. The land
scape views are superb. Would chat we
could say as much for the horse por-
traits. Those of the old-time animals,
such as Justin Morgan, Black Hawk,
Ethan Allen, Clifford Morgan and Green
Mountain Morgan are gross caricatures.
On the other hand, the portraits of
Dennng Allen, the Fearnaughts, Lord
Clinton and others are gems of art and
beauty.
But pictures do not make books, and
Mr.. Battells Register is one of the most
valuable of recent acquisitions to equine
literature, one that should be in the
library of every horscman and every
student of the breeding problem. No
one before has attempted a work of such
magnitude, nor has endeavored to get
at the evidence on which is based the
many beliefs as to the ancestry of many
famous ones, and while it may surprise
some to find in the first volume the
claim that Seely's American Star and
old Pacing Pilot are direct descendants
of Justin Morgan, it must he admitted
that the evidence given is quite as con-
elusive as lnaI upon WHICH II odscu tHe
claim that their ancestry is in other
lines. 1t preserves much in the way of
horse lore that might otherwise have
been lost, and while we may esteem Mr..
Battell faddlst, we can not do less
than say for him that his fad leads him
in the direction of doing good. We
trust his new work will prove highly
probable TClark's Horse Review.