Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-09-07

ndOlIdntS Oh InlS leTTllOIl lull VI nOWS
on the slightest provocatlon. but in
instances like the above he should realize
that honor is at stake-not only his own
bat ours.-[M. Quad's Arizona Kicker.
CAN WE BREED WHAT WE WISH.
Some four years or more ago the gifted
clark Comstock" perpetrated a huge
joke on his trotting brethren. Many of
them accepted it in earnest and since then
have adopted it as the solution of the
"trotting-bred' pacing question. 1t is
hardly possible the bright writer who
signs that name really intended it as any
thing but joke. but having found that
many of the fraternity were disposed to
accept it without further argument, he
has had the good sense to keep quiet and
let his converts brace it up with the
feeble arguments necessary to give it
some degree of stability.
Usually dogmatic and terse when he
writes, IIark excelled himself in the fol-
lowing dictum, in which he disposes of
the pacing question in the trotting ranks
in language which has made history as
well as converts, and has become, among
writers who have given the subject no
thought, one of the amendments to the
constitution of the trotter. Here is the
nicely balted paragraph:
That every PAGER which we now see
cropping out among trotting stock in
herits the trait from some ancestor away
back among the Narragansetts is not "A
tenable supposition. The PAGER is simply
horse that PAGES. \ PAGER is liable TO
appear from parents which never had a
pacing ancestor The pacing gait is II
compromise between incongruous con-
formation and "A disposition to assume
the flying trot. Overcome the effects of
structural incOngrulty by mechanical
appliances, and you get the flying trot.
Accepting as a fact upon which to
base our argument the rather brilliant
definition that IA PAGER is simply "a horse
that PAGES" we are forcibly reminded in
the beginning of our rebuttal that there
is nothing else left in the paragraph that
is true. If the PAGERS (Which we now
see cropping out among trotting stock
(trotters) do not inherit the trait (gait)
from some ancestor away back among
the Narragansetts," or from some other
pacing source, the question naturally
arises. where does it come from?
1t is easy enough to argue negatively.
One may begin with the creation of man
and deny every well established principle
in the world, and yet never prove any
thing himself. The history of all animal
creation teaches us that each animal be-
gets his own kind. And God said; Let
the earth bring forth the living creature
alter his kind; cattle and creeping thing
and it was So" And like all of God 5
sayings which have been pronounced by
Him to be so, it Is safe to say that it is
still so to this day.
About the earliest authentic record OF
the distinct gats of the horse has been
given us by the Greek sculptor Phydias,
some 300 years before Christ. All three
of the gaits are pictured-the gallop, the
trot and the pace. Each is distinctly
given and their antiquity, if nothing
else. should give them fair license to
stand alone. They are old enough TO
vote, and well enough established to be
kept pure, if due care is taken to do so.
But another evidence that the genial
Hank Comstock was emily poliing ironical
-. frn i.
in his definition of the cause of the pac-
ing gait. One should tremDle when one
begins to manufacture definitions. Men
have been known to write whole books
of glittering generalities with great sue
cess, aud others have been known to be
wrecked on one detinitiOn-mOnumen
ones, as it were.
"rhe pacing gait is compromise be-
tween homogeneous conformation and
disposition to assume the flying trot.
There it Is, bright and beautiful enough.
but let us analyze it. There can be no
compromise. in the true sense of the
word, between concrete thing like an
animals form and mental quality, or a
desire to do something. One might as
well say horse PAGES because he has a
crotch in his head and a droop in his
rump. But leaving any technical con
struction of the words and accepting the
spirit of the meaning, it means, if any
thing, that the animal wants TO trot-has
"a disposition to assume the flying trot''
but finds himself made wrong to begin
with-'Incongruous northumberland
so compromises these conflicting differ
ences by pacing The best evidence
that this definition is more brilliant than
stable, is thar no man, as PAGERS and trot-
tiers are now bred, can go into stable
and pick out those that trot and those
that pace. Nearly every trotting-bred
PAGER on the turf to-day-and there never
was a period when there were so many
is a standing refutation of this assertion,
And even so good Judge of trotters
as Mr.. Bonner, when on visit to Ten