SHORT-HORN MEN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1655, 10 June 1879, Page 4

SHORT-HORN MEN.

Not the least remarkable feature in tho high class shorthorn world (says a writer in the " Live Stock Journal"), is the parity, not of tho oattle, but of the br. elerg. Some wj'bo man says that impurity sticks close between buying and selling ; and certainly it seems to hold true in the buying and selling of horses; for how hard it is, even for an honeßt man, to keep quite straightforward if once he begins to deal in horseflesh ! But, to their honor it deserves to be recorded, hitherto short-horn breeders have kept themselves pure and above snspioion in all their transactions, public or private. This were nothing to boast of if there were no temptation, but the temptation is in proportion to the prizes. If a man has a cow which cost him a thousand guineas, and she produces him a wretched bull calf with a black nose, how natural to suppose that he would liko to keep it quiet; or if he is selling off without reservp, does it not require some courage and resistance to evil to tell all about the cattlo ? I think it does, and I honor shorthorn breeders accordirgly. Anothor thing which commands my admiration is the Bplendid way in which this high class short-horn business (as distinct from breeding) is conducted. The immortal—for is he not ? John Thornton ascends the rostrum, makes a brilliant little speech, explains verbally tho conditions of sale, and the ball opens. In the space of a few hours he sells property (moveable) to the value mayhap, of ten or fifteen thousand pounds, and he afterwards collects the proceeds and hands them to the seller, and all without deed or document between buyer and seller—a short-horn breeder's nod is as good as his bond ! Just fancy a lawyer set to transact a piece of business like that. Wby, it would take the pen of a ready writer a week to extend the " minutes of agreement " he would consider necessary ! But thanks to the noble confidence Bhort-horn men have in each other, no lawyer has ever to interfere in their barg tins ; and long may their honor and their purity in breeding and in busincs3 flourish, unstained and unsuspected.