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likely to do so. It is the same with means of locomotion for pleasure and comfort. The horse cannot be surpassed as the prime factor in the case.

It was but a few weeks ago that Doctor Talmage, the eminent preacher, was reported in Eastern journals to have delivered a forcible and interesting discourse, extolling the virtues of the horse and setting forth the claims of the noble animal to be styled "The King of Beasts." The recording scribe expressed no suspicion that the worthy divine had been put up to "boom" the then approaching New York horse show, but whatever may have been the predisposing cause for his thus sermonizing, the subject was at all events seasonably chosen. Possibly the preacher had become infected with the contagion which attacks all Gothamites at this period of the year and prom

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W. S. HOBART ON HIS POLO PONY CHEROKEE.

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ises to become reflected annually in the metropolis of the Pacific Coast.

The remarkably successful exhibition held at the Mechanics' Pavilion in San Francisco last fall gave ample proof that in California there is not only the material, but also the will and resources, to support a yearly show of horseflesh that will take high place amongst such events. The initial venture, in every way a success, led to the incorporation of the Horse Show Association of the Pacific Coast, with a capital of $100,000. The personnel of the new association remains to a large extent the same as in the case of the original society, the governing body being constituted follows:

Henry J. Crocker, President; John Parrott, Vice-President; J. L. Rathbone, Vice-President; Geo. A. Newhall, Secretary; Obed Horr, Assistant Secretary;

MR. GEORGE ALMER NEWHALL, SECRETARY.

H

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YORKSHIRE COACH STALLION, IMP: INGMANTHORPE GAMESTER. OWNED BY W. F. DRAKE.

Directors, Henry J. Crocker, John Parrott, J. L. Rathbone, Geo. A. Newhall, Jos. D. Grant, J. B. Crockett, Frank Hicks, Maurice Casey, M. Theo. Kear ney, Geo. A. Pope, J. A. Donohoe; Honorary Vice Presidents, W. Mayo Newhall, W. S. Hobart, A. B. Spreckels, C. De Guigne, Wm. S. Tevis, C. E.

A UNIVERSAL PET.

Worden, W. F. Banning, Peter J. Donahue, J. M. Cunningham, C. A. Spreckels, P. E. Bowles, Fred. R. Webster, C. P. Huntington, John F. Boyd, C. H. Hastings.

Under the auspices of the Association the second annual show will be held from the 3d to the 7th of December, both days inclusive, at the Mechanics' Pavilion as previously, the list of prizes, ordinary and special, aggregating some $20,000, or nearly three times the amount awarded altogether in 1894. Strong encouragement has been given for horse owners to enter liberally in the 120 classes into which the exhibition is divided. A year

ago such a thing as a horse show on an extensive scale, in accordance with the modern practise which obtains in older communities, was admittedly an experiment, and one that many people were disposed to consider almost foolhardy, but we have now at least got beyond the stage of doubt and have a foundation of

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experience on which to base an estimate of the position and progress in matters horsey at the end of another twelvemonths. In common with other parts of the country, breeding, importation of fresh blood, and trading generally, have been on an exceedingly limited scale, but on the other hand there have appeared signs on the horizon that lead men to hope for a future productive of fair profits for those who will stay with the game.

As regards racing, the newly organized Pacific Coast Jockey Club, which will operate the track at Ingleside, five miles to the southwest of San Francisco, now completed for the fall, winter, and spring meetings, promises to be a vaiuable addition to the turf undertakings of the country, while the rehabilitation of the Oakland track, under the auspices of the California Jockey Club, further ex

tends the scope of racing opportunities within reach of owners of thoroughbreds and trotters, and helps to offset the probable closing down of the time-honored Bay District Track in the early spring of 1896. The steady development of running races on the State Agricultural Society's track at Sacramento, is a further feature of strength in the California racing situation, and it is interesting to note that the Directors of the State Fair have recently issued a circular to breeders of thoroughbreds, inviting them to subscribe to a stake to be called the California Futurity, open to two-year-olds of 1896, and estimated to be of the value of from $3,000 to $5,000 to the winner.

At Los Angeles the sporting instinct seems to keep on spreading its roots, while, notwithstanding the withdrawal of the State appropriation from the dis

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trict fairs, the past season's meetings have on the whole, so far as racing was concerned, maintained their position. In the trotting branch of sport there has perhaps been some want of life, as the more valuable prizes to be picked up on Eastern courses necessarily continue to attract Western champions across the Rockies, and the public cannot be expected to display the enthusiasm in witnessing moderate performers that they would show if horses of the first flight were brought out for their edification.

As for breeding, the falling off in every direction, save in thoroughbreds, has been serious, owing to the want of proper remuneration for the cost, trouble, and risk, of raising stock, and beyond the importation of a few thoroughbred stallions and mares from England and Australia little or no new blood has come into the State. The check, however,

will prove but temporary, and in the end doubtless beneficial, for the indiscriminate production of immense numbers

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