1. The bay colt, No. 20, of the inventory, was the only animal in the band by Lexington. He was a foal of 1863, and was a year younger than any of the others.

2. In speaking of the losses, by death on the route, of some of the more noted animals, Mr. Anderson enumerates the noted stallion Captain Beard, and a very fine yearling colt by Lexington, called Frank. Here perished the only foal by Lexington in the band, and we may as well bury Mr. Gould’s and Mr. Brodhead’s “typographical error” with him, for the colt kicked it to death before he died.

3. When the band reached California there were several additions smuggled into it as being part of the originals from Kentucky, and among these additions was the light chestnut filly that has been since known as Waxy, given as a foal of 1862, and got by Lexington, dam unknown.

4. As Mr. Brodhead had proved conclusively, from the records at Woodburn, that Mr. Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the “typographical error” parties found themselves placed “between the devil and the deep sea.”

This outside filly that had been smuggled into the band of Kentuckians was advertised along with them, as a foal of 1862, in the fall of 1864; she was sold as a foal of 1862; she was entered in a sweepstake for three-year-olds as a foal of 1862; she was exhibited at a horse show as a foal of 1862; she started to run the only race she ever attempted as a foal of 1862, and proving herself utterly worthless as a race mare, she was given away on the spot as a foal of 1862.

As the only representative of Lexington in the band was “the yearling bay colt Frank,” as shown by Mr. Anderson, the partner of Mr. Welch; and as the records at Woodburn had clearly and distinctly shown that Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the bottom was out of the conspiracy and it was abandoned. There was a little fussing about the possibility that there might have been a mistake and that Waxy might have been a foal of 1863 after all, but it amounted to nothing more than the enfeebled squeak of an asthmatic mouse and then all was quiet.

Before passing to the other branch of the investigation, this seems to be the proper place to speak of the incidents of the sale and its sequences at the Fair Grounds at San Jose, January 3, 1865. There were some twelve or fifteen head, that had been previously advertised, offered at public sale, and a number of those were sold, all indeed in which this inquiry has any interest. When the stock arrived at San Jose, there was a good deal of confusion, and it is just possible that some of them were not correctly placed. The only discrepancy which I have found between Mr. Welch’s inventory and the facts is in the color of the filly No. 18, that appears in the inventory as a chestnut, but is advertised and sold as a bay. This mistake in color is not infrequent in the spring of the year before the old coat is shed, and I think it may be reasonably accounted for on this ground. James L. Eoff, well known from ocean to ocean as the king of all “horse sharps,” seems to have taken a good deal of interest in assorting the animals and in picking up scraps of information from the boys who had come with them. At the same time he was an excellent judge of racing stock, and as silent as the grave to the victims whom he sought to mislead and then beat. In this way he soon knew more about the breeding of the animals than those in charge of them. Mr. William Woodward seems to have been his friend (?) with plenty of money, but a perfect “tenderfoot” in the mysteries of the race horse. No doubt he pointed out to Mr. Woodward the so-called Lexington filly and advised him to buy her, assuring him that he wanted her himself, but if he wanted to take a little fly in racing he would not bid against him. The sale came off, and Eoff ran up the Revenue filly, out of Sally Morgan, to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and got her, it is said, for Theodore Winters. When they came to the filly by Bob Johnson, out of the mare by Brawner’s Eclipse, Eoff bought her at two hundred and fifty dollars for himself, and named her Lilly Hitchcock. The next animal sold was the filly by Lexington, dam unknown, and she was bought by William Woodward at two hundred and fifty dollars, and he named her Waxy. The sale was slimly attended and much of the stock was bid in for the owner, Mr. John Anderson. That night the wine flowed very freely, as it was the initiation of the “tenderfoot,” Mr. Woodward, into the ranks of running-horse men. After they all “got hot” (except Eoff), a sweepstakes was opened for the three fillies, Ada C. (the Revenue filly), Lilly Hitchcock and Waxy, at two hundred and fifty dollars each, and Eoff was careful to see that it was made “play or pay.” The race was a dash of a mile and a quarter, and it took place nearly twelve months after the match was made. Eoff won easily with Lilly Hitchcock, and Waxy was so badly beaten that Woodward gave her away on the spot and “swore off” ever owning another running horse. Thus Eoff’s cunning carried his plot through, without a break at any point. From the hour he bought this filly he stoutly maintained she was by Lexington and out of the Brawner’s Eclipse mare. She ran all her races under this pedigree and never was challenged, and if ever there was a mare in California bred in this way, this is likely to be the mare. We can understand just how he could have discovered where Waxy came from, and that she never saw Kentucky, and on this knowledge he based the game he played on poor Woodward.

After the failure to establish the claim that Waxy came out of Philip Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare and publicly confessing that the evidence upon which Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead based their conclusions was fallacious and the conclusions themselves incorrect, the advocates of “more running blood in the trotter” pulled themselves together for another bout. What purported to be an old document was dug up somewhere—indeed I am told there were two of them dug up, one in Kentucky and the other somewhere on the Pacific coast—purporting to be duplicates of an agreement entered into, in March, 1864, between John P. Welch, of California and Philip Swigert, of Kentucky, by which Welch agreed to take certain blood horses to California and sell or breed them on the shares, etc. This document possessed all the paraphernalia of authenticity, with government stamp, witnesses to the signatures of the contracting parties, etc. This document (I don’t know which “duplicate”) was shown to me in April, 1891, and at the first glance, and without reading a word except the date, it astounded me. There was a paper purporting to be twenty-seven years old, and it looked as bright and fresh as though it had been written within twenty-seven hours. There was no fading of the luster of the ink and there was no ageing in the color of the paper. Having devoted a great deal of time to the examination of writings, varying in age from one day to a hundred years and more, and this experience extending through many years, I ought to be a fairly competent judge of the effects of age on ink and paper. Here was a paper purporting to be over a quarter of a century old with all the newness of yesterday, and when Mr. J. C. Simpson showed it to me I was impressed with the belief, on this one point of evidence alone, that it was spurious, and that Mr. Simpson had been made a victim by some rascally scrivener. With so much for the appearance of the paper, on its face, we will now examine the contents and see whether any evidence can there be found that will throw further light on the question of its authenticity. Unfortunately I have not what purports to be the original of this document before me, and I must therefore depend upon my memory and upon what Judge Halsey, as attorney for Mr. Brodhead, has printed as the contents. In giving the list of animals I will follow the order of the “document” and place before each one, for convenience of reference, the number attached to that animal in Mr. Welch’s original inventory.