The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 292

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

coursing through his veins, even diluted by a century. Quarter
Horses can start fast, stop just as suddenly, react instantly to com-
mand. As Gard says, "Steel Dust had the qualities that farmers,
cowmen, and racing men wanted in a quarter horse; and he had
unusual ability to transmit them to his colts."
What future champions Steel Dust did not sire in Texas in
the 185o's and 186o's, Shiloh apparently did, right on down into
Reconstruction days. Sometimes the Steel Dust and Shiloh lines
combined down the way, and the quality of the twin ancestry
proved ever more durable. The Denton Mare, however, was a
descendant of Steel Dust's side. She was so good that her owner
eventually ran out of horses-and suckers-to race her against.
It was after that situation developed that Bass turned to robbery.
Whether there is a moral here, I could not say.
In the past fifteen years there has been a considerable revival
of enthusiasm for Quarter Horses, amounting to almost a fad.
In this rediscovery Wayne Gard, working as a historian, has
played a role with a whole spate of magazine articles. Now, with
his careful and zestful reconstruction of the life of Steel Dust,
his colleagues, and his descendants, he has brought together all
that is worthwhile and pertinent regarding the champion of
them all. Eight pages of illustrations by Nick Eggenhofer add
to the attractiveness of the volume. It is a beautiful book to have
around. And not incidentally, it is good history too.
JOE B. FRANTZ
University of Texas
David S. Terry of California: Duelling Judge. By A. Russell
Buchanan. San Marino (The Huntington Library), 1956.
Pp. ix+ 23. $5.00.
Terry's life story is more than just another biography of passing
interest for it is a case study in that anachronistic form of violence
so intimately associated with the "chivalrous southron." In Terry,
the Southern Hotspur reached apotheosis. Descended from an
Indian-fighting Jackson worshipper and molded in the rugged
school of the frontier, he was a classic example of that bundle
of contradictions known as the frontier aristocrat: as coarse as
the rough and tumble environment from which he came yet as

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