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Page 32
"The highest price I ever got was $25,000."
"Holy Nellie," said I. "Isn't that the highest price anybody ever
got?"
"No," he said. "Do you want me to tell you about that? . . .It's
a pretty long story but interesting. Along about 1915 Perfection
Fairfax was getting old, and I decided I'd go out again and buy
the best young Hereford bull on Earth. As I traveled and asked, I
kept hearing about a Richard Fairfax, one of old Perfection's
calves--a calf I had raised, and still owned his mother. He had
been sold at one of my sales and wound up in Dakota--and it was
always the same tale that he was not for sale at any price,
whatsoever. Absolutely."
"I made up my mind I'd just take his owner off his feet the first
shot. I'd paralyze him with an offer he'd not refuse. I didn't
want to take a long wild goose chase for nothing away up there in
Dakota. If he wasn't for sale at any price I'd soon know it. So I
wrote a short letter to his owner. I wrote, 'I know there is no
use sending bird shot after big game. If I come up and look at
Richard Fairfax and like him, and find him to be everything I've
heard about him, will you take $25,000 cash for him?' I figured
that would bring him to his milk."
"Very much to my surprise a prompt letter informed me that my
offer did not interest his owner in the least. Richard Fairfax
was not for sale at any price."
"So I looked elsewhere and forgot Richard. That was along, say in
November. The following February, Johnny --, from Minnesota, came
down to see me. He was a young breeder who had great faith in me
and my judgment of Herefords, and had bought quite a bit of my
stuff. Johnny was to stay all night and go home next morning on
the 7 o'clock train. I noticed Johnny was listless as he looked
over my herd, and I knew something was wrong--he wasn't there to
buy."
"After supper we went into the library and talked Herefords and
everything else from the weather to politics. Finally I looked at
my watch and said: 'Johnny, I'm getting sleepy. You leave in the
morning at 7, and it's 1 o'clock now. Let's go to bed.'"
"Warren," he said. "I've got something pretty big on my mind. I
want your advice. It's Richard Fairfax. I know all about your
offer. I know the whole story. But I'm about to pay $50,000 cash
for him, and what I want to know is if you think I am crazy
trying to buy him at $50,000?"
"Well, Johnny! You're the greatest Hereford booster I ever heard
of. You sure are! I don't want to discourage you, and God knows I
don't want to throw cold water on the Hereford business, but now
that you've asked me, all I can say is that I quit at $25,000.
That's a terrible risk. Why, the bull might lie down and die
tomorrow. $50,000 is a pile of money in Government Bonds, but
it's an ocean full of money tied up in a Hereford bull."
"Well, don't throw up your hands until I get through, Warren.
I've been thinking about this thing for a long time and been
getting ready for it. I can get him insured for a maximum of
$25,000--everybody says Richard is the best young bull in the
country, and remember he's out of your grand old Perfection. I've
been quietly buying up all his sons and daughters I can lay my
hands on. I own 65 daughters and 20-odd sons, so I'd be pretty
well fixed for a June sale of sons and daughters of a $50,000
bull. I figure that the advertising a $50,000 buy would give is a
big thing. The more I think, the bigger it gets: the highest price
the world has ever known for a bull. No other price has even
approached that figure. Every big newspaper from New York on west
will carry it on the front page, and a picture of Richard and me
along with the story. I'll get more free advertising out of that
than I would with 50 years of paid advertisements in all the Live
Stock Journals published. And I'll see to it that 'Bred by Warren
T. McCray, Kentland, Indiana' goes under Richard's picture. You
are going to have a sale in May. You bred Richard Fairfax. About
everything you own is close kin to him. How would a $50,000 bull
that you calved help your May sale?"
"Well, Johnny, I see the enormous possibilities. Still, $50,000
is SOME bull money."
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