Scrub Bulls of Macedonia

Paul’s voyage reminds us that everyone is purebred in the eyes of God.

Purebred bulls and scrub bulls. One hundred years ago, cattle were led into courtrooms, and trials were held in an effort to sort them out.

In one case, the defendant’s name was “Mr. Scrub Bull.” According to Duke Magazine, he was escorted by policemen into a makeshift courtroom in Pickens County, South Carolina, in October 1922. He stood on four legs in front of Magistrate James McElroy Jameson, while a court officer read the bill of indictments.

“The defendant works in a very underhand way,” the officer declared, “stealing the profits from every dairyman and butcher who has common cows, robbing the unsuspecting, the careless, and the ignorant alike, causing their innocent children to suffer for milk and working men to be in want of meat.”

And what was the charge being leveled at Mr. Scrub Bull? Genetic impurity. He was not a purebred bull, an animal believed to produce more food than a runty-looking scrub. This “Court of Bovine...