INTRODUCTION. 



BY THE HONORABLE JOHN S. WISE. 



jj] T gives me great pleasure, at the request of the editor, to 

 write an introduction to THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE 

 /il DOG. Mr. Shields asked me, some months ago, to write 

 an article on the Pointer for this work, and I deeply 

 regretted that I was too much engaged at the time to 

 comply with his request, for I felt then, as I do now, a 

 deep interest in the success of his enterprise. However, 

 my inability to join his staff did not prevent him from 

 having that noble breed ably treated, for the gentleman 

 whom he secured to write of it has prepared a most able, 

 exhaustive, and instructive paper, as have nearly all the 

 other contributors on the various breeds of dogs. 



Mr. Shields is too well known to the readers of sports- 

 men' s literature to require any introduction, and in select- 

 ing contributors to this work he has displayed rare good 

 judgment. His list of writers embraces the names of a 

 great many gentlemen who are recognized as leading 

 authorities on the subjects of which they write. While 

 these articles may, in some cases, be more or less tinged by the 

 peculiar views of their authors, the book, thus drawn from 

 many different minds, is not only very eclectic in character, 

 but, in my judgment, much more correct and valuable, as a 

 whole, than it could be were it the production of an indi- 

 vidual. 



I have been particularly glad to notice that many of the 

 writers have framed their articles on these lines, and have 

 quoted largely from the writings of others, not contenting 

 themselves with merely expressing their individual views. 



The book is exceedingly interesting. It is free, too, from 

 the sameness of expression and treatment so often found in 



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