The English Setter 143 



has blood in his veins other than the Duke-Rhoebe-Kate-Laverack." Of 

 course, not being confined to those lines, he could not be a "Llewellyn." 

 That is true enough, but if his breeding had been within those lines the 

 decision would have been the other way; a way that Doctor Rowe would 

 not have decided it in 1884, when he said Mr. Llewellyn had not a particle 

 of reason to claim the Kate line, even admitting the Duke-Rhcebe-Laverack, 

 which was merely a borrowed idea from older breeders. 



There is a virtue in choosing your own referee as was done in this 

 case, and that reminds us of a still more sudden reversal of opinions. About 

 1874 C. J. Foster was supplanted as editor of the Spirit of the Times by 

 Mr. J. H. Saunders, who had had little experience in the then important 

 duty on sporting papers of deciding wagers. The result was that he 

 reversed certain rulings which had for years been taken advantage of by 

 clever betters, who knew that the Spirit decided one way and the Clipper 

 the reverse. One was the value of a certain throw with dice, and this Mr. 

 Saunders changed to the Clipper decision, and the loser came to us about 

 it, as we were then on the paper. Our advice was to follow the ruling of 

 the new editor and have another question referred to the Spirit. And this 

 he did, but in the meanwhile Mr. Saunders had received so many letters 

 calling his attention to the "error" that when the question cropped up 

 next week he went back to the old decision, and the twice loser came in hot 

 haste with the paper containing it. The advice this time was to mark 

 both papers and send them with a note to Mr. George Wilkes, the proprietor, 

 with a statement of the facts. This he did, and Wilkes, knowing the im- 

 portance of this department of the paper, at once sent his check for the 

 hundred dollars, with a strong expression of regret; then he had a talk 

 with Mr. Saunders, and the department was turned over to us to run on the 

 familiar lines on all questions, except to formally state that the decision 

 regarding the man and the squirrel in the tree was to be changed, and after 

 that the man never walked around the squirrel, dodging on the opposite 

 side, at least in the Spirit's columns. 



Had Doctor Rowe been as firm a man as George Wilkes he would have 

 got rid of the term Llewellyn, just as George Wilkes stamped out timing 

 fractions in trotting records. These would be reported in fifths and other 

 fractions, but the office rule was that quarters could alone be used, and 

 every report was changed to conform therewith. Other papers copied 

 the Spirit, and sportsmen after that would buy only quarter-second timing 



