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CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE BOSTON TERRIER. 



"Poor Wolf, thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it; hut never mind, my lad, 

 whilst I live thou shall never want a friend to stand by thee." — Rip van Winkle. 



THE Boston Terrier was made in 

 America and is recognised in the 

 United States as distinctively an 

 American dog. But it is acknowledged 

 by the Americans themselves that the raw 

 material was drawn from Great Britain. 

 Terriers of a very similar type were com- 

 monly bred in England twenty and thirty 

 years ago, and were familiarly known as 

 the BuU-and-terrier. It was a cross be- 

 tween the Bulldog and the English Ter- 

 rier, and it had the attributes of both 

 breeds. It was an excellent fighting dog 

 and ratter, and was popular in the mining 

 districts. Our Bull-terrier is its direct 

 descendant, somewhat refined, and with 

 the brindle colouring eliminated. A genera- 

 tion ago a considerable number of these 

 Bull-and-terrier dogs were taken to America 

 by seamen and engineers on the liners from 

 Liverpool ; and among these was one 

 purchased by Mr. Robert C. Hooper, of 

 Boston. He was a dark brindle, with a 

 white blaze up his face and a white throat, 

 with cropped rose ears, and a screw tail. 

 Probably he was well up on the legs, and 

 his weight may have been something about 

 thirty pounds. He became known as 

 Hooper's Judge. Another of the breed was 

 a bitch named Gyp, who is recorded to 

 have had more of the Bulldog than the 

 terrier in her type. These two were 

 mated, and they got Wells's Eph, whose 

 name is still historic in Massachusetts. 

 Eph was bred to Tobin's Kate, a small 

 light brindle bitch, who threw Barnard's 

 Tom, the first genuine representative of 

 the Boston Terrier, although not yet de- 

 scribed by that breed name. 



Several of these Bull-terriers — all of 

 them of the same general appearance, with 

 light or dark brindle coats and a white 



muzzle and blaze — were exhibited at the 

 first Boston show in 1878. They became 

 popular as men's dogs in New England, and 

 their popularity extended. A club was 

 formed, and in 1891, or thereabouts, the 

 American Bull Terrier Club of Boston 

 applied to the American Kennel Club for 

 the registration of the breed, in which they 

 were especially interested. The application 

 was refused on the ground that the dog had 

 been bred away from its original type, that 

 it was not a typical American Bull-terrier ; 

 and it was suggested that the club should 

 omit the name " Bull-terrier " from their 

 designation, and call themselves simply the 

 Boston Terrier Club. This was done, but 

 it was not until 1893 that full recognition 

 was given. 



By this time, probably other strains had 

 been imported by the Bostonians, with the 

 effect that the descendants of Hooper's 

 Judge departed yet further from the original 

 Bull-and-terrier type. So much was this so 

 that the American Kennel Club declined to 

 recognise the dogs under that name. The 

 breed came to be spoken of and written 

 of as merely a local strain. It was not 

 a Bull-terrier. It was only what the 

 Boston people called a Bull-terrier. If 

 it was a terrier at all, it was merely a 

 Boston terrier. 



The Bostonians persevered, however. They 

 improved their strain, and gradually it 

 became recognised at shows, while outside 

 of Massachusetts classes were provided for 

 it, until it grew to be one of the most 

 popular of American dogs, still keeping 

 the local name that had been derisively 

 flung at it. 



From time to time there have been dis- 

 putes as to the points of the Boston Terrier. 

 It has been disputed whether the skull 



