FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



touch the poor brutes, which sometimes they will 

 not, will be given here, and if your sport (?) is 

 not complete without this feature, then may your 

 undertakings in the hunting line prove dismal 

 failures 1 How any collection of ordinarily civi- 

 lized beings can find their pleasure enhanced by 

 the kilUng of a poor little wretch which is turned 

 out in a strange locality, too feeble from long 

 confinement to run any distance, too bewildered 

 to seek any sanctuary, or to know where such 

 may be found, is as much a mystery as its perpe- 

 tration is an inhuman outrage on decency. The 

 flimsy excuse that hounds " need blood " is ridic- 

 ulous and untrue ; there are successful packs in 

 all countries that never kill, and do not even taste 

 raw meat at the "finish.*' That a "bagman" is 

 highly distasteful to hounds, anyway, is proven by 

 the fact that if thev do kill him, they often refuse 

 to either " break him up," or eat him. One view 

 of the wretched, hunted creature, probably a cub, 

 tongue out, brush dragging as he struggles hope- 

 lessly along, is enough to make one's blood run 

 cold ; and it is safe to say that, had the bulk of 

 the field any opportunity to view such a spectacle 

 they would promptly demand its abolition, or 

 abandon hunting entirely. A wild fox at large in 



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