124 The Sporting Dog 



are degenerating. In San Francisco, however, 

 and St. Louis coursing dogs have frequently 

 been freely exhibited. The best display ever seen 

 east of the Rockies was in the St. Louis show of 

 1897. Mr. Robinson carried off nearly all the 

 honors with a particularly fine string, the cracks 

 of which were Magician, Sylvia, and Dakota. I 

 had the curious experience of seeing my dog, 

 Dakota, the public qualities of which Mr. Robin- 

 son controlled, beat some dogs which I exhibited 

 for Mr. Lowe, wdth whom I had an arrangement 

 for controlling his St. Louis string. Mr. Lowe 

 had the luck the next month to beat all of Mr. 

 Robinson's crack dogs in a coursing stake at 

 Davenport with Melita and Quickstitch, which 

 were then at their best, and gave a magnificent 

 exhibition of speed and working powers, in the 

 hands of Mr. E. J. Brown, the St. Louis coursing 

 enthusiast. 



Just what the future of greyhounds in America 

 will be is hard to predict. It is said that the popu- 

 larity of the sport in California has considerably 

 fallen off, and at this moment there is a notice- 

 able decline in St. Louis. Six or eight years ago 

 there were more than twenty regular clubs in the 

 states of the plains. Now there are very few. 

 The multiplication of wire fences which are a 

 menace to dogs, with other discouragements, has 

 checked the open plains events. The American 



