212 The Sporting Dog 



when old Brag is out in front." Hardly one man 

 in four will say, theoretically, that he admires par- 

 ticularly fast dogs ; but three out of four will look 

 for the fastest dog they can find when they are 

 either buying outside or selecting one of their 

 own breeding for personal use. This means 

 merely that the American does not propose to 

 see some other man's dogs taking the lead from 

 his in a fox-hunt or working on the outside in a 

 quail expedition. 



Class is the same attribute in all competitions, 

 whether of men or animals. It is of such basic 

 importance in the search for truth that anything 

 is worth while which illuminates or illustrates. 



Begin with man. To bring out a plain illustra- 

 tion let me say that, allowing for the obvious pos- 

 sibility of a mistake, the finest mind which I ever 

 had the pleasure of seeing at work was that of the 

 late Jay Gould. I have never found reason for 

 modifying the opinion, though I have been at 

 close quarters with two Presidents of the United 

 States, several convention candidates for that 

 high honor and a number of possibilities, twenty 

 or thirty college presidents, and not a few national 

 authorities on various subjects, not to mention a 

 hundred or so of successful authors. I saw Mr. 

 Gould but once, and then for probably not more 

 than thirty minutes. My professional duties^placed 

 me where I listened to his view of a question then 



