ADVERTISING FANCY STOCK 367 



suited only to the utility grade, and the expert fancier 

 gets rather in the habit of regarding him as "an inno- 

 cent" who expects always more than any one of experi- 

 ence would or could give him for his- money. 



This is not by any means to say that all fanciers with 

 reputations are crooked. I know men in the fancy who 

 are most painfully honest. The statements above are 

 necessary in order to forewarn the Beginner not to bank 

 alone on a reputation for having good stock. Let him 

 deal with those whom he or his friends know to have both 

 good stock and good will and integrity. 



There is still another side to this, which is, to speak 

 frankly, that the Beginner himself, when he first begins 

 to raise fancy stock for sale, is quite as likely as any 

 one to prey upon the public. This, not because he is 

 willfully dishonest, but simply because he is a Beginner. 

 There are people who sell stock without ever having 

 seen the Standard of Perfection, the fanciers' law of 

 breeding. They may think that their stock is of a good 

 strain, but they do not know the distinction between 

 the middle-grade specimen and the first-class one. The 

 higher the grade, the smaller the variation which adds 

 ten or fifteen or twenty-five or fifty dollars in value. In 

 large shows, it often takes an exceedingly good judge to 

 see much difference between the first and the sixth prize 

 bird, in what is called a " hot class "; that is, a class in 

 which the prize is hotly contested. The Standard of 

 Perfection, toward whose demands each fancier must 

 breed his stock, contains working rules for constant use. 

 It is, in effect, the judges' and fanciers' pocket reference 

 book, to be consulted on every occasion of difficulty or 

 uncertainty. 



