The Dalmatian 337 
The life of the Dalmatian in this country as a show dog has been brief. 
We have always had the Dalmatian, one may say, but only occasionally 
was one to be seen about New York, almost invariably about some stable. 
This was only what might be expected, for, whoever brought them from 
abroad, it is fair to assume that they were mainly coachmen or grooms, and 
the dogs went with them to the stables. In the early seventies we remember 
a Dalmatian kept at a livery stable in Charles Street, New York, and 
this was the first dog we ever saw running between the horses when out 
with a carriage and pair. The English style, when the dog was not running 
in advance, was for it to run underneath the carriage and close behind the 
horses. Bewick, in one of his quaint little tailpieces, shows a coach drawn 
by a pair, one horse ridden by a postilion, with the dog running by the 
roadside. 
Perhaps the most thoughtless statement regarding the development 
of the Dalmatian, and repeated up to the latest English dog book, is that 
he is a production of a cross with the bull terrier, or that the bull terrier 
has been used to improve the Dalmatian. How a dog that was so thoroughly 
established in 1800 could be improved by a dog not known at all until 
1825 or thereabouts is somewhat beyond our comprehension. By a vivid 
stretch of the imagination one might hold that the mottling sometimes seen 
on the skin of the bull terrier was caused by a cross with the Dalmatian, 
but the bull terrier to help in building up the Dalmatiah is ridiculous. 
To be quite up to date they ought to say it was the Boston terrier, and that 
with just as much foundation in fact. 
In looking up the career of the Dalmatian as a show dog in this country 
it is somewhat surprising to find New York without classes for the breed 
for many years after they were provided at many other shows. As far 
as San Francisco and Los Angeles we have records of winning Dalmatians 
when New York provided nothing for the breed, and it was not until 1896 
that the premier show of the country opened classes for Dalmatians. There 
was not much support, however, until Doctor Lougest added them to his 
mastiff and bloodhound kennels, and, with a few passably good dogs, had 
matters his own way for a year or two. Mr. Martin and Mr. Sergeant Price, 
of Philadelphia, then took up the breed, and just before the first shows of 
the present year Mr. J. B. Thomas, Jr., of Simsbury, and Mr. H. T. Peters, 
of Islip, L. I., decided to add Dalmatians to those they were individually 
connected with—Russian wolf hounds and beagles—and formed a partner- 
