FOREST AND STREAM. 



or member of this or that Kennel Club, or owner or I 

 of flogs; who can see the propriety of an editor, of any paper 

 mixing up with the management of events iipon which he is 

 expected to pass criticism in his et lacii j •" dbxonicler ? Is a 

 man who doca so a fit person to arbitrate iipon vital questions? 

 Can those who have the interests of sportsmen at slake afford 

 to bang their confidence on one who assumes the fuuetions of 

 counsellor, reporter, judge, and juror, all at the same time? 

 Disorder makes all Jaws and methods a farce. 



For the first two days of the Trials I " kept my place in 

 the rear," feeling that there was some advantage in hearing 

 the comments of others, and in being in company with Mr. 

 DM ley, with Whom I could compare notes. Finally we 

 reached the afternooa of the third day and the supreme 

 moment wlnn the performances of Sanborn's Nellie excited 

 what has since proven to be a considerable tempest. All the 

 spectators had left, from lack of interest in what seemed to 

 them to be aimless work, so far as the main object of the 

 Trials was concerned. Judge Mulliken and'Mr. Dffley alone 

 remained of all the members of the Minnesota Kennel Club 

 under whose auspic :s the Trials were held ! Jockeying, pot- 

 tering, the meddling of outsiders, sharp practice, and bicker- 

 ings, had driven them off. in disgust. Under such circum- 

 stances, as is usual when numbers are small, discipline became 

 lax, regulation distances were disregarded, and all hands came 

 to close quarters with the dogs. When the opinion of the 

 three Judges became divided on the merits of Nellie, (Whitford 

 vs. Davidsou and Mulliken,) Dr. Howe's peremptory dictation 

 became so exasperating and he was so manifestly out of order 

 that the judges were obliged to read him the rules. A violent 

 altercation followed between Messrs. Rowe and Davidson, 

 and the bad blood then engendered has led to Dr. Rowe's per- 

 secution of Mr. Davidson through his paper, the Chicago 

 Field. The Dr. uttered threats then, and afterwards at lunch 

 the day following, of such positive character that their mean- 

 ing was plain enough to the hall dozen or more persons who 

 heard them, On the latter occasion Mr. Davidson's forbear- 

 ance alone saved Dr. Rowe a drubbing. The virulence then 

 rankling came to the surface more than once before the Trials 

 ended, and when the gentlemen parted it was jointly under- 

 stood that they were to meet again in the lists. It has never 

 occurred tome that the judges were anything but fair-minded 

 and conscientious in their decisions, and I never thought of 

 going behind the returns for motives. Whatever the dog's 

 real merits were they have never yet been settled by a har- 

 mouious verdict . Therefore, there has never been practically 

 an official score. Though siding with Mr. Whitford, I accept- 

 ed the score handed to me at night by Mr. Davidson, because 

 I believed Mr. Whitford to be in the minority, and published 

 it as I received it. It must be borne in mind that Mr. David- 

 son was persuaded at the time of trial to allow the point 

 claimed for Nellie, and that under his concession Mr. Sanborn 

 was induced to put her down, after ho had once withdrawn 

 her, uuderdissatislaetiou. But although the point wasallowed 

 on the field, it was not so allowed on the final score ; and all 

 the newspaper controversy and the triangular cross-fire 

 between the judges, therefore settles nothing, nor ever will- 

 either as to the merits of the dog's performance or the sagacity 

 of the judges themselves. As to the integrity of any of them, 

 it is nonsense to arraign it . Questions of veracity and charges 

 of remissness ought to be courteously put out of sight. I as- 

 sume to know nothing of any preconceived prejudices of 

 theirs in favor of this or that strain of dogs. I do not allow 

 such considerations to enter into the merits of the question. 

 They are inspired by jealousy A.Q honest judge rates his 

 trial dogs by their performances, and not by his preferences. 

 It seems to me that the present controversy between the 

 judges is of forced growth, stimulated, like the mushroom, 

 by the innate dirt and deviltry of that poor latent human 



i ire, which, like dog nature, forces two blameless creatures 

 to tackle and taar each other without previous grudge or ani- 

 mosity. As for Dr. Rowe, I give him no credit for the part 

 he has taken in the debate. De has championed no principle, 

 no interest, no " blue blood," nor anything but bad blood. 

 He has merely cried " Steboy 1" 



In arraigning a brother editor, (for the first time in my life,) 

 I feel that I tread on delicate ground j but I plead that I am 

 merely defending myself from his unprovoked and undeserved 

 attacks on me, us well as the prine pie of good management 

 and the integrity or competitors. I stand also in front of 

 those honorable gentlemen, Messrs. Mulliken, Davidson and 

 Whitford, the judges of the Minnesota Field Trials, who have 

 been so involuntarily drawn into personal altercation by a de- 

 signing disturber. May their differences be soon reconciled, 

 and may they live to judge at many a coming Bench Show 

 and Field Trial. Hallock. 



_u»—_i 



FROM MR. DAVIDSON. 



.Editor Fobebt and Stream : 



By Mr. Whitford's letter in a Chicago paper of Feb. 1, he 

 seeuis to indicate that Mr. Mulliken and myself were unable 

 to keep our scores at the Minnesota Field "Trials, and there- 

 fore had to rely on him. We were not only able to do bo, 

 but sharp enough to hinder bim from playing hia little game 

 successfully, in comparing over our respective figures in 

 Tempest's score, the only difference was that Mr. Mulliken 

 and myself allowed Tempest, i point more for nose than 

 Jennie and $ point less .for quartering than Mr. Whitford al- 

 lowed her, which made our scores ttiesime in the aggregate ; 

 but on asking him how much he made Tempest's 'score, he 

 Stated 44£, less 2 for a false point, making her net total 42£. 

 He was liien asked how much he had Jennie's score, our 

 figures of merit being the same on her score, when he said 



43J. When asked to explain how Jennie could have 43J- and 

 no fraction in her regular score of merit (sJ ha 



had suddenly forgotten something. When askPfl 

 how Tempest's score figured up only 42^, he again recollected 

 something, and his mutilated score allow these to be the facts. 

 In making on;, the ., - te to give fcd Mr. Lincoln, he remarked 

 that inasmuch as our scores all agreed in the aggregate, he 

 might as well make his the same as ours, and I "suppose lie 

 did so; and neither brass nor falsehood can change it. 

 Monroe, Feb. 1, 1379. John Davidson. 



THE MINNESOTA FIELD TRIALS. 



St. Lodis, Mo., Jan. 20, 1879. 

 Editor Fobbst and Stbkam : 



Mr. Davidson furnishes a good example of " A guilty con- 

 science needs no accuser," when, in reply to my charges 

 against him in Chicago Field, he assures the readers of Forest 

 and Stiikam that he lies been longing for the attack. Instead 

 of meeting the issue squarely and attempting to prove the 

 charges without foundation, he branches off into a mild form 

 of his malicious statement about Mr. Morgan and myself 

 shooting and shipping birds from the preserve. At Sauk 

 Centra the register of the hotel will show Mr. Morgan and 

 myself were quartered In the town Saturday and' Sunday 

 night, and for Mr. Davidson to infer that we could drive, fif- 

 teen miles Monday, locate, shoot and ship birds enough be- 

 fore Tuesday morning to pay for a team to take them to town 

 is a matter almost too ridiculous to talk about now, if it, had 

 anything whatever to do with the grave charges against Mr. 

 Davidson. The point he attempts to make is, that Mr. Mor- 

 gan being a winner in two stakes, might reflect somewhat 

 upon the judges, particularly upon me. If Mr. Davidson or 

 any one else will say Prairie Belle was not head and shoulders 

 above any pup in the nursery stakes, I will at least show her 

 place was won fairly and under the eyes of all three judges, 

 much to the grief of Mr. Davidson. 



fu the case of Friend I took the precaution to place myself 

 above suspicion by absolutely refusing to officiate at her trial, 

 notwithstanding Mr. Morgan had asked me to follow her, 

 saying he could neither get a fair trial nor decent treatment at 

 the hands of Mr. Davidson. All the credit she received 

 from me was one point. Mr. Morgan claimed another, which 

 I did not allow him, as I could not see the dog on her point, 

 although he claimed she was standing, and a bird arose in 

 front, of where I saw her charged. 



For the benefit of the curious, I will say I shot about two 

 hours with Mr. Morgan over dogs not run in the. trial. Had 

 I shot a month with him over the very dogs he ran, the com- 

 parison Mr. Davidson attempts to draw — viz., his shooting 

 with Mr. Whitman over Tempest— would not hold good, as 

 Mr. Davidson was at, that time an appointed judge, while I 

 did not receive my appointment until Tuesday morning, the 

 day of the trials. 



But getting to matters more serious, I will briefly state 

 charges, which, if proven, are reasons why he should not be 

 encouraged by sportsmen. If I fail to prove my charges 

 thoroughly true, I am willing to step down and out after ask- 

 ing your readers to receive Mr. Davidson as of yore, when 

 he was known as " Honest John." For the purpose of show- 

 ing that there was method in Mr. Davidson's madness, so fre- 

 quently displayed at the Minnesota trials, I might call upon 

 many to testily about what they know of his holy horror for 

 pure field trial setters of Mr. Smith's breeding ; his decided 

 dislike for Mr. Sanborn's dogs ; bis jealous hatred of the 

 Campbell dogs, and how he felt toward the Laveracks ; but 

 this is not necessary, as 1 prefer to fight him with his own 

 fire ; and to go back of the returns, I give an extract from 

 . his letter to me on the subject. He says: " 1 have concluded 

 to keep to the English ' and more ' to my own kennel now. I 

 have got all the outcrop 1 want at present, and think, with 

 Alton for my stock dog, I care for none of them. My pups 

 out of Doll by my old native Dash can clean Outrange Clip 

 Leicester-Dart I ever saw in the field." At the time he or any 

 wrote this the pups he speaks of were nine months old! He 

 goes on to say : "The field trial setter, I admit, beats the 

 native in two places— first, in running in the newspapers im- 

 aginary ; and second, in the parlor, making a good seore 

 when the running in the field is over. They "run best where 

 there is no game." Writing of the Nashville trials of 1877, 

 he says: »' With the same judges next year, I do not think 

 there will be a single entry of any strain but field trial and 

 Campbell." From the bitter manner in which he speaks and 

 writes of these dogs, one would naturally conclude he was 

 scarcely qualified to judge them in the field. It looks a little 

 suspicious, at least, and forms a good foundation for his 

 vowed intention to beat the dogs he hated if he had an op- 

 portunity. This is rather a serious matter, but for the cor- 

 rectness of the circumstances and a quotation from his letter 

 I am personally answerable, and will not trouble you with a 

 certificate of an unknown expert. To show that his inten- 

 tions to beat some of the dogs at Minnesota were premedi- 

 tated, it may not be out of place to refer some of your read- 

 ers to a report of the sportsmen's meeting held last April in 

 Baltimore for the purpose of conferring with the Baltimore 

 Kennel Club in reference to their holding a field 

 trial, where it is recorded that Mr. Davidson, Dr. Rowe 

 and myself were strong advocates for one judae, and as our 

 remarks upon this point seemed to meet the approbation of 

 the B. K. C. and tne gentleman present who proposed to 

 compete, it was almost a fixed fact tnat if the event came off 

 there would be but one judge, and that judge would be Mr. 

 Davidson ; the subject was talked and written about in such 

 a manner that Mr. Davidson really expected the the appoint- 

 ment. Right in the face of this, within a month after the 

 meeting, Mr. Davidson, with a full knowledge of the fact that 

 I would compete and would not run any field trial or Laver- 

 ack setters, wrote me the following bid for my assistance in 

 getting him the appointment : " I will make you a small bet 

 that neither the puppy nor champion stakes at the M. D. field 

 trials will be won by a pure field trial or pure Laveraek dog, 

 provioed the one judge system is adopted." 



His prejudices against Mr. Smith's dogs were so strong that 

 he eveu went so far as to circulate a report to the effect that 

 two of the judges at Nashville last year were recipr cants of 

 promised puppies each as presents from Mr. Smith. With 

 these facts before me I was prepared to see Mr. Davidson's 

 jealousy rule his better judgment at the Minnesota Field 

 Trials. Taking up that event where he left off, he is positive 

 m his assertion that the score in the nursery stakes was taken 

 from my score, that is the official scores which have been 

 published, and to show what my score was, he has an un- 

 known altorney-at-law, who considers himself a good judge 

 of handwriting, certify that, the score published by " aham- 

 rock," and now on exhibition at Mr. Davidson's, is my score. 

 What does all this signify? Simply this: If this score in not 



like the official score, Mr. Davidson has lied. The same ia 



true of Mr. Davidson if this score is like the otllci.il score, for 

 if this score is not like the official score how in the. nal 

 common sense could the official score have been taken, as Mr. 

 Davidson says, from it? If it is like the official Score, then 

 Mr. Davidson should be scored a lost opportunity for declar- 

 ing it, is different from his score and the official score. The 

 facts in relation to this score and the nursery stakes are strict- 

 ly these : I was the ouly judge that kept a memoranda of the 

 dog's general points in this slake ; this was kept on one of the 

 regular score blanks, and any figures made were of course 

 subject to change, the marks being a mere memoranda of the 

 workings of the dogs, and not, a regular score. To make is 

 more clear I give below a copy of this memoranda, as near at 

 I can recollect its appearance at night after the stakes were 

 run i 



NetTotal I :j* 



Total 



false Point, a I : : ; ; 



Breaking shot, s... 



lieiasiugtobaek,3. 



ii"inlcrlng, I to 5. 



Paee.ltoio 



Encn Point. 5.. 



The first two ran were Prairie Belle and Nellie, and their 

 relative merits weie in my judgment as marked above. 

 Tempest, the next down, showed a trifle more speed than 

 Praitie Belle, for which she got credit. Thinking her about the 

 same in style and quartering I marked her ^ points for each, 

 the same (is given to Prairie Belle. Mr. Davidson, however, 

 who had been following her more closely than I had, thought 

 her more stylish and a better quarterer, saying she quartered 

 beautifully at times, and had made one of the most stylish 

 points he had ever seen. Upon the strength of his statement I 

 marked her 4 each for style and quartering, but having a 

 chance afterward to see more of her I failed" to see any dif- 

 ference between the style and quartering of her and Prairie 

 Belle, so I concluded when she had finished her score to go 

 back to my first marks on these points, which were Sk each. 

 When Strathroy had finished, his speed and quartering were 

 the best that had been shown. For speed I marked him 0, 

 and as his quartering was perfect I gave him 5, the roaxium, 

 and marked him -4 for style. Jennie, being still faster, re- 

 ceived the maximum for speed. Though nqt quite as good a 

 quartoror as Strathroy, he was at least a point over auy of the 

 others, so I marked her 'i and cut Tempest and Prairie Belle 

 back a half point each, leaving them 3 for quartering; ana as 

 Jennie was an easy point ahead of these two on style. I gave 

 her 4 and cut the other two down a half point each that 

 there might be a full piint difference. So my idea 

 of what Prairie Belle, Tempest and Jennie should re- 

 ceive, was as follows : Prairie Belle, 20 for pointing 

 3 for backing, 6 for nose, 7-i for pace, 3 each for style and 

 quartering, and G for staunchness, making a total of 48$ points 

 of merit, less 3 for a demerit, leaving a net total of 45A. 

 Right here let me say that when we came in at night the above 

 memoranda was our only guide from which to make out an 

 official score. We looked it over, and upon the suggestion of 

 Mr. Davidson cast it up with the results as given, for the pur- 

 pose, as he said, of seeing about how they stood, that we 

 might not, waste time in figuring up the score of those that 

 had no show to get a place. I called off the figures from this 

 sheet, with the proposed changes, Mr. Davidson setting them 

 down on his score with the result a< given in the total and net 

 total as above. In the above score there would appear lo be 

 an error in addition, but the totals are net the sum of the 

 points given, but a copy of the totals figured from the changes 

 made on another blank. On this clean sheet Tempest stood 

 15 for pointing, 3 for backing, 6 for nose, 8 for pace, 8£ for 

 style, 8 for quartering and (i for staunchne.-s, making a "total 

 of 44J less 2, leaving a net total of 42£. These changes, as 

 will readily be seen, were brought about, by a higher standard 

 of Jennies general points, from which they were graded. 

 Her score, not being changed, her totals were as correctly 

 added in the score above. While this was going on Mr. 

 Lincoln had gone lor a clean score bla ,k for me on which to 

 make out my score. During his ab-ence we figured upon Mr. 

 Davidson's, and I set the totals down in my memoranda. 

 When I received the blank from Mr. Line jln I marked Prairie 

 Belle according to our figures BBOfficially given, and then upon 

 Mr. Davidson saying it would not do to let Prairie win, i fold 

 him that we would go over the score carefully and we might 

 make some change. He pleaded for Tempest, to which I re- 

 plied, we could not give it to one or the other, but would have 

 to he guided by their relative merits. 1 stated that, inasmuch as 

 Tempest had gotten a false point under severe circumstances, 

 I would give her the benefit of the doubt on any particular 

 point. I conceded a half point on style from what Mr. Liavid- 

 son said of her magnificent point, that I did not see. I raised 

 her a half pnint on quartering upon the judgment of Mr. Da- 

 vidson. When we talked of nose, I said that I actually be- 

 lieved Jennie hadshown the best, and called bis attention toa 

 particular fine point that she made, but added, iunsmuch as 

 she might first have been attracted by crossing the foot scent 

 of these birds, I was not willing to accept, as positive what 

 was possible, viz., that she actually smelled the birds the long 



