410 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 19, 1884- 



Imml 



FIXTURES. 



BF.NCH SHOWS. 



Sept, —.Bench Show of the Philadelphia Kennel Club. Mr. P. C. 

 De- Saque. Secretary. 



Oct.?.. 9, 10 and 11.— Third Annual Bench Show of the Danbury 

 Agricidturil Society, Daubury, Conn. E. S. Davis, Superintendent, 

 Danbury. Conn. 



Oct. 14.— Non-sporting Bench Show of the Westminster Kennel 

 Club, MadiSOU Square Garden, New York. Mr Charles TJncolu, 

 Superintendent. 



AMERICAN KENNEL REGISTER. 



/"iUK little monthly contemporary, the American Kennel Funster, 

 *-' continues to meet with great favor on all hands. The best evi- 

 dence that it was needed is seen in the anxiety of breeders and own- 

 ers to register their stock. The June number runs up the entries to 

 between 1300 and 1400, and the pressure for entries is so great that 

 this month's Register is again enlarged to twenty pages. The Register 

 started fifteen months ago, as a twelve page paper, but for several 

 months now it has been regularly printing sixteen and twenty pages, 

 which is certainly a good deal for the merely nominal subscription 

 price— one dollar. It is a complete record of all events interesting 

 to dog-owners aud breeders. 



POINTERS AT NEW YORK. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Mr. Cornell's reply to my criticism of the pointers at the 

 New York show afforded me much pleasure and considerable 

 merriment. 1 have for months wished to have a little talk 

 about pointers with the Westminster Kennel Club's genial sec- 

 retary, whose knowledge of the subject, though limited, may 

 at least be said to be varied. Unfortunately, Sir. Cornell does 

 not appear to have read my letter carefully. If he did, he 

 must intentionally have misconstrued its meaning and my 

 motives for writing it. I do not remember suggesting to 

 pointer exhibitors the advisability of lashing themselves into 

 a rage and forthwith proceeding, in a rambling style, to 

 attack either me or my dogs. What I said was that I would 

 be glad if any one could point to errors of judgment on my 

 part, and I added that "impartial" criticism of our pets is con- 

 ducive to improvement. My report was a careful criticism of 

 dogs, not their owners. Mr. Cora ell's reply is an untrust- 

 worthy advertisement. One part of his letter reminds me of 

 an amusing little incident which occurred at the dog show 

 recently held under the auspices of his club. As I was bring- 

 ing my' first prize setter puppy out of the judging ring, some- 

 body asked, "Who has won?" The reply was as follows: 

 ''Mason again, but we couldn't stop him." 'No, could not pre- 

 vent it, and cannot now make me lay rny pen aside until jus- 

 tice, or some sense of fair play, is discernible at the combina- 

 tions very appropriately termed "bench" shows. 



Mr. Cornell first, states that in his opinion Meteor was f ar 

 and away the best dog^ in the large champion class. Mr. Cor- 

 nell had him out, and Mr. Cornell handled him. Good judge, 

 Mr. Cornell— understands a pointer— once advocated the 

 claims of lemon and white pointers, after that favored the liver 

 and whites, now breeds them black and white. Once wrote 

 would not own a pointer by Faust so long as Sensation was in 

 the stud— sound judgment. A great believer in variety ; owns 

 the blood of almost every pointer in the world, good and bad, 

 and fancies that a conglomeration of the bad is the necessary 

 quantity out of which to compose that which is good Well, 

 after Mr. Cornell had had the dog out, he discovered that he 

 had a bad head with no stop "below" the eyes, and little 

 depth of skull. The suipy muzzle, the high set on ears, the 

 badly-carried tail, the short back and the long legs Mr. Cor- 

 nell failed to see. He simply concluded "his one important 

 fault is that his head is not handsome." Still he is the "type 

 of dog" Mr. Cornell wants to see noticed at a "bench show," 

 as he is fit for bench and field. I should like to see "pointers" 

 win prizes at "dog shows;" therein lies the difference. Now, 

 if Meteor has little depth of skull, he has clearly no brain 

 capacity and consequently no brains. How then, in the name 

 of common sense, can he be fit either for field or show pur- 

 poses? Perhaps Mr. Cornell or some other luminary of the law 

 connected with his club, will explain this. Does Mr. Cornell 

 still advocate the breeding of insipid, senseless-looking, wishy 

 washy animals? I thought he had changed his views when I 

 noticed that he and his club were carrying out the advice I 

 gave them twelve months ago, and were breeding to dogs out- 

 side their kennel. 



There is another question I wish to ask of Mr. Cornell. The 

 Westminster Kennel Club has for years advertised in the pub- 

 lic stud a dog named Sensation, whose value is estimated at 

 the reasonable sum of 812,000. I found Sensation to be Don, a 

 dog which when in his pi fine was offered for sale by a breeder 

 and a judge for £15 15s. (about $75). I refused to take him at 

 the price, as did every other man who has had experience 

 with the breed. Finally he came to this country, and with 

 marvellous rapidity his" value increased in proportion to the 

 puffing administered, until it reached the modest sum I have 

 just quoted. He was never a show dog. and on one occasion 

 I remember his winning secend prize at a little Saturday after- 

 noon show held in Oswestry. The first prize, I believe, was 

 worth ten shillings ($2.50), the second, five shillings ($1.85), and 

 the third, half a crown (00 cents). Can Mr. Cornell deny that 

 for years this dog was advertised and lauded to the skies as 

 no other dog ever was? And what is the result of this to-day? 

 Look round one of our dog shows and see 1 I am not digress- 

 ing, neither will I be driven by personalities or abuse from the 

 question at issue. Is it not possible to misrepresent two dogs 

 equally as w^li as one? 1 think so. Is this not being done 

 with Bong Bang? Time will tell. 



If Sensation is a good-looking pointer how can Meteor claim 

 to be a pointer at all? If Meteor isthe correct type honest men 

 can hold but one opinion. Nobody can deny that Sensation 

 is a very long cast dog, short on the legs with a round barrel, 

 whereas Meteor is leggy and short in the back with a head 

 different from anything I have ever seen on a pointer, and 

 altogether different from Sensation's. I think pointer 

 breeders should know why Sens ttion was ever allowed to be 



E laced in the stud as a pointer if Meteor is fit for bench and 

 eld. I ask the question in their behalf. Mr. Cornell will, 

 perhaps, kindly clear away the veil from before oar eyes. 

 My argument is that neither Sensation nor Meteor is a show 

 dog. How could I consider them such when Wagg, Beaufort, 

 Bang, Faust, Bow, Don II., Sancho, Graphic, Bang II., Bap, 

 Belle, Luna; Prude H., Bow Bells, etc., are or were pointers, 

 and have been proved to be such, not by men who never 

 bred a good one in their lives, but by authority. If influence 

 is allowed to alter the type of dogs to suit various owners I 

 say the sooner dog shows cease to be held the better. 



Mr. Cornell appears to have taken offense because I said 

 that Bravo was the gentleman of the small-sized classes, and 

 should accordingly have won the sweepstakes. I did not 

 allude to Bang Bang, for I thought it pleased Mr. Cornell to 

 win a prize Under the judges appointed by himself, viz., Mr. 

 Sterling, of pointer "fame," Mr. Higgins, a breeder of setters, 

 and Mr. Tracy, the W. K. C.'s artist. I certainly did not 

 attach much value to a prize won under such conditions, and 

 perhaps I did not sufficiently appreciate the club's honest en- 

 deavors to have, the prizes awarded to the best dogs. I am 

 novy told that Major Taylor was not asked to judge the 

 pointers on account of his having expressed the opinion that 

 Bravo is, as I say he is, a much better dog than Bang Bang. 

 In defense of my criticism 1 will now endeavor to show Mr. 

 Cornell why 1 consider Bravo superior to Bang Bang. It is 



ment as it is for Mr. Cornell to refute my statements by no 

 argument at all. Mr. Cornell tells us that Bang Bang beats 

 Bravo everywhere excepting in hocks, whereas I most emphat- 

 ically dissent from such a statement, calculated as it is to do 

 much harm. Mr. Cornell possibly intended to say that Bravo 

 beats Bang Bang everywhere excepting in muzzle. If he did, 

 he was right or very near to it. Bravo, as I have already 

 written, is decidedly weak from eye to nose, and is a trifle 

 round in barrel. His legs and feet are exceptionally good, he 

 has a nice clean neck, good quarters, and a well-placed and 

 well-carried tail. I freely admit he is not quite the type of 

 dog I like, but he was the best shown and should have won 

 easily. 



When Mr. Cornell tells us that Bang Bang is the most strik- 

 ingly handsome pointer in America, we either refer back to 

 Sensation, look into the glass to see if we are out of our swad- 

 dling clothes, or imagine ourselves to be spending the summer 

 months at Babylon, Long Island, Bang Bang is very heavy in 

 head, he has the shortest neck I have ever seen on "a pointer, 

 and is very throat}". Most large pointers when they get to be 

 four or five years old grow throaty, but no excuse cau be made 

 for a small-size three-year-old dog. He has fairly good shoul- 

 ders, and though some people object to his back. I like it. He 

 has good forelegs, with plenty of bone for a little dog, and 

 then you have finished with him. Besides the faults enumer- 

 ated above, his feet are too large, he is faulty in the stifles and 

 hocks, has no second thighs, and possesses a very coarse tail, 

 which he carries a, la foxhound. His nose aud eyes are black 

 (serious fault). "The Book of the Dog" says, "The nose must 

 be large and moist, not black. A black nose is an especial 

 blemish in a lemon and white dog. " In regard to the eyes, the 

 same authority says, "The color depends on the color of the 

 dog, and are, therefore, either dark or light as the 

 case may be." Besides these faults, the existence of 

 which nobody who has seen the dog can deny, there 

 is something of far more importance to breeders. A little 

 something, which, in my opinion, Mr, Cornell ought to have 

 made public long ago. Especially so when he and his club as- 

 sume to have the welfare of the breed at heart. Bang Bang 

 gets black and white puppies from almost every bitch bred to 

 him, and I am told that the Westminster Kennel Club has ad- 

 vised the lucky owners of such stock to put it into a pail of 

 water, ank keep only the lemon and wTtite and liver and-white 

 puppies. I will not at present bring into discussion the cor- 

 rectness of Bang Bang's pedigree, for I have a good deal of re- 

 gard for the gentleman who bred him. But there is a screw 

 loose somewhere, without doubt. My opinion is indorsed by 

 a well-known English breeder of pointers, who writes me as 

 follows: "Bang Bang did win first prize, but the class was a 

 wretchedly bad one. The opinion here is that the American 

 who paid" £50 for him got his Angers well bitten. The dog 

 has another fault besides those named by me." Is it anhonest 

 endeavor to improve our pointers to recommend in the public 

 stud such a dog, simply because he is a fairly good field dog 

 and is owned by the Westminster Kennel Club? I think not. 



When I formed my criticism of the pointers at the New 

 York show I passed over my own dog, as I did not think it in 

 good taste to express my opinion of him. I therefore simply 

 referred your readers to my notes on the dog in these columns 

 before I purchased him. I do not now propose to advertise 

 Beaufort. Those who have seen him know what he is; those 

 who have not seen him are not very likely to be led away by 

 beginners or individuals known to " be prejudiced against his 

 owner. My opinion expressed in this paj>er twelve months 

 ago that "America can boast of having bred Beaufort, who is 

 in my opinion the best pointer living," has been indorsed by 

 every judge of pointers who has seen the dog, without one 

 single exception. Mr, Cornell now considers Beaufort's legs 

 crooked fore and aft. Yes, Mr. Cornell, his hindlegs are 

 crooked, and pity my ignorance if you like when I place upon 

 record, a confession that I like to see a spotting dog with 

 crooked hindlegs. Grand judge of pointers Mr. Cornell, 

 teaches one so much in a short space of time and at such 

 little expense. Does Mr. B. C. Cornell expect any sensible 

 person to believe that I — who am a stanch advocate for 

 good legs and feet, I, who time after time have urged 

 breeders of sporting dogs in this country to give more at- 

 tention to legs, feet and bone than they were domg, I, who 

 never in my life have conferred honors upon cripples — I paid 

 the longest price ever paid by an Englishman for a pointer, 

 and the dog I purchased is crooked fore and aft? It is scarcely 

 worth my while to refute such reckless statements, for those 

 who have seen Beaufort are aware that he stands on about 

 the grandest forelegs and feet ever seen. What shall we hear 

 next, I wonder? I am well aware that it causes Mr. Cornell 

 a good deal of uneasiness to know that a member of the 

 Westminster Kennel Club, and the best judge in the club, 

 is breeding to Beaufort, and considers him the best-looking 

 dog he has ever seen. It inustfee equally galling to Mr. Cor- 

 nell to think that the club's breaker, Mr. Luke White, is 

 breeding to Beaufort, and that he has told me he has never 

 seen a large, pointer that could equal him. In the face of 

 these "facts," and seeing that the name of Beaufort's owner 



for the purpose of sitting on the fence." What do breeders 

 and exhibitors of sporting dogs think of a "judge" who awards 

 prizes to animals with worse feet than a rooster? And what 

 do they think of the club that indorses him? 



Charles H. Mason. 

 Tom pkinsvili.., 6, I., June 14. ISM 



is written with blood on the pages of the great account book 

 at Babylon, is Mr. Cornell's attack not ill-timed— a failure? 



If Mr. Cornell writes what he believes to be true of Beau- 

 fort, he acknowledges his ignorance and utter inabflity to 

 understand the first and most important attributes of the 

 breed. He does more than this, he holds himself and his club 

 up to ridicule. I have before me here on my desk a letter 

 from a gentleman in which he states, and will swear to it, 

 that Mr. Cornell and a friend desired to purchase Beaufort 

 for $500 at the Washington show, fifteen months ago. What 

 is more, they engaged a gentleman whose name is familiar to 

 all breeders of pointers to assist them in getting the dog. Mr. 

 Nixon refused to sell at the price and acted wisely, for such a 

 dog would be a gift at the money, not only for show purposes 

 alone, but for stud purposes. He is getting better stock than 

 any pointer living to-day, and is the best sire I have ever seen 

 with the exception of old Bang. I am importing some bitches 

 to cross with him and I hope to be able to show Mr. Cornell 

 that I can breed good-looking dogs ( and raise them if the W. 

 K. C. can not. It is a pity Mr. Cornell and his club did not 

 succeed in purchasing Beaufort, for they would have been 

 able to say that they owned a good-looking dog, the first they 

 ever did own. As it is they must plod along, honestly en- 

 deavoring to show us the importance of establishing a new 

 type of "black and white dogs." This may be successfully 

 accomplished when they have the new dog association well in 

 hand, and can over-ride kennel clubs and dog shows through- 

 out the country. 



Mi-. Dormer must excuse me from entering into a discussion 

 about dogs with him. Though his letter was such as one ex- 

 pects to see from this gentleman, and stood out in broad con- 

 trast from that of Mr. Cornell, I really cannot argue with 

 those who when in the capacity of judge have awarded the 

 highest honors to cripples. I am perfectly sure that after 

 what I saw on that memorable occasion when Mr. Donner 

 judged the setters at New York, our ideas about the legs and 

 feet of dogs are altogether at variance. Why Mr. Donner 

 now wishes us to understand that the legs and feet of horses 

 are similar in formation to those of dogs, I cannot tell. What 

 a charming picture a horse would present with a set of legs 

 and feet under him such as are to be seen on Mr. Donner's 

 beau ideal of an English setter. 



Mr. Donner is a member of the W. K. C. He wrote to 

 strengthen Mr. Cornell's letter and indorse Mi-. Sterling's deci- 

 sions. He failed to do either one or the other, but he did 

 indorse public opinion that Mr. Sterling is either a very par- 

 tial man or knows nothing whatever about dogs. Let us be 

 charitable and incline to the latter opinion. In his attempt to 

 show my criticism of his bitch to be incorrect, Mr. Donner 

 writes' ' "She (Fan Fan, winner of second prize) has intoler- 



^aslasy f^Se to sup?ort *ffig&?^SE& argu- ably bad $tj mTact I think a rooster has better feet, at least 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



Just a few words on "A Breeder of Sportiug Dogs' " criti- 

 cism on color. There is a saying that "a good dog is never of 

 a bad color." Just so with Bang Bang. Mr, Cornell finds him 

 the most strikingly handsome dog he ever saw. Your corres- 

 pondent thinks he should be disqualified because his nose is 

 black, and refers to Stonehenge and Vero Shaw. But Stone- 

 henge doesn't support him unless in some volume I have not 

 at hand. In his "Dogs of the British Islands," he says: "In 

 color (value 5) there is little choice in point of fashion between 

 the liver and lemon and white, after them come the black and 

 whites," etc. Nothing about black noses. Vero Shaw gives 

 it as his personal opinion that a black nose should amount to 

 a " disqualification, " yet he frankly admits that "authorities 

 of position" differ from him. He allows nothing for color in 

 his scale "of points. Yet despite Vero Shaw's views, fortified 

 as they now are by your correspondent and Mr. J. H. Phelan, 

 Bang Bang won first at the Crystal Palace (England), the only 

 time ever shown abroad. He has been once shown here for 

 general competition, and then in very bad condition, and 

 though defeated for first place, the judge did not "disqualify" 

 him. Only once besides has he been judged, and that in the 

 contest for the sweepstakes when under Messrs. Sterling, Hig- 

 gins and Tracy, he again won. Isn't it just possible that your 

 correspondent may exaggerate the importance of that black 

 nose? 



Let me add that lemon and white bitches bred to him throw 

 lemon and white or orange and white pups, and fiver and 

 white bitches, black and white and liver and white. I have 

 twice bred a liver and white bitch to him and shall do so 

 again, and until I get advice of greater importance than that 

 oE your above-named correspondents, I don't think I shall 

 drown the black and white ones. Elliot Smith. 



New York. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Under the heading of "Pointers at New York," in your last 

 issue, there appear such extraordinary comments, not to say 

 criticisms, that I venture to say a word to the "Breeder of 

 Sporting Dogs," who seems too modest (?) to sign his name, on 

 the part of the apparently unfortunate and misguided West- 

 minster Kennel Club. 



He expresses surprise at "Mr. Cornell's remarks wherein he 

 states that Beaufort's legs are extremely bad, being crooked 

 both fore and aft." My natural inference is that he has never 

 seen the dog, and his surprise is that the dog should have been 

 so freely (f use the word advisedly) advertised in the stud. 

 As to the remark, "All large dogs are throaty," would not 

 this axiom (?) be better in heavy type at the head of your 

 kennel page .' 



I would like, while not wishing to go into any controversy, 

 to say, in referring to Beaufort that, while not ignoring his 

 very many good boints, from which I do not in the least wish 

 to detract— and I do not know Mr. Mason personally— the 

 dog's fore feet are badly put on at the pasterns, making him 

 pigeon-toed. His hindquarters and legs curve like the wish- 

 bone of a Rhode Island turkey. His stein is, in "show condi- 

 tion," brought to the finest possible shape, but the bend in it 

 cannot be eradicated once he is away from the handler. His 

 body and head are particularly good, but to bear the criticism 

 of judges at any show let us try and produce something that 

 can go alone. 



When Mr. Cornell says he is "stilty" I think he is wrong, 

 because stilts must at least be straight, and even the clown in 

 the circus has never ventured on curved ones. 



As to Bang Bang, I prefer to let some one else criticise him, 

 as I bought him for the W. K. C, and as his chief fault seems 

 to be an occasional black and white puppy in a litter I must 

 confess that I did not know that that color was so thoroughly 

 unpardonable a fault. His mother, Princess Kate, was black 

 and white, and a rare good one she was. His daughter Lingo 

 succeeded in pulling off the puppy stakes at Shrewsbury this 

 year, and perhaps a black and white one may yet make a 

 mark here, as they have often done on the other side of the 

 water. G. *>E Foxiest Grant. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Allow me a few words in reply to the letters about pointers 

 at the New York show, which appear to me to contain more 

 personal allusions to myself than to the dogs under discussion. 

 As to the challenge made in one of these letters, I have to say, 

 as I have before announced in the sporting press, that the 

 Westminster Kennel Club would take no notice of these windy 

 offers. 



We put our dogs in open competition at the bench shows 

 and field trials, and get our records fairly and above board. 

 These gentlemen of the Knickerbocker Kennel Club with a 

 wonderful unanimity hurl at us the dreadful accusation that 

 Bang Bang throws black and white pups. So he does fre- 

 quently, and remarkably handsome they are too. Two were 

 very highly commended at the last show, and well deserved 

 the cards they got. This does not indicate that the pups trace 

 back to a coach dog, or whatever it was that Mr. Appold 

 showed to be the progenitor of the illustrious stud dog of the 

 knickerbockers of New Jersey. Bang Bang's dam is black 

 and white, and the dog has a legitimate right to his dark 



This is what "Wildfowler" says in the Shooting Times of 

 May 23 last: "Princess Kate, Bang Bang's mother, we ('Wild- 

 fowler') shot- over for a season, and a better bitch w T as veiy 

 hard to find." This is published with a fine picture of our 

 dog, and a half column devoted to his achievements and 

 pedigrees 



One wo/d more and I hope not to bore you or your readers 

 for many a week again. J. H. Phelan says, "Something must 

 be done for bench shows. It is time that dogs, not owners, 

 were judged. " I have read those very words once before, and 

 from another source, and I say that this is an outrageous as- 

 sertion and a vile aspersion of our judges. "Why does not 

 Bang Bang win prizes under some other judges than those ap- 

 pointed by the W. K. C?" I am asked, and I answer that be 

 does. He won the. first prize at the Crystal Palace, the only 

 time shown in England, and you see what Mr. Munson says 

 of him at Cleveland, "As a stud dog Bang Bang is a failure. ' 

 His daughter, Lingo, has just won in the field trials at 

 Shrewsbury, and his son, Master Bang Bang, has just won first 

 in a class of twenty-seven heavy-weight pointers at Antwerp. 

 Mr. Lort judged the class, and the Live Stock Journal declares 

 that "this was an exceedingly fine lot." 



In this country the dog has scarcely had a chance to prove 



his merit as he has not yet been here a year. 



Robt. C. Cornell. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your two last numbers I find letters from several gentle- 

 men, all claiming to know as much or a little more about 

 pointers than Mr. Sterling or anybody that does not see fit to 

 agree with them that Beaufort is the best pointer in America. 

 After reading so much from the pen of Mr. Mason and the 

 many admirers of Beaufort. I had made up my mind to see 

 the model pointer, but am sorry to say I was very much dis- 

 appointed on seeing hini at the late New York show for the first 

 time. I was told bv a number who had seen him at Washing- 

 ton that he had changed very much, and that they were very 

 much disappointed in him on this occasion, as he was too fat 

 for show or any other purpose After giving him a good ex 

 aiiiination, I came to the conclusion that he was a good 



