866 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 28, 1895. 



most of the cropping is not done in that manner. He 

 showed that the A. K, C. should not wait for a conviction 

 before taking action. He assured his hearers that the 

 Humane Society was investigating the matter and under 

 the statutes would have a clear case. The difficulty was 

 simply in catching a man in the act. He commended 

 observance of the laws. Mr. Watson said that the 

 cruelty was admitted. He suggested that cropping was 

 more cruel than putting a dog in a turnspit, and the lat- 

 ter was held as being cruel. 



Mr. Schellhass held that there was no legitimate argu- 

 ment advanced in favor of cropping, except the part re- 

 ferring to the importation of dogs from Germany. He 

 referred to the Bull-Terrier Club's argument as unworthy 

 of consideration. He warned them that the S. P. C. A. 

 was watching the matter, and that if a conviction was 

 made it would place the A. K. C. in a cheap position. 

 He touched on the matter in its pecuniary features and 

 otherwise showed the fallacy of the arguments advanced 

 in favor of cropping, most of which are touched upon by 

 later speakers. 



Mr. Watson — I do not think that the clubs which op- 

 pose this resolution look at the matter in a proper way. 

 What will be the result of this? You say you are willing 

 to accept it in a few years. The Bull-Terrier Club stated 

 that same thing, and that was one reason why we did not 

 adopt the rule before. They said they were willing to 

 have the resolution go through in a short time; until that 

 is done what happens? We have all the best dogs cropped 

 over in England. We have the bad ones sent away. We 

 have the good-eared dogs sent to England as great Danes, 

 and as Mr. Wood says, England is the best market that 

 Germany has for great Danes to-day. If we do not pass 

 this cropping law, we will have the bad-eared dog 

 over here from Germany, The good ones go to Eng- 

 land. There is a great deal of theory about this. 

 Let us know what has happened. Ten or fifteen 

 years ago the Irish Terrier Club was established. I 

 was a member of it. It had been in existence about 

 five years, and they passed a rule prohibiting any cropped 

 dogs winning any of their prizes. There was a great out- 

 cry. Columns of matter appeared in the press — more 

 than we have to-day — attacking a committee for suggest- 

 ing such a thing. Even such a well-known authority as 

 Wm. Graham said that was the end of the breed, but 

 nevertheless he turned around and bred natural dogs, and 

 sold them for better prices than he did his cropped-ear 

 dogs. You cannot get a cropped-ear Irish terrier in 

 England now, and none have been obtainable for some 

 years. Now, we will have the same thing here if you 

 bull-terrier men will breed good dogs and keep them. 

 There is the rule of the Irish Terrier Club before you, 

 which can not be gainsaid. It is not theory — it is fact. 

 The Irish terriers look just as smart and as clever as ever 

 the cropped dogs looked when they were shown. 



Mr. Burritt — My own views are something that I 

 have no right to voice here. I am before you as a dele- 

 gate of the Boston Terrier Club, and I am instructed to 

 vote against this resolution, and I am forced to take 

 the position of an advocate of the Boston Terrier Club 

 and its wishes, regardless of what my own personal views 

 may be. 



The Boston Terrier Club feels that the American Kennel 

 Club is dealing with something that does not concern it. 

 The American Kennel Club is made up of bodies who 

 foster individual interests. They are supposed to look 

 after its individual interests themselves, and so far as 

 each of their dogs in the ring is concerned it is done on 

 a standard adopted by them as specialty clubs, and the 

 Boston Terrier Club questions the right of the American 

 Kennel Club to say what its standard shall be for its 

 dogs. 



We do not come before you on the ground that the 

 cropping of ears is not cruel. We admit, as Mr. Wood 

 and all men of any brains and sense will admit, that the 

 operation as performed in days gone by and is now per- 

 formed among illiterate and uneducated people is cruel. 

 The argument that a great amount of cruelty results after 

 the operation we say falls to the ground so far as our dogs 

 are concerned, for the reason that, there is no manipula- 

 tion used after the cropping. The point we make is that 

 you are attempting to make law for all the States in the 

 Union, where laws differ. Your New York law will not 

 apply in Massachusetts or New Jersey, and your New 

 Jersey law will not apply here. Bring us a Federal law 

 against such an operation, then we will admit you have 

 some legal grounds on which to stand. 



I think that the proper course of this meeting to-day is 

 to lay that amendment upon the table and adopt a resolu- 

 tion to the effect that it is a matter with which you have 

 no business. 



Mr. Brooks— I am a delegate from the New England 

 Kennel Club, aad their ssntiment is practically what the 

 Boston Terrier Club's representative has stated, that the 

 American Kennel Club has no right to enter into this 

 matter; but it belongs to the specialty clubs, and I shall 

 vote no. 



Mr. Thomson— I am here as a delegate of the Bull- 

 Terrier Club and endorse everything that the gentleman 

 from the Boston Terrier Club has said. I think he has 

 covered the ground exactly. I do not think that it is a 

 question at all with these other clubs, who probably 

 know a great deal about it, but at the same time who do 

 not take the same interest that the Boston Terrier Club 

 does or the Bull-Terrier Club men do. I think it should be 

 left to those clubs to decide. 



Mr. Little— On behalf of the Scottish Terrier Club I 

 beg to say that our sentiments agree exactly on that 

 point; that the American Kennel Club is formed for the 

 mutual benefit and protection of its members, and to 

 take any action which would be against the interests of 

 any of its members would be against the constitution of 

 the American Kennel Club. 



Mr. Morris— I agree with Mr. Burritt in all his 

 remarks. I represent the New Jersey Kennel League, 

 and I have here the resolution passed by that club. 



Mr. Oldham— I am directed by the American Spaniel 

 Club to move that the amendment be laid on the table, 

 and if that motion is lost, and it should come to a direct 

 vote, I Bhould refrain from voting. The American Spaniel 

 Club f eels that it behooves the American Kennel Club to 

 be careful, in view of the fast that there are so many 

 specialty clubs among its members, how it legislates on 

 such an important matter as cropping. I therefore move 

 as an amendment that the proposed amendment be laid 

 upon the table. Motion lost. 



MR. Blossom— It is against the law and we may argue 



it as long as we please. We have got to vote upon it. 

 We have got to either say we approve of it or that we 

 blink at it, and it is cruel, and it is against the law, and 

 for one I do not want the American Kennel Club to 

 occupy such an undignified position as to say that they 

 are in favor of a crime. It is something which if it is 

 done has got to be done behind closed doors, and if a 

 policeman catches the man in the act he will haul him up 

 before a magistrate. 



Mr. Burritt — I move, before this resolution is to be 

 taken up for action, that the date named therein be 

 changed from June 30, 1895, to Jan. 1, 1896. Motion car- 

 ried. 



Dr. Foote's motion for the adoption of the amendment 

 was put, and a roll call resulted in the following vote: 

 Ayes— B. S. Turpin. C, D. Bernheimer, G. G. Stephenson, 

 H. T. Foote, E. W. Roby, James Watson, J. M. Taylor, 

 J. B. Blossom, C. F. R, Drake, F. S. Webster and G. Jar- 

 vis. Nays— J. L. Little, A. Thomson, H. H. Hunnewell, 

 Jr., L. A. Burritt, C. Wood, Edward Brooks, E. H. Mor- 

 ris and J. Mortimer. 



The chair decided the motion lost, as, under the consti- 

 tution, a two-thirds vote was necessary to pass the resolu- 

 tion. 



Mr. Mortimer— I should like to say for the information 

 of the gentlemen who are here assembled, and who are 

 interested in the breeds that are properly cropped, that 

 the ground I took in the first place was the very best 

 means in the world to do away with cropping, and that 

 was to offer prizes for uncropped dogs; and I brought 

 that before the committee of the Westminster Kennel 

 Club show and they were kind enough to recommend 

 a clause, and a clause has been made in our premium 

 list, in which we make a classification of uncropped 

 dogs of all different breeds which are generally cropped. 

 I have expressed my views on this cropping question 

 pretty thoroughly, and I may say that I am not in favor 

 of cropping, and had I been left to my own personal 

 views of the matter I should have voted in favor of the 

 amendment, but in representing the Pacific Kennel Club 

 I thought I had better write them and get instructions 

 from them, and I received their instructions that it is 

 their desire that I should vote against the resolution as to 

 the cropping of dogs. 



Mr. Hunnewell— I voted against it on the ground that 

 I think it is not the business of this club to stop it. 



The regular quarterly meeting of the American Kennel 

 Club was next held, Vice-President Edward Brooks pre- 

 siding. All the clubs mentionea at the special meeting 

 were represented except the Bull-Terrier Club and West- 

 minster Kennel Club. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and ap- 

 proved. The secretary's quarterly report was read. We 

 give these extracts from it: 



The charges against the Western Kennel Club for non- 

 payment of prizes at its show of 1895 were laid on the 

 table at our last meeting, with directions to bring them 

 before this meeting. Under date of Dec. 8 Mr. Bacon 

 informs me that the prizes won by his dogs had not yet 

 been paid, and in a letter from the late secretary of the 

 club he neither denies nor affirms the charges, but says 

 it has been referred to the president of the club, and that 

 his "impression is that those who have been putting up 

 the money are getting tired." 



I found it necessary to protest the exhibition of two 

 litters of puppies at the late Milwaukee show. The 

 treasurer of the club replied with a very satisfactory ex- 

 planation, and although the catalogue published two lit- 

 ters of puppies among its entries, I am assured that the 

 puppies were not present in the show building at any 

 time. 



Mr. Franklin G. Bixby has filed an appeal from his 

 suspension. 



The Rhode Island Fair Association has filed a complaint 

 against one of the delegates of this club, and requests an 

 investigation. 



I beg to call attention to an unfortunate habit of the 

 exhibitors, in making their entries to the several bench 

 shows, of repeatedly changing ownership. At one time a 

 dog may be entered in the name of the individual owning 

 it, the following show the same dog will be entered in 

 the name of the kennel, while at a third show the same 

 dog will be entered in the name of either the individual 

 or his wife, or some other member of the family, and at 

 the next in his own individual name again. This habit 

 not only makes it difficult to compile the records, but may 

 give an impression that our rules are violated. It should 

 be made plain that in entering a dog at any show it 

 should be continued in the same name as first shown un- 

 less it has been conveyed to another owner in the regular 

 way. 



I give notice that Mr. Cromwell, President of the Asso- 

 ciate Members, has appointed a nominating committee for 

 the year 1896. Nominations made by that committee will 

 be mailed to all associates having paid their.dues and who 

 are thus entitled to vote on Jan. 21, 1896, as provided for 

 in our constitution. 



I desire to submit a proposition: That beginning in 1897 

 at New York and Chicago, to be followed the next year 

 at Boston and St. Louis, and to continue each year with 

 two shows, one in the East and one in the West, at which 

 shows the American Kennel Club shall provide a class in 

 each breed of dogs, where competition can be had, to be 

 known as a "Champion Class," open only to dogs having 

 won at least three first prizes in a challenge class at any 

 recognized show, the winner to be styled and known as 

 "The American Kennel Club Champion." 



The treasurer's report was also read: 



I herewith submit my quarterly report of all moneys 

 received and dispensed by me since January 1, 1895: 



Palance on hand January 1, 1895 $2,003.94 



Receipts from ail sources to date , , (1,560.05 



Disbursements from January 1, 1895, to date , , , , . 6,703.41 



Balance on hand , $1 ,860. 58 



Respectfully submitted, A. P. Vkkdenbuhgh, Treasurer. 



The report of the Stud Book Committee was also read. 



No case out of the ordinary routine has come up for 

 decision since the previous report was rendered. The 

 present year, as was expected, shows an improvement 

 upon 1894 in the matter of registrations, but is still be- 

 hind the more prosperous years of 1892 and 1893. Bids 

 for the printing of the Gazette and Stud Book have been 

 advertised for, and the placing of these matters in public 

 competition will undoubtedly result in a reduction of the 

 expense of their publication without making any change 



in their appearance. It is anticipated that there will be 

 a reduction in expense of possibly $200 on both publica- 

 tions during 1896. Yours respectfully, Jas. Watson. 



The report of the special committee to prepare au open 

 letter to the Stock-Keeper, of London, in reply to allega- 

 tions made by Mr. James Taylor in said paper, was read, 

 stating as to the Woodiwiss plate: "In a later issue of the 

 Stock-Keeper the Messrs. Woodiwiss published a letter 

 m which they stated that the plate said to have been sent 

 to them had never been received. Your committee at 

 once communicated with Mr. Terry on the subject and 

 learned, greatly to its surprise, that through an oversight 

 the plate in the form of medals had been lying in his safe 

 for months. These medals were promptly shipped to 

 Messrs. Woodiwiss, Mr. Terry mailing a letter apologiz- 

 ing for the delay, duly published in the Stock-Keeper 

 Nov. 22, 1895, and which was gracefully accepted by the 

 Messrs. Woodiwiss." 



The charges against the Western Kennel Club was re- 

 ferred to the advisory committee. 



The appeal of Franklin G. Bixby was referred to the 

 stud book committee. 



The complaint made by the Rhode Island Fair Associ- 

 ation alleging certain derogatory statements made by E. 

 H. Morris, and published in the Turf, Field and Farm, 

 was taken up for consideration. On the charges being 

 read Mr. Morris denied that he had made any such state- 

 ments as reported, and a motion was made that the mat- 

 ter be referred to the advisory committee. Mr. Mortimer 

 moved that Mr. Morris be exonerated from blame so far 

 as said newspaper article was concerned. Motion lost, 

 and the original motion carried. 



The following requests for kennel names were on 

 motion granted: E. J. Weiser, Hotfoot;;C. D. Bernheimer, 

 Morey; Henry Cannon, Riverside; H. G. T. Martin, Ridge- 

 wood; A. C. Wilmerding, Watnong; D. J. Maich, Wake- 

 field; Toel & Brower, Ampere. 



The recommendation of the secretary as to the collection 

 of outstanding debts owing to the American Kennel Club 

 to the amount of $475 was called up, and on motion of 

 Mr. Mortimer the secretary was empowered to place said 

 claims in the hands of a collection agency for collection. 



The recommendation that shows be given each year, 

 one in the West and one in the East, at which the Ameri- 

 can Kennel Club shall provide a "Champion Class," was 

 referred to the advisory committee. 



Charges preferred by L. A. Van Zandt against Andrew 

 Laidlaw for misconduct in connection with dogs were re- 

 ferred to the advisory committee. 



The secretary then read a letter to him from Mr. E. H. 

 Morris, which as a part of the charges against Mr. Morris 

 was referred to the advisory committee. Motion car- 

 ried. It was voted that the New Jersey Kennel League be 

 requested to send another delegate to this club. 



Applications for membership of the Bingham ton Indus- 

 trial Exposition and the Dachshund Kennel Club were 

 accepted. 



Messrs. Watson, Schellhass and FiBke were elected 

 members of the Stud Book Committee; Mr. Watson, 

 chairman. 



Committee on Field Trials and Coursing Meetings: 

 Major J. M. Taylor, chairman, the other members of "the 

 old committee being continued in office. 



Mr. Webster was elected chairman of the Committee 

 on Constitution and Rules, the remaining members being 

 re-elected. 



Finance Committee: Mr. A. C. Wilmerding, chairman; 

 Mr. Blossom and Mr. Mortimer. 



Membership Committee: Mr. Oldham (chairman) |and 

 Mr. Bernheimer. 



The American Foxhound. 



That foxhound interests have advanced to a stage 

 where a special literature of their own begins, is a source 

 of just pride to fox hunters and foxhound owners in par- 

 ticular and all dog fanciers in general. "The American 

 Foxhound," by Haiden C. Trigg (Glasgow, Ky.), is devoted 

 specially to foxhounds, giving in particular a history of 

 the Trigg, Birdsong and Maupin strains^ 



The pleasures of the chase are most charmingly set 

 forth, the care and feeding is described, the methods of 

 different sections are kindly and temperately treated. 

 Some short biographies and letters of famous fox hunters 

 are given, and pedigrees of famous dogs and much other 

 matter. The "Death of Hornet" has a most pathetic vein; 

 a famous dog, dashing, swift and a leader of leaders, he 

 met death in full cry at the head of the pack while cross- 

 ing a railroad in close pursuit of a red fox. Paper covers, 

 94 pages. ' 



POINTS AND FLUSHES. 



By the death of Dr. Samuel Fleet Speir, of Brooklyn, 

 Long Island loses one of its best known sportsmen. Dr. 

 Speir was a founder of the Robins Island Club, and always 

 took genuine enjoyment in the club's field trials, where he 

 would handle his own dogs in the members' stakes and 

 win with them. He was a type of those who find in 

 field sports relaxation from arduous professional work, 

 and among the sportsmen of the day none stood higher 

 in the respect of friends. 



Mr. W. W. Welch, 20 and 21 Loan and Trust Building, 

 Milwaukee, Wis. , writes us that all communications for 

 the Milwaukee Kennel and Pet Stock Association should 

 be directed to him, and that Mr. Morrison is no longer 

 secretary. 



The mention of the premium list of the Mascoutah 

 Kennel Club'B show in our last issue was an error. A 

 copy of this year's premium list was mailed to us, and 

 not noticing the date and assuming it was the list of the 

 forthcoming show, it was treated as such. 



Concerning the cropping question Mr, A. H. Heppner, 

 in defense of the practice, lays down this startling law s 

 '•The higher a dog is bred the stronger his inclination 

 to degenerate." This effectually settles the question of 

 prepotency, transmission of good qualities, the benefits 

 of pure breeding, etc. The sun do move. 



Philip Bauer, Tivoli, N. Y., offers different kinds of 

 dogs. Mr. M. Baker, Washington ville, O., offers setters. 

 Box 14, Whitestone, N. Y., offers pointer. Standard Ken- 

 nel, Georgetown, N. Y., offers beagles. Geo. T. Robin- 

 son, Philadelphia, offers dogs for sale or exchange, 



