March 6, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



181 



gentleman. The candidates left in the field were Mr. W. 

 H. Sprague and Mr. A. C. Jackson. Mr. Sprague is "Holy 

 Friar," and Mr. Millais's paper as well as "Thomas Tattle" 

 made so much fuss about the Hodgson outrage aud proposed 

 to give voice to the feelings of the entire kennel world, it 

 was to be expected that Mr. Sprague would retire as Mr. 

 Hodgson had done, or if he had the temerity to stand for 

 votes, would be snowed under. In place of this being 

 the case, however, the popular Mr. Jackson was defeated by 

 the evidently still more popular Mr. Sprague by a majority 

 of 18 out of 7i votes, and in result reads as a set back to Mr. 

 Hodgson and his supporters. 



Dr. Derby's mastiff hitch Lady Temple, by Beaufort out 

 of Lady Margery, which was sent over for service by cham- 

 pion Hotspur, is uow in her owner's kennels. 



There is no prospect of the Pacific and California kennel 

 clubs joining. The latter has cash on hand and the former 

 has "nary a red," so they could not agree upon terms of amal- 

 gamation. The result will doubtless be the election of the 

 California K. C. as a member of the A. K. C. J. W. 



NEW YORK DOG SHOW. 



"EdiliOT Forest and. Stveciw- 



As a matter of history I would say that it is true that 

 attendants at the late New York show were drunk. As I 

 was sitting in the smoking room with a gentleman unknown 

 to me, ail attendant came in most disgustingly drnub, and 

 wanted half a dollar to take his coat out of pawn. T got rid 

 of the. beast somehow, and I remember how my companion 

 said, 'J don't know you; what business have you to speak 

 to me ?" and the way that bum left was a caution to snakes. 

 This again impresses on me the force of Mr. G. W. Moore's 

 suggestion to draw the attendants for a dog show from the 

 sub list of the fire departments; here can be found a body of 

 young, active men, accustomed to discipline, nervy, prompt 

 and generally self-respecting, the sort of men that would 

 add very largely to the clean appearance of the show. I 

 commended this suggestion of Mr. Moore's (made in FOREST 

 ANJ) Stream about a year since) to some of the Boston show 

 committee, and it was very favorably received, and I hope 

 it will be acted on. By the wajj Boston with its usual 

 enterprise has a. new wrinkle in mind as a show attraction; 

 watch out for it, as I won't "give it away." 



In common with all who know him, I extend my most 

 sincere sympathy to Mr. Mortimer for his grievous afnie- 

 tion, your note oh which was the first intimation I had of it. 



Your impudence in electing me an authority on Russian 

 wolfhounds is truly immense. Before I set up as "author- 

 ity" on them, I will wait until some authority has been 

 developed somewhere. As it is, that article is non est in- 

 ventns, and is truly "upstumpum, iu swanrpo." However, 

 1 don't see that it requires the weight of authority to ask 

 "Brittle" why he put that quadruped snake Zerry second 

 for !' Ivan Romanoff, first, was all right, aud while Rival is 

 no great shakes, surely he is a dogiu some respects, while 

 ( bat bitch Zerry had absolutely the least snbstance of any- 

 thing in the dog line I ever saw. She really seemed no 

 deeper through the chest than through the loin. The Rus- 

 sian dogs are certainly of the greyhound family, and they 

 seem distinguished for depth of chest, and this thing looked 

 like one snake with pieces of two more stuck under each 

 end of it. I don't care if two Emperors of Germany bred 

 her and three Empresses drynursed her, she isn't the begin- 

 ning of a dog nohow, and if she is "typical," the sooner the 

 breed becomes extinct the better for them. The reporter of 

 a certain Western paper gets off his usual stupidity auent 

 this breed. He accidentally got hold of a Fancier's Gazette, 

 with some of Mr. A. J, Rosseau's tiresome fussings about 

 the name of "Barzois" being the appropriate one" for the 

 breed (as if he cared what "harsh northern guttural" Rus- 

 sians call them), aud this wild Western light actually thinks 

 he knows something about the breed. The repetition of his 

 Denver rot ou spaniels comes out again in his cheeky asser- 

 tion that the breed is not used for wolf hunting, against the 

 positive statements of Mr, Walter Winans that he has seen 

 groups of statuary in Russia showing these very dogs en- 

 gaged in wolf catching, the production of the illustrations in 

 the Loudon Sporting and Dramatic News of the same fact, 

 and the statement of the St. Petersburg correspondent of 

 the; Fancier' x Gazette, that he saw a "Bar/. >is" bitch catch 

 and throw a dog wolf single-handed. Truly "some mens 

 knows somh'n and some, knows nnffin." 



I must fall ioul of general press comments on Beaufort 

 with the reservation that Forest and Stream seems to a p- 

 preciate the dog better than any other paper. The general 

 comment is that Beaufort is light iu loin; but this is forget- 

 tiug that the dog was shown in the very primes t of condi- 

 tion, the muscles well developed, the dog strong and active, 

 but not in "killing order," which seems to be the meaning 

 of "condition" with too many. Had he been shown with a 

 few more pounds of soft, flabby flesh on him his loin would 

 have been more than sufficient for all reasonable purposes; 

 and his photos taken in England show him admirable in 

 this point. Considering his value as a stud dog, Mr. Win- 

 chell deserves abundant praise for the rare condition lie 

 showed the dog in. How a mountain of soft fat is to be 

 efficient as a stud dog is a conundrum determinable only by 

 the Lime Kiln Club. The other fault found with the dog is 

 that he moves badly behind. To a certain extent this is 

 true; but the inference ordinarily drawn from such a state- 

 ment, that he lacks power behind or is not strong and active, 

 is a very great mistake, lie really springs (not a commou 

 performance of modern mastiffs) with the activity of a cat, 

 and all his joints, before aud behind, are sound and well 

 placed, with abundant muscle to operate them, The cause 

 of his clumsy movements behind is the very large 

 dew claws that disfigure his hindlegs. These prevent 

 his bringing his hiudfeet close to each other in 

 moving; if he did it, these dew claws would scratch 

 each other and soon raise sores, and the habit has 

 grown on him to travel wide behind, and no animal can 

 do this with grace and vigor. Just try a man walking with 

 one foot on each side of a board a foot wide. I fancy that 

 these dew daws on Beaufort are a result of Dr. Turner's 

 super-sensitiveness as to "faking," or they would have been 

 removed when the dog was a puppy, and I would earnestly 

 impress on mastiff breeders the duty of removing them as 

 soon as possible. This cannot be held to be "faking," as 

 they are neither censured nor encouragod, but are simply 

 ••admissible." Nor can 1 believe that the dog is deficient in 

 wrinkle. Certainly his face is not constantly suggestive of 

 the roughest of rough mountains, but when his attention is 

 excited, the wrinkle is ample. How many mastiffs are there 

 with redundant wrinkle that are not disfigured by excess of 

 dewlap, or as the slang expression goes, are " too throaty?" 

 To sum tin, I cannot but see this dog as the incarnation of 

 ••quality.'' I dislike to use the word, as it is a piece of dog- 

 show jargon that is utterly devoid of meaning in nine cases 

 out of ten, but despite dog-show obscurities, there is such a 

 thing as a "mastiff, all over," and this is the crowning vir- 

 tue of Beaufort; other animals may excel him in this, that 

 or the other "property," but he is so evenly balanced all 

 over, such a pictureof harmonious proportion, that it seems 

 hard to imagiue his siiperior. 



I regret to find that I am in accord with "Clique Club 

 Number 1" iu my opinion of this dog, but it seenis an un- 

 avoidable unpleasantness. By the way, I forgot to mention 

 the one enormous defect in Beaufort, he actually has white 

 toe nails all round! In view of the funny but popular super- 

 stition on this matter, this is enormous] W". Wade 



Hni/roN, Pa., Feb, 23. 



A VISIT TO THE NEW YORK DOG SHOW- 



TDO love going to a dog show. I like going to any show r , 

 as for that matter; there are always people to be seen; 

 but when you go to a dog show it is like going to a recep- 

 tion, only with dogs to do the honors. Mamma says the 

 Westminster Kennel Club's show is a great educational in- 

 stitution, and that she wouldn't have missed it for any- 

 thing. I never thought of that before this year, although I 

 do remember that last year when mamma was going round 

 with her horrid old catalogue and finding out what the dogs 

 were, I thought it would be much nicer if they would write 

 up "greyhounds" and "mastiffs" and "pointers," and all 

 that sort of thing, you know, over the cages, And it's nor, 

 a bit of good listening to what other people say; at least not 

 as a rule. I tried that way, and stood a long time before one 

 of the cages with a big spotted dog that I now know is an 

 Ulmer, or great Dane, and some called him a greyhound 

 and some a "mastiff, and some one thing and some another, 

 and of course they were all wrong. But this year we had a 

 lovely chaperon, who told us about all the dogs and marie 

 it very interesting, and I could have staid all day, aud, in 

 fact, all four days, listening to him. I never enjoyed any- 

 thing so much in my life, lie wasn't a professional, nor "a 

 dog doctor, nor a judge, nor anything of that sort, you 

 know; but he had beautiful blue eye- and curly chestnut 

 hair, and a, love of a mustache, and knew a great deal more 

 about dogs than any of them. 



And the way we made his acquaintance was quite an ad- 

 venture. There were no introductions nor anything of that 

 kind, and of course he would never have spoken first; aud if 

 any one had told me in the morning that I won Id have spoken 

 to a strange gentleman and made his acquaintance, and that 

 mamma would have asked him to call, I would have said it 

 was simply impossible, but I believe these things are fate, 

 and sure to happen without yorrr doing anything to help it. 



It happened in this way. We— that is, mamma and I — 

 had strolled right down' through the middle of the build- 

 ings, mamma with her catalogue in her hand, finding out 

 what the dogs were, and when we got to the back of a cage 

 at the end, there were two tall curly-haired dogs, with slen- 

 der waists and beautiful long noses like an Italian grey- 

 hound's, and mamma said at once without looking at the 

 catalogue: "Oh, these are the bloodhounds." 



There was a gentleman looking at them with his back to- 

 ward us, and when mamma said they were bloodhounds and 

 was looking at the catalogue to see, he turned round and 

 looked at me in a sort of sad, reproachful way, with a coun- 

 tenance expressive more of sorrow than of anger, you know, 

 and I knew directly that mamma was wrong, arid his blue 

 eyes and his mustache and his look altogether were so 

 speaking, that for the life of me I couldn't help saying: 

 "Are they not bloodhounds?" aud the next moment I could 

 have sunk into the ground; but that was soon over. 



Mamma looked up at ouce from the catalogue, and look- 

 ing rather at her than me he replied, "No, madame, these 

 are Siberian wolfhounds." 



His voice was very pleasant, and I could sec that mamma 

 was interested, for she remarked at once, "I suppose the 

 Russian nobles employ them to kill the dreadful wolves in 

 that country." 



For a moment he did uot reply, but smiled, such a pleasant 

 sunny smile, just showing his rows of beautiful white teeth. 



"That is a very natural mistake for any one not familiar 

 with Russia to fall into," he said at length, "and I believe 

 that even the judges here have fallen into the same error, 

 but the fact is they are called wolfhounds because they are 

 the only dogs fast enough to run away from a wolf." 



"You see," he continued, "that in Siberia, for they are 

 more generally called Siberian wolfhounds, the wolves go 

 in packs of scores and even hundreds, and if any attempt 

 were made to hunt them with dogs, the wolves would over- 

 power them by numbers and eat them; but in Siberia and 

 northern Russia the shepherds employ dogs not merely to 

 watch the sheep, but to scour the country round in quest of 

 wolves, and at the first intimation of danger the dogs return 

 to the shepherd, who at once sends them off to the villages 

 for help, and makes the best of his way up a tree. In old 

 times they had a breed of shepherd dogs that was not fast 

 enough for the purpose. The wolves frequently caught 

 them before they could return to the flock, and sometimes 

 the shepherd, being taken unawares, fell a victim to their 

 ferocity together with the sheep; and the need of swifter 

 dogs led to the introduction of Persian greyhounds into the 

 country; and these, with some modification clue to climate 

 and the work they are employed on, with perhaps a slight 

 admixture of native blood, have become the Siberian wolf- 

 hound, which, as you see, is a taller and stouter animal than 

 the parent stock." 



"But wouldn't one of those dogs kill a wolf ?" I asked, 

 timidly. 



"No," he replied, "two of them will chase a single wolf 

 and attack him from behind, and cut and tear birn, and 

 when the wolf turns at bay, one always attacks from be- 

 hind, until he is worn out and weakened with loss of blood, 

 but they have not the courage to face a wolf single-handed, 

 and even if they had they would be barely a match for him 

 in strength." 



"If you want to see dogs that are singly a match for the 

 Russian wolf, that surpass him both in strength aud cour- 

 age, just step to this next row and look at the great Danes, 

 that will kill one every time they set hold of him." 



And so in the most natural way in the world he consti- 

 tuted himself our chaperon, and led us from one cage to 

 the other, and explained all about the dogs, and made it 

 very interesting, aud wherever we went other people fol- 

 lowed, simply to listen to him I am sure. 



At last we came to some cages with a lot of black dogs 

 with faces just like my own darling Tinker, but the hair or 

 wuol, or whatever it is— I always call it wool— only on the 

 front part, and the back part all bare, aud I said to mamma, 

 "If these dogs had wool all over, wouldn't they be just like 

 Tinker?" 



."Perhaps," said our friend, we didn't, know his name 

 then, "if Tinker had the wool clipped off his hinder parts he 

 would be just like these dogs." 



"I do believe you are right," said mamma. "Tinker was 

 given to Alice when he was a little puppy (I could seethe 

 gleam of pleasure in h is eye when he heard my name) and 

 we never thought of asking what breed he is, and I have 

 never seen auy dogs exactly like him." 



"I would give anything to know what he is," I remarked 

 without thinking; that is without real malice prepense you 

 know, and our guide replied at once that he had no doubt he 

 could solve that difficulty for us it mamma would allowhim 

 to call, and at once took out his card and offered it to 

 mamma, who told him she would be delighted to see him at 

 our house Mamma gave him her hand at parting, and 

 thanked him for the great pleasure he had afforded us by 

 his interesting conversation, and, of course, I gave him my 

 hand, which he pressed ever so gently, promising to do him- 

 self the pleasure of calling on us in a day or two and classi- 

 fying Tinker. I know mamma thinks that all his attentions 

 were paid to her, but I don't, for althoughl am only fifteen, 

 I am sure that when he looked at me his eyes fairly spoke, 

 and what is more, I felt sure that I could understand what 

 they meant, and that my own eyes answered timidly in the 

 same language. 



But he never called, and poor Tinker remains unclassified 

 to this day. All the next week too the papers were full of 

 a shocking scandal about a spurious Russian nobleman who 

 had been imposing on Boston society aud borrowing money, 

 and flying kites, although I don't see much harm in that, 

 but there were all sorts of dreadful things about, him; and 

 papa, who is a shocking tease, says that this may be our 



friend; but mamma I am sure would never be imposed on 

 that way, nor I either, and moreover the impostor isn't tall, 

 and he hasn't bhie eyes nor chestnut hair. 



Something has happened to prevent his calling, I am sure. 

 He may be sick among strangers, but that he will come as 

 soon as he can, and that we shall know all about Tinker, I 

 am as sure as I can be of anything. Alice Demaeest. 



THREE FOOL FOXES. 



"XTTELL! the fool foxes were out to-day sure," remarked 

 VV one of the local shooters as we were gathered in 

 Lisha's back room on a, recent Saturday night, aud a recital 

 of the day's event would seem to indicate that he was right, 

 for some queer capers were certainly cut up. 



E. T. Whittaker and John R. Thayer hunted about, ten 

 miles north of the city. They found the following pretty 

 hard, but Tildeu and Gtxess got one up and followed him 

 nearly all day. until John R. stopped him. They had a good 

 hunt, but no thrilling experiences. Down the other side of 

 the city, however, the fun was fast and furious. A. B. F. 

 Kinney and I). M. Earl went down toMillbury to hunt with 

 John White, and they enjoyed every minute of the day, 

 from the time the hounds for the day's hunt were selected 

 from the pack, in John's original and highly interesting 

 manner, to the supper at the close of the hunt. They started 

 for Potter's Hill behind John's pair of mares (especially bred 

 and broken to take John and guests of the Tourtellot House 

 on hunting trips, for John is the proprietor of that famous 

 hostlery), with the hounds sandwiched in anions their feet. 

 They soon had one started and took their favorite stands. 



John had been on a crossing but a short time when he 

 heard the dogs swing his way, so he peeled off his ulster and 

 as they drew nearer put his gun to his shoulder expecting to 

 see the fox break cover, and sure enough she did. Hopped 

 right up on to a rock about six rods off and stood listening 

 to the dogs. John put it right on to her and pulled, and 

 the fox hopped down and started off, but the second barrel 

 stopped her, and the party gathered around while John took 

 off her pelt. 



They bothered John a considerable about missing the fox 

 as she stood on the rock and killing her on the run. Finally 

 he figured it out. "There," said John, "I know how it was. 

 The other day I jabbed my gun down on the ground and 

 bent one barrel at the muzzle so it was about half closed. 

 Some one told me to take it up to Cyrus Holden and he 

 could take it, out so you would never know it, but I didn't 

 have time, so I took an old whip stock and drove down into 

 the barrel aud hammered it out, and I'll bet I took the 

 choke all out of that barrel." It afterward transpired that 

 he shot the other barrel at the fox first; and killed her with 

 the "whip-stock choke," 



From here they went over toward Siugletary Pond, and 

 when opposite it the dogs took a scent and started toward 

 the pond. A couple of the partv followed to see what the 

 dogs would make of it, leaving John and Mr. Earle in the 

 team. Tn no time, the fox was up and started down the nar- 

 row strip between the pond and the road, which runs nearly 

 parallel. "He'll cross about a mile below," said John, "and 

 we will have to cut to head him;" and he shook the reins 

 over the mares as they broke into a run. When about half 

 way down they saw the fox: shoot across a pasture with his 

 ears tight to his head and the pack almost at his heels. 



"Get out your gun. Dave," said John, as he gave the mares 

 the whip; "something's going to happen pretty quick. He's 

 got to cross the road this side of the bridge." 



Tn a moment he jumped over into the road right in front 

 of the horses, and not being able to get across in front of 

 them, be turued right down the road ahead of them. John 

 plied the whip while Earle stood up between the seats with 

 his gun ready. 



"Shall T shoot, John?" 



"Yes, give it to him, Dave. I'll risk the horses. They 

 can't run any faster thau they are going now." 



"Duck your head then and I'll try him," and he braced 

 his knee against the seat and shot between the horses heads, 

 dropping t he fox right under their feet, and the whole team 

 went over him. 



The mares were stopped in a few rods, and before they 

 could get back the dogs had come up and all had a "shake." 

 The fox had been hit with two shots near the spine, and 

 both wheels passed over it. This is no "fairy tale," but an 

 actual fact, aud one of the most remarkable shots I know of. 

 Mr. Earle says he considers it one chance in a hundred that 

 he touched the fox at all. 



Three foxes in one day sounds pretty well, but it fails 

 utterly to express the amount of fun the chasing of them 

 brought about. Still we always have a good hunt when we 

 go with John, andthe boys' familiar expression hits it about 

 right, "There is only one John White, and he's the man to 

 hunt foxes with i f you want fun. " Hae. 



Worcester, Ma=a. 



A DOG MURDER. — Ogdensburgh, March 3.— Editor 

 Forest and. Stream: Sunday afternoon, Feb. 23, Addison 

 R. Strong of this city shot in the neck aud badly mutilated 

 the liver and white 'pointer Troy (A.K.R. 6fi.30) belonging 

 to W. H. Murphy, his next door neighbor. The following 

 day he was arrested under the charge of cruelty to animals 

 and t he trial before Recorder Dorwin occurred Tuesday. It 

 was thoroughly proven and admitted by the defendant that 

 he had shot the dog with bird shot, "to tickle him" as he 

 said, but that he had uo intention to kill him, that he had 

 the gun loaded for ten clays previous awaiting the opportu- 

 nity, that his yard Avhere the dog was shot was a perfect 

 fUnway for dogs, and that he had taken no means to stop 

 them; and in extenuation he claimed that the dog had 

 ruined some cakes of ice on his back step. The case created 

 considerable interest and was tried without a jury, and one 

 of the most unheard of decisions was rendered by the Re- 

 corder, contrary to all law and the evidence in the case, 

 and it was that, "I hold the case of cruelty is proven, but 

 the man was justified," What would the late Mr. Bergh 

 have thought of such a decision; probably the same as most 

 of the spectators, who expressed themselves rather freely 

 over the outrage of condoning such a brutal offense as the 

 evidence proved this to be. The poor dog was suffering so 

 Thursday, that I had him put out of his misery with as lit- 

 tle pain as possible and his last motion was a wag of his 

 tail.— Wm, H. Murphy. 



GERDA.— The mastiff bitch Gerda, well known as the 

 winner at Barn Elms in June, 1887, of the prize offered 

 by Mr, Wade for the best moving mastiff, and recently im- 

 ported by Mr. Winchell, of Fairhaven, Vt., gave birth ou 

 Sunday, March 3, to ten puppies— four dogs and six bitches. 

 If nothing befalls this litter Mr. Winchell will probably 

 have something worth showing in a year or two, as Gerda 

 has proven herself to be an excellent brood bitcb, being the 

 dam of the well known English winner General Yon Moltke. 



RUSSIAN WOLFHOUNDS. — Hulton, Pa., Feb. 28.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Please allow me to say that 

 my Russian wolfhound bitch Elsie whelped three dog and 

 six bitch puppies, at the residence of Mr. Freeman Lloyd, 

 in London, on Feb. 18; all strong and well. The puppies 

 will come over here in about two months, aad Elsie will re 

 main in England, for another visit to Krilutf.— W. Wa.be. 



