Jan. 11, 1886.] 
Sacandaga— Sacoadagu— Sacrundagua. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice in Forest asd Stream of Jan. 4 "a newspaper 
item" by F. Z. M., of Erie, Pa. I live at Luzerne, at the 
mouth of the Sacandaga Paver, twenty-four miles from 
Northville. My father told me when a boy that the name 
Sacandaga was of Indian origin and means rapid running 
or dancing water. I have fished for trout in its waters 
and have shot deer on its banks for nearly forty years. I 
have quite a number of friends at and near Northville, 
and if I can give F. Z. M. any information shall be pleased 
to do so. George H. Rockwell. 
A Punta Gorda Jew-fish. 
On Dec. 28 a guest of the Hotel Punta Gorda, at Punta 
Gorda, Fla., Mr. C. A. Dean, of Boston, who had just re- 
turned in his yacht the Myakka from a cruise up* the 
Caloosahatchee River, harpooned a 3601bs. jew-fish just off 
the hotel pier. Many people came down from the village 
to view the monster while some colored men were re- 
moving the skin. T, H. Abbott. 
he Memttl 
FIXTURES. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Feb. 19 to 22.— Westminster Kennel Club's twentieth annual dog 
show, Madison Square Garden, New York. James Mortimer, Supt. 
March 3 to 6.— City of the Straits Kennel Club, Detroit, Mich. Arthur 
D. Welton, Sec'y, 25 Lamed street, West. 
March 10 to 13.— Chicago.— Mascoutah Kennel Club's bench show. 
John L. Lincoln, Sec'y. 
March 17 to 20— St. Louis Kennel Club's show, St. Louis. W. 
Hutchinson, Sec'y. 
April 20 to 23 — New England Kennel Club's twelfth annual show. 
D. E. Loveland. Sec'y. 
May 6 to 9.— Pacific Kennel Club's fifth annual show. H. W. Orear, 
Sec'y. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Jan. 20.— Bakersfleld, Cal.— Pacific Coast Field Trial Club. J. M, 
Kilgarif, Sec'y. 
Feb. 3.— West Point, Miss.— U. S. F. T. C. trials. W. B. Stafford, 
Sec'y. 
Feb. 10 —West Point, Miss.— The Field Trial Champion Association's 
first trial. W. B. Stafford, Sec'y. 
Sept. 2.— Morris, Man.— Manitoba Field Trials Club. John Wootton, 
Sec'y. . 
WHY FIELD TRIALS SHOULD BE 
SUPPORTED. 
Waverly, Miss. — Editor Forest and Stream: Judging 
from the poor support given the field trial clubs this sea- 
son, it seems as though the usefulness of field trials were 
not appreciated as it should be by the great body of 
sportsmen throughout the country. 
Field trials always have been and still remain a potent 
factor in elevating field sports to their present high stand- 
ard, and it ia directly through the competition which 
the annual field trial meetings invite that a comparative 
field test is possible between dogs from all parts of the 
United States and Canada. The importance of this com- 
petition has even been recognized in England, and dogs 
have been sent from there to compete in our trials. 
All sportsmen in this country who shoot and own dogs, 
or ever expect to own them, are directly benefited by 
the result of field trial competition, as it affords them 
positive knowledge as to the comparative standing and 
quality of different strains of blood, and of the individual 
merit of the representatives of those strains as compared 
bo others which are met in the competition, which could 
be known through no other source than field trial com- 
petition. 
Then it is solely through the medium of field trials that 
the public gets the benefit of the services of the winners 
at these meetings, for were there no field trials there would 
be no stud dogs in the present sense, and were there no 
stud dogs the sportsmen would be wholly at sea as to how 
to breed to improve their dogs. It is entirely owing to 
the successful carrying out of field trials that there have 
been such celebrated dogs as Gladstone, Count Noble, 
Rip Rip, Roderigo, Gath, Gath's Mark, Jingo, Vander- 
vort's Don, Tick Boy and many other grand dogs which 
space will not permit mention. As American sportsmen 
we are all proud of these dogs, and we ought to be proud 
of the field trial clubs which gave them an opportunity 
to become great, 
How often when in conversation with men who have 
never attended field trial meetings, and that subject is 
broached, do we hear them remark, "Oh, field trials are 
too slow for me; I love to shoot. To ride after a brace of 
dogs just to see them hunt, point and back would not be 
any fun for me." If the man who talks that way will 
attend a field trial he will find that, after all, there is 
more fun in a live bird than a dead one, and that the de- 
sire to kill something does not constitute all there is of 
sportsmanship. 
To the sportsmen who have labored so long and ear- 
nestly, and I may well add successfully too, in behalf of 
field trials, both in establishing them and supporting 
them as well, the sportsmen of America owe a great debt 
which can be no more appropriately paid than in support- 
ing field trials of the present day. 
Field trials have always exerted a good influence 
toward the protection of game. Many a sportsman, who 
before attending a field trial could see no sport in other 
than a crowded game bag, has learned that the work of 
the dog furnishes the real zest to the sport. When he 
returns home he gives up practice of shooting to flushes, 
and learns to value the dog that can find and point birds 
enough for him to shoot only over points, and in that 
manner make as large a bag as he wants. 
Appreciating as I do the importance of field trials, and 
recognizing their influence in educating the trainer, were 
I having dogs trained I would send them only to trainers 
who attended field trials; for field trials to a trainer are 
as important as a course of lectures to a physician, and 
the trainer who stays at home is in some ways as far 
behind his profession as the cross-road doctor who never 
attends medical lectures. 
Before the time of field trials how many intelligent 
trainers were to be found, and what were their methods 
of training? Liberal use of a pair of cowhide boots and 
long range use of the shotgun were methods commonly 
used, and the men themselves were in many cases not as 
intelligent as the dogs they attempted to train; but field 
trial training demanded men of intelligence, who could 
accomplish, by skillful training, results which the old 
"breaker" could never hope to attain. The first, and per- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
haps the most important matter in which field trials keep 
the attending trainer up on, is quality. To correctly 
judge quality, and know it whether hidden under the 
mantle of timidity, or running riot in a headstrong dog, 
is a trainer's business. He should be able to recognize it 
when he sees it, and understand how to skillfully unravel 
it from that which is harmful without breaking the tex- 
ture or marring its value. 
A trainer who attempts to select from a number sent 
him such dogs as possess sufficient quality to enter field 
trial competition, or to make superior field dogs (for 
superior field dogs are all that field trial dogs are), should 
first learn what constitutes quality. . The only place he 
can learn the lesson is at a field trial, where the competi- 
tion draws the line so sharp and clean that a novice can 
recognize it in its finished state, if not in the rough. We 
often hear of the wonderful trainer of shooting dogs who 
never attended a field trial, written, no doubt, by parties 
who get a reduction in training fee for a public portrayal 
of the vividness of their imaginations. When some- 
times this wonderful trainer makes his appearance at a 
field trial with a dog so superior to those he is accus- 
tomed to that he imagines he has the "thing won," often 
to find out, if intelligent enough, that compared with the 
competing dogs the dog he has brought has not sufficient 
quality to be considered. If not intelligent enough to 
comprehend his dog's inferiority, then going back home 
and writing a mess to the newspapers, attacking the club 
for not considering a dog that was .not fit for a blind 
nigger to shoot over. 
There are illustrations of this kind every season, more or 
less, at the various trial meetings, and many of the accus- 
ing articles attacking field trials are only the impotent 
wrath of fairly defeated competitors. At one of the field 
trials last season was started by a trainer a dog which 
was only entitled to be called a dog because he wore hair 
and resembled one in outline, for that is as near as he 
ever got to being a bird dog. There was a communica- 
tion from some party who knew the trainer, whom he 
glowingly described in terms suited to the advertising 
page, and. in speaking of this wonderful dog he made 
such flights of imagination that, had the atticle been pub- 
lished before the trial instead of after, I doubt whether 
the other competitors would have had the courage to have 
remained and run the trial to a finish. It transpired, 
however, that the writer did not know what he was talk- 
ing about, and that is just the point I wish to make about 
many of these articles attacking field trials — the writers 
"simply do not know what they are talking about, and that 
explains it all. 
But I digress. Coming back to the subject of trainers 
again I would comment on the many advantages he de- 
rives from field trial attendance. The matter of selecting 
dogs with quality I have already touched upon, and will 
conclude by saying that all field trial handlers can come 
nearer giving full value in return for the patronage they 
receive than any other class of trainers; for, having a 
thorough knowledge of his business, a professiona 
trainer will only select and keep to train such dogs as* 
promise to be worth their training fee when trained, 
which is giving full value for every dollar they receive; 
while the class of trainers known as "scalpers" will train 
every dog sent them regardless of whether it is worth $5 
or even 5 cents. There are exceptions, of course, which 
I freely admit, but I have always regarded field trials 
when applied to the trainer individually as a kind of 
public sorting yard, where each trainer's ability is prop- 
erly tested by record, stamped and couutersigned. It is 
an easy matter for the obscure trainers to get dogs to run 
at the field trials, providing they have the ability to 
handle and run them. The competition is a free thing. 
Then let them come out of the woods and show the public, 
by the quality of the dogs they handle, what ability they 
possess as trainers; but, strange to say, most of them seem 
to shun a public criticism of their handling. 
The next thing to quality which field trials make the 
trainer expert in is the judging of correct field form. At 
the trials he has an opportunity to see in actual competi- 
tion the different types of field form, and can judge for 
himself which type has the greatest superiority. 
Field trials represent the combined skill of the brightest 
trainers in America, and each one learns many things 
sooner or later that would have never occurred to him 
originally. This applies particularly to kennel manage- 
ment, for at field trials, he hears discussed and explained 
many ailments that dogs are afflicted with which pre- 
viously he never understood nor knew how to treat. 
Another more important thing yet, which all field trial 
handlers agree upon, is that one "can't eat his pie and 
have it too," and that a quail once dead is never any more 
use to train a dog on, This teaches him to economize his 
bird supply, and in abundance of birds his dogs acquire 
the experience which is absolutely necessary to make ap- 
plicable the training given them. No truer words could 
be written than that no skill in training will ever supply 
the necessity of experience. 
The stay-at-home trainer rarely goes abroad without a 
pocketful of shells. He takes great pride in his skill as a 
field shot and lets no opportunity pass to give an exhibi- 
tion of it, even if it be at flushes. If he loses a bird it 
irritates him, and the dog is apt to feel the weight of his 
displeasure. He uses up his bird supply without doing 
his dogs any great deal of good, and the owner of the dog 
is the loser thereby. 
As a pastime few sports furnish more real pleasure than 
field trials. The pleasure begins with the greetings one 
receives from friends and acquaintances whom he has 
not seen in a year perhaps, and increases as he makes the 
rounds to view the dogs in the hands of different handlers 
— dogs conditioned to make a race for their lives. As he 
listens to the dog chat when all are together in the hotel, 
which conversation is interluded with laughable incidents 
of former trials which may have taken place years ago, 
he becomes more interested. As the spectators mount 
their horses on the morning of the commencement of the 
trials he catches the eagerness manifested on all sides to 
see the race begin, and as heat after heat is run and the 
winners begin to stand out by brilliant work and superior 
field quality the desire to own a dog like some of those he 
sees is born in his heart, and he is conscious of a new 
pleasure far above the selfish one of mere snooting. 
When sweet-faced ladies lend their gentle presence to 
sports it speaks well for the class of men who conduct 
such sports; it refutes most positively that erroneous 
idea that at field trials there is bad feeling and ungen- 
tlemanly proceedings. 
Field trials are not to blame because disgruntled com- 
33 
petitors attack the clubs for doing what was just and 
right, and field trial clubs rarely appear in print to deny 
or affirm. Their acts are public ones, and the intent and 
purpose of field trials are to place the best dogs, which 
the clubs do through the services of competent judges. 
I have often thought that the sporting press (who 
should know the right and wrong of such accusations, 
through their reporters who -are present at all trials) 
should never publish such communications unless backed 
by absolute proof. The burden of proof lies with the 
accuser and he should be compelled to produce it before 
his accusations should be considered, much less published; 
for many sportsmen unacquainted with the men who 
represent the membership of field trial clubs often credit 
such accusations as true because their favorite paper pub- 
lishes them. They reason, that only such matter as was 
known to be true would be published, 
The gentlemen who are patrons and members of the 
various field trial clubs are recognized in their various 
business pursuits as men of honor and responsibility, and 
many of them hold positions of trust far above the ordi- 
nary run of men. For an intelligent man to say such 
men would do or allow to be done anything that was not 
right and just, when the only interest they had in trials is 
the sport they get out of witnessing the races between the 
dogs, is too silly and contemptible to receive a second 
thought. 
As to running field trials on any better business basis 
than they are run at present, it is impossible. A man 
may start a business, and no matter how bright he is as a 
business man, if patronage fails to come to him his busi- 
ness will not prosper. Patronage is all that field trials 
need, unless it is fewer field trials and more important 
ones. 
When things become too common they are not so inter- 
esting to some; this seems to be the case with field trials. 
When there were less of them there was greater patron- 
age; but, however true this may be, field trials are the 
backbone of our field dogs. What have bench shows ever 
done for field dogs? Nothing. Field trials have done it 
all. The practical sportsmen who go afield, and appreci- 
ate what the term a good field dog means, should patron- 
ize field trials even if unable to attend them in person, 
and in that way do their part toward their support. 
W. W. Titus. 
The W. K. C. Premium List. 
The premium list of the Westminster Kennel Club, 
which can be obtained by addressing the Superintendent, 
Mr. James Mortimer, Room 26, 32 Pine street, New York, 
is now ready for distribution, The special prize list as is 
also the regular prize list is notable for its length and 
value. Mastiffs, St. Bernards, bloodhounds, great Danes, 
Russian wolfhounds, deerhounds, greyhounds, pointers, 
setters, spaniels, collies, poodles, bull-terriers, bulldogs, 
Boston terriers, dachshunde, beagles, fox-terrier3, Irish 
terriers, black and tan terriers, Bedlingtons, Scottish, Skye 
terriers, pugs, toy spaniels, have $15 and $10, first and 
second in challenge classes, while in open classes the prizes 
range from $20, $10 and $5, first, second and third respect- 
ively, to $15, $10 and $5, and $20, $15, $10 and $5, some 
classes having a fourth prize. Puppy and novice classes 
are liberally provided for, those classes having $15, $10 
and $5, and $10 and $5. Nearly all the breeds enumerated 
have each a special kennel prize of $20 for the best ex- 
hibit of four. Classes are provided for uncropped dogs of 
the breed commonly cropped. The special prize list is so 
long and valuable that, as full mention cannot be given 
here, special attention is called to its worth. Specialty 
club cups and other trophies and prizes are out in full 
force. The club will add 50 per cent, to the amount of 
prize money won by any dog wholly owned by a non- 
resident of the United States or Canada. Entries close 
Feb. 4 The show will be benched and fed by Spratts 
Patent. Entry fee $5. A judge for spaniels will be 
announced soon. 
. Successful Clubs. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I beg to call your attention to the fact that field trial 
interests as a whole are not in the deplorable condition 
pictured in the Forest and Stream of Jan. 4 under the 
title "A Review of the Year." That article deals only 
with the pointer and setter trials, and totally ignores the 
foxhound and beagle trials which have been remarkably 
successful during the past season. Foxhound trials have 
been held by the Brunswick Fur Club and the National 
Fox Hunters' Association, and beagle trials by the 
National Beagle Club, the New England Beagle Club and 
the Northwestern Beagle Club. These five clubs are all 
prosperous, and their trials will bear comparison in all 
respects with those held by any club in the country. 
They have not lacked entries, the attendance has been 
large, no trials have been called off, no club has disbanded 
and none are in financial difficulties. The enthusiasm of 
the members and the general public interest in the trials 
has never been as great as it is to-day, and the coming 
year promises to be the most successful in the history of 
these competitions. No review of the year is complete 
which fails to mention these clubs and the splendid work 
they are doing, Bradford S. Turpin. 
The Brunswick Fur Club. 
Roxbury, Mass. — The Brunswick Fur Club's seventh an- 
nual winter meet is to be held at Brunswick, Maine, dur- 
ing the week of January 13. The club headquarters will 
be at the Tontine Hotel, The rates will be $1,50 and $2 
per day for a single room. 
The annual meeting of the club, for the election of offi- 
cers and the transaction of other business, will be held on 
Monday Evening, January 13. 
Brunswick is on the Maine Central Railroad. Sportsmen 
going by the way of Boston will take the cars at the Union 
Station. 
This is to be a rousing hunting meet. Foxes are report- 
ed plentiful near the town, and the Brunswick members 
of the club will do all in their power to make the hunt 
a notable one in the annals of New England fox-hunting. 
Sportsmen will receive a hearty welcome, and all who 
attend are urged to bring their hounds. 
Bradford S. Turpin, Sec'y. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday, 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
atest by Monday, and as Much earlier as practicable. 
