Aug. 4, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
99 
Now, I am free to admit that from the time it came to my 
knowledge that Mr. Martin had got the wrong dog, he had a 
right to complain, and he had the right either to sue for the 
money he had paid me or to demand an exchange of the 
dogs. My solicitors told me that he had a right to sue for 
the money and that he would demand it, which he afterward 
did by letter, threatening action. I was in hopes that he 
would content himself with asking for the delivery of Con- 
sequence, but when he made his claim for the money and I 
was told I would be obliged to pay it, I advertised both Con- 
sequence and Rejoice for sale, supposing that Rejoice would 
be returned to me and I would have both dogs on my hands. 
I am much blamed for having done this. It has been urged 
that I did it fraudulently and to obtain an unfair advantage 
and to deceive the public. 1 ask the readers of this letter to 
remember that I had been told I had to repay Martin $100 
which he had paid me; that I would be out the $100 and have 
the two dogs on my hands, and I naturally was most anxious 
to dispose of them. Is there fraud in that? I think not. I 
fail to see the sting in the charge. 
Now, many will say at this point of my statement, "Why 
did you not at once offer to exchange the dogs, to give to Mr. 
Martin the dog that he had bought, and to take back the dog 
that he had not bought, and to pay to him the expenses which 
he had incurred or would incur in the exchange?" It has 
been publicly stated that I refused to do this; that I would 
not do justice to Mr. Martin; that I intended to maintain the 
wrong position that I was in. It has been said that had I 
offered to place Mr. Martin in his original position, to ex- 
change the dogs and pay the expenses, then I would have 
been free from blame; that then my story about the innocent 
mistake in connection with the dogs would have been be- 
lieved; that nobody would have censured me, but all would 
have admitted that I had done my best to make matters 
right. Well, that is exactly the course that I pursued; and a 
letter was written by my solicitors on my behalf and under 
my directions, offering to forward Consequence and to receive 
back Rejoice, aed to pay all expenses in connection with the 
exchange. If it is desired, my solicitors will send to any per- 
sons asking for it a copy of that letter. 
I am writing facts now, all of which can be verified and all 
. of which are absolutely true. The position taken by Mr. 
Martin was one calculated to prevent, any amicable settle- 
ment of the matter, because after he had received my offer, 
after I had admitted my mistake, after I had allowed that 
he had been misled through my mistake, and after he had 
demanded his money back, he advertised in the American 
Field that the dog Consequence was his and that I had no 
right to advertise it for sale. Remember this advertisement 
appeared after he had written making a legal demand for 
8100 paid me by mistake for the dog Consequence. Now, if 
he had a claim for the money, then I had the ownership of 
the dog. If I had paid him §100, I had the right to sell the 
dog. He was blowing hot and cold, claiming the money and 
the dog both, and at the same time fuming and blustering in 
the papers and among his friends in such a way that one 
would have thought he had never had a dog at all from me 
and had paid §100 for nothing, whereas, in fact, an honest 
mistake had been made, he had iu his posession all the time 
a dog equally valuable, and had been breeding from her and 
making money out of her from the beginning to the end. 
Why even at the last he offered to keep Rejoice and let me 
keep Consequence, if I would pay him the small sum of $25 
difference. 
After my offer of exchange and to pay the expenses was 
made, several letters passed to and fro between Martin and 
my solicitors, also telegrams, each one containing some 
different proposition on Mr. Martin's part. The result, how- 
ever, has been what it should have been upon the receipt of 
my solicitors' first letter, namely, I have shipped Conse- 
quence to him at my expense, he hands Rejoice over to my 
agent in San Francisco, retaining her progenv which is no 
doubt of value. Consequence has no pups and I have realized 
nothing from her. 
It is easy to theorize upon mistakes of this kind. I have 
suggested that the dog I sent to Mr Martin possibly never 
reached him, but was changed on the way; these things 
have occurred before. In transportation the dog went, 
through three hands, there may have been an accident on 
the way. This, of course, would be denied by the officials 
and no one has ever followed it up. 
That the mistake was made by me in the identity of the 
dogs there is no doubt. After I discovered it I did every- 
thing in my power under my solicitors' directions to remedy 
the mistake and to do justice to the wronged party. I have 
refrained from justifying my conduct in the public prints 
and have allowed the strictures of Martin and his friends to 
pass unnoticed for the reasons given, that I was advised to 
delay my reply to the charges made until after the legal dis- 
pute between the parties had been settled. 
Mr. Martin has traded upon the fact that a mistake was 
made and that I admitted the mistake; and he has deliber- 
ately accused me of fraud, although he had and could have 
no proof. It is enough for me to state the true facts as they 
occurred, which I have done as shortly and succinctly as 
possible. I leave the case in the hands of the public and ask 
that in their judgment I be relieved from the charges of fraud 
and dishonesty, which have been cast upon me. I also trust 
that outside of the general public my explanation will be 
read with some interest by the members of the Advisory 
Committee of the A. K. C. Geo. Bell 
Pointer Club Meeting. 
• Editor Forest and Stream: 
The meeeing of the Pointer Club of America, held at the 
office of the American Kennel Club, July 23, was convened 
by the board of governors pursuant to Article 4 of the new 
Constitution, President Wise in the chair and with the 
us nal quorum present. 
A resolution was offered by Mr. Webster, seconded and 
carried, that hereafter no prizes offered by the Pointer Club 
of America shall be considered accepted unless due acknowl- 
edgment shall have been received by the secretary of the 
Pointer Club from the secretary of such club to which the 
prizes have been offered; further, nor will any such prizes be 
paid by the Pointer Club unless a written certificate of the 
names of the winning dog or dogs shall have been furnished 
by the secretary of such club to the secretary of the Pointer 
Club, by the owner. 
The object of this resolution is to facilitate the payment of 
all prizes, and that the club may have official certificates on 
file as a record of the club's efforts to encourage the breed- 
ing of the pointer. 
It was also resolved that owing to the adoption of the new 
constitution and by-laws, which extends the time of pay- 
ment of the annual dues of the members to Feb. 1, 1895/which 
necessarily cuts off the income of the club for several months, 
and also on account of the recent heavy payment of prizes 
amounting to $150, the club will be unable to donate any 
prizes to the Rhode Island State Fair Association, as re- 
quested, or any other club during the fall circuit. The club 
then adjourned. 
The club has a very flattering membership, and the efforts 
the club will make in the future to hold together its mem- 
bers and encourage them in breeding the pointer will be 
such as to merit, and it is believed will receive, the sup- 
port of all pointer men. F. S. Webstek, Sec'y. 
New York, July 24. 
Mr. J. C. Mahler of Avalon, Pa., has bred his noted bull- 
terrier bitch Lady Dinah to champion Streatham Monarch, 
and in another month this Pittsburgh fancier should be 
proud of the litter. He has sold his brood bitch Ruby Parker 
to Mr. L. Fabor, Allegheny, Pa. 
POINTS AND FLUSHES. 
\By a Staff Correspondent.] 
From Capt. C. E McMurdo I received the following inter- 
esting and instructive letter on the working qualities of dogs 
afield and in competition. It is sound Writing, as are all of 
Capt. McMurdo's writings. His great experience and keen 
observation of details make them specially valuable. He 
writes: 
"When I came to see in print the little story I sent you 
some time ago, about the working out of a stubble field by 
a high and a low class dog, I found that I had omitted a 
very important part of it, viz: that when the former came 
within some thirty yards of the spot where the latter was 
still pottering he wheeled round in a semi-circle and estab- 
lished a splendid point. However, it ia too late now to 
correct my error. 
"Talking of high class dogs, why do not you give us a 
definition of one ? It is just as necessary that there should 
be an established standard for the guidance of field trial as 
for bench show judges. Every intelligent breeder of field- 
trial dogs must have a standard; and if, after breeding 
puppies that pretty well come up to it, he goes to the ex- 
pense of having them trained and run in field trials only to 
find that the opinion of the judges does not correspond with 
his own, what satisfaction are field trials to. him? I am 
perfectly convinced, from remarks I have heard made and 
from decisions given, that some of the men who are sup- 
posed to know all about dogs can't spot a low-class dog 
when they see him. They know that speed, rauge and a 
good nose are characteristics of high-class dogs, but that is 
about all that tshey do know. They can not judge bird work 
correctly, but evidently think more of the number of points 
made than of the way they are made, and don't cut dirty 
work. 
"These are the men who help to spread the erreneous idea 
that the best field trialers are the best shooting dogs. 
"Who wants to shoot over dogs that range all over the 
country, and don't find half the game they ought to do? 
"What every sportsman does want are dogs that he can 
shoot over with comfort, ones that can range properly, and 
when they strike the scent of distant game (for instance) can 
locate it quickly and accurately, without pottering or false 
pointing— this is the sort of work that especially marks the 
difference between a high and a low class dog. 
"Pedigrees don't make high class dogs. We only breed 
one now and again. We get lots that have some high class 
qualities, but are weak in one or two respects, and conse- 
quently have to be condemned as field trialers. Those that 
are only weak as regards ranging make excellent shooting 
dogs for hunting in a close country. Wide ranging is the 
only quality that is not absolutely necessary in a shooting 
dog. Some men do not want wide ranging dogs. 
"There is another thing that has sometimes occurred that 
may have helped to account for the poor opinion some have 
. of field trialers. Sometimes partially trained dogs have won 
at field trials on account of their great natural qualities, their 
want of thorough training being overlooked. Whether this 
was right or wrong is a matter of opinion. No club rules 
that I remember direct the judges to insist upon thorough 
- training. 
"Depend upon it, the best field trialer will always make 
the best shooting dog, but of course he must be thoroughly 
trained. 
"As regards retrieving, that is a very small matter. Every 
such dog can be taught to retrieve in a short time, but some 
men don't know how to do it." 
In respect to what constitute a good working dog afield, 
no one is better qualified in every way to describe it than is 
Capt. McMurdo. I have another letter from him which will 
be given later on and which also contains sound suggestions 
for field trial supporters. 
There is no doubt but what speed alone has been greatly 
overrated, and there is no doubt but what a dog can hunt 
too fast as well as too slow. It is an extreme exception when 
a dog is hunting, going at his highest speed. Some speedy 
dogs continually pick out the smoothest and easiest going, 
though they may keep near enough to likely places to have 
the appearance of earnest seeking for game. When they 
succeed in finding, it is mostly in such open ground or thin 
cover that it makes. a pretty scene, and a favorable impres- 
sion on the spectators. Such dogs are not first-rate finders, 
but they save themselves from any brier scratches or rough 
usage in close cover. They never hunt their ground out 
thoroughly and in actual field shooting make a day of toil 
for the shooter instead of a pleasant one. Still the spectacu- 
lar style of going, the seeming superiority of a find at 500yds. 
over one of 200yds., the high speed which, theoretically, must 
result in more finds because it results in covering more 
ground, are all more or less gratuitously credited to 
the fast dog. Long experience has demonstrated that the 
fast dog is rarely a finished performer. Half breaking such 
dogs helps greatly to conceal natural imperfections, for 
what then appear to be errors from imperfect breaking may 
really be errors from natural incompetency. The dog being 
under imperfect control, it is impossible for any one, except 
a novice, to determine a half-broken dog's capabilities. How 
often have such half-broken dogs shown apparent high-class 
qualities, and when a better training was given them the 
high-class possibilities proved spurious? There is no con- 
tention here that a fast dog may not be a first-class dog in 
every respect; but I do question the high-class quality of a 
half-broken dog when there is "little else to his credit but 
speed. The fast dog may have all the functional imperfec- 
tions of a slow dog. His nose may be dull, his judgment 
poor, with an inclination to hunt for himself more than to 
hunt for the gun, yet it all has the appearance of high-class 
possibilities that the errors may be condoned on the score of 
imperfect breaking. 
The diligent dog~ which hunts out his ground thoroughly, 
working out intelligently the likely places, with little or no 
prompting from his handler, maybe a far superior finder and 
much more satisfactory one to shoot over than his speedy 
rival. If he works intelligently to the gun, there then is no 
comparison between the two. 
It should be borne in mind that a dog with great speed and 
little brains— commonly called rattle-headed — is quite as 
likely to transmit his mental deficiency as he is to transmit 
his speed. That many unfortunate mistakes have been made 
in breeding to the dog whose sole recommendation was his 
high speed, there is no doubt. Greater mistakes have been 
made in breeding to his brother, perhaps inferior in every 
desirable quality of field work, but having the one accident 
of being brother to a fast dog. 
There may be harmful extremes in speed as in almost 
everything else, and there are undoubtedly mistakes in rating 
a dog's merit by giving speed a value above all other quali- 
ties. The dog which has speed enough to beat out a reason- 
able range and keep ahead of his handler, guiding his efforts 
by his handler's speed and course, taking advantage of the 
wind aud beating out the ground intelligently, working 
skillfully to the gun, will show, if he have a good nose, better 
results by far at the end of a day's shooting. His diligent, 
all-day manner of hunting may not be so catchy as that of a 
speedier dog which may be running a large part of the time 
without seeking for birds. In short, there is need of more 
'plug-shooting" admixture in the dog which chiefly soars. 
„ m . „ B. Waters. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
Three years' undisturbed possession of a setter dog will 
destroy the veracity of the best man in America.— Texas 
Sipmgs. 
DOG CHAT. 
A case that has a bearing on a similar one that occurred at 
the late Specialty show has just been decided by the English 
Kennel Club. The Rev. T. Nolan exhibited a Skye terrier, 
Tackley Roy, and Mr. Young another named Little Dombey. 
First prize in the winners' class was given to Little Dombey 
and second to Tackley Roy, but the judge reversed their 
order on the same dogs again competing together in the open 
class, and on it being explained to him said he had awarded 
first to Tackley Roy in both classes, and thereupon got back 
his slip and altered it, although it had not only been handed 
in but after the awards had been made public on the board 
in the evening. Mr. Nolan argued that of course it was a 
slip of the pen on the judge's part by his inadvertently put- 
ting down first to 839 instead of 838, and asked if the club 
seriously accepted the rule that every slip of the pen must 
stand as originally written in the judge's book, because in 
this instance, by this same rule, first in the limit class must 
go to 832, a dog that was absent from the show, because the 
judge originally put down the prize to 832 instead of 828, and 
was only corrected on its being pointed out. The committee 
decided that a judge could correct any mistake he might 
make on his judging slip while it was in his possession, but 
not afterward; and the committee, while deeply regretting 
the error on the part of the judge, decided that the award 
must stand. We have no rule that directly covers this point 
other than that the judge's decision is final in all cases 
affecting the merits of the dogs, etc., etc. Our judges are, 
as a rule, very careful in the above respect, but we have come 
across a few instances where the original awards have been 
changed, and in the case alluded to at the Specialty show we 
drew attention to the awards in the fox-terrier puppy class, 
where the judge's original awards had been altered in his 
book but not on the steward's slip, which had already gone 
to the board and the cards had been tacked up according to 
the original placing, and so stood to the end of the show. It 
is well to draw attention to these matters, so that judges and 
exhibitors may be more careful in future. 
While on this subject we may as well allude to the con- 
fusing practice of some shows where novice and puppy classes 
are provided, of giving a dog entered in open, novice and 
puppy classes following number *. This is confusing both to 
the public, the men who have to bring the dogs into the 
ring— leading to much delay as the dog is generally benched 
according to his open class number, and to those who have to 
report the shows. The one -dog-one-number system is by far 
the best and simplest for every one, judges as well. 
We have been asked as to what we alluded in referring to 
Nolan, "the hero of the dog box journey," in our account of 
the New York Dog Shelter. Nolan, who is well known to 
those who exhibit frequently at our shows, wished to go to 
the Detroit show after Washington last year, but the "ways 
and means" were difficult. One exhibitor, whose name we 
need not mention, had several large crates containing his 
great Danes, and a solution of the difficulty was soon found 
when it was suggested that he ride in one of these. Nolan 
was forthwith "crated" and shipped on the cars, traveling 
with the other "jolly dogs" at excess baggage rates. Sus- 
tenance was surreptitiously conveyed to him as occasion 
offered, and he was landed at Detroit right side up. After 
working as attendant there during the show he was then 
billed for Indianapolis show, which took place the week 
after, and the same tactics were resorted to as before, and he 
arrived at his destination little the worse for wear. Our 
Sunday paper special writers have given us accounts of their 
experiences in many strange roles, but no one has yet had 
the temerity to attempt such a journey as this must have 
been. Washington to Detroit is about 800 miles, and Detroit 
to Indianapolis is about 500 miles, so one can imagine that 
while Mr. Nolan's ambition was not cramped his limbs must 
have been. 
Those who are interested in Dr. Cook's party of hunters 
and scientists who sailed for Greenland on the Miranda at 
the beginning of this month, will regret to learn that owing 
to an argument with an iceberg two days after she left St. 
Johns, N. F., in which the vessel came off second best, they 
were compelled to return to St. John for repairs. This led 
to an alteration in some of the travelers' plans, and several 
of them left the vessel and proceeded to Upper Labrador by 
the mail steamer, for the hunting and fishing, accompany- 
ing Professor Hite's party as far as Hamilton Inlet. In the 
Upper Labrador party is Mr. R. D. Perry, the well known 
fox hunter and member of the Brunswick Fur Club, who is 
making his second trip to these new hunting grounds. 
The Wellman North Pole expedition is reported to have 
met with disaster. Their ship Ragnvald Jarl and all on 
board are reported lost. We trust that such may not be the 
case. The expedition was interesting to dogmen and others 
on account of Mr. Wellman's predilection^ for the Belgian 
draught dogs in preference to the Esquimaux sledgers that 
previous explorers have been contented with. This is a phase 
of the expedition in the outcome of which we felt particu- 
larly interested, and reports state that at last accounts the 
only trouble Mr. Wellman had experienced was with these 
dogs, several of which he had lost. 
Field trial men should remember that the entries for the 
All- Aged Stake of the Manitoba Field Trials Club close Aug. 
15, and the secretary, Mr. Gallaugher, would remind intend- 
ing competitors to send in their entries as early as possible, so 
that all may be in readiness for their trials on Sept. 5. 
We have received several inquiries lately for the names of 
bull-terrier and great Dane breeders. It would be good 
policy on the part of the breeders of such dogs if they would 
give a little more publicity to their doings. A "Kennel 
Special" will serve the purpose. 
Mr. T. W. Zimmerman sends us a charming photograph of 
puppy character in the picture of ten English setter puppies, 
the survivals of the fittest from an original thirteen. They 
are by Rowdy Rod out of ITno Z., a three-year- old bitch that 
Mr. Zimmerman avers is the best field bitch he ever shot 
over. Lno Z. is by Marquis Noble ex Vic. Every one knows 
who Rowdy Rod is. We welcome all puppy pictures; they 
are usually natural and free from the stilted and strained 
positions so many of the older dogs are made to assume by 
their anxious, not to say ambitious, owners, and through 
which expression and identity are in a great measure lost. 
Several letters on the Beagle, English setter and other sub- 
jects are held over until next week. 
Mr. J, F. Stoddard of Georgetown, N. Y., has bought the 
well known beagle Tricotrin from the Hornell-Harmony 
Kennels of Covert, N. Y. "Trie" is a good dog but apt to 
get himself up a little too gaily at times. Mr. Stoddard's 
Minnie K. whelped, July 19, half a dozen to champion Royal 
Krueger. 
Although Kingston, Ont., will not have a show this year, 
Kingston fanciers do not mean to be forgotten, as Mr. McK. 
Robertson will show his cockers, C. Y. Ford several collies 
and T. Carson his Irish water spaniels at the coming Toronto 
show. 
The recent action of the Louisiana Legislature authoriz- 
