I 
FOREST AND STREAM. t^iio. 1897. 
154 
FIELD TRIALS AND FIELD TRIAL 
JUDGES.-II. 
^ Tde field trial kicker's private grievance, when he gave it 
a public airing, which was not an infrequent occurrence, 
was always on a broad ground. Privately, it was between 
himself and the judges or the mauagement. Publicly, it was 
on the general corruption of field trials, of which his own 
grievance was but a sample, and this was backed by an 
affectation of great honesty aDd candor; so that it was easy 
for the reader to believe that field trial gatherings were but 
an aggregation of dishonest persons. The kicker laid great 
stress on the fact that he had very honestly paid in his 
money, seeming to tbink that thereby he had made a pur- 
chase instead of merely qualifying to compete. Paying in 
his money, he had only done what others did. "While there 
might be losers, they should be the some other than the 
kicker. It never occurred to him that in denouncing field 
trials as being conducted dishonestly, he raised the question, 
why, believing them to be dishonest, he took any part in 
them? He denounced only when he lost. It is easy to conceive 
that there should be grumblers, kickers, cranks and unscru- 
pulous ranters hanging on to the outer edges of field trial 
interests; but that the public should attach any importance 
to their ill-tempered and prejudiced publications is not so 
aasily understood. 
The real field trial workers and genuine supporters are so 
silent in their efforts that the outside world never knows 
much of them. They are not of the kickers. Most of peo- 
ple consider field trials as being a business venture of some 
vague kind. The field trial club has all the machinery of a 
business organization. It has its officer who attends to the 
correspondence, and its officer who is custodian of its funds. 
It takes in and pays out money. It seems to be a business 
body. Although tens of thousands of dollars have passed 
through the hands of field trial clubs in the past few years, 
field trial chibs, nevertheless, are not money makers, nor are 
they intended to be such. Each member pays his annual 
dues, and the best he can hope for in a financial way is that 
he will not be called on to pay an assessment. All the mon- 
ies taken in for entry and starting fees, and all the clubs' 
revenues besides, go toward paying the prizes and the inci- 
dental expenses of the trials. 
A trial is a success if it comes out even financially. Often 
it does not do so, then the club may do one of several things 
— it may run another year or two in hopes of retrieving its 
losses; it may disband and go out of existence, or it may 
levy an assessment on its members and thus make good the 
deficit. There are few club memberships which will stand 
an assessment There is no very good reason why they should 
do so. Organized to promote good fellowship among sports- 
men, and to establish a competition which would afford an 
opportunity to breeders to exhibit their best productions on 
the one hand, and others an opportunity to see the best that 
could be produced, a certain element, disappointed at not 
winning, publicly scoff and vilify instead of praising, while 
those who do appreciate the good work are apathetic in their 
expression of appreciation. 
Without field trials, there would be occupation for but a 
limited number of dog trainers, and that at very low prices 
for their work. There would be a less demand for good 
dogs, and a good dog would need to be sold at a cheap fig- 
ure, as there would be no means of demonstrating to the 
public his excellence. 
The financial and general business responsibility assumed 
by a field trial club is much greater than the public knows 
or imagines. First of all, it must have a secretary who 
understands the business affairs of field trials, an expert man 
who is popular with sportsmen ; tactful, industrious, and 
with som^e genuine enthusiasm of his own. A club may 
secure such a man for nothing, or it may have to pay him a 
salary ; it is a matter where the personal equation is supreme 
Some clubs have paid as high as .$500 a year to the secretary, 
but it is a ruinous sum to take out of the club's revenues, 
and of itself is certain to produce financial embarrassment 
in time. Clubs cannot pay such salaries now and live. 
There are always certain incidental expenses connected with 
the secretary's office which add from $50 to $100 to the ex- 
pense account, such as printing the rules, programmes, entry 
blanks; then there is the expense of postage, stationery and 
advertising the trials. A large area of ground must be rented 
for a preserve, and this may cause an additional expense of 
$100 or $300. Judges must be engaged, and their railroad fare, 
hotel bills and hor^e hire is a sum of no mean importance. 
Much is accomplished by the clubs through personal in- 
fluence, which could not be accomplished as a mere matter 
of dollars and cents, and of this is the engaging of judgss 
and grounds. 
A good deal of executive ability is necessary to manage a 
field trial club's affairs, and no little prestige on the part of 
its members is necessary to make its competition possible. 
* However, the time of the trial arrives, and a few of the com- 
petitors seem to think they have conferred a decided favor to 
the club by entering at all. They are quick to take offense; 
quick lo see trickery where there is only honest openness, 
and ready to denounce everything on the authority of their 
own prejudices, or their own disappointments. There is, as 
has been slated herein before, a sterling and substantial class 
of sportsmen, who quietly support field trials, who take 
either success or failure as a part of the competition, as it is 
proper they should do. Were all the competitors of the 
brawling or malignant sort which some writings would seem 
to indicate, it is more than probable that the last field trial 
has been run. The kicker, while noisy and active, is but a 
very insignificant part of the whole. 
It will thus be seen that guaranteeing some thousands of 
dollars in purses for competition with a reasonable certainty 
of losing and no possibility to gain, puts a face on the mat- 
ter which few people have ever considered. The field ti'ial 
members trust entirely to what support may be offered to 
pay the prizes. If a competitor should so magnify his dis- 
appointment as to exaggerate it into a grievance, or if he 
really have cause for a grievance, the thousand benefits he 
receives and has received directly and indirectly should be 
considered before he launches his troubles before the 
world. 
Let us suppose now that the competitors were disappointed, 
and kicked so hard and withdrew so much support that 
every field trial club quit and disbanded. Who would be 
the losers? The members of the clubs? No, for they could 
still have sport with dog and gun, and while they might miss 
a little pleasure, they vfouid save a great deal in dues, and 
care and time — for they give time in attending club meetings, 
. managing the trials, etc. Would the handlers and breeders 
lose anyttiing if field trials were ended? If they stop lo 
think a moment they should easily perceive the answei 
The Quarantine for Dogs. 
We hear, though not officially, that the Board of Agricul- 
ture is likely to make certain modiflcal ions with regard to 
the quarantine regulations for dogs which come into force on 
Sept. 15 next. The full text of the order has appeared in our 
columns, and its extreme inutility and foolishness have al- 
ready been pointed out. When notice of the thing first ap- 
peared, it seemed to have attracted little attention, perhaps 
the general public did not believe it would ever come into 
operation. They know differently now, and although it has 
been explained how hard such restrictions as the order en- 
forces will be, so far as exhibitors to continental dog shows 
and field trials are concerned, the arrangements will be even 
more obnoxious to those wno, traveling on the Conti- 
nent, are in the habit of taking their pet dogs 
with them. The justness of the grievances of the 
latter appear to have suddenly dawned upon the Board 
of Agriculture officials, who, we are told, intend to 
issue a special license to those who seek such a thing and 
who wish to take their dog or dogs abroad for a time. This 
will probably be granted on a statement being made on 
application as to where the dog is to be taken. On the re- 
turn the dogs will be allowed to land and to proceed to their 
owner's destination or residence, muzzled and under control. 
The muzzling and control will have to be continued for a 
period of three months. At the end of that tiine, on the pro- 
duction of a veterinary surgeon's certificate of health, the 
dog or dogs will then be allowed to go free, or, at any rate, 
be treated in the same manner as other dogs in the locality. 
These so-called exemptions will apply equally to show dog?, 
but, so far as they are concerned, the "quarantine at home" 
will prevent them being exhibited in England during the 
three months subsequent to their appearance on the conti- 
nent. 
We are yet unable to find any reason at all for these quar- 
antine regulations, and the suggested modifications thereof, 
as usual, are completely one-sided, and thus incomplete. In 
what ways they are so need not be stated here. As already 
pomted out by us, the Continental dog shows will suff'ei- 
from the absence of English exhibitors, so will the field trials, 
an international society for which has been recently formed, 
and, moreover, those masters of otter hounds, who have oc- 
casionally taken their packs over to hunt fresh waters in 
Brittany and elsewhere on the continent, will be debarred 
from doing so unless they be contented on their return to 
keep their hounds in quarantine for the remainder of the 
season. — Field {London). 
The Continental Field Trial Club. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The citizens of Brown's Valley are determined to entertain 
those attending the amateur events of the Continental Field 
Trial Club, i. e., the Minnesota Derby and the Northwestern 
Cup Slake, which are to be run at Brown's Yalley, Aug. 25. 
A letter just received from there reports a good crop of young 
chickens, and that the warden is out all the time in the sec- 
tion to be used for the trials. This action on the part of the 
citizens of Brown's Valley will undoubtedly insure chickens 
in abundance to run the trials to a successful conclusion. In 
this same letter we have an invitation to bring our guns along, 
as every day of the meeting a trap shoot will be given during 
the noon recess on the grounds of the Brown's Valley Gun 
Club, open to all comers; nobody barred; everybody wel- 
come — therefore bring your guns and have a good lime. My 
informant thus closes his letter: "We will tiy and make it 
pleasant for the whole party." 
Mr. S. A. Smart, local secretary in St. Paul, advises me 
that there are twenty-two entries for the Northwestern Cup, 
and that he is making arrangements for a special train to 
leave St. Paul Monday evening, the SBd inst , arriving at 
Brown's Valley Tuesday morning, 24th, thus arriving one 
day before the trials begin. 
These trials have excited much interest and a good attend- 
ance is expected. The hotel and livery accommodations are 
good, with prices reasonable. W. B. Bell. 
POINTS AND FLUSHES. 
Mr. Judson 8. Newing, Binghamton, N. Y., in a letter 
da'.ed Aug. 9, writes us as follows: "Having been appointed 
secretary of the bench show committee, 1 wish to state that 
we will give a special to every breed of dogs exhibited at our 
coming show, Aug. 81 to Sept. 3 inclusive. Also, we will 
spare no pains to make the show attractive. Every dog sent 
will be well cared for and returned promptly. Although a 
little late, we intend to have the best show we have ever 
had." 
Communicatiorui for this department are requested. Anything on 
the bicycle in its relation to the sportsman is particularly desirable 
GOOD ROADS. 
The value of good roads has been mathematically shown 
to be of greater value to the people at large, than has until 
recently been imagined. And still the people at large rarely 
consider the matter in a commercial sense. One generation 
rides and walks and labors over the same roads which served 
for its ancestors, without giving a thought to their improve- 
ment or to the losses entailed by their unfitness. Be they 
muddy or rough, rocky or hilly,narrow or tilled, lifelong habit 
reconciles the users to their difficulties and to the losses they 
entail; the matter of taking energetic action andj-ebuilding 
the old, so that it would be the best possible with the 
material at hand, never originates with the local users of 
the bad roads. 
Good roads multiply many times the commercial value of 
any locality. In the matter of time, good roads place 
towns nearer to ihe outlying farming districts, for a distance 
which would require Iwo hours to travel over on a bad road 
may be made in one hour on a gend road. The value of a 
team and a team's services are greatly Increased where there 
^re good roads, for the team can haul a very much heavier 
load on a good road ; the wear and tear is much less on team 
and wagon, and not being subjected then to such severe 
labor a team can be kept on less food. Horses driven on 
good roads are less subject to the numerous diseases of feet 
and limbs that affict horses which are driven on bad ones. 
Bills for blacksmithing are reduced; wagons la it longer; 
property increases in value, and the making of a livelihood is 
easier where good roads are. 
The ceaseless agilation of good roads and the energetic 
efforts of thousands of wheelmen throughout the United 
States for the establishment of them, is looked upon by the 
unthinking as simply and purely a selfish measure. They 
look upon the wheelman as a being who desires the public 
to build fine highways, so that he may ride comfortably 
and pleasantly on them at public expense. They fail to lake 
the broad and sensible view that a road good in itself, if 
good for one person to ride on is good for all others. Also 
that what is apparently a dude on a wheel may be an able, 
responsible man in business. The wheelmen are largely of 
the intelligent, thinking and busy part of the community, 
and when on a wheel the man is not fulfilling his life work 
he is but taking bis recreation. In striving for good roads, 
so that he and his brethren may ride in comfort, he is striv- 
ing for the common good as well, and being a taxpayer he 
has a right to ask a hearing. Every piece of good road that 
he is instrumental in building is a benefit to the community 
at large. The people who walk, or who ride in carriages, or 
who toil with draught horses over the roads in moving the 
world's production of food or manufacture, owe a debt of 
gratitude to the wheelmen, who have done so much in the 
cause of good roads and good road building. 
THOUGHTS I THINK. 
New Yoek. — Editor Forest and Stream: The gentleman 
who is happily favored by being the escort to a lady awheel, 
will find that there are many more responsibilities in this 
position than when he is an escort afoot, and that an infinite • 
degree of tact is necessary to avoid misunderstandings. 
Having the control of the wheel in her own hands, and being j 
frt quently forced to act quickly by the ever-changing com- 
binations of passing vehicles, she will many times need ' 
advising or promoting so that the easiest course may betaken 
or danger m^iy be avoided. But if the escort be unskillful as I 
an adviser either by advising loo frequently or by using 
words which imply command, where only suggestion was 
intended, the odds are a thousand to one that the fair lady 
will immediatly dart into all available dangers, with the 
utmost calmness and airy disregard of them, while the escort 
feels a hair-raising apprehension as to the outcome, coinci- 
dent with a solemn resolution that he will never offer 
another suggestion. The majority of acccidents ate caused 
by riding into dangers with deliberation, either from bad i 
judgment, inattention to the surroundings or an apathetic 
disregard of consequences. 
The bi-sexual wheel, called a tandem, has some distinct 
advantages over Ihe bicycle. It is generally a high-geared 
mechanism. The lady feels the exhilaration of going swiftly 
and imagines that she is pedaling the machine herself, while 
the gentleman steals more rights of way and takes more 
liberties with the laws of the road because the lady is with 
him. Every gentleman rider defers to a lady, even though 
she trundle her wheel directly in front of him to mount it, 
or if she take the wrong side of the road in passing, or if she 
dismount 3ft. in front of him, and all this for her sake; but 
for his own sake it is best to keep out of the way of an 
electric car and a lady on a tandem. 
Cable cars and electric cars ride on wheels, and usage has 
decreed that they shall have the right of way. Bicyclist in 
passing cars should turn to the right or left. It is considered 
bad form to go straight on. 
The law limits the diameter of bicycle bells to Sin. or less, 
but this does not apply to belles on a tandem. 
A cross-eyed man should not ride with ram's horn handle 
bars on a straight street. 
Notwithstanding the recent decision of Judge Tooley, of 
Illinois, in substance that the tax of $1 imposed by the city 1 
of Chicago on each bicycle owned in that city was uncon- 
stitutional, many resident owners are paying the tax. 
When you observe that a lady is very warm after a fast i 
ride on a warm day, never tell her that she is sweating. Tell : 
her that she perspires. Men, mules, horses and cats sweat, 
but a lady— never. -The Idlbb. 
As the yachting journal of America, the Forest and Stream tsthe^ 
recognized medium of communication between the maker of yachts- 
men's supplies and the yachting public. Its value for advertising 
has been demonstrated by patrons vjho have employed its columns* 
continuously for years. > 
Copies of the Forest and Stream race report blanks, for recording 
and reporting racrs, ivill be sent to all clubs requesiing them. 
Tlie racing and measurement rules of the Yach Racing U/t'ion &f 
Long Island Sound (the Seatvanhaka rule, tvith alloimncn; tabl^s\ 
can be had of Thompson <& Co , 55 Dey street, New York;: prica M 
cents per copy. 
The hanubooh of Yacht Flag Etiquette'^ can be hadofBehmt& 
Co., 157 Fulton street, New York; price 10 cents per copy. 
The annual cruise of the New York Y. C. may be consid- 
ered a success, as the distance laid out was covered within 
the prescribed time; this distance being greater than in any; 
previous cruise of the club. Apart from this fact, there isi 
very little to say. 
As far as the fleet at large is concerned, the cruise bene- 
fited the members very little, there were but three squadrons 
runs: to New London, Newport and Vineyard Haven; but 
one lay day, if the Goelet cup day can be properly called 
such, and for the' great majority of owners, the sailing menj 
in particular, the annual cruise of 1897 was crowded into thq 
short space between Tuesday morning and Friday night. 
The failure of tue first race, for the vice-commodore's cups, 
was an accident for which no one was responsible, thougL 
the point of rendezvous, at the extreme west end of the 
Sound, invites such a mishap as a flat calm. The first twc 
squadron runs brought out some twenty-five yachts in thfc 
