150 
being always an accomplished trial lawyer, but naturally 
I thought Cockrell had made a greater one. Half of the 
jurors were our clients, who had never failed us on pre- 
vious trials when we had half a cliance for a verdict. 
The court adjourned after Cockrell's speech, which we 
then tkought was a favorable omen, as he had made such 
a speech as the jury could retire on. as the more it was 
weighed the more strong points there were to be consid- 
ered by the jurors. 
"We little thought, then, what was to follow. We little 
knew where Vest would strike and how he would strike 
us. Those of us who knew Vest well always considered 
him dangerous in a court-house, in any kind of a trial, 
even when appearing most listless, as behind his smiles, 
his jokes and apparent indiflference there was then a 
gathering of the lightning, a gathering of the forces, 
which would when ready strike down and sweep every- 
thing before it. He was always naturally prepared for 
any kind of a case, and if there were any case in which he 
would be better prepared than any other, in feeling and 
passion, it would be a dog case. No lawyer was ever at 
himself more in a court-house than Vest in any kind of 
a trial. There never was a crisis in the trial of a case for 
which he was not prepared7'with the law. with the facts, 
with coolness and eloquence, turning almost certain de- 
feat into complete victory. Vest was in a hard contested 
trial in a court-house, as was Luxemburg, the great 
French general, on a battlefield, striking with the great- 
est force just at the right spot, at the right time, when 
least expected, and when defeat seemed most apparent 
and victory the least probable. He was a great lawyer in 
all kinds of cases, winning jiidges and jurors by his gen- 
eralship and unsurpassed eloquence. In those days Vest 
had a deep blue eye that was irresistible, that was win- 
ning, that was fascinating, and a voice as musical as a 
chime from cathedral bells and as sweet as distant mur- 
murs of flowing waters. I have often heard Vest, but 
never have I heard from his lips, nor from those of any 
other man. as graceful, as impetuous and as eloquent a 
speech as that before the jury on that beautiful September 
morn, after he had the night in which to digest the facts, to 
weave his thoughts into the most wonderful bouquets of 
musical words, and to recall from history all the in- 
stances when and where dogs had displayed intelligence 
and fidelity to man, quoting more lines of history and 
poetry about them than I had ever supposed had been 
written, capping the monument he had erected of splen^ 
did words in brilliant sentences as lulling as the hum of 
bees in apple blossoms, by quotations from the Bible, of 
dogs soothing the sores of Lazarus, from Byron: "Tis 
sweet to hear the watch dog's honest bark;' from Scott: 
'The hound's deep hate and huntsman ire,' and from 
Motley's graphic description of how the fidelity of a 
dog had prevented the capture of William of Orange by 
the Duke of Alva. 
"It was as perfect and grand a piece of oratory as was 
ever heard from pulpit or bar. Court, jury, bar and 
audience were entranced, were lost, were won. I looked 
at the jury and saw all were in tears, especially W. O. 
Ming, the foreman, who wept copiously, as one who had 
lost his last and best friend. I said to Cockrell we were 
defeated; Drum had won, though dead, and we had bet- 
ter get out of the court-house with our client, else all 
would be hung. The victory was complete on this trial, 
as we thought, but our client urged an appeal to the 
Supreme Court, which was taken, and that court said, in 
the opinion written by Judge Bliss, soth Mo., page 228, 
'The case should have stopped there.' 
"I presume," added Gov. Crittenden, "that distant 
court must have felt the vibrations of that wonderful 
speech when being made by one of Missouri's greatest 
orators. Drum has been canonized by that speech in that 
part of Missouri, and when Vest left the court-house even 
the dogs of the village seemed to have gathered around 
him in their love, and followed him as their friend to the 
hotel. Some of the greatest .speeches ever made in Mis- 
souri have been made in Warrensburg by Benton, by 
Green, by Doniphan, by Brown, by Blair, by Hender- 
son, by Peyton, by Phillips, but never was a greater one 
heard by those people than that from Vest on Drum." 
times since, once being washed ashoffe by a toiiihg wave. 
This is not regular beagle WOfk. 
The work instinct Will hardly explain these actions, and 
there has been Ho training. In these three instances this 
animal was placad among circumstances new to him and 
did what plainly oiight to be done. He doesn't always 
do it, but neither do men. He thinks a lit le sometimes, 
B. C. BiRol. 
Deeds, Not Words. 
Ovid, N. Y., Feb. 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
own a beagle, Jack, black, white and tan, three years old, 
closely related to King Bannerman on his father's side, 
and on his mother's side to Dinah, an animal with human 
eyes. After carefully considering his faults — for he has 
a few — and eliminating from the judgment as much as 
possible the affection which a faithful servant is wont to 
inspire, I hold the opinion that "he is a good dog," and, 
what is usually denied in dogs, that he thinks a bit. 
Don't we often judge a man's reasoning ability by 
what he does when anything occurs to which he is un- 
accustomed? Why not apply the practice to dogs? 
This dog is an unusual coward. But he fought, strenu- 
ously, with another dog simply because this other dog 
tried to secure praise and petting to which he was not 
entitled. Here was robbery. It could only be stopped by 
actions which entailed suffering. He suffered in defense 
of a principle. Most men won't do it. 
He usually hunts alone with me. Recently he ran a 
rabbit in company with two fox hounds. These two 
dogs soon lost the trail, but Jack followed it, overtook 
the game, exhausted by running in soft snow, killed it 
far from my sight and hearing, and then carried it a 
quarter-mile to the place where he last saw me. Was 
this done that his master and partner should share the 
victory to the exclusion of the others, or was it to show 
what he had done that seemed praiseworthy? 
Ordinarily his first work when the rabbit is killed is to 
secure a hot lunch. Did he think? 
His regular business, needless to say, is rabbits. When 
they are scarce we hunt ducks, stalk them along shore, 
running when they dive to feed, dropping in concealment 
when they come to the surface. My dog will run when 
I run, stop with me and come to my place of hiding. Fre- 
quently I crawl several rods on my stomach. Then he 
follows stealthily behind, coming to me when I motion 
toward the ground. When I run to the shore to shoot, he 
rushes to the water's edge and barks joyously. No need 
to repress emotions longer. One January day a year ago 
he swam oy,*^ ^nd retrieve^ S d"ck, aiiid has dpnc so oi8l»y 
Gordon Setter Oub. 
The ammal meeting of the Gofdoft Sfei)ef Ciub. df 
.\merica will be held. at Madisotl Stjuai'e Oardeh, NeW 
York Dog Show, on Feb. M, tgdi. at 8 P. M,, for the 
election of officefs, and such other Dusiftess as rilay cortie 
up. L. A. Van ^andt, Sec'y. 
Points And Fttishes. 
Mr, H, H. Hutltiewell, Jr., Secretary of the Aiiieficiln 
Fox Terrier Club, has issued a notice to the dub mem- 
bers as follows : • 
You are hereby notified that the annual meeting of the 
American Fox Terrier Club has been postponed and #ill 
be held at the Madison Square Garden (Weslefltliflster 
Kennel Club Bench Show), Oft Wednesday, feh. 20, at 4 
o'clock, 
A meeting of the Executive Board of the club will be 
held at the same place and immediately following the 
meeting of the club. 
The Westminster Kennel Club's tweijt-y-fifth annual 
Dog Show has 2,125 entries, divided among the different 
breeds as follows: St. Bernards 113, Newfoundlands S, 
Great Danes 88, mastiffs 11. bloodhounds 22. Russian 
wolf hounds 41, deerhounds 14, greyhounds 29, fox 
hounds 14, pointers 108, English setters ill, Irish setters 
39, Gordon setters 21, Griffons 4, Irish, water. Clumber 
and field spaniels 57, cocker spaniels 171. collies I16, old 
English sheep dogs 7, Dalmatians 4, poodles 37, bull dogs 
67, bull terriers 99, Airedale terriers 29, Boston tel'riefs 
167, French bull dogs 67, Basset hounds beagles I16, 
dachshunde 46, fox terriers 148, Irish terriers 78, Scottish 
terriers 48, Black and Tan terriers 23, Welsh terriers 15, 
.Skye terriers 6, Bedlington terriers 4, Yorkshire and toy 
terriers 43, pugs 8, Pomerians 41, toy spaniels 79, mis- 
edlaneous 15; total 2,125. 
Notice. 
All communicatioHB intended for FoitlEST ajcd StUAti should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and 
not to any individual connected with the paper. 
I 
Our Boston Letter. 
Boston, Feb. 17. — Mr. Geo. M. Pynchon, head of the 
syndicate which was formed to build the Canada cup de- 
fender, Illinois, last week gave permission to the press 
to publish the facts concerning his boat. It was not 
through any fixed principle of secrecy that Mr. Pynchon 
was desirous of withholding this information until now, 
for he does not believe in secrecy. It was simply that the 
Canadian challengers were in process of construction, and 
he did not want any information given out which would 
prove injurious to the interests of the Chicago boat. 
The fact that Crowninshield was given the order to 
design this yacht is a further evidence that his designs 
which have been sent to the lakes have found favor among 
the yachtsmen there. It is more than likely that the suc- 
cess of his 25-footer Flirt in Massachusetts waters last 
season and the successful trip of his raceabout. Jolly 
Roger, to the waters of Long Island Sound had much 
to do with his getting this order. In turning out Illinois 
he had to figure his racing length under the girth rule 
and its many handicaps. He studied the rules of measure- 
ment very carefully before drawing a line, and has ex- 
pressed the opinion that the rules were very good all 
around, and were absolutely fair to all. 
In the new boat he has embodied all the principles 
which have been found to be of advantage in producing 
speed in keel boats, but there is nothing radical in any 
of her dimensions. She has the flat floor, but there is not 
nearly as much dead rise as in his 90-footer. She has 
long, but not excessive, overhangs, and will steer with 
the balance rudder, which has been found to be of such 
great value in other racers in smaller classes. 
Her principal dimensions are as follows; Length over 
all, 45ft. 3in. ; length on the waterfme, 28ft. ; extreme 
beam, 9ft. S3^in. ; draft, 6ft. g'm. Her least freeboard is 
2ft., and her girth, under the rule, is 18.8ft. Her frames 
are i]^xi5^in., spaced 9in, on centers amidships and loin. 
at the ends. She will have 6,ooolbs. of lead on her keel. 
She will have a sail spread of 1,348 sq. ft., four-fifths of 
which will be in the mainsail, so that she will be practically 
an enlarged raceabout. She has double planking of 
mahogany, the inner skin ^in. and the ou'er 5^in. Be- 
tween the two skins there is a thick coating of white 
lead. She will be practically flush decked, although -there 
will be two hatches, which will form a kind of covering. 
One of these is of pine, covered with canvas, and will 
be used when racing. The other is mahogany and will 
be used when she is cruising. Both are fastened to the 
deck with clamps. 
The construction of Illinois is now well along at Law- 
ley's. She is all planked and her deck is about laid. Last 
week workmen were busy smoothing up her planking, 
preparatory to giving her the priming coat. She is a very 
slippery looking boat as she lays in the shop, and looks as 
though it would take a lot of hustling to beat her. 
Capt. HaflF, B. B. Crowninshield and Geo. F. Lawley 
had rather a disappointing trip to New York last week. 
They went to City Island, where they hoped to find De- 
fender in such conditioa that it would be practicable to 
fit her out as a trial horse for the Boston Cup defender. 
The result of their visit was that there will be no such 
trifil s^, for tfifl |racht -yy^is in pch p^r condition that 
Mr. Crowninshield said that they would not take her as a 
gift, and Capt. Haff said that he would not risk towing 
her around to Boston, as he thought she would sink 
before she had gone half the distance, 
Mr. Crowninshield said that her alumiiiUtH giatiiig was 
so corroded that he goUid bi^iish it aWay With his harid 
like so iillith Wood ashes, aiid het stritlger jiiates wfere 
so bad that the decayed rrietai could be Jurnea up .with 
the toe of the boot like edriimoh fearth-, . WHeh liiside Hi 
hefi he said, otie fetjjd.lobk.tjifoiip SeVgfai Holes iii hei- top- 
sides ahd see daylig,ht. Htei: loWe.t- plating appeared all 
f-ifht, as did everythihf Sotriposed of bronze and steel 
about her, but Whefe alumihum was used the metal had 
becoihe rotteh. He figured that it would cost at least 
$r6,ooo to put her hull in condition. He said that all she 
was good for now was to be broken up for junk. 
Wotk oil the tiostoti, boat shdilld iji^dgf ess ^^piilf ir^rf\ 
tioW oH. The pasting fpr the stertipost arrived at the At- 
iahtic Works Friday. Saturday night it had been fitted to 
the casting, of the bottom of the keel, and several of the 
holes for the rivets had been bored. The stem casting 
has been fitted and almost all of the rivet holes bored. It 
is expected that by Tuesday the keel will be set up in the 
shop aHd the ■fllGttlal.Work oi constfuetion, startedi . 
. The latest phase IH the Cup defehder BusiHess hks .Befeti 
developed by the statement alleged to have been made by 
Nat Herreshoff that if Billman should rig the Boston boat 
he would not get the contract to rig the Belmont syndicate 
defender, now building at Bristol. This is but one of 
the many little annoying conditions which have con- 
fronted the Boston yachtsmen at different times since the 
yacht was started. 
To the majority of Kew Etiglatid yachtsmeti, sUch a 
proceeding seems small, to say the leasts Those who h.ave 
expressed an opinion have generally eaUed it childish: 
Geo. F. Lawley is alleged to have said that if Sillmaii 
did not rig the Boston defender he WoUld ileyer fig 
another boat at Lawley's yard. . If this statemeilt is trUe 
it has a great significance to Mi". Billmah, as it is well 
known that Lawley stipplles him, with ffloi-e figging thafl 
Hetreshoff oi" aiiy othfei- yacht building concern iii this 
country. Lawley turns out many more boats than Her- 
reshoff during the winter months, and Billman has al- 
ways had the preference in rigging the largest of these. 
It seems really too bad that conservatism should be 
carried to such an extent that it becomes more properly 
known by another name. If Herreshoff wishes to main- 
tain the u most secrecy, the yachtsmen in New England 
have no objeetions, but when it is stated that a man doing 
a general rigging business will lose his contract On one 
boat if he should take a like contract on another, the spirit 
oi fair play, which is dear to evefy American sportsman, 
seems to be getting peculiarly twisted. The Boston peo- 
ple are not desirous of driving Herreshoff out of the Cup 
defender business, blit they do think that their designers 
ahd builders should have representation. 
Billman is credited with being one of the best, if not the 
best, riggers of large racing yachts in this country, and 
his work is much desired by those connected wich the 
Boston boat. But notwithstanding these facts, if Billman 
shows a tendency to be browbeaten by Herreshoff, they 
will find some one else to do the work. There are plenty 
of riggers around Boston who would be glad of the oppor- 
tunity of showing what they can do in the line of fitting 
out a racing 90-footer. So, at the present time, it is up 
to Billman. From a business point of view, it looks as 
though he would be better off in sticking to the Boston 
boat, if it should be a question of losing one contract by 
taking another. 
When the boat was first started Billman was called in 
by B. B. Crowninshield and asked to take the contract 
for rigging the boat, which he said he would do. He 
was also asked to make arrangements to be in her during 
the races. This he also agreed to. When it was abso- 
Ivitely decided to build, the whole contract was given to 
Geo. F. Lawley, with the condition that Billman was tO 
do the rigging. Mr. Billman was dissatisfied with thi,s 
arrangement, and frequently complained to Crownin- 
shield about it. 
Last Saturday Mr. Billman visited Mr. Crowninshield's 
office and said that he had just been called up on the 
telephone by John B. Herreshoff. He said that Herreshoff 
had offered him a good consideration for rigging the 
Bristol boat, but added the condition that if Billman was 
to serve the Belmont syndicate he could not do work 
on the Boston boat. Billman wanted to know what the 
Boston people were going to do about it. Mr. Crownin- 
shield told him that Geo. F. Lawley had been given orders 
to pay him liberally for his work at rigging, and it was 
also desired by the owner and the designer of the Boston, 
boat that he should be on her deck during the races. For 
this he was also to receive a generous compensation. 
What Billman will do about the matter has not yet been 
announced, but it is expected that he will decide within a 
few days. 
The Burgess Y. C. at Marblehead is taking active steps 
to make next season's racing the most successful in the 
annals of the club. This club has always been very active 
in racing matters, and for its size, probably offers more 
prizes than any other club in Massachusetts Bay. All 
money that can be possibly spared from the treasury is al- 
ways used for racing, and if there is any shortage the 
members go into their pockets to produce the wherewith 
to give races. The present regatta committee if a very 
active one, and is doing all that can be done to make 
the Burgess Y. C. foremost in racing matters. 
It is intended that a championship prize will be offered 
for the boat in any class making the best season's record^ 
This will be either a cup or a cash prize. In the case of 
the latter, a championship pennant will be given the 
winner in addition to the money. The individual racing 
members of the club are working heartily with the regatta 
committee. It is quite likely that cups will be offered 
by these men for i6-footers, 21ft. knockabouts, 21ft. race-. 
abouts and Y. R. A. 25-footers and 21-footers. 
The list of racing dates which has thus far been made 
up by the committee is as follows : May 30, June 15, 17 
and 29; July 4, 6 and 20. Two open races will be held 
July 29 and 30, which will just precede the Manchester 
Y. C, series and the Corinthian midsummer series. The 
last regular race will be held on Labor Day. If a good 
fleet p| r^.e?about.s cora?§ {9 M^^rW^he^^^" 9om|)et?. f9[ 
