472 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 13, 1902. 
FIELD TKIALS. 
Dec. 15.— Huntsville, Ala.— Alabama Field Trial Club's (member 
of the American Championship Club) third annual triaUi John 
F- Fletcher, Sec'y, Birmingham, Ala. 
Canine Ekgks and Epitaphs. 
XXlX— Geisl's Grave. 
Four }-ears! and didst thou stSiy above 
The ground, which hides thee now, but four? 
And all that life and all that love, 
Were crowded, Geistl into no more? 
Only four years those winning ways, 
\^ hich make me for thy presence yearn, 
Call'd us to pet thee or to prair.e. 
Dear little friend 1 at every turn? 
That loving heart, that patient soul, 
Had they indeed no longer span, 
To x-iin tlieir course, and reach their goal, 
And read their homily to man? 
That liquid, melancholy eye, 
From whose paLlietic, soul-fed springs 
Seem'd surging the Virgilian ery,* 
The sense of tearo in mortal thing.s— 
That steadfast, mournful strain, consoled 
By spirits gloriously gay, 
And temper of heroic movild — 
What, was fotir years their whole short day? 
Yes, only four!— and not tlie course 
Of all the centuries yet to come, 
And not the infinite resource 
Of Nature with her countless sum 
Of figures, witli ller ftlllness vast 
Of new creation evermore, ; 
Can ever quite repeat the past 
Or just thy little self restore. 
Stern law of every mortal lot! 
W hich man, proud man, finds hard to bear, 
And builds himself I know not what 
Of second life I know not where. ; 
But thou, when struck thine hour to go, 
On XLS, who stood despondent by, 
A meek last glance of love didst throw, 
And humbly lay thee down to die. 
Yet would we- keep thee in our heart — 
Would fix our favorite on the scene, 
Nor let tkee utterly depart 
And be as if thou ne'er hadst been. 
And so there rise these lines of verse 
On lips that rarely form them tw*^; 
While to each other we rehear-se: 
Such ways, such arts, such looks hadst thou ! 
We stroke thy broad, brown paws again, 
We bid thee to thy vacant chair, 
We greet thee by the window-pane, 
W'e hear thy scuffle on Ifee stajrj 
We see the flaps of thy large cans 
Quick raised to ask which way we go; 
Crossing the frozen lake, appears 
Thy small black figure on the snowl 
Nor to us art thou dear 
Who mourn thee in thine EnglLsh home; 
Tiiou hast thine absent master's tear, 
Dropt by the far Australian foam. 
- Thy memory lasts both here and there. 
And thou shalt live as long as we. 
And after that — ^thou dost not care! 
In us was all the world to tbee. 
Yet fondly zealous for thy fame. 
Even to a date beyond our own 
We strive to carry down thy name. 
By mounded turf, and graven stone. 
We lay thee, close within our reach. 
Here wliere the grass is smooth and warm, 
Between the holly and the beech, 
Where oft we watch'd thy couchant form. 
Asleep, yet lending half an ear 
To travelers on the Portsmouth road — 
There choose we thee, O guardian, dear, 
Mark'd with a stone thy last abode! 
Then some, who through this garden pass. 
When we, too, like thyself, are clay. 
Shall see thy grave upon the grass, 
And stop before the stone, and say; 
"People who lived here long ago 
Did by this stone, it seems, intend 
To name for future times to know 
The dachshound, Geist, their little friend." 
— Matthew Arnold. 
*Sunt lacrimal rerum. 
The Dog's Mentality. 
Are animals intelleGtual ? Have they minds and powers 
of reason ? Man is an intelligent being. He may have 
his intellectual and reasoning powers strongly developed, 
and still when out in the woods become "lost" and thor- 
oughly demoralized, his eyes will be staring and glazed, 
without any expression of intelHgence, and his hearing so 
impaired that at first he will not recognize the voice of 
his best friend. 
Recently we have several times seen the same thing 
occur here in the city with an intelligent young setter, 
who would stop to pay his respects to some other dog, or 
to investigate some attractive scent; when be wQ«Jd look 
up and miss his master, how quickly his whole appear- 
ance would change. He would dash here and there 
among the crowd thoroughly rattled, eyes wild and 
glared, and would, have to be called several times before 
he would recognize his master's voice; then in an instant 
his whole appearance would change, his eyes become 
bright and beaming with affection and love as he jumped 
around his master, his actions seemed to say "I was lost 
and am now so happy tliat I have found you again." 
If beings only moved and acted through instiitct, with- 
out reasoning powers, could they become so mentally 
rattled and lost, and would they have the power to feel 
the impulses of affection, love, anger, hatred and jeal- 
ousy. How many many times we see these feelings 
plainly expressed by our canine friends. _ Let ma- 
dame notice and caress one of the setters in the pres- 
ence of the household pet "Bob" the fox terrier, from 
a bright, cheerful little fellow he is _ suddenly trans- 
formed into a blazing fury, and there is a dog fight on 
the next moment. When it is all over, to see the 
humble, beseeching and apologetic look that the little 
hero of a hundred fights puts on, which plainly says "I 
am sorry that I was so naughty, but I couldn't have 
you pet that big fellow," would make any skeptic ad- 
mit that Bob was moved and influenced by human- 
like passions, consequently he must have reasoning 
faculties. 
A well bred dog never expresses any emotional 
qualities such as affection or hatred, but from some 
reason, and if he has for so doing a reason, why then 
he must possess reason. It is impossible for a hu- 
man idiot to become rattled or mentally demoralized, 
neither can they have the sensitive feelings of af- 
fection, haired, fear or hope. When hungry or 
thirsty, instinct causes them to eat and drink to sat- 
isfy nature's cravings, but they show outwardly no 
glimmering or spark of reason in so doing, and if they 
possess such faculties they are too dim and faint to 
be perceptible to our ordinary eyes. Ergo — dogs 
must have reasoning pow-ers and mind and reason, 
consequently in a greater or less degree so have all 
animals that are endowed with the breath of life. 
Stanstead. 
His Unwritten Elegy. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been very much interested in your series of 
canine epitaphs and elegies. I am praying the Fates 
to give me occasion to contribute to the list. What I 
would dearly love to send you would be the epitaph 
or elegy on a vigorous husky-voiced dog which works 
his combination megaphone and explosive bomb bark 
o' nights in a backyard on Fifty-seventh street, Bor- 
ough of Manhattan. So appreciative am I of the canine 
epitaph done in rhyme that I would pay for one of this 
loud mouthed terror a full column long at advertising 
rates. Insomnus. 
P. S. — You may get it some day. 
— <^ — ■ 
Sir Thomas Lipton's Cup challenger, Shamrock III., 
building at the Denny's j'ard, Dumbarton, had a nar- 
row escape from destruction by fire on Thursday 
night, Dec. 4. The fitters' shop, which was close by 
the shed where the yacht is building, was gutted, and 
it was only by great effort that the building that en- 
closed the third Shamrock was saved, as a strong 
wind was blowing in that direction; The yacht was not 
damaged. 
All the frames are now in place, and barring delays 
she will be completed by the first of April. This means 
she will be rigged and ready for a trial trip by the 
middle of that month. It is learned on very good 
authority that Shamrock HI. will be steered by a 
wheel instead of a tiller. Captain Wringe. who is to 
have charge of Shamrock III., is, we understand, in 
favor of a wheel, and it is at his suggestion that this 
innovation will be introduced. 
At the Herreshoff shops, at Bristol, work ts 6eing 
pushed on the new boat that is being built for the 
Cup defense. The boat's construction is surrounded 
with the same secrecy that has prevailed in previous 
years, but it is learned that the casting for the lead 
keel came out perfect, and is without any flaws. The 
flames and plating are to be of Tobin bronze, and the 
lead keel is now being sheathed with that material. 
It is believed that the boat will be ready for launching 
about April i, or about the same time that Shamrock 
III. is to be put overboard. If this proves to be the 
case she will have the advantage of several weeks' more 
sailing than Shamrock III. will, for the changing to 
jury rig, the voyage across and the rerigging on her 
arrival on this side, means a big loss of time, but even 
so the English boat will have more tuning up than 
the previous defenders have had. 
Mr. Norman Macrae has ordered a boat from Mr. 
A. E. Payne, of the firm of Messrs. Summers bc Payne, 
Soitthampton, Etigland, for the defense of the Canada 
Cup. She will be built by Captain Andrews, of Oak- 
ville, Canada. The new boat is said to be 40ft. water- 
line, 6oft. over all and 9ft. draft. Her sail area will 
he about 2,600 sq. ft. 
Tliere is some talk about Effort, the successful 43- 
footer, being entered in the trial races to be held by 
the Rochester Y. C, for the selection of the challenger 
fo":- the Canada Cup. Effort was designed and built 
by the Herreshoff Mfg Co., and is a very slippery craft. 
It is doubtful if she is up to the scantling require- 
ments that govern the construction of boats compet- 
ing in the Canada Cup contests. 
Word is received that two boats are being built fof 
the tfial races by Detroit yachtsmen. 
Men'^of the Coast. 
Two Passages. 
BY F. L.'EN0. 
About a dozen years ago I took passage in the schooner 
Lucinda G. Potter, Capt. Potter, bound from Boston to 
Newport-News, light. The month w-as October, and the 
day of our departure all that could be desired. The sun 
was bright, the sky a deep blue, the waters of the harbor 
blue as the sky, and the crisp, fresh air sent the blood 
tingling through one's veins. 
A year or more of confinement in the city makes one 
appreciate a morning like that. The desire to get hold 
of something heavy, after long service in office or at desk, 
comes as a nattiral reaction, and on our shores one turns 
instinctively to the sea. There as nowhere else, one can 
be out of doors; there is a field which calls for qualities 
of the sternest kind ; and the men who handle our coast- 
wise sailing fleet are made of stern material, for no others 
can stand the life. But for a few days the change from 
the daily routine and grind to the wind-swept deck and 
ocean furnishes just that tonic which the physical and 
"a big schooner — THE MOON LIGHTING UP THE DECK." 
mental man needs ; and I appreciated to the limit the 
beauty of the immediate scene and the exhilarating sense 
of expectation which any voyage, long or short, always' 
arouses in the amateur. 
Our ship was a vessel of about 600 tons, a centerboard 
three-masted schooner ; a large vessel and heavy to handle, 
as she was a "hand vessel," so-called, that is, she was 
not fitted with a donkey engine forward for hoisting sails 
and anchors, etc., but everything had to be done by hand. 
High out of water she rode as we drew near in the tug, 
and climbing over the side we found the mate standing 
on deck in evident disgust. 
"Have those sailors come off yet?" was the first thing 
Capt. Joe fired at him. 
"Yes, sir. Come and gone. They said she was too big 
and heavy and with no steam, so they went back in the 
tug. Me and the second mate has cleared things up best 
we could, and the shipping master .said he would send 
another crew right along." 
Here was one vexatious item, one among many of the 
coasting skipper's life. The charter party is signed, mate 
THE WORLD OF WOOD AND CANV.\S. 
and cook engaged, grub stowed away, perhaos a fair wind 
blowing, when a few hours at one end may mean a week 
at the other, and the sailors, shipped for the voyage by the 
shipping-master uptown, can come aboard, and if they 
don't like the looks of things, or want one more drink or 
take any fancy, can go ashore, if they can get there, and 
the captain is helpless. His only alternative is to obtain 
another crew. In this case the sailors didn't even come 
aboard ; the high-sided hull and heavy spars of the 
schooner evidently scared them, for they caine out, gave 
one look at the schooner and said: "She's a brute. To 
hell with the hooker," and returned in the boat. 
The "old man" relieved himself of a few sweeping ob- 
servations in regard to sailors and shipping-masters, and 
W'e went below to store our dunnage. 
The cabin of a 6oo-ton schooner is none too roomy, as 
vessels go now; but I was allotted a stateroom by my- 
self, and comfortable enough. The captain's room and 
the spare room, if there is one, are on the starboard side; 
amidships the main cabin, which also serves as a dining- 
room in a small craft, and did here ; on the port, the mate's • 
and steward's rooms, and forward of all a srnall pantry 
and forward companion-way. Any degree of comfort or 
die reverse can he fout^4 ^ Ipng-shqre cabins ; but,,. 
