44 
Beagles and Beagling. 
Ben was used at stud very extensively, becoming a 
very successful sire of field and bench dogs. 
Stoke Place Sapper was a bench show winner, 
but proved to be an excellent sire of field dogs. 
In recent years he was owned by Victor Wiley, of 
Allenville, Ill. Many of his get were seen in field 
trials, but many more are winners on the bench. 
P. M. Chidester, of Pittsburgh, Pa., is a com¬ 
paratively new comer in beagle realms, but he has 
erected kennels and has gathered together some of 
the best dogs of the country. Only a few years 
ago he bought practically all the dogs of the 
Wheatley kennels, which were disbanded at that 
time. One of the dogs he purchased just before 
the kennels were discontinued was Wheatley Truant, 
which was offered at stud at the fee of $30 and 
business flocked his way. As a sire of field per¬ 
formers he has not yet shown results to the extent 
of some of the hounds mentioned, but he surely is 
the kind of a dog to impart type. I saw this dog 
the first time in 1920, when I judged sporting dogs 
at Detroit. The beagles classes were large ones, but 
there was no mistaking the quality of Truant the 
moment one saw him, for there is a wealth of char¬ 
acter about him that is compelling. I gave this dog 
winners and special for best beagle in the show. 
He soon gained championship honors on the bench. 
In bench show realms beagle interests held their 
own during all these years while the merry little 
hound was gaining so rapidly in favor with field 
men and there were and still are a number of ken¬ 
nels, especially in the East, that breed dogs almost 
solely for show purposes. 
