204 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
October, 1914 
History proves that the breed is no upstart, the same features that distinguish him to-day marked him over a cen¬ 
tury ago. Always a gentleman in China, he is a gentleman here 
the wolf's slink¬ 
ing movements 
and hang-dog 
characteristics. 
His straight 
hocks give him a 
rolling gait, much 
like Jackie just 
ashore after a 
long cruise, and 
his high-carried 
head and tightly- 
curled tail are de¬ 
cidedly cocky. 
It may be that 
buried in some 
old Chinese man¬ 
uscripts there are 
records of the 
chow, but, so far 
as we know, the 
breed is without 
any history. This 
probably accounts 
for the popular 
belief that the 
chow-chow is the 
common or gar¬ 
den variety of 
Chinese mongrel. 
This is not the 
case. Street curs 
there are in China 
beyond all num¬ 
bering and many 
of these are wolf¬ 
like animals, but 
they are not the 
real chow, who is 
highly regarded 
and generally in 
the hands of the 
mandarins or 
wealthy mer¬ 
chants. The 
breed’s three distinctive points furnish evidence of great age, 
which is supplemented by fragmentary reports from travelers in 
the East. The earliest mention of the chow that I know is in 
Daniels’ “Rural Sports,” published in London in 1801 : 
“Mr. White describes a Chinese dog and bitch, brought from 
Canton, where they are fattened on rice meal and other farina¬ 
ceous foods for the table, as being about the size of a spaniel” 
(in 1801 the spaniel was a much larger dog than he is to-day), 
“colour pale yellow, with coarse, bristling bairs on their backs, 
sharp, erect ears and peaked, fox-like heads. Their hind legs 
with no bend in the hock or ham, and so unusually straight as 
to cause an awkward gait in trotting. When in motion their 
tails are curved high over their backs and have naturally bare 
spots on the outside from the top half way down. Their eyes 
are jet black, small and piercing; inside their lips and mouths 
of the same colour, and the tongues blue.” 
This can surely be no other than the chow-chow, and from 
this passage we can gather that the same features that distin¬ 
guish him to-day marked him over a century ago, fifty years be¬ 
fore the Airedale was thought of and just about the time the 
bull terrier was being manufactured. Evidently the breed is no 
That so stand-offish an Oriental should have won admirers without advertising speaks well for his sterling qualities 
which are being appreciated more and more each year 
upstart, but we 
have no hint of 
how or when or 
why they had 
their origin. It 
is, of course, easy 
to guess that the 
wolf family had a 
hand, or rather a 
paw, in the mak¬ 
ing of the chow, 
but this is pure 
speculation, and 
the curled tail 
and yellow eyes 
changed to “jet 
black” bob up to 
worry the the¬ 
orist. 
From this same 
passage we learn 
that the chow is 
esteemed as an 
article of diet in 
China. This is 
perfectly true, 
but the stories 
about the dog re¬ 
fusing to eat flesh 
are hardly con¬ 
firmed by the 
very cosmopolitan 
appetite they dis¬ 
play in America. 
Many years be¬ 
fore the chow 
was introduced to 
this country he 
was common in 
England, but it is 
likely that the 
very first of the 
variety to land on 
our shores came 
to California di¬ 
rect from China. When Dr. Henry, of Philadelphia, went to San 
Francisco to judge the bench show, Mrs. Jarrett accompanied 
him and was so captivated by the odd Oriental, that she brought 
back a pair with her. So the breed was introduced into the East¬ 
ern States. Mrs. 
Charles E. Proc¬ 
tor, Mr. Edward 
L. Tinker and 
Mrs. Van Heu- 
sen were the 
owners of the 
first kennels, 
and two of the 
early heroes of 
the breed were 
Champion Chi¬ 
nese Chum and 
Champion Pa- 
too. Both of 
(Continued 
on page 251) 
Ears small and lilted forward, eyes very bright, 
and the tail carried tightly curled 
