24 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
The Fighting Past of Those Battling Paragons 
—French and English Bulls—Points 
to Purchasers 
WILLIAMS HAYNES 
Massive head, flat s kull, 
kle-seamed, smashed-in face 
and unturned jaw- he s 
British 
The English bull, 
an epitome of 
lovely ugliness 
E xcept in 
the identity 
of their sur- 
n a m e s, a cer¬ 
tain general 
family r e s e m- 
b 1 a n c e, and 
some very bitter 
family quarrels, 
the two bull¬ 
dogs, the bull¬ 
dog f rom Eng¬ 
land and the bulldog from France, have 
but little in common. The one glories in 
his reputation for dour arrogance and has 
taken for his motto the curt “Hands off!” 
The other delights to be a jolly good fel¬ 
low and on every occasion gaily barks “Vive 
la bagatelle! Vogue la gal ere!” 
What a perfectly glorious atrocity of a 
dog the English bulldog is! His massive 
head with its great, flat skull all seamed 
with wrinkles; his terrible, smashed-in face ; 
his sweeping, upturned under jaw ; his heavy 
chops and his sour-visaged expression are 
all the very epitome of lovely ugliness. He 
is so homely lie is beautiful. Sturdy, wide- 
set legs, bowed beneath the weight of his 
heavy shoulders and great chest; thick, bull 
neck; muscles that lie in bunches under his 
thin skin; broad, deep chest and swelling 
ribs with slender waist; even the rolling, 
swaggering gait of the professional strong 
man, he seems the very canine personifica¬ 
tion of brute strength. 
His French cousin, on the other hand, is 
a jolly sort of dog brownie, a lively, likable 
jack-in-the-box of a dog. He is not beauti¬ 
ful, not as the setter or the collie is beauti¬ 
ful, but who does not recognize the quaint 
attraction of his bulging forehead, his deep, 
dark eyes, his snubby nose, and his bold bat 
ears? He, also, is sturdy and cobby, strong 
and active, but without that massive, im¬ 
pressive strength 
that characterizes 
the English breed. 
Dignity vs. 
Flippancy 
Then, too, how 
different these 
kinsmen are in 
disposition. The 
English bulldog 
is by no means 
the terrible brute 
that he loo k s. 
Those who do not 
know him are 
sure that his dis¬ 
position must be Tht 
the spiritual es- 
Hands off! ” is 
the motto of 
this personifi¬ 
cation of dour 
arrogance 
sence of his re¬ 
markably ugly, 
forbidding e x- 
The rest-sturdy, wid 
legs, thick bull n 
broad, deep chest 
slender waist 
set 
wrin- 
nec 
an 
Frenchie’s quite a different fellow, vivacious and smart, with less o f the 
than the Briton. He’s an aristocrat and carries his head up on 
terior. He is, 
they are certain, 
the very brute 
incarnate, u n- 
manageable and 
ferocious; a n 
utterly bad dog 
that delights only in snapping and biting; 
a capital watchdog surely, but a dangerous 
menace to the community at large. Others, 
mowing him well, know he is not that sort 
of a dog at all. They are loud in their 
praises of his kindliness, his affection, his 
devotion. Anyone who knows dogs well 
would much prefer to maul every bulldog 
at a bench show than to take similar liberties 
with every terrier. Some of his friends re¬ 
sent this bland and gentle spirit in the mod¬ 
ern bulldog. Their fellow fanciers, they 
claim, grow maudlin over a great, good- 
natured booby of a dog who has lost all his 
character and virile virtue. These alarm¬ 
ists rush off to the opposite extreme, and it 
is not just to call the bulldog “a glorified 
pug.” He has not lost a whit of his famous 
courage, nor has he departed from his 
proverbial devotion, and most of us are 
very glad indeed that the “good old English 
bulldog” is not the savage bull baiter of a 
couple of centuries ago. 
The little French bulldog is not so stolid. 
There is an infusion of the sparkling wine 
of sunny France in his blood. He is less 
of a tried and true companion and more of 
a happy-hearted playfellow. He is bright 
and active. He greets strangers, not with 
mere tolerance, but with alert, inquisitive 
hospitality. Jacques’ love for his master or 
mistress is deep and constant, but it is not 
that blind, whole- 
s o u 1 e d idolatry 
which John lav¬ 
ishes on his human 
gods. The French 
dog thoroughly en¬ 
joys life to the 
utmost, and his 
quick, questioning 
air is that of an 
intelligent little 
dog who has found 
the world a very 
happy, agreeable 
place and who 
wants to know and 
enjoy everything. 
He is hardly so 
occasions volatile, so truly 
fight 
