The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-22
AN AMERICAN FOx.HUNT.

zion OF a a.fox-hunt which it discovered in an
american paper. The slight mistake with
regard TO the whereabouts of st. Louis is char
|acteristically British
Until very recently Englishmen might have
consoled themselves with the reflection that
however much they had fallen behind America
'in some things, there was at least one institu-
/ ton in respect of which they we're still ahead
Iof the United, States, as of all the rest of the
'world. They might have taken a semi-bar-
|barous pride in the belief that they were still
superior in sport, if in nothing else. Ameri-
cans might be the only really great and free
people on the face of the earth; they might
lie the only people now capable of producing
famous statesmen, preachers, authors, and
.Renerals; but we had at any rate one institu-
! ion which they had never yet ventured to
initiate The joys of fox hunting were not
'yet revealed to them. Hopeless as the
English coclney might feel his case
10 be when he compared himself
Esith the citizen Of Boston or of Philadelphia.
ere was still something left for which our
i buntry gentlemen might thank heaven. But
& st March an event happened in the Western
ates the news of which will carry a sense of
e pressure of American competition home
the haart of Leicestershire and the bosom
j. Bucks. Advices from Chicago inform us
S lat on the 1th of last March a fox-hunt took
ii lace near the town of st. Louis, in Illinois,
town which is no doubt destined to be the
nture Badminton or Melton Mowbray of
+ merica and which, if we may Judge by the
ccounts of the sport afforded on this first
ccasion, as given to us in the st. Louis Re
ubiic07l, is likely next season to cause a per-
ect stampede of sportsmen from Leaning
on and Northampton to the Far West. The
ast hunting season in this country was no
d. nn1, ID e tl,o ,f
anuary and February 1869, will be affec-
onately remembered by the squires of Lut-
erworth and the officers from Weldon; but we
hay safely venture TO declare that the best
un of the season with the AtherstOne or the
buorn was not to be compared with this st.
kclliA fox-hunt, either in variety or piquancy
(HB incidents. But there is no such differ
#hce of detail between the English and Anne
ican methods of fox-hunting that the supe-
ority of the American method cannot be
dequately appreciated without a little de-
Giption, which it may be hoped will tend to
K lear the readers mind Of prejudice, and
Enable him TO take an impartial view of the
lneTican mode of hunting the fox.
The first prejudice OF which an English
der must divest himself is the belief that
The sport of fox-hunting a Master Of Fox
unds is necessary. Ordinary English squires
fould probably almost as easily imagine
he existence of son without a
father as of fox-hounds without a
master; and although the master is
he only absolutely essential func-
tionary to the hunting of a pack of foxhounds,
vet one is not apt to suppose that the master
puld be able to show his friends or sub
ribers very much good sport without the as
stance Of a huntsman, and one or more
Bhips But. III ''inaugurating' this noble
sport at st. Louis, the men of Illinois have
struck out an entirely novel and most original
line. They have arranged and organized their
sporting staff on a different and vastly i'm
Agoved system. The chief parsonage in the
Sport does not at ST. Louis, write NJ f. H.
1 after his name, but receives the much more
alignifed titles of ''Projector' and 'Grand
Marshal The hounds do not, as in Eng
land, belong to him or to any body
i 3pf subscribers whom he represents;
but plan is adopted much more in accord
ance with the spirit of the age. Tie hOund'
yare j0Jbed. Peace to the souls of Sir Richard
Sutton and of the late Mr.. Assheton Smith
y We would not in the lifetime of those worthie'
have called attention to this matter, as i
would perhaps have panied them. But nov
That they are gone, no such delIcacy prevents
bur pressing upon our readers the advantages
h this practice of jobbing hounds though
1t is unnecessary to describe these advantages
in detail, inasmuch as many persons in this
country have already adopted the parable
customs of jobbing their horses, their car
Eiages, their pointers and retrievers, thei
lothes, and their servants; and the jobbinl
M foxhounds must obviously be even more
convenient than the jobbing of these things
by SO much as foxhounds are a more trouble
some and wasteful class of instruments t.
keep in stock Next after the Crane
Marshal and the Foxhound Job-master
be most important functionary IN an Amerl
IAN hunt appears to be the special correspon
ht of the local newspaper The presence o
journalist is as necessary at fox-hunt as a
ny other important or interesting meeting il
america But the reader may perhaps won
er what arrangements can be made at fox
hunt for the convenience of the gentlemen o
~ Ike press: how in fact, the nature Of tn
port can permit of the proper facilities bein
afforded to them for discharging their in
ADrtant duties to the public. In order t.
Understand this, it is necessary to bear i
mind some important differences betwee
In English and an American meet, c
srendesg0ats. as it is more elegantly terme
" En Illinois. In the first place, tn
americans have most judiciously dis
pensed with the English practice of drawing
bower in order to find their fox. In Illinoi
ihe fox is purchased of a fox-catcher som
ime before the hunt is to take place, lis pu
ion some weeks under the scientific superv
ion and charge of fox-keeper, and is even
ualy brought to the rendezvous ''in fo2
wagon 1t is probably while he is under tn
>cientfc supervision of the keeper that tn
g Eox ACQUIRES the art of climbing trees-an al
hich adds a novel variety of incident to tn
n american sport, and which, as we shall SCI
he fox at st. Louis practised with the greatei
\ Eclq. But, at any rate the advantages OF ii
american method are obvious. As there