Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-07-30

Dogs which Cost $4,000 Apiece---How they
are Taken Care of---kennels Better thar
Most Mems Houses
NJ Y Correspondence NenS and Courier.
Eight years ago, when Mr.. Frank L.
Lincoln, the noted English judge of sport
ing dogs, arrived in this city for the purpose
of organizinga bench show under the aus
pices of our Westminster Sporting CLUB, g
thorough knowledge or even love OF gooo
dogs was considered by some people some;
thing to be ashamed of rather than PROUD
Of; too intimate knowledge OF good dogs
was considered rather the mark OF the loaf:
er. Almost every one knows how changed
all this is to day. The first show organized
by Lincoln in 1877 brought together about
500 dogs, none of which would have stood
the slightest chance of getting prize at
any of the English bench shows. Last
spring the interest in fine dogs had become
SO general that there were more than l,20o
at our annual bench show, and, according
to the English judges who came over mere
for the purpose of buying something good
if they could find it, the exhibition was
nearly equal, as whole, and superior IN
some particulars to the English bench shows
where are gathered the results of years OF
careful training. The energy and determl-
nation with which New Workers have taken
hold of the matter is part of the national
character, and it only needed one or two
wealthy men to lead. Another factor, per-
haps in the rapid rise of the dog as an object
of interest among fashionable people is that
fine dogs are considered necessary part OF
every typical English country house,
the very fact that it is English is sufficient
for some people. Within the last year
we have had so many of our rich men
going into the business of raising fine
dogs that several of our newspapers nave
been deVOting much of their space to dog
controversies, and our sporting papers have
set aside column for the dog as we'll as
for the horse. Year by year the attendance
at the dog show grows larger, as well as the
number of dogs on exhibition, and some OF
the prices now paid for fine dogs would have
seemed incredible ten years ago. ,..
OURS OF HIGH DEGREE AT HOME.
Inasmuch as the subject of fine dogs
seems to interest a large number OF per
sons, i took the trouble this week to visit
half a dozen of the most noted kennels in
this neighborhood. I found men who ten
years ago scarcely knew pointer from a
Setter who now spend from $4,000 to $40,
900 year upon their dogs, and who think
nothing of paying $1,000 or $1,000 for dog
who may improve the breed of the kennel.
Most of our New York trainers devote
themselves exclusively to one breed OF dogs,
and the richest of them all, Mr.. Pierre Lor-
| illard, selects from among the settlers one
species-.the English setter-to breed from.
The Irish setter. or the Gordon setter, black
and tan have not done so we'll in field trials
as the black and white English setter, and
so Mr.. Lorillard confines himselfto that dog,
his object being to excel in quality rather
than in quantity. l find that the passion
for breeding fine dog seems to increase
rather than diminish with success; man
who has one champion which takes the
prize this year will feel very sore If he gets
beaten the next, and will 60 to work with
double energy to obtain some dog when
will sweep the field for the time being.
Thus Mr.. w. P. Stevenson, of New Jersey,
most noted breeder of mastiffS in this part
of the country, took what he supposed to
be a good mastiff to the bench show of 1877,
and was not even awarded complimenta-
nv mention. He resolved that the year af-
ter that he would win prize, if work and
money could help him win it. He sent to
England at once and bought three mastltfs
that had been successful winners at the
English bench shows. On this side OF the
water they made a splendid show, as we
have but few fine mastiffs here. No soon
er did DIR. Perry, of Boston, who is Mr..
Stevenson's only rival in the way OF raising
fine mastiffs, see Mr.. Stevenson's importa-
ton than he started for Europe, and since
then the two rival breeders have been scour-
ing the old country for something with
which to beat the other. Last spring Mr..
Stevenson had the best of it, making al
most clean sweep of the list of prizes. In
fact, he was so we'll satisfied that he neg
lected to start for Europe this spring, and
he is somewhat uneasy as to what DIR. Per
ry, who is now over there, may bring back
with him. Mr.. StevensOn's kennels are at
Westfeld, New Jersey, about twenty miles
from the city. He has large barn built
in elaborate Queen Anne style, expressly
fitted up for the dogs, which number near
ly thirty, and have cost him $4,000. They
are large animals and need plenty of space,
so that each dog has a stall to himself, in
which he is chained just as horse is fasten-
ed. These mastiffs are immense brutes
which owe much of their popularity to the
readiness with which they will insert their
teeth into any member of the human spe-
cies tramp. In the neighborhood of New
York tramps have become SO much OF a
nuisance that without one or two OF these
dogs country houses would suffer constantly.
A good mastiff seems to knowa tramp from
respectable person by instinct. He is
moreover an invaluable dog for children,
| in that he never snaps or bites no matter
how much teased. | found Mr.. Steven
sons dogs far more pleasantly situated than
I am accustomed to see them at our annual
bench shows. They have three men to look
after them, as much food as is good Tor
| them and they run in the fields morning
and night. I asked Mr.. Stevenson ques-
ton which must have occurred to every dog
lover who has visited our bench shows,
namely, whether the excitement and late
hours of bench show lasting for several
days, as is the case III New York, do not
result in serious injury to the dogs them
selves. Our New York shows usually be-
gin on Tuesday and end on Friday. Dur
ing that time the public is admitted from
10 O'Clock in the morning until 10 O'Clock at
night, and for ten hours the dogs are con-
stantly passed in review by thousands of
visitors, many of whom do not hesitate to
handle them. The sight of so many stran-
gers, together with the presence of more
than thousand other dogs, all bowling and
barking, is enough to wear upon the. nerves
of any animal, especially of high-bred
dog. It has been Mr.. Stevenson's expert
being, and for few days after the show,
evince some marks prolonged excitement,
there is no permanent injury except in the
case Of young dogs less than a year old.
Some of these youngsters bark themselves
hoarse and fret themselves sick before the
show is over. The older dogs seem to suf-
fer no i'll effects, and Mr.. Stevenson believes
that they enjoy the bench show as much
as any Of the visitors. When he sends a
dog to bench show he puts it into huge
travelling box, just large enough for the dog
to lie down in. Whenever that box is
brought out into the yard or the kennels
and the whole pack makes a rush for it,
the dogs tumbling over each other in their
eagerness to get into it, and whining pite-