The Portland daily press., 1895-02-16

wrinkled brow, his weary, mournful
gaze suggest sphinx in meditation,
calling back long forgotten past.
Though very much has been written
about the history of this interesting dog,
his origin has not been clearly traced.
Probably he is the product of cross
between the Schubert hound, an ami
NAL imported into England by the Nor
mans who came with William the Con-
queror, and the talbot, hunting dog
used by the Saxon mobiles before their
overthrow. This theory is strengthened
by the resemblance which exists even
now between the st. Hubert and the
English bloodhound.
In the days when the armies of the
world used bows and arrows this dog
was most valuable in warfare; later he
was also used to track fugitives and
criminals. This later use was continued
till late in the last century, and to some
extent even into this, in England, but
the telegraph and the steam engine took
his detective occupation away. Since
then he has been bred chiefly as COM
panion. and the type would have per-
ished entirely had it not been that in
some noble families kindly sentiment
preserved the dogs and saved them from
extinction. Within the last half CEN
fury, and especially since the inaugural
tion in England of bench shows for dogs,
careful attention has been given to re-
viving the interest in this wonderfully
sagacious family. 1t may be that some
of these dogs were brought to this coun-
try in the colonial days, and it may be
also that in the mongrel which are called
bloodhounds in the Southern States
there may be found traces of this blood,
buu there are no records to confirm such
a supposition. So far as attainable rec
ords show there were no importations of
the purely bred English bloodhound
until 1889. when Edwin Brough, of Scar
borough, England, brought over several
pairs and exhibited them at the West
minister Kennel Club show in Madison
Square Garden. These dogs were left
with j. L. Winchell, now president of
the English Bloodhound Club, and from
them and several more recent importa-
tions made by him and by DR.. Longest,
of Boston, have sprung all of the genuine
bloodnounds in the Western world.
There has grown to be great demand
for these dogs, and unprincipled dealers
have not scrupled to palm off any mon
grel dog of the hound type upon anxious
A dog with slight proper
ton of the bloodhound blood in it is
sure to be worthless and disappointing,
and is apt to be dangerous also. Such
dogs, thought by their owners to be
bloodhounds, tend to confirm the dis
repute under which these animals already
rest. and which they never in the least
deserved.
This disrepute, it may be remarke cd, was
the outgrowth of misapprehenso and
misstatement, together with sentiment
that to hunt men with dogs was cruel
and barbarous. This sentiment was
created in the days when the cruelties
of negro slavery were much talked about
and was intensified by the dramatic rem
derings OF Mrs. Stoves "Uncle Toms
Cabin"
A GOOD NATURED DOG.
The purely bred bloodhound is as good
patured as it is possible for dog to
be. Here is an instance that occurred sew
eral years ago at Mr.. Winchell's house
His son, then six years old, was in the
sitting room alone with a bloodhound
that was lying on rug in front of an
open fire. The boy playing with the dog
sat down on it and then took if into
his head that the hounds ears needed
trimming. A pair of scissors were con-
veniently near. He seized them and
began surgical operation on the dogs
ear. The dog appeared to realize that
if he shook the boy of the child might
be thrown into the fire, so he remained
quiet and set up piteous howl of main
which soon brought one of the family To
his rescue. Here was something very
l;Iro hu,nop ipfal1iaa,a~