The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-11
LIVELY SPORTS.
Meets at Which Speed of Greyhounds
 and Rabbits Are Tried.

Abilene (Kan) Cor. Washington Post.
 The west has discovered the use for the jackrabbit. He is of no value as an ar tcle of food and of little account as game, save for farm lads on Thanksgiv- ing afternoon, when they seek him in the cornfields and out among the punches of blue stem on the open plain and shoot him for the fun of the thing.
 For coursing he is a. success. At the recent Futurity meet in central Kansas over 300 were used.
 The rabbits were placed in a twelve acre inclosure which was surrounded by a five-foot burlap wall At the further end from the start were openings into an- other enclosure, through which the rab- bits, if they outwitted the dogs, might run to safety. But from there they were simply brought back for another race and finally were killed. About 80 per cent of the rabbits were killed on the first round.
 Yet killing is not the fine point of the sport. The swift greyhounds are set in braces or pairs after the jack. The judges ride on horseback to decide the points.
 There is a count for the turning of a jack by right or left, others for niceties in the course taken, and only & small pro- portion for the kill The dog showing the most intelligence in the pursuit is de- clared winner and is eligible to the next round, when he is pitted by lot against another winner.
 In the Futurity this year it happened that out of IA starters those ending first, second and third all belonged to the same man, D. K. Carter of Cottonwood Falls. He received the Futurity cup and more than 5000 in prize money.
 In the entire meet 800 dogs took part, tfaf fc11n ri1c fha JTftt trif md the purses amounted to $4000. Thirty states were represented among the en- tries. New York and San Francisco hay ing several dogs each.. Mrs. Bessie Ben nington of Long Island journeyed to the meet with seven fine dogs.
 Coursng has grown rapidly in popular ity in the west since the sport was in- troduced by party of customers who several years ago went out into the Arkansas valley at Great Bend and chased jackrabbits over the open plain. In those days only the wealthy could af- ford the sport.
 Recently the plan of having en- closure for the contests has added to the sports interest. 1t has become possible thus to limit the area over which the races take place. and so charge admis- sion to the grounds. On the open land coursing the dogs are led into far dis tances and judging becomes more diff cult.
 The dogs are beauties-built. bred and trained for the fastest running possible to the canine race. As coursing is a royal sport, having been the enjoyment of kings and nobles since the time Of William the Conqueror. so are the dogs of royal blood. Their pedgrees go bNIi through the centuries. and some of the animals are well nigh priceless in the opinion of their owners.
 There is one creature only on the prai- rie that can outrun the jackrabbit among the smaller wild animals-that Is the coyote. It was Mark Twain who said that when the average dog chased the coyote the latter. after playing along the way awhile, would certainly vanish, leaving a very much astonished dog and a long crack in the atmosphere behind him.