As to prices paid for dog-flesh, we can cite a few, some of which have come under our personal notice. For instance, it is well known that the owner of the pointer dog Beaufort could have found a purchaser for him at any moment at a figure somewhat better than a thousand dollars; in fact, it is understood that that figure was about the price paid for him when little more than a pup. Another instance is the sale of the liver and white pointer Robert le Diable, at the New York show a year ago, for one thousand dollars. Again, we have the huge St. Bernard Rector, sold by Mr. E. R. Hearn to Fritz Emmet, bringing four thousand. Then, in the case of the English pointer Graphic, twenty-seven hundred was the cost of his transfer from one gentleman’s kennels to another’s, and the instance of the collie Bendigo, at the Westminster Kennel Club’s show last spring, bringing a thousand and a half in cash, showed how much his present owner wanted him. Now comes the latest thing in this line. That great and noble St. Bernard, loved throughout England, and for whom at his departure from his native place children wept and people of maturer years grew sad, has come to us—we refer to that grand dog Plinlimmon. Much ink was wasted and many offers made before his recent owner could be induced to part with him; at last the climax was reached, however, when a most luring and seductive bait of one thousand pounds was offered, which sealed the good dog’s fate. He is in this country now, having lately arrived on the Britannic. Mastiffs, too, have been bringing long prices, with spaniels (the black variety) and setters, some of these kennels being worth a small fortune in themselves. So, with new additions every month to the list of shows, dog interests increase and values enhance, until well-bred specimens may be seen at every hand where formerly mongrels predominated.
NOMAD.
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FENCING.
WITH the return of cold weather, fencing comes once again to the fore. Indeed, fencing is growing more popular every year. We remember the time—and that not many years ago—when there was but a single professor of the art in New York, and a pretty poor one at that. Now, fencing academies are cropping up in all parts of the city. Fencing clubs are numerous and well attended. The two leading ones are the Knickerbocker and the Fencers’ Club. The two great athletic clubs of New York encourage fencing by devoting large and convenient rooms for salles d’armes, and giving valuable prizes to the winners of contests. The Manhattan has secured the services of Professor Louis Rondelle, the able and courteous master of the Knickerbocker. They promise magnificent fencing rooms in their new building, which will be the finest in America.
OUTING would like the secretaries of all the fencing clubs to report about the doings of their fellow-members. We will also furnish all desired information about fencing and fencers. An article on “Fencing for Ladies,” by Mr. Eugene Van Schaick, the author of “A Bout with the Foils,” and “A Bout with the Broadsword,” will be published in one of the early numbers of OUTING for 1889.
REVIVAL OF A FINE OLD ENGLISH GAME.
THE average young Canadian is more devoted to outdoor sports in all kinds of weather than his American neighbor. Even those among the Canucks whose hair is silver-sabled, as well as they whose locks are sable-silvered—to quote a phrase from that delightful old boy, the Autocrat, of Boston, as true a sportsman as ever breathed or wrote—are more devoted to almost all kinds of vigorous exercise, driving, perhaps, excepted, than those who live in the dominions of Uncle Sam. Not only do cricket, baseball, tennis and curling find thousands of enthusiastic players in Canada, but shinty, golf, and bowls have their adherents. The game last mentioned has of late taken an extraordinary hold in Ontario. Its great recommendation is that it is found to give just the degree of exercise in the open air to make it especially agreeable to those of middle age or to those