The Hempstead fox-terrier coursing has caused a considerable stir of late. While I am not in sympathy with the proceedings of the “Alphabetical” Society in this matter, I cannot make out just where the “sport” comes in in seeing a benumbed and scared “bunny” chased and killed by terriers. We are told that the “course” frequently takes less than thirty seconds’ time to decide, and that the rabbit never escapes. Now this, to my way of thinking, damns it as a field sport, the fascination in which is the element of uncertainty it contains; the knowledge that your skill and training, or your dog’s, is pitted against the natural cunning and quickness of the beast or bird pursued, and in the knowledge that the quarry has a chance for its life. Take away this and I am sure field sports will lose many of those who are at present devoted to them. Give the rabbits fair “law,” a chance for their lives, then it will be a legitimate sport.
An extraordinarily high-priced lot of greyhounds recently changed hands under the hammer in London. They were the property of Mr. Dent, who has given up coursing for the present. The puppy Fullerton was sold at 850 guineas to Colonel North, while Bit o’ Fashion was bought by the same purchaser for 200 guineas, also Miss Glendyne for 510 guineas. Huic Holloa fetched 350 guineas, and Jester 190 guineas. The prices paid throughout were high.
The English St. Bernard, Prince Battenberg, who once beat Plinlimmon, is for sale. His owner, Mr. King-Patten, announces that he has received an offer of 2,000 guineas for the dog, from an American. I fear some one has been “pulling his leg.”
DOGWHIP.
* *
*
COLLEGE SPORTS.
EXCEPTIONALLY fine weather, October temperature, has made it possible for active college youths to practice various pastimes which are usually relegated to obscurity or the gymnasium during the cold winter months. Games of ball, lacrosse and tennis have been played in the open air, and in some places crews have been out in their frail shells. That boating will be very popular this spring seems assured if the interest shown by Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania in the doings of their respective crews is any indication. With the return to college from the Christmas vacation the serious work of training conscientiously and intelligently began, and now the weeding-out process will soon begin. Harvard naturally expects great things from the tank. In January, the crew was able to do some rowing on the Charles, which, with work in the gymnasium and in the tank has given the crew a very good send-off. At no time previous has there been so wide-spread an interest in correct, scientific rowing as at present, and every effort is made by the captain to get the most out of his crew, not as one ordinarily would suppose, by getting his men to develop muscle and pull for all there was in them, but by studying the possibilities of each member and so combining them according to scientific principles as to yield the best results. This method is in vogue at Harvard and at Yale, where Bob Cook and prominent graduates, members of former crews, for months before the great race, consult and figure upon the material at hand, and endeavor to get it into shape.
The other sports, baseball and track athletics, are not being neglected by their admirers. The fleetfooted sprinters have been taking part in the several meetings of the Amateur Union and the National Association, and are consequently in comparatively good trim. With this attention to sport which the majority of college youths give, even in the many small institutions which can not boast of possessing well-equipped gymnasiums and track facilities, there is fast growing up a race which will be as superior to the men of to-day as the present generation of young men is superior to those of twenty years ago.
J. C. GERNDT.