TALE OF A TAIL OF A DOG.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 26, 29 March 1907, Page 7

TALE OF A TAIL OF A DOG.

A UAL IT A NATE UAL TWIST OR WAS IT TIN KEBED WITH TO MAKE A '.PRIZE FIT OF HIM. First there was tho dog. 1 hen there was the tale of the f.og. Aod then followed this very odd t .In of the tail of a dog. Was the dog's tail straight by nature or made crooked by crookedness Lie crookedness of “crooked’’ people, of course. M ho name of the dog was Eastover T at nee lot. •So less a body than the formidable army 01 eight, gentlemen sports and millionaire experts—the members of (ho Executive Committee of the American Kennel Club —were called up to pass professionally ami with grave concern upon the question. And in addition there have been a score of capitalists, captains of industry, mm of weight and might, hankers, brokers and aristocratic breeders, whose time may be said to average one dollar a minute, who for days, weeks and months have seriously conclaved behind closed doors and debated whether this tail of this dog could have been faked or not. The more the case was argued the more perplexed it got. With every move from court to court the tail got into a new twist and tangle. It became, from the fame of the dog and the light (he dog fanciers made about it. tlu> cause celehre of dogdom. Was his tail crooked ? began 1° he us ponderous a question as Why does a dog wag his tail, anyway V” There have been a number of trials and several appeals, and really eminent- legal talent, has boon retained to present briefs in duo legal form. Velerinaries and fanciers and experts in anatomy have scrutinized every .millimetre of this purl of the dog that, went over the fence last. The persistency in the fight in the case of the dog may fairly be said to be dogged. And accompanying the wrangle all along (here were discord and rancor and bud blood. THE SLIP THAT WAS ('AST ON THE TAIL. To thoroughly understand why all this powwow was made over a dog’s BoP one must begin at the beginning Each step is not only very interesting, but unusual, with - not a few touches of humour as a by-product. It was in HKH when Eastover Lancelot, entered the ring at the Boston Dog Show with nine points lo ids credit-. 'That he would soon be a champion was easy to predict if lie kept on this winning. Ho was catalogued as owned by Spotswood Kennels, Broad Axe Rost, Office. Montgomery County, Pa. The o'wner of this noted dog farm is Edward 11. 1 lance, Jr., the Philadelphia millionaire. The dog won the one tv-

maining point necessary for his championship at this particular show and its owner glowed with Die fine feeling of distinction. '.riven a. startling thing - happened. To the dismay of Mr. .11 ance, the disagreeable charge was made that the dog - had u cut tail. Dr. 11. F. Osgood, the show’s veterinarian, instantly disqualified the terrier. Now to have a "cut tail" and to be disqualified is, in dogdom, very analogous to being expelled from one’s culb ia clubdom. It’s the ruination ni one’s reputation. The standing of Lancelot in the aristocratic work! of canines was imperilled. 'This is how iWe tale of the tail took its start. It mast, be explained for the benefit, of the uninitiated that cutting a dogs tail is a trick resorted to by unscrupulous owners to change a straight tailed puppy into u curly tailed dog. A straight tailed pup has no standing whatever in the conumm-

lly, As the owner of the dog in this

• cast 1 is a thorough sportsman and a- , way above such an unsportsmanlike J trick he was justly furious at the insinuation. lie resented it us a slur not only on the dog’s honour, but upon his own, and he swore that he would spend twenty thousand pounds " ; 'i-y. To prove that Lancelot's tail was all that a tail should

oe ; ns twist was natural. The cose had already cost .some I thousands of pounds in expert fees when the Executive Committee of the. Boston Terrier Club met in lengthy session and threshed over the evidence for and against the tail.

This wise body refused to have any suggestion that the owner knew nught of the alleged opporation and the frizzling of the tail, but they rendered a verdict sustaining the protest and disqualifying the champion.

Here again the owner’s fury knew no bounds. Here was a dog that bad been twenty odd times a winner discredited on the simple statement of one man. Mr. Hance swore more oaths and the case began to create a sensation that attracted the attention of dog fanciers the country oyer. As in all controversies, each side found supporters, and the merits of the battle were fought all over again wherever two dog lovers met. The dog papers jumped in with their gloves on, even sometimes publishing long four-column editorials. Some editors maintained the tail was “faked” and others that the champion hud cause for slander. Dog wags got hold of the ease and said “it was a ‘dog-gone’ shame,” among other illuminating bits of nonsense. The case of dog against dog-doctor expanded.

The Spottswood Kennels appealed to the American Kennel Club for a vindication as the next move. All the niceties of due legal form were preserved in the appeal. Had it been a human being who had been scandalized and libeled the lawyers could not have prepared the papers with more care. Then the millionaire and multi-millionaire members of the proper committee of the Kennel Club got busy in their board room in New York. ’This is situated in the heart of their frenzied finance, in Liberty street. ’Powering skyscrapers are all about, in which ace housed the big banking concerns and big trust companies, it was no uncommon sight to see men cut short big financial deals and scurry over to the committee's meetings to discuss this tail of a dog. " Secretary A. P. Vredenburgh, whose handsome features always are illumined with a smile, began to look careworn and sickiled o’er with the pale east of thought. The committee kept on calling for experts until Hu. place was crowded. Three veteriaixs—M. K. Kasabian, doha J. Maher and (1. R. Hartman—all swore that the tail of Lancelot bore no signs of tampering. It was all “a wicked and unw a rranl aldo m i s t ake.”

So the committee finally ordered the Boston Terrier Club to reinstate the dog. The Boston people kicked, but the dog was entered meanwhile in the New York Show of the Westminister Kennel Club, which was hold in the Madison Square Carden.

It was a walkover for Lancelot. Ho won his blue in the class for dogs weighing from twenty-three to thirty pounds, and was awarded the reserve to the championship in the class for winners only. The award was made by H. D. Riley, of Stafford. Pa. You would think Lancelot vindicated and the case quashed. Not so. .From the ringside came the statement at this most inopportune moment, from a handler who happened to be present, that he once owned the dog when ho. was a puppy. Ho claimed that the dog had a straight tail when ho owned him.

Theii .John C. Sullivan, of Cambridge, Mass., owner of Revillo Punch, second to Lancelot, iu the open class, took up the cudgels and made a loud and vigorous protest. The Westminister Kennel Club refused to entertain it on the ground that the matter had been settled by the American Kennel Club for good. Then Sullivan hired lawyers and murmured mysteriously of new discovered evidence, ami finally prevailed on the American Kennel Club to order the Westminister Kennel Club to overhaul the scandal. Thus the case of the crooked tail was all opened up again. In the meantime the dog, with the bolt on his ’scutcheon, was kept entered in other bench shows around the country and kept on winning prizes.

A! any pedigrees were in danger. X-ray experts had photographed the tail to prove that the bones were not broken in making the tail curl artificially. Much money had been sacrificed on the costly litigations. Thousands more would be spent to perpetuate the integrity of Lancelot’s caudal.

Then the dog wearied of the controversv and died,

Xow. if this had been simply a man woman or child the case would have been thrown out of court with the death of the defendant. But this tale of a tail goes on after death. The tail was removed in the presence of witnesses and bottled in alcohol as indisputable evidence should posterity ever question the validity of a final just decision. To be the descendant of a straight tailed father was awful to consider, for in the high dog world family history is more jealously preserved even than often in the high world of society, where so many do not care to go back over one generation. The status of the tail of Lancelot must be fixed for all time. Well, the Westminister Kennel Club decided it was a “faked” tail. Then the owner took another appeal to the American Kennel Club, and the executive committee, composed of August Belmont. William (L itockefeller and the other multi-million-aires, began again the consideration of the case. They have held many meetings, with much circumstance and gravity, and have just reached a decision which it is to be hoped will settle the controversy for all time — that Lancelot’s tail was born crooked and not “crooked” by artifice. This decision is to the effect, technically, that as long as the Westminister Kennel Club did not have its vetinary immediately pass on the validity of the tail when Lancelot was protested at the ringside, and at, which time the owner of Lancelot demanded a decision. The Westminister Kennel Club lost its right to subsequently disbar the dog. While the American Kennel Club ordered the Westminister Kennel Club to reopen the case on the ground of newly discovered evidence, and there was no new evidence produced, the executive committee of the American Kennel Club—the court of last resort—has just decided that the Westminister Kennel Club had no right to review the old evidence. So ended this odd talc of a tail of a dog.— ‘‘New v ork American Journal,”