Animals: Dogs

Along Broadway, Manhattan, strayed a brindle Great Dane bitch as big as a calf and as heavy as a featherweight boxer, all alone, with her tongue lolling out and a puzzled look in her eyes. The doorman of the Hotel Breslin had never seen a Great Dane bitch before, but unlike the other Manhattanites along the block, he was not frightened. The bitch looked as if she might be worth money; he stepped out and took Her by the collar. An hour later from a Manhattan police station to which the doorman had consigned her. Handler Ben Lewis of Lexington, Ky., removed his Great Dane. He explained that as he got off the train in the Pennsylvania station that morning Fionne von Loheland had slipped her leash and run away; he had been looking all over town for her. He was glad to get her back—Fionne was worth $12,000 to her master, Harkness Edwards. Lewis took her to Madison Square Garden and benched her for exhibition in the Westminster Kennel Club's annual show. Also Breeder Edwards entered in the show the bitch's halfbrother, Gunar von Hollergarten (see cut) who was adjudged best working dog and best of breed.

Last year 55,256 dogs were shown in the U. S.; the best of them were among 2,513 entries for the Westminster Kennel Club show. It was, as always, an event important for its social as well as its sporting aspects; along the street outside the Garden were parked expensive foreign cars which had been used, with a crate strapped on the trunk rack, for dog transportation. Inside, in the carpeted rings, amid the overpowering stench of the disinfectants that are used to prevent the epidemics of distemper that so often get started at shows, famed and valuable dogs paraded, were judged, awarded, and clapped for.

Border Terriers, never shown in the U. S. before, were not recognized as a breed in England until 1920. They are smart fox-hunting dogs and get their name because they come from the borderland of Scotland and England. They are small, hard-looking terriers, a foot high and weighing about 15 Ib. A West Point cadet who showed three of them had the class to himself. Best was Blacklyne Lady.

Boston Terriers were the third largest class in the show. It took nine hours to judge them. William Cornbill's Imogene V took the blue.

Collies. Champion Lucason of Ashtead o'Bellhaven beat his son Bellhaven Lucason for the blue. Both are owned by Mrs. Florence Ilch of Red Bank, N. J., one of the most energetic fanciers in the U. S.

Irish Wolfhounds spent most of their time asleep, although gapers who knew nothing of dogs kept standing round their benches to ogle them and exclaim when they woke up to gobble huge chunks of red meat. This breed, because of its appetite, is one of the most expensive in the world to maintain. When they were judged, King Lir of Ambleside made Mrs. Northrup Bellinger proud of him.