The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 14, 1902, Page 7

THE SUNDAY CALL. COV :-‘4‘ () 5] S22 BN VERY dog has his day. This is the day of the greyhound and whippet. Not that cvursing and dog rec- ing are new sports. On the con- trery, they are very old ones; but up to the last few years they have been patronized by the masses rather the classes. It is the comparatively recent adoption of them as gentlemen's that give them the seeming of a fad ody knows what & greyhound is, f 1t is not so generally known how the dog came by his name. Just what the Egyptians called him is not divulged by the monum of thi its that bear representations s enclent »e race; but that was ning down o the t gland and the 8000 years ago ne he was ¢ allowed to be nobles and princes, he seems to red the round” sight alone, the having ers in developing bec and has not the action of the stepping up to his chin. Per- he is longer in thighs than proper, and more arched in his gait park hack the greyhound few ye: c s since classes were given for whippets in England, and now the dog 1s found figuring largely n ken- nel ‘club shows. The entry of this breed tm the Kennel Club stamps him as a pure breed of dog, pecu- liar and representative in every way. Aside from his use as a racing dog, is singularly handsome, for he is built on graceful, lines. This accounts for his popularity as a boudoir pet. Com- bining beauty and fleetness, he is bound to become more and more the fashionable favorite, being already marked with the seal of approval of the Kennel Club-and the International Kennel Club of Eng- lznd, which have only to ir“‘cate the cor- studbook at once he delicate rect thing in dogs to have the sugges- tion followed religiously elsewhere. Thus far, however, the whippet has not ventured west of New York; but with the keen interest of California sportsmen in coursing, it is probable that whippet- racing will in time come in for its share of popularity here. The sport is a fascinating one. At the handicaps in England there-are often 300 dogs on the card, and these run off in beats of five each with the regularity of clockwork. The dogs are handicapped according to weight and performances. The allowance should be from two to three yards to the pound; that is, an eighteen-pound dog should get five to six yards off a sixteen- pound dog. Bitches, too, are keener than the dogs, and should be handicapped ac- cordingly until their form is known. Twenty-five pounds is about the limit for flectness, and the lighter dogs are a bet- ter choice. Sometimes the big dogs savaging the little one no end of bother and t if the trait where a are given to and this causes feeling; and past the point spiked muzzle will prevent it— as has happened—the dog becomes prac- tically useless, no matter what his rec- ord is for speed. A good plan to stop this practice is to place canvse partitions right up the course, marking out paths as in foot-racing. This is called ‘“slap- P and keeps the dogs apart until the start is made. The actual course should be 200 yards straight, but shorter courses are used where space is limited. Where there are race courses there are generally straights is developed w4 of that distance and ten to twenty yards more to stop the dogs in after they cross the winning line. The whippets run to what are known as the runners-up. These men start off, waving towels, urging their dogs to come on, while the dogs are being held on thelr respective handicap marks, screaming in their desire to get away. The slippers hold their dogs by the necks and roots of the tail, and at a pistol shot they are thrown into their stride, andgaway they go. It is hard to liken the pace to that of » other animal. No other animal of the same weight could compete 1 a good whippet, which covers seventeen yards a second for a period of twelve seconds, with the dwell at the start thrown ‘n. They often cross the winning line all in a bunch, which makes the sport an ex- ng one. The excitement of the race nciea 1 by the fact that the runners- who stand shaking the towels for the an wi p, dogs to take liold of, must be over the mark ten vards away from the winning line, thus at full tilt. The dogs run in ribbon collars of thelr racing colors, and the holsting of a flag of the same color as the favor wora by the dog proclaims the winner. After th suring the whippets finishing first round there is & :.cou araw, and thus they are run out with five or six dogs in the final. Prizes are often offer- ed for winners of heats. The dogs will run to any one, but they usually travel faster to one they know. Sooner or later whippet-racing is bound to become popular, but whatever the keenness for the sport, it is equally cer- tain that the whippet will never eclipse the hound. Coursing has stood the test of too many centurles for that. The coursing of the hare by grey- hounds is fully described by Greek and Latin authors of the first and second cen- tu the leading features of the sport seem to have been much the same es, and as In the present day. During the middle ages it was but little heard of, and the first known set of rules in England for determining the merits of a course were drawn up by the Duke of Norfolk in Queen: Elizabeth's reign, though no open trjals were heard of until half a century late The chief followers of the sport were found first among the yoemen and middie classes, who preferred coursing to horse- racing on account of its being more eco- nomical and devoid of the chicanery con- nected with the latter. The same, how- ever, can hardly be said of the sport to- Coursing and Dog Racing as a Fad ——— day. Many noblemen keep large kennels of greyhounds, are enthusiastic patrons of coursing and further the sport by pre- perving hares and providing coursing grounds. Nor is the sport now carried on in & manner entirely devold of sharp Ppractices. A point not usually borne in mind by those who criticizse coursing is that & compaerative trial of two dogs, and not the capture of the game pursued, is the great distinctive trait of the sport. Then, too, the hare is not the only game used, and the spectators have different ways of following, sometimes walking, some- times riding, and even driving.. The lat- ter mode is often used in South Africa. In South Africa, as in all other places where the Englishman is, coursing has taken a firm hold. In the old days, when everybody had money, and before the consolidation of the diamond mines, the Kimberley Cup coursing match was the biggest event of the continent. The whole of Kimberley turned out on hoofs and wheels, and the wagering was enormous. Everybody from the Cape to the Trans- vaal had great respect for the Kimberley greyh , and a course in Africa might mean one or three miles, and that over some rough country. The game there is a small antelope called “steinbuck™ by the Dutch. Standing about twenty-three inches, the “ram,” as he is locally called, is a pretty anim: reddish in color, with straight_ sharp horns, and bullt with tre- mendous power behind and shoulders without an ounce of flesh on them. He is a nice match for the hound, whose every line is suggestive of activity and speed—the long, pointed muzzle and narrow head. thin neck, deep chest, flanks contracted and long, slender legs. The greyhounds are in the slips, and after a tramp of an hour the slipper may be fortunate enough to liberate his charges. he game Is so shy that the buck becomes scared at the cavalcade, and very often the dogs have to be “rid- den on” or helped in sighting the buck that has risen from his shelter behind & Continued on Page Eleven.