Animals: 1 of 3,093

In a great show at Westminster last May, Britons saw a coronation. At another Westminster show, held in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, Americans last week saw another coronation of less solemnity but more suspense. For until Judge John Bates stepped into the main ring and made his choice, 15,000 spectators had no knowledge which canine aristocrat would be crowned.

No other U. S. sporting exhibition has so long an unbroken record—62 successive years—as the show of the Westminster Kennel Club. But Westminster might have died a-whelping had it not been for Superintendent Charles Lincoln, imported from England to make the first shows a success. Last week’s 3,093 dog aristocrats paraded through their paces under the management of modest George Foley, professional superintendent of Westminster since 1928. He arranged benching, soothed disappointed exhibitors. His 125 white-uniformed attendants herded contestants from belowstairs kennels to main floor judging rings, kept the place clean, told inquisitive spectators the difference between boxers and bulls, between judges and exhibitors.

George Foley had also supervised the erection by Spratt’s Patent Ltd. of a mile of temporary kennels, in which the dogs lay panting, yapping, sleeping, in which handlers & owners, as well, occasionally took refuge. In three days the So tons of dogs were fed four tons of Spratt’s dog food, a sop of wheat, meat, bone dust, and water. Foley for his order, Spratt’s for their larder, between them pocketed a large slice of the 875.000 laid out by the Club. Other major expenses: $20,000 each for rent of the Garden and for prizes.

Besides the main events, visitors watched an exhibition of sheepherding by three Border collies, trained by Luke Pasco, who, blind from five to ten, was led about his father’s farm by a Border collie. With neatness and dispatch the dogs split, drove, penned a small flock of bewildered sheep. Cracked New York’s ex-Mayor James John Walker (on hand to follow Irish terriers): “This sheepherding may become very popular around town. It might be a particularly good idea for the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.”

From the solid shoulders of ruddy, jovial Sportsman John Grenville Bates the responsibility of picking best in snow slid like water from a spaniel’s back. Against one of the same sturdy shoulders a gun butt is often set, for John Bates can spare enough time from his Wall Street brokerage business (Taylor, Bates & Co.) to hunt woodcock, grouse, pheasant at the ancient Blooming Grove Hunting and Fishing Club in Pike County, Pa., to shoot in South Carolina and the Florida fiats. He finds time also to be President of Manhattan’s Leash Club, of the Morris County Golf Club, N. J. and he knows dogs. One of only four dogs which have twice won Westminster’s Best in Show—all four were fox terriers—was John Bates’s wire Ch. Pendley Calling of Blarney, in 1930 and 1931. Seven times Bates has been chairman of Westminster Shows. For many years he raised Irish terriers. Nowadays, he shoots over twelve pointers four of which are show-ring champions.

In the 80s a lady carried in her deep-springed victoria an asthmatic, wrinkly pug; when the automobile was young, a goggling bulldog sat by the goggled driver; the mannish post-War girl and her fox terrier trotted side by side. Calvin Coolidge’s white collie Rob Roy, KatharineCornell’s flop-eared cocker Flush in The Barretts of Wimpole Street started fashions. But from year to year the $75.000,000-per-year dog business finds Westminster’s best a prime fashion factor, lor the choice of the No. 1 judge in the No. 1 dog show tends to become the people’s choice. Before John Bates made his style-setting choice, the dogs judged best in every breed were pitted against one another in six semifinal contests:

Toys (Chihuahuas, Pekingese, Pomeranians, etc.). The smallest and fanciest dogs are the beloved fancy of the bulkiest fanciers. Bulkiest of all at Westminster was John B. Royce of Brookline. Mass., whose tiny, brilliant red homebred Pekingese bitch, Kai Lo of Dah Lyn, pitter-pattered to victory.

Non-Sporting (bulldogs, chows, poodles, Dalmatians, etc.). Month ago Mrs. Milton S. Erlanger’s standard poodle, Ch. Pillicoc Rumpelstilskin. won the American Kennel Club award for best American-bred show dog of 1937. So his victory last week was expected—and forthcoming. Torblack Rumpelstilskin. with his high, surprised looking face and rich mane, had won best in non-sporting groups in 29 shows, eleven better than the closest record of an importation.

Hounds (Afghans, basset hounds, beagles, dachshunds, foxhounds, etc.). Ch. White Rose of Boveway. a sleek greyhound belonging to Harry Twyford Peters, chairman of the show, last year reached the finals. But so keen was the competition among hounds last week, that Judge Joseph Z. Batten passed her over, picked a stubby beagle as best, a stubby dachshund as next best. He waved the dogs to winners stalls; the crowd clapped; friends congratulated the beagle’s owner. Then Judge Batten thought better, put first the dachshund, Ch. Fox von Teckelhof, owned by Hugh O’Neill of Joplin, Mo.

Working (boxers, collies, German shepherds, great Danes, etc.). Judge of working dogs was the Hon. Townsend Scudder whose Greenwich, Conn, neighbors have gone to law because his 70 spaniels yap so loud. He picked a sable & white Chicago collie, Ch. Hertzville Headstone, undefeated in 19 shows.

Sporting (pointers, setters, retrievers, spaniels). Westminster’s versatile Chairman Harry Peters (who last month insisted in a Metropolitan Museum of Art lecture that sport has influenced art more than religion) had entered, beside his greyhound, a lemon & white pointer named Sensation, which his son had bought “for a bark” (actually $50) from a Rochester, N. Y. farmer. Though best of the pointers, Ch. Windholme Sensation lost in the sporting group to a mere pup, Sportsman Dwight Ellis’ gay English setter, Daro of Maridor.

Terriers (Airedales, Bedlingtons, cairns, fox terriers, etc.). In London last week, at the same time as the Westminster show in Manhattan, was held the immense, 9,109-dog Cruft’s Show (which in England is second in importance to the smaller Kennel Club Show). Day after Breeder Sheldon M. Stewart of Montclair, N. J. received a cable that his homebred Airedale Merry Sovereign had gone to best terrier at Cruft’s. his homebred Airedale Ch. Shelterock Modest Smasher was named best of breed at Westminster. But a few hours later the fox terrier which had beat Merry Sovereign for the group award year ago, also put Modest Smasher down—all white Ch. Flornell Spicypiece of Halleston, winner of best in show in 1937 and a favorite for 1938.

When the three big and three little finalists (all, except Spicypiece, American-bred—a new record for Westminster shows) romped into the ring, 15,000 spectators began all together nominating their choices to their neighbors. Judge Bates looked first at Rumpelstilskin, the poodle. He seemed a little frightened by the formidable little Pekingese, over which huge John Royce fluttered with a hairbrush. He paused long by white Spicy-piece who stood in marble stillness. He ran his fingers through the collie’s long coat. He carefully examined the teeth, fore & hindquarters, neck, back and feathers of the setter pup, Daro of Maridor. As he put each dog through its paces, the crowd applauded to show preference: they favored the poodle, the precise terrier, the ridiculously proud dachshund and the young orange setter, gayest in motion. Down the line Judge Bates moved again, perspiring. When he finally waved Handler Charles Palmer and Daro of Maridor to the centre, no disgruntled boo, no catcall could be heard above the applause.

Daro of Maridor, in the first show of his life, had won a thousand fancies. Only eleven months old, he is a winning pup of a winning sire, Sturdy Max, which Owner Ellis had bought for $2,500 from Sturdy Dog Food Co. This year Dwight W. Ellis withdrew Max from competition because he could not bear the thought of Daro’s beating Max. As it was, Daro outshone his littermates Dora, Mora and Maro. Owner Ellis bred only for utility until two years ago. has since had success on the bench with dogs bred for both use and beauty. Sturdy Max was sturdy. Daro has been trained by Handler Charles Palmer to fetch pheasants as well as sprout feathers.

Dwight Ellis’ Maridor Kennels near Longmeadow, Mass, are a canine Waldorf-Astoria, with a lounge, an infirmary, a grooming room. Each dog has an individual concrete run and a little canvas-quilted cot. One of its walls carries a plaque with the names of the A. K. C. champions Dwight Ellis has raised. Judging by Daro’s first showing, it will soon bear the name of DARO OF MARIDOR, first setter to win best in show at the Westminster, first American-bred to win since 1925.