At the Hohokus Fair, too, the Country Gentleman's imported Holstein
bull, Tenebris, had had to content himself with a measly red rosette
in token of second prize, while the silver cup went to a bull owned by
an elderly North Jerseyman of low manners, who had bred his own entry
and had bred the latter's ancestors for forty years back.
It was discouraging, it was mystifying. There actually seemed to be a
vulgar conspiracy among the down-at-heel rural judges--a conspiracy to
boost second-rate stock and to turn a blind eye to the virtues of
overpriced transatlantic importations.
It was the same in the poultry shows and in hog exhibits. It was the
same at the County Fair horse-trots. At one of these trots the Wall
Street Farmer, in person, drove his $9000 English colt. And a rangy
Hackensack gelding won all three heats. In none of the three did
Glure's colt get within hailing distance of the wire before at least
two other trotters had clattered under it.
(Glure's English head-groom was called on the carpet to explain why a
colt that could do a neat 2.13 in training was beaten out in a 2.17
trot. The groom lost his temper and his place. For he grunted, in
reply, "The colt was all there. It was the driving did it.")
The gun-room's glassed shelves in time were gay with ribbon. But only
two of the three primary colors were represented there--blue being
conspicuously absent. As for cups--the burglar who should break into
Glure Towers in search of such booty would find himself the worse off
by a wageless night's work.
Then it was that the Wall Street Farmer had his Inspiration. Which
brings us by easy degrees to the Hampton Dog Show.
Even as the Fiery Cross among the Highland crags once flashed signal
of War, so, when the World War swirl sucked nation after nation into
its eddy, the Red Cross flamed from one end of America to the other,
as the common rallying point for those who, for a time, must do their
fighting on the hither side of the gray seas. The country bristled
with a thousand money-getting functions of a thousand different kinds;
with one objective--the Red Cross.
So it happened at last that North Jersey was posted, on state road and
byway, with flaring placards announcing a Mammoth Outdoor Specialty
Dog show, to be held under the auspices of the Hampton Branch of the
American National Red Cross, on Labor Day.
Mr. Hamilcar Q. Glure, the announcement continued, had kindly donated
the use of his beautiful grounds for the Event, and had subscribed
three hundred dollars towards its running expenses and prizes.
Not only were the usual dog classes to be judged, but an added
interest was to be supplied by the awarding of no less than fifteen
Specialty Trophies.
Mr. Glure, having offered his grounds and the initial three hundred
dollars, graciously turned over the details of the Show to a
committee, whose duty it was to suggest popular Specialties and to
solicit money for the cups.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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