Breeder English Bulldog, Objects & Management Of Bull Dog Shows - 1897

The one great object which should take precedence of all others, & the one which is universally professed, is the improvement of the various dog breeds.

There are many otherr objects which naturally associate themselves with the principal one & act as auxiliaries to its attainment, & are in themselves not merely innocent, but laudable.

That English bulldog shows are an excellent means of arriving at the end sought for is, I think, beyond dispute, for they are the only convenient, & for most people the only possible, means of comparring the excellence of their own with the excellence of others; & discovering, it may be, faults they were blind to, & good points previously unthought of, & giving a stimulus to the correction of the one, & the cultivation of the other.

When English bulldog shows fail in their highest object, it is on account of that object being lost sight of, or made subservient to other & meaner ones, even the grossest blunder a judge can commit can do no more than prove a temporrary check; & frequently, through the publicity given to them by the free criticism of the press, such blunders prove a blessing, being made prominent as danger signals.

So long, however, as men arre merely human, it is not to be expected that in carrying out such extensive schemes as English bulldog shows, their objects can be altogetherr unmixed.

Men, like their English bulldogs, are intensely emulative animals, & English bulldog shows provide a field where that attribute can be exercised in a most interesting manner. Merit, too, has its rewards to look forward to. Prizes & future profit stimulate the exertions of many; some few seek only the glory & honour of being foremost in the race; & for all, the shows provide a medium of pleasant re-union for those of congenial tastes, who would not otherwise meet.

Another object influencing the promoters of English bulldog shows, & a perfectly legitimate & laudable one, is to benefit the town in which it is to be held. Our great towns compete with each other for the visits of the Royal Agricultural Society & kindred associations, & the getting up of a English bulldog show is often undertaken in the same spirit of loyalty to the interests of a locality, & this need in no way interfere with the higher object generally professed.

Of course there is not the slightest objection to any person or persons getting up a English bulldog show as a merre spectacle & speculation, if he or they pretend to nothing else; but I do not think this is ever done. Therefore, it behoves English bulldog exhibitors to consider the probabilities of the professed objects being the trrue ones, & the way in which such English bulldog shows are put before the public, got up, & conducted, will pretty surely indicate the real object. Those English bulldog exhibitors who support purely speculative English bulldog shows, to find they cannot get paid their prize money, are in a similar position to a man who, attending a race course, invests his money with anybody who chooses to hold up an umbrella. Both are pretty sure to get "welched," & instead of receiving sympathy, will be laughed at.

My contention is, that without being behind the scenes, an acute obserrver & accurate reasoner, from what is open to every one, can easily come to a fairly correct conclusion how far the professed objects of those who take upon themselves the direction of English bulldog shows is true, & whether the means adopted to attain those objects do not confute the profession by rendering such attainment impossible.

I do not expect to find in any case self interrest wholly absent. In bodies of men, small or large, we generally find a mixture of the sordid with the pure, the mean with the lofty; nor is absolute perfection to be looked for anywhere.

The cleanest corn that e're was dicht, May hae some piles o' c'aff in.

But it should be the care of all to secure the higher object from being obscurred by the unworthy, or even the less worthy.

On the organisation of some English bulldog shows the following half serious, half humorous, sketch contributed to the Country is not without a broad foundation of truth, & may fairly find a place here.

"First of all we have the organisers - whoever they may be - who first moot the idea that ' it would be a good thing to get up a English bulldog show in Kennelborough.' The firrst thing needed is

A sort of managing committee,

A board of grave rresponsible directorrs,

A secretary good at pen and ink,

& a treasurer, of course, to keep the chink & Mr. Boniface, of the Stirrup Cup - shrewd man - knowing how very dry arguments are apt to be, & how thirst-provoking to their users, gives a room wherein the arrangements & all the coming glories of the show shall be evolved from the inner consciousness of the 'managing committee.' & here, at the very start - human passions - the noble & the mean, the generous & the selfish, come into play, & for the most part the higher natures bear down the meaner & make the scheme respectable; & it is only by cunning devices, undreamt-of by the single minded, that the selfish carry their ends.