hundred. These prices are, of course,
for the ordinary all-around good dogs. With dogs that approximate
perfection, and which only come in the same proportion as giants and
dwarfs do in the human race (I believe the proportion is one in five
thousand), and the advent of which would surprise the average kennel man
as much as if the President had sent him a special invitation to dine with
him at the White House, the price is problematical, and is negotiated
solely by the demand for such a wonder by a comparatively few buyers.

I think Boston terriers as a breed occupy the same position amongst dogs
as the hunter and carriage horse does amongst horses. Each are more or
less a luxury. A well matched pair of horses of good all-round action, of
desirable color and perfect manners and suitable age will sell in the
Eastern cities (I am not sufficiently acquainted with the other sections
of the country to know values there) at from eight hundred to two thousand
dollars, but with a pair of carriage horses able to win on the tan bark,
the price will be regulated by the comparatively few people who have
sufficient money to spare to purchase this fashionable luxury, and ten
times the amount paid for the first mentioned pair would be a reasonable
price to pay for the prize winners. I think the winners of the blue in the
Bostons would fetch a relative sum.

The important factor of the cost of production in the case of the dog
necessarily enters into the selling price. Good Bostons are as hard to
raise as first class hunters, and a correspondingly large sum has to be
obtained to meet expenses, to say nothing of profit, but in the writer's
experience the best dog or horse sells the readiest. Do not be misled by
the remark "that a dog is worth all he will bring." Generally speaking,
this is sound logic, but not always. Many dogs have been sold for very
little by people not cognizant of their value, but this in no way changed
the intrinsic worth of the dog. On the other hand, many dogs have been
disposed of at many times their real value, but this transaction did not
enhance their worth in the slightest degree. A gold dollar is worth one
hundred cents whether changed for fifty cents or five hundred. An article
of intrinsic value never changes. Our advice to all who have dogs for sale
(or any other article, in fact), ask what you know is a good, honest, fair
value, and although you may not sell the dog today, remember that there
are other