four gentlemen, I was admiring a very handsome looking
Boston, a candidate for high honors, when his owner called out to me: "Mr.
Axtell, do not go too near him or he will bite your fingers off." I
replied: "You need not advise an old dog man like me; I can tell by the
look of his eye what he would do if given a chance. You have no right
whatever to show such a dog." Since then I went to the kennels where a
noted prize winner is placed at public stud, and he showed such a vicious
disposition and attempt to bite through the bars of his pen that the
attendant had to cover the bars over with a blanket. Such dogs as these
should be given at once a sufficient amount of chloroform and a suitable
burial without mourners. If a man must keep such a brute, then a strong
chain and a secure place where his owner alone can visit him is absolutely
imperative.

Boston terriers, of all breeds, must possess perfect dispositions if they
are to maintain their present popularity; and yet, how many unscrupulous
breeders and dealers are palming off upon a confiding public dogs which,
instead of being "put away" (I think that is the general term they use)
should be put under so much solid mother earth that no one would suspect
their interment. I know it takes considerable grit and force of character
to cheerfully put to sleep a dog for which perhaps a large sum of money
has been paid, that has developed an uncertain, snappy disposition, yet it
pays so to do; honesty is not alone the best policy, but the only one. In
my experience as a dog man I could give many personal incidents concerning
the sale of vicious dogs, but for space sake one must suffice.

Last year a Chicago banker sent me an order for a dog similar in style and
disposition to the one I had sold him a few years previously, to go to his
niece, a young lady staying for treatment at a large sanatorium in
southern Massachusetts. I replied that I had not in my kennels a large
enough dog to suit, but that I knew a dealer who possessed a fairly good
reputation who had, and would get him for him if he would run the chances.
This was satisfactory, and I bought the dog. He was guaranteed to me as
all right in every way, but I felt somewhat suspicious, as the price was
very low for a dog of his style. I kept him with me for a week and saw no
outs whatever about him, and practically concluded my suspicions were
unfounded.

Upon taking the dog personally to the young lady in question, I to