Page:The power of the dog.djvu/140



HE United States is a great country, full of many beautiful and wonderful things, but strangely enough it has grown few dogs of its own, the native varieties being singularly limited in number. Although the Boston Terrier is also an exotic, being composed of materials imported in the first instance from Great Britain, we would not be so churlish as to rob our American cousins of one of their most cherished possessions. He is named after the "Hub of the Universe," and that must suffice. The Americans annex all that is best of our own breeds. It was they who gave £1,300 for a St. Bernard, nearly as much for some collies, and over a thousand for several bulldogs, but we have never reciprocated by introducing the gentleman from Boston. Perhaps, in the interests of good feeling between the two nations, it is as well that we have not done so, for the chances are that if we had we should have altered his style, changed the standard of points, and made