The Crimson Bookshelf

THIS volume, which is the third in the series "Life and Art in Photography," contains one hundred photographs of the principal breeds. Laymen often wonder how the experts can talk so glibly about the details which distinguish one breed from another. Few people can have known so much about dogs as Dr. Johnson, who was no expert, and who certainly did not learn what he knew from wiping his greasy fingers, after dinner, on the ready back of a collie. It is important, observed Dr. Johnson, that the bull-dog possess tenuity; the hind-legs must be relatively thin. Everybody attributes tenacity, as a moral quality, to the breed, and some Englishmen seem quite content for John Bull, who takes his name and characteristics from it, to be regarded as the national archetype. The other breeds, most of which are represented in this volume, also connote various spiritual attributes to the mind of men. Thus we expect hauteur in the King Charles spaniel, conrage in Scottish terrier, selfishness in the Pekingese, and gentleness in the St. Bornard, Man does not yet know the dog however, for two of his most outworn similes directly contradict each other: "as devoted as a dog" and "as treacherous as a dog." Knowledge can scarcely be said to exist where one finds such a contradiction, and the Dachshund or the Dalmatian, the Great, Dane, or the Alsatian, may well wag their respective tails.