A WONDERFUL JUMPING HOUND.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 50, 17 July 1906, Page 8

A WONDERFUL JUMPING HOUND.

CLEARS 14 FEET WITH EASE. TRAINED BY A WOMAN. * Of all the wonders, biped or quadruj»ed, that have at one time or another drawn curious cro.wds in Paris, Berlin and London, noneT> er baps has vxcited greater measure of Interest than the remarkable Russian wolfhound just now favouring his audiences with a series of high jumps calculated to make the famous big men. of Harvard, Yale, Oxford or Cambridge gape in amazement. In respect of stellar distinction, the quadruped has momentarily eclipsed the human.

And Darby, approximately enough named after a famous English jumper now occupies the place of “headliner” on every bill, to the exclusion and chagrin of the soubrett-es, the singing comedians, tramp jugglers, clowns, duettists and others who go to comprise the ordinary bill. But the honours of Darby do not end here. His progress through Europo as the nly dog in the world capable of taking a standing jump of fourteen feet, is akin to the procession of a conqueror. Special cars, fitted with all things that can appeal to the sybarite tastes of a canine aristocrat are his fortune, and a retinue of attendants waits on him to do his bidding rod «" he walks in solemn majesty the principle street in a pro- • ncial city he is followed by a long ain of humble canine won»hippers of 1- >s**r degree ; altogether he presents a certain parallel to the gentleman with short hair who has just won the heavy weight championship. That a dog even such a splendidly developed mass of bone and wire and muscle as Darby, should be able to clear fourteen feet at a standing jump from the ground, and eighteen feet clear from a springboard, over the head of his owner and trainer, Mile. Lachance, would seem almost incredible. Yet that he has accomplished this feat; and in doing so has broken the world’s record for canine performances is attested by the audiences who have witnessed his acts. Mile. Laehance sits on a beautiful ’Arabian horse, sixteen hands high, her riding whip held horizontally at full arm’s length above her head. Then Darby lightly steps to the side, carefully measures his distance, crouches for one moment m his big brown eyes steadily fixed on m the tip of the whip, then a huge body bounds upward and describing a beautiful half-circle, flies clean over the top of the whip, landing with the grace, ease and lightness of a professional acrobat on the other side. There is no mat or net to catch him as he drops, nevertheless he falls as lightly, as a cat, and always in exactly the* right way. Time was when Mile. Lachance thought to lighten his labours with the aid of a blanket held up and outward on the other side of the horse. But Darby, after one experience, refused to move, barking his objections with no uncertain sound. In dog language he said : "I’ll have you to understand that I know my business. l'U drop in my own way or you may consider my engagement cancelled."

And from that time.he had his way | It is. the standing high jump of Lfparteen feet, however, that has per(feap# added most to the fame of this soctraordinary dog and brought the athlete amateur or professional, graduate or undergraduate, from •very university to the doors of the theatres m which he appears. For to their minds the standing high Jump marks the border line of : sport as distinguished from acrobatics.

The jump is taken from the ground Darby stands squat under a bar held at a height of fourteen feet, and again measuring the distance with his eye, jumps in the same graceful sweep, touching the ground four feet away on the other side. "It is his remarkable ability in dropping that astonishes me even as it does others," says Mile. Lachance in talking of his achievements. “He seems to know as if by instinct how to jump. He can take a leap from high windows that would kill another dog. Some idea of his strength and lightness can perhaps be gathered when I tell you that he is able to jump from the ground on to a thin pane of glass laid across the backs of two chairs and then off again without breaking the glass. "How have I trained him ? How have I accomplished this result?" she adds. "Well, you know it is not difficult to train a dog of high intelligence, and his intelligence is almost human. He can do anything in the world except talk, and he can even talk in canine language so that anyone may understand him. "You see, he came into my hands as a very little puppy,. My business has been that of training dogs to jump, and the moment 1 saw him 1 realized that his lore legs and lore body wer* gbnorwaUy dtYoJoped, bis

m» were iong, h!«" muaci»—*en> built of steel. So, too, were bis hind legs, showing tremendous propWUng power. "To me, with such a prize, the rest was easy. I had to let his powers develop gradually and naturally, to train him aa one would train a pugilist or a runner. Fine, light nourishing food with the fat that makes bone and sinew—not too much of it however— and a day by day cold water or sea water bathing of those precious legs until they grew hard and flexible as a steel board. Then came the training for the jumping. At first I really had no conception of his natural powers. His earlier performances had been of the usual kind, leaping or turning somersaults over chairs and tables from a springboard, in the way of most performing dogs. But I. noticed first that however he fell he fell as light as a leather.

"Then all at once one day he amazed us all in a gymnasium as we stood doing other work by stepping gravely up to a horizontal bar ten feet from the floor,, critically measuring the distance and flying clean over the bar without even an effort. It was then that my eyes were opened to his great possibilities, and I proceeded U> train him to the point of perfection at which he has now arrived.

"I believe he has no equal and never can have an equal in this world, -because scarcely one wolfhound in five thousand is so powerfully developed in limb or body. “Above all things else he objects to pampering ; be objects to the palace cars ; he objects to his attendants ; he objects to railroad conductors or guards. Left to himself, there is nothing he would delight in so much as a road run of a hundred miles or so to the next stopping place with an occasional fight with another dog or a foray after cats." In addition to this wonderful high jumping, and his equally wonderful feat of jumping on to a window pane held horizontally,, and off again without even cracking the glass, Darby has been taught to jump over a tub of water. This may not seem very difficult, but it is. In making the jump what may be called a double spring is required. Darby jumps as if to alight in the tub of water, but just as his feet touch the water he springs upward again, alighting on the ground at the opposite side of the tub. An examination of the dog’s feet will show that they barely touched the water at all, and that lie did not make the slightest splash. —"N. Y. World."