Related article: first prizes himself, and to see
two of the three others carried off
by the late Mr. Colman's animals,
both bred by him. One was the
Norwich winner " May," and the
other a steer named Master Har-
binger, of the same Angus-
Shorthorn cross. Nor did their
triumphs end here, for the steer
was selected as the best of his
sex in the Show, and took the
£so Cup accordingly. The cross-
bred heifer, good as she was,
could not hold her own against
Lord Strathmore's *• Ju-ju" and
Mr. Learner's Shorthorn, and it
was no more than what was ex-
pected when Buy Epivir-Hbv " Ju-ju " was
awarded the ;f 50 Cup lor heifers,
and then came out triumphant
from the final competition for the
Champion Plate and the Chal-
lenge Cup. She has, in fact,
achieved just the same series of
victories which another Glamis
heifer of the same breed won two
years ago, and she has won ;^3oo
in money and four Challenge Cups
of the nominal value of nearly
;^5oo. This is not a bad fort-
night's work, and the Welsh
butcher who -bought her will not
see his money back by what her
meat brings, but it is a very effec-
tive sort of advertisement.
The sheep were about the same
in numbers and quality that they
have been for several years, and
the exclusion of Epivir-Hbv Price the classes for
ewes was generally approved of,
while the scanty support accorded
to the long-wooUed classes sug-
gests the advisability of omitting
them altogether, as the money
always goes into the same hands.
The Southdowns were nume-
rously represented, but it did not
strike one that they were anything
out-of-the-way good, though the
late Mr. Colman's pen of sheath-
ing wethers well deserved the Cup
as the best of the breed. And
here I may open a parenthesis to
remark that the late Mr. Col-
man's executors won the Cups for
the best Crossbred, the best Red
Poll and the best Southdowns, to
say nothing of the £s^ Cup for
the best steer or ox, and six first
prizes in the six classes where
they were represented. Mr. Col-
man's Southdowns were, of course,
in the fight for the Prince of
Wales* Challenge Cup, but here
they had to knuckle under to a
fine i>en of Shropshires exhibited
by Mr. Philo Mills, and among
other sheep which came well out
of the comp)etition were some
Dorset Horns sent by Mr.
M'Calmont from his Hereford-
shire estate.
The pigs, of which Mr. Pricker's
pen of Berkshires was selected for
the Duke of York's Cup, looked
as toothsome as to me they
always do, but for anyone who is
anxious to get up an appetite,
70
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[Jaxuait
commend me to the show of table
poultry, which, thanks to Sir
Walter Gilbey, Mr. Tegetmeier
and Mr. C. £. Brooke, has gone
on improving each year, and
bids fair to make us independent
of French methods of fattening
and preparing birds for the spit.
Another interesting and useful
addition to the Show is the sec-
tion known as the " carcase "
competition, for, competent as the
judges appointed to take the live-
stock classes may be, they cannot
possibly tell exactly what is the
proportion of lean and fat meat
the different animals carry, and
it seems a self-evident proposition
that when they are slaughtered
and their carcases exhibited and
weighed, the decision arrived at
must be more correct. It took
some time, however, to get the
block-test re-introduced at the
Smithfield Club, even in a modi-
fied form, but the entries, despite
the moderate prizes, have gone on
increasing, and there can be no
doubt that it has already done
good, for if the sheep sent this
time were still fat — too fat — they
were not quite such a mass of
blubber as at the first two or
three competitions, while the beef
showed a decided improvement.
So that the Show, taken all round,
was of at least average interest,
and it is to be hoped that Lord
Winterton, • who succeeds the
Prince of Wales as President for
this year, and who was to have
been succeeded by the late Baron
Ferdinand de Rothschild, will
find the Smithfield Club em-
barking not less auspiciously
upon its second century.
Other Christmas Shows. —
" The greatest Show on Earth."
Wild animals, horses, acrobats,
freaks, and all, have arrived at
Olympia, and long before these
lines will have been read will have
given their first performance.
There is huge company, and a
great stock of properties, wfaik
novelties will be found not to
have been neglected. Then Heir
Wolff opened at the Crystal
Palace on Boxing Day. His
circus is as complete as usual, and
he has several exceedingly well-
trained liberty horses. Time was
when there were three circuses
running at once in London, but
now for some reason or other she
hardly appears equal to supporting
one. With the closing of Astley's
the taste for a circus seems to
have partly died out, though at the
Crystal Palace Herr WolflTs enter-
tainment draws good audiences
during its short season.
A Great Billiard Match.-
Every reader of Baily, who takes
even the most superficial interest
in our great indoor pastime, ^ill
welcome the announcement that
articles of agreement have at
length been signed by John Roberts
and Charles Dawson, for a match
at billiards on equal terms, a
subject, it will be remembered,
of much paper warfare a year ago.
Never since June, 1885, when he
defeated Joseph Bennett in the
last match ever played for the
Championship on the now obsolete
championship table, has John
Roberts met an opponent on even
terms, though it will not be for-
gotten that W. J. Peall has re-
peatedly challenged him, without
response, to a level match "all-
in," the game, until the recent
passing of the Revised Rules, of
English billiards. Such a really
sporting and genuine encounter as
the money match under notice
can hardly fail to excite intense
public interest, whatever may be
the popular opinion, based on the
** public form " of the contracting
parties, as to its result.
The terms of Dawson's chal-
lenge, viz. J ** to play under the
Rules of the Billiard Association,
IS99.]
SPORTING INTELLIGENXE.