Hounds & Hunting - The Beagler's Bible

This year, 2007 marks the 104th Anniversary of Hounds and Hunting and it would be a sacrilege to let this important milestone pass without referring to its origin and its history, as well as to give due credit for the many fine programs it has sponsored, the great knowledge it has imparted, and the open mindedness with which it has permitted discussions and innovations to be aired, uncensored, throughout its pages over the years.

To those who have recently chosen to become involved with our breed and sport it is easy to understand how you might naturally assume that things in beagling were always as you find them today. Cozy clubhouses, fenced in running areas, superhighways, fast traveling autos and planes were nonexistent when organized beagling began. The first American gasoline automobile (The Duryea) did not come into being until 1892, two years after the National Beagle Club ran the first licensed Beagle Field Trial. The first airplane with a motor was put together by the Wright Brothers in 1903, the same year as the first copy of Hounds and Hunting was published. Today we have over four million miles of paved highways, trouble free fast moving vehicles and airports in most major cities so distance, time, and inconvenience is no problem when moving about from place to place. Therefore, we no longer have to possess the hardiness of our pioneer predecessors who had nothing to rely on except railroads and the horse and buggy for transportation. How many of us today would have the fortitude to embark on a venture such as the one they faced, under the conditions they were required to endure, and persist, as they had done against tremendous odds to create a sport that would endure to furnish succeeding generations untold pleasures. They started with practically nothing, from scratch, and we are reaping, and will continue to reap benefits from their efforts far into posterity.

Hounds and Hunting also started from scratch. It was a dream in the minds of the original publishers who envisioned the potential popularity of our breed and had enough faith in the Beagle, as a breed, to devote time, money and effort toward making this dream become a reality. 1903 was not an encouraging year for beginning a publication devoted to a breed and sport that had shown little growth up until that time, so it appears the magazine was created more out of love of the beagle, and as a challenge towards its promotion than because of any expectation of a profit, and certainly the first years of publications showed no indication that the magazine's popularity would ever live up to the hopes of its creators.

From 1903 to 1916 the magazine went under several different names. In 1916 the first Hounds and Hunting was printed in Decatur, Illinois when the name was changed from Hunting, Camping & Fishing. Prior to that it had been Fox & Hound, a combination of Trappers World, The Fur Winner, Wildlife, Beagle Fancier etc. over a nine year period. The new name was to better classify is as "A Monthly of Information About Beagles, Fox and Coonhounds, Hunting and Outdoor Life." The breed first mentioned is a tipoff of things to come with the editor playing up beagles more than all other news combined.

The magazine, under the new name Hounds and Hunting was first printed by Fred O'Flyng who worked it out one page at a time, on a foot powered press in a buggy shed at Clarksdale, Illinois. According to Ike Carrel, Fred didn't know much about beagles, but he believed some day they would be popular enough for a breed publication. Fred said, "They sell for good prices, are king of the rabbit dogs for cottontails and jacks, field trails are pushing them to the front. Sportsmen should fraternalized at the trails and shows by competing with the best from other kennels. Friendly rivalry is advancing beagles through an inviting field. It's a great game, this game of breeding winners and running them at trials." This was the gist of his writings.

To quote Ike, "It's doubtful if Fred ever owned a good beagle or attended a trial, but he did attract attention to beagles and trials, eventually getting a clientele of beaglers as a united audience for beagle news." In need of better printing, O'Flyng went to former townsman and boyhood friend, Eugene Linxweiler, who had a printing shop in nearby Decatur. Later the magazine became Linxweiler's to settle bills for printing, after a beagle book O'Flyng had advertised but never compiled necessitated the refunding of hundreds of dollars in advance orders. It's said this printing bill amounted to less than $1,000. Quite a sum in those days, but would not be a drop in the bucket compared to today's printing costs.

Willet Randall started writing for the magazine in 1909 and Glenn Black in 1914. F.B. Zimmer, owner of the Debonaire Beagles of Gloversville, New York conducted a department and actually suggested the name, Hounds and Hunting in 1915. Enamored with beagles at Westminster in 1882, Zim purchased Constance, by importing Ringwood x Norah, a Rowett bitch. Later he bought Blue Cap Jr. and in 1884 imported Bannerman from an English pack of nine inchers, which with many of the better Rowetts gave a start toward a family of his own. It was shortly after this that the first beagle dual champion, Frank Forest sold for $1,000.

Used extensively, Frank Forest and Bannerman were rivals, being recognized as the leading sires. About this time Capt. William Assheton bought and imported from Sir Arthur Ashburnham of England, Blue Cap and Blue Bell, later the foundation of the Blue Cap strain. Some regarded this pair as "Most beautiful in color with blue mottled collars, legs and underparts, black blankets, less cobby than the Rowetts with the sweetest of expressions." These hounds, with Ringleader, were the backbone of the breed with Hiram Card taking up the Blue Caps through the importer, Capt. Assheton.