in very undesirable colors.

The rich mahogany brindle next became the fashionable color (and
personally I consider it the most beautiful shade), and Mr. A. Goode with
Champion "Monte" and Mr. Rawson with the beautiful pair, "Druid Merke" and
"Vixen," set the pace and every one followed. A few years later Messrs.
Phelps and Davis (who, with the above mentioned gentlemen, were true
friends of the breed), sold a handsome pair of seal brindles, Chs.
"Commissioner II." and "Topsy," to Mr. Borden of New York, and confirmed,
if not established, the fashion for that color in that city. I think that
all people will agree, from all parts of the country, that New York sets
the style for practically everything, from my lady's headgear to the
pattern of her equipages, and the edict from that city has decreed that
the correct color in Boston terriers is a rich seal brindle, with white
markings, with plenty of luster to it, and all sections of the continent
promptly say amen!

I have taken the pains to look up a number of orders that we have recently
received, which include (not enumerating those received from the New
England States, or New York), three from Portland, Oregon, one from
California, one from St. Louis, one from Mexico, four from Canada, two
from Chicago, and one from Texas, and with the exception of two who wished
to replace dogs bought of us ten or twelve years previously, they
practically all wanted seal brindles.

These orders were nearly all from bankers and brokers, men who are
supposed to be en rapport with the dictates of fashion. It goes without
saying that what a public taste demands, every effort will be made to
attain the same, and breeders will strive their utmost to produce this
shade. Many who do not understand scientific matings to obtain these
desirable colors have fallen into a very natural mistake in so doing. In
regard to the mahogany brindles they say, why not breed continuously
together rich mahogany sires and dams, and then we shall always have the
brindles we desire. "Like produces like" is a truism often quoted, but
there are exceptions, and Boston terrier breeding furnishes an important
one. A very few years of breeding this way will give a brown, solid color,
without a particle of brindle, or even worse, a buckskin. If the
foundation stock is a lighter brindle to start, the result will be a mouse
color. The proper course to pursue is to take a golden brindle bitch that
comes from a family not