GAMLA FÄRSKA NYHETER

The San Fransisco Call November 11, 1900:

COLLIE DOG WORTH $8500
By paying $8500 for Southport Perfection, the grand collie dog from the famous Stretch kennels in England, J. Pierpont Morgan has established the record price for a dog. The next highest price (paid for a champion St. Bernard a few years ago) was $1500 less than this sum.
Southport Perfection is an Ormskirk collie. Mr. Morgan and his kennel manager, Bob Armstrong, pin their faith on this grand strain, with much good reason, for most of the champions of the past few years are almost straight Ormskirk blood. One need mention merely such names as Ormskirk Connie and Ormskirk Galepin, owned by Mr. Morgan; Ormskirk Emerald, owned till recently by A. H. Megson of England; Roy, owned by Queen Victoria; Sowerby Squire and Ormskirk Cornishman, still owned by Mr. Stretch–to realize how powerful and reliable this blood is.
Until the arrival of Southport Perfection the star of J. Pierpont Morgan’s Cragston kennels, in his beautiful place in Highland Falls, was Ornament, notable for his size as well as for the beauty of his coat. Before him there reigned Sefton Hero and Ruford Ormond, both dogs which, all things considered, probably were in their day (and not so long ago, either) as beautiful collies as there were in the world. Sefton Hero is out of Gladdie and Lady Wonder, and Rufford Ormond is out of Ormskirk Chriss and Lady Margaret.
No other dog in the world to-day combines so many fine points as does the collie. In mere beauty he leads all other breeds easily. He is as stately and proud as a king. Few other breeds equal and none excel the collie in intelligence. He is as gentle as a child and as affectionate as a fine type of human being. He is large enough to satisfy any one except the man who loves dogs for the sake of size alone.
It is not likely that the Scotch collie ever will become a cheap dog. Few dogs are so difficult to breed. Litter after litter from even the best obtainable strains have an exasperating tendency to turn out worthless from a fancier’s point of view. The pups are deficient either in bone or coat, or their ears insist on pricking instead of being semi-erect. This point about the ear is one of the most difficult to overcome. Some of the best dogs shown in recent years have had the prick ear to such an extent that it was found necessary to doctor them by slitting the skin inside the ear and stitching it down to hold the ear as it should be. Veterinary surgeons are being called on perpetually to perform this operation. A collie that is deficient in bone generally is hopeless. Sometimes careful feeding while he is still very young will help him, but generally such a dog remains undersized. This uncertainty about breeding makes blood that will tell like the Ormskirk blood particularly valuable. It made Rufford Ormond worth $1000 a year to his original English owner as a stud dog.

J P Morgan köpte collies för pengar som bara miljonärer kan betala. Priset för Southport Perfection motsvarar – beroende hur man räknar – något mellan 150 000 och 1 miljon dollar i dagens pengar. Det fanns ungefär 100 collies i bankirens kennel, många direktimporterade via colliemäklare från England och inköpta i hård konkurrens med andra förmögna spekulanter. Collie var dog of the day! Efterfrågan var så stor och priserna så bra att det fanns engelska uppfödare som stolt förklarade att de hade försörjt sig själva och sina familjer på att producera collies och det fanns de som försörjde sig som colliemäklare – mellanhänder mellan köpstarka amerikaner, suktande efter den Gamla Världens elithund, och de lyckliga leverantörerna på hemmaplan.
Är det sig likt idag? Nej – inte alls för colliens del, för tvärtemot vad änglasången från 1900 utlovade är collien ingen dyr hund idag. Glansen i hög status gick över till annat. Men som ni ser, är det inte mycket som har ändrat sig i marknadsföringen av hund. Alltsammans finns där – de där speciella linjerna med det starka och pålitliga speciella blodet; de fina kennlarnas fina valpköpare; de fina vinsterna; priserna för hanhundarnas tjänster… och beskrivningen: hundar stolta och ståtliga som kungar, oöverträffade i intelligens, milda i sinnet som ett barn, vackrast av alla.
Man blir inte förmögen på collies längre. Men i hundvärlden finns fortfarande folk som tar jäkligt bra betalt för att sälja ord.

Bodil Carlsson

Fotot från 1897 från nätalbumet med historiska rasbilder som vi länkar till - föreställer den i texten omnämnda hunden Rufford Ormonde med Ormskirk-påbrå.