Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-05-05
PeeeIter ON Eats.

Henry Ward Beecher finds time among
his many labors to write some very pleas
aat aud characteristic articles for the
Christian Union. of which he is the chief
editor. Here is one on cats, from last
weeks Union, full of drollery and homely
philosophy:
TIE Hoos1ER CAT.-When we profess
warm liking for cats, we don't wish to be
Judged by too rigorous an ideal. We do
not like tnem. above all animals. but SIM
ply among other things. 1t is folly to COM
pare them with horses, dogs, birds, and
Judge them by qualities which they were
not sent into the world to possess. 1t is
as cats tina we like them. They hold a
place 10 the series which nothing else can
FIJI, aud IN their place they are to be adj
mired They are reproached with fierce
ness. with selishness, with treachery.
But the ferceness is ancestral. Fero-
city mas sOftensd down in them
to mere official severity. The cat
is appointed OF men to destroy vermin.
1t must match itself with the game it
hunts In the battle of wainscots and
crevices where rats do harbor, and mice,
cats p1ust be fierce. Every litter of rats is
threat az the pantry and cupboard, and a
defiance TO cats. What a cats normal
constitution is. we have no book that dis
closes. But if there is a rudimentary con-
science in cat, without doubt this alleged
fierceness is but an irregular action OF the
moral sense. 1t IS easerness IN perform
ance of duty. Do we not see Ike infiec-
tons of conscience in the human race? Is
the cat anything but the inquisitor of the
cellar and the barn? Is it not the heresy-
hunter of the feline sex? With what I'M
\ IT
is its eve, how stiff its bearing, and how
terrible its spring, when some luckless
hereto of the gTanary or cupboard VEN
lures to publish himself? If nature has
whispered to the cat, 10, | make thee
ruler over all vermin." ought not every
conscientious cat to exercise justice to the
uttermost?
They are called selfish. We sorrowfully
admit that cats are not generous-but we
see no evidence Of a grasping, avariclous
selfshness. They have selfrespect. They
know instinetively whether they are liked
or hated. They hold themselves aloOf from
strangers, because they have had too much
experience of the worlds opinion of cats.
Ii is said that cat will court you, rub
against Your knee. solicit your hand upon
Ter head, for the mere sake OF its own
pleasure. As this is an exhibition never
permitted in human life, no wonder you are
dsgusted with it But our own experience
and observation teach us that cats are sus-
ceptible Of attachments among themselves,
tsward men, and even toward animals of
different species. III kindly treated. they
viii often manifest as much affection
as dog, following Last Summer, we saw
orr foreman ct Peekskill every day with
a 'rocp of cats going forth with him to his
work. They followed behind like so many
terriers While he WAS hewing. or other
wise working. they would lie off in the
grass. or creep near. the wall; but no soon-
or did Mr.. Turner start for some other
place, than they gathered behind him and
kept company. On one occasion, be was
50 ting out flowers III front of the cottage.
One of the Maltas accompanied him. When
he stopped down 10 put in the plant, the
cat mounted his back When Mr.. Turn
rose, Pussy would jump'otf. As soon as
the master stopped down again, the cat re-
sumed her place.
One evening, after dark, fearing that
some cattle had broken in, Mr.. Turner
made a eircuit of the whole farm. Although
il was wet under foot and stormy above
TIE Maltese cat set ont unbidden and ac-
Mr.. T. over the whole farm, and
vaite on him back to his own door. Is
~ ere not in such a cat something of the
fidelity of a dogP A cat is sooner Taught
the prophecies of life than is a dog, and
when well grown, with half a chance, is
far neater than dogs or horses. Only birds
are as neat as cats. Their power, grace,
agility. and shrewdness, are known of all
If we were obliged to choose which we
would have, a cat or dog, We should I'M
hesitatingly say, Both of them
The attachment which human beings
ICrm TO cats speaks well for these domestic
hunters. The family cat is as much the
JOY of children as the family dog.
We have just received from a town in
Indiana boys letter that is too good to
Ose:
BOONE County, Ind, April 8.