The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-07-27
Sketches of Natural History.

Every dog has his day and lust now they
are having thirty-sX Of them. 1t is of the pro-
lrietor> of these days that we propose to make
mention in few sentences which will contain
the ph of our dog knowledge.
Dogs are of three kinds iron dogs. the COM
mon lump dog and the Bologna sausage. which
is The Dutch for ,lo@-but We shall treat simply
of the pure dog in It's normal state,
A. we Ill know that the dog is four posted,
like an Old fashioned bedste.Cl, and ht, an eat
INC machine rugged on one end. while the other
l. finished ont into vchiclc--we say vehicle be-
cause there is always was on it. The body
part is hollow, like a stove funnel, and The out
side is covered with Il coat of h.ir nko I. ,.l.to
Of hash. They have a stout appetite AMI Won
can run about Il, much provision through one
as You can through = dumb waiter. They are Il
social euss and like company, and they shake
hands with THEN tails. You tell good dog. as
YOU do tree, by noticing the bark. With the
dog the less bark and the thinner the better
the dog. Like the rest of Us, they srowI when
best suited.
Dogs are useful for Il great many purposes.
Their chief characteristics are running mad.
combination of virtues not possessed by any
other animal.
There are Just AZ many breeds Of dogs As
there are varieties of potatoes, and their tenn
pers are as various as the winds. We always
make it a rule not to differ with Il dog knowing
ly; for there is no degree of cold that can cause
us TO remember how thin our clothes are, that
al with hong a l,,-
Il fair prospect of success for the dog. Having
a dog festooncd to the seat of our trowscrs is a
style of trimming we never admired.
There are both kinds of dogs; the other kind
have pups, and do not command that respect of
men which the memory of Geo. Washington in
spires. In most cities dogs are taxed, and the
other kind pay in the proportion of two TO one.
When You come to intelligence 4 large share
Of the four footed animals and quite Il number
of the resi- of us, have TO take back seats when
the dog makes his appearance. The best Sehol
ars belong TO the circus, and for that reason if
we We're called upon TO change our present
business, we would rather be u circu. dog than.
any other Of our numerous friends.
About the biggest pile Of knowledge we eyer
heard Of possessed by dog was told us by his
owner. who WAS Il great politician. He said
that dog always knew when there was to be
an election as we'll as he did. and always went
10 the polls and stood ronnd and listened to
what was said and the next morning would
make him read the returns aloud. At one
election the votes were going to run very close;
the dog had heard the matter discussed, and he
seemed more than usually excited. On the day
of election he started and made believe run mad
and bit every voter on the opposite ticket that
he could find, and scared the rest so they did
not dare to 90 to the polls, and the result was
that the party he worked for carried the election
by a big majority. We never should have be-
lieyed that, had not we heard it directly from
the owner of the dog, and it illustrates the i'll
teIigence and reason of the dog better Than any
anecdotc we ever heard.
One word more and we are done. 1t is per-
haps no more than common justice to the read
er that we should state that we afterwards
learned that the man who told us that story
lied, and that he never owned dog in his life.
Still, if it had been true it would have been IL
beautiful illustration of canine intelligence.