New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-02
Knowing Dogs.


There is in this city dog that can sing.
We state the fact unqualifiedly, on the testi-
mony of all the members of the family OF the
gentleman who owns it. The animal in ques-
ton is large, mOuse-colored. greyhound
perhaps about six or seven years old. His
attempts at singing, though they are certainly
not very musical, are unmistakable; and they
have been observed by the family for the last
two or three years. He does not sing alone,
but when he hears certain members of the
family singing, he "joins IN" This is more
particularly the case with one lady OF the
house, who, if she begins to sing when the
dog is anywhere about the place, is pretty
certain to obtain canine accompaniment.
If she is heard singing up stairs, and the dog
is shut out below, he will raise rumpus till
he is admitted to the room where she is,
when he will "join in" keeping very good
time, and actually keeping-so we are as
sured-on the same key, rising with the singer
to the higher notes, in kind of blended
whine and howl, that is yet neither like the
voice of a dog nor anything else, but showing
something of musical ear. When he reaches
note too high for him, he will stop, and wait
for the cadence of the song to reach the lower
notes again. In his rising notes he lifts his
head as well as his yo'ce. When his owner
not another note can be got out of him while
his master remains. In fact he dislikes to
have anybody present except the one with
whom he sings. "His voice is improving"
and he sings better than he did. He may yet
sing with Nilsson. There are a good many
puppies following in her wake who have
neither the music nor the sense of this one.
In proof of this we will state some other
performances by this dog. These will show
that some, at least, of the brute creation can,
and do, reason from cause to effect, and vice
versa, precisely as a man reasons.
This dog has long made it practice, after
the family have gone up stairs for the even
ing, of getting into the sitting-room below
and making his bed on the sofa. He knows
this is forbidden thing, and seems to do it
out of what the Hoosiers call "pure cussed-
ness"-for he has much more comfortable
bed of his own, in the rear of the kitchen.
His practice was discovered by the disar-
ranged condition of the sefa-pillow, and the
marks ofmuddy feet. Coming suddenly down
stairs, at late hour, on purpose to see if
they could find him on the sofa, the master
or mistress of the dog have never been able
to catch him in the act" The sofa would
be disarranged, and quite warm where the
animal had lain ON it, but the dog himself
would invariably be found in his own bed,
Ills q yes Snub, lStst doICcp!
He is only aroused as if from sound slum-
Der, and puts on all the stretching attitudes
and sleepy airs of dog newly aroused from
a sound nap.
One night, determined to catch the gentle
man in the act, and at the same time cure
him of the trick, the owner of this intelligent
piece of property so fixed loaded pistol to
chair, which was placed near the sofa, that
by pulling a string the weapon could be dis
charged. Then hiding himself in the closet,
extinguishing the light, and leaving the door
open just far enough to enable him to see
out, he waited. The room was not so dark
as to prevent him from seeing all that oc-
Cured. After the sounds of the family retir-
ing, in the rooms above, had all ceased, the
door to the kitchen (Which was always left
unlatched) was slowly and noiselessly pushed
open, and in came the dog. He stopped and
listened, long and attentively. Then he went
to the parlor door and cautiously looked into
the parior. Then turning back, he stopped
| in the sitting room and barked once more.
Hearing nothing, he suddenly dropped all his
guarded and sneaking manner, and bounded
boldly upon the sofa--pawed the pillow down
to the spot where he wanted it, and settled
himself down sOlidly and comfortably for the
night. AT this juncture the string was pulled
from the closet, and the pistol went off with
a terrible bang! close to the dogs head.
The frightened animal made one leap, such
Jump as greyhounds alone can make, and
landed, at one bound, i'm the middle of the
parlor. There he stopped, and stood, with
eager gaze and pointed ears, looking back at
the sofa in the sitting room. Then his owner
came out, and that dogs demeanor underwent
a sudden change. He dropped his ears, head,
and tail, and with an air which fairly said
8 You've got me this time, /" he sneaked off
to his own bed.
Nor did he again go near that sofa for
many weeks. Gradually, however, he began
to resume his old tricks and one night his
owner curious to see how the dog always
managed to getaway so quick, whenever any
one came down stairs, again hid himself in the
closet, having first arranged with one of the
family to start quietly from up stairs, late,
and after all of the house had become still,
and start down stairs, so that he could see if
the dog heard it. The dog, after waiting
long to assure himself that the family had
gone to bed, came in. In the middle of the
floor he stopped and listened. In accordance
with the arrangement, some of the folks up
stairs walked across the floor. The dog did
not move. The instant, however, that the
person up stairs took hold of and turned the
knob to the upstairs door, Indicating pur-
pose to come down stairs,) the dog darted
back to his own place.
Hastily procuring light, his owner (whose
presence he had not suspected) followed him,
and 10! there lay the dog, i'm his own bed,
with eyes shut pretending to be fast asleep!
The colored people that were held as
slaves by the Indians in the Indian Territory
mill freed by the Thirteentb An,on,l,,,on+ NO