Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-03
QUEER DOG.DOINGs.
illustrative OF Canine
et h Hagactfy.


The writer Of philosophical treatise
on the consciousness of dogs, in the
British Quarterly Review, gives among
others the following interesting anec-
dotes illustrative of the habits Of "0ur
Poor Relations" The Dowager Lady
Stanley of Alderly some years ago took
her skye.terrier with her in a close bar
ouche from Grosyenor Crescent to Lon
don bridge. At London bridge Lady
Stanley embarked in steamer for
Gravesend, where she left Smerock with
her children, and returned to town.
Next day the governesS wrote to say the
dog had escaped from her charge at
Gravesend, and the same night the ami
NAL appeared in Grosyenor Crescent,
alone, footsore and covered with mud.
An equally remarkable case was that Of
hsund, which was sent by Chas. Cobbe,
Esq, from Newbridge, county Dublin,
to Moynalty, county Meath, and thence
long afterwards, conveyed to Dublin.
The hound broke loose in Dublin, and
the same morning made his way back
to his old kennel at Newbridge, thus
completing the third side of triangle
by a road he had never travelled in
his life. Mr.. George Jesse gives
series of similar stories, a
butchers dog slipping his chain and
running home one hundred and twenty
miles, which he had been taken by rail-
way; an officers dog returning one hun
dred and eighty miles, also originally
traversed by rail, etc. The only sltua-
ton in which animals seem to lose
themselves is in the streets of great
city, where the very cleverest of dogs,
even, notably, retrievers las the keepers
of the admirable home for lost dogs will
testify, fail TO find their way for very
short distances. In the opinion OF the
writer, the theory which best explains
the ascertained facts is that the creatures
in question have q certain sense of the
magnetic currents sufficient to afford
them sort of internal mariners COM
pass, marking the direction in which
they travel. We know that the mag
netic currents affect the needle, and the
hypothesis that they may also affect
living frames, with special organizations,
seems no way incredible; while the fact
that dog, who can find his way for
hundred miles in the open country, may
lose it in five hundred yards in town,
seems to point to the multitude of streets
turning at right angles as the cause of
confusion to sense which simply lndl-
Gates straight direction.
Chivalry and magnanimity may near
ly always be calcucated upon in dogs,
and wife-beating is an offense to which
the four.footed beast never descends.
, Rover was Labrador dog, and much
attached to small dog named Aline.
ON one occasion, Alins was missing for
several days, and at last it was discoy-
cred that she had little family of PUP
pies. which she had hidden in hole, in
q bank on Ascot Heath, and thither for
many days Rover had carried her some
of his dinner. Rover also fought with
smother dog and wounded him severely,
after which be persisted for a long time
in bringing his enemy portion OF his
own food until he had recovered.
Another aneedote is equally good;
A large well-fed dog was observed, on
very rainy day, sitting under shelter
in his own den in the yard of country
house, and watching strange dog who
was standing drenched through, in ms
erable plight. After thinking about it
for some time, the big dog spddenly
sprang up, crossed the yard, jumped as
he was accustomed, at the latch of a
door till it opened and then,
leaving the door opened for the wet dog
to enter, returned to his own abode, and
rolled himself up in the peace OF mems
conscia recti
Like his human brother, the dog fire.
quently goes through the somewhat COM
plicsted mental process involved in
conscious deception. he pretends to be
asleep, or inVents excuses to lag behind
in walk, or after stealing food, when
he hears a step at the door, shrinks
back into his kennel and lays himself
down in an attitude betokening long, un-
broken repcse. The most diverting in
stance Of q beasts hypocrisy Of this
kind which we hear is one thus described
by Mrs. Symonds, of Clifton: -
The dog was a poocie puppy called
Baldi. One night, after we had all gone |
% The play, supper having all been ready |
for our return, we found the pigeon-pie |
ID this condition: one pigeon having /
been extracted, and the hole cleverly |
flled mp with bit Of damp, inky
sponge, which my father THE late Mr..
North Glx@=s kept in a glass ol hls
writing table TO wipe his pens en-. Bald |
ooked terribly guilty, and there was no
i0nbt where the pigeon was gonei but
rhy be should have thought Of conceal
ng bis guilt by filing up the hole, l
nave not an idaa.
Mr. Frouds. in bis awful description Of
he death Of hary Queen Of Scots, tells /
IS how her little dog vas found to have /
followed her 10 the scaffold. hidden IN !