Connecticut western news., 1874-07-03
A Sanctimonfous Dng.

A recent writer descantiRg on the in- telligence of animals, gives the follow ing incidents relative to dog belong ing to his family: .... .3 atEa.
 My father had a small and beautiful dog which rejoiced in the name of Fi- delity. He differed from other good dogs only in being better than others, and in manifesting something that re- sembled religious sensibility, or 8 pe- culiar attachment to religious places, people, and services. He attended family worship with punctuality and regularity that the other members of the household might well have imita- ted, and certainly did not surpass. If stranger were present-and much company visited our house-Athe dogs attention to him was regulated by his taking the lead or not in the religious worship of the household. If the visi- tor at my fathers request conducted the worship, the dog at once attached himself to his person, and when he de- parted the dog escorted him out of the village !; sometimes going home with him to neighboring town, and making him visit of few days. If the visitor did not perform any religious service in the house, the dog took no notice of him while there, and suffered him to depart unattended and evidently unre- gretted. --a,'i eaEI.t
 Such dog was, of course, an habit ual attendant on the public services of the church on the Sabbath. It required extraordinary care to keep him at home. Shut up in room, he dashed through a window and was at church before the family. He was once shut up in an outhouse that had no floor. He dug out under the sill of the door, and was at church before the first psalm was sung. In church he occupied the up- per step of the pulpit within which his master ministered. He lay quiet dur ing the service unless other dogs below misbehaved, in which case he left his seat, and after quieting the disturbance resumed it. He was equally devoted to the weekly prayer-meeting which was held from house to house, the ap- | pointment being announced on the Sab bath. He remembered the evening and the place, and was always present. As it was not agreeable to have a dog at an evening meeting in private house, he was confined at home. The next week he went early, before the family had thought to shut him up, and waited for the hour and the people. He knew the names of the families where the meetings were held, and where they lived, and could have gone to any one of them on an errand as easily and correctly as child. And the only knowledge he had of the place of meeting he got as the others did, by hearing the notice on Sunday. ,, These habits of the dog were not the fruit of education. On the contrary, pains were taken to prevent him from in dulging his religious preferences, He did not manifest a fondness for other meetings, or for any individuals out of the family circle except those whom he recognized by their habit of praying, as the people in whom he was especially interested. .-...s.. ..sa5.. . s.l5 ,e'.s
 My father was won't to relate many other anecdotes of this remarkable ami mal, and the relation of them always caused his eyes to fill with tears. He had strong impression that there was something very mysterious about this propensity of the dog, and being him. self sternly orthodox divine, he never ventured to express the opinion that the dog had moral perceptions. But l al- ways thought he believed so.