Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-09-21
NO. 2ls..
Miseellatleons.
A RELIGIOUS DOG.
BY REV. DIR. PRIME.


My father had small and beautiful
He differed from other good dogs only in
being better than others. and in manifest
ing something that resembled religious
sensiblity, or peculiar attachment to re-
ligious places, people, and services.
He attended family worship with
puncluality and regularity that the other
members of the household might we'll
have initiated, and certainly did not sur
pass. If stranger were present-and
much company visited our house-the
dogs attention to him was regulated by
his taking the lead or not in the religious
worship OF the household. If the visitor,
at my fathers request, conducted the wor-
ship, the dog at once attached himself to
his person, and, when he departed, the
dog escorted him out of the village, some
times going home with him to neigh
boring 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 unregretted.
Such dog was, of course, an habitual
attendant on the public services of the
church on the Sabbath. 1t required ex-
traordinary care to keep him at home.
Shut up in room. he dashed through
window and was at church before the fam
ily
He was once shut up in an clubhouse
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 upper step of the pulpit,
within which his master ministered. He
lay quiet during the service, unless other
dogs below misbehaved, in which case he
left his seat, and after quieting the dis
turbance resumed it. #t&
He was equally devoted to the weekly
prayer-meeting, which was held from
house to house, the appointment being
announced on the Sabbath. He remcm-
bered the evening and the place, and was
always present. AS it was not agreeable
to have 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 a child. And the only knowl-
edge he had of the place of meeting he
got as the others did, by hearing the no.
tice on Sunday.
These habits of the dog were not the
fruit of education. On the contrary, pains
were taken TO prevent him from indulg-
ing his religious preference. He did not
manifest fondness for other meetings or
for any individuals out of the family cir
Gle, except those whom he recognized by
their habit of praying, as the people in
whom he was especially interested.
Ny father was wont to relate many
other anecdotes of this remarkable ami
NAL, and the relation OF them always
caused his eyes to fill with tears. He had
a strong impression that there was some-
thing very mysterious about this propen-
sity of the dog, and, being himself
sternly-orthodox divine, he never ven-
tured to express the opinion that the dog
had moral perceptions. But l always
thought he believed so.