Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-05-06
DUMB FRIENDS.
The Affection OF Animals for Man.

The death of poor "Joe," the chin
panzee, from consumption, caused by
the climate to which, for the sake of
the animal world, he has been now for
some years exposed, will probably
cause a more widespread and keen re-
gret throughout London than any hui
man death from the same cause would
excite in the same great city. "Joe y
was not only great amusement to the
visitors of the Geological Gardens, but
the passionate affection which he seems
to have shown for his attendant, Suit
ton, has endeared him to the public.
The Daily Telegraph even says
that "when the night good-by came,
Joe would break out in a perfect,
frenzy of grief, tearing his hair,
rolling upon the floor, casting dust
and ashes upon his head if this be
really SO, by the way, the Oriental
mode Of expressing mourning must be
deeply rooted in our animal nature)-
land shrieking like a spoiled child. y
THIS SORT OF AFFECTION
in an animal for any human being. is
one Of the most touching spectacles III
the world, and certainly no people seem
more alive to the pathos of that kind of
feeling than the English of the present
day, thick-skinned and wanting in
sensibility as many of the continental
coutries think us. One of Sir Edwin
Landseer's few really pathetic pictures
appeal to somewhat different modifi-
cation of the same feeling-the picture,
we mean, of the DOCTORS" in which
the celebrated monkey which devoted
itself to the nursing Of its own order
was represented, while a young scrape-
grace of the same tribe, without any
enthusiasm of Similarity" in it's breast,
has been hiding away a stolen orange,
evidently provided for the invalid, with
grotisque gestures of delight. It was
this picture of which Mr.. Gladstone
said that for the first tame it had
reused a momentary wish in him that
"instead of man he was monkey. %
No doubt there is something even more
singular in this disinteresUed devotion
of one member of the monkey tribe to
others needing it's care than in the pas
sionate attachment poor little " Joe y
used TT feel for his attendant, Sutton.
The former contains an augery OF the
higher phases Of human benevolence,
while the latter is only an extreme
form of what we are all more or less
accustomed to in dogs, and sometimes
even in birds and cats-their recogni-
ton Of some thing above themselves in
man, and an alwost religious constancy
of devotion to it. But though it is even
rarer to find philo-canic dogs, or philo-
ornithic birds, or philo-pithecan
monkeys, than it is to find such Great
nres with a rare devotion to; human
beings, the latter sentiment is, on the
whole, more pathetic, because it fastens
on being whose objects and aims as
regards all that he does for the Great
ures which thus love him are utterly be-
yond the comprehension, and too often,
indeed, quite without disinterested
regard to the well-being Of those
creatures themselves.
THERE rs A SOMEWHAT PATHETIC STORY,
ultimately vouched for, we believe, by
the late Bishop Stanley of Norwich OF
farmer for whom goose formed q
most earnest and disinterested affec-
ton. The goose would follow him
everywhere, climb into his lap at night
go shooting with him, climbing all the
hedges, follow him when he was at tn {
pillow, turning deliberately at the end OF
every furrow, and walking back with
him along the next, but not unfre
quently turning to fasten it's eyes OF
him with the most intense gaze. The
wretched man took it into his head tha
ahis goose's mysterious love was omin
Gus of some calamity, which he could
avert by killing it, and shot it one day
In a fit of alarm. That shows how little
the man was touched by this curious
demonstration of love for him, and ne