River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-05-12
DUMB FRIENDS.
The Affection of Animals for Man,


the climate to which, for the sake of
English children and English lovers of
the animal world, he has been now foI
some years exposed, will probably
cause a more widespread and keen re-
greet throughout London than any hui
man death from the same cause would
excite in the same great city. "Joe
was moi only great amusement TO the
visitors of the geological Gardens, but
the passionate affection which he seems
to have shown for his attendant, Sut-
ton, has endeared him to the public.
The Daily Telegraph even says
that when the night good-by came,
doc 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, 10y the way, the Oriental
mode of expressing mourning must be
deeply rooted in our animal nature)
land shrieking like spoiled child. I"
THIS SORT OF AFFECTION
In an animal for any human being, is
one of the most touching spectacles in
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 MS many of the continental
coutries think us. One of Sir Edwin
Landseer's few really pathetic pictures
appeal TO Il somewhat different modih-
cation of the same feeling-the picture,
we mean, of the doctors" in whic Ii
the celebrated monkey which devoted
itself to the nursing Of its own order
was represented, while q young scrape-
grace of the same tribe, without any
enthusiasm of Similarity in its breast,
has been hiding away stolen orange,
evidently provided for the invalid, with
grotisque gestures of delight 1t was
this picture of which Mr.. Gladstone
said that for the first tame it had
reused momentary wish in him that
" instead of a man he was a monkey
No doubt there is something even more
singular in this disinterested devotion
of one member of the monkey tribe to
others needing its care than in the pas
sionate attachment poor little Joe
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 q rare devotion TO human
beings, the latter sentiment is, ON the
whole, more pathetic, because it fastens
on a being whose objects aud 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 IS A SOMEWHAT PATHETIC STORY,
ultimately vouched for, we believe, by
the late Bishop Stanley(of Norwich Of
a farmer for whom a goose formed a
most earnest and disinterested allec-
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 the
pillow, turning deliberately at the end of
every furrow, and walking back with
him along the next, but not unfre-
quently turning to fasten its eyes on
him with the most intense gaze. The
Ae,1y - ss.A.. he l.n.l
ahis goose's mysterious love was omin-
GUS of some calamity, which he could
avert by killing it, and shot it one day
in fit of alarm. That shows how little
the man was touched by this curious
demonstration of love for him, and no
doubt the last generation was less
sensitive to the dumb pathos Of such
/ love than the present; but even now il
poor little "Joe had not been SO gentle
and amusing, there would not have
been many 90 take much account of his
extraordinary love for his attendant
/ The view that all creatures beneath MS
are simply intended TO serve our pur
poses, and even their best love is of n,
more value than To amuse and gratif,
us, is still even more deeply rooted il
us than the notion that men played th,
same kind Of parts Us puppets in tic
hands of the gods ever was to the
heather world.
And yet is there not something in
this capacity of love of the lower ami
mails for man which ought 10 make ~
ashamed TO regard it rs
A MERE SOURCE or AMUSEMENT?
10 us the usefulness and humanity
of that kind of love-nay, even its will
full imperiousness when it discovers its
own pOwer-seem the only things which
makes the physical tic that, as natural
lists tell us, actually exists between the
lower creatures and us, one not dis
tasteful, but even honorable. The
power of loving is kind Of germinal
power of resembling; for hearty loynl.
ty and fidelity cannot exist without q
degree of community Of nature, how
ever limited. And as there is nothing
more mysterious than the unsolicited
and uneriticising love Of an inferior
creature, so there is nothing which
leaves a more distinct impression of the
divine origin Of creation on the mind.
II dumb creature can find no satisfac
ton but in the society of man, though