The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-05-19
THE DOG Law.
A CHEERING VOICE FROM GRAIN.


GER.
To the Editor OF the Morristown Gazette:
Permit a Granger county farmer
to congratulate you and your Beech
Creek correspondent on your sound
position on the dog tax law. This
is not. if my memory serves me right,
the frst question of great interest to
the masses upon which the GAZETTE
has chalked out a course of its own.
different from the general press of
the State, aud boldly followed it.
So far as I know the GAZETTE was
the first paper in the State to advo-
cate persistentiy the subject OF tax
ing the railroads. We al know the
result. Now you come out squarely
and sustain the dog tax, unpopular
as it now seems / am not surprised
at this. That which surprises me is,
that so many editors in Tennessee
pander to, and cringe before the sick
iy, popular sentiment Of the I'M
thoughtful on this subject. I had
expected better of them. Every
well-informed man in Tennessee
editors and all-knows the dog tax
law is right, and for the best inter
ests of the whole State. That if rig
idly executed, it will result in great
er peculiarly benefit to the State
than will any single act passed By
the Legislature in ten years. Yet
many editors, knowing this, are
throwing their slang at the Legisla-
ture for enacting it.
/ have termed the opposition to
the law a sickly sentimentalism. 1t
is just this and nothing else. The
law, l apprehend. was not enacted
for the purpose of obtaining revenue,
but with a view of getting rid of the
dogs. for the two-fold purpose of
saving the expense of keeping them,
and of encouraging sheep husbandry.
If the law is enforced, this will be
the result reached.
Your Beech Creek correspondents
idea about the number Of dogs in
the State and the cost Of keeping
them. / take it, are about correct.
And it is startlingl Think of it |
Twelve millions of dollars, annually,
lost to the people of Tennessee for
the luxury of keeping dogs. . To
whom is-this lostI Mainly to the
poor people. who are not able to
lose it. And for what? What ben
eft are their dogs to them? They
are your life-guards, are they? Not
a word Of it! There has not been a
human life saved in Tennessee by
dogs in twenty years.
They drive the "varmiuts'' away
from your hen-roost, and the rabbits
from your garden and orchard? All
But, my friend, twenty-five cents
worth of arsenic, judiciOusly applied,
will kill more "varmints'' and rab-
bits than fifty dollars in dog feed
will drive away. Resides, your dogs
just don't do this thing. Your fowls
are caught and the rabbits eat your
plants and gnaw your trees, notwith-
standing your dogs.
They prevent the rogues from
stealing your corn and bacon? That
might be so if the rogues were all
idiots. But there is not a rogue
anywhere near you that does not
know about your dog ; and he knows
that a good chunk of bread, or a fe-
male dog will keep him perfectly
quiet while the rogue goes through
your smote-house or crib. He knows
too. that a little strichnine at nine
o'clock will fix him up for good be-
fore midnight. No; you r just
mistaken on this score.
He keeps your neighbors' stock
destroying your growing crop?
Not that either. If your fence is
bad your crop is injured By the stock,
dog or no dog. Ifyou dog the stock
you simply make an enemy out of
your neighbor, whereas, if you had
no dog. you would go see your neigh
Dor about it. He would keep his
stock up, or help you fix your fence,
and there would Le no ueighborhood
difficulty.
Now. Mr.. Editor, I am right about
these things. Never since the days
Of wolves and panthers has the dog
been Of any practical use in Tennes-
He does not protect life. He
loes not protect. property of any
species. If you hear some fellow
blowing about the dog law, and about
mans great protector, just
set him down as a cross road dema-
yogue, either very ignorant himself,
1r as only having sense enough and
honesty enough to be trying to get
lpon the dog law as as a hobby-horse
o ride to the Legislature on.
The whole family of Tennessee
logs ought to be exterminated, for
many Some of them are
Indicated above, but there are many
If they were gone, many a
)oor man, and rich one too, would
make his hundreds every year out of
WOOL and mutton. Nothing but the
logs TO prevent it. Many a worm
,ut field would be used as a sheep
pasture, till their droppings would
make it rich. Many a neighborhood
,roil would be prevented. Many an
Inoffending child would be saved
rom being torn by the mad dog, and
rom the horrors of death from n.y.
lrophobia.
This is the way the subject looks
0 me. Ii there are other and con
rary, intelligent views, | would be
lad to see them in the GAZETTE.
/