St. Landry democrat., 1880-09-04
The Sad Fate of Monte.

There was no better behaved dog
in the entire State OF Illinois than
Billiards. "Monte.' He was young,
handsome, intelligent, educated, and
Of good moral habits. He was a
high bred setter, with long, soft
hair, dark brown in color and tawny
under the throat. His eyes were
soft and melting in their expression,
his silben ears had the patrician
droop, and his aristocratic tail was
eloquent i'll it's expression OF JOY and
affection, and rigid as all ax-handle
when it's owner came to point. AS
for his nose-there never was such
Il nose hung to dog before. He
could scent a quail across a 4O-acrc
field, and could retrieve anything
except his reputation in the latter
part of his career. When Ballard
was nervous or clustered, and missed
good shots, Monte chcerfully came
up to be licked with the ramrod,
magnanimously taking all the blame
On himself; but, when anybody else
OF the party missed a fair shot, Mon
tie made no attempt to conceal his
contemptuous disgust. On these oc-
casions he usually relieved his mind
by licking the other dog.
Monte had d bright future before
him. But, alas! i'll all evil hour, he
tasted his first glass of beer, and
from that moment was a ruined dog.
The way of it was this: 1t was a hot
day in August, and Ballard and his
friend had been hunting over the
fiery stubble for hours. No water
was to be had, though d key OF beer
was in the wagon. Monte was near
ly gone up. His tongue hung out a
foot or more, and his palpltating
sides indicated speedy dissolution.
Ballard, unable to obtain water,
gave him a quart OF beer, which he
Tapped up with satisfaction and de-
manded more. He was given pint
more. Considerably refreshed, the
hunt was resumed; but Monte be-
haved strangely. He dashed about
in reckless manner, and tumbled
headlong over fences. He barked
in maudl1n, incoherent way, and
quarrelled without cause with Mr..
Smiths dog. He seemed to have
lost the control Of his nose, and
would run over a covey of grouse,
and moment after come to a dead
point on a field mouse or q grass
hopper. 1t was plainly evident that
Monte was drunk-drunk as fid-
dler.
The next morning Monte got up
with a raging headache. He felt
bad. His hair pulled. But he seems
to have heard of the drunkard's
axiom, "The hair Of the dog is good
for the bite" and he accordingly
followed Ballard down town, and
''rung in' on him while he was tax
ing his matutinal whisky and tansy.
Ballard stood treat, and Monte
Enlisted in' glass of old stock ale.
Several loafers thought it was funny
to see a dog making a beast of him
self, SO they invited poor Monte to
take another and another, until the
upshot of it was he went home that
night drunken than ever. 1t got
noised around town that Monte liked
beer, and everybody began to invite
him. The consequence was that he
became a sOt.
Monte made frequent efforts to re-
form, but dog-hesh is weak. His
good master, becoming alarmed,
served notice on all the whisky shops
not to let Monte have anything but
all to no purpose. He found means
to get drunk every day. Beer got
too weak for him, and he took to
whisky. Finally the end came. AT
ter an unusually protracted debauch,
Monte began to see things. He
would bristle up at the imaginary
dogs, and then shrink in the most
abject terror from some imaginary
assailant. Then he would come to
q dead point on nothing, and again
he would hustle imaginary cats
about the yard, and, getting them
i'll a corner, bark for hours at vacan-
cy. He couldn't sleep; he couldn't
cat; he couldn't do anything sensi-
bly,, and finally died as the fool dieth
OF jim; jams. We buried him un-
der an apple tree, with headboard
bearing the following inscription:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
t MONTE"
Only Dog of A. G. Ballard,
Who 1.-THE Dog Died Dec 18th, 1858,
OF TYPHOID PNEUMONIA,
| Superinducedb by Ovcrwork and Mental Anxiety.
GONE, BtT NOT FORGOTTEN"
We Couldn't find III in aur hearts