Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-01-26
Dogs and Their masters

At the meeting which has Just taken
place mt Dantzic Of the two Emperors
who between them sway half Europe.
there Is mention Of the fact that Prince
Bismarck arrived to attend the inter
view accompanied by his short hand
writer and his famous dog" The inn
age of the "Iron Chancellor" who has
welded long-divided Germany into one
Empire will go down to posterity not
quite solitary in its sternness Beside
him will always stand the noble beast
whom he has loved, and who, it
is said, has more than once saved
his life.
Perhaps, as Schopenhauer, with his
candid vanity, remarked of himself.
''It is always lonely upon the heights,
A philosopher who is bored by the folly
of his human neighbors, q poet who is
disgusted with the vulgarity of man
kind, king, or great noble, who is
weary OF the toadyism of his courtiers,
doubtless may all tino relief in the dumh
companionship of some faithful hound,
who troubles his master with no stupid
remarks or petty gossip, and whose
fiattery is free from suspicion of any
deeper interestedness than may arise
from covetousness of q biscuit or am
bition for a bone. The greatest Sow
ereign on earth may safely unbend with
his dog. and neither fear to raise insa-
table hopes nor to provoke dangerous
jealousies, unless it be in less fortunate
canine minds. Even this slight incon-
venience may be removed when, as in
the case of one of the Queens faVorItes
"A splendid Dachsund-the animal is so
perfectly dignifed and rigid in his de-
meanor that he keeps all Her Majestys
inferior terriers and colleys in meek
subordination, and is himself generally
known as the "Lord Chamberlain" of
the canine Court.
Prehaps it would not be too much to
say that, as the Aryan race loved dogs
more than the Semitic so, among
Aryans the Anglo-Saxons have been
pre-eminent for the same sentiment. 1t
is true we have among the Celts the dog
of Llewellyn (though, alasi Professor
Max Muller, we believe, has ferreted
out that pleasant tale in another poem
in early Sanscrit, leaving on us in spite
mythical uncertainty); and among the
French and Germans, besides the Dog
of MoDtargis, we have innumeTable
glorifed dogs of tradition and poetry.
But the tone of nine French writer's out
of ten, when they talk of dogs, reveals
the hollowness Of Gallo regard for the
loyal beast, which has not half enough
of tinesse and dupliclty to suit the read
ers of NM. Balzac ct Gle. Good honest
old Dumas (PGine) might describe poor
''Black" In simple and glowing colors;
but in more recent French novels sun
nlechdRt chien bGrbet," or ''ttR detest-
able petit cGaiche hdrgpleur, is COM
monty introduced solely TO add a point
of ridicule to the old simpleton or dis
agreeable woman whose steps it fol-
lows.
Truth must be told, indeed, that dogs
with their wonderful habit of ''growing
like the thing they worship, seem con-
stantly to become, under French mas
ters and mistresses, less single-minded
than We find them, or-as a cruel canine
critic has described the species ''Chien-
loup, par enainence- frivolous, vol
| atile, interested, and wholly without
conscientiousness. In the same way
in Italy dogs are as q rule infinitely less
useful than English dogs, and are often
treacherous enough to receive caresses
graciously, and afterward, when oppor-
tunity offers, to turn around and bite.
But the very land of dogs, and the land
wherein the dog receives most genuine
honor, and himself rises to his noblest
development of character, is unques-
tionably England. 1t is to be deplored
that the greatest English poet never
drew the character of noble dog, and
condescended to degrade his pen by the
miserable caricature of Launceis cur;
but since Shakespeare daps our poets
have done what in them lay to make up
for the omission. Cowper, Walter
Scott, Burns, Byron, Tennyson, the
two Brownings, and Matthew Arnold,
have all been eminent dog lovers, aud
have written tender things of dogs, hv-
ing and dead.
English history is full of records of
dogs-noble dogs of Charles l. and
Kenelm Digby; pi fully faithful dogs,
like the little creature which accom-
panied Mary Queen of SCOTS to the
scaffold and laid itself down between
the severed head and beautiful neck;
silky spoiled favorites, like the span1els
of Charles IL, and Diamond, the dog
of SIR Isaac Newton, which gave that
great philosopher years extra t.ouble
by destroying his papers. We have
materials for book of English Dogs
of Dignity" and, moreover, We have
had in England (sinoe the gaunr boar
hounds of Synders are rather wild beasts
than dogs) the one greatest painter Of
dogs whom the world has seen-Edwin
Landseer, the Titan and Vandyke of
the canine race.
A Three-Year Old Colt.