Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-03-23
The Family Cat.

The Family Cat. ~
No member of the family has suffered
the abuse that the family cat receives at
the hands of the general world. We do
not speak of those who starve her, who
turn her outdoors at night, who 90
away for season in the country and
leave her to forage for herself, but of
those who simply SANDER her by in
jdrious report. According to these
scandalous people, the cat is without
beauty and without affection; she is un--
grateful, cruel, stupid, treacherous and
dishonest. Strange that ON such q worse
than worthless being should be lavished
the religious worship of nations and so
much of the household love of un-
counted individuals as poor Pussy has
received .as- eat h.a.i -
But let us look at the charges. With
out beauty? She is a being whose out
lines are beauty itself; she is a success
sion of supple curves, and every curve
obeys the law of the line of beauty of
gloss and movement. How brilliant are
those eyes. likeness to which gives value
TO the jewel now in most request--the
cat SIEVE quartz, that otherwise were a
worthless pebblel. She is clad in furs
shining with life, and which, while upon
her, are incOmparably superior to those
dead furs which d princess is-proud to
wear. Every motion Is grace, and
whether she is black, or white, or gray,
or tortoise-sheil, every tint she assumes
IS pure and charming one. Issue with
out affection? When she goes to. meet
her chosen friends in the family and fawn
about their feet, when she carresses them
in their sickness, and sometimes dies
brOken-heartedi in, their death, it would
seem to manifest love orthem.e When
shesuffers little children to lift her by
thetail and carry her round by the heels,
dress her up in caps and aprons as a doll
and infIict upon her thousand we'll
meant pains, it looks as though she
loved them. There are innunerable
Instances on record of the affection of
catsfor children, AID entirely centradic-
tory OF the outrageous old notion of their
sucking the breath of babies. Puss. in
deed, often makes her nest in the cradle,
but not because she loves the little milky
breath, nor because she loves the warmth
but because she loves the baby. She has
been known to fly at the biggest and
most ferocious dog entering the,rsstn
where her little friend lay sleeping; to
jump from the cradle when the child
cried and run for the mother, returning
and standing with her fore-feet on the
cradles edge, nervous and anxious till
the mother took up the child: and one
belonging to Mrs. Wilson, of Cults. rear
Aberdren, Scotland, once accosted his
mistress with piteous meaows. runIing
repeatedly to the door, and endeavoi1ng
to- fetch her with him, and finally sue
ceeding, when the lady found her sick
and feeble child rolled from the sofa
where it had been left, and so envelope
in the rugs and wraps that it would
presently have suffocated If help had not
been brought by the cat When, more
over, the.cat conquers her hereditary AT
tachment to places, and follows persons
about in their peregrinations, il can not
be because she loves to travel. DR..
Stables, surgeon of the British navy,
tells us of his cat, which, although the
mother of hundred kittens. yet founi
time to accompany him on all his trav-
els, having jOurneyed over twenty thou
sand miles in his company. usually be-
slowing herself, when sheTjudged that
it was tlitting-time, in the little basket
that carried her, but on one occasion,
having taken so long an airing before
starting that her master was obliged to
leave without her, she hailed him, as he
walked along the railway platform, from
a first-class carriage that she had thought
best 10 save time.
But when people say that Puss is cruel
they forget that all carnivorous animals,
and man among them, are cruel too.
Yet Puss is sometimes more virtuous
than man in this regard, Will live for
years with the tempting morSel of a bird
playing about her, displtting her. dinner,
and alighting, on her very head. Dr..
Good told, long ago, of one that had
lived at peace with tame canary sud-
denly, to the horror of the family, Selling
it in her mouth, and springing TO the top
of tail secretary, whereupon it was
found that a strange cat had entered the
room, which authenticated fact. from a
scientific authority, must be held to dis
pose of the accusations both of cruelty
and stupidity if there were not other in
stances in plenty to do the same. There
Is certainly sagacity in the way any cat
flnds her way across miles of country to
an old home, Hin the way She often sits
by the COW, and asks the milkman to
sttend to her wants. in the. way she as
often goes fishing; it was sagacity in the
cat which caught the escaping canary,
and broughtitlback alive to her mistress;
twas sagacity in the cat that absolutely
baited mouse hole with partof herown
dinner, and sat and watched till she could
pounce upon the mouse; it was sagacity
in the cat that knew when Sunday came,
as Mr.. Whste. of Dallfeld Terrace, Dun
dec relates; and the cats that, threat
ened with condign punishment. have
suddenly disappeared and never reap
peared are legion, - If one wants study
in philosophy. by-tbe-way, and an OPP
portlinity2 TO discriminate between in
stinct and reason, he has only to observe
any young cat on her first experience of
a mirror, as she .ries to put her paw be-
hind it, pops back tQsee' if. the foe is still 1
there, and ends by boxing the ears of
the mpudent creature confronting her
there, and scampers away with her tail
as big as ten, profoundly convinced OF
magic, whether or not she knows the !
word. -HarpeT's Bdzdr. --'--'-
- ~ --~
NO incident of the Ruby snoN slide
is more THRILLING than the o5rror-ianco "a.