National Republican., 1883-07-17
Concerning Dnok.

Dogs, says tho London Globe, have as many
grievances as schoolmasters or farm laborers.
For the noble profession of instructing youth
mankind has an unlimited admiration for its
individual professors only contumely and rid
icule. In the horny handed sons of toll liter
ature recognizes the unfettered pioneers of
civilization; inHodge we see only an unlettercd
pumpkin. So with dogs. We magnanimously
affect to regard them in poetry and elsewhere
as symbols Of courage and fidelity. We place
them carved in stone at the monumental
feet of our chaste matrons as types of eternal
constancy, and then we treat them in the
flesh like-like dogs. We speak of their
strength of feeling beyond all human esti-
mate" and throw the name of dog" at one
another as compendium of abuse, while in
common language dog-latin, dog-rose, dog
wheat, dog-grass, and dog-Cabbage mean
simply as many worthless frauds aud colora-
bio limitations. In proportion as we become
civilized and further removed from that long
tailed, ape-like ancestor of ours, we affect to
look down upon dogs like q man who is
ashamed of his poor relations. 1t was not
always so. Through the dim past of Egypt
the figure of the dog looms large and god
like, though the degenerate heirs of the
pyramid rearing, dog worshiping giants
of old consider the dog as no wit better
than Christian. In imperial Rome, Alex.
ander Severus spent his hours of leisure
rioting with puppies, and Agrippa's dog
" had a devil chained to his collar" but
no modern Roman dogs are thus distn-
guished. Even in England the sixth class
of mischievous COLLINS used to fling down
platters and adpear in the likeness OF
wandering black dogs but wandering dogs
of any color have interpretations terrors now
for the police. Mahomet admitted tho dog
Katmir, who stood on his legs for 300 years,
into paradise, and the untutored Indian of
Popes time believed, we are told that when
after death he should be translated to the
sky, "his faithful dog would bear him COM
pany." The Indian Of our days is sufficiently
educated to part company with his faithful
dog for II bottle of store rum.
Still the dog is not altogether without
honor in savage countries even now The
wanton killing of dog has caused feud be-
| tween two tribes of Beaver Indians which
| time will never heal, though no European
government, with its budgets and SURPRISES
would ever mobilize u regiment for u wilder.
ness of dogs. In Fiji the dogs have ranks
and title, for chiefs dog must be spoken
of by a different name from that given
to common mans dogs; and the Amos
of Japan salute q European dog with pro.
found salemnity. Among the Red In
dians the baby and the inevitable puppy
travel together upon the womens backs, and
the sleigh dogs of North America are sutli-
ciently on a par with ordinary half-breed
education to be able to "dodge u curse as il
it were a brickbat." 1t is perhaps in this
very necessity for the sudden avoidance OF
unexpected missiles of all kinds that dogs
have lost much of their ancient dignity. If
dogs could have thrown stones in the earlier
stages eof their evolution they might have
been our masters and we their dogs. OBJ
serve when small boy meets u still smaller
dog suddenly round a corner the abject terror
of the biped if the other offers to dispute the
passage. Note on the other hand how that
boy will stoop earthwards for a stono
and how that dog, with ear split
ting yells and closely depressed tail
will scamper down tho roadway, with
the pebble bounding harmlessly in his
rear. In that one instant is condensed
| the whole history of mans triumph in tn,
struggle for supremacy. For in some mino
respects the dog has always been, and is still
| superior to mankind 1t has never sank, fo
| instance, to the level of the anthropophagi
for the old adage. 'Canis caninam non est
| there are no canine cannibals-still hold
good The friendship of dog, again. is NOR
| disnterested than that of man. for in coun
tries where dog lcenses--the last insult o
human tyranny--are unknown, the pooro
| the man the more dog friends he has aud DR.
| Williams's dog, that gave solemn burial to al
| the cats-about 100-that he had killed
| should put many human savages to the blush