The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-08-18
Stories About Cats.

The Montreal Star thus tells how
cat rode one hundred seventeen miles
on fly-wheel of an engine: "The en-
gineer of the Star printing establish
ment, soon after starting the steam
engine one morning, noticed white
patch on the inner surface of the drive
wheel, which he thought was piece of
paper caught by one of the spokes in
its flight and whirled round and round
by the wheel. The white patch was
noticed by several of the hands during
the morning, who accounted for it in
the same way, but no attention was
given to the matter until the engine
was stopped shortly after noon. AS the
wheel stopped the engineer was sur
prised to see the white spot fall to the
ground and then get up and crawl
away. He then for the first time be-
came aware that the white spot which
had been whirling in the fly-wheel was
a cat which had been clnging to one of
the spokes of the wheel, and had only
relaxed its hold when the wheel had
come to a standstill The cat seemed
dazed for awhile, and was taken into the
street for free air." We ourselves
have known cat" says the London
Spectator, "who would recognize his
masters footsteps after three months
absence, and come out to meet him in
the hall, with tail erect, and purring all
over as if to the very verge of bursting.
And another cat we know, who comes
up every morning between six and
seven O'Clock to wake his master, sits
on the bed, and very gently feels first
one eyelid and then the other with his
paw. When an eye opens, but not till
then, the cat sets up a loud purr, like
the prayer of e-worshiper to the
rising sun. Those who say lightly that
cats care only for places and not for per-
sons should go to the cat-show at the
Crystal Palace, where they may see
recognitions between cat and owner
that will cure them of so shallow an
opinion. When we were last there one
striking instance fell in our way. Cats
greatly dislike these exhibitions: a cat
as rule, is like Queen Vashti, unwil-
ling to be shown, even to the mobiles, at
the pleasure of an Ahasuerus. Shy.
sensitive, hayward and independent, a
cat resents being placed upon cushion
in wire cage and exposed to the unin-
telligent criticism, to say nothing of the
fingers, of mob of sight-seers. One
very eminent cat, belonging to the
Masters Common Room at Christ
church, Oxford, whose size and beauty
have on several occasions entailed on
him the hard necessity of attending a
cat-show, takes, as it is said, three days
to recover from the sense of humilia-
ton and disgust which he feels, whether
he gets prize or not. On the occa-
sion to which we refer a row of dis
tinguished cats were sitting, each on
his cushion, with their backs turned to
the sight-seers, while their faces, when
from time to time visible, were express
i've of the deepest gloom and disgust
Presently two little girls pushed through
the crowd to the cage of one of the
largest of these cats, crying: There's
DickN Instantly the great cat turned
around, his face TRANSPORTED with Joy,
purred loudly, and endeavored to
scratch open the front of the cage, that
he might rejoin his little friends, who
were with difficulty persuaded to leave
him at the show"