Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-28
KILLING A cnrNAMAN's DOG.
Al. Episode of an Afternoons Walk In q
Graveyard.

DAN RANClSCO, April IA source OF TN
greatest annoyance to traveller in China il
the chorus of yelping ours at ones heels, g
where he may.
On the outskirts Of Kin Kiang, amidst g
cluster of hills and b; mboo bushes. stand.
what is called a "Ning Po temple 1t wa.
erected and is SUSTAINED by Ming Po mer
chants while sojourniIg there for trade
This temple is presided over by an aged
Buddhist priest, aud that priest, like all Others
3f his craft in this land of many priests
had as his chief possession and constant com.
panions a kennel of mongrel, NANCY ours.
One afternoon l took my gun, and accom-
panied by an American boy, the son of a
resident American, and also by my setter
dog, went for a hunt on the hills back of
the temple. For quarter of mile around
the temple the land is given up to graves:
upon and between these graves a rank growth
Of grass affords cover for pheasants
Tho first shot l fired awoke thrl huge ours
from their slurnbers, and they came yelping at
our heels Having stoned them back for the
third or fourth time, l said that il they
turned the crest OF a certain hill again that
would send them back with q load of shot in
their ekins
The words were scarcely uttersd before
here they came, / raised my gun and fired
ct tho group. The distance being at least
seventy yards and my gun carrying No S
shot supposed at most that l would no
moro than sting them with spent shot When
tho smoke cleared away the hindmost dog
got upon his feet and staggered, yelping,
down the hill toward the temple.
started on a full trot, hoping to pass over
the next mill top and get away before
sso,ld he seen by the nnc-ry rnoh
B;,t in a moment at least a score Of mon
saiiie1 forth from that tennle and came AFT
= full r7,n toward the sound az that pun re.
nor. Eycry man sbouted at the top of his
voicc.
.,Tha fore;c,crs have ,ri,Iod our dog The
FOREIGNERS have Filled our dorn
Tcsv th.A csc,r,o was ont Of the ouest,on
Ako tho furti,or This yellinp rnob nurs,,ed
r,o tbo lsrcer would be the crowd To meet in
tho o,d
reco,vo,i so n,,. on n boId front and face
tho ,,,I,c;c
Sol yrcnt ne STRAIGHT as possibIe To the
tcupIc An an-ry group of natives sur
r,on36e, ,,,o utterip1 sarious Threats of ra-
vcp~n The Sov became alarmed and went
NV se.ter dog cz,ouched in fear at nv feet
stood INV ground with as much coolness as
+ conld command. The bow having been
born in tho country of American nsrents
-note tine Chinese laneuare as we'll as his
nrn tonppe Nv first task was To allav his
fears This heinz done knew I could CON
troll tho natives. whom I knew to stand in
fear of INV run
Around me stood some two dozen peo,lo.
Two came from within the temple bc,ri,,,,
tho carcass of n dor Following came = ven
srable priest with hands folded upon his
breast and the tears streaming down his
face. be moaned aloud. "Mv moor dear dos q
rome. my hest dog is dead y flushed were tho
threats as the PROCESSION approached and
the dog was laid on the grass nj nv
feet. Two apprentice priests brou hit /,
supply of joss paper and with due cerc-
mony il WAS burned at the side OF
r,v victim This was to watt its soul into i.s
next abode. Buddhists ascribe souls to doc
and other beasts as well as to men. Was
guilty of murderl In the opinion of ny
auditors. YES As much so as if it had bee
on. of the men before me slain instead of the
dog.
The first thing / said was to ask who
owned the dog This being repeated by the
hoy in Chinese the old man. in tears. re-
plied:
Il owned the dog. It was nv best
said that / very much regretted what /
had done. but that had acted in self de-
fense. That the three dogs had rushed at me
as if TO bite me. and I had shot only to
frichten them back. told the priest thct he
was to blame, that he should have called
hack his dogs.
The operation Of talking through the
medium of the boy as Interpreter excited in
the men passion more powerful than anger
Their curiosity was aroused. Isaw nv ad
vantage and followed it up. l would look
the men cody and sauarely in the
ewes and propound questions in a
language of which they knew not a
word. The boy would then repeat my mean
ing in their own language Some one would
in turn PROFOUND questions in tongue to
me worse than Greek, and the boy in turn
would translate. l soon had the entire party
laughing except the priest, who still bowed
his head in grief
Finally asked what they proposed to do
with the dead dog They replied that they
would bury him. l asked why they did not
eat it, as it was fat and Young. They said
they would eat it if il were not a temple doc.
hut that having belonged to the priest it was
n holy dog, and to eat it would be wrong
They asked me what we did with dead docs
in NV country. told them we gave them
TO the buzzards and crows to eat. They asked
WHY the people did not eat them. ] replied
that nv people did not know that dogs were
good for food-that this knowledge, as well
as many other things of importance, was
known only to the Chinese. This hattery
pleased them.
proposed to give the priest a foreign dog
in the place of the one had killed. No: he
s,id IL would not understand him ther
offered to buy the fines. native dog in the
citv or nrovince for him No: it wouId rim
A -. .+o,- ,-;tl, b;,,, I .,,.o,o,.l .