St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-30
EyE1l

R w %fyw h C h was
~ l1preval e n t
\@-) mong the
w fair sex for
W. several years,
is fast giving
way to craze
{ ! ! !. ].
for pet cats.
a There are
49, probably t
f a great many
- FL households in
IVY ~ st. Louis with
L. which one cat,
- ~ at least, is not
identified, but the felines have never
been an object of special devotion
until now, except to the children. The
children, of course, think that pussy
is just too sweet for anything, and
are never tired caressing and showering
affections upon her, but no doubt the
cat, though she has kept her tongue
well, has often secretly longed for q
devotion which OccasiOned less personal
discomfort than theirs does, however
well it may be meant. II such has
been the feeling of felines the ascend
ancy which they are now fast gaining
over their hated rivals, the poodles,
must be exceedingly gratifying.
The change in the sentiment OF the
ladies occurred only within the past
| few months, but it has been marked. a
cat is more frequent sight in vehicle
on the boulevard than pet dog. The
fashionable cats, of course, are the
Maltese and the tiger. The tiger is
is very striking looking cat,
being of grayish brown color
with black stripes. The cost of Nal
tese or tiger cat ranges between s. and
$40. There is only one man in town
who sells them and his sales are becom-
ing numerous. The other dealers in
birds, parrots, dogs, ETC., have evil
IDENTIFY not yet become aware of the fact
that the ladies have transferred their
affections
FROM THE DOG TO THE CAT.
and are consequently losing the Oppor-
tunity of profting by this Inconsistency.
The dealer referred to stated yesterday
that the demand for cats of the finer
kind was increasing wonderfully lately.
| Before he became aware Of the new
fashion a number of ladies had eX-
changed poodles with him for cats, and
heethought he was getting great deal
the best of the bargain, but he soon
JIlO ICdoOu why thCJ WCiO
so willing to make such trade,
and he disposed of the poodles at sac
rifice and raised the prices of cats. This
dealer guarantees all cats which he sells
to have no appetite whatever for cana
rieS. Their fOndneSS for canary meat
| is one of the greatest objections to TAX
ing cat into household which is en-
IVened by the melody made by one of
these yellow songSters. The taste of
felines for canary meat is Unborn and is
hard to eradicate, but where a great
| number of canarieS are kept, to allow
the cats to indulge in this delicacy
would be ruinOus, and hence the dealer
is compelled for his own protection to
teach the cats he keeps for sale that
canary meat is not conducive to ro-
bust constitution. And he succeeds.
Nothing could induce one of the cats in
the store to touch a canary. When the
birds sing the cats bear it patiently and
master the desire-which is, no doubt,
strong within them-tO Strangle the
pretty little warbler.
The craze for cats threatens to grow
to a degree that legislation will be
necessary to relieve those who have no
tastes for pet felineS of the diScOmfortS
which will be occaSiOHed by their neigh
bors having such a hobby. The craze,
if it keeps on, will reach point where
those who are possessed of the mania
will completely abandon the old custom
of drowning all but one of the brood
and will begin to establish cat farms.
This statement may seem an eXaggera-
ton, but the writer has reason to know
that there is great danger of some
starting into
THIS INDUSTRY.
Next door to the writer's house there
is a lady who became afflicted with the
craze couple of months ago. She pur-
chased two fine cats. A month later
full kittens. Their arrival gave the lady
much pleasure, but the neighbOrs
evinced no particular interestln the baby
felines until a couple of days after
wards little girl spread the alarming
| information that Mrs. M intended
to deprive the river of its usual dona-
| ton and had decided to raise them all.
| From that time forward the growth of
| those cats was watched with interest by
the entire neighbOrhood. When they
were old enough to frisk around they
organized an athletic club and
selected the writer's lower back
porch as a sprinting track, hav-
| ing all their races around midnight.
! Arriving at an age when they felt a
desire to go counting they organized a
glee club. This was more than the
neighbors could put up with, and one
or them secured a silent rifle for the
purpose of stilling those voices forever.
| He knocked the tenor the first night,
but neglected to remove the corpse, and
the consequence was that when its
fOster-mother saw it lying cold and
stiff on. the writer's back porch
next morning she got into mag
nificent passion. She threatened to get
out a warrant to punish the perpetrator
| of the dastardly deed. She was told
that the cat had probably died natural
| death. but she saw the tell-tale bload
and sWOre there had been foul play. In
vain an attempt was made to persuade
her that the presence of the blood was
probably due to the fact that the cat had
! ruptured blood vessel in attempting
to reach high c.. Plausible as such an
explanation was she refused to believe
| 1t and raised such a rumpus that the
man with the silent messenger of death
became alarmed and reluctantly gave
I'D his intention of registering on the
songsters one by one.
THE NUISANCE WAS ENDURED
| by the neighbors with heroic fortitude.
| One night shortly after the midnight
4 assassination quartette of young dudes
came around to serenade a young lady
| who lives on the square. and though it
became necessary to use the silent rife
to brighten them away, still the neigh
bors feel that they owe them a debt of
gratitude, for since then they have
| been able to stand the squalls
of the cats with more resignation,
for tormenting as the vocalizatlOn of the
felines is, it is some relief to think that
they are incapable of giving such Attic
lions as ''Sweet Violets" or "Only a
Pansy Blossom" One of the gentle
men who lives in the neighborhOod is a
lawyer, and he now employs the time
he formerly devoted to sleep in getting
| up bill which he will endeavor to have
! passed in the next legislature, entitled
IAN Act to Restrict the Raising and
]. AIai ,iI,.r of Cots %