The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-03-06

men present who would lead the dog
to his house and tie him to the kennel
in the back yard, already prepared for
his reception, but at five dollars one of
them took the job. The fellow who
did SO went off somewhere and pro-
cured pole with thing like a big
corkscrew in the end of it. Twisting
that screw into the ring in the dogs
collar. he pinned the brute to the floor
until the rope was cast off from the
big safe to which it had been tied, and
then steered him out into the street,
and to his destination, by main
strength, holding him away from TAX
ing samples from every body in sight.
At the kennel he again pinned poor
doggy" down until Collins made the
rope fast Then, standing well be-
yond reach, he unscrewed his pole
from the collar, and said tersely:
''There's your dog" and having re-
ceived his five dollars, went away. Mr..
Collins returned to the editorial room
ana resumed his work.
In about an hour a painting, perspir-
ing, red-faced and bare-headed servant
girl rushed in, and, as soon as she
could get breath enough to speak, re-
ported:
ooh, Mr.. Collins! You've got to
come down to the house right away!
That dog has bit off the rope and got
loose, and he's took the house. Mrs.
Collins and the children are freed in
room upstairs. / got into the parlor
just in time to save my life. and had to
lump out of a window to come here.
Mr.. Collins went home in haste. On
the way he procured dog-chain and
big club. He wasn't big man, but
when he was mad he had as much
nerve as the dog. He was mad now,
and he had the club. The engage
ment between them was opened the in
slant that he entered the front door,
and only ended when the Infatuated
beast had been knocked senseless,
pounded almost to a jelly; and chained
to the kennel. Then Collins put on
another suit of clothes-those worn
during the proceedings with the dog
having been reduced to rags-and
went back to his writing, though not
in that calm and philosophic frame of
mind suited to literary labor.
Half an hour later the servant girl
came back. The dog, seeing Mrs. Col
Inns at one Of the back windows, had
broken his chain and again taken pos
session of the house. When the girl
left the scene of action the children
were presumably safe in the street, and
Mrs. Collins was standing on the piano
in the parlor beating the dog off with a
club as he sprang up to seize her.
That time Collins carried back to the
house another club and a chain big
enough to hold an OK. When he got
through reasoning with his hunting
dog and had him fastened up again
with the new chain, he was in some
doubt whether the animal would live
until the next morning. Mrs. Collins
laid down her platform:
'1f he doesn't die of the beating you
have given him and you don't get rid
of him tomorrow, l shall take the
children and go home to fathers
That suggested happy thought to
Mr.. Collins. He still chung to the idea
that the nervous, high-strung dog"
had been worried by the excitement of
travel until he was almost crazy,
"and," said be, Shields, down at
sewickley, is the very place to restore
him to a normal condition. The peace
and quiet of the farm and the colnpan-
ionship of Mr.. Shields dogs will soothe
and calm his perturbed spirit. "
So, the next morning, the dog hav-
ing survived the pounding, and, indeed,
seeming none the worse for it, he took
the beast down to Sewickley. In doing
so he felt encouraged by seeing that
the animals ferocity was already much
abated. He did not recognize the fact
that it was sheer terror of him that
kept the tiend in subsection, and not
any true change of heart.
Mr.. Shields was a retired lawyer, of
cultivated literary taste and large
wealth, who had left the turmoil of
busy life to spend the autumn of his
days in the tranquil monotony of farm
ing. Outside of his library only two
things possessed much interest for
him: one, the raising of fine sheep; the
other, his annual hunting excursions
He viewed Collins hunting dog with
grave doubt, looked him over-from
respectable distance-in vain for any
evidence of either setter or pointer
blood, and did not seem impressed by
the assurances offered by his son-in-
law that 1.-THE chief of police of Cleve-
land said he was all right Never
theless he agreed to let the brute stay
there to see what effect country air
would have on his temper, and Collins
came back to the city temporarily
happy and free from care.
But at an early hour the next fore
noon, Mr.. Shields strobe into the edi-
torial-room. His face was very pale
and he trembled with suppressed pas
sion. For two or three minutes, while
struggling to feel that he might speak
Win calmness, he stood by the end of
ms son-in-law's desk, glaring at him.
Collins looking up, became white and
shivered, for the old man, aside from
being his financial hacker. was one