Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-16
STORY OF AN UGLY DOC.
,v He secured tHS basting Protection
OF His Master.

He was hopelessly ugly dog. His
s.rn back shaded off into yellow brown
On the sides. splotched with mud colors
below. His tail was his only perfect
orcan, but that dropped so habitually
between his cowardly legs that it add
al neither to his stature nor his stand
inc iu the community. He was sickly
and sore-eyed, gave forth pestilential
odors and barked necessarily He had
lived in one neighborhood ten years,
and had resisted poison, glass pellets.
Aobert rifles. the prayers of an out
RACED community and all the other in
strument of canine destruction. With
sickening sense of the hopelessness
Of the efforts at destruction. the neigh
bors had resigned themselves to the
belief that in the end the tooth of
time would gnaw him off
The owner of this brute was Blud,
the butcher. At the meeting of the
city triumvirs recently, before a
quorum had appeared, Greens, the
grocer, and Finn, the fisher, appealed
to Bud for reason for harboring such
DOG.
That dog has a history" Bl; ID was
finally induced to say by way of
premise for the following story: You
will readily conclude that | would not
maintain such a nuisance as that cur if
he did not have some sort of a claim
upon US. You have heard me speak
Of my boy Bone. When he was curly
headed 2-year-old darling l was car.
rying on the business of gardening.
We had few acres near the city, and
nv wife would sometimes help me at
the work.
''One dav-it was about the time
that the Charley Ross affair was in
everybod's mind-we had left the baby
boy cooling in hammock under the
trees, within sight and sound, and
we're at work in the adjoining garden.
Happening to look up l saw that
rough-looking man had entered the
grounds. | did not divine his purpose.
We had few days before adopted this
dog, in the hope that he would be
playful and watchful mate for our boy.
He was asleep under the hammock
where his young master lay. | saw
the man suddenly run toward the ham,
mock. | felt at once that he was try
Ing to steal the baby. What do you
think that nastylooking, yellow cur
did just at that critical momentP"
"Leaped at the villains throat"
quickly suggested Greens, mentally
asserting that he had wronged the dog
in believing him worthless.
II always said that the meanest dog
was at least faithful to his master,n
was Firms comment; land | have no
doubt your dog saved the child's life
that day.
You both do the animal an in
justice, Blud said. rising. True to
his cur instincts, he tucked his tail be-
tween his running gear and fed"
Greens was Endangered, and only
rallied after some minutes to ask why
it was then, since the dog had, in
deed, proven himself worthless, that
Bud had cared for him all these years.
There is no burying- ground cheap
enough for such crtter. | can't give
him away, and he isn't worth killing"
was the owners answer. 1t was only
after the lapse of an hour or two that
Finn discovered that the story was not
complete.
"By the way, Blud," he then asked,
show did you recover your baby from
The kidnapper?'
'Oh, he wasn't a kidnapper. 1t was
body -snatcher, after the cur for the
pound, because the dog-tax was delin-
quent. '-LultanapotiS NeaoS.