Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-12-04
TRAITS OF ANIMALS.
Dogs Have no Confidence in Butchers
Other Interesting Facts.

Do dogs hate butchers? This ques-
ton was debated in an extended man
ner number of years ago in Ma
ture. and the general consensus of
opinion was to put it mildly, that
there was want Of confidence exhibited
on the part of dogs in their intimacy
with butchers in general. The sight
of beef displayed on the tenter-hooks
could, however, not have been distaste-
full to the dog. It must have been the
man in charge of the ribs and briskets
who was anti-sympathetic to the dog.
Reasoning it out, as would Professor
Romanes, it could not have been
primarily the particular smell of the
butcher which was distasteful to the
animal as association of the man with
kicks and cudgellings freely bestowed
in checking certain kleptomaniac i'm
pulses natural to the dog. A chickens
breast and milk and sponge-cake fed
lapdog would have turned up its nose
at honest beef and the smambes but
normal dog would not have been in
different to the Establishments of the
hesher.
There are some very original and pa
thetic stories due to Pierquin. He in
sisted that the dog held in holy horror
certain individuals whose terrible call
ing it was to traffic in dog-skins. have
sometimes thought that the lugubrious
ballad of the dog-skin dealer has yet to
be written. Say he is coming into
some medieval town with his pack of
dog-skins on his back. Then the first
lounging street dog eyes the stranger
over, and shifting assures himself of
the horrible load the peddler carries.
Then scampering OFF he imparts his
conviction to dog friend. Then the
two track the man, verify the facts,
more dogs come up, they act in con-
sort, bay and yelp and hound the
panic-stricken man out of the town.
1t is so easy to construct your mod
ern facts in accordance with ancient
legends. 1t really does not make so
much matter as to the verifcation of
the data of to-day and so there is that
story of Act@on torn to pieces by his
own hounds, which fable might be so
dovetailed as to make the hunter the
first dealer in dog-skins, and that
would upset the legend that it was the
vengeful Artemis who so made away
with her presumptuous lover. Sweet
Una. how prettily a nail-paring Incl
dent might have been assorted to her
story A rat, a beaver, squirrel, as
rodents, become exceedingly uncom-
Portable when they have nothing to
gnaw on. If they cannot use their
gouge-like teeth, those grow to alb
normal lengths. Your canary-bird,
with no chance to wear out his claws,
would be very much obliged to you if
you would occasionally pare off mite
of his horny toes. Una's particular
lion, with elongated claws, ought to
have beer grateful if the young wo-
man had clipped them. Feeling, as I
do, kindly disposed toward Una, and
wishing by no means to diminish the
originality of the charming story it
might be well to remember that many
of the larger animals are indebted to
weaker creatures for bodily comforts.
The African buffalo would lead an
unhappy life if it were not for kind
crow, who frees the huge animal of
ticks, and more than that, stands guard
over his four-footed friend and an
nounces the coming of an enemy. 1t
is uOI 81 lOHp dOO ludb Il StOl VI L d.
Their Herodotus was revived and cred
tied, which tells of tiny birds perching
on the head and jaws of Nilotic croco-
dies, relieving the huge saurians OF
leeches and parasites.
Suppose Una had clipped the lions
claws, how would she have managed
it? What is a lion but a colossal cat,
and if catnip delights cat. might not
something else pacify or mollify a
lion? | do not mean to say that the
late Rev. J. 6. Wood, the naturalist
solved the Una mystery. | do not be-
lieve he did. but he told his son. the
Rev. Theodore Wood, how he man
aged so as to get on a social footing
with lions and tigers, or to be at least
le bieu Uenu in menageries, where car
nivOres are at home.
The naturalist was in the habit of
making ball of paper, sprinkling it
with lavender-water, and throwing it
to the animals. They used to grow
wild in their exuberant delight. They
would grasp the ball with both fore
paws. hold it close to their nostrils."
and he concludes by saying that the
animals always afterward remembered
him, and seemed TO expect more per-
fumed paper balls.-Bdr1aet Phillips, in
Harper's Weekly.