Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-25

- $J1 ment the omcers oogs and the
RSs mems dogs form two distinct
casts among themselves. The quality OF breed
has nothing whatever to do with determining
the dividing lines, which is simply fixed by the
rank of the masters. A cur that is the prop
erty OF u lieutenant will not associate with the
best bred dog owned by private. The private's
dog responds with hatred to contempt of the
officers dog. and they snari at each other
whenever they meet Something OF the same
spirit and appreciation of social differences
you will find exhibited by dogs that are much
kept as pets in houses. They will rarely have
any thing to do with the servants, though the
latter may do all the feeding.
Dogs have far better reasoning powers, ]
think, than is generally supposed. Every sum-
mer at the time when the catchers are vIgor-
ously pursuing their employment the animals
fairly swarm into the Washington navy yard,
where they seem TO know that they are safe
from pursuit. How can they be aware of this
unless they communicate such information one
TO another! On one occasion some time ago
had a very curious experience with pointer
OF my own. lie had orders never TO lie on my
bed. but knew that he disobeved because |
always used TO find his '-spoor' on the coverlid
when came home at night l never could
catch HIM IN the act, and when L arrived
he was always fast asleep on the hearth. One
evening. however, L thought would try an
experiment and leaving nv shoes at the bot
tom of the stairs made my way without anv
noise to my room. Looking through the crack
IN the door. which stood ajar, l saw Wolf living
Oh the bed. Without disturbing HIM stole
carefully down stairs again. walked up about
ms noisiiy as usual and entered my chamber.
There was the dog. not on the bed. but seem
ngiy fast asleep by the fireside. He got "A beat
ing that time which cured HIM.
Speaking o. soldiers stealing dogs reminds
me OF an occurrence in a small western town
where l was stationed for a while. A gentle
man resident IN the place lost a very valuable
st. Bernard, and asked me for advice on the
subject He said that the animal had disap-
peared on the saturday before, aud / at once
remembered that that was tue day on which
company ID OF the IL infantry had passed
through.
" Telegraph to Jonesboro I said. where the
company now Is, giving a description of your
dog. and have no doubt that you will get it
back
My advice was obeyed and the dog was re-
turned. As suspected. 1t had followed or been
carried of by the soldiers.
The funniest thing ever heard OF dog do
ing occurred here In Washington. tramp cur
appeared on certain premises and declined to
go away, apparently fearing the dog catchers
Orders were given that II should not be fed,
| and II happened about the same time that the
family cows yield Of milk exhibited much
| diminution in quantity. No surmise was made
as to q connection between the two circum-
stances until the master of the househo old found
the undesired beast one morning In the act of
milking the COW. 1t was growing fat on the
best OF Jersey cream. give you nv word that
! that story is a true one.
mo one can justly accuse a dog Of being a
| selfish animal The self-devotion il will show
| toward its master is proverbial. but have rea-
son to know that 1t frequently displays most
| generous impulse toward it's own fellows A
| small but unwecOme tramp cur once appeared
| at my own house and declined to feed it. les,
| it should stay. About the same time noticed
that my dog Wolf had a habit OF taking the
first bone that was given him off behind
| big tree to eat HIS subsequent bones
at each meal he went through no such
ceremony with, and finally followed HIM one
morning for the purpose of seeing what he had
| done with the first one. To my surprise
| found the tramp cur In the act of devouring
| the bone which Wolf had evidently left for ITS
| ration. The beast was small and so the pro-
| vision was sufficient. Wolf had evidently been
regularly feeding the stranger dog out of his
own provender for a good many days.
Il had friend who vouches for what seems
to me an extraordinary story of dog that was
| brought from Queenstown to Boston. The ami.
| NAL appeared disconsolate and homesick, and
| frequently it disappeared, only to be found
| wandering about the wharf at which it had dis
| embarked. One fine day it disappeared and
nothing more was heard Of it for quite three
England that the dog had mysteriously reap
peared at hls place. From subsequent investi-
cation it was evident that the intelligent beast
had gone down TO the wharf in Boston day after
day until he found the ship that had brought
him from Queenstown and had taken passage
whsn it fiually came in for a return voyage.
Upon reaching England he had started straight
for home.
You might imagine that many more dogs
would go mad in this warm climate than
farther north, but the fact is that a rabid am
NAL is almost an unknown thing in Washing
ton. while in Boston there is a mad dog scare
every summer regularly. You must remember.
however, that what people call rabies is In
| ninety-nine cases out of one hunded simply fits
and the unfortunate dog is the victim of the
misapprehension. Fools deny the existence of
such a disease as hydrophobia, asserting that
it is purely imagination. Ii SO. why do little
| children SO frequently die Of it2 Nevertheless
many persons doubtless perish from fear OF it
Two very funny superstitions are generally
entertained on this point. One is that by kill
ing the dog one may prevent hydrophobia
from following its bite; the other that lick
from a dogs tongue, il it touches a scratch or
a sore place, will produce hydrophobia if that
dog is ever afterward attacked by the COM