The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-08-29
A WONDERFULLY BRIGHT TERRIER.

N'RA ~ " 3oA4lI5 tPI liNES bI -NCNH
paper Row. This individual goes from
one Office to another every night and holds
conference with the various correspond
ents. He is acquainted with many Soma
tors and Representatives, and lie often
takes part in the little dinners of the
correspondents. Still, he is less than a
foot tall, and, like the wild man in a
circus, he has hair all over his person. He
is a Scotch terrier and his name is FIdge
He is about the size of an ordinary white
poodle, and he has the brightest of black
eyes shining out of a bushy face. He is
however, the brightest dog in the United
States, and he has made a national repu-
tation through his Washington tricks for
the past five years. Senator Blair calls
him Socrates, and he says he believes that
he contains the soul Of some great man Of
the past, which in the course of its trans
migration is now inhabiting a dog. He
sometimes sits for hours in the newspaper
Office of the ST. Paul Globe. praes Using on
the dogs wondt rful intelligence, and as LIE
plays with him he talks to him saying !:
.'Fidge,I am sure that in the aeons of the
past you were some great man. And |
would have thee tell seme Of thy past ex-
peiiences. Perhaps yea were Plato, and
spouted philosophy, even as some Senators
talk on education. Perchanee you were
Socrates, or you may have been of Roman
birth, and the same soul that voices forth
your bark may have conceived the
orat ions OF Caesar, or given forth the pure
classic Of Cicero. Tell ME, Fidge, which
was it? If you can't speak American,
speak Greek or Latin, and l will try to
understand YOU
Not long ago Governor Swirefold, of
Alaska, paid a visit to Washington. Mr..
Smith Frye, Fidge's owner, was looking
for him, and be went through Wizards
Hotel and failed to find him.. He dropped
i'll at the biliiard-room but saw 10 one he
knew until he started to go out, when a
man in a dark corner Of the room beckon-
ed to him. He went over aud it was
Governor Swineford. As the Governor
shook hands he said: Your dog has
better eyes than you have. lie reniem-
bered me, and when he saw me playing
billiards over here he came over and caught
hold of my trouser leg with his teeth and
pulled at it until l looked down, hen lie
/ rose on his bind feet aud offered me his
hand. 1t is four years since | saw him
and his memory is good"
The manage of Forepaugh's circus SAW
Fidge a year or tWo ago and he offered
Frye $1,CG0 for him. Congressman Stahl-
necker, of New York, is another of Fidge's
admirers, and Fid &c aid he often drank a
glass of beer together. Fidge laps his
beer cut of his own glass. and he is SO
clearly that no one would object to drink
after him. His master first discovered his
intelligence through the dogs desire to be
clean. He bought him as pup and paid $50
for him. When he took him home he
found that the pup was covered with fleas,
and that lie Leeded a bath of patent soap
every morning to get rid of these. Mr.
Frye disliked this bathing very much, and
he said, while Fidge was lying on the
floor, well suppose must 60 and give
that blamed dog his BATH" whereupon
Fidge jumped up and trotted upstairs and
jumped of his own accord into the tub
prepared for him.
1t was at this time that his master got
the idea OF trying to teach him certain
words and to make him understand to a
certain extent his conversation. The dog
learned wonderfully, and he now has a
vocabulary of about 800 words. The other
day his mistress, wanting to go out, found
at the front door that she had forgotten
her pocket book. She said 10 Fidge: Il
want you to go upstairs, go into my room
and bring down my pocket-book, which is
on the bureau Fidge did SO. In this
case 10 motionipg was don't and the dog
understood the words. He carried the
idea of the bedroom. the pocket-book and
the bureau in his mind al the same time
and also that he was to 60 and bring the
pocket-book.
Not long ago Correspondent Frye was
not feeling very we'll and he gave Fidge a
dime wrapped in a piece of paper and told
him to take it to a drugstore, mentioning
the name of the store, which was one
where he and Fidge had often been. He
wrapped a note around the dime, and
Fidge, taking it in his mouth, started out.
Ten minutes later he returned with a
seidlitz powder which the clerk had given
him and his change for the dime. Frye
often sends him for cigars to a certain
cigar store. Sometimes Mrs. Frye will
tell Fidge that Sic believes his masterisat
W illard's and will give him a rote to take
to him. Fidge GOES straight 10 the hotel,
finds his master ard gives him the note.
Fidge also takes the letters to the post
office. There is a little door at one end
Of the delivefy-wiudow ard he pushes one
paw against this ard gets inside and holds
up the correspondence which he is carry
ing in his mouth 10 a little old man who is
cancelling stamps doe. His master has
never lost a letter which lie has intrusted
to him. and he has carried columns upon
columns of manuscript for newspaper pub