The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-04-16

north Pownal.


Dogs;-April 1st was a busy day
among the dog owners of our village.
Our dog settlement is large one. The
number of licenses issued (although not
accounting for all the dogs) tends 10
show large increase of those "brutes''
since their last official census. This ad-
dluon TO our canine population, in con-
trast with thai Of the human, is no doubt
partially accounted for by the fact that
in the case of dogs, doctors are not re-
quired TO regulate their advent into the
world. Dogs, too. are not so much in
clined to change their residence indie
pendent of their masters: a circum-
stance much to the credit of the quad
rupeds, since the occasional moving
tendency of the other, is necessity that
interrupts unpleasantly the natural tran
guilty of the brute. Now we have no.
uced great diversity of " taste'' among
dog owners, in the style or fashion of
dogs. Farmers keep dog for its use
tulness on the farm. But great many
have them for no other earthly reason
than because they are a nuisance, and
because they worry and torment their
neighbOrs. These are veritable ours and
they belong mostly to those who are not
generous enough to afford their dogs the
protection of a license, and whenever
the inspector happens to blunder into a
household where such an animal resides,
the master magnanimously surrenders TO
the eXecutiOner the poor beast as an eX-
platlon for his own meanness and neg
lect Women, also, sometimes exhibit
an unaccOuntable perseverance in the Sc
lection of their pets, especially of dogs.
Certainly nothing more fOrcibly illus
tartes the soft side of human nature
than to see lady, pretending to some
culture and accomplishment" leading
by cord an Unlocking dimiuutive cur,
decked with ribbons and ornamented
with miniature bells? A species always
held III contempt by the mastIff and
other nobler variety of dogs. Occasion
ally very large dog is gallanted through
the streets by a very small woman, that
requires more bread and meat for its
meal than does Bennington hotel for
its dinnOr on the 10th of August. There
are also few ours that are tramps and
night prowlers. These are the ''sheep
depredators,n and it yearly requires
more money than the aggregate license
fees to pay the lOOses of our sheep own
ers at the mouths of these villainous
beasts. Listers should be prompt and
particular to report all such ''Outcasts'
in order that their licenses may be re
voked and the "murderersn destroyed.
1t is a maxim that a man may be known
by the dog he keeps. If this be true
what must be said of the owners of that
species of the Canine with the long
ears, and which disturb the Sabbath
stiffness by their prolonged, unearthly
yells, as if a herd of braying mules were
let loose? Is the owner OF fighting
dog any thing less than cruel, brutal
man? A treacherous, swapping cur, will
he not own for master some cOwaTdly,
sneaking fellow, more contemplate than
the brute itself, that responds to his
whistle? Some men and women
have more dogs than they have
wives or husbands, and the dogs receive
the larger share of their care and affec-
ton. We know of a divorce case that
ended a series of troubles which had its
commencement over a dog, and the wife
was the one to blame. After all, there is
great deal oil philosophy in dogs, and
April is good month to consider it.