The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-08-22
THE HONOLULU DOC.


wearying cares of the day. He is
dog of peculiar and unvarying hab-
its. Gifted with vocal powers far
above the average, he never by any
chance exercises them while the sun
is high, but is content to lie and doze
i'll the sun or snap at the toes and
shins of those who pass too near,
sometimes including even our neigh
boris children. Toward night
change sweeps over him. He arouses
from his slumbers and calls for his
daily rations with the air of dog
who has serious business on hand
and must needs have ammunition to
sustain him, and when the sun dips
below the western horizon he raises
his head from the contemplation of
his last bone and gives vent to his
first nocturnal howl. By midnight
he is in his full glory, and from that
hour until daybreak he devotes him
self to making night hideous with
single mindedness of purpose and an
enthusiasm worthy of better cause.
Now, no reasonable and fair-mind-
ed citizen would entertain any shall
low prejudice against bis neighbours
dog, as dog. He may be dog
with pedigree as long as horses
memory. He may be handsome,
fat, affectionate animal and the child
ren's pet. He may at some notable
period of his career have caught a
burglar by the attail, just as he
was making a felonious entrance into
the buffers pantry where the family
silver was stored. He may have
saved the youngest son from drown
ing, and wear gold medal from the
Humane Society around his neck. In
short, be may be possessed of every
canine virtue, but it is respectfully
submitted that if he bowls at night
he lacks the first essential of high
civic breeding, and the best interests
of society call for his suppression.
Some one suggests that au appeal
to the neighbor himself may effect an
abatement of the nuisance. Unfor-
tunately the dictates of custom place
us at a sad disadvantage with this
same neXt-door neighbor. We rarely
have the pleasure of any formal &C.
quaintance with him. 1t often hap
pens, especially when he keeps dog,
that we move in wholly different Cir
Giles of society. Our own little En-
lily has been forbidden to hold inter-
course with his Sairy Ann, and with
the fatal frankness Of childhood has
shared the grievance with Sairy Ann;
our sons have exchanged dnsavory
missiles and iudecorous epithets over
the back fence, and our wives do not
see each other when they meet on the
street. When, therefore, we some
day climb the front steps and ring
the door bell of the man we have
been studiously ignoring for years,
only to tell him that his dog is dis
turbing our nights rest, and to re-
quest him to silence the animal, what
is to prevent him from meeting our
polite appeal for neighborly consider
alton with harsh reminder of our
own lack of neighborly spirit, calling
our attention to the shameful manner
in which our Emily has Haunted her
new feathers in the face of Salry
Ann, who's as good as she, and bet
ter any day, or insinuating that our
wife might look sharper after Biddy,
who sprinkled his wife's freshly
washed windows last week, and per-
haps winding up with an awful threat
to chastise our Tom the next time
he catches him astrde the division
fence? Alas it would never do to
appeal to the man who keeps the dog.
The expedient has been tried many
times, and has always resulted in
fresh bitterness. After such an cpl
sode the dog must howl all night,
even If his master has to creep out
to the kennel in the dark and poke
him up: and if on some fatal morn
ing the poor animal is found stark
and stiff, who is 50 certain to come
under the ban of suspicion as the Of
fensive neIghhor who has dared to
present himself at mans door and
attempt to dictate to him what he
shall do with his own property-llis
own property, sir?
For there is no possession about
which man is 50 sensitive as his
dog. You may make scathing rehec-
tions upon the character of his fam
lily, and he viii! meet them with lofty
You may even observe a
defect in his horse, and he car still
restrain his indignation within decent
bounds. But when it comes to find
ing fault with his dog-his dog!
Great guns, sir Don't you know
better than to insult gentleman?
You have committed the unpardona-
BILE sin, and forever forfeited his re-
gard
There seems to be no other way
for it but to frame special statute
for the Honolulu dog. Not a night
passes but the peace of ten thous-
and people is disturbed by these
yelping, barking pests, and
among the ten thousand are many
delicate invalids, whose lives may
depend on good nights sleep.
Whenever it becomes penal offense
20 maintain bowling dog, or his
canine worship is condemned to for