The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-03
A FAITHFUL DOG.
His Frulticss Trips In Search OF Ills Un-
fortunate Master.

fortunate Master.
Day and night for nearly three
months the patrol wagon from the
Central police station has been follow cd
by ragged, hungry, homeless cur dog
that answers to the strictly appropriate
name of Bum. Still ut tho same time
his canine heart is capable of loving
devotion entirely unknown to the human
bum.
His chief object in life, says the San
Francisco Call, is to keep the patrol
wagon in sight. Day and night he
turks in the generous shadows of tho
morgue or behind the garbage tanks in
Dunbar alley with his bleary, purblnd
eyes blinking Mt the blue drunk chariot.
Sometimes during his lonely vigils in
the night Bum falls into n fitful dozc,
but at the first clang of the gong or tho
clatter of tho horses hoofs rs they
clear the alley he is up and away on his
hopeless mission.
The dog first made his appearance ut
the prison about three months ago
when his master, George Doney, q
worthless character, was brought in
from Broadway lodging house.
For long time Mr.. Doncy had been
suspected of doing nothing for living,
and one day the police caught him
at it. So he was promptly rounded up
and sent to the house of correction for
six months. The last the dog saw of
his master was when he was hauled out
of the wagon ut the door of the prison.
Since then the faithful brute has never
allowed the wagon to leave his pres
cncc for more than two minutes at n
time. In his befuddled mind Mr.
Doney and the drunk chariot are re-
lated in some mysterious manner, and
the poor forsalSen beast is living in the
forlorn hope that by following the
wagon he may find the only friend he
has on Garth. If the dog holds out until
Doncy serves his sentence his cherished
dream may yet be realized.
Bum is short of wind and tail and can
not sec more than half way across the
street, but his physical infirmitics arc
nothing to his mental torture when he
hnds each succeeding trip with the
wagon as fruitlcss as the last There is
n pathetic tingc of almost human Crict
in the whine of disappointment he ut.
tcrs when, on shifting ut the heels OF
the limp and lifeless drunk as he is
loaded into the wagon, he finds that he
has made another trip for nothing.
Sometimes during night run, BUR
loses the wagon, owing to his failing
sight, but Driver Murphy hits the gong
IL whacl, and n moment later the pant
ing brute comes bounding forward will
q mingled yelp of hope and gladness.
OF late Matron Karr, of the receiving
hospital, has taken kindly interest il
Buns case, and in the morning she
places the scraps of meat left over from
making beef tea under ono end of tht
doorstep. At the same hour ever,
morning Bum makes dull gray strcal
of himself from the wagon to breakfast
but SO intense is his anxiety regarding
the movements of the police depart
mcnt that he bolts his victuals Who'll,
on the return trip.
lie holds aloof from others of Iii
kind and even refuses the advances o
dogs of higher caste and better breed
ing with bright brass collars on, allow
ing no sordid aims or worldly pleasure
to interfere with his object in life. ii
will have nothing to do with men
either civilians or policemen. and ha
given ample evidence that old, dirty
worthless, shiftlcss, drunken Doncy il
the onlyman he ever loved.