Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-10-13
A FAITHFUL Doc.
His FruItless Trips I'm Search OF his Tn.
fortunate Mater.

fortunate Mater.
Day and night for nearly three
months the patrol wagon from the
Central police station has been followed
by ragged, hungry, homeless cur dog
that answers to the strictly appropriate
name of Bum. Still ut the same time
devotion entirely unknown to the human
-bum..n .,y.,....s.,t, ,.l>..... -,.,.,.r
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 the
morgue or behind the garbage tanks in
Dunbar alley with his blcary, purblind
eyes blinking at the blue drunk chariot.
Sometimes during his lonely vigils in
the night Bum falls into q fitful doze,
but ut the first clang of the gong or the
.clGtter of the horses hoofs as they
clear the alley he is up and away on his
hopeless mission.
The dog first made his appearance at
the prison about three months ago
when his master, George Doney, q
worthless character, was brought in
from a Broadway lodging house.
For long time Mr.. Doncy had been
suspected of doing nothing for n 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
has master was when he was hauled out
OF the wagon at the door of the prison.
Since then the faithful brute has never
allowed the wagon to leave his pres
tuna -
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 earth. If the dog holds out until
Doney serves his sentence his cherished
dream may yet be realized.
Bum is short of wind and tail and can
not see more than half way across the
street, but his physical infirmities arc
nothing to his mental torture when he
finds each succeeding trip with the
wagon as fruitless as the last. There is
n pathetic tinge Of almost human grief
i'll the whine of disappointment he ut
tors when, on shifting at the heels of
the limp and ifcless drunk Us he is
loaded into the wagon, he finds that he
has made another trip for nothing.
Sometimes during n night run, Bum
loses the wagon, owing to his failing
sight, but Driver Murphy hits the gong
q whacls, and a moment later the pant
ing brute comes bounding forward with
n mingled yelp of hope and gladness.
OF late Matron Karr, of the receiving
hospital, has taken Il kindly interest in
BUNS case, and in the morning she
places the scraps of meat left over from
making beef tea under one end of the
doorstep. At the same hour every
morning Bum makes n dull gray streak
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 whole
on the return trip.
He holds aloof from others of his
kind and even refuses the advances OF
logs of higher caste and better breed
ing with bright prass collars on, allow.
ing no sordid aims or worldly pleasures
! to interfere with his object in life. lie
will have nothing to do with men
either civilians or policemen, and has
! given ample evidence that old, dirty
worthless, shiftless, drunken Doney is
/ the onlyman he ever loved.
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