Blue-grass blade., 1892-02-20
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
THE SALOONKEEPER's PETS,

= 0A'A - ~ ~ VII 4NS i <A<e
THE SALOONKEEPER'S PETS.
Brutes Which Fare Better Than Some
Human Beings.
When some one called my attention
to the saloonkeeper. and wanted me to
note his pets, felt that there must be
streak of goodness in him some
where. But when out of his door there
trotted two enormous, surly, SCARED
and ugly white bulldogs, then 1 felt
that he was not only q sinner against
man but against mans best friend. A
bulldog is q libel on his race. He
bears the same relation to the best of
his kind that John Sullivan does to
George Washington. He exaggerates
the brutal quality of courage, and sinks
its moral excellence ont of sight. The
best use you can put a bulldog to is to
hang him.
But what do you suppose the saloon
keeper did while 1, from across the
city street, was watching him? He
rung the telephone and called up q
hack; ard then. paying the driver his
fee in advance, opened the carriage
door and motioned his two ours into
the vehicle. AS for the two things,
upon which such affection as he was
capable of was centered, he was send
ing them up to restaurant to break
fast! Each one solemnly took a seat
upon the cushions, one before and one
behind; and, as the rum seller closed
the door with proud smile, the car
riage rolled away and the two dogs de-
parted grandly to get their morning
meal
Well, he would have been dull fel-
low who had not gone his way think
ing. Surely here one had found an il
lustratiop of eternal fitness. The liquor
sellers down there in New York have
lately had q banquet and a fight.
Their principal speakers fell foul of
one another at the very festal board.
Now, I;propose to these gentlemen
that they adopt the bulldog as .
badge. Let them hang him on their
ohains-and most of them sport heavy
ones. Let his protruding teeth glitter
on the scarfs they wear. And when
they march in boastful procession let
their banner blazon their affection; let
them march behind the emblem of two
bulldogs riding in a coach to break
fast Old Egypt found its divinity in
the beast of the stall. but this vast or
ganized empire within each modern
nation enshrines as its chief idol the
one brute whose supreme passion il to
slay, to rend and to devour.
A 1 passed on deeply pondering
asked myself who it was that was sup
plying the cash for their high mighti-
nesses, the white bulldogs riding away
for their morning meal 1 had seen
the saloonkeeper's pets. and now I was
curious to see his patrons. So turned
and passed again by his door, just in
time to see two poor fellows reel
out Workmen, evidently. one black and
the other white, both maudlin. Wild
and uncertain in their gesticulations,
heard enough to know that they were
boasting to one another of their more
or less imaginary exploits. Poor fell
lows, thought, how much better it
was to be rum sellers pet than his
patron, his dog than his dependent
Little did these braggarts realize that
they were being impoverished to PAM
per brutea Little did these boastful
fools know that they were walking to
pay the fare of the ours going away in
the carriage, with their muzzles up to
the plate glass windows. And while I
thought upon it, whom should l see but
the acquaintance whose invalid wife
was even now shaving in the kitchen,
too poor to afford the luxury of help.
His dimSs went this morning to pay
the carfiage hire of brutes. What
ought I'd have given his wife an outing
to-day carried two worthless and over
fed beasts for an airing. And next
came the trusted clerk in one of the
great financial corporations of tho
city, who sneaked around the corner
and lodged behind the screened door,
without knowing that a watchful eye
was upon him. What wonder if
cloud fell upon my brow, as thought
Of the sweet girl who SO lately gave
her happiness and her honor into his
hands at the altar. 1 knew what
careful economies she was practicing
in order, il God wills, that they may
ewn "a home" of their own. You
could not tempt her to telephone q car
riage to-day, for she counts grudgingly
the car checks in her pocketbook. But
what should have brought some lifting
Of her burdens goes to give a pleasure
ride to these four-footed gladiators.
Lot the young bride slave. let the weak
wife bend low her back in toll; the
patrons of the saloonkeeper will pay
for the rides of the saloonkeeper's
pets. If there is a vice which takes
the manhood out of its victims, if ever
. sin which degrades its subjects, surely
this is it. We could scarce forgive it.
II it robbed the babe to feed the kitten,
or starved the child to fatten the lamb
kin; but even when it adopts a pet it
must be one as brutal as it's own in
stincts.
Now for a score of years i have gone
in and out among the homes of the peo-
pie, and, like every other servant of
the Word, have seem much of the woes
and sorrows of the drunkard's home.
have seen not little of the brutality
of the traffic in strong drink, but never
did l see more sharply the contrast be-
tween the saloonkeeper's pets and his
patrons than to-day when i chanced
upon hist5ulldogs riding off in state.
and sawAt the same time the rest of
young wives and the shoes of little
children going into the till to pay car
riage hire for two ugly visaged. battle
SCARED, I'll tempered brutes.-Rev. Ii.
d. Jenkins, in Watchman.
WINE AT THE TABLE.