The Opelousas courier., 1893-11-04
HlTCHEC TO CARTS.
WHERE MANS CANINE FRIENDS
DO THE WORK CT HORSES.

Y IEGE, Belgium, writes United
70 States Consul Nicholas Smith,
is a city of large wealth and
~ great industrial activity, pos |
sessing the largest mandatory OF
machines and machinery IN the world,
and employing as many horses as any
other town of its size in Europe, n
yet for every horse at least two doga
are to be seen in harness on its streets.
They are to be met at all hours of the
day, but in the early morning the
b~oulevards are literally alive with
them. Traflekers mostly women)
With geily painted carts drawn BY we'll
fed dogs are then seen striving to be
first in the market place. A pretty,
ba1e-headed Walloon peasant girl,
moving briskly at the side of a flower
cart drawn by a stalwart mastitt, is a
pleasing vision to the early riser. But
not only the gardener, but the butch
er, the baker, the grocer, the porter,
the expressman-common carriers OF
all kinds, indeed-engage his services.
His step is so much quicker than that
of the horse that he ill in an hour
cover twice the distance and carry with
him q greater burden in proportion to
his size.
Six hundred pounds is the usual
draft Of an ordinary dog, though a
mastiff is often taxed with as much
again. They are driven single, double
and sometimes three and four abreast,
and are hitched ind~itferently, in front
of, beneath, or behind the cart or
wagon. When the vehicle is loaded,
the driver walks, directing it's course
and in emergencies laying his shoulder
to the wheel; but when the load has
been discharged, he often mounts the
box and rushes like Jehu through the
streets.
It will not surprise those who know
that the steam engine was familiar to
the Romans rs a toy to be told that
the hollow revolving cylinder used in
| squirrel cases has been turned to &C
| count here in the movement of light
machinery by charging its scale and
substituting "Fido' for Bunny" l
have also seen him treading an endless
belt in the service of a w~ood-sawyer.
A gentleman of Liege, retaining his
fondness for lounging upon the boule-
ward after losing the use of his legs,
had a perambulator SO constructed
that a Danish hound which had been
his companion for years could be
hitched and almost concealed between
the wheels and now appears as regu-
larly in his old haunts as any of his
friends. The hound is not only as happy
as when he loitered at his masters
heels, but is manifestly proud of the
service he renders him.
Let it not be forgotten that the Bel
gians are among the most refined and
cultivated people on earth, and that
this new use of the dog is one of the
latest and most approved developments
of their civilization. Thirty years ago,
l have no doubt, a dog in harnes:
would have excited as much remark in
this city as he would to-day in Louis
vile or Memphis, though he is now al
we'll recognized an institution of the
people as the mule is in either of those
cities.
Rigorous discipline and the lone
habit of wearing muzzles seems to have
subdued the belligerent instincts o
these dogs, for they now meet as strang
ers at the crossings without those su
percilious inspections and hostile de
monstrations which characterize boil
men and dogs till they have received
the last touches of civilization. Their
remains, however, a rudimentary Low
of the chase, of which the artful drive
often avails himself to quicken thei
speed though, as Lord Chesterfield i
his excessive refinement is said to hav
laughed without cachinnation, the
have learned to hunt without barking
But a more interesting incident G
their labor is the complete extinction
of the sheep-killing propensity. Ger
tlemen bred in the country assure m
chat this offense against pastoral mol
tality lie no longer known in Belgium
O. reformation which would in itsel
Justify the Harvesting of all the dog
in America.
The expense of feeding them wher
a number are kept, or when placed
like horses, at a livery is from five t.
six cents per day, horsefesh and blacl
bread forming the staple of their food
though here, as elsewhere, the main
tenance of n or two in a family i
practically without cost. The expens
of shoeing, no small item to the keepe
of horses, is also saved.
All the experiments of breedln
which have from time to time bee
tried for the improvement of horse
are now being made to produce a do
of special fitness for harness. New
foundlands and rough-coated st. Bern
ards are ruled out on account OF thel
long hair. The mastiff has been foun
too long in the back and legs, and
is thought a ~desideratum to graft til
splendid chest and breathing capacit
Of the bulldog upon this stalwal
stock. Markets are established, wher
they are bought and sold like thel
equine co-laborers at Tattersalls, an
it is no unusual thing for a compactly
built and well-broken dog to sell fc
e0O ar COZ