The San Francisco call., 1896-06-28
A WONDERFUL
Dog THAT PLAYS The PART
OF PEDAGOGUE.
Born in Liverpool, but Now Delights
and AStoniSheS Those Who Fre-
qusnt the Clay-Street
Market.

Jack is the name of the smartest dog in
Clay Market, and there are lots of
dogs with big brain-pans in that establish
ment. The popularity of Jack, however,
is that he is most desirous of imparting
his knowledge to the rest of his breed.
Not only is Jack a smart dog but he is a
trained dog, which is further proof to the
adage that "a rolling stone gets polished. !"
Jack first saw the light of day in Liver
pool, about FIVE years ago, in little saloon
near the monster floating dock; but of
course he don't want everybody to know
this. AS the saloon-keeper had a good
many more just like him he gave Jack to
a ships captain, who took him on many
long voyages.
Jack saw a great many strange
lands, but did not take a liking to
any of them until he struck California.
He had no sooner got inside the Golden
Gate than he knew that he had struck the
best part of the world. Home ties were
strong, though, and Jack was undecided
about staying here, until one day he wan
dered up Clay street into the market.
That settled it. No more England and
free trade for Jack and no more sailing
the stormy seas. Clay street was good
deal better than Lime street when the
meat question was considered.
Jack Is really the property of Uri & Co.,
although he makes his home in any of the
stalls he pleases. He was not in the mar
ket very long before it was known that he
could perform many tricks the sailors had
taught him. For awhile he had all of the
glory of this to himself, and then sud
denly made up his mind to impart some of
his knowledge to his fellows.
1t was no trouble for Jack to get pupils,
as he is on friendly terms with all the
dogs in town, and many of them showed
a strong disposition to gain some of his
ompllshments. The trouble was that
they could not learn. 1t was as easy as
fun for Jack to stand on his head, but
most of those ne tried to teach generally
succeeded only in breaking their noses.
He tried many simpler tricks, but to the
same end-failure.
1t was then that Jack hit on the idea of
taking his pupils when they were quite
young, and his efforts have been crowned
with success. He now has a class every
day at such hours as he can find puppy
willing to go through instruction.
Those who believe that animals are un-
able to communicate ideas TO one another
should watch Jack and one of his pupils.
He will first do a certain thing himself,
and then appears to explain it to the
puppy. The youngster is attentive, and
then tries to initiate his master.
OF course, the puppies learn some things
quicker than others. Rat killing, for in
stance, they pick up very rapidly. Jacks
method of doing this is to catch the rat,
gently at first, and throw it into the air.
When the squealing rodent is descending,
he gives it one rap across its spinal column
and the rat has nothing more to say. The
puppies enjoy learning this trick, but don't
always do it as gracefully as Jack. They
kill the rat though, before they get
through, or Jack finds out the reason why.
During the three years he has been in the
market Jack has taught many dozen
puppies to become proficient ratters. He
is the best of teachers, because he holds
the coast record of 115 rats in a single
night. Knowing this, it is easy to account
for the scarcity of rats in the Clay-street
market.
Jack has taught many puppies to stand
on their heads and to stand on their hind
legs, as well as jumping over high obstacles
and other similar feats. He has tried in
vain, however, to teach any of them to
climb ladder or turn back handspring,
both of which he does easily and grace
fully himself. But he never gets tired,
and still hopes to accomplish his purpose.
Almost every day he can be seen hard at
work. He gets one or more puppies and
makes them watch him climb a ladder.
The puppies, however, are satisfied to let
him do it, and refuse to make the attempt
themselves. In such cases Jack is likely
to take a squealing youngster by the back
of the neck and try to boost him up the
ladder.
1t occasionally happens that Jacks lad
der-climbing gets him into trouble. He
can go up all right, but cannot turn
around and come down. He has to jump,
and should he in his enthusiasm climb too
high for this must wait for some of the
men to take him down. This is not al
ways convenient, and Jack often has to
wait long time before relief comes.
The men in the market are quite proud
of all of Jacks accomplishments. But
they are still prouder of his attempts to
impart them to his friends. They think,
therefore, that San Francisco can boast OF
the only dog pedagogue in the world.