Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-05-09
LANGUAGE SPOKEN By THE CATS
Investigation Reveals They Have Quite
nm Extensive Vocabulary.

nm Extensive Vocabulary.
Since the domestication of the animal
there has never been doubt that cats
possessed language that they some
times employed with more liberality
than the occasion seemed to demand.
But 1t is new theory that the smooth
and liquid passages in our poets arc
founded primarily on the accents OF
cats, and that the latter is the COM
pletest illustration of vocal and lingual
harmony which nature affords. The
popular idea has always been quite the
contrary. But the notion is serious
ly advanced by Prof. Marvin Clark, who
is said to be a blind author, and argued
upon with feline emphasis and prolix-
ity. Cat language, he says, is rather
like Chinese, both being musical, mel
lifluous and pleasing to the senses
a proposition which will command at
tention on account of its novelty, and
may be concurred in by the cats and
the Chinese themselves, but is certain
of indignant and spontaneous rejection
by all other animals and men. In other
respects the similarity between the two
dialects may possess higher degree of
FEASIBILITY. For instance, the same
word in Chinese means several hundred
different things, according to tho in
Election, and Prof. Clark asserts that
the same thing may be said of the
various yowls through which the cat
endeavors to express its emotions.
Sometimes they mean one thing, and
sometimes another, according to their
pitch and cadence, and in the case of
an error of Interpretation on the part
of the adjacent eat there is always the
eNpedient of battle, giving rise to new
vocal experiments and new misunder-
standings in a chain of unbroken sue
cession since the first midnight cat APP
peared upon the first back fence in
history. So far as the inhabitants OF
the flowery kingdom have been OBJ
served, their conversational habits par.
take Of the same general character,
ard often lead to the same results, and
tracing an analogy between them.
OF the 600 primitive words which the
professor claims to have traced home
to the cat by far the larger proportion
bear noticeable similarity. to those
employed in the colloquics of the origi-
nal laundrymen, and the light repartee
of the fan-tan table. But ii is not pos
sible to concur in the theory that they
form the ultimate basis of poetical lit
erature. or that to unravel them is to
untwist all the chords that tie the pris.
oned soul of harmony. Giving the cat
note its proper value in the phonetic
and lingual scale, it is possible to con-
ceive another origin for their tongues
and sounds. There is no evidence that
it has materially influenced the devei.
opment OF poetical literature in any
period. There is a trace of il here and
there in verse to BE- seen, but il is a
mere accidental similitude, a trife more
marked in the case of the new laureate
than In common, but in that. too. tits
bat casual concord. II is not wise 10
clGim for the animal more than prop
eTly belongs to it, and any iudicious
cat would reject the pretensions put
forth in it's behalf than much louder
yowl than belongs to it's usual vocabu-
lary.-Chicago Times-Herald.