Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1896-06-27
LANeuaGEsPokEN BY THE c-Ts
Investigation Reveals They Have Quite
An Extensive Vocabulary.

Investigation Reveals They Have Quite
an Extensive Vocabulary.
Since the domestication of the animal
there has Fever been doubt that cats
possessed language that they some
times employed with more liberality
than the occasion seemed to demand.
But it 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 tn.
contrary. But the notion is serious
iy advanced by Prof. Marvin Clark, who
is said to be blind author, and argued
upon with feline emphasis and prolix-
ity. Cat language, he says, is rather
like Chinese, both being musical, mel
lihuous 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 ana
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
plausibility. For instance, the same
word in Chinese means several hundred
different things, according to the in.
Election, and Prof. Clark asserts thai
the same thing may be said of the
various yowls through which the ca.
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 cat there is always the
expedient OF battle, giving rise to new
vocal experiments and new misunder-
standings in chain of unbroken sue
cession since the first midnight cat ap-
peared upon the first back fence in
history. So far as the inhabitants o:
the fiowery kingdom have been OBJ
served, their conversational habits par.
take of the same general character.
and often lead to the same results. and
there may be plausible reason for
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 colIoquies of the oripi.
nal laundrymen, and the light repartee
OF the fan-tan table. But IL is not pos.
sibie to concur in the theory that they
form the ultimate basis OF poetical lit
erature, or that to unravel them is 70
nntwist all the chords that tie the pris.
oned soul OF harmony. Giving the cat
pote 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 thai
1t has materially influenced the deye,.
opment of poetical literature in any
period. There is trace Of 1t here and
there in verse to be seen, but IL IL n
mere accidental similitude. trifle moro
marked in the case of the new laureat, J.
IMAM IN common, but in that, too. Tia
out casual concord. It is not wise to
claim for the animal more than prom.
friy Belongs to it, and any iudiciona
cat would reject the pretensions mr.
forth in its behalf than a much loudr,
yowl than belongs to it's usual yocabu
iary-Chicago Times-Herald.