Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-25
THE HEARTHSTONE SPHINX.
The. Character of Puss ms Comma re d
with That of the Dog.


From the London Spectator.
Ccmpal ed to a cat, dog is very sim
pie and transparent creature Sometimes
indeed, he is guilty of acts of deception and
hypocrisy. but they are crude and ingenu-
Gus compared to the urfa thcmable wiles of
a cat. Mr.. North's dog, for instance, who
ate the pigeon cut of the pie and stuffed
up the hole with Mr.. Norths ink sponge
was not adept in the art of theft: and a
fox terrier with whom the present writer
81 joys the Intimacy Of q common house
hold has disgraced herself this last week
by What was. to all in tents and purposes a
lie, when q little more aStutepess would
have shown her the futilty of falsehood.
in the face of an alibi. She had been tear
ing up paper and streWirg il about the
floor, with fine literary freedom, when the
servant whose duty it was to clean the
carpet asked her, with magisterial SEVERITY
HWho tore those letters?' The culprit look
ed at first terribly abaShed, and hung her
head and tail in expectation of chastise-
ment, till her mistress, as a trial. observed
Il wonder did Gyp dc it," Gyp was the
Offenders usual companion ard fellow sin
ner. but as it CHANGED was miles off at the
moment) Instantly the perfiI:ous little
wretch perceived way of escape from the
Pr atty of her own miSdeeds by throwing
the blame on her friend. and looking up
briskly, shock her tail frantically and al
most nodded. You are right. 1t was that
wicked Gyp! AS for me, 1 am quite inca
1t is as useless for dog to attempt these
receptions as for a good honest English
man to profit by the counsels of Macchia-
Velh But the case is quite different with a
cat. She is domestic sphinx-whose coun-
tenance is solemn as that of her stony pro-
totype, WHO has gazed for sixty centuries
over the field Of death at Ghizeh. and
whose tail is not. as George Eliot describes
the tail of dog a vehicle for the emo
TONS" and never betrays her. except in the
case of 1eorine rage. No philosopher, we
are persuaded, ever yet got to the bottom
of cats mind. She is bette incomprise,
for good and for evil. No one fathoms her
implacable IeSentmentS, her deep, unspok-
en- suspicious Of her enemies. or her unal-
terable confidence and gratitude toward her
friends. Few people attempt to study her;
she is rarely even given name (unlesS it
be the banale and meaningless eyerlasti ting
Minnie). hut is spoken of, like a poor work
house orphan, by her surname, as the
Gator in the Vocative, "Puss''-and treat
ed little better by one, a little worse by
another, but rarely watched with any at
tent!on o. sympathy. such as many of US
bestow on our dogs. Yet there must be
something really profound in a cats feel
ings, since there are numberleSs insta noes
on record where they have persisted and
died for grief at the loss of their masters
or mistresses; and the following, which oc-
CURED last week, affords touching proof of
a sentiment still more rare in any animal
pure frier dship. correspondent writes to
us:
Col C-'s little black and tan pet dog
Flo died last Monday morning about 3
o'clock. He had had her for many years,
and she had long had an internal COM
paint. She was a dear, little affectionate
intelligent creature, and had always been
treated as kindly as a child. He buried her
in his garden, and over her little grave his
housekeerers children shed many tears
Yesterday I heard from him, as follows:
Another Ct my dome tic pets was an old
black cat " hich CO me to me a kitten years
ago, a few weeks before I brought Flo
from Oxford. They grew up together, and
were very fond of each other eating from
glass. l have often seen them stand side
by side before my fire, and occasionally
put their mouths together, as though they
were absolr te1y kissing. Well, the poor old
cat seemed very miserable all day yester-
day tthat is, Monday, the day on which
Flo had died. early in the morning), and
We could not induce her to eat. She could
not be found last night when the house
was closed, but as this occasionally hap
pened. not much was thought Of it. This
morning she was found stiff and cold
stretched cut by the side of F1o's grave, /
could not have believed it. if had not seen
1t with my own eyes. Whether 1t is only a
coincidence, will not pretend to say, but
I would rather believe that the poor ami
NAL died from grief at the loss Of her old
friend But If SO. how did she know that
Flo was dead? Such a fact as this leads to
strange thoughts, or what would be called
strange, by those who can see In these
creatures only a dog or only a cat"
When BE reflect on the amount Of
thought and tenderness Of sentiment which
this story reveals, does It not seem as IT, in
our usual treatment of CATS We must be
stupidity ignoring sGmet thing very wonder
full and beautiful close beside us all day
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