Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-11-05
THE DOG CEMETERY.
a SEXTON RELATES SOME CURIOUS
FACTS CONCERNING IT.

Costly Monuments Erected over Dead
Pups by Their Sentimental owners-Po-
etical Epitaphs and Biblical Texts Setting
Forth the Virtues of the Departed.
Toilet clubs are not the only luxury
that dogs enjoy in common with man.
kind; they are pampered also with
cemeteries.
On the northwestern outskirts Of Lon
don, in a fine old country mansion,
surrounded by extensive grounds, lives
and labors one of the wealthiest and
most fashionable of veterinary surgeons,
who numbers among his customers va
rious members Of the royal family, many
persons Of title and distinguished lead
ers of society-in fact, his prices are so
handsome that ordinary middle class
mortals cannot afford to avail them
selves Of his services.
He is dog specialist, leaving all the
remainder of the animal kingdom in the
nands of other practitioners, and the
fact that he has made a very comfort
able fortune justifes him in his exclu-
siveness. And not only will he tend the
canine species when { .cy are ailing, but
he is prepared to them when they
die and to bury teen, moreover, with
the most gratifying pageantry and
| decorum.
The cemetery reserved for this pur-
pose is in q corner of a field on his
estate; but, being inclosed by wall and
planted about with trees, nothing of
the interior is visible either from his
own windows or from any point of the
surrounding country, SO that few, If
any, of the neighbors are aware that
such place of sepulcher exists in the
midst of them.
''Some of the dawgs buried here, !"
said an attendant, showing the favored
inquirer round, "died while we had
'em under treatment in horspital, as you
may say, but many of 'em died in their
own homes and was brought as much as
six and seven miles to their funeral.
The headstones and monuments in
this singular cemetery are as large and
often as costly as any placed above the
average human body, and the epitaphs
on them are not infrequently quite as
eulogistic.
"This one here" observed the attend
ant, pointing out q particularly neat
and we'll kept grave with red marble
obelisk at tho head of it, "is where two
pug dawgs were buried. They belonged
to an old lady who brought 'em over
with her from Paris. She had 'em fo1
several years, and we were always be.
ing called in to doctor 'em, though they
were always suffering from nothing but
overfeeding At last one day they
were both taken i'll together-they d
eaten something as wasn't good for EN-
[ and they died. She was dreadful cut
, up about it-she couldn't have beer
, more so if they'd been children-and
she had 'em buried here in two as neat
little airtight coffins as ever you see
She comes every now and then on q Wis
it, and she pays our gardener 25 shil
lings year extra specially to water thu
flowers she planted on the grave ant
i keep it all tidy,
s "Now, here we have what you ma,
call family vault, which belongs to I
9 nobleman, as you see for yourself OF
l the tablet over the doorway. It's dee]
: ard lined with bricks and you go dow
into it by fight Of steps, There's 81:
4 dawgs down on the shelves already il
i lead lined cofins. If you look throug
y the grating in the door, you'll see tn
names and ages ON the stone that cover
8 the opening. His lordship's uncommon
fond of his dawgs, and whenever q fresl
. one dies it's brought up here and tn
vaults opened for 1t. We've anothe
!. vault like this, which Well come t
Q presently, only it belongs to lady.
9 "Oh. yes; think may say ever.
It dawg is buried in o box of some sor
= and fair proportion Of 'em in prope
\ coffins, brass mounted and everything
You'd hardly believe how some of tn
owners will cry at the funeral. It.
q mostly ladies that bury their pets here
n Of course. As rule, they've got NOR
Il sentiment about this sort of thing tina
l. men have Nearly all Of 'em come reg
| uldI LOI tI6 AA5b low WCShS WAe
8 wreaths and punches Of flowers, but th
' majority of 'em begin to drop that afte
month or two. Though there's daw
y buried yonder-see that fat stone wit
e a railing round it?-the old lady ha
l. come on the anniversary Of his deaf
l. every year since I've been here, and that
/ nigh eight years now, and she seem
a as sorry about him still as If he'd bee
o Christian like me and you"
= Another remarkable feature Of th
cemetery is that, besides the names an
,e ages of the dogs inferred and in man
Is instances fattering records Of their VII
II tues, some of the tombstones are inscril
is ed with poetical quotations and, incret
is ible as it may sound, even with Biblic.
a texts. London Bits.