The San Francisco call., 1897-08-26
Dogs HAVING
THEIR DAY.
They Increase and Howl
and No PoundmaSter
Interferes.
Eighteen Hundred More Canine
Migrants Than There Really
Ought to Be-.
All Because the Pound Is No Longer
Receiving Guests and the Dog
Catcher Rests.

The dog and the owner of the dog are
trium ph There is no pound to take the
former to, and in the absence of pound
the latter retains the 50 he otherwise
would pay for a l.csnse, and as he passes
the office OF the License Collector his mien
is naughty.
When the pound was in operation
there were taken TO it each day an average
of twenty CANNES, taken there, it must be
admitted, amid the execrations of the
juvenile populace. for the i'm possibility OF
loving dog catcher has long been a rec
ognized fact. The pound has been closed
so long that it is estimated 1890 dogs are
running the streets of San Francisco un-
tagged. But tor q quarrel between the
Society for the Prevention OF Cruelty and
the Supervisors this would not haye hap
pened. The pound latchstring would
have been Hospitality hanging out, and
these hundreds of uogs would have been
changed ere this to soap and leather and
fertilizer-to something at least that does
not bark and bite. The quarrel, as is
generally known, resulted from he society
getting tired of f. A Osborn as pound
keeper and demanding his removal. The
Supervisors resolved themselves into
society for prevention of cruelty to pound
Keepers and declared that Osborn should
stay. Then the first society closed the
pound, and the vacation of the dogs began.
One result has been that applications
for dog licenses this year are 80 per cent
below those of last year. The money re-
ceived, however has been almost as much
as heretofore. Formerly there was
duplicate" system, whereby man with
"pulp'-as influence is sometimes
Nd i'm r1Ia cf of anna N
that his pet dog had lost It's tag. get au-
other for so cents. Oftentimes the dog
still carried the original tag and the new
one was given to some friend. Under the
present regime these simple statements
don't go, but have to be sworn to. To lie
is one thing, but to make oath to the
truth OF the lie so altogether another
that the duplicate" arrangement is rap
idly being eliminated. The Pound will
be open at no distant day, and the har-
vestIng of low-born ours fill the atmos-
phere with fearsome yelping.
In some mysterious way the dogs have
learned that they are temporarily i'm
mune, and as they do not worry about the
future they have seemed to gain greatly
in spirit, while in manners their deteriora-
ton has been marked. They bask in
every sunny spot, hold sessions in each
open court and modest the passer-by.
Some OF them are cross and inclined to
sample the heeting human leg. Others
are content merely with toraging on the
enemy, mankind being so regarded, ard
encouraging the culture and dissemina-
tion of f1eas, mission clearly superhuous.
Alcibiades was once the proud possessor
OF dog that cost him 1000 drachmas, a
sum which anybody who desires can re-
duce TO modern terms, thereby finding
what the purp was worth in good Ameri-
can money. If Alcibiades were here now
he could have the pick among 1900 and
never pay cent. History relates that he
cut the tail off his dog, but if he got the
best one of the 1900 he would be apt to cut
its head off instead, giving history some
thing more tragic 10 record.
There is a growing local sentiment that
so many dogs are unnecessary. They
have nothing to do but bay the moon,
and less posing army could do entire
Justice to moon that is usually hidden
by fog anyhow:
And in that town a dog was found
AS many dogs there be-
Both mongrel, puppy whelp and HOUND
And ours OF low degree.
1t is hard TO realize that Goldsmith
wrote this without ever having visited
San Francisco. Shakespeare makes King
Lear complain that dogs bark at him. He
classifies them thus:
Mastff, greyhound, mongrel grim
Hound or spa iei, brach or lynn
Or bobtail tyKe, or brindle tail.
Yet careful scrutiny of back-num Der