The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-04-30
D0GS0F GREATSAGACITY
INSTANCES SHOWING THAT THEY
USED THEIR BRAINS,

Tricks Of Dog That Wanted His Din.
ner and of One That Wanted Homage
and Observation-Disclosures Exhibi.
tions of Reasoning Powers in Animals.
''The physical expressions which
animals employ to manifest their pas
sions, requirements, distresses, and
emotions" said naturalist in the New
York Sun, care precisely similar to
mans. They caress with their lips and
limbs; show resentment by facial dis
tortion, bites, and kicks, and fear by
a tremor; they leap with Joy, loll with
thirst, lag with fatigue, and attack for
revenge and reprisals. Even fishes,
with their poor, deficient bodies, are
able to manifest many apparent men,
tai operations in q manner Ineligible
to man as well as to one another.
'"There is no end to the authentica-
ted instances of animal sagacity indi-
eating generalization, plan, purpose,
sense Of duty, prudence, gratitude,
method, judgment. Animals memoir
ize. They cherish malice, they dream
in their sleep, they can count, they
have sense Of injustice, q conscious
ness Of error, and notions of forgive
ness and repatriation. Animals medi-
tate. Dogs haze been seen to sit in a
fit Of such abstraction that no ono
could engage their attention, and pre-
sently start off with on impetus that
showed plainly there was mental i'm
pulse behind it. A friend of mine had
q setter dog so intelligent that at q GER
tain hour every day he carried a coin,
inclosed in all envelope by his master,
to the butchers shop, deposited the
money on the counter, and got in re-
turn meat for his dinner. One day
the dogs master, being very busy, did
not put up the coin as usual, and the
dog, after, waiting some time and seeing
that there didn't seem to beany chance
Of his getting his dinner, went away.
An hour or so later the butcher came
into my friends store and told him
that there wes no money in the enve-
lope the dog had brought over that
day. The dogs master informed the
butcher that he hadn't sent the dog
with an envelope that day, and was
astonished to hear that the dog had
visited the butchers carrying an en-.
velope as usual. The dog had put
down the envelope, got his meat and
scampered out of the store as if in q
great hurry, something he had never
done before. Every time before that
he had brought his meat into his mas
ter's store and eaten it there. This
time he had not been seen since he
went away. His master looked him
up, and found him lying in the grass
behind the store, and in response to
his masters call the dog came to him,
most shame-faced looking animal,
his hanging head and dropping tail
betraying the guilty feeling he had.
The dog, having seen that his master
wasn't inclined that day to give him
his usual envelope inclosing the coin,
had picked up one somewhere about
the store, taken it over to the butch
er's, and, getting his meat, scampered
away before the cheat could be dis
covered. Heknew he had done a wrong
thing, and that if he took the meat to
the store as he had always done be-
fore he would be found out at once,
and when his master called him he
hadn't the face to try and hide his
guilt.
II had q Newfoundland dog once
that one day bravely rescued child
from the water at a seaside resort
where I was stopping. The act was
rewarded by much carressing and
petting of the dog, and by his being
fed generously with candy, Of which
he was extremely fond. This ceased
after day or two, and then one day
the news came to me that little girl
had fallen from the end of the pier and
that Ponto had rescued her. Again
the dog became for time great hero,
and the best of bonbons came again.
This in turn became a thing of the
past, and then, the very next week, the
dog rescued another child that had
fallen from the pier. Petting and
candy followed this third noble act,
and when they again ceased only a
couple of days passed before Ponto
had brought safely ashore another
child that had tumbled into the water
from the pier. Now, it began to
strike me as something odd that the
dog should happen to be SO oppor-
timely present on these critical occa-
sion, and when he ceased being the
pctted hero after this fourth life-sav-
ing effect kept a sly eye on him. The
pier was favorite play spot for the
children, although so many Of them
had fallen into tho water, and one day
I saw Ponto strolling down there to
join them. I followed without his
knowing it. He mingled with the
children, and before long ! saw him
deliberately, in apparent play, edge a