Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-12-07
MEMORY OF ANIMALS.
A FRENCH WRITER DRAWS
SOME CONCLUSIONS.
Which Go to Show That the Lower
Orders Always Remember Things That
Become a Habit with Them-A Cavalry
Horse That Liked Evoiutions.

Monsieur Henri de Paryille,a French
writer, has collected instances of an
imal intelligence, many of which are
of character to indicate that animals
always remember things which have
become habitual with them. In many
cases they remember single kindness
or single unkindness, and treat the
author of it accordingly; but the habit
ual thing may be said to be always re-
membered, and the unaccustomed thing
only occasionally. Monsieur De Par
vile gives an amusing account of the
performances of six coach horses
which were regularly driven on the dill
igence between Berne and Gurnigel,
Switzerland. They reached Gurnigel
each day after long and hard journey.
and at the inn were detached from the
vehicle and allowed to find their own
way to the stable. Before going to the
stable they invariably set out on a
little tour through the hotel grounds,
where the guests were in the habit of
giving them Jumps of sugar. March
horses gently demanded their sugar
This was an established custom at the
place, and although newly arrived
guests sometimes objected to it. they
soon fell into the way of liking it. and
frequented the grounds for the sake of
meeting the horses. The diligence
piled only four months of the year, and
the horses were employed elsewhere
during the other eight months; but Cn
the resumption of the trips in summer,
these horses, who were used from year
to year in the diligence, eagerly re-
sumed their tour through the hotel
gardens, showing on the very first trip
the greatest haste to go the familiar
round of the year before in quest of
sugar. Monsieur De Parville also tells
of cavalry horse named Menelas, be-
longing to the Tenth regiment OF Chas-
seurs, who, after being ridden in the
cavalry maneuvers in the ring at the
barracks. became so fond of the evo-
buttons that he would manage to es-
cape from his stall at night, betake
himself to the ring, and go through
the required movements alone. His
nocturnal performance became known,
and the officers and men frequently
went to watch it, Menelas would be
left unhitched in his stall, and when
all became quiet, would go out, find his
way to the ring, and solemnly but
briskly go through the whole drill, ap-
parently remembering every detail of
it in the proper order. The writer OF
this witnessed curious demonstration
of the excellence of a dogs memory.
He possessed a collie, who, at the age
of about one year, had an attack of dis
temper, and was sent from Boston to
a farm in Vermont, where he remained
good deal of time in digging out
woodchucks and barking at their bur
rows, all over the large farm. He was
sent back to Boston. Some five years
afterward he was taken by his mas
ter on visit to the same farm in YER
mont, and he had no sooner arrived
than he started out on tour of the
old familiar woodchuck holes. The
farmer, who had been very familiar
with his ways, said that he did not
omit a single spot where the wood
chucks' burrows had existed during his
previous sojourn. and went straight to
them without any search. The dog
also fell instantly into all the old rou-
tine of the farm, and kept the dish out
of which he ate in the spot where he
had formerly kept it, He showed that
he had forgotten no detail of his hab-
it's on the place five years before.