The Topeka state journal., 1900-12-15
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS


merits of domesticated animals when It
came to a. fight and most Of the men had
expressed an opinion that the bench-leg-
ged bulldog was the premier when one
of the group said. Il know you 1eiloWs
are in favor of the bull dog because the
tradition has been handed down that the
bull dog is the whole thing in a night As
a. matter of fact the bull dog is not 50
many in scrap: the only qualification
that he has is his ability to hold on l
have seen a bull dog-and he was good
high-bred bull dog-whipped by an ordin-
alsv cat. If a bun dog can not get the
hold that he has been trained to get he
is a very weak sister in fight The best
scrapper in the domesticated animal hne
that have ever met with Is monkey
That may sound a little strange, but II Is
a fact The monkey has the advantage OF
having four hands; for his feet are All
hands, and in that alone he has the ad-
vantage. / remember an instance IN Ar
kansas where the ability of the different
domesticated animals to put up hght
was tested and the monkey came
out first and got the blue ribbon. In the
rear of s. saloon in an Arkansas town vas
a cage in which were all the different anil
mails which have been made household
pets. There was raccoon, badger, pear, pear,
otes, wolf deer and, in fact almost every
animal you could think of In that ilne m
the king of the roost. OF course, the as-
gregation was called the happy family;
where they have lot OF domestcated am
mails in one cage. The monkey was the
mai in the cage frightened. When the
monkey would begin to chatter in GER
hunt cover or get in the corners. They
did this because the monkey had whipped
every one of them and had done 1T in a
manner not to be forgotten. There was
a trapeze hanging in the center OF the
cage and the monkey would use u 1naT ,,r,e,5 as
an enemy, and every animal in the happy
family was an enemy. He had ali IN the 9,s:s hair
pulled of the bears back and he had lifted
the other animals by their tails ana
mashed them on the f1oor before {hey
He was quicker than a cat and a great
deal stronger The whole town 3 lSne Knew OF Of
there was a lot of talk about finding an
animal of his size that could whip him.
A large tom cat that had a reputation
countrywide a fighter was put in the
cage and the monkey had all kinds Of
fun doing up Thomas. We put the ira
peze up so that the monkey would have
no advantage in that way; and then we
money considered it a personal affront
when a new animal came in and he at
once began to make business pick up for
the cat He got Thomas by the tail and
dragged him back and forth so fast that
the cat had no chance to hurt him serious
ly. When the fight was over the monkeys
face looked like a. gTidiron for the cat had
got in a few licks but the cat was COM
pletely whipped and crawled in corner
and whined like pup. We next tried
one of those celebrated and popular bull
hind legs and nearly beat his brains out
before we could rescue him. Since that
monkey can whip his weight in wild cats,
providing he has been trained to fight"
'I think that boy in the old times had
more fun than the boys do today, said
they did in boyhood- THE old debating
societies and spelling bees are now a thing
tne 6f past oq5 we eebb1iy od nave a nof
Know why they have gone out or FASHION,
ior s everyone 31 knows tnai tne DoyS OF To-
did in the old times, and revival of the
old customs in this respect would be bene-
ncla1. Ihe old questions that we used 10
debate are now back numbers and I
would not advocate that debating societies
Pen is mightier than the Sword or that
Grant was greater general than Bona
parte, but they could follow along the old
lines without being injured and it would
be a good deal better for them than
an afternoon reception or attempting to
learn a few. French and other foreign
phrases so that they might make people
believe they had actually studied for
eign language to the detriment of their
English But talking of questions in the
debating clubs reminds me of that
used frequently in the section of the coun-
try where l was brought up. It was a
favorite with US and never was decided in
a satisfactory manner, or, rather, in
manner satisfactory to the members of
the club; for no matter which side wons
good case 1t was the old question of the
steamboat and the COW. Maybe you have
heard the old question. Well it was this
way. A man tied his boat to the bank OF
the river and went away. The boat was
tied with a rope. A COW belonging to an
other man came along and got on the
boat and chewed the rope so that the
boat hoated off down the river. The man
who owned the COW brought suit against
the man who owned the boat for taking
his COW away, and the man who owned
the boat sued the man who owned the
COW, because the COW had run away with
the boat. OF course, it was question of
the responsible party and we had all man
ner of fun debating the question. Ere
quently the lawyers in the little town
would take part in the debate and the
pleas they would make were worth hear
ing. OF course the men on the side of
the owner of the COW would tell how the
poor man who was depending upon the
milk and butter for his living was robbed
by the carelessness of the rich and ar
rogant owner of the steamboat. Their de-
scription of the sufferings of the family
account of the loss of the COW would
bring tears to the eyes of an Egyptian
mummy. The other side would bring out
points of law and would go after the owner
of the cow for allowing the animal to run
at large I can not remember the points
they would make. but if you will take the
trouble to think of the question you will
find that there are plenty of them on both