Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-19

kinds, and most of them are
y striking enough to have been
described in newspapers ana
MAGAZINES The strange blending of the
old-time mining camp with the big, pro-
gressive American city Is. no doubt, re-
sponsible for most OF these.
One popularity that is easily recog-
nized and yet has not attracted much
attention, is the immense canine popula-
ton of Butte. 1t is. in fact, larger than
that of almost any other big city In
the United States-proportionatel or
course.
Ex-Poundkeeper Peter johnson, who
was at the head of the dog tax collec-
ton department last year, knows more
about the canine population here than
any one else.
II figured it out" said Mr.. Johnson
sometime ago, that there are about
:, 600 dogs in Butte and it's suburbs"
Five thousand dogs! That means one
dog for every ten people in the city,
irrespective of age. sex or color.
And at that" said Mr.. Johnson. 1--WE
have been cutting the number of dogs
down all the time. The mortality is
about I 900 a year, which includes some
600 that we kill at the pound.
'.Of course we have been on the
search for dogs all the time, but it's
hard game, and two dog catchers have
their hands full. The tax here Is ~ for
males and SIS for females, but still the
number of unlicensed dogs is great. The
majority of this latter class are ours
worthless, yeping, vicious mongrels
without pride of ancestry. but, unfortu-
nately, with large hope of posterity
And they are as cunning as foXes-can
tell that the catcher is coming when he
is a block off. Then there is nearly al
ways small boy to aid and abet them
in their escape.
1T is astonishing" unused Mr.. john
son, 1.-The number of poor people VINO
keep dogs. and the number of dogs they
keep. BY this I mean the very poor. TO
whom necessaries are luXuries ana VINO
have Want for a constant companion.
Some of these people have as many as
three dogs, and yet, although they have
scarcely bread to eat, when 1T comes
to show down, they will get the
amount of the license in some way.
among them are some really pathetic
cases. In these families Of the very
poor, the dog is almost one of the FAM
ily. He grows up with the children and
Is fairly idolized by them, and you can
understand how hard it is to take the
children's playmate and favorite off to
the pound. Naturally the dog catcher
isn't a popular person:
'"The protection given by boys to these
canine mavericks isn't limited to run
ming them off and hiding them when
the catcher approaches. They make a
practice of stealing the tags and collars
from the licensed animals and fastening
them on their pets, and that complexities
our work.
II should say that our dogs average
very low in the scale. Except for a COM
paratively few fine St. Bernards. bull
dogs, cocker spaniels and coursins
hounds, they are of mixed breeds and
worthless
I'm the outskirts of town the dogs are
most numerous and most vicious. and it
is there we have the most trouble. In
destroying them at the pound. we en-
ploy a simple method. A number of
them are put into a cage. which is sunk
in tank of water. In four minutes
they are all good dogs. The bodies are
forthwith taken to the crematOry and
incinerated In some cities the dogs are
skinned and a revenue derived from the
hides. but it has never been employed
here"
Naturally. among 5000 dogs there are
some that stand out prominently. The
biggest dog in Butte, for instance, is
Bark, owned by Mr.. Bergman, who re-