Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-07-17
A YELLOW DOG.
By BRET HARTE.
Copyright, 1887, by the Author. !


never knew why in the western
states of America yellow dog should
be proverbially considered the acme Of
canine degradation and incompetence,
nor why the possession of one should
seriously affect the social standing of
the possessor But the fact being estab-
l1shed, think we accepted it in Rat
tiers Ridge without question. The mat
ter of ownership was more difficult to
settle, and although the dog I have in
my mind at the present writing attached
himself lmparSially and equally to every
one III camp, no one veGtured to exclu-
slvely claim him, while after the per-
petratlon OF any canine atrocity every
body repudlated him with indecent
haste. We'll, I can swear he hasn't
been near our shanty for weeks, - or the
retort, He was last seen comm out of
your cabin" expressed the eagerness
with which Rattlers Ridge washed its
hands of any responsibility Yet he was
by no means a common dog, nor even
an unhandsoma dog, and it was singu-
lar fact that his severest critics We'd
with each other in narrating stories of
his sagacity, insight and agility, which
they themselves had witnessed.
He had been seen crossing the hume
that SPAWNED Grizzly canyon at height
OF 900 feet on plank six inches wide.
He had tumbled down the shoot to the
South Fork, 1000 feet below, and was
found sitting on the river bank with
out scratch Go that he was lazily
glvln hlmsef With his off hind paw"
He had been forgotten in snowdrift on
a Slerran shelf and had come home in
the early spring With the conceited COM
placency of an Alpine traveller and a
plumpness alleged to have been the re-
suit Of an exclusive diet of buried mail
bags and their contents. He was gener-
ally believed to read the advance cleo
. ton posters and disappear day or two
before the candidates and the brass
band-whlch he hated-came to the
Ridge. He was suspected of having over
looked Colonel Johnson s hand at poker
and OF having conveyed to the colonel's
adversary by a succession Of bowls the
danger of betting against four kings
While these statements were supplied by
wholly unsupported witnesses, it was
very human weakness of Rattlers Ridge
that the responsibility of confederation
was passed over to the dog himself, and
he was looked upon as consummate
liar. 'Swoopin round yere and calm
yourself poker sharp, are We? Scoot,
We yallow pizen!" was a common ad-
Wy
NAL lntruded upon a card party. ''Ef
thar was a spark-an atom-of truth in
that dog, I'd believe my own eyes that
I saw him sittin up and tryin to mag
netize a young bird Off tree But wot
are ye goin to do with a yaller equivo-
Gator like that?''
[ have said that he was yellow, or, to
use the ordinary expression, ''yaller. "
Indeed, [ am inclined to believe much
OF the ignominy attached to the epithet
lay in this favorite pronunciation. Men
who habitually spoke of yellow
bird" yellow hammer yellow
leaf. always alluded to him as ''yal-
Ter dog" He certainly was yellow
After a bath-usually compulsory-he
presented a decided gamboge streak
down his back from the top of his fore
head to the stump of his tail, fading in
his sides and tanks to delicate straw
color. His breast, legs and feet, when
not Redeemed by 'slumgullin, - in which
he was fond of wading, were white. A
few attempts at ornamental decoration
from the india ink pot of the storekeeper
failed partly through the yellow dogs
excessive agility, which would never
give the paint time to dry on him, and
partly through his success in transfer
ring his markings to the trousers and
blankets of the camp The size and
shape Of the tail, which had been cut
off before his introduction to Rattlers
Ridge, was a favorite source of specula-
ton to the miners, both as determining
his breed and his moral responsibility
in coming into camp in that defective
condition. There was general opinion
that he couldn' have looked worse with
tail, and its removal was gratuitous
effrontery. His best feature was his
eyes, which were a lustrous Vandyke
brown and sparkling with intelligence,
but here again he suffered from evolu-
ton through environment, and their
original trustful openness was marred
by the experience Of watching for flying
stones, sods and passing kicks from be-
hind, so that the pupils were continu-
ally reverting to the outer angle Of the
eyelid. There was arecurrence Of antic-
ipation in this which fear few of 1.-THE
boys ever disappointed.
Nevertheless none of these character
istics decided the vexed question Of his
breed. His speed and scent pointed to a
hound, - and it is related that on one
occasion he was laid on the trail of
, wildcat with such success that he fol-
lowed it apparently out Of the state, re-
turning at the end Of two weeks foot
sore, but blandly contented. Attaching
himself to prospecting party, he was
sent under the same belief into the
brush to drive off a bear, who was
supposed to be haunting the campfire.