The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-23
LESSON IN CHARITY
TAUGHT BY CATS.

A resident of New York city, resid-
ing at 429 Twentieth street, writes to
the Herald of that city as follows:
The cruel habit that most people have
of turning their cats out to starve dur
ing the summer months has been often
mentioned in your helpful paper. Still,
there are people just as cruel in this
respect as ever, and many persons
comfort is destroyed by the sight of
the Wretched little creatures as they
sneak around in eternal fear OF the
small boy, the dogs and the kicks or
most of the janitors when they try to
find something to eat in the garbage
cans.
1t is especially cruel to turn a crea-
ture which has always had its wants
attended to in a comfortable house out
into the street to shift for itself. A
cat brought up in a house is lily fitted
to forage, but it is not possible that
cats can talk, to each other, and that
they are kinder to such poor outcaStS
than humans are?
l live opposite the Chelsea Theologt-
cal Seminary, in Chelsea Square, and
every evening l see a sight that is
worth a trip to behold. When the SEM
mary closed for the season pretty
yellow and white cat which belonged
there and which was a great pet with
all the students was left to shift for
itself. 1t seemed so desolate that an
old gentleman living in one of the fats
took pity on it, and every evening he
carried it some food. Regularly at 4
o'clock that cat came and sat down on
the sidewalk in front of his home to
wait, with his pretty face upturned to
watch for his special providence.
A few days later this yellow and
l.1s, ITnE I..a,
cry gray and white one which had
seemed to belong opposite in one of the
houses appertaining to the seminary.
A few days later another one came
quite as regularly, and still another,
until now every evening at shutdown
there are nine cats of all compilations
from white to Jet black sitting in line
waiting for their supper. They do
not quarrel, but wait patiently and
when they get their supper they dis
appear. A kind caretaker in one of the
big houses keeps a pan of water in
her front yard for the cats and they &c
there to drink. All the ladies in the
apartment house now save their scraps
and carry them to the cats, and some
| times they fare sumptuously and some
| times they get barely enough, but they
| do not grumble or find fault. They
| take what is given them and are
LndnkIuI.
What seems, to me the remarkable
| part of this affair is how did these
cats one by one, find out that there
were some real Christians in this apart
ment house, not those that pray Sun
days and leave their poor dumb beast!
to perish miserably, and that they
should not trouble these kind people
but only wait at dusk every evening
! Can they talk? Have they a clearer
way of communicating than we have
SO that without words they could make
their friends understand that if they
came to their particular block anC
stayed about at this hour they woulC
| be fed? l wish l knew.
The yellow and white cat had figh
with dog-a fox terrier-and his les
was hurt so that he limped badly foI
several days. The old gentleman men
toned before, who loves all God'i
creatures, seeing the lame cat below
one night quite late, took him down Z
special dish of nice cool milk Now
all the other cats go away when the,
have been fed, but the yellow on,
evidently has kept the milk a clos,
secret, for none of the others come,
for it and he gets his milk all to him
self. He can run as fast as any O
them now, but every time he think,
it time for his milk he limps ter
| rihlV-till he gets If