The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-16
From the New York Commercial Adver-


 tiser
 @HERE is a fine old tradition, (CD which has descended to nurse maid since we don't know when, to the effect that the cat-the harmless necessary cat-is, in reality, a creature to be dreaded. According to this tradi- dition the cat has strange propensity for crawling into nurseries and crouch ing on the breast of children who are asleep and sucking their breath" We are not aware that any one has ever yet detected a cat engaged in this remark able, act, nor can we see any particular reason why a cat should do so. Surely a cat is never short of breath. Any one who has lain awake all night and listen ed to a cat rendering arias with all the fioratura and coloratura of Patti will never helieye that a cat would go out of it's way because of it's need for breath Consequently, in spite of the tradition, we acquit the cat on this particular count
 new and deadly possibility, however was found yesterday to be lurking in this unpretentious domestic animal Up in East One Hundred and Second street -a place where the ina gination does not aourishAthe Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals owns what Is eu- phemistically called a despatch which means a place where homeless, maimed, or invalid cats can be relieved of the burdens of fife without suffering. The despatch is a steel tank which Is oni- cialIy estimated as capable of containing six cubic yards of cats. Into this re- ceptacle cats are propelled by an at tendant, and then the tank is closed and gas Is turned on, after which, the souls of the cats. if they have any, join those of their Egyptian ancestors. It is beautiful device, suggested. perhaps, by the contrivance of the late. Professor Moriarjty as shown in the drama of Sherlock Holmes"
 Yesterday, however, fearsome thing occurred Half a wagon load of cats had been dropped into the tank and the gas had been turned on when fresh basket full arrived. The attendant executioneer opened the slide and began dropping in the new arrivals. Among them was large black Tom, who seemed to know the fate in store for him, and who re- sisted strenuously with teeth and claws In spite of this he was cast, still strug- gling down into the hole, and at once the tank exploded. filling the air with men and cats.
 Now. what Kipling would call the Law of the Despatch holds that no man may smoke pipe, cigar or cigarette Tn the | vicinity of the tank when the gas Is on, under the penalty of immediate dismiss sal. Consequently the men who were blown up aver, with many sacred for mulas that not one of them was smok- | ing. Science. therefore, at once demands and has promptly furnished an explana- | tion of what happened to the tank. One of the most eminent Harlem investi- | gators has set forth a theory that the gas was ignited by sparks of electricity emitted from the fur of the fighting Tom; | and we understand that this theory has been accepted by the Harlem authorities | If it be true, then the cat may hereafter become source of vaguely indefinite peril. If an ordinary; short-haired cat can blow up a gas tank, why could not l the electrical possibilities of fluffy An gora be sufficiently developed to electro