The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-26
DOGS IN FICTION.
rhey Have Played in the Great
EnnIfSh Novels.
vror the Philadelphia Record.
Z lNlI-

S,. 6rst place, the part played by
NJ &c very large and important. The
les Of many famous novels have pre-
T.d nc with members of the canine
- as carefully drawn and as low
~ delineated as any of the human
,rocters introduced. Not infrequent-
.be role of hero or heroine is dou-
" az 18th or wholly supported by, d
pre- and in numberless instances it is
aoS intervention, conscious or uncon-
ul w of a dog upon which the whole
- Turns, AS might be expected, it
pcn'ong the works of such novelists
ore specially noted as dog lovers
~ the finest and most frequent de-
tnrintions of their four-footed friends
- to be found; and naturally Sir
Wol+ar Scott. we'll known for his ex-
.rame attachment to dogs, heads the
list. ..,- s..
and his noblest example is Sir Ken
veins hound Roswal, who bears an all
,n7nortant part in the plot of The Tails
nan RosWal is described as a large
STAG hound of splendid proportions and
great sagacity, who shares his master
v.atch on St. Georges Mount beside the
hammer of England, above the camp of
.ba crusaders Tempted by Womans
guile the knight forsakes his post for ii
short space, leaving Roswal to guard
the flag A base attack is made in his
absence and Kenneth returns to find
the flag gone, and its faithful defender
wounded apparently to death in it's de-
Tense Kenneth's renorse for the vlo-
Iation of the English banner is scarcely
more keen than his grief over the dog,
IL ILL., IL
ter's hand even in the agonies of death.
1t is a most touching scene, drawn by
master hand, and the readers salts
faction is not less than the knights is
represented to be when the Arabian
physician, Saladin disguised, appears
opportunely, and by his timely minis
tration saves the hound, who lives to
identity his till then unknown assail-
ant by dragging him bodily from his
horse In ''Ivanhoe," Gurth, the swine
herd, possesses a noteworthy dog.
Fangs by name. "a rugged wolfish-
looking dog, a sort of lurcher, half
mastff, half-greyhound who assists
his master in the care of his refrac CRY
charges, is wounded by Cedric the Sax
on, and whose adventures are carried
on throughout the book.
In Woodstock" again, Scott draws
with loving touch the portrait of Sir
Henry Lees famous mastiff Bevis, who
in the first scene accompanies the
knight to church, where, batting an
occasional temptation To- MARBLE along
with the accord, he behaved himself as
decorously as any of the congrega-
ton, and returned as much edited per-
haps, as some of Them" who had
moreover, saved his masters life, de-
Tended his daughter Alice from assault,
and fastened his teeth into the sacred
person of King Charles II when the
distinguished monarch was seeking
refuge in Woodstock Lodge. Among
Scott's dogs mention must needs also
be made of the famous breed of pep
per-and- mustard terriers described in
Guy Mannering,' and which have
even since borne the name of their
immortal owner, Dandie Dinmont.
Dickens was a dog lover, and pos
II sessed several dear canane friends. 1t
is recorded in his biographies how
greatly moved he was on one occasion
by the sympathetic concern evinced by
two of his favorites, Turk and Linda,
when during a walk he was suddenly
struck with Iameness. Boisterous
companions as they always were the
sudden change in him caused them
boundless distress, and for the rest of
the journey they crept by the side of
their master as slowly as he did, never
turning from him. The finest dog
character in Dickens novels is UNI
doubtedly Diogenes, the favorite of lit
tie Paul Dombey, and subsequently
presented by Mr.. Toots to his sister
Florence.
Dora's little dog Jip in David Cop
perfeld" is a spoiled lap dog drawn to
the very life, whose most meritorious
action is his pathetic death at the mo-
ment when his foolish, fascinating mis-
tress Copperfield's Child wife,
breathes her last. Then there is Skies
dog in "Oliver Twist white and
shaggy, with red eyes, and his face
i scratched and torn in twenty different
places" continually kicked and beaten
and half killed by his ruffian master,
but who clings to him with dumb fidel-
ity through all, and in the last scene,
when the fugitive murderer hangs HIM
self from the roof of the house,
perishes in a wild attempt to reach his
body Reference is also owing to the
performing dogs in "Old Curiosity
Shop" one unhappy member of which
troupe of artists being unlucky enough
to lose a half-penny during the day is
denied his supper and obliged instead
TO grind mournful music out of bar
rel organ sometimes in quick time
sometimes in slow, but never leaving
off for an instant" while watching
with despairing eyes his companions at
their meal. Lovers of fPickwick" also
will recall Mr.. Jingle's celebrated
"Ponto"
Thackeray, however, makes little use
or mention of dogs. George Eliot also
lays no great stress upon them, though
Adam Redo hos faithful friend in
Gyp, gray sheep dog, and Bartle
Massey brown and tan bitch, Vixen,
whom he refers to contemptuously as
a woman. Lytton makes great capital
OF the performing poodle, Sir Isaac,
alias Mops, in What Will He Do
With It?" and Bran, the huge British
mastiff, is an all-important character
IN kingley's "Hypatia," where she
pays no small part in the redemption
OF the young Jew, Raphael Aben- Ezra.
mere is dog incident in yeast,
and a dog in the Water Babies" who
was real dog on a ship once till he
zen overheard into the sea, where he
Kicked and sneezed so hard that he
hheezed himself clean out of his skin
ana turned into water dog, and fol-
LoWed Tom the whole way to the
Other-E.nd- Of Nowhere Such a keen
SPORTSMAN as Whyte Melville was sure
~ introduce a dog into his novels,
ana there is no more touching or beau
ulul story in all fictional dog annals
than is to be found in 1.-THE Interpre-
ter' One of Capt. Marryats best
tales The Dog Fiend," is, as it's title
deVeals, entirely about dog, an ILL
0lLlehed cur rejoicing in the appro-
pirate name of Snarlyow; &nd Brontc
lovers will not need reminding Of the
uog IN Shirley" or of Rochester's dog
IN Jane Eyre" Coming to living au-