The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-04-29
OLD JACK IS DEAD
He Was not Dog Of High Degree but
aGood Dog.

After long, useful and exemplary
career, Old Jack, yielding 70 the in
tirmities of old age, lay on bed 81 new
straw, spread beneath desk in the Of
fee Of his master and friend, w. W.
Waring, awaiting, intuitively, the sum-
mon through which he would be trans
ferred from this vale of tears to the
realm where dogs may feast on bones
thrown to them and where they may eat
their heat, rare Or done-up brown, with
out the fear or the apprehension Of
stones or bricks being hurled BY
naughty boys and meaner men, or tin
cans tied by the merciless who become
gleeful over the howls, the barks ard
the strides of terrified ours. If dogs
could only talk what q tale they
would unfold from the rafting can
tackled to their tail of woe! But dogs
are speechless, and is pity that some
beings are not dogs In that respect! z
1t was on Saturday, April IS, 100,
when Jack was pulseless, ready to have
his toes turned up to the daisies.
Jack FIRST saw the light of day" in the
year A. D. 1883, when the opera house
was being constructed, and during his
perambulations he never failed to at
tend the Baptist church choir, of which
his master and friend is member, and
it is to his record that he, in his dog
way, sympathized with the mourners at
about one thousand funerals at which
his master officiated Although Jlcks
genealogy could not be traced to the
days of Adam and Eve, Jack was no Or
dinary dog. There was nothing of the
cur about him. He was a gentleman
dog and through his manners indicat
ing his training and good breeding he
commanded the respect and admiration
of good as we'll as mischievous boys.
He had his peculiarities, as have some
men, but it could not be said that he
was cranky" or had wheels in his
head" He seemed gifted with an intel
lect discriminating in the, intensity of
sensibilty While he would never for
give an enemy-one who had been TN
kind or had treated him harsh1y-he
never forgot friend, on meeting whom
he would manifest his rejoicing with
gleeful bark and the wagging Of his
tail, the wagging of which was in
creased with his barks when some ad-
mirers, a commercial traveller for in
stance, would pat him and pet him and
say 'meat, Jack, meat" and go with
him to the butcher shop around the
corner. 1t may be said Of Jack as an op
posite trait, that when naughty boy
would worry him beyond all bounds he
had a way of retaliating by seizing the
boy by the sitting part of his breeehes
and hanging thereto until there was a
rip and tear and Jacks mouth was full
of pants from a running, painting almost
pantsless boy.
Jack was conservative and disin
clined to fight, and as some men, he
would if he could avoid unpleasant en-
but when the issue was
forced upon him he never hesitated by
Selling the opposition or seek a COM
promise, but was quick, fierce and decis-
i've in execution. In his dog-way he had
realized the futility Of temporizing with
an enemy with view of placating him,
and maintained his dignity and self
respect as we'll as his successes and his
triumphs by adhering strictly to the line
of duty. In his dog-way, principle was a
guide which fortified him. against all
by the most tempting OF
meatful bones. As Jack was no ordinary
dog, he has seceived unusual attention,
a mark of distinction which falls to the
few, unless they be milhonaires. Very
few indeed of the great number who
struggle increasingly for existence in
this big, round world. Jack was en-
balmed and laid out in metallic casket
at the establishment of his master and
friend, where the faithful good, old
dog may be viewed in state, awaiting
the time, in the near future, when he
will be put away from mortal sight for
ever.
If all men were only as dogs in
their friendships and their loyalty! In
the old story of Poor Dog Tray"
which may be applied to Jack, there is
much of the truthfully pathetic from
which a strong lesson may be drawn
in sermenizing.