Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-26
WHEN DOGS TRAVEL

We've been getting a whole lot of the
beauty and thar beast business Of late
years. said bakgageman with run on a
through train from Washington to Chicago.
and the trunk matiier who doesn't possess
sympathetic knowledge of dogs and their
travelling whims, BAND understand, as WELL
the vagaries of the jeurneying dogs owners.
hasn't any business in a baggage car nova
days. ~
There are perhaps five times as many
dogs a-rail now as there were half dozen
years ago. and every American railroad has
regular schedule of dog rates from place
to place, the same as for two-legged pas
sengers. dogs fare is usually fixed at
about one-fifth the fare Of a human passen-
ger, whether the dog be a mastiff that takes
up about quarter of the space Of a bag
gage car or sulking. sneezing fluff of a
sleeve-mutt that means and whimpers in
the fancy basket placed off in a corner on
top OF stack Of through trunks.
Dogs travelling in a baggage car behave
pretty well. as general thing. II their mas
ter or mistress is not on the same train
with them; but when dog knows that his
master or mistress Is only one or two cars
away from him he'll raise more different
kinds of the devil in q baggage car than
you've any idea Of When the dogs check
ed through and placed entirely in the keep
ing or the box-busters he pouts with his
hours of the run, and every time the door
leading to the coaches Is opened he cocks
his ears or begins to tug at his string, as If
expecting visit from his owner But when
he soon passes up watching the door as a
Dad JOB. and from then on he begins to
smoke up and act like natural dog.
He sets tactfully to work. after the
crafty manner Of dogs. to make hit with
the baggage handlers, watches their work
with curiosity. thumps the floor with his
tall and looks happy when they glance in
his direction, and thus he always accom-
pi1shes his deliberate design Of winning
them, no matter how fully aware they may
be that he's a con dog from away back
BY the time the end Of the run Is reached
the baggageman and a sensible, unaccom-
panied dog of this kind are generally great
pals, and I've handled lot of dogs that
hated to shake paws with and say good
bye to when 1t came time to separate and
we had to go our respective ways.
But travelling dogs an altogether DIFF
ferent proposition when his master or mis-
tress Is along-especially his mistress. His
mistress generally takes seat in the coach
next to the baggage car sos to be near the
dog, and I've often seen rich and swagger
women sit up in a day coach all night in-
sleepers were tackled on to the after part
of the train-they wouldn't stand for being
removed so far from their dogs.
Every half hour or so the woman who 8
SOt d Jug III the DdSSdSe CdT Will WISH the
mutt in the trunk-coach and call him baby
names and scratch the top of his head and
molly -eoddle him along, and that kind of
thing puts the dickens in a dog and causes
him to make a holy nuisance of himself
in baggage car. When his mistress leaves
him to go back to her coach he almost
chokes himself to death in trying to fol-
low her, and he puts in the intervals be-
tween her visits in whining and whimper-
Ing and in trying to cook up some scheme
SOS he can get loose and reach his mis-
tress. There's no doing anything with him.
He has an acute sense Of outrage over
being compelled to ride in the baggage car
when his owner is riding f1rSt-claSs only
thirty or forty feet away, and he talks to
himself about It and mutters and growls
over it until, like some people who DELHI
erately work themselves up over fanciful
grievances, he gets into a state Of bug
house nervousness.
When, however, a woman is compelled
by circumstances to ship her dog unac-
companied, the time that she consumes in
instructing and fenjoining and adjuring the
baggageman as to the peculiarities and
procl1vitfes of her pet, and in trying to
in press upon him just how the NUTS got
to be handled in order to survive the
journey, is a plenty.
"One morning little before starting
time, fetching and wholesome-looking
young woman passed over to me, all tucked
In his fur-lined basket tiny tike of a King
Charles spaniel, which she said was to go
would meet the-dog- Then she slipped me
piece of paper morey, blIshed, and stam-
mered:
THAT is for you. and know you'll take
the best care of little Dom Now and here
she blushed most astonishingly, the poor
little fellow is particular about his food
you see, and he is Used to'-but she couldn't
get any further. Instead, she opened
Gladstone bag, and, taking pains not to
catch my eye, she began to hand me things
out Of tie bag. First there was a little
alcohol lamp. filled. Then small porcelain
stewpan. Then came a can of condensed
milk. l thought saw through it then,
but didn't say anything. By this time
her face was like a blush-rose, sure enough
But she was game, all right. The next
thing she passed to me out of that bag was
size. nipple, tube and all. I'm a man of
family. and the sight of nursing bottle
wasn't any new one on me. But in that
connection! The young woman seemed to
be grateful that didn't explode. and then
she said with gulp:
The milk and water must be Just a lit
tie lukewarm, you know, and-er-heat the
bottle little, too, SOS it won't chill the
milk and just-why. just fill the bottle,
you know, and give 1t to Denny, and-oh,
he'll do the rest-he knows And l prom
ised. and she made her escape. still blush
ing furiously.
you should have seen me simmerins
milk and water over the alcohol lamp and
feeding that pampered dog on that trim
I wouldn't tell my wife about 1t for any
money. Shed swear that I'd never have
done that much for my young ones when
they were at the bottle age After mixing
and heating the milk and water I tried to
persuade the sniffy and naughty little King
Charles cove to lap 1t direct from the stew.
pan, but he only gazed at 1t disdainfuIIy
and turned his head the other way When
poured the mess into the bottle. though
he got busy and emptied the bottle through
the nipple in Jig time, and looked around
greedily for another bottle. I fed him that
way four or five times on the run to Chi
cago. and the train crew spent most of the
day in the baggage car guying me as I bent
over the alcohol lamp.
The young woman's husband was down
the yard to get the dog when the train
pulled into Chicago. He gave me the grin.
=" Like wet nursing? he asked me. Great
stunt, isn't 1t? How'd you like to have it
for a steady job for about two months. like
I've got ahead Of me-?
81 handed him the dogs travelling kit
alcohol lamp, stewpan, bottle and the re-
mains of the can of condensed milk-and
he hid the gear away in a grip and went
away, trying to look cheerful"
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