Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-12-14
SOME SMART DOGS.
One Reads Newspaper md Another
Understands the Talk Of
u Parrot.

iona OF the lower order oil creatlOn,
relates the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat, "and | want to say right at the
start that | think this particular dog
is about the smartest t-ing on four
legs.
Dogs are always smart. They are
like babies in this that from the
standpoint of the persons who own
them they are the cutest and cleverest
things under the sun. | am not the
owner Of the dog in question, and,
therefore, may speak of the animal
without bias in his behalf, and may
extol his virtues without any danger
of OVERRIDING the thing. Put different
ly, I may take a critical view of this
dog in particular.
HE is as smart as q dog can be and
is abreast of the times. He is a news
paper dog, and, hence, manages to
keep in touch with the world. He is
always On the lookout for the morn
ing paper. AS a rule, he is at the front
gate when the carrier comes along.
If he is not there at that time he hears
the paper fall when the carrier throws
it in and is on the scene in short or
der.
For some time his master has been
a little under the weather. Before he
got sick the dog would simply take
the morning paper to his masters bed,
rear up on the side of the bed, leave
the paper with hin and skip out. But
recently-and this is the more impor-
tant point of this little yarn-the dogs
master has been confined to his bed,
and has not been able to move around
the room.
GAS usual the dog brings the paper
every morning. But instead of just
putting it on the bed he unfolds it,
holds it up in his paws, %glances at the
headlines and then. at his master, as if
trying to aid him in finding the more
important things that happened the
day before. Do you not regard this as
extraordinary intelligence in a dog?
| do.
That dog is a wonder, and no mis-
take. He is a humanitarian There
is an element of devotion in his CON
duct toward his master that you woula
fail to find in a great many friends,
and IN element of thoughtfulness that
you would fail to find in a great many
persons who are closer than friends "
THAT reminds me Of a very clever
compact which has been entered into
between a dog and a parrot out in MY
neighborhood," said a man who had
listened to the story about the news
paper dog, land I doubt if you could
find a more forcible evidence of the
dogs and the parrots intelligence than
the compact have in mind.
They seem to have established a
perfect understanding Of each other,
and they seem to have developed some
sort of idea of the contractual rela-
ton, as we say in the law. How they
went about the matter | do not know.
| only know that the results are
achieved quite as satisfactorily as if
the dog and parrot in question were
human beings and capable of all the
processes of reasoning.
THE parrots cage is in the back
yard. 1t is close to the ground, where
the dog can reach the sliding door by
rearing up on his hind legs. Between
the back yard and front yard there is
a gate with a latch on the side toward
the front part of the house. AS a rule,
the dog and parrot are kept in the back
yard. and the little gate which crosses
the alleyway and opens into the front
yara is generally kept latched. A lit
tie while ago the dog and the parrot
were found out in the front yard to-
gether.
1.-THE man of the house was not a
little perpleXed to know how they had
managed to get out into the front
yard. He made up his mnd to watch
them for the purpose of seeing how
they overcame the difficulty. The first
thing that attracted his attention was
the call of the parrot.
Promptly the dog, who understood
the language, responded. He walked
over to the parrots cage, used his nose
to root the slide door up and let the
bird out. The dog then let the door
fly back to its place. The parrot few
over to the side gate and the dog trot-
ted across the yard in the same diTec-
ton.
"In a few seconds the parrot was
busy with the latch. Using his beak,
he raised the latch, and the dog pushed
the side gate open with his nose.
Shortly they were both out IN the
front yard.
"Now. what do you think of that?
If that isn't intelligence, what is it?
1t seems to me to be intelligence of a
very high order. and | am willing to
put this dog and this parrot bird
against anything you can scrape up,
for anything less complex than a COM
bination lock of the most improved
kind wouldn't count with them"