The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-26
DOG CEMETERY AT PARIS
INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF
 UNIQUE INSTITUTION.

, Imposing Monument to St. Bernard
 That Saved Forty Lives-CemeteFy ] Located on Island in seIne-TouehIng
 Story Oe the Leper and His Dog
 SOrle of the Inscriptions.
 Dear Courier:
 My pleasant Spanish friend laughed
 and made merry at me for wanting to
 visit the Dog Cemetery. but the good
 fellow went with me after all, for it
 was he who had called my attention to 1 it, and who knew the way there, as he
 had happened to see it on passing. So , we made up a little company of two
 one pleasant afternoon last week and
 started off, on the top of an omnibus,
 for the Clichy quarter, near which the little cemetery is situated upon
 pretty island in the river.
 Not only dogs, but cats and birds are admitted to burial there. The en-
 trance is beneath handsome stone archway, with little house beside it for the custodian, and there is an en- trance fee of half franc, from which there is a considerable revenue. as
 many go to see the cemetery as a cu- riosity.
 This island in the Seine was former
 ly called the "Ile des Rayageurs,' and
 was made dramatic by Eugene Sue
 with its sinister looking public house
 in the center, the haunt of riverside
 desperadoes, but it's character has now
 completely changed and the little is
 land is a spot of peace and flowers
 and monumental beauty.
 The Dog Cemetery is quite a neceS-
 sary thing for hygienic as well as sem
 timental reasons, for in a great city like Paris, where yards are rare other than courts with stone or asphalt
 pavements, there is no place to bury a
 dog except in the cellar, and this has
 been done in countless eases, and in as
 many other cases their owners have
 paid persons for burying them outside
 the city who have only thrown them
 into the sewer or the river, and to re- alize what an immense number or dogs there are in Paris one needs only to know that the yearly tax upon dogs
 there amounts to half q million francs.
 Upon entering the cemetery the first object that meets the eye is a large monument erected to 'the memory or Brrry, the celebrated St. Bernard,
 who saved the lives of forty persons, and was killed by the forty-tirst. A monument to the memory of this mo- bIe creature immediately gives dig nifty and interest to the spot.
 In referring to the death of the dog Barry it is said that one tempestuous evening, in the midst of thick fog, a traveller who had lost his way, sud- denly saw a large animal with open jaws coming towards him, and being frightened at his appearance, he struck him heavy blow upon the head with his iron-bound stick. The poor animal, which was Barry, was rnortally hurt A few months later, when the monks of St. Bernard came up, this traveller understood and de- plored his error. Everything possible was done for poor Barry, He was taken by the monks to the hospital at Berne, but the iron had pierced his brain, and in spite. of all the efforts of science he soon died.
 It is said of Barry that when there was a storm coming on nothing could keep him in the convent, but he must be out upon his work of mercy. The most touching act of his twelve years of service was the following. He found one day in a grotto of ice lost child. half frozen and already stupe- fled by that sleep which ends in death. He began to lick it, the ,child's face' until he had awakened it, then by ca resses, and by bending down his body to it, he made the child understand that sha must get upon his back and put her arms around his neck, and finally he triumphantly reached the monastery with his precious burden. Upon the monument Barry is repre- scented with the little girl upon his back. Many other stories are told of his wonderful intelligence and sagac- ity.
 The Island of the Dogs" has bor- der of large trees at the waters edge, but the cemetery itself is rather sum- ny, as it is only five or six years old, and trees have not had much time to grow. Belonging to the cemetery is a tricycle. with willow box or basket l built for the purpose, and this they send for the body of a dog at l any time when notified to do so, and | at a trifling charge. There is a scale l of prices for burial in the cemetery, | which has quite wide range, but the ] minimum is very small indeed, and | comes within the means of any one. No funeral service is permitted; noth- | ing but the simple interment.
 Some of the monuments are very handsome and elaborate, and flowers | and ivies everywhere abound, but the l of the stones are simple slabs lying horizontally upon the graves, with a few simple words upon them. | There are inscriptions in about every language, showing the universal love