The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-04-08
JIM KEY-AND OTHERS.

JIM HY-AND OTHERS.
WHAT Jim Key knows seems marvellous, for most
w of us understand little of the real intelligence of
many of the dumb creatures about us. Horses and dogs,
among the domestic animals, seem to possess the highest
degree of intelligence and respond most squicklysto sys-
tematic training. AS with human beings, there are AMI.
mails which are more intelligent than others, and It is,
Of course, the latter which can best be trained to do
man s bidding.
People do not always realize that children have to be
taught how to understand language. This training be-
gins more or less unconsciously from the cradle, and is
continued thru all the waking hours, yet it is generally a
year and a half at least before a child begins to talk and
have anything like a perfect understanding OF what IS
said to him.. The same systematic training given an
intelligent horse or dog would work wonders so far as
understanding the everyday vocabulary Of human beings
is concerned.
An Italian scientist, Signor Mancini, has become SO
interested in this subject that he has developed a fad OF
collecting all the available data concerning the intell1-:
gence Of the dumb world.in general He says that. dogs
and horses can easily learn to count to twenty with as
much accuracy as human beings. He tells the story OF
a dog that had been taught to eat three Jumps OF sugar
only at a time. When the third was given him and
crunched down to it's last grain, he stopped begging and
went: off about his business: Then there is the story Of
a Russian plowhorse, whose master gave him a rest at
the end Of every twenty burrows. In time, the horse
learned to count to twenty, without any other teaching on
VIM P"o- ~ %9-@
end of the twentieth row, and he would stop as regularly
as it came, without a touch on the reins from his driver.
Just how we'll a dumb brute may be able to under
stand words,-not merely the understanding OF kind words
or harsh, ones by the quality of the voice,-was brought
home most startlingly to the editor a year or SO ago.
One of the tenants Of the same apartment house had a
thorobred Boston terrier. It is a rule of the house that
dogs shall not be taken up and down the front stairs. One
day the editor found the dog waiting for admission at the
front door. AS she came up, he turned his great eyes full
upon her and asked as plainly as if with words, to be let
in. She looked at him for a moment, and then said: . You
are the finest dog I ever saw, but you know you can't
20 in this door. You will have to 60 around to the rear
He looked her full in the eyes for a few seconds,
then with the look Of a grieved child, he dropped his
head and walked meekly away! What is more, when the
editor reached her apartment and looked ont upon the
rear porch, there was. the dog, waiting for admission at
the kitchen door of the adjoining fat. Perhaps the, dog
did not really understand what was said to him, but
the editor has always believed he did.
If one would only give dumb pets, especially horses
and dogs, the. training and the kind treatment that are
melted out to the human members Of the family, the re-
suits in human intelligence would be astonishing and the
companionship Of such animals would be made a hundred
fold more delightful. N