Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-06-05
JOKES THAT ANIMALS CRACK
Investigators Ready with Stories to
Prove Their Sense of
HumOr.

HumOr.
For, some time back the question, Have
animals a sense of humor?" has been under
discussion by a group of men of an in
quiring bent Of mind. The members of the
group decline to make their names public
until they have something in the way of
results to show. Even then, they say, they
may let the results speak for themselves
without disclosing the identities Of the In
vestigators. Meantime they have been
forming theories based on their combined
experiences. One of the most enthusiastic
members Of this coterie said last week that
he believes the positive side of the PROPOSE
ton to be pretty we'll proved.
Il am certain that some dogs have a
sense Of humor," he continued, land 1t
is more apparent in some breeds than in
others. Does any one ever stop to think,
when he sees the saronic smile on the face
of a bulldog as he noses the shrinking
legs Of a passerby, who tries to walk along
unconcernedly, that the bulldog probably
enjoyes the humor of the situation in his
own way? l have seen dog sitting in a
dark doorway, paying no attention to any
one who passed till a man absorbed in
thought came along. Then he rushed out
Unexpectedly, barking DANGEROUSLY and
startled the man until he nearly fell, then
trotted back and waited to have his next
joke with some other unwary passerby.
Here is the case Of a waggish dog which
1 saw myself, He was a Scotch collie and
If ever a dog was a humorist a collie is.
With a party of friends 1 was sitting on
the face of a green grown hill, sloping
down to a small lake or pond In front of
which was a beaten pathway. The collie,
who had the Irish name of Barney, be-
longed to my brother, who was in the
party, and was lying curled up at his feet.
"a peddler came along and coming
little way up the hill asked for the time.
Barney looked at him lazlly, blinking in
a sleepy way, and the man when he was
told the time went down to the path and
sauntered along. He stopped for minute
OF so and stood in a STOPPING position to
look at something in the pond.
Suddenly Barney, who had been watch
ing him. wagged his tail slowly, which was
his custom when he had. an idea. lie
rushed quickly down the hill and putting
his fore paws on the peddler'sAback pushed
him into the water Barney then rushed
back and lay down again before the peddler
realized what had happened to him, The
the man scrambled out, drenched through
and wiped the water from his eyes, the
look of establishment on his face was
laughable though the whole thing was an
outrage. We were all seated in the same
position as we were when the man looked
at US first, when he asked for the time, and
Barney was apparently asleep and looked
as IL he had not moved. Thoroughly mys-
titled the peddler looked at us again, but
could make nothing of it and went away
shaking his head, Now if that dog was
not joker l don't know a joke
Il generally find that mongrel dogs,
when they happen to be sociable, have a
keen sense CT humor An aristocratc dog
with a pedigree may have some in
herlted smartness, but has no originality
A common yellow dog with no ancestry
to speak of, who has to gain his living
by his Wits couldgive him cards and spades
at his own tricks In two lessons.
once / took into the house out of pity
mongrel yellow dog who insisted on
installing himself at my doorstep and
always came back, no matter how often
, he was chased away, had at that time
pedigreed water spaniel and l tried to
teach him some tricks, when / took him
out along a quiet road at times. The yell
low dog, who made friends with him,
always came along and beat the water
spaniel at his own tricks without training,
Then he began to play tricks Of his own
on the spaniel. When ne had a bone he
looked out for his comrade, and when he
saw him looping along he would lay the
bone in his path and disappear. The span
iel always made for the bone, but the yell
low dog, just as he was about to grab It.,
would dart from his hiding place and seiz-
ing 1t run Off with 1t. This happened over
and over again, but the high bred span
lei never tumbled TO the joke.
You may laugh il you like, but once
saw jackass with a sense of humor. No
I'm not fooling; I mean real jackass.
When 1 was at school as a boy in country
town the shoolmaster on a fine day would
bring the pupils into the yard, where we
played during recess, for a singing lesson.
He started them singing THE Star Span
gled Banner one day in parts. Part OF
| the yard was cut out of hill. and this
was faced with a stone wall, forming one
| of the boundaries of the yard high enough
TO form q parapet a few feet higher than
the hill. Behind the parapet this par
ticular jackass stood, while we were sing
| ing, his neck craned over and his ears
cooked as If he were listening to the music.
The boys had hard work to keep straight
| faces when they looked at him. After the
! class finished singing there was quiet for
a minute and the ass opening his mouth
gave a loud 'hee-haw' and galloped away
| II, that wasn't a joke I'm a sinner -