The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1911-11-30

makes a stay over night at the top practically
necessary With old.fashoned courtesy the
tourists are conducted TO their rooms by an
able and after meals are shown round the
church, the kennels and museum, quite ~
guests in country house. Never hint OF
pay. Every tours; knows-t Ia universal 60.
versation and all guide books tell it--that each
tourist ought to put into the aims box at least
what he (or she) would have to pay at hotel
All tourists similarly know In advance that
the Hospice has grown poor In modern times
by continuing to feed warm and lodge $4,000
mingled rich and poor annually-tho grants
rents and annuIties that once made It rich
having shrunk and dwindled This being SO
what do you imagine the 5000 gay and AFRO
CANT tourists last summer put into the aims
box? Less than 1000 would have paid at q
hotel! That Is to say. an average OF one tour
ist IN six paid up honestly. The rest sneaked
It.
This is not why the dogs have q faraway
almost disdninful look. They do not know why
they are almost hard up for their soup and
biscuits Once they wore gold collars; now
they 20 about conteulcdy In leather dotted
with brass nailheads, They do not even know
that rich tourists have tried to buy them for
large sums-whlch the good canons gently re.
down to pant and pine in the thick, hot air Of
the plain They dsdain nobody. They simply
do not llko our smel--the smell of oYcrhcated
overfed gross tourist bodies burning oxygen
and letting of poisonous gases Ike a furnace
Their friends tho abbes. brothers and clean
smelling wood choppers Of the heights are
plain livcrs, trained down. all muscle their
very clothes free from the grease and microbes
Of tho fostering plain How, then. II they
avoid us are they willing to bound OF through
gnow and night and hunt out-whnt they
smell easily. so far away-the strong.
scented deni2on of low attitudes I'm dlstress'
In men it would be called professional ardor
In these dogs call It Rtavism Since St
Bernard de Mention collected tho pack In the
year A. d 6G2. almost Il thousand years have
elapsed Generation after generation. back
through the centuries the same patient train.
Ing. exclusive companonship OF wise men, alb.
scnCe Of outside foolishness and distractions
have made II a race OF dogs apart. There are
plenty OF ST. Demands UP ard down the valley:
but they are doEenerates from the overflow.
The dogs OF the IIospce, for example, take
their orders only from tho abbcs or canons
not the brown brothers cmarronniers") who
live with them, feed them, md for whom they
have the greatest affection. Yet before start.
ing on an expedition, m able has the chief
dogs up before him. one by one 1t passes I'm
absolute silence, very queer When the pure
minded strOnE-soulcd trancd.down, unwordly
man looks into his eyes. what passes into the
subconscious being OF the clean-lIying high
bred. humau.companloncd animal OF the thin
air and lonely heights?
Two Ilospice dogs have crouched beside an
exhausted wayfarer, smuggling close to him
on each side to keep him warm while the third
dog ran back to lead the caravan" OF rescue
to the spot
Such trio OF scouts have barked contn.
uously in the ears OF weakening. stumbling
traveller 10 keep him awake Two trudged
so close to him on each side as to warm and
hold him uprlGht-whIe the third butted him
along from behind a good FIVE minutes before
dashing back to bring the caravan.
Any visitor in snow time is given the
privilege to wander of and hide behind a drift
as far ms he pleases, covering his tracks
at pleasure Then an able will take new
bunch Of six dogs from the kennels merely
show them your handkerchief In his uplifted
hand Of course they get the scent-and on
they go, circling, barking. as at n game. After
two circles OF the Hosplce, at the most run
ming with their noses in the air like a French
deer hound they have your trail and follow
II straight to where You are waiting to be
rescued. Then you get your second surprise
Instead Of digging you out and offering you
a drink OF brandy and water from the canteens
round their necks, they stand In a circle laugh
ing at you You know how dog laughs?
Technically. the pass is open to crcula
ton" between the melting and temperance OF
the SHOWS in July, August and September
During this period. when the road is alive with
traffic over good dry earth, and rock the
rescue work is limited to hunting up adventur-
GUS tourists or tipsy "work.seeking" laborers
who have strayed or fallen. In bad weather
and as soon as there is snow. tho telephone
makes rescue work a routine. From st. Rhemy
on the Swiss slope. a telephone message in
variably notifies the Hospice OF the passage
up OF each vehicle, band OF pede strians or soil
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