The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-21
VIEWS OF A PET CAT
Counts Himself a Factor in
 Social Service
(New York Post.)


 I am cat, a pet cat, a pampered cati An old maids catI I feel no shame in the avowal
 My mistress read me the other day an article in a newspaper, about 'Pus- sy'S Proper Place." that reIegated me She remarked that the article express ed the views of many semi-barbar ianS, and was an index to the stage Of civilization of the times.
 In one brief half-page, the author Of that article managed to vflify Hannah More, of sainted memory; o,d maids and widows, en masSe, as neurotic idiots; all men as deceitful; the mod ern cellar as mice infested''; the fe- line tribe, which numbers among it's members the king of beasts, as unfit for polite society, and incidentally her self as a short-4ghted utiiitarian- Go to, unfeeIing one; read Agnes Rep pliers "Agrippina," or Thomas Jan vier's Passing of Thomas" and learn wisdoml
 Neither the modern pussy nor any of her ancestors has ever shown prefer ence for life in dark, damp, vermin- infested places. Do you take us for rodents? We share, with the English nobility and the worlds fearless WoOdsmen, a taste for hunting. If starved and restricted we can, like the worlds proletariat, be induced to get our living in ignoble ways. The talk of the cellar being our appropriate habitat resembles the misconceptions of the nobility in the days of Louis XVI in regard to the canail.e, or of some anachronistic bachelor on the sphere Of woman The rightful place of any of Gods creatures is the highest place that he can win by vir- tue, and fill with decorum.
 l, personally, have won my place upon the soft cushions of a sofa in the sitting room, or the rug before the open fire in the living-room, or upon my good friends lap--nay even on the arm of her chair at dinner-by my vir- tues, not by ignOble service in the cruel torture of vermin- I am beau tiful- That is accounted no mean virtue among womankind- I am clean the second virtue in the human cal endar. I am affectionate, though not grove-Iing, as is the mean-spirited dog am independent and Seh-helpable be- yond human understanding. I fulfil the highest ideal of companionabIe- ness, holding long and silent commun- ion in a comradeship that knows no need of speech I am faithful 10 old loves. You never see me capering forth with loud demonstrations to greet or to run after the stranger. I am a home. body, showing that at tachment to~my native place wh' oh is the very essence and origin of patriot ism
 And I hold my place by virtue of manners which would put Lord Ches- terf1el6s vaunted e71uberance of gen tility to shame Unobtrusive, appre- ciative, gentle, o'erant, self-restrain- ed, always ready to be noticed, yet never clamorOuS of attention, I am a model upon which the rising genera tion of "rough-house' playing Ameri- cans may well form themselves. In any well-bred househod I occupy a place of honor for which pay as go-not by exterminating vermin, but by engendering the sentiment of pro tecting gentleness in every breast ca pablo of true nobility of feeling.
 A young friend of mine called his ~rother "dago.' What Is a 'dagO', dear?'' asked his mother. "A 'dago,' '" said the youngster, ''is a person that avs vu' gar things like 'gol darn and shut up" Were I prone to name calling. I should extend the definition ''dago,'' dear lady, is a person who says vulgar thinks like ''gol darn. v shut up," and-''scati''