The Mena weekly star., 1916-04-20
Only A Dog
story of Cruel Deed of a Thougst- less Boy and the Memory That Is Living Punishment.

When I became twelve years of age an old bachelor relative, who was a great hunter and fisherman, made me present Of a beautiful lr.fle, an old fashioned cap and ball rifle, with the ramrod sticking out about two inches beyond the mug gle, and accompanied by a deer skin shot pouch. powder horn. cock spur for q powder measure and string of creased patches to ac- eompany the bullets down the shin- lnlng spiral twists of tie gun bar rel. lt was great prize and as much an improvement over the old | flint lock rifles as the automatic 22 is over the old human rifle of my hoyh0od days As had acc0mpan- lied my relative on many a squirrel hunt and had seen him drop many little 'hushy tails" from tall hiek- ory trees, naturally grew passion- ately fond of hunting, and when l got a gun of my own I also very naturally spent all my spare time in the woods practicing on every living thing I could find to shoot at from 4ssipmunks to hoot owls, from sparrews to hen hawks.
 At first 1 had to take rest against some tree or some fence toI shoot. but as I grew older and stronger I shot "off hand and soon became so expert that rarely missed anything l shot at.
 As the years went by my fame as marksman began to spread in the neighborhood and my services be- came in demand among the farmers to shoot their hogs during hog killing time.
 During those early days the farmers Of my native state gener- ally butchered 25 or 30 fat hogs at one time and it was generally made a holiday. something like a husking bee wood ehopping or barn raising, where the neighbors would get to- gether to help one another. When they got together to slaughter a bunch of hogs, got the job of doing the killing and got Si day for doing the murderous work. All I had to do was to stand around and shoot hogs as fast as they were needed for the scaldng tub. So sure and deadly was my aim that seldom made one "squeal' so heI would need a second bullet
 Looking back on those barbarous days of bloody butchering I have to shudder.
 Not only was called upon to shoot hogs, but every dog in the community that was condemned to die on account of mad dog panic of of being accused of killing some farmers sheep.
 Southern Ohio was a great c0un- try for sheep, and a savage sheep killing dog could do a lot of damage in one night. I think my father had twenty-two head slaughtered by dogs in one night All this pre- amhle brings me to my sad story.
 One day as I was going home from school an old farmer accosted me and asked me to bring my rifle with me the next day and kill a dog for him. I asked him what the dog had been doing and he said lie was afraid" he had been killing sheep. So I carried my rifle with me the next day. and at the noon hour l went to kill the dog. l found a beautiful Shepherd dog. with the most innocent looking brown eyes ever saw outside of human face, and as 1 led him away toward a strip of woodland he came crouch ling and fawning behind me with all the dejection of a human being going to his death. That poor dog seemed to know that he was going to his doom. Reaching the wood- land I tied him to tree, backed away twenty paces and like the heartless young savage that I was. sent a bullet crashing into his brain squarely between his pitiful, plead ing brown eyes.
 Friends, that tragedy of theI woods occurred nearly fifty years ago. but the brown eyes of that poor innocent looking dog have been burning in my conscience | like coals of remorse from that day to this Honestly and truly I believe l shot away a soul, a dog soul 1t is true, but the soul of al good dog is the soul Of honesty, and fidelity that has no counterpart in the human breast.
 Lave killed many living things since then, many of them uselessly and even wantonly. but, and I am sorry to admit that I have been such a cruel savage, but nothing has ever troubled my conscience like that shepherd dog 1 slew in the shadowy woodland. where even the silent trees should have cried out against my crime
 How man can tie up a dog and torture him hv shootin him four or five times is certainly an act of brutality that is revolting
 Life is a mystery to us all,
 Godgiven to large and small Then why not always give Dumb things the right to live2
 Fisherman. 1 Cove, Ark, April f. 1916.
 ROLL WFEsfL MENACE GENERAL