The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-11-02

that snakes are ugly. He comedies their
snakiness and their strangeness, but finds
In just these qualities their supreme al
traction.
Mr.. Hudson's interest, in fact, in ami
mails seems 10 he in inverse ratio to their
humanness. This may explain his grea1
love for the serpent that moves mysteii-
ously on its belly, and his lack of sym
patty for the dog that has been made
the friend of man. But Mr.. Hudson's
chapter on The Great Dog Superstition,
it should be told, was written long ago,
and is now included, as he says in a
note, "just for fun" Originally, it was
probably written more for fun than for
anything else. 1t shocked the editor of
the magazine in which it appeared. Ii
shocked particularly spinster by the name
Of Miss Cobbe, who wrote in noble rage
about the article. 1t called forth hu-
morous defence, on the other hand, from
Andrew Lang in one of his leaders in the
Daily Neacs, and since this particular
leader is not included in Lang's published
Lost Leaders, Mr.. Hudson reprints por-
ton of it now.
1t was Mr.. Hudson's mischievous con
tention in his paper that there was no
good reason why man should have selected
the dog for his friend any more than
number of other animals. For ladies es-
pecially he recommended as a substitute
for the Pekingese or other canine pet the
marmoset, a fairy monkey, whose supe-
rior attractions he eloquently described;
or the lemur or the wildcat. Andrew Lang
conceded the truth that "the dogs worst
peril awaits him at the moment of his
highest fortune, when he has become the
pet and protege of women" and he wrote:
"Under their enervating patronage he
may gradually lose some Of his most cher
ished qualities, until he whines with the
poet, What is it, in this world of ours,
that makes it fatal to be lovedF For
fatal il would be if the dog were grad
ually evolved into thing of tricks, a
suppEant for sugar at afternoon tea,
pert assailant only of the people who
never mean TO rob the house, or a being
deaf to the cry Of rats but fercely active
in the pursuit of worsted ball-a fine
coated dandy with his initials embroidered
on his back"
1t is little odd that Mr.. Hudson did
not suggest the serpent or the toad as
further desirable substitutes for the dog
in the affections of men, since, at is
easy" as he says, 'to establish friendly
relations with these lowly creatures, am
phibious and reptiles, by a few gentle
strokes with the finger tips on the back"
He tells that he himself has tanned snake
in ten minutes by stroking its back in this
manner, or holding it delicately by .he
tail. His account of how he similarly
made friends for life with a huge black
toad is delightfully."- cosey:
81 sat down by his side and picked him
up, which action he appeared to regard
as an understandable liberty on my part;
but when I placed him on my knee and
began stroking his blackish, corrugated
back with my finger tips, his anger van
ished, and ona could almost imagine his
golden eyes and wide lipless mouth smil-
ing with satisfaction"
This writer himself seems to share in
the remoteness and strangeness Of the
world he describes. It was difficult in
reading Fer Away and Long Ago. the
autobiography of his childhood in South
America, TO believe that any one now liv-
ing could have known the scenes and the
life it described. But the only effect o.
this remoteaess and strangeness is to give
to his writing an auste., and classic
quality. He is of his own kind. both in
the world Of writer's and Of scientists.
N P. D.
TITF DInL Al