The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-07-24
THE MAN AND THE DOG.
Throughout All Times They Have
Been Friends and Companions.

write IuSlT u1SIolS "o"
largely to write the history OF the
human race, for practically wherever
the human race is or has been there
are and ever have been dogs. All
down the centuries, in every country
of the world, the friend Of man has
followed at the heel of some master
has rejoiced extravagantly in his ia
vor, has abased himself utterly under
the cloud of his displeasure, and, ever
ready and ever eager to forget all
differences, has reckoned the main
tenance of good relauons as the great
est thing in the world.
And so, from back in the past,
when dog had no real history, when
he is known to have existed at all
only because of the rude carving on
some solid rock overlooking some
wild sea, from those dim times the
one characteristic of the dog that
seems to have come down to the
present along one wonderfully un-
broken road is his faithfulness. Five
thousand years before the Christian
era, the Egyptian peasant, as he
watched each year for the happening
of the great miracle, the rising of the
Nile, noticed that it's gracious waters
began to trickle over his parched
land Just at the time that certain
glorious star appeared above the hor-
izon. And so inevitably did the ris-
ing of the Nile follow upon the rising
of the star that, to the present, the
stars faithfulness could only be COM
pared to the faithfulnes of his dog,
and thus Sirius came to be called
the Dog Star. Thus, even at that
time the dog had established himself
firmly as the friend of man, one
whose faithfulness was so unchang-
ing that it formed just comparison
for the rising of star.
True, there we're and are certain
eastern people to whom the dog, all
his devotion Notwithstanding, has
failed to make appeal, amongst
whom he is still regarded as an out
cast, For the most part, however,
and amongst most people, the dog
has had no difficulty in establishing
his position as the friend of man, and
in maintaining and. adding to his
reputation in this capacity. Instances
are so famous and so many, so utter
<ly looked for and taken for granted,
that any narration of them amounts
almost to pathos. Dog devotion has
afforded a subject to the artist again
and again, story for the writer, and
record for the historian, right down
to the present time.
And now, during the past four
years, the dog race that all over the
world his faithfuness to the best ira
dions of praises are being sounded.
The story of the war dog and his
doing is gradually being pieced to-
gether. From the very beginning OF
the war, as one writer has expressed
it, dogs chad paw in it," When the
Germans invaded Belgium, the har-
ness dogs, which up to that time had
been used for hauling milk, vegeta-
bles, and other produce, began to as
sist the refugees in getting their
children and household goods out of
the invaded country. Later they
hauled light artillery, and carts lad
en- with blankets, bread, hay, and
scores of other things for the comfort
of the soldiers and their horses. Dogs
did sentry duty in the trenches, pa
trolled No Mans Land, carried dis
patches through barbed wire en-
tanglements, amid hail of bullets,
and above all, added to the laurels
of their ancestors through the ages
by seeking out and helping the
wounded everywhere, on the far-flung
battlefelds of Europe and beyond.
Never was there time, so it
would seem, when the place Of the
dog in the affections of the human
race ought to have been more secure.
And yet, side by side with all this
recognition of what the dog is and
deserves, there still stands, and ap-
parently easily maintains itself, the
system of the vivisectionist. 1t is a
system which must, of course, ulti-
mately fall, because, amongst other
reasons, of its simple depravity. But,
for the present, this depravity is COW
cred up for the multitude under the
terrible plea of progress; whilst
the devastating charge of ''senti-
ment' is hurled at all and sundry
who take exception to the practice.
"There are MANY things worse than