Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-21
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Love Of Animals Means Possession of
Trait Responsible for Many Happy
Hours-How Charlie chapiin's
Cat Nearly Got q Monument
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE
7NHE other day a woman whom know--a
= very pretty woman with great faculty
for making friends with all the children
ana animals that happen her way-was
doing her errands down a crowued street in
Germantown when her attention was sud.
denly riveted on group consisting Of man
with camera. a dog. girl and an inter.
ested crowd of spectators, among whom
was police officer. Now anything about
dog was apt to interest her, so she stopped
to observe. The camera man evidently
wished to take the dogs picture. and the
girl was evidently trying to get the dog to
pose for the purpose, but without success.
Presently the police officer edged his way to
the lady on the opposite pavement and saluted
her affably, explaining that the dog was the
famous Aliens dog" and the camera man
was taking the pictures for the newspapers,
or trying to rather, the dog up until then
having been quite unmanageable.
though the trouble was not so much with
of him."
The officer knew the lady's ways with
animals and very bright thought struck
him, which he presently confided to the dis.
tracted photographer and growingly nervous
girl. The photographer was delighted with
the idea. the girl was relieved. and even
tually the lady was persuaded to try her
powers OF persuasion on the dog. With
the result that after a word or two from
her and long moment Of quiet inspection
make friends. Indeed ":e than delighted,
insistent. So that he put two paws upon
her shoulder and was presently thus photo.
graphed, much to the lady's surprise. for
that had not been part of her original bar.
gain. However. she accepted her fate with
u pretty grace and went her way. gazed
upon BY admiring bystanders and a grateful
newspaperman.
THAT little knack of understanding ami.
mails and making tn, 4 al ease and
happy and confding is something in person
that I've never heard explained. 1t cannot,
! think, be cultivated; one is born with it.
] had an uncle who was noted in the army
for 1t and was sought after by all the livery
stable men in town. The. implored him to
gentle" their horses by driving them. BE
need never have been without a horse free,
il he had succumbed to their gings.
None of his children inherited that pecu.
liar knack. but all of them cared greatly
for horses and were wise aboL' their points.
He saw to it that from their earliest child
hood they were both fearless and sympa-
thetic with them. Those l think are the
two qualities one needs in ORD to get all
the pleasure that is possible out of an animal.
but it is surprising how many persons are
without one or the other.
Fear of animals can be planted very early
know n man whose father and mother lite
unconsciously made him timid with dogs
before he could speak. There was this eS-
cuse for both of them: They had each been
badly bitten by strange DIGS in their carly
childhood and carried the scars of those en-
counters both ON their bodies and in their
memories.
The boy tried valiantly before he VS. a
grown man to overcome his timidity. and
managed to hide it at all events from all
but dogs themselves for most occasions. But
it so happened that one day he was prench.
ing-for he was Il clcrgyman-in a smLl
country church on the virtue Of fearessness.
when dog swirled into the "h"rc. and
trotted up the aisle. and scenting the spasm
OF fear that the preacher was "Hicted WITH
folds Of his surplice. 1t very nearly ruined
the effect of that sermon on fearlessness
For neither his gestures nor his voice in
ordering the dog out were as confident as
the preacher would have liked them to be.
As 4 CHILD l was taught to plant my
n heellcss baby shoe on every living thil.g
that ran across my path which could be
exterminated thus dccisivcly. and to mash
every snake with a stone or rock or whack-
ing stick. no matter how harmless. to avoid
eats and to cross the street TO escape strange
dogs have Il picture yet in my minds
eye of my mother hiring very small boy
to conduct her past an equally small dog who
was yappng and at the same time waggins
his tail behind garden fence.
From ants to cows, our attitude toward
animals was one Of armed hostility or eau
tous avoidance. And | might have passed
on without ever having an inkling OF the joys
of animals and their little ways IL tiny
toy terrier had not fallen to my lot in very
adult years. Her name was "Bunty," and
TO Bunty ! owe an open sesame to all t. e
animal kingdom upon which l formerly
slammed IL violent door. For. of course,
one animal is very like another in its gen.
eral traits, differing as they do in personal
characteristics. When ] disturbed a little
chipperng sparrow on n hydrangca bush
lust now that ] supposed was mine and
she supposed was hers. and she sat tight
and determined and game on her nest of tiny
hedglings. she was for all the world like
Bunty guarding one of her precious bones
that she suspected me of coveting under that
same hydrangea. ! backed away from the
little nest with the same quick apology and
HELPLESS desire to be understood just now as
I had done years ago with my fiery yet for
giving Bunty.
A PART from all their loving, wilful,
n faithful ways the comic side Of the
creatures that people the earth, their laugh
ing ways give one rich harvest of amuse-
ment that Is at once cure for loneliness
and Il stimulant to ones own powers of
laughter.
The other evening the garage mans dog
came and looked mt the family at dinner
through the open French windows. He made
no effort to join us, except by way of re-
sponse to our chatter and general COM
Portable jollity; he grinned and grinncd, and
sat there enjoying us as a spectacle of family
unity until his master called and whiStled
from the back premises.
The children of this generation in America
are being introduced more civilly and with
better success to the animal world than
were their mothers. Possibly it is the in
fuence Of England possibly it is our grow
ing good sense about children. Certainly
the interest of whole audience in the screen
the moment mn animal comes in view goes
to prove that to great many Of us they
are like folks
A FRIEND Of mine was asked to talk to
~ some children not long ago about cur