The New York herald., 1922-08-06

III UCLOn out III Is uOu1uui WuetnSt
any dog has ever made so many
friends through the printed page as
Lad. His master, Albert Payson Ter
hume, has written two books about
him and has brought his personality
into others. We could scarcely have
too much of him. Further Adven-
lures of Lad will find a readyrnade
welcome Our only regret is that
they have come at last to an end.
The great emotions of attachment
love. friendship. patriotism, filial
piety-have glowed through htera-
covered but it is only in compare
lively recent years that literature
has been made of the strange but ex-
traordinarily potent attachment that
often exists between a dog and his
human friends.
The attachment itself is no new
thing. Records of canine fidelity and
heroism are antique and classic.
When Ulysses returned to Ithaca his
faithful hound was the first TO greet
him. When Pompeii was excavated
the skeleton of a dog was found in
the ashes, covering his masters body,
as though in one last. self-sacrificing
effort to save the loved one from a
terrible death. And with the dogs
remains was found collar bearing
an inscription that told how he had
previously saved his masters life on
three separate occasions.
But until Angio-Saxon times. when
the ballad of Gelert was sung. the
dog was seldom made the subject of
song and story. Since then the vol
ume of dog literature has been in
creasihg rapidly. until to-day it is a
recognized part of the yearly output
Much OF this writing is insipid and
unconvincing and an insult to dog
nature, evidence of lack of knowl-
edge Of dogs as well as lack of skill
in portrayal. The dog-and-man re
lation is a subtle thing to write of
with both clarity and restraint. Fine
dog stories have been written, how
ever. and of these Mr.. Terhune's
are not the least significant.
People who care for and under
stand dogs recognize something au-
thentic in his stories. He knows
dogs thoroughly from long and in
innate association with them, and
his is the art to weave stories about
them without attributing to them
undogiike qualities OF mind or heart.
The only quarrel we are inclined TO
pick with him is concerning his per-
sistency in treating the collie as the
only breed worth while. But that IS
inevitable. There never was a genu-
inc lover of dogs yet who did not ex-
hibit the same eager partisanship.
Lad was a real dog, collie of the
highest breeding and the finest quail
ties Of mind and heart and body.
That Mr.. Terhune has exercised his
invention in the making of his sto-
ries is more or less self-evident.
These things did not all happen to
the real Lad But they are essen
TALLY true, and no biography of the
beloved collie could reveal his char
acter more vividIy than these bits of
half fiction.
The stories in themselves are good
stories. One marveis at the su-
thor's fecundity in making 50 many
tales about one dog. They have the
dramatic quality that one demands in
dog story-the stirring account of
battles. the marvellous following of
the lonely trail. the daring of haz-
ards. They have. too. the touch OF
tenderness, the pathos that ineyi-
tably accompanies mans association
with his short lived friend.
In these Further Adventures
Lad outwits a burglar, he saves a
drowning enemy, he seeks to rescue
his adOred mate. Lady. from a burn
ing outhouse, he finds lost child in
a blizzard, he rescues a baby from
kidnapers. he fights men and dogs.
wild bear and an infuriated SOW.
Good yarns. all. The million readers
who have learned to know and love
Lad in those former stories about
him viii be eager 10 trace his story
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