San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-29

toiling performer of gainful deeds, there
seems to be news in an Item from Los
Angeles, Cal, which tells of the achieve
ment of little spaniel dog that stood
guard for five days and nights, without
food or water, at the wheel Of an auto
mobile that had been abandoned by
bandits.
In earlier days the incident might
have been mentioned among dog breed
ers, by way of "eychanging notes. But
would a news-gathering agency or a
photograph syndicate have given
such a dog as much and as wide public
ity as that accorded the fuzzy little fell
low whose likeness appeared in the pub
lie prints a few days ago under the cap
ton "a Lesson in Loyalty?"
Are dogs any more or less loyal now
adays than they were in more purpose
ful times? Some dogs are not. There
are people who believe that dogs partake
somewhat of the character of their train
ers. Some masters are trainers in the
true sense of the term; others are not
even good masters. And the traits Of
dogs, like those of human beings, are
passed on from generation to generation
All of which is but another way of say
ing that the item from Los Angeles owes
its news value to the contrast it sug-
gests-a contrast between a present-day
tendency, on the part of many people,
toward unreliability and lack of purpose,
and the admirable old-fashioned qualities
exenplified by the little spaniel whose
instinct commanded him to sacrifice his
own welfare, and risk death, for the sake
Of duty. .... .-.-.- ..-.-
Time was when dogs loyalty to his
master was accepted as a matter OF
course, and was not consequently i'm
paired. Isn't it significant that even a
dogs display of loyalty nowadays should
be heralded broadcast as news? Was
the conduct of the California dog excep-
tional? If-not, then why should it excite
so much interest?
Only few days ago man from the
mountains of Tennessee, with the CLEAN
of frontiersman in his eyes, was enter
tanning an audience of the younger gener-
alton with accounts of his bear-hunting
days. At least he thought he was enter
tanning them so. But apparently some
of them enjoyed his stories merely be-
cause they regarded them as "big ones"
The principal characters in the tales
were dogs-loun' dawgs-and the feats
credited to them, their fearlessness, their
endurance, their loyalty, their almost
human intelligence, all might IS we'll
have been taken from fables 50 far as
the listeners were concerned.
Boys of today have little il any con-
ception of conditions that prevailed when
their grandfathers, in new land, were
young; when men were bound by their
promises, when disloyalty might result
in tragedy, and when dogs seemed to
sense the vital needs of their masters.
The stories told by the man with the
look of frontiersman in his eyes we've
most likely true. Evidently he had been
over many rough roads; he had no rea-
son for romancing. If dogs partake Of
the traits of their masters, it is not SUR
prising that some people should wonder
at the loyalty of the little spaniel that
stood guard for five days and nights at
the wheel of car that had been left
in his keeping. And in so far as uncom-
mon incidents and events constitute
news, the story from Los Angeles de-
served the prominence given to it in the
public prints.
-Oo--