The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-08-30
Activity of a
Dogs Mind
BY JUSTIN WENTWORTH


20. 1928. by Mcclurs Newspaper syndicats.)
THAT collie Of his that Colonel Nor
ton shot-ine animal and devoted
to him. Won a good many prizes, too,
but you see, his mind didn't work just
right. After all, a dogs only justiica-
ton for being kept Is his acquiring
something of a human mind, or at
least the workings Of a human mind.
Prince didn't manage to justify his
existence, that's all.
Yes, they saved the colonels little
girl at the fire, though she was badly
burned. The doctor says it won't be
noticeable-much, when she grows old
er. But Prince ought to have .
well, you see it's like this:
Prince was devoted to the mother
before little Agnes arrived on the
scene, and when he was first shown
the baby his distress was pitiable.
Somehow he felt that he was being
supplanted. Then after a while he
came to cherish his little mistress more
than his old one. Wouldn't stir out
Of the room while she was in the era
die, and when She began to toddle
around he accompanied her every
where.
Then Agnes reached the doll age,
and Prince was jealous as sin when
he saw her with her rag doll In her
growled whenever little Agnes tool 1t
up. Then that fit passed. You see,
Prince was learning, and just as he
had learned that the baby was a thing
to be cherished and guarded, 80 he
began to look on the rag doll as an
other mistress.
1t was, 1 suppose, a triumph Of rea-
son over brute mind, or, putting 1t an
other way, a triumph Of self-discipline.
Prince couldn't really have liked the
rag doll, yet there he was, always
ready to fetch and carry 1t. Perhaps
there was some dim instinct of relig-
ious veneration for 1t in his canine
mind, perhaps 1t had become a fetish
for him.
SO far, then, Prince had reacted like
q normal dog. We are apt to credit
animals with the same powers Of In
But dogs minds don't work that way.
Nobody can say just what Prince did
think Of the rag doll. No one thought
very much about 1t. Then came the
fire.
Defective insulation, probably. The
Mortons lived in a large, fine new
house on the outskirts of tOwn-the
and his lady, Agnes, her col
Ored nurse, and the cook-housemaid.
1t was about two in the morning when
the blaze was discovered. By that time
the house was almost all on fire. There
were some carbide chemicals in the
cellar-something Of that sort and the
result was that the whole household
was nearly a~sphyxiated. They were
passing into death from sleep with
out recovering consciousness.
A neighbor who was sitting up late
saw the blaze and turned In the alarm.
In a few minutes the town fire engine
on the scene. Up go the ladders.
Mrs. Norton is carried out first, still
alive. Then another fireman gets the
Then the cook-housemaid and
he colored woman. Prince? He had 7
,een bowling outside the house all the
ime-got shut out at night or some
hing of that sort.
"Well, we've got EN- all out" said .
IRE Chief Ashley. :
"Wasn't there a kidY' asked one of
he iremen.
"Sure there's a kid-a little girl"
'clled twenty voices. t
Little Agnes slept In a small room \
her mothers and the nurses, F
in the excitement it had escaped {
office.
A pair of fremen went swarming up
he ladder. There came a gush of pois- h
ned air from the burning chemicals. s
me toppled head backward down the a
adder and fell into the street, break c
lg his arm. The other-just chung.
Prince dashed through the dining s
pom window as the frame caved in. 4
robody saw this, but a ONE or p
later the dog appeared at the win a
DIV of little Agnes room, immediate :,
above the half-unconscious Agnes. n
In his mouth was-the little girl?
No, the rag doll q
Well, / might as we'll end here. He q
ad left the child and snatched the rag p
oil from beside her head upon the =,
illow. The fireman got the child out i
right. But the colonel had Prince ~
lot. I don't know that he was wrong,
Their. A dogs got to be just right =
ff