Evening star., 1924-05-11
Heard and Seen

Somebody said recently that the
cat is a wild, savage, untamed ami
NAL" he said.
81 hereby rise in defense of feIis
domesticus- Whatever faults he has
were implanted in him by a power
higher than himself, and for them ne
deserves no blame.
"As I sat with Tom on my lap, rest
ing in peace and contentment, loud
purring issuing from his throat. /
wondered where on earth one could
get the idea that the cat is an utter
ly untamed creature.
"It is true that the cat retains his
freedom. Your faithful dog is per
fectly willing to grovel at your feet
Not so, your cat. He is faithful,
rather, to the age-old instincts of
freedom planted in him in the be-
ginning.
Il can show you a learned article
in which an eminent professor sug-
gests that the cat might rightfully be
taken as the symbol of America, on
account of its passion for liberty.
"Does that sound pretty strong?
"All you have to do to verify it is
to get cat, and observe its ways It
will submit to nothing that strik es
it as coercion. When you attempt to
make it captive, it runs away.
Hold the creature easily, and it
will submit, but put too much pres
sure on it, and it will hop out of
your lap and away. The very first
-
and shackles are not for the cat.
You can put it in a bag, but it will
not accept it gracefully When you
let it out, it will not be grateful,
either. Probably Tom will hiss at
you.
good sort of wildneSS- / am sure if
somebody put me in bag I would
be indignant, and so would you. Then
why blame the cat?
"The trouble with most persons
who inveigh against the cat is that
they are unwilling to treat the ami
NAL with the respect due everything
turned out by the Master Craftsman.
Il look upon all animals as the
people that God forgot
ITO me they are in a sense human,
as we are; strangely different, it is
true. but mostly in respect to voice.
They have never been granted the
ability to turn their noises into
words, and to think in continued
infant of the poet, they have no
language, but cry.
"Those who understand the cat
often regret that Tom is not possessed
of the faculty of speech
to1o ha
"Your honest Tom, sitting so
smugly on the hearth, might astonish
you with a greater philosophy than
human mind has ever conceived,
could he suddenly be gifted with the
power of expression.
"I would not put it beyond that
wise fireside sphinx. He has the lore
of the great ancestral streams be-
hind those outstanding ears. In his
veins flows pure blood, carefully
tended and watched after by the
do, if he and his kind could talk.
They might put on trousers, like the
animals in the funny pictures, and
come out smoking pipes, but L doubt
it 1 give them credit for too much
sense.
r ~To me the cat is not sneaking
animal, as he is often called, but one
acting as nature intended him to act.
"I have no sympathy with those
who want a cat to act like dog,
who jump on a feline because his
ways are not canine.
"When / see cat stalking bird,
I cannot find it in my heart to chide
the cat for going through the appro-
pirate motions which his makeup
impels him to.
"When he crouches for the spring.
I see not a savage animal, or wild
thing, but a cat stalking bird.
This is case, to use Mr.. Words
Worth's expression, where prim-
rose on the rivers prim is a prim-
rose, and nothing more to me.
"Give the cat the power of speech.
put him through the same evolu-
tionary tracks as that followed by
man, give him thousands of years of
his new powers, then he might be-
come civilized, gentle and tame, like
man-and start world war of cats.
CHARLES e. TRACEWELL.