Evening star., 1925-01-13
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| breadth Of the United States, judging
from my array of cat Christmas
cards. Unfortunately, / now live in
| an apartment where ! cannot have a
cat, but / have a wonderful one which
an aunt of mine is keeping for me,
in Harrisburg. AS could go on
and one for pages about him. I will
stop now,"
f. c.. writes, with enthusiasm:
Hail to the cat! adorable, pitiful,
graceful and noble. Soulless the
person who cannot be fond of them.
1t is impossible to understand how
any of Gods creatures can be
| despised, but least of all the cat
the poor. shivering alley cat, who is
so purringly grateful for a gentle
stroke, the splendid house pet, who
seeks your lap and licks your hand
while he claws SO funnily at your
| dress Cor trousers, as the gender may
be), proclaiming affection better than
any human words could do.
suppose some few do prove indif-
ferent. there are probably good rea-
son for it. Maybe they've been
taught to understand blows rather
than caresseS or satiated by the
rough fondlings of well meaning
children. And these people that pro-
Tess to dislike cats because they
we couldn't love anything that didn't
love us our hearts would atrophy
early. For me, no appoint-
ment has ever been to urgent, no
dress too new, no street too dusty,
to keep me from stopping to stroke
any little stray that happened to
be along my way, and I've never
found an unresponsive one yet l
hope you keep writing articles by,
for and of the cats till doomsday.
Good luck to you, and that one Of
yours-may he drink milk and grow
fat for years to comet"
These selected letters from the
unmber / have received ought to con-
vince any one that the cat has his
friends as well as the dog. The cat
fanciers are harder to arouse, that
is all.
Let there be an instance of cruelty
against the faithful dog, men and
women run to its defense. Vivisec-
tion has been fought for years by
Life and other publications, and in
this city scores of earnest persons
stand firm against this misuse of
science.
The friends of cats, however, privi-
legged to intimately know and appre-
ciate quiet, dignified animal, have
taken on some OF the characteristics
or the creature. Ordinarily they re-
fuse to get excited over slurs at their
friends. Because one calls diamond
pebble makes it no whit less a
diamond. The gem may be covered
with mud, but beneath the dirt IL
blows and vibrates with life.
When the friends of cats do con-
descend to notice the sings and ar
rows of the enemy. they do it in a
calm, happy way, as shown in the
above letters. They do not descend
to invective in their turn, but simply
content themselves with pointing out
| what they know.
One most interesting thing that has
struck me in all these letters is the
| use of who" instead of which" Per
sonally, / always have preferred and
| used the pronoun who" when speak
ing or writing of dogs or cats. The
grammars may say which" is cor
| rect, when speaking of animals, but
who cares for grammars? Usage is
what makes correctness, and wher
cultured persons, such as the above
correspondents, invariably use who,
| then that pronoun is correct. In hi.
monumental book on the cat, ""Tht
| Tiger in the House. Mr.. Van vechter
| always uses who"
| Yes, In thousands of homes the ca
holds its place by the family fireside
or, lacking that, the living room
| radiator. 1t needs no defense-ant
yet l am happy to have turned ou
| so much defense for it.
l love the cat because II gives m,
| opportunity daily to be a friend t.
| something that for thousands O.
years has been true to us-and t
itself.