Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-02
THIS AND THAT
ny CHARLES +. TRACEW ELL.

/ been done In the case of monkeys
! with much profit.
LAS a beginning, would suggest
taking up the common word meou
with view to discovering It's various
forms and shades OF meaning. Kit
uses 'ee.ow' with rising infection for
please and a.a-a.ow with more
complicated infection for hurry! wait
on me" Wonder IL Jack Spratt uses
any Of these words? Like human
beings. some cats are very laxative,
and others usually silent. Perhaps
Jack Spratt, heing philosopher. 10
neither, but has a limited and force
full vocabulary of his own.
EDNA BARTLETT.
There was at one time. and there
may he vet a dog In Washington who
pronounced the ns.me Alex" as plain
~ az could he. This, OF course. was
merely a. freak bark. but it always
proved OF great interest to those who
heard him.
The idea Of teaching the animals to
speak our language has existed side
by side with the attempt to under
stand theirs. for, viewed in its eie-
mental form, ell speech Is merely
sound.
Mankind has simply orga nized it's
noises Hence we have language.
Whether the various sounds normally
made by animals may he entitled to
the dignity OF the word is aside the
point.
Undoubtedly they do, in any given
tribe, say" much the same thing In
the same way when they are aroused
by the same emotion.
Their cries are reflex actions and.
since they are wonderfully alike. each
cry will practically resemble every
other one made under the same con-
ditions. The result has been that
each race of animals has come TO
know, after many centuries, just
what a certain cry means. II this Is
not talking, 1t comes precious near
to it.
Owing to it's more adaptive ways, the
dog might be expected to have a more
complete voca bulary than the more re-
served cat, but common experience
teaches us that it is just the other
way around.
This is all the more strange in the
face of the fact that the dog more
easily understa nds his human friends.
and may be taught 10 tricks to
the cats /.
The dog has shared mans home and
hunt for thousands OF years, yet con-
fines his voca liza tons TO hoarse bark
slightly varied from time to time. a
mournful howl and a pitiful whine.
The cat, a. our correspondent points
out, has many sorts of sounds in it's
repertoire. Months ago, in this col.
umn, we gave In detail the IA varia.
tions Of "the cats meow" az we had
heard them from the mouth of Jack
Spratt. alley cat. Ii In safe to say
that there are many more OF them,
and each one has many forms. A cat
is forever surprising his friends with
some unexpected sound. The queer
part of 1t In that one always has the
feeling that these sounds are, in truth,
attempts on the cats part to say some
thing. We hear our dog bark, and we
declare, ooh, he's just barking about
something" but when old Tom
meows on the back porch we say,
Tom wants inN' Or 1t may be an I'M
expected cry from another room. Then
no one says, 'Oh, old Tom In just
meowing about something!" All his
friends In hearing wonder immediate.
ly what he Is up to-" and some one
is, sure to say, You had better go
see II Tom Is all right"
The cats meow" strikes every one
as an attempt to talk. And this much
granted. each sound must be called d
word. Certainly there in a. real oppor.
tunity here for some scientist who
will make study OF cat talk. and
who will show us the way to con.
verse more Familiarity with our furry
friends.