Year: 1863

carts unu uOSS, inc iuttcr HolulnB tnt
supremacy. We cannot now state the
exact number of the population O.
Detroit in those days, when mud was
its chief feature, but il all the dogs
had been regularly recorded in the
census rolls, they certainly would have
constituted, as far as numbers were
concerned, very respectable repre-
sentation. Some people love dogs,
and we suppose there is no law for
bidding the exercise of that passion
Our fancy, however, never run to dogs,
and we remember looking over that
particular assemblage ofmangy,wolhsh
ours with especial disgust, and Won
dered why there was not law pre-
venting any one man from owning
more than six or seven at the outside
Our opinion of that portion. of the
"city of the straits" did not improve
upon acquaintance. We took up lodg-
ings with "Uncle Ben" and when
night came sought rest and repose
upon one of his sumptuous beds OF
bull-frog clover, used in those days OF
primitive splendor, instead of feather
beds. Gorgeous dreams of storm and
shipwreck gilded the hour of our sleep,
and the ecstasy of fancy was our only
worldly possession. But there was an
interruption to our vision, and instead
of the whistling Of the winds and
rolling Of the white-crested waves,
there was the most informal yelling of
10 ond cnrs ever heard this
side of the kennel of Cerberus. AS
we said before, some people like dogs.
and there is no law to the contrary
Some people also love to sleep. and
we know Of nc law against that,
either. These are matters of taste, in
which everybody has right to indulge
without responsibility to anybody, and
if, after a perilous and sea-sick voy-
rye, we were inclined to sleep some
fifteen minutes, we take it that the
Frenchmen Of Detroit had no right
to let loose upon us an entire battalion
of dogs, and set them executing the
scale from G flat to A sharp, in one
eternal discord under our window
We believed then, and we think to
this day, that we could sustain an ac-
ton against those SAME dog ov,nelo e.
a violation of our vested rights. We
cannot now refer to the exact section
of the statute, nor to the precise pass
sage of the learned concentrates upon
the common law forbidding these noe
turnal outrages, nor do we believe
that we are bound to grope our way
among the ruins of antiquity, or Stun
bic over obsolete statutes, or delve
among ponderous tones of black-letteT
law, for principles written in living
letters upon the heart Of every mar.
We do not even care whether it is II
any book at all f; for if it is not there
it is a part of the Ler non scrIpto, ard
the sooner these dog -worshippers find
it out, the better for their NANCY Guns
We gained perfect hatred that night
of an ola bulldog with ON undor Jaw
like n shovel-plow and tail like ar
immense Bologna sausage, red eyes
ane pug nose. His voice was very
much as musical as the unearthly
screachings of an ungN eased Wagon
wheeb and whenever any other dog
struck UP, this old bcggar event in,
without reference to pitch, tune
unison or harmony. 1t is possible fol
some poetical or dog-worshipping in
dividual to fancy there is music in ;
concert of dogs at midnight, but w
speak from authority, there is no sucl
paradox in nature. Give us rathe
the scream of n steam whistle, th'
roar of an escape pipe, the filing OF
great saw, or the incessant rattle of |
boiler-shop.


Th"t night we hoard the clock strik,
eleven, twelve, one, two, and ever
three, at intervals in the performance
of those ID dogs, and were tempt
ed, even in those our tender years, t


use terms not found in any orthodo,


religious work, or any standard ser


mons of tho day; but our Christian


forbearance was equal to the emer


gency, and without even saying dis


respectful word to any one, we foun'


ourself at daylight loaded into lum


Der wagon and starting for the forest


through mud deeper and thicker thai


words can tell or credulity believe
An all-day's journey over " turn


pilc,"-this swamp-hole of mud, logs


water and wrecked wagons was digni


fed by that name - accomplished til


remarkable distance of eighteen miles


We have since been over the sam


ground by railroad at about the sam


speed, but never in such wretche


frame of mind as we experienced afte


our first night in Detroit.