Year: 1874

lhe pound -1naSler pictu Will unAiety tne


floor of his wooden shanty in West Thirty


seventh street yesterday. The city ordinance


required that dogsin the pound shall be kept


forty-eight hours. and, unless reclaimed


then, shall be asphyAiated. The dogs had


already been under cover for nearly three


DAYS. and the pound haster yearned for


their summary disposal But the gas hadn't


come and that was the all-important adjunct


for such disposition. The animals howled


and whined and slept the time away. The


dogs were nearly all small ones, and, with


the exception of two Skye terriers, were


mongrel ours A few of the animals looked


neat and clean, as though priorly they were


inmates of houses where they got enough to


eat and received some attention. Others,


and they were the majority, were evidently


the rag-tag of the dog population, and seem


ed for all the world to be the outcasts of


genteel dog society. Once ina while lady


or gentleman would come to look for a


lost dog. The pound master determined at


any rate to get rid of his stock of dogs before


Sunday morning, as other stray dogs claim


ed attention. At last, late hour in the
afternoon Yesterday, neat machine, furnish


ed by the Babcock Manufacturing Company,


a large warehouse engine arrived in front of


the pound and was at once hauled in to do


the work designed. As soon as it WAS drag


ged in and placed in position, the dogs, one
and all, set upa howl that made terrible


din. The whine seemed so piteous that the
spectator thought the natural sagacity Of the
dogs had not deserted them, and that they


recognized the work that the engine was to
do. 1t was n difficult job to quiet the dogs.


The apparatus or tank in which the dogs


were placed was largc-looking box, and
made, it was supposed perfectly airtight.-


Ii was eighteen feet in length, six and one
half feet in breadth, and about three feet in


height. There was an opening at the top,
into which the dogs were thrown, irrespec-


tive of pedigree or former habits or style of
living. They We're bundled in, some strug


Cling hard 10 escape, Others submitting
without struggle TO their fate At last
nincty-two animals had been thrown in and
the machine was made ready. The pure
carbonic acid gas was manufactured on the
spot and instantancously. \ crank on the
engine was turned and the gas could be
heard whzzing into the interior of the box.
Then began struggle inside. The animals
tumhled over one another. but beyond this
rumhling sound and the whineS and howls
of the dogs still in the pound. there were no
other sounds. The important discovery was
then made that the box was in fact not only
not air-tight but the Gas was rushing out
nearly a. fast as it was forced in. Three
minutes had elapsed after the first stream
was first put on, when the struggling within
the box ceased, and one minute afterwards
the ga~ was S:oppcd and the hose withdrawn.
I'm examination into the interior OF the box
disclosed the fact that the poor hruteS We're
not then dead. bat were still sasping, and,
it being feared tha, the fresh air might re
yiyc them, it was determined 10 give them
another dose of gas This was done, and
the stream once more forced in to asphyxiatc
the dogs captured under the Morris orli-
nance. After PLAYING upon them for some
time longer Il cart was backed into the
pound, and into it the dogs We're dumped.
1t proceeded on it, WAY. with the load
driven hv qucer-looking individual. When
near the conner of Elyenth avenue the driy-
er heard yelT~ behind him, and with 4 yell
like Modoc chief ON the war-path he made
Il leap 10 the street, followed 10y some ot the
dogs whom the mania ordinance had failed !
to kill. II was an easy matter TO recapture
the animals. a. they were weak and exhaust
ed, and they were hauled hack to the pound.
They were replaced in the box, and then the
rest of the dogs, 20 the number of seventy, |
making in all some one hundred and sixty
animals to be asphyxiated. Meanwhile more |
Sulphuric acid had been sent for, and after
stopping up the aperture through which the |
gas had previously escaped the steam was
turned On, and after the lapse of half hour
the dos~ had suffered the penalty of capture |
in strict accord with the death warrant con
tained in the Morris ordinance. The pound |
was thus cleared ofall the captured dogs ex-
cept one ON which depo~it hal been made |
hv the owner L. reclaim him.