Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 239, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1915 — Companionable [ARTICLE]

Companionable

l ' "There is no use denying it, all animals crave and desire human companionship!” said Muschler. "There is something pathetic about ft,-too. "Every time I see a dog or a cat being chased home by a bunch of kids I feel sorry for the creature. The poor thing is all affection and wants to be with the bunch. He thinks he belongs with them. But it is ‘Go home, Jack!* to the dog, /Go home, sir!* usually emphasized with stones and sticks.” “Yes,” answered Filbert, “but dogs and cats are always more insistent when it is some place where you can’t possibly take them. Suppose we all took our dogs and cats with us whereever wd went. Wouldn’t this be a fierce world? How would you ever hear the preacher's sermon? If we all took our pets with us the dentist's office would be so full of fur and feathers that we wouldn't be able to see.” “Fur, but not feathers.” “Yes, feathers. Birds and fowls are just as affectionate as dogs and ' cats,, but they don’t get much of a show. "Consider the chicken. The chicken Is very fond if human companionship. The hen Will come right into the midst of the family if she gets the chance- It is her instinct to do so. There is something that draws her. r "We are presented with a hen once and we put her In an improvised box to keep her until Sunday, when we were to have her for dinner. We had a number of guests at the house that I very day. | “But there -was no way of keeping that hen in the coop. She got out in spite of all we could do. She got out and came strolling into the livingroom with her head on one side, as much as to say: *Having quite a little confab In here, I see! I guess I'll join you. I suppose that since I have arrived the party/ is complete.* “Then we all chased the chicken.” “Guests, too?” "Why, yes. We explained to the guests that the chicken was for dinner Sunday, and you bet they helped chase their’dinner. They were interested in seeing her captured. The hen enjoyed the tittle game of tag very much. "The hen, having been driven out of the house, went under it. And there she stayed. There were no guests thin enough to crawl under after her. Some boys came along after a while and drove her still farther under the house. Finally one boy crawled under after her and shot her with my revolver. "The guests were sitting around the dining-room fire talking about bombs when the boy fired on the hen right under, them. Two fainted and three dislocated themselves when the explosion occurred. •That hen had gotten under the din-ing-room, where she could hear the conversation and participate in it. That’s how I happen to know - that birds love human companionship.”

A Very Thin Man. "The leanest man I ever knew,* T. A. McNeal quotes Abe Petersassay-fng,-"used tn live down on Owl creek. He was a tall man, and I suppose that her hadn’t always been so lean. The "feet was that he had had the ague right along for fifteen years when I “ first met him- He had a chill regularly every afternoon at 4:15 o’clock. It got so that the people In that neigh- : borhood would set their clocks and watches by Link Bitter’s chill. If the town ‘clock said 4:05 o’clock when ’ T.ink’s chin commenced, the janitor Of the building would hurry up to the tower afid turn the hands on ten mln* files. "Link was so lean that its bones rattled when he had a chin so that you could hear them for quite a dis* tance. He got enough control of his frame after a while so that he could make his bones play a tune while he was chilling.. He said that ft sort of Kept his mind off the ague and reconciled him to his fate. Link was originally a large-framed man, and when he got so poor he had enough skin to cover two men. like him. This enabled him to perform some curious feats. For Instance, he could turn around In his skin, and while he was facing one way, In feet he seemed to be feeing the other way. "At one time Link took sick and had to be fed by. a nurse. The nurse was a trifle nearsighted, and during the first two days she waited on him she poured the medicine and food into a ■wrinkle In W face, under the Impression that it was his mouth. As Link had no appetite, anyway, and didn’t care to take medicine, he made no objections.*

A commercial traveler had-taken a ■ large order up in Aberdeen and endeavored to Impress upon the canny Scottish manager who had given the order a box of Havana cigars. "Naw," he replied. Don’t try to bribe a man. I cudna tak them—and I am- a wismtor of tha kirk!* \ "But wfll you accept them as *preeentr •T endna," said the Scot. • •Wen, then,* said the traveler, pose I sen you the cigars for a merely nomfna!sum—cay sixpence?* •Weal, in that case,* replied the Scot, “since m prmsmetand not Hking tee retuse am offer weel meant, rthfttk m be taking two bcanfe*’* „ • _ _ • . ——