Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1899 — FRENCHMEN'S PETS. [ARTICLE]

FRENCHMEN'S PETS.

Love of Aalauls Shown by Some Febom litterateurs. A new journal, IT Ami des Betes, has appeared in Paris, says tho London News. The “editress,” Mile. Neyrat, has been assured of the good will and sympathy of a number of academicians. literary Frenchmen are very much in touch, I have often noticed, with animals. Scientific Frenchmen rarely are. I can remember Lamartine and his dogs. He said of them: “They are at once my bodyguard and my friends. They read my thoughts and conduct themselves accordingly.” I also recollect Michelet and his white Angora cat. This beautiful creature twisted round his neck like a boa and kept it warm in winter. When in cold weather he walked out he kept his hands in the wide sleeves of his overcoat, as in a muff. The cat was rolled up in them. George Sand loved birds, but she did not seem to care for domestic animals. Old Dumas was the friend of all animals that would respond to hi© friendship, and especially pf dogs. He had some seagulls that really stood high in the intellectual scale. Renan did not care for dogs, unless for a darling poodle of his wife’s, but he was devoted to cats, which he thought the best models of deportment. Dumas fils disliked the dog, but was full of admiration for the cat. Pierre Loti confesses friendship for his cats. They understand him, and he them. They are not intrusive or awkward or in their ways, and are most at home in a snugly luxurious Ealon. M. Mezieres inherits nothing less than a passion for cats from father, mother and his four grandparents. His mother used to converse with her cats, and they understood her. Marshal Conrobert was extremely Eenative to the graceful ways of his cats, and thought the kitten the most charming creature alive. M. Coppee prefers cats to dogs. They are more discreet, and he finds they are just as friendly if well treated. But the cat will not caress the person who uses it rudely and stands aloof. Is it not right? M. Coppee’s actual pet cat is a young Angora, that sits motionless on his deck when he writes. Were he to go on writing for hours, there it would stay. It walks among his scattered sheets of manuscript, never disturbing them, and does not set its paws down on writing that is not dry. M. Lavisse has subscribed to L’Ami des Betes. He see? in animals “une vague humanite.”' They have sensibilities and they suffer like human beings, and he thinks they have a right to be tended in their evil days by the sister of charitv.