People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — Dog Tags In Vienna. [ARTICLE]

Dog Tags In Vienna.

Vienna papers have been publishing some details of the dog registration system for the past year. The municipality of Vienna has some 36,000 of numbered medallions in store, and the total income accruing from the same amounts to $65,500. As each mark costs $2—32,750 dogs pay this tax in a year. The government takes its clippings and the residue goes to the poor. But law and fashion in Vienna allow the citizen to choose his own number, if that number is free, and of course some ciphers are the favorites —13 is avoided and No. 1 is in fierce demand. It is generally bespoken years before the death of the happy hound —or his master. Otlier numbers coincide with houses, dates, regiments, the age of one’s tailor bill, etc., and would *etch a fancy price from wealthy purchasers if the system so allowed, and it is suggested that the poor box should be enriched by this change. One popular Hofrath has two numbers, one for his own dog and one for his wife’s. The first number he holds on lease, it remains fixed at 39, the other is considerably in advance and changes with the year. The first he gives as his own age, and the becond as his wife’s and, to the indignation of the lady, the latter is true.