Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1884 — The Peculiarities of Dogs. [ARTICLE]

The Peculiarities of Dogs.

The fashion which cites the dog as a better species of human being, and depreciates men as if they were dogs gone wrong, is? as an English author calls it k ’’Unnatural History.” Dogs, he says, are no better than men, and but for man would have been much worse than they are. They are very like men in their exhibition of the lower passions, such as auger, jealousy, fear and vanity. 1 A bull terrier, for instance, used to express its anger in accordance with the human precept. “When the boy hits yon, hit the post.” If a beggar came to the door, the terrier was frantic. Being restrained from flying at the pool' man, he would rush out, as soon as released, and attack the gardner. At other times the gardner and ths terrier were excellent friends, but the dog, when angry, seemed influenced by the same nature as leads the husband to grumble at his wife’s cap, because the morning news is disagreeable. A dog was jealous of another pet. In the course of tinfe, the pet died, was stuffed and placed in a glass case. Whenever the dog’s attention was drawn to his stuffed rival gazing at him with glassy eyes, he always snarled. A bull-terrier was a whimsical coward. He was ready to fight anything but an Indian-rubber cushion. When that was filled or emptied of air in his presence, he would go into paroxysms of hysterical screaming. The garden-hose filled him with such terror that he could never be coaked into the garden when it was used, nob would he enter the room where it was kept. An old setter once displayed such vanity that it was i immediately seized upon to compel hipi to obedience. He would follow the ipembers of thb family, whenever they went out, no matter how troublesome Ms presence might be. One day the children tied a ribbonbow on the tip of the dog’s tail. Everybody laughed at his comical appearance, which so mortified the poor setter that he retired under the sofa, and sulked for an hour. The next day the family were going io a croquet party, and the dog seemed bent on accompanying them. It occurred to one of the young ladies to try the effect of--a ribbon-bow. It was tied on his tail, and immediately he rushed into the house, and hid under the sofa. When.they returned, he was on the doorstep, sitting on his haunches as if concealing something, and refrained even from wagging his tail, lest the hated bow should be seen. A writer illustrating the fact that the dog is one of man’s noblest servants and one of his chiefest triumphs, says; “In the beginning Allah created man, and seeing what a helpless creature he was, He gave him a dog. And Hd charged the dog that he should be the eyes and the ears, the understanding and the legs, of the man,” It is stated that specialism is now carried to such an extent in London, as to loYber the usefulness of the medical profession. It is, however, a matter of argument. The development of specialism is possibly due to a reaction against the former theory that the physician should know everything thoroughly.—The Current.