A SAGACIOUS ST. BERNARD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 570, 24 May 1913, Page 3

A SAGACIOUS ST. BERNARD.

Quite a good many stories have been written on the sagacity of the St. Bernard dogs, says the Dominion, and at one time this sort of Btory used to figure largely in the school books. Such stories were no doubt taken cum grano salis by older people but truth is at least as strange as fiction and a dog of this breed probably saved the lives of several people at the tragic Wellington fire a week or so ago. The facts are attested both by those whose lives were saved and by the police. The house adjoining that in which Mr and Mrs Hall lost their lives was occupied by Mr J. Carruthers and his wife and family. All the inmates were soundly asleep at the time but as their house gradually filled with thick pungent smoke a St. Bernard dog which was in the kitchen downstairs apparently "sized up" the dangerous situation. The dog made his way upstairs pushed open the bedroom door and barking louciiy first beat on the bed with his paws and then seizing the bed clothes tore them off and followed this up by endeavouring to drag the inmates out of bed. When Mr Carruthers was awakened he saw, all too plainly, that a volume of flame was coming in at the open window, and the whole corner of the room had caught and was blazing fiercely. The dog, however, considered that he had not yet finished his mission, and seeing his master awake, he made off to the next room, pnd when Mr Carruthsra entered it the dog was found endeavoring to get the children out of bed.

In the opinion of the police, who arrived about this time, if another two minutes had elapsed all the occupants in this house would probably have suffered by suffocation. At soon as the outer door was opened the big St. Bernard showed 1 himself plainly concerned about the house in which a'tragedy was actually happening. He ran down the street several times, and barking, as if to give the alarm, and always returning to beat at the walls of the burning houses. No one seems to have suspected that anyone was inside, but the dog knew better.