DIAMONDS FOR DOGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7929, 12 October 1911, Page 8

DIAMONDS FOR DOGS

Tho "idle rich” of Chicago (says tht Now York correspondent of the "Daily Mail") have been made the subject of a diatribe in the United States House of Representatives by Mr H. Robert Fowler, an Illinois member of Congress. Amid A;he boisterous laughter of his fellowmembers, Mr Fowler invited the House to consider the decadent condition of Chicago, the “home of the Steel Trust, Pullman Car Company, Lumber Trust and other grinding monopolies, as well as of the idle rich." Mr Fowler proceeded to edify the House with a vivid description of a birthday party he had recently attended in South Chicago. He declared that of all of the idle rich there present not one of them had a baby to show, but "each of them, however, had a dog. The borthday party was, in fact, given to a dog, and the dogs of the idle rich ha dall been invited. They had been trained to walk on their hind legs, and were dresed like men and women. The dog whose birthday was being celebrated wore a long train, and a big white duck, taught to act as page, held the train. A procession, was formed in pairs in mimicry of men and women, but someone disgusted at the spectacle threw a, handful of maize before the duck, which immediatelv dropped the train and disarranged the whole of the programme. la the confusion one of the dogs tripped and 10-t a .£IO,OOO diamond anklet, which became mixed with the maize which the duck was eating. Another dog, forgetting his hobble skirt, fell sprawling, while tho duck ffew away with the diamond anklet to a quiet resting place in Lake Calumet."