Indefinable Dislikes.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 6047, 12 September 1894, Page 4

Indefinable Dislikes.

" I suppose," said the man who limped, " that you hare all of you felt that sudden indefinable dislike to certain persons and things which I occasionally experience. I have had men tell me that on meeting other men they sometimes form an instantaneous prejudice and cannot rid themselves of it. I know it is so with me. Then there are inanimate objects that set my teeth on edge and make me feel as if I would not be thoroughly happy until I had kicked them to pieces. " I had an experience of this kind in a Wayne county village the other day, and I rather guess it cured me. At any rate, I shall not be so gay as I have been for a long time to come. As I was saying, I was down in a village in Wayne county. I had some business to do, and while I was waiting for my man to get ready to go to work with me I took a stroll around the town. I went up a very pretty residence street. Most of the fences were down and the lawns were smooth and well kept. I was carrying a heavy cane. As I passed in front of a particular handsome house I saw one of those aliened ornamental iron dogs on the lawn. Now, iron dogs are the least of my troubles usually, but this one was so abominably made that it caused me to shudder. There was nothing artistic about it. I stopped and looked it over, and wondered what kind of a man it could be who would disfigure so beautiful a lawn with such a travesty as that iron dog. Why, it looked more like a goat than a dog. " I strolled along, but I could not get my mind off that iron dog. It worried me; it made me nervous. After I had gone along three or four blocks, all the time thinking of the dog, I turned to come back. When T got in front of that lawn I glanced towards the dog, and there it sat in all its ugliness. Really, it was the worst imitation of a dog that I ever saw. Something compelled me to stop again, and I walked in towards it a few steps and looked it over again. There was no doubt about it. It set my teeth on edge, it was so badly done. I suppose you think that I was foolish to let so little a thing bother me, but really I could not help it. " I stood and lnnl;rd it over, all the time swearing at the execrable taste of its owner, and then, as if overcome by a sudden impulse, I shied my heavy cane at it, just to express my utter contempt." " Well," said the man in the light suit, 4 * is that all the story ?" "No," slowly replied the man who limped, " not quite. You see, the dog happened to be a live one and not iron at all. The consequence was that it chewed a pound or two of meat out of the calf of my leg before I could get away. Since then I have let inartistic things alone. I have also limped."