LORD ROBERTS AND CATS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9523, 3 September 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

LORD ROBERTS AND CATS.

Everyone in India knows (saye. "Pen" writing in the Times of India) that the only living thing able to inspire the present illustrious head of the Indian army with terror is the tame or domestic cat; Lord Roberts is unable to be in the same room with a. cat.without undergoing severe physical discomfort. I remember an A.D.C. telling me a curious instance of this. The Commander-in-Chief was on tour, and was putting up with the general officer commanding a division for a day or two. The general had a cat, and the chief's A.D.C. impressed upon the general's A.D.C. the imperative necessity of having this cat removed or carefully secured during the chief's stay. "All right," said the general's A.D.C., " I live in a detached bungalow in the compound, and the beast shall be tied up in my room until our visitors have gone." So said, so done, and all went well until the night before the Com-mander-in-Chief's departure. But at dinner on that night, as the two A.D.C.'s were sitting at the end of bke table together, he of the headquarter staff said suddenly, "By Jove, that cat of yours hasn't got loose, has it?" "No," said the other, "it's tied up safe enough, but why ?" " I'm sure there's a cat in the room," said the first, "look at the chief. He's got quite pale. For goodness' sake see if that cat is not somewhere about." So the General's A.D.C. looked about, and sure enough found the house cat had got loose, and having stolen into the dining room, had curled ibself up under his chair. He made a grab at it, and conveyed it away as quie:ly and swiftly as possible. As soon as the animal was out of the room the chief recovered his usual serenity and was able to go on with his dinner. Everybody knows, or has heard of, cases of this sort, but who is able to explain them ? —','M.D.," writing from the Grosvenor Club to the St. James' Gazette, says the foregoing story is not difficult to explain. "It is well known that the smell peculiar to the cat causes asthmatic attacks in certain predisposed persons. Lord Koberts is probably one of them, and ' get>> quite pale' when he feels the preliminary symptoms of such an attack coming on. His anxiety to get rid of the existing cause of such an attack appears, therefore, perfectly natural."