IT DEPENDS ON THE DOG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12785, 31 October 1919, Page 6

IT DEPENDS ON THE DOG.

A 'MATTER'OF TASTE,' The iollomng sketch, by Dongles Malloch, appeared in the August ruuaber o{ ' Cartoons Magazine,” Chicago:— The little Maltese terrier that lives | next door may have something to do I with it. Nerve ? That pup comes over i ) into own back yard and barks at i | nie! Every morning, when I am sift-j ! mg ashes in winter or chasing chickens, I • ho conies strolling in through the back | got© and lets i ne know that he doesn’t, j approve of me. ‘•‘Bow-wow! Givrur!” he says, n/d l !! ndo I rstan(i d <>g language, met 1 i d °fj know j ust what that . U ‘ S ’ , ut I can tell by his expression oiitw 18 ““S 1 *? 5 dog-goned uncomplanentary If 1 throw anything barks a C hftloSS block T u t l tlle concrete SbfltV fow ( b 5 ' ” nti| i» Walter 1 Inline 1 <Un i'° R uth or him vo/ SOUj . l and th at my hitting ■film n»s nix nopulpTif \ i * ® days hp lJ‘ r And all those own v,l ?*, 1G u ? od to sit in ins me until II f f °!f at and hate would LtlL ha-S lls P ° int Wh ° r<! 1 over to' tell ®f fd m again, coming »eri g kia m ; 0 51,4 6^»f timi a sr vfi varion ■ i ogs at Wo« s Kveryoi l htf "hito n ° ds of - mv life ‘ .... ii. , 111 a "ohc a man gets poor S; w h a° 5 roS thomdf * ¥ j’V l ! 6 ’ ond Improbably pictiulel 1 ded hjm to complete the yJSw’\rLn, h ° Und dag - He was as c i as som ? newspapers, and as graceful as an intoxicated cow. I hard , hnrXTf an lntoxi cated cow and 1 ' ~lbuf I'°On e T er *0 have the pleasure out 1 imagine that a cow with n S S °nlf' l d i- Ci f ely reSem ble Sport in! his palmiest days. To begin with SfST* ]T matter wlh- £ wem front 1 l °£ s . a od his hind rp? nchrouiscd proiwrly. 2VS?? tm $ t “• *• ■*>«« SL w, i 6 direction. Sometimes nis Jimd legs started off merrilv at ten mdes an hour while his front leS were stopped down to 'two, which rally landed Sport on his ear. when Sif r U | d i?f Up Wi f an air, r ! li: lia d ban something to do with it. Ifcsceemsk) have been my fate to have been misjudged more or leas by dogs, r t sa J’> tmort was a hound dog, but I am not sure just what kind of a hound ho was Some said he was a bird hound, and some a rabbit hound and some a. squirrel hound, and some l\ de f[ houud - Personally I believe thah he was a food hound. There may liave been something the matter 'with his colour and his gait and his pen. sonat habits, but there was . nothin* l ' whatever the matter wit], bis appetite, ihere are certain restaurants that ad- . vertise that they are prepared to servo meals at all hours, and Sport was just as prepared to eat them. I cion t behove lie used to rest well when he slept, for fear he was overlooking an opportunity to eat I know he used to emit strange and odd noises, and I believe that he was pursued by a night mare thought that a meal was being served somewhere and he was missing It. _ And yet Sport was an ungrateful iiomic. I took him in, al thou sir we were utter strangers, and gave him a good home, Mid eleven meals a day, and no rewarded me. in true dog fashion. One day a man came along, who evidently knew even less about dogs than I did, and offered me twenty-five dollars for Sport. I was just cn the point of offering him twenty-five dollars to take Sport off my hands when he made his proposition, how twenty-five dollars meant a great deal to me in those days, a great deal; moro than it does now. In those days twenty-five dollar's would buy a suit of clothes, pay a month’s rent and leave something for a shirt. But now it will little moro than admit you to a shirt: I think twenty-five dollars meant more to mo in those days, too, because I used to see it more. Anyway, this philanthropic person said to me—l rer call his very words: ‘‘ Yep, I will give yuh twenty-five dollars for the dawg. I’ll the money from th’ old woman, if I ant lucky, and come around to-morrow and git him.” All that night I worried for fear the old woman would not come across with the money. I. hope it was not) wrong if I even sent up a little prayer that the old lady would be induced to loosen. And, I'll say this to her credit, though I never met her in mv life, she did. At ten o’clock the stranger came back with the twenty-fivo. And here came this other reason why I hate dogs. How did that hound dog reward me for all the tender care and soup-bones I had given him? Why, he up and died on mo during the night. He was that land of dog. I had requested that dog to die at many and various times, and each time he had refused me that accommodation. And now, when all I asked of him was to live, or at least to live until hj& had left the premises, he ups and dies. I hod kept nim alive six months for his benefit, and now he neglected to keep himself alive one night ■ for mine. I must admit that I wept when, I found that animn’ wrapped in the stillness of his last slumber. I was younger and weaker then —and I also needed* the money. It was really very little T had asked of him—to keep .himself alive' until he got outside the gate. But. ate, he passed the pearly one before he passed m y picket one—and I was out twenty-five dollars in consequence. I did not love Sport especially —but I have seldom been so saddened by such an event. ’How I wished that the noble animal might return to life, frisking about me as ho used to frisk, in order that I might frisk the stranger of his twenty-five dollars I I know of no other animal but a hound dog that would bo mean enough to be willing to die to von ott of twenty-five dollars, ' The terrier next door and the hound dog that died are two of . the reason,s» why I hate dogs. Of course there have been many others—both dogs and reasons. I have not always been what I am now. Once, long ago, I was a book-agent. Now, instead, of selling books from house to house X merely write them from hand to mouth. As j I say. I have not always been what I j am now. Once I was fairly prosperous. | In those days I' met many dogs*— j or, rather, perhaps I should say v , they j met me. Sometimes they met me at! the front gate, but often not until I j got around to the back door. But we j generally adjourned to the front gate j immediately, and I recall three or four I lucky days when I got there first. I don’t know, just what the breed of these dopes always was, but it was some sort of book-agent-eating; 'variety. It could scent a book-agent afar off. and I say this as 'a compliment to the dog, j and not by any manner of means as a ! slam : at the; agent. j Bat why need I say more about this ! episode in my episodic career ? Neel j, an ex-book-agent go into details and j ...explain why he hates dogs? Has he j not His noble scars, and are thev not enough? i■■, '' ■■ .