THE WRONG CATS

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1687, 17 November 1925, Page 2

THE WRONG CATS

; Men of letters have been apt to like cats. However diverse tlieir habits, their methods, their principles, the irritable literary tribe agree in cherishing Atossa and Selima and Hodge, says the Daily Telegraph. Johnson and Swinburne, Southey and Pierre Loti, all manner of other incompatible creatures, are in this of one mind. But M. Pierre Benoit has them all beaten. We never heard of anyone like him, except the man of seven wives, who was met on the road to St. Ives, and he surely must have been a professional. About the sweet home of M. Pierre Benoit 24 cats roamed; around the domestic hearth of M. Benoit 24 cats purred. Then he retired to the Near East, at the which let no man wonder. But having a kind heart he provided a home for his two dozen cats. A lady of his acquaintance, a lady whose heart was even kinderfar, far kinder —than his, took in the whole '24. To the Near East AI. Benoit

went, and, which is much more remarkable, from the Near East he did come back. At some period between her reception of the cats and this present date his friendship with the lady was shattered. There is often difficulty in giving a precise date for these tragedies. Exactly when a man discovered the little more and how much it is or the little less and what worlds away none of the parties to the transaction may be in a condition to decide impartially. But in this case there were obviously at least 24 causes of difference. M. Benoit asked for his cats again, and cats, 24 in number, the lady sent. M. Benoit surveyed them with an affectionate eye, in which little by little the light of criticism began to gleam. These cats, he now testifies, are not the right cats, not the cats of his affections, but base imposters. The end, we are told, is not yet, and it would ill become us to express any opinion upon the authenticity of the returned cats now subjudice. But, in any event, our sympathies are .with the lady. We cannot think that any man has a right to impose such tests upon friendship. Nor can we acquit M. Benoit of a certain ostentation, a lack of the finer feelings. Does he suppose that any of the great men who have loved and honoured cats would have dreamed of keeping 24 at once? No cat, he should have learnt long before this, wants to be one of 24.