158 



THE AQUARIUM, JANUARY, 1895. 



©rift ^ocd 



LOA^E ME, LOVE MY DOG. 



"Love me, love my dog," is exemplified iu 

 more instances than one, and it regained for 

 <me of the thousands of homeless wanderers in 

 the streets of Chicago to furnish the latest 

 illustration. He was ill clad and had a half- 

 starved look as he stepped up to Desk Ser- 

 jeant Ed. Perry. Following close at his heels 

 was a dog, somewhat sorrier looking for a 

 blocked tail, a few bare spots on his coat, and 

 one ear up more than the other. One of his 

 ■eyes was riveted on a reporter for the Evening 

 Journal, who was present to pick up any little 

 police news, hut who, instead, had his eye 

 opened to true humanity iu the rough looking 

 specimen before him, and instead of securing 

 a blood-curdling murder news item, he re- 

 counted for his paper the follcnving touching 

 episode : 



" Scab and me wants a place to sleep ! " 



" All right," said the Sergeant, " get down 

 stairs, quick." 



The face of the wayfarer brightened. 



"My name's Dick Dunn," he said, "and 

 I'm on a tramp from Laporte to Oshkosh. 

 I'm dead broke, and it's mighty good in you 

 in giving us a place to sleep." 



As he spoke he stooped down and picked 

 up the bobtailed dog. At the same moment 

 the Sergeant caught sight of the cur. 



" What are you going to do with that dog?" 

 he asked, 



" Well, Scab needs a night's shelter, just as 

 much as I do." 



" We can't house dogs," said the Sergeant, 

 decidedly. " You can staj% but you'll have 

 to throw the cur out." 



The face of the tramp was a study. 



"Why, say. Cap," he said, "Scab's been 

 my friend fur five years, and he walked all 

 the way from Laporte with me. You wouldn't 

 have me give him the go by would you ? " 



" I'm sorry," responded the Sergeant, " bvit 

 we can't have any dogs iu the station." 



Dunn looked down at the dog and gently 

 patted its head. 



" It's a cold night. Scab,' he said, "a 

 mighty cold night, but where I go, you go 

 too, and if the police won't have you in the 

 station, they won't have me, either. We'll 



walk the streets all night before we part com- 

 pany." 



The dog seemed to comprehend and gave a 

 low bark, and without another word the man 

 and cur went out. Efforts to get shelter for 

 himself and the dog at other stations failed, 

 and they spent the night in tlie streets. — 

 Amencan Field. 



Fish to Give Away. — Uncle Sam is hard 

 enough upon a good many of his working 

 people, but he is generosity itself when it 

 comes to givine away books, flower seeds, 

 cuttings and goldfish. The Fish Commission 

 announced to-day that it had no more goldfish 

 to give away, and coupled its announcement 

 with the astonishing information that during 

 the past five years it had given away no fewer 

 than 20,000 goldfish. For several years the 

 goldfish depaitment of the commission has 

 absorbed more enei'g}' and cash than any other, 

 notwithstanding the fact that there is no law 

 requiring or authorizing the government to 

 stock the parlors of the people of this city with 

 goldfish. Congressmen started the business 

 by requesting the commission to send a globe 

 of fish to some of their friends, and as the 

 commission was always wanting an increased 

 appropriation, it complied with the demands. 

 Up to this lime, it is estimated by the ofiicials 

 thet nearly a third of the houses in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia have been supplied with 

 goldfish at the government's expense. 



There is a good deal of human nature in 

 fish commissioners, as in common people, and 

 they accomplish their ends by much the same 

 means, conciliating those through whom their 

 aid must come. If a scoring is due anywhere 

 it is to the congressmen who in a sense com- 

 pelled this work at the hands of the commis- 

 sion. The wrong lies in supplying the ricli, 

 who have the means to supply themselves, 

 unless the poor have equal privileges, and this 

 latter we think to be the case, to wit : That 

 any person could, on application, secure gold- 

 fish from the commission while the supply 

 lasted. 



This being true, we do not look upon the 

 money spent in this department as a waste. 

 We would like to see an aquarium of well- 

 selected small varieties of fish in every home 

 in the land. They are a source of refining 

 jjleasure, of thought, of study, of observation, 

 of education, to better the old and the young, 

 forming a constant object lesson in natural 

 history. Families that have not an aquarium 

 should strive to get one, and our national and 

 state fish commissions should encourage them 

 in this, making it easy for them to come into 

 possession of the varieties of fish necessary to 

 stock the aquarium. — 27if Chicago Herald, 

 Nov. 23. 



