CRYSTAL PALACE CAT SHOW. 



generally they are driven about and ill-fed, and often ill- 

 used, simply for the reason that they are cats, and for no 

 other. Yet I feel a great pleasure in telling you the show 

 would have been much larger were it not for the difficulty 

 of inducing the owners to send their pets from home, though 

 you see the great care that is taken of them." "Well, I had 

 no idea there was such a variety of form, size, and colour," 

 said my friend, and departed. A few months after, I called 

 on him ; he was at luncheon, with two cats on a chair 

 beside him— pets I should say, from their appearance. 



This is not a solitary instance of the good of the first 

 Cat Show in leading up to the observation of, and kindly 

 feeling for, the domestic cat. Since then, throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land there have been Cat Shows, 

 and much interest is taken in them by all classes of the 

 community, so much so that large prices have been paid 

 for handsome specimens. It is to be hoped that by these 

 shows the too often despised cat will meet with the attention 

 and kind treatment that every dumb animal should have 

 and ought to receive at the hands of humanity. Even the 

 few instances of the shows generating a love for cats that 

 have come before my own notice are a sufficient pleasure to 

 me not to regret having thought out and planned the first 

 Cat Show at the Crystal Palace. 



