8 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Sicilian Coin 



dog Provetie, belonging to prisoner at the battle of Soor (1745). and was 

 Jans van der Poel, was con- only restored to her master after long and 

 demned by the aldermen of ceremonious negotiation. James II of England 

 the city of Leyden to be cried out to his sailors, when the ship in which 

 hanged by the public execu- he sailed was in sore peril, " Save my dogs and 

 tioner in the market place, Marlborough!" In our day Queen Victoria 

 where it was customary to was the greatest lover of pure-blooded dogs, 

 punish criminals. His pos- a fondness for which she inherited from her 



sessions were confiscated with all the solemnity mother, the Duchess of Kent, who throughout 



befitting such punishment. After this event the her life took the utmost care of her kennels. 



inhabitants of Leyden were 



long nicknamed "hangers of 



dogs." Little did they think 



that in 1574, during the siege 



of their city, they would learn 



by sad experience that it 



was better to eat dogs than 



to hang them. 



The predilection that 



princes and celebrated per- 

 sons have shown for these 



animals proves the esteem in 



which they were held. Henri 



II now and then wore round 



his neck a basket in which 



were young puppies, so 



Sully relates in his memoirs. 



Frederick the Great allowed 



his greyhounds the utmost 



libertv, both indoors and out, 



at his chateau of Sans Souci 



Are thev speaking to Each Other ? 



One of these 

 famous hounds, named Biche, was taken 



Teeth 



We should know better what Richard Wag- 

 ner thought of these animals if he had lived to 

 finish his book, History of viy Dogs. It is well 

 known that the master of Bayreuth loved dogs 

 and owned several highly bred species, among 

 them Newfoundlands and St. Bernards. A 

 friend of his relates that he one day compelled 

 a street urchin to sell him, for a thaler, an old 

 half-blind dog which the boy was about to drown. 

 The dog bit his rescuer, but Wagner, instead of 

 punishing him, found him an asylum. Dickens, 

 in his account of My Father as I Recall Htm, 

 describes with much sympathy and affection the 

 dogs in the paternal home. Zola's pets, espe- 

 cially Pin, must often have consoled him in the 

 da\s of his painful struggle. Pin's full name was 

 The Chevalier Hector Pin-Pin de Coq-Hardi, 

 but Zola called him friend and comrade. 



