THE CAT" 



Corporation Cats 



Cats are the only animals which are ever really 

 owned by clubs and corporations. A dog, if it 

 nominally belongs to a company of men, is really 

 the property of some individual man. It must 

 have a master. A cat, being always its own mas- 

 ter, lives happily under a corporate body. Some 

 of the lordliest and most self-satisfied beasts I have 

 ever known were club and college cats. A cat be- 

 longing to one of the London dock companies was 

 almost ridiculous (if a cat could be ridiculous) 

 from the airs of possession and self-importance 

 which it assumed in regard to the company's vaults. 

 Sir Frederick Pollock has shown us, in the " Senior 

 Fellow," to what a pitch of dignity a college cat 

 may rise when it is once on the foundation of a 

 learned society. 



The Spectator, 



109 



