substituted. The dogs do not make any noise while they are 

 receiving the dreadful punishment, and only make an occa- 

 sional short yell as they run away when they are released." 



DOMESTIC DOGS. 



Compared with what they were at a no more remote period 

 than when our parents were little girls and boys, the present are 

 piping times for dogs. Less than fifty years ago a man might 

 with impunity train and educate dogs to the end that they 

 might, by way of pubUo show, maul and tear each other to 

 death. The brutal pastime may not have flourished under the 

 open gaze of the law, but flourish it did, and if the law disco- 

 vered it, it merely winked. Less than fifty years ago, it was 

 a common thing to see dogs harnessed to vehicles — to hawkers' 

 vans, to costermongers' trucks, and to dog's-meat barrows. I 

 think this practice has not been aboUshed more than twenty 

 years ; at all events, I, who am barely aged thirty, have a dis- 

 tinct recollection of enjoying the acquaintance and friendship 

 of an old gentleman who hawked brushes and brooms about 

 the country, and to whose large light van were harnessed four! 

 tremendous shaggy dogs. Wonderfully strong these dogs 

 must have been. As for the van and the stock, they could 

 wag their tails while they ran away with it ; and even when 

 their good-natured master invited a few stout boys to have a 

 ride, their speed never relaxed to anything short of a comfort- 

 able trot. 



Amongst the doggy reminiscences of my childhood, there is 

 one other of an unlucky old brown dog that used to draw the 

 oat's-meat barrow of an old woman, who supplied food to the 

 feline of our district. As might have been erpected, the 

 barrow was ordinarily attended on its " rounds " by at least 

 three or four hungry vagabond curs, ever watchful for a chance 

 to crib a tempting mouthful when the old woman turned her 

 back to serve a customer. The brown dog in the shafts was 

 evidently conscious of the peril of the stock behind him, and 

 yet .was so helpless to avert it, that it was only by swiftlyi 

 " backing " the barrow that he could ever get a bite at the 

 lurking villains. One among the hungry ones gave more 

 trouble to the brown dog than any other. This was a lank, 

 short-cropped animal, of a sort of mixture of common street- 

 cur and Scotch terrier, with perhaps a dash of Punch and Judy 

 breed. He was the bane of the brown dog's barrow-life. He 

 would run under the barrow and bite the brown dog's heels j 



