Concerning Cats 



cat " Peter " who first suggested to Louis Wain the 

 fanciful cat creations which have made his name 

 famous. Watching Peter's antics one evening, he 

 was teinpted to do a small study of kittens, which 

 was promptly accepted by a magazine editor in Lon- 

 don. Then he trained Peter to become a model and 

 the starting-point of his success. Peter has done 

 more to wipe out of England the contempt in which 

 the cat was formerly held there, than any other 

 feline in the world. He has done his race a service 

 in raising their status from neglected, forlorn creatures 

 on the one hand, or the pampered, overfed object of old 

 maids' affections on the other, to a dignified place in 

 the English house. 



The double-page picture of the " Cat's Christmas 

 Dance" in the London Illustrated News of Decem- 

 ber 6, 1890, contains a hundred and fifty cats, with 

 as many varying facial expressions and attitudes. It 

 occupied eleven working days of Mr. Wain's time, 

 but it caught the public fancy and made a tremen- 

 dous hit all over the world. Louis Wain's cats 

 immediately became famous, and he has had more 

 orders than he can fill ever since. He works eight 

 hours a day, and then lays aside his brush to study 

 physical science, or write a humorous story. He has 

 written and illustrated a comic book, and spent a 

 great deal of time over a more serious one. 



Among the best known of his cat pictures, after 

 the "Christmas Party," is his "Cats' Rights Meet- 



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