ONLY A DOG. 



A. W. DIMOCK. 



It is not expected that the Supreme 

 Court of the United States will ever be 

 found in the van of the Nation's march 

 toward liberty and justice. Its traditions 

 forbid. The Judicial department of this 

 Government never gave birth to a Lincoln, 

 nor construed a beneficent law in favor of 

 freedom or humanity, when it could escape 

 the necessity. 



But if it cannot join the procession, it 

 ought to keep in sight of it, for in this land 

 of law the Sceptre is in its hands, and in 

 the words of the greatest of our race, 



" There thou might'st behold the great 

 image of authority; 



A dog's obeyed in office." 



In a recent opinion written by Justice 

 Brown, for the Supreme Court, in a case 

 involving only a dog, it was held that dogs 

 belong in the category of monkeys, cats, 

 and parrots, and are not on the higher 

 plane of horses, cattle, and sheep; that as 

 dogs have no intrinsic value (unlike a Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Court), their recogni- 

 tion as property is entirely within the dis- 

 cretion of the Legislature; that property in 

 them is of a qualified nature, and regula- 

 tions affecting them, which, if applied to 

 domestic animals generally might be un- 

 constitutional, are lawful, and the owner 

 of a dog has no right to complain of them. 



Under this decision a dog or his owner 

 has no right which any one is bound to 

 respect. 



In classifying dogs with monkeys the 

 court was oblivious of the obvious fact that 

 the latter were created only as a joke. 



In antiquity the dog ranks at least with 

 man. 



Fossil dogs have been found in great 

 number. The monuments of Egypt bear 

 witness to the race. Books and inscrip- 

 tions prove that in the remotest historic 

 periods dogs were as now; while the earli- 

 est systems of pagan theology recognize 

 them. 



Cuvier asserted that the dog was neces- 

 sary to the establishment of human society, 

 while other authorities allege that nations 

 owe much of their elevation, above the* 

 brute, to dogs. 



Herodotus records that in olden times, 

 when a greyhound died, members of the 

 family shaved their heads, and the dog was 

 buried in consecrated ground; while death 

 was the penalty for killing this dog. 



The memory of Walter Scott is en- 



shrined in his poem to " Bonny Heck," 

 while the name of his " Maida " is linked 

 with his own. 



Embodied in the literature of many 

 lands, is the story of " Gelert." 



" And marbles storied with his praise 

 Poor Gelert's bones protect." 



It is not alone in fiction that the dying 

 eyes of the dog turn feebly toward his mas- 

 ter and companion. His very name typifies 

 affection, courage, and faithfulness. 



Life is possible, under the polar star, to 

 the Esquimaux, because of his dog; while 

 herds of cattle and flocks of sheep have 

 been protected and cared for, by dogs, 

 since before the star of the East shone over 

 Bethlehem. The St. Bernards of the Alps 

 have, for generations, struggled through 

 the snow with their burdens of food and 

 clothing, seeking the lost or bewildered 

 traveler. 



There was cabled over the world an ac- 

 count of the death of Bismarck's " Tyras," 

 whose soul was released while struggling 

 to save his master's property from the 

 burning palace; and to-day that Prince 

 finds consolation in the steadfast faithful- 

 ness of his Great Danes, for the coolness of 

 the great German whom he had made, but 

 whose gratitude was that of the " place ex- 

 pectants " of the elder Walpole. It is as 

 easy to imagine the Prince grinding a hand 

 organ .as finding his consolation in the 

 monkey with which Judge Brown classifies 

 his pets. 



The story of the devotion of the dog to 

 man involves the history of both races. He 

 guards his cradle and he lays a broken 

 heart upon his grave. Who shall criticise 

 the man, who, having inspired the life-long 

 devotion of a faithful dog, believes with 

 Pope that 



" Admitted to that equal sky, 



His faithful dog shall bear him com- 

 pany," 



to a country where a higher Court will re- 

 view Judge Brown's decision and Judge 

 Brown himself! 



What American citizen would not choose 

 to sleep under the Adirondack sod. with 

 the humanitarian fanatic of Harper's Ferry, 

 rather than on the Supreme Bench with 

 his namesake? 



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