CATS 
cats upon any establishment would be considerable ; but 
this is also the case with many other taxes — income tax, 
to wit ; but in the main most of the difficulty would be 
with lodgers, as doubtless in a house let out in tenements 
a cat would most likely be found in every room. The 
occupiers doubtless in many cases would deny its owner- 
ship. In such case the cat must be seized, and the 
owner, if it had one, must claim the animal within a 
given time, or it would be destroyed. This would soon 
settle the right of cat-keeping. Cat-keeping has in some 
instances been carried to such an extent, that persons 
fond of them have been found with twenty or thirty in 
the same room or house, to the great discomfort of the 
neighbourhood. Such dens would be got rid of if such a 
tax were introduced. 
One of the very common practices in cat-keeping is to 
save two or three of the kittens from every litter. These 
poor things are reared until they become a trouble in the 
house of their birth ; it seems then cruel to destroy them, 
so they are generally taken some distance, and turned 
adrift to shift for themselves. They soon become alarmed 
and wild, and are frequently hunted by dogs, boys, and 
every one who raises a cry of strange cat. The poor 
wretch, half-starved, is at last killed in a very brutal 
manner, and probably the culprit arrested by the nearest 
beadle or constable of the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, taken before a magistrate, and 
sentenced to one or two months’ imprisonment for cruelty 
to the animal. 
This part of the subject requires special attention, for 
the old saying that “ a cat has nine lives,” is founded upon 
ancient and well-authenticated authority, and it would 
be well if some of the officers and others who undertake 
to judge of this matter, would take the trouble to 
