68 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
£ If you young people ever look into the older people’s 
part of the paper—as, I think, some of you do—you will 
sometimes find that dogs are spoken of as being very 
troublesome, and that we not long ago even published a 
trap for catching them, and you will no doubt wonder 
why I often speak well of dogs in the Boys’ and Girls’ 
Columns, and they are given a bad name in the other 
columns. The fact is, there are different kinds of dogs, 
just as there are different kinds of people. Some men are 
so bad and unlovely, that it is sometimes better for them 
to be shut up, to prevent them from doing harm to others, 
and it is no more fair to judge all men from the bad acts 
of these few, than it is to consider all dogs are use¬ 
less because some are so. Probably many of you, especi¬ 
ally those who live in the country, think it would be very 
lonesome were it not for the family dog, who is always 
ready to go with you, and always on the lookout to see 
that nothing goes wrong. It is true that there are some 
dogs which are good for nothing, but you arc sure that 
your dog doesn’t belong to that class. These bad dogs 
usually have no particular home, or if they have one, it is 
among people who keep him half starved, and do not 
care whether he stays at home, or is running about and 
doing mischief. When dogs are talked about in your 
part of the paper, good dogs are meant, those family dogs 
that stay at home, and mind their business. If people 
will keep dogs of another kind, which roam about the 
country, killing sheep and lambs, and doing other mis¬ 
chief, they must pay for the damage that these curs—I 
will not call them dogs—may do. Because some dogs are 
had, it will not do to say that no dog is of any use. An 
intelligent dog is often of much use. One of my neigh¬ 
bors had a dog, which seemed to know so much that I 
thought it a great pity he could not speak. He could do 
almost everything but speak. One evening the dog came 
to the house, and scratched at the door; the door was 
opened, but Tip—that was his name, but he was some¬ 
times called Tipper or Tippecanoe “ for short ’’—instead 
of coming into the house, ran off: the door was closed, 
but soon after there was a scratching again, and when 
the door was opened, Tip pulled at his master’s cloth¬ 
ing, and looked out, as if he would say, “ come along.” 
The dog was so much in earnest, that his master follow¬ 
ed him, as Tip went bounding toward the stable, leading 
the way. When he reached the stable, Mr. F. found that 
in some way one of his horses had got into trouble, and 
had fallen with his head through some bars in the stall, 
in such a manner that lie would likely have died before 
morning, had not Tip seen that something was wrong, 
| and called for help... .Here is a picture of a dog, which 
is given in part for the reason that it is one of Mr. Har¬ 
rison Wier’s best, and in part for another reason. Mr. 
Wier is-famous for drawing animals, and the best pictures 
in the English journals for boys and girls are by him. 
There are many artists who can draw dogs and other 
animals, but there are few who can put so much life into 
them. Look at this dog, as he hurries back on his er¬ 
rand ! Every one can see that, as the boys say, he is 
“ full of go ” ! You know that he is on business, and he 
is giving his whole attention to it; I have seen boys do 
errands, and not be half so lively about it. Some dogs 
are quite useful in this way, and can be very easily 
taught to fetch and carry in a most wonderful manner. 
Many years ago, when I lived in the city, a neighbor had 
a dog which went every morning to the news-stand, two 
or three blocks off, got his master’s paper, and took it 
home, as carefully as either of you could; sometimes 
other dogs would come up to him, but he was on busi¬ 
ness, and would only notice them by a growl, as if to say, 
“just wait until I get this paper home, and I will attend 
to yon.’’....Now for the other reason for giving this 
picture. It is a long time since we have had any prizes. 
The last time I offered a prize there was too much of it; 
and it took more time than I could spare; now let us see if 
we can not have a good time over a very simple prize- 
question. You see that the dog in the picture is on an er¬ 
rand ; I have told you about another dog that went on an 
errand for a newspaper; no doubt many of you own, or 
know of dogs, who do, or have done, similar things. 
Now then, I wish some stories of these dogs, which have 
been useful in this way, that have been taught to go on 
errands for their master. They must be true stories, 
such as you know to be true yourselves, or that your pa¬ 
rents know to be true—only in this case the stories must 
be told by yourself in your own way. Some of the best 
stories it is very likely will be printed. Now to make it 
interesting, I propose some little prizes. A book for the 
best story by a boy and a girl between 12 and 16 years 
old; and one for the best by a boy and a girl 12 years old 
and under; that will make four books, two for the boys, 
and two for the girls ; the books, of course, to be good 
and new ones, and suitable for young people of those 
ages. Mind the conditions , which are: the stories are 
to be written by yourselves, and true, as above stated; 
they must not be longer than two pages of letter paper, 
and would be better, if shorter; they must be written 
with black ink—my old eyes can not bother with fancy- 
colored inks, or lead-pencil; they must reach me by 
March 15tli next, and must be directed to “ The Doctor,” 
245 Broadway, New York City. I was about to add an¬ 
other condition, but I will put it in the form of a hint. 
When you write for a prize in this way, do not set your 
mind upon getting it, and feel unhappy, and think some¬ 
thing has gone wrong, because you failed. Recollect there 
are hundreds of others who are trying, and only a few 
can be the winners. In giving prizes in former years, I 
have selected those, the very trial for which would be 
useful, and though this is not so instructive as some 
former ones, the writing out of a story as well as you can, 
will be a good exercise, and worth doing for itself. The 
awards in this, as well as in former cases, will be 'left 
to persons, who will only judge the stories on their 
merits. Now I think that, unless boys or girls can write 
without feeling unpleasantly because they did not get 
the prize, they had better not try, for in our large family 
of little folks we want every one to be happy and 
contented. The Doctor. 
