a ce 
March 1910 
The Young Molky. 
The Friend of Man : Some uses 
of the Dog. 
(Continued from last issue.) 
—_—_—s: 
IV.—Dogs and Carts. 
The dogs in some countries are made 
to work like horses. . Not only do the 
Eskimos make teams of dogs draw their 
sledges, but in many European cities dogs 
may be seen ‘harnessed to little carts load- 
ed with various wares, which they draw 
from place to place as they follow their 
masters, who are ueually hawkers, on their 
daily rounds. 
In England is seen nothing of this sort 
now, but if we were to look through the 
pages of the illustrated magazines which 
were printed sixty or seventy years ag0, 
we could find many pictures of dogs draw - 
ing carts along the streets of our English 
towns. These carts were similar to those 
which are now used for horses, with the 
exception that they were smaller. They 
had sometimes two wheels and sometimes 
four. The dogs were usually harnessed be- 
tween shafts, though sometimes they were 
fastened like coach-horses on each side of 
apole. They were also occasionally fast- 
enedtothe axle of hand-carts. so that while 
their masters pulled at the shafts, the dogs 
helped them by pulling at the uxle as 
they walked between the wheels. 
I once had a chat with a man who had 
possessed a dog-cart many years ag0- 
He was an umbrella-mender, who went 
from house to house in the country, seeking 
umbrellas to repair. His small flat cart was 
drawn from town to town by a pair of 
stag-hounds, and at every town he chose 
to stay he left his cart in an inn while he 
made his tour on foot to the scattered 
farmhouses in the surrounding district. 
His dogs could travel at the rate of 
ten miles an hour, and draw the cart, its 
load, and the umbrella-mender himself as 
driver. The dogs were specially trained 
for this work, and they were no use for 
sport. 
Cripples frequently made nse of dogs 
and dog-carts, which they used as horses 
and carriages to take them from place to 
place. A cripple at East Grinstead drove 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
nnn nn eT EEE EEE EEEEEEeeneeeEE Ean 
a four-wheeled cart and a team of bull- 
dogs, and would frequently race with the 
stage-coach. Seven miles an hour was the 
usual speed of his team, but occasionally 
it was increased to ten. 
Various breeds of dogs were used for 
drawing thess carts or carriages. Fox- 
hounds and mastiffs were used, and no 
doubt there were other kinds, especially 
for the slow, heavy work of drawing 
greengrocers’ carts, milk carts, tinkers’ 
carts, and similar vehicles. The poor 
dogs were often over-worked, under fed, 
and cruelly ill-treated. ‘lhe public were 
at last moved to sympathy by the stories 
of the cruelties which were practised upon 
them, and the use of dogs for drawing 
carts was brought to an end by two Acts 
of Parliament. The first one was passed 
in 1839, and put a stop to the ‘use of 
these working dogs in London, and the 
second one, passed in 1854, extended the 
prohibition to all parts of the United 
Kingdom. 
For over fifty years, then, no dogs have 
been employed in drawing carts in Eng- 
land. It is possible to discover when 
dogs were first used for this purpose? I 
am a fraid that it isnot. I have seen a 
copy of an old Greek painting which 
shows a little boy driving a carriage 
drawn by two dogs, and both boy and 
dogs seem to be enjoying the sport very 
much. This perhaps is fun rather than 
earnest, We have evidence that true 
dog carts were used in England nearly 
six hundred years ago. A picture of that 
period shows us a two-wheeled cart, drawn 
by three dogs, one in the shafts and the 
other two in the traces. A man blowing 
his horn sits in the cart. 
In the last three or four hundred years 
we may find many references to working 
dogs and dog-carts. Macaulay, the 
historian, says that two hundred and 
fifty years ago the streets of Bristol were 
so narrow and so-undermined by cellars, 
that goods were carried from place to 
place almost entierly on small trucks 
drawn by dogs, Dog-carts were probably 
not so common as this in London at 
that time, because a distinguisyed Eng- 
lishman, John Evelyn. who saw dogs 
drawing carts in Antwerp and Brussels 
speaks of them with some surprise, as 
though it were rather a novelsight. They 
must have been very numerous, however, 
in the metropolis and throughout the 
‘country just before they were prohibited 
by tho Acts of Parliament. 
—wW, A. Atkinson, in ‘The Prize’ 
35 
Why a Collie Dog is so 
Called. 
The word is of Scottish origination 
being derived from the Gaelic ‘cu,’ 
signifying dog, and ‘luth’ (the ‘th’ silent) 
meaning active or enduring power, The 
word therefore is simply indicative of a 
smart, strong dog, with great staying 
power; but in course of time the type 
got fixed. Burns spelled the word ‘collie,” 
Ferguson ‘colley,’ and Ramsey ‘coly.’ 
What the word ‘News’ 
Gomes From. 
The author of a ‘History of Origins’— 
issued anoditymously in 1824—gives this 
quaint explanation: ‘As news implies 
the intelligence received from all parts of 
the world, the very word itself points out. 
its meaning—even N. the north, KE. the 
east, W. the west, and S. the south,’ 
‘This expressive word, adds the same 
author, ‘also recommends the practice of 
the following virtues : Nobleness in our 
thoughts, Equity in our dealings, Wisdom 
in our counsels, and Sobriety in our 
enjoyments.’ There is something of 
the fanciful about at least the latter part 
of this. 
aan acaactennnieesaneenniniaiinaaeal 
Conundrums. 
_ Why is the figure 9 like a peacock P 
Because without a tail it is nothing. 
Why were Bulwer Lytton and Dickens 
the most industrious of novelists ? 
Because Lytton wrote ‘Night and 
Morning, and Dicken’s wrote * All the 
Year Round.’ 
M. L. Tomlinson, 
(LATE J. G. ORAM), 
Manufacturing Jeweller, 
Watchmaker, 
Diamond Setter & Engraver. 
Repairs to Watches, Clocks, and Jewellery 
of every description accurately, artistically 
and promptly executed at moderate prices. 
27 Grenfell St., Adelaide 
