THE pictures on this page speak for themselves. They are not fanciful; they truly represent occurrences in real life.
There is a sentimental class of people who do not have very much to occupy their time, and so they become enamored with brutes (usually dogs), and make companions of them.
Said to Have Sold for Five Thousand Dollars.
They treat these brutes as tho they were humans; indeed, in many instances they even go beyond what would be real good taste if their treatment were accorded to boys and girls instead of to mere dogs.
The dog is so constituted that he enjoys and revels in carrion and like kinds of filth. It is his nature. And so soon as he is left to himself he will drop to the level of his kind and do the things that come natural to him. He appreciates a bone in the back yard. But to be brought to the table and have to be hampered by using napkins, and plates, and cups and saucers, and things of that kind, must be a great bore to his dogship. A dog is not a human being, and he does not have the nature of a human being, and hence the things that would be very essential to the comfort and necessity of men, women, and children would be entirely out of place and very annoying for the dog.
The dog that is under the necessity of having two attendants put him thru a morning bath, and then rub and massage him, and then have to go to the manicure to have his nails polished, must feel that he is indeed a victim of very cruel conditions. Having been put thru this program, the limit of hardship for the poor creature is surely reached when he is made to sit on a chair at the table and receive his food in courses at the obsequious hand of a waiter in uniform. What a sight to behold a brute, and especially a scavenger like the dog, being put in the position of looking down upon a man as a menial slave, man that was originally made in the image of the great Creator!
The Manicure and Maid Cleaning and Polishing the Dog's Nails.
The number of people who are so silly as to do such things is fortunately quite small, and it is sincerely to be hoped that it will get smaller and smaller; for the pernicious effect of rendering such service to dogs is very degrading to the one who will consent to serve as well as to the owner who employs the servant. The dignity of belonging to the human race should assert itself, and no amount of money should tempt any one to degrade himself so far as to become the attendant servant of brutes, and especially of a brute that is such a filthy creature as a dog.
Dogs may be made very useful on the farm, and possibly there are other places where they may be profitable as servants. But they are useful only when they are allowed to just dogs, and not when the attempt is made to elevate them to the sphere of the human family.
People who have enough money to employ servants to wait on dogs will find much more interesting and appreciative subjects among children. There are thousands of bright children in this great country who do not have the advantages of the training and education that they are capable of taking. They would appreciate and respond to the help that could be given them. They would be useful in society, and thus good results of the work could be shown. But after all that can be done for a dog is lavished upon him, he is not so much of a dog as he would have been if allowed to follow the course marked out for him by his nature.
A child, thru the misfortunes that have come to his parents, may be in a hopeless and helpless condition. If left in this way, he will grow up in ignorance and amount to but little, and possibly be a real hindrance in society. But if fostered and trained as he should be, he may become a shining light in the world and a great help to all about him. As between the two fields, the fostering of helpless human beings or the fostering of dogs, it should not take long to reach a decision. T.
