The Cult of the Dog

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 5, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 26.

The Cult of the Dog.

In ancient Egypt the Cat was worshiped; in modern England and America the Dog. The poet Tennyson became a peer, but he did not know the plutocratic, aristocratic, deified Dog when he penned the line, "He will treat thee little better than his dog." The fashionable dame of New York — we are slow to believe that all of them do — furnishes a luxurious room for her Dog, has for him a French maid, who puts him to bed at night, rubs him down when he gets up in the morning, brings to him his breakfast, and cares for him as tenderly as if he were a human. One dog has a special automobile built for him. When he is led out to walk on a wet pavement, his feet are encased in costly shoes. For these pets beautifully cut clothes are furnished, costly, little pocket-handkerchiefs, combs and brushes with silver monograms, etc., etc., ad libitum, ad nauseam. Sapphire earrings and diamond bracelets, flounced dresses, Russian sable, and other costly paraphernalia and material and time and talent are devoted to the service of the Dog. A little distance away from these petted dogs, in both New York and London, men, women, and children are starving, dying, for the necessaries of life, for what the money spent on the dogs would buy, and both the dogs and the needy people would be better for the change.