FullReads

A great many dogmas have been written, and may continue to be written, on dogs. Confessing, once, to a dogmatical regard for dogs, we “went in” for the canine race, with a zeal we have bravely outgrown; and we live to wonder how men–to say nothing of spinsters of an uncertain age–can heap money and affections upon these four-legged brutes, whose sole utility is to doze in the corner or kennel, terrify stray children, annoy horsemen, and keep wholesome meat from the stomachs of many a poor, starving beggar at your back gate. There is no use for dogs in the city, and precious little use for them any where else; and as Boz says of oysters–you always find a preponderance of dogs where you find the most poor people. Philadelphia’s the place for dogs; in the suburbs, especially after night, if you escape from the onslaught of the rowdies, you will find the dogs a still greater and more atrocious nuisance. No rowdy, or gentleman at large, in the Quaker City, feels finished, without a lean, lank, hollow dog trotting along at their heels; while the butchers and horse-dealers revel in a profusion of mastiffs and dastardly curs, perfectly astounding–to us. This brings us to a short and rather pithy story of a dog sell.

Some years ago, a knot of men about town, gentlemen highly “posted up” on dogs, and who could talk hoss and dog equal to a Lord Bentick, or Hiram Woodruff, or “Acorn,” or Col. Bill Porter, of the “Spirit,” were congregated in a famous resort, a place known as Hollahan’s. A dog-fight that afternoon, under the “Linden trees,” in front of the “State House,” gave rise to a spirited debate upon the result of the battle, and the respective merits of the two dogs. Words waxed warm, and the disputants grew boisterously eloquent upon dogs of high and low degree,–dogs they had read of, and dogs they had seen; and, in fact, we much doubt, if ever before or since–this side of “Seven Dials” or St. Giles’, there was a more thorough and animated discussion, on dogs, witnessed.

An old and rusty codger, one whose outward bruises might have led a disciple of Paley to imagine they had caused a secret enjoyment within, sat back in the nearest corner, towards the stove, a most attentive auditor to the thrilling debate. Between his outspread feet, a dog was coiled up, the only indifferent individual present, apparently unconcerned upon the subject.

“Look here,” says the old codger, tossing one leg over t’other, and taking an easy and convenient attitude of observation; “look here, boys, you’re talkin’ about dogs! “

“Dogs?” says one of the most prominent speakers.

“Dogs,” echoes the old one.

“Why, yes, daddy, we are talking about dogs.”

“What do you know about dogs? ” says a full-blown Jakey, looking sharply at the old fellow.

“Know about dogs? “

“A’ yes-s,” says Jakey. “I bet dis five dollars, ole feller, you don’t know a Spaniel from a butcher’s cur! “

“Well,” responds the old one, transposing his legs, “may be I don’t, but it’s my‘pinion you’d make a sorry fiste at best, if you had tail and ears a little longer!”

This sally amused all but the young gentleman who “run wid de machine,” and attracted general attention towards the old man, in whose eyes and wrinkles lurked a goodly share of mother wit and shrewdness. Jakey backing down, another of the by-standers put in.

“Poppy, I expect you know what a good dog is?”