ce of steaks and bones; and
partly because the graceless beast insults everybody else, harming as
many as he dares. The dog is an encampment of fleas, and a reservoir of
sinful smells. He is prone to bad manners as the sparks fly upward. He
has no discrimination; his loyalty is given to the person that feeds
him, be the same a blackguard or a murderer's mother. He fights for his
master without regard to the justice of the quarrel--wherein he is no
better than a patriot or a paid soldier. There are men who are proud of
a dog's love--and dogs love that kind of men. There are men who, having
the privilege of loving women, insult them by loving dogs; and there are
women who forgive and respect their canine rivals. Women, I am told, are
true cynolaters; they adore not only dogs, but Dog--not only their
own horrible little beasts, but those of others. But women will love
anything; they love men who love dogs. I sometimes wonder how it is that
of all our women among whom the dog fad is prevalent none have incurred
the husband fad, or the child fad. Possibly there are exceptions, but
it seems to be a rule that the female heart which has a dog in it
is without other lodgers. There is not, I suppose, a very wild and
importunate demand for accommodation. For my part, I do not know which
is the less desirable, the tenant or the tenement There are dogs that
submit to be kissed by women base enough to kiss them; but they have a
secret, coarse revenge. For the dog is a joker, withal, gifted with as
much humor as is consistent with biting.

Miss Louise Imogen Guiney has replied to Mrs. Meynell's proposal to
abolish the dog--a proposal which Miss Guiney has the originality to
call "original." Divested of its "literature," Miss Guiney's plea for
the defendant consists, essentially, of the following assertions: (1)
Dogs are whatever their masters are. (2) They bite only those who fear
them. (3) Really vicious dogs are not found nearer than Constantinople.
(4) Only wronged dogs go mad, and hydrophobia is retaliation. (5) In
actions for damages for dog-bites judicial prejudice is against the dog.
(6) "Dogs are continually saving children from death." (7) Association
with dogs begets piety, tenderness, mercy, loyalty, and so forth; in
brief, the dog is an elevating influence: "to walk modestly at a dog's
heels is a certificate of merit!" As to that last, if Miss Guiney had
ever observed the dog himself walking modestly at the heels of another