ory; the imminence of the draughtwoman is not foreshadowed
in the report of our Consul at Liege.

Mr. Smith's estimate of the number of dogs in this country at 7,000,000
is a "conservative" one, it must be confessed, and can hardly have been
based on observations by moonlight in a suburban village; his estimate
of the effective strength of the average dog at 500 pounds is probably
about right, as will be attested by any intelligent boy who in campaigns
against orchards has experienced detention by the Cerberi of the places.
Taking his own figures Mr. Smith calculates that we have in this country
3,500,000,000 pounds of "idle dog power." But this statement is more
ingenious than ingenuous; it gives, as doubtless it was intended to
give, the impression that we have only idle dogs, whereas of all mundane
forces the domestic dog is most easily stirred to action. His expense
of energy in pursuit of the harmless, necessary flea, for example, is
prodigious; and he is not infrequently seen in chase of his own tail,
with an activity scarcely inferior. If there is anything worth while
in accepted theories of the conversion and conservation of force these
gigantic energies are by no means wasted; they appear as heat, light
and electricity, modifying climate, reducing gas bills and assisting
in propulsion of street cars. Even in baying the moon and insulting
visitors and bypassers the dog releases a certain amount of vibratory
force which through various mutations of its wave-length, may do its
part in cooking a steak or gratifying the olfactory nerve by throwing
fresh perfume on the violet. Evidently the commercial advantages of
deposing the dog from the position of Exalted Personage and subduing him
to that of Motor would not be all clear gain. He would no longer have
the spirit to send, Whitmanwise, his barbarous but beneficent yawp over
the housetops, nor the leisure to throw off vast quantities of energy
by centrifugal efforts at the conquest of his tail. As to the fleas, he
would accept them with apathetic satisfaction as preventives of thought
upon his fallen fortunes.

Having observed with attention and considered with seriousness the
London _Daily News_ declares its conviction that the dog, as we have the
happiness to know him, is dreadfully bored by civilization. This is one
of the gravest accusations that the friends of progress and light have
been called out to meet--a challenge that it is impossible to ignore and
unpr