animals. Saved by him from "a dog's life," they saved him from death.

THE DYING SOLDIER'S FRIEND

A DYING Soldier lay out in "No man's land” in France, with no one to take him by the hand and comfort him in his last moments.

His eyes grew dim, and he tried to pray,
And the God of our fathers, far away,
Gazed in pity and sent a friend

To guard him close to the bitter end.

A shaggy-faced young Airedale dog, which had also been mortally wounded, crept to his side, and, with his deep brown eyes, looked lovingly and sympathetically into the face of the dying man, and comforted him. Lying side by side, both died together.

THE CELEBRATED DOG "DRUM" CASE

A DOG named "Drum," a fox-hound, was owned by a Mr. Charles Burden, of Missouri. Drum was known far and near as one of the fastest and least uncertain of hunting-dogs. His bark was singularly musical. No hunt of importance took place in the section of the State

where he lived in which he was not a prominent figure.

The dog was shot by a man named Leonidas Hornsby. His owner sued for damages. The parties to the case lived near each other, and bad feelings between the families led to the shooting of the dog.

Prominent lawyers and law firms took part in the trial of the case, which, for various reasons, went through several courts before it was finally settled in the State Circuit Court at Warrensburg, Johnson County, September, 1870, in favor of Mr. Burden, the plaintiff and owner of the dog. He sued for $200, but was awarded $500.

Near the close of the trial, Mr. George Graham Vest, who eight years later became United States Senator, and served as such until he died in 1904, delivered a speech in which he paid what is perhaps the most remarkable tribute ever paid to the dog. This tribute is found on the following page.

PRESIDENT HARDING A LOVER OF DOGS

PRESIDENT HARDING is said to have been a great admirer of dogs. His affection for "Laddie Boy," an Airedale dog given him when he became President, was unbounded and genuine.

A TRIBUTE TO THE DOG

By Senator GEORGE GRAHAM VEST

The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become an enemy. His son and daughter that he has reared with loving care may become ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him when he may need it most. Man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees and do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend a man may have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog.

A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.

When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast into the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all the other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws and his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true, even to death.

"In fact," says the Washington Evening Star,

" he loved all dogs.

and had them for

He was familiar with them, companions throughout his

life.

"He knew how to train and treat dogs. He could speak their language, so to speak. They are such good and loyal friends,' he had been known to say."

On the death of "Hub," the office dog of his Marion, Ohio, Star, he wrote: "Hub was loving and loyal, with the jealousy that tests its quality. He was reverent, patient, faithful. He was sympathetic, more than humanly so sometimes, for no lure could be devised to call him from the sickbed of mistress or master. He minded his own affairs, especially worthy of human emulation, and he would kill nor wound no living thing. He was modest and submissive where those were becoming, yet he assumed a guardianship of the home he sentineled until entry was properly vouched. He couldn't speak our language, though he somehow understood, but he could be, and was, eloquent with uttering eye and wagging tail and the other expressions of knowing dogs.

"Whether the Creator planned it so or environment and human companionship have made it so, men may learn richly through the love and fidelity of a brave and devoted dog."

DEVOTED DOG TRIES TO OPEN
MASTER'S GRAVE

A REMARKABLE instance of a dog's love and devotion to his master occurred a few years ago near Bridgeport, South Dakota.

A farmer who owned a large St. Bernard dog, died and was buried in a little country buryingground.

During his long illness his dog lay just outside the door of his bedchamber, and would steal into his master's room and go up to the bedside and lick his hand whenever he found a chance to do so.

When the farmer died the dog showed many unmistakable signs of grief, and during the three days the body lay in a coffin in the house the griefstricken animal lay beside the casket, refusing to be driven out except at mealtime, and growling and showing his teeth when any stranger approached the coffin to look upon the dead face of his master.

The dog remained in the house and near the coffin when the funeral services were held, and cried and whined during the singing of the hymns. He stole out of the house and followed the hearse to the cemetery, and when the coffin was lowered in the grave he sat close by and continued to whine and cry.