"sate,"" who wrote to! the Spectator about her mother's old housekeeper's old caé, was, we are quite to willing to believe, accurate in her facts, and perhaps "we went too far in saying that her story' reached the climax. "There is nothing cats enjoy more than destruction, and no cat whose energies had not. been' stifled "by over-feeding and over-coddling, could resist pulling the pins out of 'a ball of cotton that came in its way.; what we doubt is that the cat did'it in' order to save itself from being pricked when it played with' the ball. That the "intelligence of cats is underrated we acknowledge, but we should like "Salt" to explain how peo-The distinguishing marks in lo are to treat cats as they do dogs. ale ther: dependence on, and the absolute faith in their masters, and thus they' are the best of companions. Cats on the other hand have never forgotten' that they' were once worshipped, and they are the most independent and suspicions of domestic animals, and though they will sometimes, allow their masters or mistresses to be their companions, they can never be relied on as companions themselves. It is this iideyendence that has' preserved the cat exactly the same to-day that, it was "in Font 4,000 or more years ago, while the, dog is still "constantly being altered, and there are mote breeds of dog than there are days in the year alnest.. Unsympathetic as cats are and insincere, being prompted solely by self-interest, as their relations with their masters and mistresses are, they are often worth watching when they throw off their, self-consciouses for a time, and act naturally. They are the most inqitisitive and curious of animals, If a new piece of furniture of any kind is brought. into " room to which 'a cat is accustomed, it will not rest until it has carefully examined it, and, like a horse, it must touch it with its nose;.it is not content with looking at it and smelling it. The independence of the oat is farther shown in its absolute uselessness; it does indeed claim that it kills rats and mice, but it will never undertake this task seriously, as business, but only for its own pleasure; and as' hunting men. preserve foxes, the démestic'cat will always leave a few rats and mice alive: in the house, so.that it may find sport, when Losport it's inclined. It is not one-third as, trustworthy and business-like as a trap ora wongoose. If it removes an anioyance, now, and, then by-killing a rat, it more than: makes up for: this by the fearful annoyance it causes in the invitations that it, issues to its neighbours to.come, and play with'it on the verandah at ight.: A cat's concert has beooie a proverb; but it is curious that POtiation of the misery that a mythology and folk-lore' offer no of affection its Sut attends the exchange
garments 'As watchers, cats, noctivagous as they and his portable property among them. are, are. absolutely useless.. Perhaps" In the morning his master did: not apthis is' because they are properly noctivagous, and have therefore sympathy Pack. prosecute, nor did he. take him with rowling night-birds who scale 'The gander-was avenged: verandahs and steal liambones and other": 3 unconsidered trifles. It..is no. doubt; THE CANADIAN PACIFIC ROU'TE. because the cat, an indoor animal,. is 25th, Mare, so phenomenally useless as a watcher,' Ir is to be that-some one with that the.dog, naturally an outdoor something' of the genius of: the author animal, has been utilised for this purpose. ' of Kothen will be found, while the facts The dog would make - an. admirable are still fresh, to write the history. of watcher if he could be cured of his the three great railway lines that cross standing defect, an insatiable appetite. ' the American continent: Up~to-the Man is so constituted that he can' time of the War with the South the always take another drink, and the, centre of that continent was. believed to dog can always eat. he thief of be an almost impassable desert,.and the the night who provides himself with usual assertions of impossibility were. something that will tempt a dog,' made when that war showed the necésand there is hardly anything that the! sity for constructing a railway to' join faithful companion of mau will not' California to the getup to eat, can instantly corrupt! ernment gave the'promoters of the'line East.:.'he U.S.: gov-the most otherwise thrustwortly dog. ' such magnificent opportunities to e1itich The only watcher whose vigilance and themselves that the line. was made, and incorruptibility are unimpugnable is the gradually the desert was abolished. goose. he weasel is more easily caught hen came the Northern Pacific, which asleep than the goose is; not only can! wrecked Jay Cooke & Ca., the firm: to he not be tempted from his duty of whose energy much of the success. of warning his friends of any danger, but the loans which' enabled the Union to the more persistently advances are made ' carry on the conquest of the South was to him, the more noisily he resents it. due. In the Northern Pacific Railway, He has, it must be confessed, the defects successful as it now is, they shouldered of its qualities; he is a very noisy bird, load greater than they could carry and cheerful as his voice isto those who against the ridicule of Proctor Knott. know and appreciate him, he is some- Kentucky, and those who believed with times objectionable to his neighbours; him that the projected line: would: run and for this reason he is not so much through a region of perpetual ice. The regarded as a pet as he deserves to be. third line, the Canadian Pacific, seemed Any one who wants to be sure that even more visionary; it ran: still far-his premises are not violated at night ther north than the' Northern Pacific, by his own servants, or by acquisitive, through a country where only the Hud-prowlers should keep two or three geese sols's Bay Company had: a.few melan-or one old gatider. here was a well- ' choly posts, to which the scanty popu-known citizen of Shavgliai, now, alas! lation of Indian trappers: brought the for some years in the cemetery, who skins of the wild beasts that domitidted kept a favourite old gander which the country. 'The railway: was indis-led his'compound at night. His pensable, however, to the consolidation against his master's strict injuic- of - the Dominion, " and' the alleged tions, was in the habit of going out at difficulties disappeared when'they were night—osteusibly to have a bath, really faced. Nhe Canadian Pacific, though so to gamble at Lao-kee-chang—and com- much farther north, actually: suffers ing home in the small' hours, and the: much less from'ice and snow than the gander reported it to his master at first of the three tratiscoutinental rail-once. The boy tried every means to/ ways, Between Omaha and the Pacific corrupt that gander, but he was faith- there are 500 miles of track above 6,000 ful until death, and one morning feet-above the-sea; and 400 miles: above the was found with his neck 7,000 feet, while onthe Canadian Pacific broken. 'The master said nothing, but the highest point' croused-is only 3,000 that night be watched himself. At feetabovesea level, the Rocky Mountains three in the morning the boy came! being crossed atacomparative depression. home, and found, to his astonishment, There isan' actual gain invdistmnve-too, that the gate was locked. He attempted From New York. to SanFraucisto—we to climb over it, but was driven back take these-figures from the. Liverpool by his master's Penang lawyer. "I am Journal-of Commerce—vidé Chicago'and it of it," said the master, "my boy is "from Montreal to Vantowver the dis-boy," he expostulated.. "Not @ Omaha, the distance -is3,271 miles safe in bed,. you ate a thief." he tasse ie 2,906 miles;-or from. Quebec boy expostulated, the master smote. to Vancouver it is 3053 miles "At policeman was attracted' by the} a: mean railway speed of 35! miles an boy's cries. "Take hint away," said!thour, it: requires"'93#' haut' by" the the master, "he is 'a thief, whom I Union. Pacific as "agatast "87 by! the have caught trying to climb over my} Canadiam: Pacific, that is.supposing the fate"
jut' the master' was inexorable, and' the fornier® route' passes through The boy for mercy, conditions of grade,-etc: are! alilte but
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.