A SAGACIOUS CAT.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2590, 26 July 1882, Page 3

A SAGACIOUS CAT.

The ‘New York Times,’ in relating the following incident, illustnfcing the extraordinary intelligence of a oat, declares that it is as true as fully three fourths of the animal stories with which the public is already familiar. Mr Martin, of Thirtyninth street, recently had the electric light put into his home, and for a time it afforded him great satisfaction, although he has never felt tha*-- be fully understood it, and was never quite certain that it was a perfectly safe thing to have in the house. During the late intensely cold weather Mr Martin went to bed at his usual hour, and was subjected to the usual questions ia regard to the locking up of the bouse, with which all married men are famTa*. To these, however, Mrs Martin added a new question. She asked, ‘Mr Martin, did you think to turn the electricity on before you came to bed ?’ and Me Marlin replied that he ‘didn’t know as ha had.’ ‘Then,’ said Mrs Martin, arranging her pillow, ‘that oloolriciSy will be sure to freeze and burst, and wc shall have it all over the house before morning.’ Ia vain did Mr Martin remark that the men who put the electricity ia the house never told him that it would freeze, and that he didn’t believe there was any danger. His wife inflexibly maintained that he should l ave let the electricity run just as he had let the water run in the bath-room, and that if he was not perfectly selfish and brutal he would get up at once and attend to the matter. Now, Mr Martin was a well moaning, but an obstinate man, and he totally refused io get np, and went to sleep, remarking that the electricity might burst and blow the honeo up for afl he cared. It happened that in the course of the night the thermometer descended far below zero, and, as Mrs Martin had predicted, the electric wire burst and tho electricity began to leak. Tho leak was in the bathroom, and when morning came, and Mr Martin awoke, he smelt such a strong smell of electricity that ho at once know that something was wrong. His nose guided him to the bathroom door, under which a small stream of electricity was than flowing ; but, comprehending that the room must be filled with the escaping fluid, he wisely forebore to open it. He went down stair* into the butler’s pantry, where he found that the electricity had ruined the ceiling, and he was about to go down to the cellar, when, as ho opened tho door, the family oat sprang to meet him. Knowing the sagacity of oats and their intimate connexion with electricity, he resolved to watch the animal and see what she would do. The cat smelt the escaping electricity and took in the situation at once. She examined the whole house, and then, with expressive gestures, asked to be let out of the back door. Mr Martin let her out. To his unspeakable nstsnishment she instantly climbed up an iron waste pipe that ran from tho roof to the ground, passing close by the bathroom window. When she reached the window sill she placed her tail close against tho metallic 'catch ’ intended for the window blind, and placed her fore feet against the waste pipe. Instantly a stream of electricity flowed over her back from the bath room to the waste pipe, and so to the ground. For a few moments the oat was enveloped in a shower of sparks, but —to be exact —in precisely two minutes and thirty-four second* by Mr Martin’s watch the ingenious animal emptied the bathroom of electricity so that her master could safely enter and »top the leak tem porarily with white lead. It is needless to say that Mr Martin is proud of hie cat, and that he regard* her as the most sagacious animal of her specie* that ha* ever yet appeared.