FOOLING A DOG.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 128, 30 May 1878, Page 4

FOOLING A DOG.

A gentleman named Romanes has been anxious to find out whether doge are believers in ghosts and spiritualism, and has been making experiments, accordingly, with results for a knowledge of which the world is indebted to the " New York Times." Mr Romanes began his researches into these mysterteries with a bone ; and this, the critic says of him, " is alone sufficient to show the heartless and irreverent character of the man. If there is anything which the dog holds as peculiarly Bacred it ib a bone. A terrier will submit to be dduded by false representations that there are eligible cats in the coalscuttles or that the piano. is full.of rats, but he feels that bones are too sacred to be made the subject of jest." Mr Romanes, however took the bone, and tied round it a thin silken thread j and just as a little Scotch terrier, with which bis investigations were couducted, was iv the act of seizing it, his master slowly drew it away. The poor dog regarded the moving bone with an amazement which found expression in erect ears, and a tail gradually thrust between hia hind legs, and becoming convinced, as Mr Romanes supposes, that, it was hut the ghost of a. bone, incontinently fled, howling dismally. On the whole, the "New York Times" considers that the d^g behaved much more sensibly than many men would have done under a similar belief. «In all probability," the journal says, * had Mr Romanes seen a piece of roast beef in the act of cruising unassis'ed around tlie table he would instantly have asked it preposterous questions, and would subsequently have let bis hair grow long, and have become a confirmed spiritoalial. Hia intelligent dog did none of these things, but as soon as he decided that he had Been a spiritual bone be refused to have anything more to do with it, and continued to wear his hair of the ueual length, and to cling to that faith in which he was educated. Mr Romanes was not yet satisfied, however. He took a pipe, got some soap and water, and began to blow bubbles along the floor. It took some time to convince * the terrier that these airy nothings were not a new kind of particularly dangerous raf, but presently he put his foot on one, and it of course collapsed. He tried a second, and it likewise vanished, and then recollections of the ghostly bone overwhelming him, again he flea«c; «Sti!l f Mr 'Romanes' was not satisfied; :He proceeded *to " make

faces "at his victim, and the grimaces he made were so hideously ugly, that wo sire told that the dog mistook him for the worst ghost he had ever seen, whereupon he crept under the sofa and tried to die. Lowers of dogs will sympathise with the poor little terrier, and if Mr Romanes continues his investigations, will hardly regret to henr that Le had to deal with a larger dog, which pursues a more spirited policy with regard to ghosts.