AN AMERICAN PUP.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2903, 5 June 1878, Page 3

AN AMERICAN PUP.

A correspondent of an American paper writes—"l was sifting quietly 'by the -stove in a lager-beer saloon in Philadelphia one vcr^feold night in the fall of '60, the only other occupants at tho time being four young men—apparently students— playing euchre. They were busily engaged playing, and I was also busily engaged smoking and warring myself, when the door opened, letting in a gust of wind, a lot of snow, and,, with the two, a sad, Bhabby-loolc'ng man with one of the most miserable-looking dogs at his heels that it has ever been my misfortune to look at. He walked up 'to the bar end took a • drink' of whisky, after,which be went to the table, where there wos al:rge bowl of hot clam chowder—given.gratis to whoever purchased a ' drink.' Having procured a soup-plateful of this nourishment, he sat down, the dog placing himself directly opposite him. v^hen the man came acrosfe a piece of gristle, he threw it to the dog, who ate it ravenously. The four yoUng men , seemed 'suddenly to relinquish their cards and to be more deeply interested in the man and the dog. One bet another twenty dollars that the man would not sell tlo dog, on which the ?oung man challenged at once took the Det, both staking the money in the hands of their two friends. The one challenged thereupon accosted the man —' Say, cap'n, dew yew want to sell that dorg P' The man just looked at Jiis interrogator, and that was all. Again he was asked, but still there was no answer, until the party asking offered to give him five dollars for j it; at which offer the man said, ' Don't pester me about the dorg—l don't want | to sell,' which answer created a burst of j laughter among the young men, myself included. Exasperated at Jast, the young man bid the stranger ten dollars for the dog, which he immediately took, handing over the dog in exchange, and buttoning un his coat and walking coolly to the door, when it struck the purchaser that he should know the dog's nrme, which he I asked the man :'a a loud voice as the latter was near the place of ex;t. The man turned round and gaaed at them all with a benign look of pit/. He said to them, 'Dew yew wish low know that purp's n?me? f They simultaneously answered in tho affirmative. He said,' We?!, that's good, considering I never saw 1-im till he followed me in here!'"