Gas Dogs.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5099, 21 May 1885, Page 3

Gas Dogs.

It came but during the recent trial of a gaa inspector in Philadelphia for the offence of kicking a dog that gas inspectors are lUiflisaed with complete lists of houses in which dogs are kept, and that in these lists the temper and habits of each dog are carefully described. " Dogs, remarked the Philadelphian defendant, "are the torment of an inspector's life," an admission which will be hailed with joy by every gas consuming householder in the land. . The plan of training small dogs to bite all persons apparently bent upon examining gas-meters was originated in this city some years ago by an enterprisiug dog* fancier. He made it bis business to Breed and train what he called "gas dogs," and was equally successful with rough'haired terriers, bnll terriers, and Spitz dogs. This able person either sold his "gas dogs" at a price a little above the current market rate, or he rented them to householders for 50 centt. a day. As gaa meters are inspected monthly, it is easy for a householder to hire a gas dog only two or three days in each month, and yet to be reasonably sure that the dog will be in readiness to receive the inspector. The dog fancier who invented the plan of p supplying the public with gas dogs made a fortune within three years, and, although he has retired from the dog field, his business is carried on in almost every large town by at least one dog fancier. Excellent resultß have been attained by the use of gas dogs. An amiable Chris tian lady, living in Thirty-fifth street of this city, has no less than 43 samples of trousers collected by her gas dog in the course of fire years. There are now em ployed, either permanently or for three days in "each month, fully 5000 gas dogs above the region of Bleecker street, and we shall be safe in assuming that at least 4500 gas inspectors are bitten either in the legs or the trousers every month. It need hardly be said that gas dogs are j wonderfully soothing to the householder's mind. There are householders who make it a point to remain at home all day on the day when the gas inspector is expected, merely in order to enjoy the yell of the inspector when the dog's teeth meet in his calf, or to listen to the inspector's language as a fresh hole is made in his trousers. Paying the gas bill is a most unpleasant but absolutely inevitable necessity, and it is, of course, a great consolation to a good man to know that

hiu gas dog is biting the Tpry inspector by the help of whose machinations with the meter the gas bill is concocted. Hundreds of our leading citizens, including clergymen and professional philanthropists, who own or employ gas do^s, have testified that thfiy can now pay their gas bills with comparative equanimity, cheered by the recollections of the legs and trousers that the faithful gas dogs have sampled. "Whether on the whole a gas dog is any thing more than a pleasure and comfort to a householder is a question that is not yet aatiflfaetorily settled. What is the effect of the gas dog upon the size of the gas bill ? Let us assume that—as frequently happens — the gas dog prevents the inspector from approaching the meter. Will the inspector charge for more feet of gas than he would have charged could he have seen the meter ? At first glance one would be apt to think that the inspector would «eize the opportunity to revenge -himself on the owner of the gas dog by recklessly increasing the size of the gas bill. A little reflection on the part of those acquainted with gas-meters will »how, however, that this is extremely improbable. Such is the diabolical ingenuity with which the gas-meter is constructed that it will register more feet of gas than the imagination of the ordinary inspector can conceive. For exam* pie, let us suppose that the gas consumed in any given house amounts to 500 ft. a month. An inspector, harassed by a gas dog and prevented from inspecting the meter, may perhaps charge the householder with 3000 ft. of gas. If, however, the meter is a really good specimen of i's kiod it will be entirely capable of regis« tering 16,000 ft. of gas a month—a quantity far beyond the wildest flight of a reckless and bitten inspector's imagination. It is thus not only possible but probable that gas bills are not increased by debarring inspectors from accesa to gan meters.—New York Times.