A COLONIAL SECRETARY'S BULL-DOG.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1049, 25 February 1873, Page 4

A COLONIAL SECRETARY'S BULL-DOG.

Western Australia must be a <jueer kind of place, but there is not an utter deficiency of inn in it. if you may judge from the comments of one of thep'apers upon the proceedings of the Colonial Secretary and his bull-dog. There seems to be quite a relief in the mind of the writer that he had .in opportunity of commenting upon the popular tastes of t'bo Colonial Secretary without exposing himself to the action of the law. The Colonial Secretary's " Bull Pup" seems to be more like Snarleyhow than Mr Sykes'a dog. However, here is the case : Most people in this colony whom businc.3n or pleasure has eaused to jnako peregrinations through the

streets of Perth have, at some time or other, encountered a certain gentleman accompanied by a " faithful hound." The gentleman is stout and portly, not possessing too agreeable an expresaion of countenance, and his faithful hound is a surly, bandy-legged unamiable, unapproachable, bull-dog. Convert the the master's broad cloth coat into a rough shooting jacket, tho bell-topper into a slouch hat, and his umbrella into a bludgeon, and you have not a bad idea of Bill Sykes as Dickens fancied him. The dog has a great aversion to all others of his species, whom he assails and worries causelessly and indiscriminately. His life is a series of single combats, and he is not very particular as to the terrain he selects for his encounters. Last Sunday he invaded the cemetery in Perth, while two funerals were being celebrated. Pie quarrelled with another dog as a matter of course, and a fierce fight ensued. Tho combatants were driven away from one grave by some of the attendants, and they rushed, still fighting, into the midst of the funeral-paTty assembled to pay their last tribute of respect to the late Mrs Gallop. The funeral service was interrupted, and the ferocious brutes, still mangling each other, and blind with rage, fell into the grave, to the horror of the spectators, and continued the war upon the coffin. People scarcely knew bow to act. It requires some amount of nerve to enable a man to encounter two savage brutes in a doop hole. The fight proceeded until Mr Moss let himself down into the grave, and held one beast down with his foot between the coffin and the side of the sepulchre, while he grappled with the other, who seized him by the hand. Moss managed, however, to get hold of the dog and throw him out of the grave. When he tried to seize the second one, the savage brute flew at his throat, which he fortunately missed,catching Mr Moss insteadby the breast of his coatand waistcoat. Moss, getting a good grip of the animal's throat, hurled him from the grave after his antagonist.