"BISMARCK."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
Sin,—" Bismarck" is a mastiff, a monster of high pedigree, with a nature gentle and unaggressive, but yet when roused to self- defence not to be withstood. No one seeing his great square head and businesslike deep-lined face will deny him some right to his name ; still less so, hearing of his dealings with his neighbours, (meaning no disrespect to the Imperial Chancellor).
" Bismarck's " abode was formerly in a stable-yard, separated by a wall some four feet high from a duck-pond. It chanced that a small dog was introduced into the establishment, who, not respecting the limits of his own domain, daily at the dinner-honr made raids in the direction of " Bismarck's " kennel, and, trusting to the monster's general amiability of character, helped himself somewhat largely. For three weeks " Bismarck " apparently took no notice of the insult.; but it seems that he meanwhile pondered in his mind the best policy to pursue. At the end of that time, when the cur was about to offer his unwelcome aid as usual, he felt himself lifted by the scruff of his neck, conveyed across the yard, hoisted with all care over the wall, and gently dropped into the pond below. " Bismarck " stalked back to his interrupted meal ; there was no need to repeat the lesson, from that day he dined in peace. Yet so little ill-will did he feel towards his humbled victim that, shortly afterwards, hearing yelps of distress in a neighbouring field, the minister went to inquire the cause of the disturbance, and finding that a calf was worrying the small dog—who had probably brought the
danger on himself by his accustomed impudence—he, by one application of his fangs, rescued his protégé from his tormentor. Some years later, " Bismarck " found it necessary to resent the insolence of a large retriever who was about to appropriate a bone, unmistakeable " Prussian " property ; I saw him shake the black dog as though he had been a rat, then drop him without farther insult or injury. From that day, though the two bore each other no grudge, nothing could induce the retriever to enter the mastiff's yard, whilst (must it be confessed ?) " Bismarck " prowled daily round " Carlo's " kennel, clearing off bones and scraps, the occupant lying inside, blinking and pretending to be asleep.
His way of dealing with stranger-dogs, who showed fight, varied with their respectability or formidableness. Little • yelping curs who pursued him through the town, snapping at his heels and evidently asking in Board-school fashion, "Is it cold up there ?" were treated with perfect indifference. A large dog, daring to assume the offensive, would, with one gripe of the monster's teeth, be sent howling away to repent his temerity. But " Bismarck's " conduct, when once assailed by three" middling" dogs, was certainly extraordinary. They were not large enough to be punished in the way his jaws must treat anything they closed upon, yet too large and too numerous for him to totally ignore their existence. " Bismarck " took a middle course ; he planted himself firmly on his haunches, and, pointing his nose to the sky, waited until they had done.
It happened to "Bismarck "—as too often falls to the lot of his faithful race—that in middle life he was obliged to transfer his allegiance. For a week or ten days he showed neither violent sorrow at the disappearance of the old and well-loved master, nor pleasure in the caresses of his successor, but did all that he was bid with an air of patient dejection. Then, as he lay one morning before the study fire, he raised his head, and fixed the kind brown eyes on the new master's face. The result of the final struggle was satisfactory; he rose, and suddenly, with great licking of hands and joyful tail-wagging, swore allegiance, and gave his whole large dog-love to his future lord.
If I were to tell more of my hero's uncommon doings, I should fill a larger space than I can expect to be devoted to him, so let me conclude with his most uncommon—well, it should have been,—end. He grew old and very infirm. His master had many a mental struggle on his account. Every- one said that " Bismarck " ought to disappear, yet every one who knew him was attached to the grave and gentle minister. But, to be brief, a day came, not many weeks ago, when the chemist, after proper enquiries as to its object, sent up prussic acid. The master, fearing that a less tender hand might ad- minister the dose unskilfully, did the deed, and Bismarck was shut into the kennel with eyes and teeth set, apparently in the act of breathing his last. At daybreak the next morning the gardener, having been on the previous afternoon warned by a sorrowful member of the family of his approaching duty, came to the yard in order to measure with the eye of an undertaker the length of the grave required. He was met by the supposed corpse stalking along with wagging tail. Since that day " Bis- marck " has taken a new lease of life. No one dare hint at a second dose, for fear the consequence might be something still more uncommon.—I am, Sir, &c., G. P.
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