THE CAT IN LITERATURE.
{To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." 1 'SIR,-I have read with appreciation and amusement your article in the Spectator of February 26th on the cat, but I note with surprise that in trying to account for my attractive- iless and charm you fail to dwell on the principal explanation, the large extent to which I share in the characteristics of the • swig weibliche. My movements are graceful and my motives mysterious because they are so feminine. Feline temper is 'uncertain,—so, alas ! is feminine temper. To be really de- lightful to her husband, a wife should be full of surprises ; this is just the quality which you correctly find in me. You -describe with truth and feeling the way in which I reject and scorn your caresses for a week and then lavish my affection -on you for an hour. Is not this just what one of your own poets has said,—
"Rose kissed me to-day, Will she kiss me to-morrow ? "
I trust you are reserving this line of thought for development
in a future article.—I am, Sir, &c., C. A. T.
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE '" SPECTATOR."1 Bin.„—The charming essay on cats in the Spectator of Feb- ruary 26th omits one peculiar distinction belonging to those animals: they are in some cases paid officials of the British Government. A number of post-offices are allowed to employ cats for the protection of the mails, and a regular allowance for cata'-meat figures in the office expenses. There used to be -a particularly fine cat in Government employment at Brighton, but it had a very lax notion of its duties, and preferred basking on the post-office counter in the sunshine -of public admiration, to catching mice behind the scenes.
he cat, indeed, is not very conscientious, and in one case a post-office cat which was engaged to protect the game and -provisions that pass through the parcels-post, had to be -cashiered on account of its entertaining false ideas on the -subject of perquisites. As to the question of the corporate -ownership of dogs, treated in the same essay, there have been some famous regimental dogs; while Oriel College, Oxford -still possesses a bulldog (4 Oriel Bill ') who is eminently a public character. He is distinguished for his affability, his willingness to be photographed, and (as one of the Fellows put it) "the profound realisation of the' Welt-Schmerz ' to be sound in his eyes."—I am, Sir, &c., M. C. S.
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