OCR Text |
Show A DOG LET LOOSE. Some days since a saloon-keeper on Grallot Avenue paid certain parties in Chicago $25 for a stuffed lion to add to the attractions of his saloon, and the other morning as the place was being scrubbed out the lion was placed at the front door to keep him out of the wet. Half a block down the street a farmer was having his wagon repaired and a big bull-dog was chained to the hind axle tree. He grew uneasy the minute the lion was rolled out and it needed only a few encouraging words from the boys to render him frantic. He growled and plunged and tore around and attracted quite a crowd, among whom was a man who remarked: "That's a purty brave dog of yours, stranger." "Brave! I'd like to see the man or beast he wouldn't tackle!" replied the owner. "I dunno about that. Never saw a dog who'd stand before a lion." "Well, here's one who'd stand before two lions. See how anxious he is to get there?" "Yes, but he puts on that because he is chained. If he was loose you couldn't get him within a rod of that specimen." "Couldn't, eh? Maybe you want to hear yourself talk." "Well, I dunno. I'm opposed to betting, card-playing, dancing and all that; but seeing you are rather ?? about this, I've got half a dollar here which says that you can't get that dog to go within six feet of that lion." "Put up the money-put up the money!" shouted the farmer as he went down into his own pockets after the coin. The money was put up, the crowd fell back, and the farmer's face wore a smile of triumph as he still further excited the dog, and then slipped his collar. With a yell of rage the "canine" made a bee line for the king of beasts, and in another moment there was reason for a terrific yell of applause. Dog and lion filled the air, so to say. The lion was rolled over and over, grabbed by the throat and shaken around, drawn across the street and back by the ear, and when the dog finally let up on the corpse, the battleground was covered with hair and hay and sawdust and glass eyes. At that moment the saloon keeper rushed out, a policeman came up, and for five minutes the air was rent with shouts and exclamations and expostulations. "It was all in fun," explained the farmer. "Dot lions cost me $25 in Sheecago," protested the saloon man. "Who put up this job," demanded the officer, as he glared around on the crowd. [lin unreadable] the crowd, and a voice which had only kindness in it, the owner of the lion said he must have his $25 or he would start for the police court. The policeman said it was certainly a case for the courts, and the crowd said the farmer might have known what would happen. He protested, but finally came to time, and when he had passed over a $10 bill and given his note for the balance, he had only one sentence to utter. That was: "Now, then, I'll give any of you five acres of land to put me face to face with that outlaw who put up this job on a hard-working innocent man!"-Detroit Free Press. |