NOTED ARTIST AUTHOR DEAD – The Winnipeg Tribune, 4th January, 1906
London, Jan. 4.—Harrison W. Weir, today. He was born in Lewes, Sussex, May 5, 1824.
The late Harrison W. Weir was first a pupil of George Baxted in 1837, to learn the process of color painting, but he disliked it and began as an artist untaught. He first exhibited at the British Institution an oil painting of a wild duck in 1843, and afterwards at the Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy. He was for many years a member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colors — now the Institute — from which he resigned some years ago. He was a noted animal painter and draughtsman. Mr. Weir, recently had the distinction of being the only surviving member of the original staff of the Illustrated London News. He was also on the staffs of the Field, Pictoral Times, Pictorial World, Graphic, Black and White, Poultry and Store Keeper. He was the author and illustrator of “The Poetry of Nature,” “Every Day in the Country,” “Our Cats and All About Them,” and "Our Poultry and All About Them,” the writing and illustrating of which occupied his attention for upwards of twenty years. He was a designer of rare cups. Goodwood, Ascott, etc., for Garrard & Co., for over thirty years. He was the originator of the cat show at the Crystal Palace, London.

A CAT THAT LAY IN STATE Weekly Irish Times, 6th January 1906
The pussy was not altogether prepossessing to look at, but since he weighed thirty pounds while in the flesh, his outline lacked that beautiful symmetry it doubtless possessed when was young. Philadelphia, U.S., had the honour of containing the cat in question. They do things on a large scale in the States, and so he enjoyed the daintiest fare and reposed on silk and satin. His portrait was painted by a famous artist, and such was pussy’s fame that a letter addressed to him at Philadelphia, U.S., without the name either of street or house, reached him without delay. He carried off a heavy solid gold medal, the only one its kind ever awarded, at the Madison-square Cat Show in 1895. It is sad to think that such a cat had die, like a common or garden specimen of his species; but, alas! this was unavoidable. However, it was worth while dying to have a funeral such as his was. His obsequies were characterised by all the pomp and circumstance which accompany the funeral of a king. He was extended on a satin pillow, which was placed on the top of a white enamelled cage in which he was exhibited in New York. A silk shroud trimmed with lace covered this pillow, and flowers surrounded the body. Hundreds of mourning friends came to witness the “lying in state,” and over seven hundred letters of condolence were received from all parts of the world.—“Royal Magazine.”

CATS – The Pittsburgh Press, January 21, 1906
Gotham’s Millionaires Blow Money for Cats While One Who Loves ’Em Rescues Waifs,

New York society entertained itself with a cat show recently. One might get a good cat for anywhere from $50 to $75 — although for the most aristocratic ones $250 was not an amazing price. Fifty dollars for just a cat! But those poor New York multimillionaires have to have something to spend their money for. Why not a cat?

Down in Palmyra, N. Y.t there is a cat refuge. It is owned by C. H. Jones, who loves cats — just cats, from the $250 variety down.

“I like every cat that is sent to me,” Said Mr. Jones, “and keep it until I can find a good home for it. If it is not such a one as I can conscientiously recommend, I keep it myself all the rest of its natural life. I never chloroform anything. But you would be surprised to know what fine cats some of these waifs turn out to be.”

$1,000 CAT
Democrat and Chronicle, 23rd January, 1906
At the recent cat show in Chicago one of the exhibits was valued at $1,000; yet the average householder does not hesitate to hurl discarded fruit cans at a neighbor’s cat. It is evident that there is either over-appreciation or undervaluation in this industry.

[DISTRICT MESSENGERS] Worthing Gazette, 7th February 1906
Who would not be a District Messenger when the everyday life of these fleet-footed youths is shown to be of each a varied and pleasant description? Some illustrations that have just made their appearance show a big batch of these uniformed young gentlemen outside the doors of a leading London Theatre, securing places for late comers; one of them is seen delivering a dog in London after bringing it over from New York; still another is depicted taking a blind man for an early morning stroll through the streets of London ; whilst one especially trustworthy youth is conveying a hundred guinea cat in a hamper from the Cat Show to the house of its owner.

HARRISON WEIR'S BEQUESTS. GIFT TO THE NATION. Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 15th February 1906
HARRISON WEIR'S BEQUESTS. GIFT TO THE NATION. Mr. Harrison Weir, the famous animal painter, who died on the 3rd of January, has left gross estate valued at £4,601. He has bequeathed to the Mayor and Corporation of Lewes the large silver bowl presented him by lovers of cats in commemoration of his having instituted the first Cat Show held at Crystal Palace. After making provision for his wife and son for life, he also directed his estate to be sold and held in trust by the President and Committee the Royal Academy, as the "Harrison Weir Bequest," for the purchase of pictures of merit, to be placed in the Academy, for the benefit of the nation, as in the case of the Chantrey Bequest.

PRINCESS’S PETS. Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 16th February 1906
Perhaps the only cat in the world which enjoys the privilege of a postal address and her own letter-box is a beautiful chinchilla dame, of Persian lineage and proud exhibition renown, belonging to Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. King Edward's niece is, says Louise Baker in the "Girl's Realm," very fond of cats, and for long time has been known as "a Royal fancier." Occasionally a Crystal Palace Cat Show catalogue shows the Princess the winner of a special prize, sometimes for the much admired and very fashionable "Blue Persians" (which once used to be known as "Angoras"), but more often in the classes devoted to the rarer and most bewitching "Unmarked Chinchillas." This love of cats as pets is one shared by both Prince and Princess Christian, and may be said in part to be a fancy inherited by the Princess from her father and mother. At Cumberland Lodge, not kept in a cattery, but roaming the stableyard and the grounds at will, is a beautiful red tabby Persian, which is known as His Royal Highness’s cat Togo. Prince Christian's cat is an animal of spirit, with a strong individuality, who, while he accepts caresses and that amount of attention which the visitor usually bestows upon a fine animal, strongly objects to being photographed. Other of the Prince's cats are Ladybird and two little smooth-haired kittens, one of the old-fashioned English breed of tortoiseshell end white and the other a cream colour variety seldom met with either in the ordinary cat or the long-haired Persians. Princess Victoria is devoted to her pets as well as interested in their wellbeing, and does not merely keep a cattery in order to have a great many cats belonging to her, but is careful to see that their comfort is assured, and that her cats are looked after in such a way that at any time when she wishes for a boudoir pet for herself or a friend one of the beautiful high-bred animate is ready for selection for that purpose. To this end "the cats and their kittens are entrusted to the charge of Mrs. Amor, the coachman's wife, near whose cottage the catteries have been erected, and the daily life of this faithful retainer knows no greater charge than her affectionate anxiety that "all may be well with her Highness's cats."

Over the door the cats' house is a crown surmounted by the letters V.S.H., and forming Princess Victoria's monogram. The building consists of an inner department of two divisions, “upstairs and downstairs," and the other part is a roomy wire run, well gravelled and sheltered by a big chestnut tree. From the roof inside hang little coloured gelatine balls filled with peas, and suspended on strings, which the kittens jump to in delighted play, and with which the much petted "Imp" diverts herself in less serious moments. Cats, more, perhaps, than any other animal, dislike the feeling of damp, and a little round table in the middle of the apartment is placed there for their use after a shower. The front of the apartment can be closed at night or during rain. Its four little windows are daintily hung with muslin tied back with blue ribbon for the chinchilla occupant and with pink and green for the blues. Into the little letter-box is slipped every morning what purports to be a letter - a delicate attention to “Imp,” who from kittenhood has loved to play with a piece of paper! Like a doll's house, too, a flight of miniature steps leads to the floor above, where the feeding dishes are placed well to one side, and on the opposite side stands a little wooden bed with its full complement of sheets, blankets, quilt, and bedding for the due repose of “a Princess's pet."

THE SULTAN'S PETS. Globe, 16th February 1906
The Sultan of Turkey is fond of animal pets, l and lavishes upon them a tenderness which does not extend to the Christian peoples of his empire. He is a frequent purchaser of choice singing birds in the European markets, especially in that of Berlin. But His Majesty has now been smitten with the craze for prize cats, and the cat show in Berlin particularly struck his fancy from the published reports. His agent in the German capital was thereupon instructed to forward one or two of the handsomest specimens. These have recently arrived at the Yildiz Kiosk, where they will henceforward, presumably, live the luxurious life of an oriental seraglio.

[HARRISON WEIR] Bexhill-on-Sea Chronicle, 17th February 1906
The late Mr. Harrison William Weir, of Poplar Hall, Appledore, Kent, the well-known artist, who left estate valued at £4,601 gross, and at £1,684 net, bequeathed the “large silver bowl and black stand that a few lovers of cats presented to me in commemoration of my having instituted the first cat show held at the Crystal Palace,” to the Mayor and Corporation of Lewes, of which Borough he was a native. [Note: this is not true, that first Crystal Palace cat show was instituted by Fred Wilson.]

INVENTING A FREAK CAT. The Times Democrat, 24th February 1907

The dream of Bacon, who saw in the new Atlantis gardens, devoted to the modification and improvement of animals and plants at man’s will, is being more than realized by the Carnegie Institution at its new ‘Station for Experimental Evolution’ at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. In this ten-acre plot man - long content with his part as caretaker and subjugator of living species - is now learning the new role of creator.

The discovery of the new laws of organic evolution is the prime function of his interesting institution, and its direct bearing upon man may best be set forth in the words of Dr. Charles B Davenport, its director: “Since when we know the law we may control the process, the principles of evolution will show the way to an improvement of the human race. A Knowledge of the principles of evolution is advantageous in still another way. It shows how organisms may be best modified to meet our requirements of beauty, food, materials and power.”

Popular interest is excited most by the director's curious collection of cats. Here the entire gamut of the domestic feline family is represented. Some notable individuals are a black tailless Manx cat; a white, blue-eyed deaf cat, which is polydactyl, i.e. has superfluous toes; also a black, a Maltese and a black and yellow cat - all polydactyl. With this particular group Dr. Davenport some time ago commenced a curious breeding experiment whose purpose he thus describes: “If characteristics are for the most part inherited entire and can be combined in various ways, like atoms in chemistry, it should be possible to obtain any desired combination. At the beginning of 1905 I set myself the task of producing a white, blue-eyed, deaf, long-haired, tailless, polydactyl cat.”

The no-tailed Manx was the father of the first generation, the deaf cat and the other polydactyl cats being employed as mothers. In one year there were obtained an interesting variety of kittens - some no-tailed and normal toed, some tailed and abnormal toed, and others deaf, and so on. This work of breeding to order a distinct variety of white. blue-eyed, deaf, long-haired, tailless polydactyl cats still goes on promisingly. While such a breed will have no practical value the creation will prove the theory of heredity on which Dr. Davenport is diligently working. The selection of this particular variety was but the result of the parent stock which he happened to have on hand when the experiment commenced.

McCHESNEY'S IDEA OF HUMOR
Asbury Park Press, 27th February, 1906
Council last night was in receipt of a communication from W.W. McChesney. Clerk Burroughs had only half finished reading it when audible smiles filled the council chamber and Mr. Minot asked for relief, which was granted by Dr. Kinmonth, who asserted that council wasn’t compelled to listen to burlesques and move that the letter be buried in the scrap basket. Mr. McChesney’s missive which proved so troublesome recommended a cat show in the auditorium and set forth plans whereby the city might receive great revenue from a performance in which cats, mice and women alone participated.

CATS’ AGE
Diss Express, 6th March, 1906
Herr Pohl, president of the German Society for the Protection of Cats, has just published the results of his investigation in regard to the age which it is possible for these animals to attain. Cats, he says, are like human beings in one respect. The more peaceful and better regulated their life is, the longer they are likely to live. As a proof, he points out that a favourite cat in the Royal Castle of Nymphenburg has lived to be forty-two years old, and consequently may fairly claim to be considered the dean of cats in Germany.

SULTAN GETS GERMAN CAT – The Inter Ocean, 11th March, 1906
BERLIN, March 10 — The Sultan of Turkey has for a long time evinced a predilection for things German. Probably the sedulous manner in which the Kaiser has cultivated his friendship account a for Abdul’s taste. As is known, the Ottoman ruler is a great lover of domestic pets. He has decided that his future purchases in this domain shall be made in Germany. All the Sultan’s canaries and other singing birds are sent from Germany, and now the report in a newspaper of a cat show in Berlin has awakened Abdul’s interest. He expressed a desire to own a German cat, and one was forthwith sent to Yildis.

THE LATE MR HARRISON WEIR
The Leavenworth Times, 16th March, 1906
The late Mr. Harrison Weir bequeathed “the large silver bowl and black stand that a few lovers of cats presented to me in commemoration of my having instituted the first cat show held at the Crystal Palace,” to the mayor and corporation of Lewes, England, of which he was a member.

THE ARISTOCRATS OF THE CAT FAMILY
The Indianapolis Star, 18th March, 1906
Although the little girls are supposed to be greater lovers of the pretty furry tabbies than the boys, there are probably very few of the latter who would refuse to own one of the handsome animals pictured above. These furred aristocrats were among the prize winners at a great cat show where over 300 pedigreed pets were shown.

There is a big difference between the back yard cat that is seldom allowed inside the house and the petted darlings of indulgent mistresses. These pedigreed cats are worth large sums and the boys and girls would open their eyes in surprise at the prices for which some of them are sold.

Imagine a great long-haired white beauty, whose every movement is grace and who has been taught ways as dainty as those of her mistress. And then there are the aristocratic short haired species. The young people generally like the lovely fluffy beauties best, however.

In the long-haired kinds the blue classes are amongst the most sought after. Then there are the white Persians and the great orange-eyed fellows. Other fine classes are the chinchilla, the silver tabbies, the smokes, the creams, the oranges, the tortoise shells, the neuters, the blue Persians and the exquisitely brown-marked tabbies so much admired.

NEW CAT IN BOX OFFICE
Los Angeles Herald, 1st April, 1906
Joy reigns supreme at the Burbank Theater, Maquita, the pussy, which was presented to the Burbank by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and which is incidentally a very much spoiled kitten, is the proud mother of one tiny, white, hungry Angora kitten. For more than a year Maquita has been the pet of the Burbank forces and every morning they brought her liver before they did anything else. When “Mizpah” made a hit, the pet kitten was named “Mizpah” after the play, but when the “Judge and the Jury” scored a much greater success than “Mizpah," ihe name was peremptorily changed to "Marquita,” the name of the heroine in the pretty play of the west.

Black as darkness itself is Maquita, while her one lone child is as white as Maquita is black. The sire of the new arrival is Peerless, the Angora that carried off nearly all the prizes at the cat show.

In the box office where the fond mamma and helpless offspring lie in a drawer, for the last twenty-four hours everyone connected with the selling of tickets has been tiptoeing about in an agony of apprehension for fear the twain might be disturbed. The name of the youngster has not yet been decided upon by the Burbank force. Whether to name it William, after the leading man, or Blanche after the leading woman is not yet settled, but one of the two it is sure to be.

ANOTHER DOG [AND CAT] SHOW – Pittsburgh Daily Post, 8th April, 1906
A Cat Show and Pet Animal Show! Admission Free! At Fox's
Pet Shop, Oliver Avenue and Smithfield Street. You will see a new importation of Angora Cats and Kittens — one pair of heavy-weight 9-month old Blue Persian Cats. [Plus other pets for sale] The place for you to visit is Fox's Pet Shop,
Oliver Ave. & Smithfield St. (Old Virgin Alley.)

MY NEIGHBOUR'S CAT. Birmingham Mail, 23rd May 1906
Has our neighbour’s cat, or cats, as it is more frequently the case, any claim, upon our consideration? Of course, it may assumed by way of preliminary that, in the eyes those who keep cats, there must be some sort of distinction between one’s own cat and the cats of one's neighbours. As all the world knows, there are (from the cat lovers’ standpoint at least) cats and cats. There are cats who never by any possibility wrong. They are the lovely and the saintly members of the tribe - until the household has retired to rest, when even in the best of cats feline nature asserts itself. And there are cats who are incapable of doing the right thing. They are the black sheep of the race. They are turned adrift. Every man's hand is against them. These, we presume, are the cats that do all the mischief, as well as one’s neighbour’s cats, whose manners and morals are to all appearances sadly neglected. What that mischief is it is scarcely necessary to specify. Ask amateur gardeners who are trying to cultivate, under almost insuperable difficulties of city surroundings, some beautiful varieties of roses or other delicate and delightful beds of flowers what harm cats can do in a night. It is heartbreaking to find the bed which in the evening had been lovingly raked and patted and looked after turned into an unsightly mound, fiendishly excavated and—metaphorically speaking—the word “cats” scrawled all over the heap. Ask the man who keeps pigeons or who soars to the lofty ambition of garden aviary what mischief cats are capable of in the darkness and solitude the night. A few feathers, all that is left to remind the owner of a vanished bird, and the signs of a scuffle in the loft, indicate only too eloquently what may have happened. The headless trunk of an unwise siskin in an aviary tells a somewhat mysterious tale, the villain of which, no doubt, is some marauding wicked cat. These are but a few instances of the depredations wrought by cats, and, naturally, there are many people, very worthy and estimable citizens, who would have no compunction in putting their hand to any scheme for paying puss back in something more than kind, even if the process involved be a little surreptitious cruelty.

But is a person justified in putting down carbolic acid in an undiluted state to keep away a neighbour’s cat! This, as a matter of fact, was the problem which the Brentford justices were, yesterday, called upon to solve. The case, which is one of considerable general interest, arose out of a summons that had been taken out by a boarding-house keeper against her next door neighbour for causing unnecessary pain and torture to the former’s cat. The defendant, it was alleged, was annoyed by the cat, and it is supposed she put down a quantity of undiluted carbolic acid. The cat got some on its fur and began licking itself. Thus the poison did its work. Puss became very ill. Her mewings were pitiful. The boarders could not sleep because of these cries, which, according to the Inspector of the R.S.P.C.A., could be heard hundred yards away. She was ill for four or five days, and then—recovered. A result which proves that Barry Cornwall’s mad cat with nine lives was no fable. The case under review was, we are told, the first the kind undertaken by the R.S.P.C.A., and, in the opinion of the magistrates, the question was whether the defendant put down the carbolic acid for destroying this particular cat. After discussing the problem the Bench found that the defendant had no malicious intentions, and, therefore, the summons was dismissed, but consented to state a case for appeal, if desired. Are we to infer from this ruling that the putting down of undiluted carbolic acid is permissible so long as no malicious intentions against any particular animal can be traced? If that be so, we very much fear that there is bad time in store for pussy and, possibly, more innocent creatures.

After what we have already said about pretty pussy’s unlovely little ways, there is no occasion to ask why she has fallen upon evil times. But even yet the times are not so bad. The carbolic acid fate is not a common feline fate, though in the thinking of many people something shorter and sharper—capable of taking all nine lives at once—would fit the times, in view of the fact that as mousers cats have declined deplorably from their old standard of diligence and dexterity. An ordinary modern cat will devote a whole day to the circumvention of a pet canary rather than spend an hour at the mouse-hole. In Chaucer’s time it was otherwise. There is also a fable in Aesop where a youth falls in love with a cat, and Venus, taking pity on the youth, changes the cat into a pretty woman. The young couple have scarcely met when a mouse runs by and the girl rushes away in feline pursuit. Even if Venus could be persuaded to be so kind in these days such an incident would never happen. The transformed cat, instead of going after the mouse, would probably jump on a table and scream. As the town sparrow only catches insects by way of sport or as dessert, so it has been shrewdly observed the average cat regards mouse-catching as a pastime, or at best an avocation, a paragon. The story of Dick Whittington is very much of the past. Indeed, Grimalkin has degenerated. Time was when Egypt worshipped her, when a royal breed of cats flourished in Siam, when the wise men of China read the changing hours from cats’ eyes. Those days have gone for ever. The Crystal Palace is a poor substitute for the homage of Memphis, Bubastis, and Thebes, and the cats’-meat man furnishes a sorry comparison with Pharaoh-Necho. Yet although not worshipped to-day except at a cat show and by old maids (who look upon a Russian as "adorable” and a Persian as "divine”), puss on the domestic hearth is a personality. She faithfully reflects, as Mr. Phil Robinson in his charming essay on “Some Poets’ Cats” reminds us, the variations in the domestic barometer. On the garden wall, “caterwauling,” she tells the world that the household is (perhaps) asleep. On the doorstop, with a too-much-whisky-overnight expression of face, denotes the milkman’s hour. Before the kitchen fire, blinking at the kettle, she signifies breakfast. Asleep on the hearth means afternoon. And so in all the daily rounds of life puss has her share, and is a “familiar beast”—the incarnation of "evasive vagrancy,” the most hopeless of Bohemians, and yet also the type of domesticity. What would many a home be without a cat ? But a neighbour's cat is a different cat altogether.

CREOSOTING A CAT: A DISMISSAL Kent & Sussex Courier, 1st June 1906
John S. Charlton was summoned for' cruelly torturing a cat by applying to its coat a quantity of creosote, at Tonbridge, on the 6th, 7th, and 8th May. Mr S. G. Polhill prosecuted on behalf of the R.S.P.C.A., and said that owing to the cat having trespassed on his premises, the defendant squirted quantity of creosote at the cat, which had the effect of burning its coat, and causing it such suffering that it died two or three days later. If the cat had done any damage defendant could have adopted another course. He (the solicitor) was there to protest strongly, against such cruelty.

Fredk. Burns, a yard foreman to Messrs. White and Sons, said he was the owner of the cat. After defendant squirted the creosote at the cat the animal ran into witness's yard in wild state. They put some bran and oil on its coat, and also watched the cat after they caught it. The cat appeared to be exhausted.

Mr W. A. Wardlev (defending): The cat ran about in wild state at first, and after being caught it was apparently unable to make any noise.

Albert Henry Gain, 23, Garden-road. Tonbridge, a horse foreman, in the employ of Messrs. R. W. White and Son, corroborated. He remarked that he at first thought that tar had been placed on the cat's back. On the following Monday, the cat was in a very low state. It was tempted with food, but refused to eat. When spoken to defendant said he was sorry, and did it without thought, and with no intention of harming the cat. Thee cat died on Tuesday.

Inspector Laird said he saw the cat dead on Tuesday. The hair on its back was very much disturbed, and smelt very strongly of creosote. The skin was in a very bad stats, and there was a quantity of creosote in the ears. It was easy to pull the hair out of the coat. Witness went to Mr Charlton, who said, "I am very sorry I creosotod the cat. I saw it prowling about close to the pigeon house. I have recently lost eight pigeons, so I filled garden syringe with creosote and squirted it over the cat. Before I did it to the cat it seemed to be in a fit, and I had to hustle it out the garden. I believe the cat was poisoned." At Mr Charlton’s request, Mr Percy Gregory, veterinary surgeon, made a post mortem examination, and declared that there were no signs of poison. In witness's opinion the cat died from shock, caused by several days' suffering.

By Mr Wardley: He believed death was earned by external shock, and not by anything which the cat had internally. He based his opinion on the injury of the cat from the external burns which he saw. He was sure that the ease with which he pulled the cat's fur out was due to the application of the creosote. The cat was suffering from nervous pain, but this was due to the creosote on its back. Mr Charlton did not say had no intention of cruelty to the cat. He did not say that its death could not have been due to the creosote, and neither did he say that he thought the cat had been poisoned, because he had lost cats his own in that way.

Alexander Piease M.R.C.V.S., said the effect of putting creosote upon the cat's skin would be burning, and congestion of the skin, and it would also affect the nervous system. If death was to ensue it would be due to shock to the nervous system owing to the absorption of the creosote into the skin.

By Wardley: If the cat had abnormally large kidneys its condition would be affected. Mr Wardley confessed that he was surprised that his friend, who came down to offer such a strong protest against the cruelty meted out to the cat in question had not offered much stronger evidence. One would have thought that the Society, for which they all had much respect, would have accepted the statement of a respectable tradesman like Mr Charlton, that he did not intend to harm the cat. Mr Charlton's intentions were really very humane, as he was trying to keep the cat from his pigeons. He only intended to make the cat uncomfortable, so that the smell of the creosote would prevent it coming again.

The Chairman said the Bench were of opinion that there was no intention of cruelty on defendant’s pert.
Mr Polhill said what they had to consider was not defendant's intention, but the actual result of his action. Hs submitted that in no possible circumstances could a person be held to be justified in squirting creosote on to the cat's skin.
Defendant, sworn, said when he squirted the creosote over the cat, he had no thought that it would harm it. He had had as many as five cats in his yard after pigeons, and he used creosote because he had found water ineffectual in driving the cats away.
Mr Polhill: He used creosote for preserving wood, but had no knowledge of its properties.
Percy Gregory, veterinary surgeon, denied that there was burning of the skin. When he made the post mortem examination he found no external injuries, but kidneys were enlarged. The cat showed no evidence of having suffered pain from creosote.
Mr M. Polhill: He agreed that it would not be a proper thing to creosote a cat, as it might cause burning. In the present case, however, no burning had been caused.
The case was dismissed.

CAT ADOPTS RAT
Detroit Free Press, June 10, 1906

"Miss Phoebe Snow,” the pet cat, of the ferryman who tends the little row-boat ferry across the “gap” in the Lackawanna railroad yards In Hoboken, gave birth to six kittens ten days ago. Last Friday one of the kittens died. All day Saturday Miss Phoebe appeared downcast and in the afternoon she started on a hunt for rats. A few minutes later she returned with a big rodent of the kind known as "wharf.” The cat again disappeared and came back in a short time with a baby rat tenderly carried in her teeth. Straight by the ferryman she marched and over to the basket where her five remaining* kittens lay, and beside them she placed the young rat. As an experiment, the rat has been taken from Miss Phoebe several times, but on each occasion she has deserted her kittens long enough to find the missing youngster and return it to the basket. That the cat killed the mother rat to obtain the little one who has finally taken the place of her dead kitten is the belief of the ferryman and more than one of his friends.

[PRICE OF PEDIGREE KITTENS] Western Gazette, 22nd June 1906
The price asked for the pedigree kittens which a member of the Royal Family has for sale is not excessive. They would probably command a higher figure if sent abroad. There must be an export trade in cats, for statisticians who look into these matters find that there is a great scarcity of these creatures in seaport towns, and point to oversea marts as the destination of the missing ones. Southey has placed it on record that the first settlers in Brazil paid £300 for a cat, and for kittens their weight in gold dust. This is more easily credited when it is learned that a sum of £500 was refused for a Persian cat at the Sydenham Cat Show some years ago.

NEW CAT IN BOX OFFICE
Los Angeles Herald, 1st April, 1906
Joy reigns supreme at the Burbank Theater, Maquita, the pussy, which was presented to the Burbank by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and which is incidentally a very much spoiled kitten, is the proud mother of one tiny, white, hungry Angora kitten. For more than a year Maquita has been the pet of the Burbank forces and every morning they brought her liver before they did anything else. When “Mizpah” made a hit, the pet kitten was named “Mizpah” after the play, but when the “Judge and the Jury” scored a much greater success than “Mizpah," ihe name was peremptorily changed to "Marquita,” the name of the heroine in the pretty play of the west.

Black as darkness itself is Maquita, while her one lone child is as white as Maquita is black. The sire of the new arrival is Peerless, the Angora that carried off nearly all the prizes at the cat show.

In the box office where the fond mamma and helpless offspring lie in a drawer, for the last twenty-four hours everyone connected with the selling of tickets has been tiptoeing about in an agony of apprehension for fear the twain might be disturbed. The name of the youngster has not yet been decided upon by the Burbank force. Whether to name it William, after the leading man, or Blanche after the leading woman is not yet settled, but one of the two it is sure to be.

ANOTHER DOG [AND CAT] SHOW – Pittsburgh Daily Post, 8th April, 1906
A Cat Show and Pet Animal Show! Admission Free! At Fox's
Pet Shop, Oliver Avenue and Smithfield Street. You will see a new importation of Angora Cats and Kittens — one pair of heavy-weight 9-month old Blue Persian Cats. [Plus other pets for sale] The place for you to visit is Fox's Pet Shop,
Oliver Ave. & Smithfield St. (Old Virgin Alley.)

BATHES CATS
Vancouver Daily World, 4th July, 1906
Miss Virginia Smith, of New York, bathes cats for member of the Four Hundred who take to feline pets. At one cat show all but one of the prize winners were her clients, and she is prosperous.

THE CAT AS AN ASSET Manchester Evening News, 5th July 1906
Persons who look into apparently trivial matters find that there is a great scarcity of cats in seaport towns, and point to oversea marts as the destination of missing members of the feline species. It is on record that the first settlers in Brazil paid three hundred pounds for a cat, and for kittens their weight in gold dust. This is more easily to be credited when it is learned that a sum of five hundred pounds was refused for a Persian cat at the Sydenham Cat Show some years ago.

NATURE OF SEPARATOR SLIME OR MILK FILTH. The Field, 3rd November 1906
The practical Dairyman of to-day is familiar with the fact that in using the separator, however clean the milk may appear to be, there is always obtained from it during the process of separation a considerable quantity of the so-called slime. . . . The main constituent of the slime is found to be casein, an albuminoid substance which is always present in milk. . . . A curious effect produced by slime when used as a food came once under the writer's notice. In one farmhouse two cats showed a special fondness for the separator slime, and devoured it in preference to anything else. The effect produced in a few weeks was striking, for they dwindled away so evidently that they had to be kept out of the dairy in order that recovery to normal conditions should be brought about. Kittens which were fed on the slime of milk which had previously been pasteurised to 165 Fahrenheit seemed to suffer no such ill effects, so that the conclusion may be drawn that the bacteria which were injurious in the unscalded slime were killed by pasteurisation, when the slime proved a food rather than a carrier of disease. – C.W. Walker-Tisdale

THE WICKEDNESS OF CAT SHOWS. Pearson's Weekly, 8th November 1906
Humorous Article by W. L. Alden.
CATS are unquestionably growing in popularity, for how else can we explain the ever-increasing interest which is shown in the annual cat show at the Crystal Palace. The cat show, with its committee sitting in judgment on a crowd of cats, and awarding silver cups and decorative medals with grave enthusiasm, is clearly an expression of a national interest in cats which is daily growing and deepening. Nevertheless, if we look at the matter dispassionately, it is impossible to avoid the conviction that the zeal of the promoters of cat shows somewhat outruns their judgment. The influence of a public exhibition which assembles 313 cats, cannot but be injurious to the moral nature of the cat. The qualities which ought to be encouraged in a cat are honesty in respect to the family milk, skill and industry in the pursuit of mice, and that graceful limpness of body which the humane and generous cat exhibits when inverted or bent into abnormal geometrical figures by inconsiderate infants. Sleekness of fur, beauty of colour, and grace of tail are of little value in comparison with moral worth. A cat may be as faultless in appearance as a professional gambler of the Jack Hamlin variety, but he may also be as wicked and sinful.

There are cats with fur of the purest whiteness, whose interiors are nevertheless habitually full of surreptitious chicken bones; and there are cats whose lithe forms, clad in jet-black fur, suggest exceptional abilities in the rat arena, who are too lazy to kill the smallest mouse, and are secretly in league with the rodent banditti, permitting them to ply their nefarious trade unmolested on condition that they do not disturb the cat's after-dinner nap. While beauty is always to be desired, and personal neatness to be encouraged, it is the gravest mistake to suppose that the exterior of a cat gives any clue to his moral qualities. Now, the committee which awards prizes at a cat show looks only at the external cat. The most depraved cat in the United Kingdom may receive the highest praise if his coat happens to be better than the coats of his rivals. What would be thought of a competitive examination for Woolwich if the candidates were to be judged exclusively by their clothes? Would it not lend young men to believe that dress is of more importance than bravery, intelligence, and honesty? The influence of a cat show must be precisely of this nature. The cats are made to believe that fur is of more consequence than anything else. Can it be expected that cats who have thoroughly learned this lesson will return to the prosaic duty of catching rats in dirty cellars, when they have seen the highest prize awarded to a dissolute reveller, who has for years spent his nights in riotous pleasure, and on back fences of infamous reputation, and has never done an honest day's work in his whole feline existence?

Before cat shows were held, our cats, in spite of their shortcomings, knew that industry is a better passport to favour than debauchery, and that the finest fur, combined with habits of laziness, profanity, theft, and midnight singing, could not safely evoke comparison with the dingy coat of the faithful hunter of the coal cellar. It is undoubtedly a reproach to us as a nation that we make so few efforts to elevate the moral tone of our cats; nut it is a far greater reproach that by our cat shows we have thrown the influence of public exhibitions and competitive examinations on the side of mere fur, and against faithfulness, honesty, and the mastery of mice.

THE CULT OF THE CAT. Manchester Times, 10th November 1906
It is not commonly known that for twenty years there has been growing, under the aegis of a select circle, an important change and improvement in the breeding of the domestic cat. The culture was carried on amongst enthusiasts, whose principal aim was to produce in friendly rivalry new and improved breeds. The idea of extending the cult to a wider circle originated to a great extent with Mr. Harrison Weir, the celebrated animal artist, who was the principal instigator of the first real Cat Show at the Crystal Palace about twenty years ago. The founding of the National Cat Club was the result. Within the last ten years increasing interest in the cat has resulted in the formation of a number of clubs and specialist societies, amongst them the Northern Counties, the Midland Counties, and the Southern Counties Clubs, with a membership of from 500 to 600 members. These societies have each a particular breed under their care. The great feature of the clubs is the periodical shows, which are held during the winter, and special interest attaches to that to be held in January at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hall, Westminster, by the Southern Counties Club, the youngest of the cat clubs, whose president is the Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

WHEN IS A CAT?
The Scranton Republican, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1906

LONDON . Nov. 20. Cat fanciers In Great Britain, who are growing numerous, are riven by the profound question, “can a kitten become n cat before it Is a year old.” - The Southern Counties Cat club has decided that the period of adolescence ceases at nine months, and [illegible] Its members are going to call cats “cats” and kittens “kittens” in those lines whatever happens. Other clubs differ and the frequent cat shows look likely to continue to no [illegible].

[BALLYMENA CAT HOAX] Dublin Evening Mail, 23rd November 1906
If everyone had the luck of Dick Whittington there would be many wealthy people today in Ballymena. Yesterday the town was the scene of perhaps the most extraordinary cat show ever witnessed, and it was all the result of a remarkably daring hoax. One morning recently flaring posters on the dead walls and tree stumps announced that the British Army in some foreign part was suffering from a plague of rats, and as all methods adopted by the Government for their extermination had proved useless, the idea was at last conceived of sending abroad a consignment of cats. The poster concluded with the information that a representative of the Government would attend at Ballymena Fair on a certain day to purchase all suitable specimens. It need hardly be said that the response was generous. From all round the countryside consignments of cats arrived, and keen speculators bought up every one they could discover. Ballymena Fair had never been so well attended, and all the forenoon the customary squealing of pigs was drowned by the wailing of cats. A keen look-out was kept for the Government official, and it was not till afternoon that it dawned on the country people that they had been hoaxed. Cats are now at a discount in Ballymena, and collectors may have consignments of assorted specimens at giving-away prices.

WOMAN TRYING SUICIDE, LEAVES ROOSEVELT ALL; Mrs. Grover in a Note Says President Will Care for Her Body. THEN DRINKS CHLOROFORM Would-Be Suicide a Fanatic About President's Personality
The New York Times, December 10, 1906

Mrs. Lulu B. Grover, a middle-aged woman living at 2,089 Lexington Avenue, who was evidently a fanatic about the personality of President Roosevelt, attempted suicide some time yesterday, leaving a letter saying that the President would look after her two white kittens. She said she had already notified him, and he would know just what to do. […] Mrs. Grover visited the Harlem court about a year ago to ask for a summons for some person she thought wanted to carry away her two Angora cats.

THE FAMILY CAT
By Walter Louis Ray
Photographs by C. F. Conly, Sarah Weaver and William F. Wood
Suburban Life Magazine, December 1906

DESPITE the fact that the cat is visibly nearer its wild and treacherous ancestors than any other of our domesticated animals; and that it is useless, in an age when use, in most things, is the criterion of popularity and value ; it is still strangely true that this same cat is the most domestic of animals, and the most popular, if numbers tell the story.

The following hints as to their care come from one who has brought up many of these animals in the way they should go. To most people it will be startling to hear that cats should not have milk. It is not a natural, save in the beginning, food for them, nor a desirable one. Meat for food, and water for drink, is the latest approved cat diet. Be sure and keep water about; many a cat goes thirsty.

Not even is it best to give kittens milk. As soon as they are through nursing, give them meat at once; don't wean them with milk. At eight weeks, the desirable food is raw meat chopped fine. Beef is perhaps the best sort, if one is going into the thing scientifically, so to speak; though there is no harm in general table scraps, where there is not too much grease with them. The best vegetable (for the diet should not consist wholly of meat) is rice. This, cooked not too soft, and mixed with finely chopped raw meat, and given to them twice a day, has been found by a successful cat culturist to be the most satisfactory and healthful diet, as it never tends to produce the common diseases to which cats arc subject, and which are usually laid to other causes than the diet. A sick cat can often be cured if put strictly on this diet.

Ordinarily speaking, cats may be kept clean by brushing; long-haired ones also need combing. Unlike dogs, they really do not need regular washing, though it is quite possible to train a cat to a weekly bath if she is taken early enough.

If you treat puss like a human being, she will treat you like one — if not, beware of her; she, despite her civilized habits, is near the savage.

THE WHIRL OF SOCIETY
The Inter Ocean, December 1, 1906

Mrs. Clinton Locke’s Cat club has one rule which shuts out the very poor from membership, although it may not tend to exclude the nouveau riche. Before you can join you must have become the owner of a cat which is pedigreed. Cats which are pedigreed come high, unless you are fortunate enough to win out on the Mansfield Angora cat raffle over at the Streets of Paris piffle next week. At any rate, you must own a real cat, not an alley Tom.

There is a young matron in town who met some of the Cat club women recently, and found she had made, innocently, such a pronounced hit with all of them that she was asked forthwith, and not only asked, but urged, to join the Cat club.

“But I haven't a cat,” the young matron said, with a well concealed shiver at the thought of the sleek, furry creatures which were no favorites with her.

“My dear, the simplest thing in the world,” said the Cat club ladies with one voice. “Here is an address. That cattery is to be depended upon, and the pedigrees furnished are simply lovely. Now, do hurry. We have our meeting tomorrow, and we could propose your name and perhaps vote you in right away."
“If the constitution and by-laws of the club will let us,” wet-blanketed one of the women.

The other woman said something which breathed anathema upon the law akin to, though not precisely, what Senator Tillman said in his speech the other night, and repeated:

“And perhaps vote you in right sway.”

When the young matron went home she asked her husband if the Cat club was worthwhile, and how much a woman would have to spend for a pedigreed cat. When he said $40, she gasped and called up the cattery. It was even so, $40 at least; and, if she wished, a great deal more.

”I hate cats, anyway,” said the young matron. “We’ll put $60 with the $40, dear, and buy that dear little rug Eve wanted, and save the money that way.”

When they slipped the chain lock across the street door that night they heard a faint, weary meow. The man of the house opened the door upon a soft, gray skeleton of a kitten with blue eyes, in which shone a great world sickness. The young matron looked at it with all the dislike she felt for cats, and then something in the kitten’s face moved her, and she bent down and picked it up. As she cuddled it she moved toward the pantry. "I'll give it some warm milk.” she said.

It took the young matron and her adoring husband until 2 a.m. to get that kitten fed and settled for the nighi new mistress watched it all day with a great cat love blossoming in her heart. Early the next morning one of her new friends called her up.

“The Cat club meets this afternoon.” she was told. “Have you your cat?"

“Yes, I have a cat,” began the young matron, “but -”

“Then that’s all, dear,” said her new friend, and the conversation ended abruptly. ”We voted you right in,” the young matron was told by some ten women later. “We knew that you must love cats to have got one so soon, and that cattery is so reliable.”

“But ” began the honest young woman, and then stopped short.

“If they ever ask to see my darling Johnny Bear’s pedigree," she told her adoring husband later, “they just can. But as long as they don’t care. I don’t. And not even Dickie Mansfield’s Angora could be half so beautiful as you, my beauty.”

And the little alley kitten, with a contented little body distended with milk, and ribs becoming swiftly covered with flesh, winked lazily up from the Oriental rug which he had helped to buy.
Perhaps a genealogical society will yet make little Johnny Bear eligible for the cat show, as it helped numerous specimens of alley humanity into historical societies and revolutionary dames and the like. - Willie Dearborn.

CAT SHOW IS MEWS-ICAL – Detroit, Free Press, 22 December, 1906
One pun made yesterday saved several dollars for the cat show. Police Secretary Charles A. Nichols was the target for the play upon words and he capitulated under fire. The police were notified to call at the show and see if a license had been procured. It had not, so the patrolman asked one of the ladies to step over to the secretary's office and explain.

"This is a charitable affair," she said. “We ought not be asked to take out a license.”
Secretary Charlie took down the book of ordinances. He looked through it with a ponderous air and settled on the section that prescribed exemption for musical shows for charitable purposes.
"But this is mews—ical!" exclaimed the lady before the secretary could finish the reading.
"You save the money," said the secretary, and the lady hurried back to her mews—ical bunch.

LEGACY OF TWO KITTENS ACCEPTED BY ROOSEVELT; But the President Declines Mrs. Grover's $2,000 Estate. HE BELIEVED HER A CRANK Woman Suicide Wanted Her Body Cremated and the Kittens Well Cared For.
The New York Times, December 22, 1906

Announcement was made yesterday by United States District Attorney Henry L. Stimson that President Roosevelt has accepted the two cats willed to him by Mrs. Lulu B. Grover, the woman who committed suicide on Dec. 8 in her apartments at 2,089 Lexington Avenue. Mrs. Grover took chloroform and died after being removed to the Harlem Hospital.

In her room the Coroner found many photographs of President Roosevelt, together with several poems lauding the Presldent for his kind heartedness. A will written by her was also found. In it she bequeathed all of her estate to Presldent Roosevelt There was also this letter:

Saturday Night, Dec. 8, 1906. - To the Coroner or the First Police Officer that Finds My Body Here: I beg of you to telephone to President Theodore Roosevelt. He will have my body cremated. I have written to him, have made my will, and all I have is his. He will have everything attended to just as I wish it to be, and all will be right. He knows where to find everything. Please find inclosed $5, and a thousand thanks for your kindness. Please do not let my poor kittens be frightened or annoyed. President Roosevelt will take them as soon as he receives my letter I mailed to-night to him. Please let them stay here until then. My heart is broken, so I take my own life in the familiar way I know by drinking chloroform. No one is to blame but myself. I trust my spirit and future life to a merciful and loving God, who knows and judges our sorrow. - LULU B. GROVER. 2,089 Lexington Avenue.

[…]" The Public Administrator found that she left some jewelry and a little cash, a little more than would cover her funeral expenses. There was some money in a, savings bank, but all told the estate amounted to not more than $2,000.

[…]However, the only benefit President Roosevelt received from it was the two cats. When I took up the matter I found that the Public Administrator had taken possession of the two cats and was in a quandary as to what he should do with them. He could not give them away, he said, because they had been willed to President Roosevelt. “ Consequently the care of the two cats worried him greatly, and he appealed to me to relieve him of the burden. I communicated with President Roosevelt about the cats, and he said to send them on to Washington and he would take care of them. So I sent the cats to the President. Of course if any of the woman’s relatives turn up and claim the cats President Roosevelt will hand them over.”

TWO CATS FOR ROOSEVELT - HE ACCEPTS BEQUEST OF NEW YORK SUICIDE
Boston Evening Transcript, Dec 22, 1906

New York, Dec. 22 - before Lulu Grover committed suicide by the use of poison in her Harlem home on Dec. 8, she expressed in writing that the President should receive her personal property. She added the hope that Mr. Roosevelt would order the disposal of her body and take her pets, two Angora cats. It was learned that although Mr. Roosevelt was never known to the woman her wishes were respected. Acting under the Preseident's orders, United States District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, in conjunction with the public administrator, personally supervised the cremation of the body and forward the two pet Angora cats to the White House. [....] Little was known of Mrs. Grover further than seh described herself as a magazine writer, of independent means, and an admirer of the public career of the Chief Executive.

This odd case was reported in a number of papers including The Washington Post, 10 December 1906 as "WOMAN TRIES SUICIDE - Writes Note Asking that President Be Notified THEN SWALLOWS CHLOROFORM" which described her as a widow who was on good terms with her neighbors and that the neighbors found her unconscious after hearing her groaning. The eccentric Mrs. Grover appeared to have an obsession with the President. Despite her claims, she was not related to him.

CHICAGO CATS - St Louis Post Dispatch, 28 December, 1906

Society in Chicago has just gone through the “amewsing” throes of a cat show. We in St. Louis are threatened with one. None but felines of high degree will be submitted to exhibition. Alley cats and plain pussies, back-fence toms and cellar tabbies will be barred. To get into a cat show the mouse catcher must have a pedigree as long as a road ditch. Divorce and remarriage is so common to the race as to threaten the purity of the race.

But there are things about a cat show which catch. Some of the pedigrees are delightful subjects of study. What shall we say of the large blue-eyed, pink-lipped, fox-tailed Angora cat of Mr. D. L. Parrish, who we are informed comes out of Russia. His registered name is Catchamouscky. His sire was Grabaratsky, his mamma a Countess of Watchtheholeski. They were bred upon the steppes of the famous Russian nobleman, Duke Slopemupski, who is a first cousin of the Count Drinkaviski, who is well if unfavourably known in America. Mr. Parrish secured his famous Angoras from the Countess Blowemupski, the nihilistic leader who married the equally famous Dr. Skippedoutforhisshealthski, whom police rushed from Russia. So you see a cat show will not be without its entertainment and from of instruction, and now that we are told every day that we are a growing city and quite in the class of New York and Chicago, let us have it.

WINNER AT A CAT SHOW CAUSES TROUBLE The Bucyrus Evening Telegraph, 29th December 1906
Sparkles recently won her place in the feline hall of fame. Officials of two women’s societies sent fervid messages about her, a great hotel was nearly upset and a cat and dog hospital was in an uproar. Sparkles is a cat with diamonds in her ears and was raffled at a bazaar given at the Waldorf-Astoria by the Little Mothers’ Aid society. Mrs. Charles A. Anderson, who drew the prize, complained that the gems were paste and the feline had a pinchbeck pedigree. It also was noticed that the animal had been stepped on in places.

Mrs. Anderson complained to the organization which gave the fair, and as a consequence the whole history of this remarkable cat, including an ash-barrel past, was placed under the limelight. Sparkles had come from over toward Eighth avenue and was taken by a kindly soul to the Bide-a-Wee shelter for animals in West Thirty eighth street. This cat had no idea of becoming famous. She had a wan look. Mrs. Anita Brooks, who likes to give cats jewelry and to have them pose, had made arrangements with the Bide-a-Wee to have a fine maltese animal for the affair at the Waldorf-Astoria, but at the last moment, when it was found that she did not intend to be personally responsible for the home influences of the creature, the attendant thought that Sparkles was plenty good enough. That was how Sparkles made her appearance among the splendors of the Waldorf-Astoria.

Reports of the dissatisfaction of Mrs. Anderson aroused the ire of the women who manage Bide-a-Wee. Mrs. Harry Ulysses Kibbe, the president, said that she never would have consented to have Sparkles go to the bazaar and that it all was owing to a mistake of a new attendant that it happened. She sent the superintendent and a veterinary surgeon to the house of Mrs. Anderson, and Sparkles, minus the imitation jewels, was taken to the hospital. Mrs. Kibbe said it was a shame to pierce a cat's ears and that she did not know what Mrs. Brooks meant by doing so. It also was found that Sparkles had a badly inflamed foot, where either a large shoe, with a hotel porter balanced in it, or a trunk had fallen on it. The Waldorf-Astoria management emphatically deny that anyone there stepped on pussy’s foot. The cat now is being treated at the expense of the president of the Little Mothers’ Aid society.

From “THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY” by Bolton Hall, 1907

Many people make money by breeding dogs. Not much land is required and very little capital, as kennels can be multiplied as demand increases. There is always a profitable market for dogs, and some of the lap species, like the King Charles spaniel, bring fabulous prices. Hunting dogs, such as setters, pointers, retrievers, really require a game country and a practical hunter who can train the puppies, to make much of a success of it; with these, if properly handled, the business is a safe one, as there is little other technical skill required beyond ordinary care, such as is given to domestic animals.

Cats are a better venture than dogs because they are sold to women who will pay any price for what strikes their fancy. Fashions in cats change about as fast as fashions in coats, but cats breed faster than coats wear out, so it is quick business. Just now, coon cats, tortoise-shell cats, and bizarre colors of Persian cats are mostly in vogue, but the tailless Manx cat, and even freaks like the six-toed cat and Iynx cats always find a ready market. Of course, these can be raised in the city, but if it is done in a large enough way to make a living out of it, the Board of Health and the neighbors will raise -- something else.

WAR OFFICE AND CAT. Birmingham Mail, 18th February 1907
At a certain, fort in India the rats hare been eating the soldiers’ clothing. The commanding officer accordingly applied to the War Office for leave to keep a cat, which was granted, after due consideration. On the same officer reporting favourably upon the cat’s rat-catching, the War Office took the cat on the strength of the battalion, and kindly allowed twopence a day for her rations. In due course “puss“ presented four kittens to the battalion. The commanding officer again wrote to the War Office, asking for an allowance for the kittens. After the lapse of some weeks the War Office replied as follows: “Concerning the cat allowed for and kittens unallowed for. The cat is on the strength of the battalion, and therefore allowed for; but she is not on the married strength, and therefore her kittens cannot be allowed for. Furthermore, she must have been off duty for several days re kittens. Please furnish accurate report of how long she was incapacitated, in order that deductions may be made from her allowance.”

FOR A CAT CEMETERY
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 22nd, 1907

Women of Newton, Mass., have petitioned the legislature to set apart a tract of land for aged and indigent cats which have passed beyond this vale of yowls and squalls. There is no opposition to such a bill from the legislative committee, and it looks as if we will have a cat cemetery in our midst.

It would be a good thing, a cat cemetery. Personally we know of a whole bunch of cats in our neighbourhood alone, every one of whom ought this minute to be sleeping ‘neath the daisies in a cat cemetery. These cats with which we have a passing acquaintance have outlived their usefulness. Somebody has called the cat a “fireside Sphinx,” which conveys the impression that a cat spends its life sitting sleepy-eyed on the hearth and blinking lazily at the backlog, never opening its mouth. The cats we know are not that kind – they all go in for voice culture. They sing duos, and quartos, and sextos every night just as we are dozing off into slumberland. Then we have to get up and throw away household articles which we really cannot afford. Think of throwing coal away at $7.75 per ton!

It is continuous opera on our back fence day and night. No self-respecting cat in our neighbourhood can walk out of a morning to get the air without having to engage in at least three affairs of honor before he concludes his promenade. We never saw so many cat feuds as there are where we live.

Two cats meet midway of the back fence. It is a narrow boardwalk with no room to take a siding. If it were double-tracked many a bitter controversy would be avoided. But it is a single-tread, narrow-gauge fence, and so when the cats get within about a foot of each other they pause. Their tails begin to swell and switch and the feathers on their backs in rise. There they stand with their ears laid back, their eyes blazing and the names they call each other we would not pollute this column of pure reading matter by repeating. Each T. Cat tells the other T. Cat what he thinks of him and his ancestors for seven generations back, and this takes considerable time.

The climax comes when one cat calls the other a flea-bitten remnant of decayed aristocracy. No cat with any pride will stand for that, and so they get together. The atmosphere is rent into screeches and filled with tufts of hair, toenails and eyebrows. They fall from the fence with a dull, sickening thud closed in deadly embrace, and the fight goes on until one or the other hollers “Plenty!”

Then both return to the fireside with bunged eyes, ears fringed like a lambrequin and coats which look as if the moths had been getting a square meal. Let us have the cat cemetery. — Boston Post.

CAT WAS LOST IN A TREETOP
The Post Standard, 22nd March, 1907

AUBURN. March 21.— A hungry looking cat with an excellent pair of lungs excited the, sympathy of a number of women in Court street to-day. The cat was perched on one of the topmost boughs of a tall tree in front of the County Jail - and was mowing piteously.

A rescue party composed of women was formed, and one woman started after the cat by means of a long ladder. When the woman started to reach for the “poor kitty” the frightened animal leaped onto the roof of the jail, a distance of about ten feet. The ladder was then changed and a man was secured to go to the roof after the cat. After chasing the animal around the roof several times the man became angry and made several remarks derogatory to pussy. Finally the cat leaped from the roof to the ground and ran up Court street at a rapid pace.

TORTOISESHELL TOM Birmingham Mail, 4th May 1907
It may not be generally known that tortoiseshell tom cats are exceedingly valuable, and some of my readers may possibly have a small fortune within their grasp without being aware of the fact. Some years ago one was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Cat Show by quite a poor man, who had been paid by a London cook to make away with the animal. Regarding it as rather a fine cat he decided to exhibit it, and was greatly surprised when it took premier honours, and was at once snapped up at a big price. The following advertisement which appeared in the “Morning Herald” on April 2, 1803, shows that the tortoiseshell tom was regarded as a great curiosity in those days; “The amateurs of natural history and the most eminent naturalists,” runs the advertisement, “have ever considered a tortoiseshell male cat as one of the rarest productions of nature. A phenomenon of this kind was lately sold for upwards of £200, and is now being exhibited in the Strand. Several persons anxious to profit by such circumstance have endeavoured to impose on the credulity of the public by offering tortoiseshell male cats for sale. We should not wonder if many adventurers may be tempted to speculate in this line, but it is necessary to repeat that such an animal is one of the most singular productions of nature, and for ages past has been sought but seldom found.”

MOST PAMPERED PUSS ON EARTH GETS LETTERS AND HAS PRIVATE MAIL BOX
The Washington Post, May 12, 1907

London, May 2. Princess Victoria Of Schleswig-Holstein, who is the favorite niece of King Edward, and who recently was reported to be engaged to the Czar’s younger brother, is the acknowledged leader of the “cat cult" In England. Father Bernard Vaughan may or may not have been aware of this fact when he fulminated so violently against the cat and dog worshipers of society. It is doubtful, however, if even the Mayfair Savonarola could convince her highness that she is imperiling her immortal soul by lavishing her affections on cats. At Cumberland Lodge, in the royal domain of Windsor, where she resides with her parents, Prince and Princess Christian, she maintains a veritable feline paradise, where her furry pets revel in luxurious idleness, relieved of all the obligations imposed on common pussies of earning their board and lodging by catching rats and mice.

She has the only cat in the world probably which can claim the distinction of a private address and letter box. “Her Royal Highness Princess Imp” is the name of this aristocratic favorite. Perhaps the most pampered cat in existence, she is a perfect specimen of that much prized, high-caste breed, the Chinchilla, which is distinguished from the plebeian members of the numerous tribe by its superb fluffy coat. Every morning the postman on his early rounds brings her a letter addressed “H. R. H. Princess Imp, Seymour Lodge, Windsor.” She is not a learned cat, and she makes no pretense of reading the letter, which, by the way, is sent by her loving mistress. On the contrary, Princess Imp promptly tears the “missive” up. It is a diversion to which she has grown so accustomed that if perchance a day passes without bringing her her usual correspondence she sulks in her boudoir and refuses to be comforted.

“Seymour Lodge” Is the name of the house where she resides with the family she is engaged in rearing. It is a dainty miniature two-storied villa. Over the front door, which leads into a little garden with graveled walks, is mounted a shield, in which is emblazoned a crown, surmounting the letters “V. S. H.,” Princess Victoria’s monogram. From the roof of the structure hang little colored gelatine balls, filled with peas, with which the kittens delight to play, and with which their royal mother occasionally diverts herself. The windows of the little house are hung with muslin curtains, tied back with blue ribbons, and a staircase leads up to the first floor, on which are the dining room and bed rooms. Each cat has its own little wooden bed, with its full complement of sheets, blankets, and quilt and bedding deemed necessary to insure the repose of a royal pet.

In a miniature mansion near-by are housed five female Persian cats, each one of which occupies a separate flat. The windows of their abode are hung with muslin curtains, tied up with bows of pink and green. Overlooking this structure is the residence of a royal tomcat — Prince Puck III — who is also a member of the august Chinchilla family, and the winner of many prizes at cat shows, and the father of a numerous progeny which have gained similar distinctions. He isn’t even put to the trouble of choosing his wives. They are all carefully selected for him, and he can serenade his lady loves without ever being called to do battle with masculine rivals.

If “Princess Imp” and the rest of Princess Victoria’s cats lack anything to make them supremely happy it is not their royal mistress’ fault. Their meals are carefully prepared for them, and are always served on time. The milk supplied them comes from the King’s own cows. Their special attendant is an old maid — Miss Armor — who finds her duties a labor of love, for old maids are proverbially fond of cats. Not to make any bones about it, Princess Victoria is an old maid herself. There is never any discreet concealment of royal birth dates, and half a dozen annuals in that portion devoted to the royal family record the fact that she was born in 1870. Even the stern moralist might be moved to regard that as an extenuating circumstance when pondering upon her extraordinary devotion to cats. And if she lavishes much superfluous affection on cats, that does not prevent her from being very fond of babies and children, and devoting much attention to them. Her mother’s pet hobby is a creche for poor children at Windsor, which she has maintained for twenty years. And in making these little waifs of poverty happy, Princess Victoria is her chief assistant.

If Princess Victoria kept all the cats that are born in her “cattery,” Cumberland Lodge, of course, would soon be overrun by them. She sells those she does not care to keep. She displays no false pride about it either. She advertises openly the fact that she has cats for sale - in papers devoted to the cat cult. The money she makes in this way comes in very handy, no doubt, for she is not particularly well off for a princess. She is dependent on what her parents allow her, and neither of them is rich. Her mother has only the $30,000 a year which Parliament settled on her when she married.

Queen Alexandra goes in for cats quite extensively, as well as for dogs. Of late years she has shown greater partially for her feline pets than for her “bow-wows." Her special favorite is a handsome Persian, who has been christened Sandy, because it was his good fortune first to see the light of day at Sandringham. For several years he has always accompanied his royal mistress on her travels. He enjoys the privilege, too, denied his numerous relations, of disporting himself in the royal dining room, or in any other apartment of the royal palaces her majesty may be occupying.

Most men dislike cats, and King Edward is no exception to the rule. If he had his way Sandy would not long enjoy the privilege, which is supposed to be specially reserved for his kind, of looking at a King. But the Queen insists that her pet cat shall be treated with just as much consideration as the King's pet terrier. Therefore, his majesty tolerates Sandy's presence. The Queen, according to the latest census of her four-footed creatures, has about fifty cats, but of these, less than a dozen can claim to be really on terms of personal intimacy with her majesty. They have a groom all to themselves, who carefully superintends their toilets twice a day. They have often sat for their photographs to the Queen herself, for she is an expert amateur photographer, and Louis Wain, the great cat artist, has painted their portraits. When any of them develop ailments, the royal “vet” is summoned to make a careful diagnosis, and the result is immediately communicated to her majesty. A room In the Buckingham Palace stables has been designated the “cat hospital,” and here the royal pussies undergo medical treatment when they need it, and are tended with far more care than is bestowed on most of his majesty’s juvenile subjects when things happen to go wrong with them.

Their diet, too, is much better looked after. Their fish is supplied by a fish-dealer, of high repute; fresh milk for their consumption is furnished daily from the royal dairy at Sandringham - in short, they are treated as members of the feline aristocracy in high favor with her majesty. The queen never sells any of her cats, for, unlike Princess Victoria, she never runs short of money. She gives away most of the kittens to her friends, and the fact that they are gifts from the Queen is sufficient to insure them a life of luxury for the rest of their days. In this way, unwittingly, perhaps, her majesty has been responsible for a great deal of what Father Vaughn so scathingly denounces as cat worship.

But the woman who has done the most to spread the cat cult is undoubtedly Lady Marcus Beresford. She is the founder of the Cat Club, and her catteries were established as long ago as 1890 [note: this article appeared 3 years after she reportedly liquidated her cattery]. At one time she had as many as 150 cats and kittens. She goes in for every variety of blue-blooded cat, but however much they may differ, in the luxurious quarters she has provided for them they enjoy the felicity, to use her own language, of “meeting on a common ground of aristocracy, feline, though it be.” She justifies the attention bestowed upon them by declaring that in the behavior and daintiness they show themselves just as much superior to common cats as are well-bred people to plebeian folk.

Many of her pets are housed in a pretty little home, covered with creepers, which is called “Cat Cottage." No expense has been spared in the fittings of the rooms, and every provision is made for warmth and ventilation. There is a small kitchen for cooking the meals for the cats, and this is fitted with every requisite. On the walls are racks to hold the white enameled bowls and plates in which the food of the cats is served. Their diet is varied [so] that their appetite may not become jaded by monotony. On certain days they are regaled with fish and rice. At other times the enamelled bowls are filled with minced meat. In hot weather a good deal of vegetable matter is mixed with their food. Goats are kept to provide milk for the delicate young kittens. A medicine chest is furnished, which contains everything that is needed for prompt and efficacious treatment In case any pussy becomes sick. On the entrance hall of the cottage appears a list of the inmates of the cattery, with their names, pedigrees, and particular charms duly set forth. There is also appended a set of rules to be observed by both the cats and their attendants.

But Lady Marcus Beresford takes most pride in what she calls her “garden cattery," a dainty structure, covered with roses and ivy. “In this,” she writes, “there are three rooms, provided with shelves and all other conveniences which can add to the cats’ comfort or amusement. The residences of the male cats are most complete, for I have given them every attention possible. Each married cat has his separate sleeping apartments, closed with wire and with a run attached. Close at hand is a large square grass run, and in this each gentleman takes his daily but solitary exercise. One of the stringent rules of the cattery is that no two males shall ever be left together, for if they were it would be a case of ‘when Greek meets Greek.’ I do not wish it to be understood that the gentlemen cats are forced to lead solitary existences, for they have their reception days for lady visitors, who seem to open their eyes with astonishment at the luxurious arrangements provided for guests."

The woman who gets most glory out of cats is Lady Decies, who has a cattery at Birchington-on-Sea. She has won more prizes at cat shows than any other Individual exhibitor. Several of her cats are valued at $5,000 each, which is a good deal more than the average British workman can earn in a lifetime. She has no children of her own; but her devotion to cats is not all selfish. She has established a home for stray cats, where vagrant pussies are sheltered and given an easy exit from this world by means of a lethal chamber, in case they are not reclaimed or provided with a home elsewhere.

Among other prominent cat devotees who have not been convinced of the error of their ways, are Lily Duchess of Marlborough; the Duchess of Wellington, Viscountess Maitland, and many other leading lights of society. There seems little likelihood that the cat cult will decline in England. For one reason, because there is money in it. For another, because its leaders don't care a hang what religious teachers and professors of morality may say about them or their fads

MY CAT. BY LEONORA BAILEY. ILLUSTRATED.
The Queen, 18th May 1907

My Cat. By Leonora Bailey. Illustrated. Mrs. J.D. Bailey, Thornfalcon Rectory, Taunton. Price 1s, 8d.
The authoress of this handy little book states that she is not writing of prize-winners or of show beauties, but of the army of cats who individually go by the name of “My Cat," and all that they are not, but may become. In plain practical fashion she has written a work which should appeal especially to the small owner, though the owner of a great cattery will also find much useful information in it, and the hints on buying are especially noteworthy. The usual topics such as colour, shorthairs, care of coat, cleanliness, food, exhibiting, clothing, fresh air, training of kittens, foster-mothers, neuters, stud cats, and warnings, are all simply and plainly discussed, while the last chapter of all deals with homeopathic treatment, medicines advisable to keep, recipes, &c. The author very rightly emphasises the need of cleanliness and constant care, remarking “without patience you can do nothing with animals,” while common sense is the key note to all the advice. It is a work every cat lover may study with advantage, even if all the remarks made are not agreed with, and as there are only ninety-sight pages (including the numerous illustrations), it can be read in a short space of time, while its size allows it to be easily placed in a hand-bag, or even pocket. The authoress modestly states that she writes solely is the hope of improving the lot of the everyday household cat, but, as will be gathered, the book covers a wider area, and so does not limit its usefulness.

FRIED CAT AND DOG
The Sun, 22nd July, 1907

A dyspeptic Atchison man went into a restaurant the other day and ordered fried catfish. “Fried cat!" bawled the waiter to the cook. Instantly the weak stomach rebelled. “Cancel that order,” the customer said, “and give me an order of country sausage." “Sidetrack the cat and make it dog!" yelled the waiter, and he is wondering yet why the man grabbed his hat and left. — Atchison Globe.

HOME PETS
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 6th September, 1907

“Home Pets” (London: Greening and Co., 6s. net) by various authors, including Dr. Gordon Stables, Mr. Herbert Compton, and Miss Frances Simpson, is a handy little volume on this popular subject, dealing with the selection and care of dogs for town and country, rabbits, cats, white mice, and other creatures.

DRESS AND FASHION. FLIGHTS OF FANCY. The Queen, 2nd November 1907
By Mrs Evan Nepean
We are always told that in the spring a young maid's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of clothes - it is one of the inevitable misquotations that have become hardy annuals and are trotted out duly every February or March. But for myself I believe that the autumn shows an even stronger inclination towards novelties. . . . That this desire is not confined to the human race is quite certain. The Persian kitten's cat (he reminds us uncomfortably of the poor old lady who bought a kitten at one of those fascinating "animal shops," and it grew and grew and grew, and turned out to be a lynx kitten. not a cat kitten) has also caught the infection of the craving for new clothes. He does not seem able to wait a few weeks longer for his natural winter coat = and, his admiring family hopes, a passable imitation of a ruff, and a tail that does not suggest "a mistake somewhere" - and so got involved in an affair with a flypaper, from which it required superhuman efforts to disentangle him. Anything nastier than a coat full of dead flies and stickiness past describing I cannot conceive (illustrations from the comic papers dramatically interpreted in the back kitchen are less funny than might be imagined). added to which everybody assured us that flypapers were full of arsenic, and why did not he die at once! He did not even die gradually, and, as he allowed everybody in the house to try a different method of ridding his fur of the catch-‘em-alive-O, without attempting to lick it off himself, I am forced to conclude that there is a good deal to be said for lack of cleanliness in personal habits; and it was only the other day that he had a shirt-front "capriciously freaked" with a dose of oil that went down outside instead of inside! Meantime he is the colour of the airship (at present undergoing "a reconstruction scheme"!) and nearly as big, and has a purr exactly like the whirr of her propellers, and he flies - at every dog he meets!

KAT AND KITTEN TALES BY ISABEL ALLERDYCE - The Des Moines Register – 3rd November, 1907

If you had been down here last week
You would have seen a sight,
The village cats were all astir
morning until night,
such washing and such brushing up
Were going on all day.
Their whiskers, too, were neatly trimmed.
And oh, how pleased were they
As they entered Farmer Jones’ yard
And sat all in a row,
Each thinking he would take the prize
At Our Cat Show.

Felines of every kind were there.
Big, little, slim and stout.
And Mrs. Tiddles' kittens, too,
Were running all about.
Marla and Miss Mandy Jane
With Angelina sat,
And Mrs Jones' tortoiseshell
With Tom, the butcher's cat.
There were blacks, and grays, and
Angoras white as snow,
A Persian, too, from Teheran,
At Our Cat Show

Down in a comer at the back
A common little cat.
Who attracted no attention.
He was too plain for that.
Looked wonderingly upon the scene.
As if he thought it queer
(He had a scar upon his nose,
A big slit in one ear) ;
He sat and purred contentedly,
And did not seem to know
He was the very homeliest thing
At Our Cat Show.

The famous Tabby Cat was Judge -
Big, solemn and sedate —
The wisest cat for mile around
And when he rose to state
The winner we all pricked our ears,
Each hoping he would be
Called to receive the ribbon blue
And bear it off with glee
He hemmed and hawed and cleared his throat.
He was so calm and slow,
You could have heard a needle drop
At Our Cat Show.

And when at last the wise old Judge
Spoke out and told us that
The ribbon was awarded to
That common little cat
Who had a scar upon his nose
And in his ear a slit.
The others all looked so surprised
I thought they'd have a fit,
And murmurings of discontent
And mutterings deep and low.
Among the audience could be heard
At Our Cat Show.

Maria And Miss Mandy Jane
Looked daggers at the Judge,
While Angelina tossed her head
And gave them both a nudge,
As who should say, “well there my dears!
What do you think of that?”
“’Twill kill all future showa, that’s sure,”
Said Tom, the butcher’s cat.
I laughed until I nearly died
To see them take on so,
And thought we’d have a quarrel for sure
At Our Cat Show.

The Judged called out for order then,
And with a look severe
Remarked in slow and solemn tones,
“You doubtless think it queer
To see the ribbon given to
A cat so vary plain,
But ‘handsome is as handsome does,’
I always will maintain;
And yonder homely little cat,
Although you do not know,
Is worthier far than any one
At Our Cat Show.

One winter’s night, right in this town,
Not very long ago,
He rescued from a dreadful death
Some people whom you know;
Through fire and blinding smoke he ran,
And mewed and scratched and cried,
Until they heard, and but for him
They surely would have died.
So ‘handsome is as handsome does,’
And now the facts you know,
You must admit he’s worth the prize
At Our Cat Show.

When Tabby stopped and sat him down,
The cheers were long and loud,
And all to shake the winner’s paw
Then hurried in a crowd;
They were so pleased to meet him there,
And hoped he’d come again,
And whispered in each other’s ear,
“He’s not so very plain,”
He was the lion of the hour,
And when ‘twas time to go,
We gave three hearty cheers for him
And Our Cat Show.

NOTABLE CAT LOVERS. Globe, 27th November 1907
While it is possible to obtain as much as £1,000 for a specimen of high pedigree, there is, naturally, a business side to the cult of the cat. Among those whose soft-footed representatives are to be seen carefully caged at most of the big shows are Lily Duchess of Marlborough, Viscountess Maitland, the Duchess of Wellington, and Lady Decies. It is said that Lady Decies, who has a cattery at Birchington, has won more prizes at cat shows than any other exhibitor.

FINE FURS OFTEN FALSE
Detroit Free Press, 8th December, 1907

The Humble House Cat Plays an Important Part in Supplying the Demand, and Even the Rabbit is Not Immune.

Ponies and cats have gained a high place in the wardrobe of society. No animal, in fact, with a furry coat is safe these days owing to an increasing demand for garments with a fur side outside or a fur side inside. This is due largely to the popularity of the automobile, for motor enthusiasts buy and wear out a lot of fur garments […] The demand for women’s fur motor coats of a not very expensive grade grew to proportions most pleasing to the fur dealers, who met it quickly. Hence the cat and the pony. To be sure the former was not exactly a newcomer, having been used more or less for years for linings, but now it was assigned to more important uses and cat skins from every part of the globe found ready sale.

Not under the name cat, though. In France both the foreign and the American breed of cat is called genette and most persons, including the dealers, prefer the French name. At the present time the United States furnishes by far the larger number of these cats.

These animals are now caught in such large numbers in some sections of the country that it is possible to export almost as many skins in a season as we use in this country, which is more than 100,000. At first hand the skins fetch only a few cents each, but by the time they are fit to grace the shoulders of metropolitan women their cost has soared remarkably. Black skins are in demand, especially by dealers in very low priced, made up fur pieces, but it is the striped or tiger variety with well-defined black streaks most generally demanded for the outside of coats.

[The article then discusses Russian pony fur, rabbit, hare, skunk and squirrel]

BREEDING OF CATS
The Winnipeg Tribune, 11th December, 1907
Question of Color Discussed by an Export.

The art of color breeding is much more pimple than it was a few years ago. There is now no necessity to mate blue with anything but a blue or a chinchilla with any other than a chinchilla.

All fanciers may not have queens of different colors, and yet they would like a little variety in their catteries. The owner of a black queen may wish for some blue kittens, or the mistress of a blue queen may desire some creams as a change. These two crosses are quite safe. Light smokes may be crossed with chinchillas, but it would be very undesirable to cross with blues or blacks. A black and orange cross frequently results in one or more tortoiseshells. Brown tabbies ought to be kept to themselves. White cats should not on any account be bred with any other colors, as the white is almost certain to come out in single hairs or patches.

Do not be disheartened if a young queen is unfortunate with her first litter. She may crush some of the kittens by lying on them, not because for want of affection, but from awkwardness. Her nervous anxiety may also lead her to carry the kittens around in her mouth, in order, as she imagines, to find them a perfectly safe bed. Keep the little family quiet and in the dark, shut the mother in with them for a few hours, and let her go free when all is quiet and no-one is about.

It Is a remarkable thins that the Asiatic cats are subject to abnormal formations of the tall. The Siamese cats frequently possess kinked tails. In Burma cats are found, some without tails, others with crooked or twisted stumps. Japan also possesses tailless cats.

There are said to be cats in China with pendent ears. Then there is the cat from the east of Africa called the Mombassa cat, which is said to have a short coat but very wiry.

A very taking variety is the Abyssinian, whose color should be a reddish fawn, each individual hair being ticked like that of the wild rabbit, and should not be a large coarse cat. It is popularly known as the Bunny cat.

Kink tailed, screw tailed, fork tailed, and absolutely tailless cats have all been exhibited in English shows in recent years. Tortoiseshells are the most difficult variety to breed. They invariably come either too light or too dark, or the colors not well blended. A tortoiseshell Tom is as scarce as the extinct Dodo.

In the spring the Persian or longhaired cats commence to lose their coats, and it is really not until October that the new fur comes in. About December and January the cats are at their best. That is the reason that the shows are invariably given during the winter.

I really think that of all the longhaired breeds smokes look the worst when out of coat. The light frill disappears, and they are Just a multitude of lines and streaks, and altogether present a very dishevelled and mussed up appearance. There are several things to be remembered in trying to breed good creams. The colors must be kept level whether it is dark or light shade, and to keep it pure, not tinged with blue or dull.

Manx cats are very shy breeders, and more frequently the litter will consist of one solitary kitten. Siamese cats are certainly the most intelligent and least dignified. They are dog like in their nature, and are easily taught to do tricks. When they are ill a sprinkling of white hairs usually appears on the face and head, and the eyes change from blue to a pale opal.

ONLY CATS, AFTER ALL
The Des Moines Register, 27 December, 1907
Animal fanciers in New York City have grown very excited over what they term the improvement in the breed of cats. A cat show, conducted recently by a party of gentle spirits, is said to have been the most wonderful exhibition of its sort ever witnessed in the world. Not only were there a great many cats present, but each creature represented the highest achievement along specified lines in feline culture. There were Angoras and Persians of silky, well-groomed fur and a native air of refinement; there were cats marked in stripes and plaids; there were tiny cats and husky, raw-boned cats and well-bred kittens. It was a fastidious collection, and no one who passed between the long rows of stalls would deny that the "uplift” movement of the last generation had not been felt by the feline family.

Professional cat men, after the show, expressed their belief that in time cats may attain even a higher degree of refinement. Of course we are glad that pussy is going to have so much done for her. We approve of the efforts to improve the feline branch of the animal kingdom. But it seems that the professional cat grooms are proceeding along unimportant lines. The exhibitors have become enthusiastic over the softness of their pets’ fur, their aristocratic markings and patrician features. They have awarded prizes to the animals with the tenderest eyes, the most tuneful purrs and the closest trimmed scratchers; but — and we await anxiously an answer — has anyone operated successfully upon one of the beast’s vocal cords. Has any one succeeded in making one of the creatures’ nocturnal yowls less horrible. Have any of the brutes been taught to go to bed at a decent hour of the night?

We have heard nothing of such im¬provements. And with these inherent racial defects, a cat is a cat, and all the breeding and grooming and care in the world will not change his diabolical nature.

LONDON TOWN, UNLIKE PARIS, IS HEAVEN FOR THE CATS
The York Daily, 23rd December, 1907

London, Dec. 22. — A lover of cats once said that he summed up the general character of the inhabitants of a city by the way the stray cats received his overtures of friendship. In Paris the cat literally walks alone, as Kipling prophesied it always would. It is impossible to get near enough to one to stroke it. French cats are only seen darting from one alley to another, and apparently always in a state of panic. This arises from the fact that the French are not lovers of animals.

In London it is quite different. London is an elysium for cats. The cats you meet in the street are always sleek and happy and are most friendly. A cat is really a sort of necessary finish to a London home. Just as the poor little wild bird in a three frame cage gives prestige to a French menage, so a large, well groomed, well fed cat seems to give respectability to an English household.

Stray cats are always well treated here. Of course the day comes when they are gently picked up by a man in uniform and placed in a cart and taken to the cats’ home. Here they are kept a few days, well looked after and fed. Then if no-one claims them they are sold, if valuable, or else painlessly translated into whatever sort of angel a cat becomes.

Such being the situation it was natural that the nineteenth show of the National Cat Club of England should have been an event of importance. Some 430 cats, accompanied by adoring owners, competed for prizes. The Countess of Stafford is president of the league, and Louis Wain, the cat portrait painter, is the chairman. There were six judges, and they had their hands full in keeping peace, not among the cats but among the cats’ owners who did not win prices. The cats themselves were haughtily indifferent as to results.

They were divided into 104 classes. There were two main sections and these were subdivided into open, novice, kitten, team, brace and breeders classes, according to sex and colors, white, black, blue, chinchilla, smoke, silver gray, brown tabby, red tabby, silver tabby, orange, cream, tortoise shell and any other color. The short haired varieties included Siamese, Abyssinian, Manx, Dutch and British mousers. The long haired were the Persians, Angoras, etc. The greatest price ever known to have been paid for a cat was secured in London. It was $5,000.

Just as every dog has his day so does every cat. This year the Siamese reigned supreme as being fashionable and most successful.

[ON GAMBLING AND CAT SHOWS]
Evening Star, 1st April 1908
The brainless plunger [a inept gambler who doesn’t know when to stop] is, fortunately, getting scarcer every year, and as long man bets “with his head" he is doing no more harm than the pot-hunting spinster who enters her pet tortoiseshell for the local cat show.— ‘The County Gentleman."

[HOMING CAT] Birmingham Mail, 25th April 1908
Strange stories of the homing instinct in birds and animals have from time to time been told. One of the latest and the most remarkable that I have heard comes from Stechford. It relates to a cat, the property of a commercial traveller. Some weeks ago the owner of puss decided get rid of her, and handed her over to a man engaged on the railway, who took her to Coventry and there turned her loose. As the cat showed no inclination to seek a new home, she was picked up and taken on to a place near Rugby, where she disappeared. The other day she turned up at her old quarters in Stechford, travel-stained and minus portion of one of her paws, which is believed to have been lost as the result of being run over. How the cat made her way back is a complete puzzle to her owner, who can only surmise that she walked along the railway.

[CATS AND DIPHTHERIA]Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 6th May 1908
A great source of danger in communicating and spreading disease is the wandering cat. Its evil work as a disease carrier has been made a subject of special study, and some time ago the medical officer of health for Gorton, an outlying district of Manchester, published a paper on this question, in which he suggested that the great increase in diphtheria in London was due to the disease being conveyed by fleas from infected animals. He shows that pigeons and fowl suffer from a form of diphtheria, and are infested with fleas. He further shows that the cats of the neighbourhood congregate wherever there is a pigeon cote or fowl run. From this he deduces that cats bring the infected fleas from the birds into the houses, and thus spread the disease. An experiment with a cat showed that in four nights it deposited 248 fleas’ eggs on the spot where it lay in the house. The Dr. Martin proceeds to show how children are especially liable to contract diphtheria in this way. Under one year of age the child is nearly always in the arms or the cradle; from one and two it is crawling on the floor and the rug, and from that age until it goes to school it is playing with and nursing the cat. Thus the children become infected, contract diseases, and, in turn, spread them. The enormous increase of diphtheria in London of recent years I put down to this theory. [Note: For many years, diphtheria was wrongly thought to be carried by cats.]

LITERARY EXTRACTS. QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER TASTES. (From the Tatler.)
Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post, 7th May, 1908
HER LOVE OF ANIMALS. The Queen, delights in pets of all sorts. She possesses poultry, rare birds, horses, dogs, and cats, with which she constantly takes prizes at all the principal shows. Her Borzois hounds, her charming Pekinese spaniels, and her Persian and Russian and Siamese cats have become famous in the sporting world. To her is due the popularity that these breeds have attained inrecent years, while the formation of the dips' Kennel Club was the outcome of her efforts.

CATS AS PLAGUE PREVENTERS. SANITARY BOARD ENCOURAGES CAT KEEPING. Overland China Mail, 25th July 1908
At the meeting of the Sanitary Board on July 21, the following correspondence with regard to cats, as plague preventers was read. The Hon. Colonial Secretary forwarded to His Excellency the Governor the following communication:- I attach an extract from the British Medical Journal containing an article on the value of cats as plague preventers. We owe it to the research of Dr Hunter, that hitherto inhabitants of Hongkong have been discouraged from keeping cats. For Dr Hunter discovered that cats, pigs, fowl and other lesser animals suffered from plague - an absolute or almost absolute fallacy. The Indian Commission have established that plague in a cat is practically unknown. Your Excellency suggested that special inducement should be held out to householders to keep cats. I suggest that this abstract be now communicated to the Board who might he asked to suggest means of encouraging householders to keep cats. Of their utility there is no doubt. My house, some three years ago, became infested with rats, upon which the ratcatchers of the Sanitary Board could make no impression - they caught one about one month old. I then invested in a cat which cleared my house in a few weeks of rats, which have not appeared since.

His Excellency minuted -l thoroughly concur. I have thought this for some time, and I regret I did not emphasize my opinion more. My only regret is that we shall also see the last of our singing birds.
To the Head of the Sanitary Board Please consult the Board as indicated above.
Lieut. Col. J. M. Reid minuted:- I thoroughly agree with the suggestion in the Colonial Secretary's minute.
Mr A. Shelton Hooper:- I think the idea of keeping cats excellent and quite concur in what the Colonial Secretary says as to their utility, but it is very difficult to keep cats any length of time as the Chinese steal them.
Sir H. Humphreys:- Establish an annual cat show and award prizes for the best ratters and cats that have most kittens. Abolish staff of plague inspectors. Supply all Europeans with ear plugs gratis.
Mr Lau Chu Pak:- An excellent idea. I have had many cats in my house for many years and so far my servants and neighbours have not stolen a single one of mine yet. One however was fired at by an English neighbour for making a noise.
Hon. Mr E A. Irving:- From the Sanitary Board point of view it won't matter if they are stolen. They will be catching rats all the same.
The Medical Officer of Health, Dr Pearce:- With regard to the effect of cat keeping in regard to plague the following points might be of interest. Out of 598 houses in Saiyingpoon district, cats were found in 204. Out of 20 cases of plague on these ground floors, 23 occurred in floors where no cats were kept, and three only where a cat was kept. Out of the 71 cases of plague in upper floors, 51 were in houses where no cat was kept in the ground floor and 20 where cats were kept in the ground floor. Out of 97 cases, 74 occurred where no cat was kept on the ground floors and 23 where cats were kept in the ground floors. Out 204 houses with cats on the ground floors 181 had no cases notified in them while 23 had cases notified.

DOMESTIC PETS AND THE COMPENSATION ACT The Queen, 15th August 1908
Householders are again reminded by a recent decision of the Court of Appeal of the far-reaching scope of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. It will probably surprise such an one not a little to learn that if his dog or cat should happen to bite any of his servants, even though the animals might not be known by him to be vicious, yet he will be liable to compensate the servant as for an accidental injury under the Act referred to. How such a liability attaches to the master will appear from the circumstances of the case under notice, which were, briefly, as follows: An employer’s servant took his horses into the stable for their food and also proceeded to eat his own dinner there. While do engaged a stable cat sprang at him and bit him. The bite set up blood poisoning, and the man had to have two joints of one finger amputated. He claimed compensation for his injuries and succeeded. The view taken of th matter by the court was that the applicant was entitled to be in the stable and that the cat was part of what might be called the necessary furniture of a stable. The man’s employment took him into the stable where both her and his employer knew there was a cat, which it was not suggested was known to be vicious. It would have been different if it had been a strange cat or if the servant had been bitten by a cat in the street, in which case the master would not have been liable. The court said the case was just the same as if the man had been an ordinary domestic servant whose duties took him into the presence of a cat. Neither the master nor the servant expected the cat to bite, but the man’s duties took him into the place where the cat was. Consequently the accident arose out of and in the course of the employment, and the employer was liable to make compensation. The argument may seem a little strained, but it is difficult to get away from the position. It will be noticed that an essential point in the case was that the animal was not known to be vicious. If it had the injury could hardly be said to have been accidental. The argument would apply, it seems, to the case of any domestic pats kept in any part of premises to which the servant’s duties might take him. The decision is obviously one of great importance and should be carefully noted.

HOME PETS - CATS Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 1st November 1908
Cat breeding as a profitable hobby has been much in vogue of recent years. The introduction of the Persian cat and the institution of cat shows have been the reasons for this. There are many people who add considerably to their income by breeding and selling high class cats. Although Persian cats are more delicate than their short-haired relatives, they are reigning favourites. The best way for a novice to commence cat breeding for profit is to buy a well-bred female kitten, and when it is twelve months old to have it mated with a fashionable, prize-winning male. Many such males are advertised in the fancy papers. The kitten will require a good deal of attention and care. particularly when it is about six months old, but if it is allowed plenty of exercise, without being out in the wet, and If the food includes some finely-minced underdone or raw lean meat often, it ought to get through its kittenhood and grow into a healthy matron. The Blue Persian cats are very fashionable. A prize bred kitten of this variety of good quality should be obtainable for not more than a couple of guineas.

CATS FOR EXHIBITION, SOME INTERESTING FACTS Preston Herald, 4th November 1908
It will probably come as news to most people and to many cat-lovers know that there are as many as twenty-three more or less distinct feline varieties - some of them, it is true, only based on differences in colour and marking, but nevertheless separated for show purposes into distinct varieties. A complete pictorial record of all these twenty three varieties is published in the November number of “Pearson's Magazine” - together with some interesting notes on cat breeding generally. Mr. C. A. House, who contributes the article, writes:-

The cat is animal of great antiquity, and from mummies in the British Museum and Sanskrit writings we know that it was domesticated in Egypt between 2000 and 3000 years azo. It is, however, only within the last twenty years that any progress has been made in breeding cats for points, in the same manner ae dogs and other fancy stock are bred. The National Cat Club was started just twenty- one years ago, and since that time the cult of the cat has proceeded apace. For many years a cat which had won the special for the best cat in the show was considered a champion; but by the new rules of the National Cat Club, introduced some two years ago, a cat has now to win three championship certificates under three different judges at three or more championship shows to secure the title. ‘Years ago, Blue Persians were about the only long-haired cats known to English breeders; then the white Angoras were imported. They were cats with a more hairy texture of coat than the Persians. Soon English breeders began crossing the two, and the result has been cats of many different colours, colours previously unthought of, whilst the admixture of the two kinds of coat has given us cats not only longer in coat than the original Angoras, but also denser and closer in texture than the first imported Persians. To-day it is impossible to differentiate between the Angora and the Persian: thus a few years since the National Cat Club decreed that henceforth the titles Persian and Angora should be dropped and all such cats known under the one generic term of long-haired cats. Laws or no laws, custom has proved too strong for the ruling powers, and although schedules and catalogues of cat shows speak of long-haired cats, the breeders persist in calling them Persians."

BABY SCARE WAS KITTENS.; Four of Them Left in a Basket in Areaway of Dr. Rose's Home.
The New York Times, November 24, 1908

Edna Pietjen, a servant in the house of Dr. Edward L. Rose, at 120 West 132d Street, went out on the sidewalk last night, when her attentio was attracted by a basket on top of the areaway. The basket had a paper covering, and Edna Pietjen heard noises in it which she could not understand. Her report to Dr. Rose made him suspect the worst. He telephoned to Police Headquarters for a man to take charge of a basket that he didn't want. Lieut. Miller of the West 125th Street Station detailed Policeman Max Morris, some six feet and odd tall, to investigate the basket. Policeman Morris tore off the paper cover. he and the nieghbors saw four little black kittens, which he took back to the station.

RIOT CALL FOR THEODORE.; He Is a Harlem Police Cat and Disperses Mobs of His Kind.
The New York Times, January 14, 1909

One of the many letters to Capt. Carson of the West 125th Street Station said, without a trace of burlesque: "The tenants of this house, the Ormonde, 417 West 114th Street, simply cannot get to sleep five nights in the week, on average, until they have turned and rolled and cursed themselves into a state of fatigue. Why, sir, this bunch of cats in the back yard begin at 8 o'clock and they go on until long after midnight, and sometimes until daybreak. Often they cry out with voices that sound like humans in distress. Faintly dozing along, we jump up and rush to the window. Nothing but cats - dozens and dozens of them. Time and time again i have rushed to the window at 3 A.M. thinking that murder was being committed. But it wasn't.

"I understand, Sir, that there are ordinances against unnecessary noises. These noises are not only unnecessary, but they are violent, and as you and your policemen are supposed to enforce the laws, I think it devolves upon you to stop these violent noises to which i refer."

Wherefore, Policeman Heinrich Metz, under orders, stole out of the station at 10 o'clock last night with a mysterious bundle under his arm, which was Theodore, the station cat. Policeman Metz found the rear yard at 417 West 114th Street thick with cats. He turned Theodore loose, with the view of having him whip the tar out of the leaders. But all the cats saw Metz and scattered. Returning to his station, the policeman reported; "I have dispersed the mob."

Theodore will be turned loose among the trespassers again to-night.

AN ARMY OF DISEASED CATS.
The New York Times, January 28, 1909.

To the Editor of the New York Times: I live in the east side tenement district, where the cellars and yards are overrun with half-starved, often diseased cats. It is useless to depend on the ordinary tenement dweller to report such cases to the Society for Protection of Animals, for they won't do it. Such a condition is bad for the community for three reasons: (1) Ethically, to grow callous to suffering is certainly a step backward spiritually and morally; (2) Such an army of underfed, diseased creatures is a menace to the general health; (3) Needless suffering inflicted on an inoffensive and helpless creature. A.B. New York, Jan 27, 1909.

CATS AND KITTENS, HUMOUR AT ANSDELL
Preston Herald, 6th February 1909
“Cats and Kittens” was the name of a very instructive lantern lecture, given at the Ansdell Baptist Chapel on Monday evening, by Mr John Rhodes, F.E.S. of Accrington. He gave some very good hints to fancying, showing the treatment a cat should undergo if intended for exhibition services. Mr W. Entwhistle presided, and in a few racy remarks, warned the lecturer that though there were many young kittens amongst the audience, there were no old cats. Mr Rhodes said he did not intend exactly to give a lecture, but just to describe a visit to the cat show held annually at the Crystal Palace, London. Speaking on the ancestry of the domestic cat, he said it was like the ancestry of his own family – beyond obscure. He found himself nearly week[?] wishing he was a cat or a bumblebee, just to see how they lived and enjoyed themselves. But only for a week – no longer laughter. The people of today could be divided into two classes, those who loved cats and those who hated them. He seldom came across any neutrals. Some people did not like cat (laughter). He had a certain affection for a flea, but was particularly fond of a nice young girl - more than any others. Some controversy had been created of late as regards the feeding of cats. His opinion was – have what it wanted, and plenty of it – (laughter). Referring to a picture being shown of a lady judging cats and talking at the same time, the Lecturer said there were two occasions on which a mand should never talk – when he was shaving, and when his wife was talking. When exhibiting a cat, a competitor should see that it had no Spindleshanks. It should possess a great coat of fur. In relating a little experience with cats, in which one had done some damage in the dining-room, Mr Rhodes said he had been married long enough to let his wife go down first in a morning – (laughter(.

After the lecture, the Chairman said he must be one of those few people not love cats and did not hate them. Mr Ed. Lonsdale, jun., move a vote of thanks to the lecturer. Mr Liddle seconded. Mr Rhodes, in reply, eulogised Mr Miller, the lanternist, and expressed the hope that those who kept domestic animals would do away with them as soon as the grew tired of them, so that they should not suffer from inattention [neglect].

HOTEL'S CAT HAS THE GOUT.Tix, Press Agent for Nineteen Years, Is Under a Doctor's Care.
The New York Times. February 8th, 1909,

Philadelphia, Feb 7 - Tix, it was reported at Green's Hotel to-day, was just about able to be about, his gout being particularly bad. He spent much of the day reposing on a velvet cushion in the sun or near a steam radiator, and when he walked about it was with a halting and uncertain step. He grunted and complained just as any old Angora fellow will who has always dined off the fat of the land and been feted and petted by friends for years. Dr. Alexander Glass of Sansom Street, who is treating the famous old cat, thought that his patient might pull through his present acute attack, but was of the opinion that his days were numbered, because he has of late been losing much of his old snap and vigor, and no longer takes enjoyment in walking around the register and the bookkeeper's desk.

For many years, Tix has been a sort of assistant auditor at the hotel, and has soberly looked over the accounts and kept an eye on the number of folk that were patronizing Mr. Newton. he has always been press agent and advertising manager of the house, both of which places he has filled to the entire satisfaction of his senior partner, Mr. Newton. He has also looked after the bar, walking its entire length several times a day, gingerly skipping over glassware with never a mishap. Tix was born nineteen years ago. In those nineteen years he has become famous.

CAT HE DISLIKED CAUSED HIS DEATH
The Washington Post, 11th February, 1909

Pittsburg Dispatch to the New York World. John Moerscher, a druggist, objected when his family got a black cat, but finally let it stay. Late Tuesday night, in the darkness, Moerscher stepped on the cat, fell down stairs, and died Wednesday of a broken neck.

A CAT ON THE STAGE.
Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 13th February 1909
It often happens that tricks of the simplest kind arouse the wonder and curiosity of a public gathering more than the most wonderful and delicate mechanical effects. An American playwriter tells of introducing a cat on the stage, and of the way in which she was trained to play her part. The whole scene, says the manager, excited interest, but the cat created more talk and wonder than any other actor because ever one is familiar with the habits of cats, and knows how difficult it is to teach one to perform even the simplest trick. Every night, at a certain point, this cat came onto the stage, walked across to the fireplace, stretched herself, and then lay down in front of the blazing hearth, for we burned “real fire” in a gas log to make the scene more realistic and natural. The cat did her part so easily and naturally that she frequently got a round of applause, and it always happened that before we had played three nights in a town the most popular topic of conversation was “How did they ever train that cat to come on to the stage, stretch herself, and lie down in front of the fire?”

Night after night the cat took her cue and went through her little act to the wonder and delight of all beholders. It really seemed like a remarkable performance on her part; but, after all, her education was a very simple matter. A few minutes before it was time for her to go on we used to put her into a basket just large enough to hold her comfortably, without giving her a chance to change her position, and then leave her in a cool place in the cellar. At the proper time she was brought upstairs and released at the entrance in time to answer to her cue. Of course, she walked across the stage to where the fire was burning, and when she got there what else was there for her to do except to stretch herself as a measure of relief after her cramped position in the basket, and then lie down in the warmth of the blazing fire. The fact is, it would have been very difficult indeed to train her to do anything else in the circumstances.

ANIMALS AND INFLUENZA East of Fife Record, 18th March 1909
Women victims of influenza should forswear the society of their favourite cats, for their owners' caresses place the animals in distinct danger of contracting the disease. It is also true that the cat may infect its mistress. "Owners of cats should be most careful of handling them during an influenza outbreak," said a leading veterinary surgeon on Saturday. "Cats are subject to a form of influenza which is communicable to human beings, and they can catch it from man just as readily. In addition to high temperature, many other unpleasant symptoms are present as in the human influenza.” [This is incorrect.]

BISHOP SAYS NEVER BE CATS.; Gives Advice to Girls of Fashionable School in West End of London.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 2nd, 1909.

London, March 1 - The Bishop of London gave some remarkable advice to -day to the students of a fashionable girls' school in the West End. The curse of that part of London, the Bishop declared, was not what might be called immorality, but rather the prevalence of catty spirit. By which he meant, he said, the way in which many people spent their lives saying ill-natured things about others. He had known the reputations of good men and women taken away by this catty spirit so prevalent in West End drawing rooms.

"Never be cats," the Bishop advised his young audience. "There is all the difference in the world between an old maid and an old cat. Some of the old maids in London are the most loving and gracious people in it, and you needn't be afraid of being an old maid so long as you are not an old cat."

CATS AND "CATTINESS."
The New York Times, March 7, 1909

Doubtless Mrs. TAFT in her new capacity as first lady in the land, will receive patiently and graciously the demands of her sisters in Indiana in regard to her entertainments at the White House. If she obliges them to the extent of banishing wine from her table, they may as well ask her to dismiss her man cook and do her own housework. But she may content herself with receiving their petition and managing her household in her own way.

The Bishop of London, with a degree of asperity quite unusual to him, has lately said that London society is dominated by the "catty spirit." Exactly what the "catty spirit" he finds in women may be we do not know. But the London correspondent of THE SUNDAY TIMES informs us, in his cable dispatches, that Lady DOROTHY NEVILL, defending the feminine part of society from the Bishop's charge, defines cattiness as the denotement of a small mean mind. This might by some be applied to the ladies of the Middle West who have undertaken the direction of Mrs. TAFT's private affairs.

But we fancy that Dr. INGRAM refers chiefly to the evil tendency to gossip, to say cruel things of one's neighbors, to meddle with the affairs of others, and we protest that these traits are not characteristic of the cat, a peace-loving animal which minds its own business, and is perfectly contented if it can have the best of everything in sight. Shrewish scandal-loving women have been called cats by the unthinking simply because the cat's voice , in moments of emotional excitement, is pitched rather too high, and is of disagreeable tone. But the cat rarely meddles with other people's affairs. Wherefore, we should not dream of calling the Indiana petitioners catty unless we were prepared to accept Lady DOROTHY NEVILL's definition of cattiness , which is effective by zoologically inaccurate.

SOLEMN SCIENTISTS WATCH TWO-LEGGED MAMMA PUSSY
The Spokane Press, March 18, 1909

Australia the country of natural freaks, has developed what may prove to be a new species of cats. Mrs. Helen Reineger, the wife of a farmer residing near Sidney, Australia, owned a blue maltese female cat. The feline presented the farmer's household with three litters of two-legged kittens. The diminutive furry balls mewed, played, jumped about and frisked like other young cats. They even climbed trees and chased mice. But their movements were not as swift as their quadruped relatives.

A foreman on the farm thought two-legged cats were unfit to survive, and he drowned the first two litters. He also killed three of the last litter. Mrs. Relueger ordered two of the kittens spared to “see if she could raise them.” They are now 10 months old and full grown. The queer animals mated and the female will soon demonstrate, by giving birth to a litter of kittens, whether a new species of cat has been suddenly evolved contrary to the slow laws of evolution, or if she will “breed mack and her brood revert to type,” or four-legged cats.

The cats are now in the possession of M. Slotkin, an importer, 386 Madison street, Chicago. He heard of Mrs. Reineger’s freak pets and made her an offer of $100 for them, this was accepted. Shipment across Australia, over the sea to Bremen, Germany, thence across to New York and finally to Chicago, with incidental expenses of feeding and care, cost $50 more. Almost immediately on their arrival here bids were made for the cats by zoologists and showmen all over the world.

The advent of the coming litter is watched with deep interest by naturalists as a possible demonstration of departure from the laws of evolution which may upset Darwin’s theory of gradual change or verify his proposition that freaks are exceptions that forecast future species and are followed by reversions to normal type. The possibilities give rise to many novel and sensational scientific theories.

LAUNDRY COMPLAINTS.; Many, Many Homeless Cats.
The New York Times, March 18, 1909.

To the Editor of the New York Times: In your issued of to-day appears a letter from a real estate dealer who appeals for help to have his neighborhood rid of wild, ownerless cats. is there any neighborhood in our city that is not infested with these howling, sleep-destroying, nerve-racking animals? Halt the crusade on homeless dogs and let the crusaders catch and destoy a few thousand homeless felines, of which there are at least 300,000 in our city. - J.A. New York, March 16, 1909

CENTRAL PARK.; The Disposal of Homeless Cats.
The New York Times, March 19, 1909.

To the Editor of the New York Times: For the edification of your correspondent "J.A.," I would say that there is an impression abroad that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stands ready to dispose of homeless cats. I regret to add that a communication to that society from the writer asking for relief from these unhappy starving creatures in the vicinity of my residence was ignored. Perhaps additional complaints may awaken the above-named society. - E.R., New York, March 18, 1909.

CHRISTOPHER DIDN'T FIT.; The Reason Was in the Form of a Basketful of Kittens.
The New York Times, April 1, 1909

There were seven arrivals at the Plaza yesterday, but under the tules of the hotel they were not allowed to register. They were accommodated, however, and Assistant manager Little is looking for a small farm in New jersey where they might find a suitable future home. Mr Little won't talk about it, but Mr Searles, representative of the Hot Springs Company, did. Just after Christmas, a patron of the hotel presented to Mr Little a handsome Angora cat. The cat was named Christopher. It soon became the pride of Mr. Little's heart, and incidentally the pet of the hotel employes. Many a choice bit was taken from the table that Christoper might have the meal of an epicure.

Yesterday morning, when Mr. Searles arrived at the office there was a mewing and catawauling that set him investigating. In the waste basket there was evidence of a visit from the stork, for there were seven little beauties among the scrap paper. Mr. Little was informed of the arrival, and, of course, changed Christopher's name to Chrissie. He says he is now thinking of starting a cat farm in New Jersey. Five of the seven kittens are tabbies.

DESTRUCTION OF THE RAT.
Nottingham Evening Post, 12th April 1909
In the story of the campaign which is being waged by the Japanese against the hated rat we have another illustration of the enterprise and energy of that remarkable nation. The setting of the cat against the rat is, of course, a well-known expedient. One can hardly imagine some of the pampered pets of the town being equal to the combat, but if put to even the fireside tabby may be depended hold its own. In India interesting experiments have for some time been carried on and having been satisfied from observation of their success the Japanese authorities are taking the matter up with zest. The Government has not only set a price on the head of every rodent, but has ordered a wholesale importation of cats. The number in Tokio alone has recently increased by thirty thousand, and competitive cat shows, combined with rat-catching tournaments, are becoming a popular feature throughout the country. Everyone will hope that the best result will reward these efforts.

SAID A CAT GOT GIRL'S SOUL; Witness Tells of a Strange Conviction Expressed by Mrs. David Hughes.
The New York Times, April 22, 1909

Mrs Alice Connoly, wife of First Assistant Corporation Counsel Theodore Connoly, was the principal witness yesterday in the contest over the will of Mrs. Louise Beauchamp Hughes, wife of David M. Hughes, who built the Second Avenue Elevated Railroad. Relatives of Mr. Hughes, who received $120,000 under the will of his widow probated in 1899, seek to have a will dated 1902 set aside on the ground that the testator was incompetent at the time it was made. The case is being tried before Surrogate Cohalan.

Mrs Connoly testified that she was friend of the dead woman for about thirty years and told of a meeting with Mrs. Hughes at the Broadway Central hotel in the Spring of 1902, about the time the last will was made. "When I saw her," said the witness, "she was talking about the soul of her adopted daughter, and said she believed she would never again meet her Louise either in this world or the next, because she had made up her mind that her soul had gone into the body of a cat."

THE CAT THAT PLAYED A FUGUESouth Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times, 31st July 1909
The Germans have a melody which is! called "The Cat's Fugue" - because it was actually made by a cat, and which a composer had been cudgelling his brains in vain to get until a cat showed him how. The cat did not really mean to play the fugue, but that does not spoil the story. The musician was named Scarlatti, and he christened his oat Micheeki - Micheeki Scarlatti, when he wanted to give extra honour to the animal. She was a beautiful tabby [female], we are told, sleeky black all over, save a white spot on the end of one of her ears and a white tip as a sort of finishing point to her tail. She was fond of music. Her favourite seat when her master was at the piano, or writing out compositions, was on his shoulder, and the two were seldom separate.

But although she liked her master she did not care at all for one of her master's pupils - a young man named Hasse. This young man was inclined to be mischievous. Fun had more charms for him than study, and often his fun was of the kind that is very disagreeable to Micheeki, for she, poor creature, had no peace so long as the young man could get near her. He was in the habit of tying things to her tail, and sometimes even to her feet, and insulting her in so many ways that had Micheeki not been a very gentle creature she would have turned and scratched him, and it would have served him right if she had. Hasse had a dog, and Micheeki was not any fonder of the dog than of the dog's master.

One day when the young man came to get a lesson, Scarlatti, the musician, was too busy to bother with him "I am getting up a new piece," he said, "and my head just now is full of all sorts of tunes save the one I want. So you must wait or come again." The young man said he would wait, and, as it turned out, had come prepared for mischief. Going into the music-room with his dog after him, he found Micheeki there, and lifting her up he put a pair of spectacles over her head, and then he added a wig, until the cat would have looked like a judge if she had not been so very angry; and, of course, judge should never be angry. To make matters worse the dog began to bark at the eat, and the cat to hiss at the dog, and the two started out on a wild chase round the room. To escape, Micheeki jumped on to the piano and moved quickly up and down the keyboard. This frightened the young man, who now held the dog back, as he was afraid of alarming the dog's [cat’s?] master. The cat, seeing this, became quieter and moved more slowly over the keyboard, and as she moved touched notes that produced a queer sort of melody, but melody worth listening to. As she finished Scarlatti rushed in, in a very excited state, crying "Bless the cat! She has given me the very tune I have been seeking for all the day." And in this way was the "Cat's Fugue" originated.

PAINTER OF CATS. MR. LOUIS WAIN TALKS OF HIS ART. Hampshire Telegraph. 31st July 1909
Mr. Louis Wain, President the National Cat Club of London, has been in New York studying and painting New York cats. He is not only a painter of cats of royalty and less favoured persons, but has amused the English reading public for years with his cartoons of cats. According to his notion, the cat has greater possibilities than the dog. He bases his belief on individual cats that he has known, but he asserts that on the far side of the Atlantic it will require the devotion of women of wealth and social position who will give their time and means to it as the English women have done to bring the cat to this exalted position In America.

“New York cats live in basements,” he says. “In the homes they are kept below stairs, in the factories, business houses, banks and warehouses they are kept in cellars and only come out of their retreats after dark, when they make night hideous by their yowls. There is no repose for cats in New York, you see, on account of much noise, rush, and movement.”

A WEAK-BRAINED ANIMAL. “The weak brain of the cat is not capable taking it all in, and the animal becomes confused and unmanageable. This makes an underground cat which has consequently, because of its unnatural environment, grown very uncertain in temper, not to say savage, and as a result the specimens seen about New York are more or less what we call in England ‘strays.' It is forgotten that the cat’s brain is practically numb and all its faults, its distress, and its want of attachment to a single human being comes from the fact that it is not capable of sustaining a mental impression for any length of time. The work we have done in England has already awakened new mental energies, and are on the way establish a better and more certain breed.

I find, however, a great love for animals among New York people. It only awaits organised movement. All over the country there are cat clubs that are importing our best English stock and from it are making breeds that are typically American, large in size, fine in coat, very correct in type and colour. In England in addition to the National Cat dub there are a number of allied societies. We as a club established the first known stud book of cats in existence and we exercise authority over cat shows which are held under our rules. Among the homes connected with the club there are several cat-killing establishments that collect the strays from the streets and put them in the lethal chamber, killing them by chloroform.”
FOURTEEN YEARS’ WORK. “For the last fourteen years I have painted cats exclusively. When I first took to drawing and painting them, they were treated as despised animals, looked as vermin by sportsmen. No M.P. could associate with a cat club for fear of the ridicule of his opponents. The man who would take an interest in the cat movement was looked upon as effeminate. In fifteen years this has greatly changed.

Peter, a pet cat who lived to be 16 years old, was my inspiration at the start, a wonderful black and white, and was famous ail over England for his cleverness. He didn’t like to pose much; in fact as soon he saw me get out my sketch-book he got sulky and refused to let me draw him. I have known only one cat vain enough to sit for a picture. That was a brown tabby I owned, who positively enjoyed it. She would hold a pose for an hour. Peter was very peculiar, not like the ordinary cat with one set expression. He had a face with a sardonic grin and the funniest look in his eyes. I went to the ’lllustrated London News’ with a lot of drawings showing Peter standing his head and doing all sorts of tricks. The editor said, ‘but cats don’t grin, they don’t stand on their heads. It’s not art.’ However, the proprietor saw the drawings and at once commissioned me to do a double page for the Christmas number. This was an instant success, and I have devoted myself wholly to drawing and painting cats. Among the cats I have painted are those of the Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, of the long-haired chinchilla type. She has a most remarkable cattery at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, where the cats are domiciled in little houses built precisely like those that we live in, with windows, doors, and all the conveniences of a well-equipped home. There are dining rooms, drawing rooms with couches for the cats to lie on, bells which the cats ring for food, and a big spacious orchard for them to roam through. Lady Decies, whose cats I have painted, has a large cattery at Sefton Part, near Windsor. She also breeds pet mice and canaries, a curious combination. Other women whose valuable cats I have painted are the Hon. Mrs. Morrison, who for years has imported her cats from India; the Duchess of Bedford, Princess of Teck, Lady Rachael Bynge, and others. The Duchess of Bedford conducts quite a menagerie cats, dogs, and birds at Woburn Abbey.”

VARIETY OF EXPRESSION. “To most persons all cats look alike. To be sure there are certain characteristics that are the same in all. but there is an endless variety of expressions. If you have noticed, a cat has a round face. It is a series of circles, the cheeks are round, its chops are round, its anatomy is round, there are rings around its neck, and its ears are largely round. Working from this point, you can secure hundreds of different varieties. In painting a cat I just let it roam about, making sketches meanwhile of its different attitudes and expressions. It may be that one painting will require a large number sketches, or may need only a few, according as the cat’s face is expressive and difficult to do. Once the drawing is satisfactory, the rest it easy. The medium used is either oils or water-colours, and the pictures are life size.

Everyone keeps cats in England, and the titled English woman goes in for raising them to a much greater extent than the American woman. On the whole I believe the cat is honoured more in England than in America.”

UNCANNY CATS, AND HOW AN ORIENTAL PRINCE USED THEM AS LOVE CHARMSIrish News and Belfast Morning News, 31st August 1909
The oldest and dearest fad of the Countess of Suffolk is cats – Siamese cats, the sacred cats of the East – and there’s a reason. When her sister was Vicereine of India, Lady Suffolk, then Miss Daisy Leiter, paid her a visit. She became greatly interested in the weird and mystic customs of the East, and likewise in certain Oriental princes of royal blood. At any rate, she struck up quite a friendship with the young Crown Prince of Siam, who fell a ready victim to her manifold charms. At this time the Earl of Suffolk was one of the aides-de-camp to Lord Curzon, and naturally came in almost daily contact with the lovely Miss Leiter. He, too, was very much smitten with the beauty and accomplishments of Lady Curzon’s sister, and at once became her ardent wooer. The rivalry between the dusky Prince and the blue-blooded Earl was very keen, and the wily Oriental very soon realised that to “cut out” the English peer was no easy task. It was then that he resorted to what might perhaps be considered a very mean plan, though everything is fair in love and war. He presented the unsuspecting Miss Leiter with a pair of royal Siamese cats – the almost sacred animals of the East, evidently hoping that the uncanny and occult influence which they are believed to exert over those who possess them might further his suit and bring about the complete discomfiture of his worthy rival, the Earl. Somehow or other the spell didn’t’ work, however, for Miss Leiter shortly afterwards became the Countess of Suffolk despite the Prince and his cats, but she took the fascinating animals with her to her English chateau as a memento of her unusual experience with the love-lorn Siamese Prince and she has devoted considerable attention to them ever since. The Siamese believe that the soul in its evolution passes at the last from the lower animals through these cats to man, and for that reason they hold no animal more sacred.

Though Miss Leiter escaped the snare which the wily Prince set for her, she has since admitted that the wonderful, mysterious, insinuating felines have completed fascinated her. She declares that they fill her with new wonder every day, that there is something of an occult nature about them which easily accounts for the traditions which have made them the most sacred animals in the Orient, and that they are the most intelligent animals that ever walked on four legs.

“There isn’t a single mean trait about these cats,” declared Lady Suffolk recently, “and this is probably due to the fact that for ages the Siamese have treated them with the utmost deference and kindness. If beloved, it becomes a fascinating, charming creature, filled with gentle, graceful ways, but if despised it shows all manner of resentment, and eventually succumbs to the treatment to which it seems to be so absolutely accustomed.”

Lady Suffolk’s cats – she now has more than twenty of them – are all of a dull white, with black ears, noses, tails and paws. The black does not end abruptly where it joins the white, but is gradually blended. They have clear yellow-green eyes and white whiskers, and present a most striking appearance. Their hair is short, like that of an ordinary house-at, and in that respect, they differ from most of the other Asiatic varieties with which we are more or less familiar. [i.e. Angora.]

In Siam it is a grave crime to kill one of these cats, and they roam at will with impunity. They are held in high esteem in the royal palaces, and for that reason Lady Suffolk’s experiences with them has convinced her that there is certainly something about them which indicates strong individual personalities, and she is keeping them under close observation, in the hope of making some interesting discovery along this line.

It is certain that the ancients had a great deal more respect for cats than they are accorded nowadays. The dwellers along the Nile always felt a superstitious reverence for “pretty pussy,” and it is said that when one died a natural death in any house the inmates promptly shaved their eyebrows as a token of their grief. In case of a fire the Egyptians’ first concern was the household cat. Perhaps the high regard in which the Egyptians seemed to have held these animals is due to the fact that the cats of that period were evidently useful as well as ornamental.

Until about twenty years ago the royal cats of Siam were not allowed to go out of that country, and they were entirely unknown in Europe and this country. Then a progressive Siamese prince presented a pair of them to Lady Marcus Beresford, whose collection of cats is famous, and she established them in her English cattery. Lady Beresford had previously made a speciality of Angoras, the long-haired variety of Asiatic cats, but she soon avowed her preference for the royal Siamese creatures, and they become great favourites in England. Lady Beresford recently showed her great interest in the cat family when she succeeded in establishing and endowing a home for cats in Englefield Green, Windsor Park. Lady Suffolk has frequently exhibited her feline treasures in the various English cat shows, and they have invariably attracted a great deal of attention.

SAD END OF CITY PRISON CAT
San Francisco Chronicle, 31st August, 1909

The sad end of the City Prison cat that drank itself into such a state of melancholia that it dashed itself from the top of a skyscraper suggests a new field for the Pacific Cat Club. This worthy organization should devote part of its energies to the promotion of feline temperance.

THE RESCUED SCHOONER MARY CABRAL IN PORT. Belfast Telegraph, 12th October 1909
A strange incident is related in regard to the ship's cat in connection with the storm. The cat, a monster Tom, was born on board the Mary Cabral three years ago. Its mother was washed overboard and drowned, and Tom himself making every trip in the vessel since his birth, had seen some storms though never seemed to be alarmed throughout the exciting experiences. The hurricane came suddenly Sunday, but on Saturday hours before the schooner's barometer indicated the approach of any violent storm, the cat showed signs of unmistakable alarm. The animal set strange weird howlings, and displayed every symptom of great terror, running from one member of the crew to the other, as if seeking protection and human consolation. During the storm's height pussy was forgotten, but on a search being made afterwards the frightened and cowering animal was discovered wedged in under the extreme forward deck. The cat was so badly scared that it was with difficulty that it was coaxed out of its place of refuge. It was believed that the instinct of the animal warned it of the approach of the violent storm before the barometer was affected.

U. S. PAYS SALARIES TO HARD WORKING CATS
Los Angeles Herald, September 11th, 1909

Busy Felines Draw from Eighteen to Thirty-five Dollars Each Year

If all the cats regularly in the service of the United States could be assembled in one place they would approach the proportions of a full brigade and display sufficient variety and attractiveness for a highly interesting cat show. There would not, perhaps, be any pampered and pedigreed Persians among them, plumy-tailed, languorous and haughty; they are of necessity plain business cats, with their work cut out for them, more intent on capturing mice than prizes. But they include handsome cats, homely cats and odd cats; the pert and bob-tailed Manx, the gentle and Quakerly Maltese, the tigerish brindle, the tri-colored tortoise shell, and the modern “cold storage” cat — that curious [note: and entirely mythical!] breed originating among the great cold storage warehouses of Pittsburg, and since then exported to guard the great cold comissary stores in Manila. Ranging the great chilled rooms, their artificially developing arctic qualities — their fat, chunky bodies, heavy fur, short tails, long and strong eyebrows and whiskers — make them as comfortable as outside in the tropic temperature they would be miserable. Trick cats there are in the list, too, and numerous pets, whose non-feline fellow employes have adorned them with gay ribbons, silver bells or morocco collars, or other forms of their interest and affection.

Toby and Fritz, the two sleek favorites of the New Haven post office — one jet black, the other black and gray - are on the pay roll for appropriations amounting to $25 a year. In New York the post office cats cost the government $60 a year. Post office cats are numerous, for rats and mice have a peculiar fondness for gnawing paper, and no respect for the penalties pronounced by Uncle Sam against wanton destruction of mail.

Many other government buildings also maintain cats. The army has its regular corps of them employed chiefly in the commissary depots of large cities. Each pussy, according to the figures given out a few years ago, draws equal to $18.25 a year; for it has been found that no cat, no matter how faithful and triumphant a mouser, will thrive on a diet of mice alone. Neither will a cat of proper spirit and ability relax its campaign against the enemy through being properly fed. On the contrary, it becomes an even more formidable foe.

So the officer in charge of each department forwards to the war department an official request for an allowance for so many cats. Bids are then posted, calling for “fresh beef, suitable for feeding cats, bone excluded,” at a price not over 5 cents a pound. And this ration, for the better preservation of pussy’s health, is occasionally varied with canned milk or fish.

In fact, although dogs, widely reckoned the most useful animals, are, as assistants to the police, employed experimentally in only a very few cities, the humble and unobtrusive cat has long made good her place in national employment, both in the civil service and the army.—St. Louis Republic.

SAYS CATS SOOTHE INSANE; SENDS PRIZE FELINE TO ASYLUM
October 31, 1909

Chicago, Oct. 30. — That the care of animal pets, especially cats, has a quieting and beneficial effect on the insane was the statement made In an address before the Beresford Cat Club by Mrs. Clinton Locke, president of that organization and vice-president of the Cat Association.

“I firmly believe that the care of animals, particularly such decorative, lovely pets as cats, will soothe the troubled minds of the insane,” said Mrs. Locke.

“For that reason and because this opinion is advanced by friends of mine interested in the care of the insane, I have sent one of my finest animals, a beautiful white female, to an asylum in Pennsylvania, where a test is being made of this use of pet animals and birds. Cats are better than dogs. They will stay at home and do not need constant watching. They are more useful and then they are so much more quiet.” I

THE CATS' BALL.
By Lyde J. Asper.
The Pittsburgh Press, 2nd December, 1909

O, you should go,
To see the show,
Of fine and far-famed cats,
At City Hall,
They hold a ball,
Though not for catching rats.

So many mews
Will sure amuse,
If in a musing mood;
In special trays,
It doth amaze
Grand waiters bring their food.

These Cats of State
Are quite elate —
They boast a family tree.
That bushy tail?
It tells a tale —
And so they’re full of glee.

Now hear the purrs,
Of Persian furs,
Abyssinian Manx. Siam;
Some black as night,
And some as white
As any little lamb.

If e’er you seek
One that's a freak,
Here’s “Tom,” not far from town.
Then pay your fee,
And him you'll see —
A cat of great renown.

What are those yells,
Of Tortoise Shells—
They’re round as Mother’s muff;
Why do they shout,
And run about ?
Because they're in a huff.

And there's Rob Roy,
Oh, he’s a toy!
From England’s shores he comes ;
“He takes the cake,”
Which soon he'll break,
And this is why he hums

MALE TORTOISESHELL WANTED!
Daily Mirror, 17th December 1909
Six Months’ Vain Quest – 99 Per Cent of the Breed Being Female. Has anybody seen such a thing as a long-haired tortoiseshell Tom cat? For six months Mr W. Gerson, of the Canine Institute, St. Leonard’s-road, Surbiton, has been energetically hunting for such an animal, and is anxious to pay £7 for it.

“Females you can get fairly easily,” he told The Daily Mirror yesterday, “Ninety-nine per cent of the tortoiseshell kittens born are females. Of course, the cat I buy must be a pure tortoiseshell, with no tabby markings It must be absolutely tortoiseshell i.e. a blending of orange and yellow, dark brown, sandy and black, though if it had well-defined white patches, it might do.”

SEARCH FOR RARE CAT. STRAY PRIZE KITTEN REVIVES HOPES LONG- HAIRED TORTOISESHELL MAY BE FOUND.
Daily Mirror, 14th January 1910
The hunt for the long-haired tortoiseshell tom cat, chronicled recently in The Daily Mirror, grows keener than ever, for every now and then the hope of finding one glimmers on the horizon of the cat world, only to vanish again. How such hopes are raised is shown in the case of two little kittens found abandoned in a Devon garden. One of them proved to be an aristocrat, its owner, Mrs. Louis Maxwell, told The Daily Mirror yesterday at the Southern Counties Cat Club Show, held in the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster. The kitten, a long-haired tortoiseshell and white, now called Betty Barton, won the third prize in Class 73. She was very highly commended at the recent Hounslow Cat Show, and was commended at the show held in her native town, Torquay.

“Betty will do a lot of winning, and is becoming quite a valuable cat," said Mrs. Maxwell. "She must have been born in July last, because when I had her she was just able to lap."

Since then, however, two other kittens—both long-haired tortoiseshell and tabby—have been found in the same garden abandoned by their parents, who are suspected to be domestic cats turned wild, and the question has arisen—is it the mother or is it the father which is the tortoiseshell?

"Long-haired tortoiseshell male cats are exceedingly rare, but now there is this hope that somewhere in Torquay there is a wild. one who keeps abandoning his children in a garden near his home. Everyone is hoping to discover him, for whoever does so will have found a 'gold mine.' I have only known of one long-haired tortoiseshell tom," one of the officials at the show told The Daily Mirror yesterday, " and that belonged to a poor woman who had it destroyed! A woman who was going to buy it fell ill, and when she got better she found that the cat was dead. The disappointment gave her a relapse."

FROM “A LADY’S LONDON LETTER” Cheltenham Examiner, 10th March 1910
Pussy, I know, has the defects of her qualities, but, grant the quality this can be trained or developed, just as in a child. Fashion, so cruel to fur and plumage, has done poor pussy a right good term: it has made her a craze, one perhaps not now so violent as a few years ago, but a powerful fad at the least. Cat shows have demonstrated what our sleek friend is capable of in personal beauty, and that when this is pronounced she is a valuable money item. These shows have ensured her a status very different to that of some years ago.

I have a friend whose cat has a discriminating sense of music, and prefers Beethoven to any other Master. At the first note of Wagner he disappears, and thee is a certain symphony – I forget the composer's name – to which he listens with every hair alive, and his great eyes aglow with inspiration. No later than yesterday a relative told me of a wonderful half-bred Persian cat he possesses — of whom, to tell the truth, I get a little tired. This cat, named Abel, is devoted to cheese, and he always eats it with a certain cheese biscuit. The other day his master gave him the gollumptious morsel as usual without the biscuit. The tin was on the table, and Abel quietly put in his paw and took out one and then ate his cheese with relish. I could more than one cat tale unfold strange and true, but they will keep till another day when I may be short of copy. Animals are a fascinating subject.

AN APPRECIATION OF PUSSY
Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 163, 13 March 1910

Most dog lovers, those of the more radical type In particular, contend that the dog's mission in life is to teach mankind that the universe Is ruled by love, says Chambers' Journal. Montaigne was fond of his dog, but it was of his cat that he wrote: "My Cat awaits no one's mirth. We entertain each other with mutual follies, and if I have my time to begin or to refuse my cat also has hers." Miss Ellen Terry tells us that when Sir Henry Irving lost his pet dog Fussie, which fell through a trap door, the wardrobe cat came down and sat on Fussie's cushion and awaited the great actor, even as Fussie had done when the play was over. Andrew Lang says it is the cat alone among animals that attains to the contemplative life. Miss Frances Simpson In her "Book of Cats." writes: "At a very remote period In the history of animal life the carnivorous and predacious animals, to which the existing cat belongs", occupied a position In the scale of creation as Important as they do today. We find locked up In the rocks of the tertiary and recent pleistocene formations the bones and teeth of these ancient cats along with those of the animals upon which they fed." This assertion Is claimed to be scientific nonsense, for no less a an authority than All Ghaznit, the erent Arabian commentator, avers that the cat was first created in the ark. "The good old ship," he says, "was overrun with mice and Noah prayed to Allah and the tiger (not the lion) sneezed forth a cat, and so when the animnas left the ark pussy preceded them all with his tail erect, and it has remained erect ever since." The Arabian prophet declared the cat a clean animal, but not the dog. It was his cat Muezzi that gave repose to the home of the many-wived Mohammed and when his cat was asleep on his loose sleeve he cut off the sleeve rather than disturb the slumbers of pussy. The line of cats In history is as long as that of the names. Among the sights at the British Museum is "The Old Cat," and several wall paintings of the worship of Pasht, as pussy was called in the old Egyptian times. In the Old Guildhall In London there are many records of Sir Richard Whittington and his cat. A cat in repose always sat with Cardinal Wolsey on the wol sack. Cardinal Richelieu found comfort with his kittens. Samuel John«on had his Hodge, the poet Gray his Selima. Pope Leo XII his Micetto, Vlctor Hugo his Mouche and Charles Dickens his Wilhelmina. It is the little cat soul that seeks for friendship In a lonely world, and it Is not until you respond in the approach of pussy that you feel what a comfort he is at all times.

CAT RUNS AMOK.
Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 16th April 1910
Mrs. Anna Chanter, her two children, and Policeman Frank Hembt were bitten by a supposedly rabid cat in Mrs. Chanter’s home, New York. The animal was presented to Mrs. Chanter by a friend who exhibited it at the cat show. She gave it the name of Puffins. The animal was 18 months old, and weighed nearly 191bs. Mrs. Chanter was in the kitchen and her children —Gilbert (14) and Harold (12)—were in the parlour when the cat attacked Frank. He threw a toy engine at the animal, which then turned upon Gilbert, who jumped up on a trunk. Frank was bitten in the right leg and Gilbert in the left leg. Puffins bit Mrs. Chanter in the ankle. When Policeman Hembt opened the door, Puffins leaped at him, biting his left hand. He had on a glove, and so was able hold on to the cat, which he shot.

THE STORY OF A KITTEN.
Newry Reporter, 26th May 1910
Margaret Keenan summoned Betty Ann Plain for assault. Both persons reside in Carnegat. Mr. Cowan appeared for the defence.
Mr. Cowan—There is a question of title in this case, as the whole thing arose over a kitten.
Complainant—It was right enough. It was a little kitten I got out of hie workhouse, and this woman came to my door, knocked me down, and took the kitten away.
The Chairman— If you come to my place I’ll give you two or three.
Complainant —It is not the kitten, but the abuse she gives me. She said if I said the kitten was mine she would knock my eyes out. She called me out of my name several times, but I never made her an answer.
Mr. Loughran—Did she knock you down?
Complainant—l was sitting at the door, and she knocked me over and took the kitten away. I am 62 years of age.
The Chairman—You have only a few years to go until you get the pension.
Mr. Cowan said this was truly a trumped-up case.
Michael Morgan, examined for the defence, denied that the defendant committed any assault on the complainant. All he saw was Mrs. Plain taking the cat out of the complainant’s arms.
The majority of the magistrates dismissed the case on the merits. The chairman dissented, and expressed the opinion that a technical assault was committed.

PERSIAN CATS.
Greencastle Herald, 17 June 1910
How They Are Classified-Points of a Fine Animal. Long haired Persian cats may be classified as blacks, blues, whites, silvers, oranges, cream or fawn, tortoise shell, tortoise shell and white, brown tabbies, any other color. The silvers are subdivided into minor classes as follows: chinchillas, shaded silvers, silver tabbies, masked silvers, smokes. The coat of the long haired Persian cat should be long and thick, its texture fine and soft. There should he tufts of hair projecting from the inside of the ears, also around the jaws. There should be a frill of long hair around the throat, extending back to the shoulders and down the chest to where the front legs join the body. There should be tufts of hair growing upward from between the toes. The head should, be massive but round, with great width of skull between the ears, says Country Life in America; the ears should be small and set low. From the forehead to the nose the line should be slightly concave, the nose itself being short. The back should he broad and level but not too short, legs short, paws round, brush or tail of medium length, wide and carried low. The ryes should be large, round, luminous and set level. The expression of the face, taken as a whole, should he gentle and sweet. The general appearance of the animal should be cobby and its movements easy and graceful. In disposition the Persian cat is naturally inclined to be loving and gentle, but as they are very high strung it is an easy matter to spoil their dispositions entirely by rough or unkind treatment.

CATS
Otago Daily Times, 27 August 1910
Cats. "Whatever you do, don't be cats," - the Bishop of London is reported as saying to the pupils at a girls' school. Unless the Bishop knows more things against the character of the cat than are generally known, his advice would bear revision. In manv points the pupils of a girls' school might model themselves on the cat. The cat is strictly domestic, a lover of hearth and home, keeps its face and hands clean, attends strictly to business in front of a mousehole, is musical (solo or duet), a student of astronomy and the midnight heavens. Unlike the dog - an animal always thrusting himself upon you and asking what you think of him - the cat is totally free from vanity, living its own life in its own world, using you for what you may be worth, concealing its own thoughts and sublimely indifferent to yours. I should hesitate before telling a school-ful of girls, crudely and baldly, not to be cats.

CAT IN BRICK WALL 30 YEARS
The Concord Daily Tribune, 6th September, 1910

A cat sealed within the masonry of a Washington church 30 years is exhibited in a Washington shop. The beast crept in a crevice to sleep, it is thought, and masons who were repairing the structure sealed it in a wall without knowing it. The cat was discovered Saturday when the wall that had been its tomb was being removed. The body was as well preserved as if it had been embalmed.

START WAR ON RATS TO STOP THE PLAGUE
The Inter Ocean, 13th November, 1910

HOLBROOK, Suffolk [England], Nov. 12 – [the article details efforts to control rats carrying the plague bacillus; traps, ferrets, dogs and poison were used. Rabbits were also affected.]

At the village of Stutton they are doing things by full measure. A massacre of the domestic cats is in progress. Cats which are the pride of families have met an untimely doom because they did their duty and were rat killer. The rector led the way. When his cat became ill he had it poisoned. This cat has now gone to be examined for the plague bacillus. After the rector the schoolmaster, Findley Baker, saw to the removal of his home cat and the publican and other residents followed the example.

CAT COVETED BY U.S. SAILORS
Daily Mirror, 29th December 1910
Owner of prize animal rejects many offers from fleet. Closely watched. With the sailing of the American fleet from Gravesend this morning a great weight will be lifted from the heart of a prize angora cat’s owner there. Jimmy – for that is the prize cat’s name – is coveted by every bluejacket there and reciprocates their affection. His owner, Miss Hooper, guards him night and day, for Jimmy, she says, simply worships American sailors, almost as much as they worship him, and she has been afraid, ever since the American fleet has been there, that Jimmy would one day go off to the ships he loves. He is a fine specimen of the big, amiable, contented cat. He weighs 16 lb., and has won honours in various cat shows. He never “me-ows” or purrs like ordinary cats. His method of showing approval is to put out his tongue.

“I have been offered all sorts of fabulous sums for Jimmy since the American sailors came to Gravesend,” Miss Hooper told the Daily Mirror, “but, of course, I wouldn’t part with him under any circumstances. I have refused £10 from individual sailors over and over again, and have also rejected a whole crew’s subscription, which would have mounted up to nearly £100.

“When the last squadron left Gravesend I had Jimmy carefully locked away till the ships had sailed and thought my days of anxiety were over, but, since this new squadron has been here, I have to guard him just as closely as ever, and cannot bear to let him out of my sight. He was quite an ugly duckling when he was given to me five years ago, but he has developed into a tremendous big fellow and has the most charming manners.

“When L was on board the Mississippi I saw their ship's cat, and I said it was no wonder they wanted my Jimmy. He is so big that he can reach up and rattle the doorknobs when he wants the door opened, and can stand up at table and eat off a plate. If I miss him I have warned the sailors that I shall have every ship in the fleet searched before they sail.”