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After a day of tempest,A battle of wind and rain,Just when the gloom was thickest, The sun shone forth again.lilt with a blaze of glory The track of tho seething waves; Fell ltko an angel’s blessing On the desolate church-yard graves;Gave heart of hope to tho fisher Wearily faring hone;Brightened the brow of the good wife Watching till he should comc.And tho words of the Holy Scripture, Were borne to my soul again As I thought of the wonderful gladness Of sunshine after rain;And thought that ever tho Master, As once In Galilee,Is ready to calm the tumult Of storm on landjor sea.And yet when the gloom is thickest,And the day Is almost done.He sends us cheer and courage In tho gleam of the setting sun.—Harper’s Bazar.REAL LOGS OF WAR.Four-Footed. Soldiers Enlisted in European Armies.They Aro Trained to Perform ynlimblo Service — Employed as Dlspntcli-JBearera and In tlio Hosplta' Corps—A I’ollce Sergeant.The pages of history from the earliest times record with honorable mention the services of dogs as auxiliaries in war. They were utilized in the Greek and Roman armies, and Corinth is said to have been saved by fifty war dogs. King Henry VIII. employed bloodhounds in France, and the Earl of Sussex had no less than eight hundred of them in Elizabeth’s array in Ireland. St. Malo, when it formed a separate republic, was guarded by three hundred dogs. Philip V., in 1702, at Mount Phillippi and at the fort of Etoile, fed the dogs which were at the gates and which remained uncared for by the Austrians, and afterwards , turned them to useful account as auxiliary sentinels and for accompanying the patrols. In 1778 the Turks were greatly helped by dogs both at the siege of Dubitza and at Gino Berdo. They used them as a cordon to guard their camps and later to track the unfortunate inhabitants of the countries they were devastating. There is a fine for killing a dog in Turkey, and it is • exacted as follows: The dead dog is tied up by the tail with his fore-paws touching the ground, and the fine consists of as much corn as will cover the dog in that position.During the siege of Sebastopol the French on several occasions received alarms of sorties through the watchfulness of a dog called Minette. The fame of the French military dog Moustache ■•$s renowned. When encamped with iv?jus regiment before Alexandria, the gmrst night lie was the means of detect |||ng a surprise; he fought at Marengo, ffand saved the standard of his regiment ;at Austerlitz, for which service he was decorated on the battlefield by Marshal Lannes. He captured au Austrian sergeant, and brought two privates as prisoners into camp, served also in the Spanish paign and was the means of detecting several ambushes. At dress ^ grades he invariably appeared at the ead of the regiment, conducting himself with soldierly dignity. He bore on his body many honorable scars of hot encounters, and was finally killed by a bullet directly after the siege of Badajoz..Gen. Skobeleff, in Asia Minor, had a corps of dogs instructed as sentries, and they are now used in the artillery and other branches of the service. The Germans began experimenting with dogs In 18S5, instructing them on outpost duty. A Jugcr battalion hnsUbout twenty dogs of all sizes stationed with the advance guard. The Germans dress men in French and Russian forms (aud the French have recourse to similar tactics) who lie in wait and frighten the dogs, so as to impress them at once with the appearance of an enemy. A well-trained collie in German regiment on the approach of anyone he does not know, will hide * the nearest ditch and will wait until he passes, the dog will then continue his journey only to repeat the process should he be again interrupted.It was a maxim witli Frederick the Great that it was pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised. When troops are wearied by long marches, and sentries besides being fatigued have in addition to struggle against hunger and severe cold, in such cases the aid of well-trained military dogs would be appreciated by any prudent commander. It has been, ascertained '' that on a calm night dogs can with tainty detect the approach of strangers up to five hundred yards, and in stormy weather they will scent an enemy within two hundred yards and distinguish friend from foe.Regarding the breed of dogs best udapted for military purposes, it is conceded that the farmers’ sheep dog has the finest qualities. The retriever makes a good war dog, and spaniels have much to recommend them. In Germany they are considered second to the sheep dog. Bloodhounds have no superior when it cmeB to tracking. In Austria the Dalmatian lias been trained; Russia prefers the Caucasian dog; Turkey selects the Asiatic sheep dog, and Italy, like England, is experimenting with various breeds.On the wall of the readlt)g»room of Bow street police office* London, hangs the portrait of a remarkable dog. One day in August, an old, starved, homeless animal took up his quarters on the steps of a seldom-used door nected with the office. As neither dog nor man had a right to loiter in that doorway, the superintendent gave orders that he should be made to move on. As often as he was driven off, however, he reappeared. The men of the division became at last very much attached to the dog. and adopted him in the corps, bestowing upon' him the name of Charlie. At a quarter beforfc six every morning the first day tettfeff was pnrudcd in the yard of the Station,■ previous to setting out on duty at six. At that hour, aud at every parade, day or night, Charlie was always present, marching up and down in If rout of the liue with all the importance of a drill sergeant Parade over, Charlie would hend tAm «relief in its march rouud the beats and then ■went on a towr- *of inspection, walking for awhile with this or that specially favored policeman. Charlie was »lso 'kndwii as tho “White Sergeant,'” '«ti state occasions, when the n^Wnfitfhce of the-greater part of the division was required, sergeant’s armlet was buckled aroundproud of the decoration. At the Victoria Gross presentation in Hyde Park thirty-five hundred*of the police were on the ground. Charlie had been detained at the station, having been accidentally shut in a room.. As soon os he was set free he made for the park, working his way through the immense crowd, and took his place at the head of his own division. Previous to. leaving tho station his armlet had been buckled on, and as he sat, stiff and erect as an old soldier, in front of the long line of constables, the queen, as she passed along the park, noticed the dog and smiled. After performing his duties faithfully.as sergeant for nearly eight years, Charlie died in front of the mess room fire;The patient submission of dogs to surgical treatment is well known. Mr. George Fleming, veterinary surgeon of the Second Life guards, operated on a fine pointer, having a large, hard, fibrous tumor of the breast, with deep and far reaching roots. During the operation the animal displayed an amount of patience that would have been creditable to a human being. Even during the most painful part of the proceeding, that of inserting the sutures, the dog never flinched. The same resignation was displayed when' the time for dressing the wound came round, and he would pjace himself in position for the surgeon.The frontier of France abounds in smugglers and the resources of the contraband traders are called into activity. They have trained packs of dogs to carry prohibited goods across the line. The dogs are kept without food many hours; they arc then beaten and laden with goods, and are started on their travels as soon as it 'is dark. When they reach the abodes of tfieir masters they are well treated, . and receive a good meal. According to the accounts of the French custom house, on an average fifty thousand of the dog smugglers are destroyed, annually, on which, account fifty thousand francs, as premiums, were paid to the customs officials.The intelligence, bravery and endurance of dogs have been attested in all ages and countries, and their fitness and value for military purposes has passed beyond the experimental point. In the event of an European war they’ill be found operating in large numbers with the various arms of the service, and they have received training as auxiliary sentinels; as scouts on the march, on reconnaissance, and patrol duties; as dispatch carriers, on the march, in camp, and in action; as auxiliary ammunition carriers, on the march and in action; ns searchers for the wounded and killed after an engagement, and for lookouts on men ofar of all descriptions.In support of the value of dogs covering the duties in connection with military operations, a great many reoscA# might be advanced that have not been touched upon; but the average military t who has given the subject any thought or study will scarcely deny the fact that trained dogs for the art of war can be made as useful as the skilled hunting pack to the sportsmen. —H. D. Smith.A MIGHTY HUNTER.Thiers’ Kemark, Which Was Truly Freuch In Its Wit.It is the custom in France for all the fashionable worlds to go shooting in the autumn. Every possessor of a landed estate invites his friends from Pans to visit him at this season, and every visitor is expected to distinguish himself with the gun.When Adolph Thiers, the petit bourgeois statesman of France, becuSnu president of, the republic he was iif-vited one autumn to take part in the sports at the country estate of M. Cjtsi-mir-Perier. He accepted the invitation; and consequently had to appear on the hunting field in shooting dress and armed with a gun. The whole entertainment was really in his honor.M. Cnsimer-Perier was aware that his old friend, npw the president, knew nothing whatever about hunting; But he instructed his gamekeeper to follow M. Thiers about and see that, in one way or janother, the. great gtfcjst of * the occasion /‘bagged-’ more game than any other person.The gamekeeper led the president to a certain spot and said to him: “Your excellency, the game will all be driven past this place. You have nothing to do but%reraain here and' if you shoot at all you are bound to kill something.” But the president, to his credit, declined this opportunity, and insisted upon traveling about withj the other hunters—except that he* never went to the right place and never got a shot at all. The gamekeeper was in despair. The distinguished guest kept him hooping about from place to place but always out of range of the game.Nevertheless, by collusion with others, the gamekeeper so managed it that when the day’s sport was over M. Thiers, Who had not discharged his gun all day, found a large pot of game at his feet, which was declared to be his “bag.” “This mine?” said the president, in astonishment.“Certainly, your excellency.”“Ah! I see,” he said. “1 never shot anything before I became president, so I suppose this was killed by the office, not by the man!”—Youth’s Companion,It Buys to Know How,One of the last important measures of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, before Maine was made a state, was negotiate with the Penobscot Indians for the purchase of their rights in a large tract of forest land* tihd some very eminent-gentlemen were selected to carry out the bargain. After the signing of thu deed With all due formality by the assembled Sagamores at Bangor it was necessary for them to “acknowledge it” as the legal phrase is. One of the stately commissioners held up twe Jpfcper aud asked “if they acknowledged it to be their free act and xjeed.*’ The result was the red men gathered ‘their blankets around them ^nd relapsed iuto u state of stoical indifference, . giving- no sign of reply. Gen. Blake, who was present, had had much to do with the Indians, nud s at once they did not understand what the formality required of them meant. “Let me try,” he said, taking the paper. Turning to the head chief, he said: “You willing—and ail the rest of the Indians willing?” “Oull Oul!” they all cried,- in answer, showing as much of willingness as they had hitherto of v serve.—Lewiston Journal.. '
Newspaper Details
Lyons Weekly Mirror
Rock Rapids, Iowa, US
Sat, Jan 07, 1893
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Camille C.
USA 05 Jun 2025
Other Publications Near Rock Rapids, Iowa
Rock Rapids Reporter
Lyons Weekly Mirror
Rock Rapids Lyon County Reporter
Standard Atlas of Lyon County Iowa
