The Westminster Budget from London, Greater London, England • Page 17

FEBRUARY 17, 1899 THE WESTMINSTER BUDGET 15 prayeth best who loveth best All things both great small. 4-4 THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CAT th pol story of nations it is no withal to be a free son of nature, is is the victory of the mighty it. But spiller of life besides the cred of uncommon perience find States and peoples which but a short success the cat has other qualities which compel recognition. The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the Romans symbol of liberty, which Europeans in the in bitter conflict and animosity with each ignorant Middle Ages anathematised as an agent of demonology other, settled down comfortably on terms of has displayed to all goodwill and even alliance. The of affords of the social developmen courage and self-respect both qua! ages two coming-togeth of milar instance in the child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden dan warring for assistance, the blended characteristics matter how unfavourable the always to the fore.

Confront a the child will puppy will grovel in abj ments, now represented by civilised man submission to the impending visitation, the kitten domesti The fiercely-waged and fel which went on between in those far-off days when ded toothed tiger and cave lion con- primeval man long been decided in favour of the most fitly equipped Thing with a the descen- of the dispossessed family are relegated to-day, for the most dants part, lands of cat (a and veld, where an existence of extermination. But the felts of the modern domestic avoided the ruin of its race, keystone ot the conqueror present), by a master-stroke of adapt capt pi servant dependent human fraternity rganisation. For not as a bond- proudest of mammals entered the like follower like the dog The beasts of burden is domestic or as ffer any nds it will not be kennelled or harnessed goings comings in. Long Roman Card has developed in it the art of diplomacy, of mediaeval days knew better how to with a saucer ingratiate himself with his surrounding of cream on its mental horizon. But the social smoothness, the purring innocence, the softness of the velvet paw may be laid aside at a moment's notice, and th sinuous fel may deliberate aloofness, to a world of roofs and chimney the human element is distanced and disregarded.

Or th ear, in that helped and claw may be summoned forth from beneath the bygone days of tooth and the torture-instinct (common exterior, It is the death-throes of some luckless bird human and feline) may indeed, no small rodent num to have combined the liberty of primeval savagery with the luxury wh body for a fr cat will brace its resistance. And disassociate the luxury- atmosphere of social comfort in which it usually IN DELIBERATE ALOOFNESS. a ghly-developed civilisation can command to be powers, it dies righting to the last, quivering with the choking rage only a Pped nds 0f the world; to bask in the warmth that labour and uu stry have dragged from the bowels of the earth; "quet on the dainties that wealth has bespoken for its table. THE PROUDEST OF MAMMALS contrives to move, and obser it of that civilisation which tically under the adver pel a man the degradation of clothing himself in tawdry ribald garments and capering mountebank dances in the streets for the earning of the few coins that keep hi of society. The cat pectable, or cnmi side of the slums and alleys, starved, outcast, keeps amid the prowlings of its adversity the bold, free panther-tread with which it paced of yore th Thebes, still displays the self-reliant watchfulness which pie courts of man ght to aside.

And when its shifts and clever managings sufficed to off inexorable fate, when enemies have proved too strong or too many for its defen in the soft stuffs that commerce has gathered from the of mastered resistance, and voicing in its death-yell to and bitter remonstrance which human animals, have fl 7 7 agony the powers that may be the last protest against a destiny that migi have made them happy--and has not. p--.