 Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow The establishment of the National Stodd Book and Register has greatly raised the standards of felines in the mother country. It has many well-known people as members, life members or associates, and from time to time people distinguished in the cat world have been added as honorary members. The officers of the National Cat Club of England since its reconstruction in March 1898 are as follows. Presidents, Her Grace, the Duchess of Bedford, Lord Marcus Beresford Vice Presidents, Lily, Duchess of Malboro, now Lady Beresford, the Countess of Warwick Lady Granville Gordon, Honourable Mrs. McLaren Morrison, Madame Roren, Mr. Isaac Woodivis, the Countess of Shefton, Lady Hotfield, the Honoured, Mrs. Brett, Mr. Sam Woodivis, Mr. H.W. Bullock President of Committee, Mr. Lewis Wayne Committee, Lady Marcus Beresford, Mrs. Bowding, Mr. Sidney Woodivis, Mr. Hefkins, Mrs. Blair Maconohy, Mrs. Walens, Mr. Brackett and Mr. F. Greschen Honoured Secretary and Honoured Treasurer, Mrs. Tanner Robinson This club has a seal and a motto, Beauty Lives by Kindness. It publishes a stood book in which are registered by degrees and championship wins which are eligible for it. Only wins obtained from shows held under NCC rules are recorded free of charge. The fee for ordering registration is one shilling per cat and the stood book is published annually. There are over 2,000 cats now entered in this National Cat Club's stood book, the form of entry being as follows. LF means long-haired female, CP Crystal Palace Number 1593 Mimi Dutsey LF, Silver Tabby Ms. Anna F. Gardner, Humsville House, near Buss, shown as Mimi Bread by Ms. Hov, Bridget Yate, near Bristol, born April 1893, alive Sir, Blue Boys, Great, of Islington 1,019, Mrs. H. B. Thompson, Damm, Boots of Bridget Yate 1,025, Ms. Hov, prices won, first built, second CP, 1893, Kitten Class Number 1,025, Boots of Bridget Yate, LF, Silver Tabby Ms. E. Hov, Bridget Hov, warmly Bristol Former owner, Ms. Foote, 43 Palace Gardens, Kensington, born March 1892, alive Some of the cats entered have records of prices covering nearly half a page of the book. The advantage of such a book to cat owners can be readily seen. A cat once entered never changes its number, no matter how many owners he may have, and his name cannot be changed after December 31st as a year in which he is registered. The more important rules of the English National Cat Club are given in condensed form as follows. The name is the National Cat Club. Objects To promote honesty in the breeding of cats, so as to ensure purity in each distinct breed or variety, to determine the classification required, and to ensure the adoption of such classification by breeders, exhibitors, judges, and the committees of all cats shows, to encourage showing and breeding by giving championship, and other prizes, and otherwise doing all in its power to protect and advance the interest of cats and their owners. The National Cat Club shall frame a separate set of rules for cat shows to be called National Cat Club rules, and the committees of those cat shows to which the rules are given shall be called upon to sign a guarantee to the National Cat Club, binding them to provide good penning and effectual sanitation, also to the punctual payment of prize money, and to the proper adjudication of prizes. Studebok The National Cat Club shall keep a studebok. Noiter classes Forgoded cats Kitten classes Single entries over three and under eight months Kitten brace Kittens of any age Brace For two cats of any age Team For three or more cats any age In Paris, although cats have not been commonly appreciated as in England, there is an increasing interest in them, and cat shows are now a regular feature of the Jardin Declimation. This suggests the subject of the cat's social position in France. Since the revolution the animal has conquered in this country totesless liberties, accepting that of wearing an entire tail for in many districts, it is efficient to cut the caudal appended short. In Paris, cats are much cherished wherever they can be without causing too much unpleasantness with the landlord. The system of living in flats is not favourable to cat culture for the animal, not having access either to the tiles above or to the gutter below is apt to pine for fresh air and the society of its congeniers. Probably in no other city do those creatures lie in shop windows and encounters with such an arrogant air of proprietorship. In restaurants a very large and fat cat is kept as an advertisement of the good feeding to be obtained on the premises. There is invariably a cat in a carboneer's shop, and the animal is generally one that was originally white, but long ago came to the conclusion that all attempts to keep itself clean were hopeless. Its only consolation is that it is never blacker than its master. It is well known that the Persians and Anguars are much esteemed in Paris and are, to some extent, bred for sale. In the provinces, French cats are usually low-bred animals, with plebeian heads and tails, the string-like appearance of the latter not being improved by cropping. Although not generally esteemed as an article of food in France, there are still many people scattered throughout the country who maintain that a civet de cat is a good or better than a civet de l'Ivoire. In François's copies, fondness for cats as pets is so well known that there was great flittness in placing his name first upon the jury of awards at the 1896 cat show in Paris, such as the well-known men as Emile Zola, André Thoriott and Catoel Méndez, also figured on the list. There is now an annual Exposition for Lien International. In this country, the first cat show of general interest was held at Madison Square Garden, New York, in May 1895. Some years before, there had been a cat show under the auspices of private parties in Boston, and several minor shows had been held at Newbork, New York, and other places. But the New York shows were the first to attract general attention. 176 cats were exhibited by 125 owners, besides several ocelots, wildcats and civets. For some reason, the show at Madison Square Garden in March 1896 catalogued only 132 cats and 82 owners. Since that time, there have been no large cat shows in New York. There have been several cat shows in Boston since 1896, but these are so far only adjuncts to poetry and pigeon shows. Great interest has been manifest in them, however, and the entries have each year run above 100. Some magnificent cats are exhibited, although the rules the animals shown are somewhat small. Many kittens being placed there for sale by breeders. Several attempts to start successful cat clubs in this country have been made. At the close of the New York show in 1896, an American cat club was organized for the purpose of investigation, ascertaining and keeping a record of the pedigrees of cats, and of instituting, maintaining, controlling and publishing a stoodbok, or a book of registry of such kind of domestic animals in the United States of America and Canada, and of promoting and holding exhibitions of such animals, and generally for the purpose of improving the breeds they are of, and educating the public in its knowledge of the various breeds and varieties of cats. The officers were as follows, President Rush S. Hidekopa, 154 East, 57th Street, New York City, Vice Presidents W. D. Mann, 208 Fifth Avenue, New York City, Mrs. E. N. Barker, Newport, New York, Secretary Treasurer James T. Hyde, 16th East, 23rd Street, New York City, Executive Committee T. Farrah Rakham, E. Orange, New York, Mrs. Addis Newbold, Southampton, Mrs. Harriet C. Clark, 154 West, 82nd Street, New York City, Charles Air Pratt, St. James Hotel, New York City, Joseph V. Stray, 229th Division Street, Brooklyn, New York. More successful than this club, however, is the Bearsford Cat Club formed in Chicago in the winter of 1899. The President is Mrs. Clinton Locke, who is a member of the English Cat Clubs and whose canal in Chicago contains some of the finest cats in America. The Bearsford Cat Club has the sanction of John G. Shortall of the American Human Society and on its Honorary List are Miss Agnes Reblier, Madame Runner, Lady Marcus Bearsford, Miss Helen Winslow and Mr. Louis Vain. At their cat shows, which are held annually, prizes are offered for all classes of cats from the common felline of the Black Alley up to the aristocratic resident of Meledies Poudre. The Bearsford Club cat shows are the most successful of any yet given in America. 178 prizes were awarded in the show of January 1900 and some magnificent cats were shown. It is said by those who are in a position to know that there are no better cats shown in England now than can be seen at the Bearsford Show in Chicago. The exhibits cover short and long-haired cats of all colors, sizes and ages, with Siamese cats, Manx cats and Russian cats. At the show in January 1900, Mrs. Clinton Locke exhibited 14 cats of one color and Mrs. Josiah Kretty, five white cats. This club numbers 170 members and consequence strengths second to none in America. It is a fine, honorable club, which has for its object the protection of the human society and the caring for all cats reported as homeless or in distress. It aims also to establish straightforward and honest dealings among the cataries and to do away with the humbuggery which prevails in some quarters about the sales and valuation of hybrid cats. This club cannot fail to be of great benefit to such as one to carry on an honest industry by the raising and sale of fine cats. It will also improve the breeding of cats in this country and thereby raise the standard and promote more general intelligence among the people with regard to cats. Some of the best people in the United States belong to the Bearsford Club, the membership of which is by no means confined to Chicago. On the contrary, the club is a national one and the officers and board of directors are President Mrs. Clinton Locke First Vice President Mrs. W. Eames Colborne Second Vice President Mrs. F. A. Ho Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Henry C. Clarke Recording Secretary Mrs. Lucy Claire Johnstone Treasurer Mrs. Charles Humpton Lane Mrs. Elwood H. Tolman Mrs. G. H. Pratt Mrs. Matty Fisk Green Mrs. F. A. Storie Mrs. Louise L. Fergus The club is anxious to have members all over the United States just as the English cat clubs do. The non-president annual fees are only one dollar and a member has to be proposed by one and endorsed by two other members. The registered cats for the stood book are entered at one dollar each and it is proposed to give shows once a year. The main objects of the club are to improve the breeds of fancy cats in America, to awaken a more general interest in them and to secure better treatment for the ordinary common cat. The shows will be given for the benefit of the human society. The Chicago Cat Club has done excellent work also having established a cat home or refuge for stray, homeless or diseased cats with the department for boarding pet cats during the absence of their owners. It is under the personal care and direction of Dr. C. A. White. 78 East 26th Street The first cat to be admitted there was one from Cleveland, Ohio which was to be boarded for three months during the absence of its owner in Europe and also to be treated for disease. This club was incorporated under the state laws of Illinois on January 26th, 1899. In connection with it is a children's cat club which has for its primary objects a teaching of kindness to animals by awakening in the young people an appreciative love for cats. At the show of the Chicago Cat Club small dogs and cavies are exhibited also the Cavay Club and the Pet Dog Club having affiliated with the Chicago Cat Club. The president of the Chicago Cat Club is Mrs. Leland Norton of the Drexel Kennels at 41 Drexel Boulevard Chicago. The corresponding secretary is Mrs. Laura Dauntie-Pellham 315 inter-ocean building and the other officers are Vice-president Ms. Chertrude Esterbrooks recording secretary Ms. Jenny Van Allen and treasurer Mrs. Ella B. Shepard. Membership is only $1 a year and the registration fee in the Chicago Stoodbook 50 cents for each cat. The cat shows already held and the flourishing state of our cat clubs have proved that America is a fine if not finer cats than can be found in England and that interest in finely bred cats is on the increase in this country. The effect of the successful cat clubs and cat shows must be to train intelligent judges and to raise the standard of cats in this country. It will also tend to make the cat shows of such a character that kind-hearted owners need not hesitate to enter their choices' cats. As yet, however, the judging at cat shows is not so well managed as in England. It should be a rule that the judges of cats should not only understand their fine points but should be in sympathy with the little pets. Cat dealers who have a number of cats entered for competition should not be allowed on the board of judges. In England, the cats to be judged are taken by classes into attend for the purpose and the door is fastened against all but the judges, whereas over here the cats are too often taken out of their cages by a sense of crowd of spectators and judged on a table of some public place thereby frightening the timid ones and bringing annoyance to the owners. Again, there should be several judges. In England there are seven, including two or three women and these are assigned to different classes. Mr. Harrison Weir, the well-known authority on cats and Louis Wayne, the well-known cat artist are among them. In this country there are a number of women who are not dealers but who are fully posted in the necessary qualifications for a hybrid cat. American cat shows should have at least three judges, one of whom at least should be a woman. A cat should be handled gently and kept as calm as possible during the judging. Women are naturally more gentle in their methods and more tender-hearted. When my pets are entered for competition, some wise kind women have the judging of them. In judging a cat the quality and quantity of its fur is the first thing considered. In a long-haired cat this includes the Lord Mayor's chain or frill, the tail and most important of all, the ear-turfs. The turfs between the toes and the flexibility of the tail are other important points. The shape of head, eyes and body are also carefully noted. A short-haired cat is judged first for color than for eyes, head, symmetry and ears. In all cats the head should show breath between the eyes. The eyes should be round and open. White cats to be really valuable should have blue eyes without deafness. Black cats should have yellow eyes. Other cats should have pea-green eyes or in some cases as in the brown, self-colored eyes. The nose should be short and tampering. The teeth should be good and the claws flat. The lower leg should be straight and the upper hind leg lie at closed angles. The foot should be small and round and the mouth is pointed. A good cat has a light frame but a deep chest, a slim, graceful and fine neck, medium-sized ears with rounded tips. The crop should be square and tight, the tail of a short haircut long and tampering and of a long haircut broad and bent ores at the end. The good results of a cat show are best told in a few words by one who has acted as judge at an American exhibition. One year he said, people have to learn that there is such a thing as a cat. The next they come to the show and learn to tell the different breeds. Another year they learn the difference between a good cat and a poor one. And the next year they become exhibitors and tell the judges how to award the premiums. End of Chapter 7 Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow Chapter 8 Concerning Hybrid Cats in America One of the first American women to start a catry in this country was Mrs. Clinton Locke, wife of the director of Grace Church, Chicago. As a clergyman's wife, she has done a great deal of good among the various charities of her city simply from the income derived from her canals. She has been very generous in gifts of her kittens to other women who have made the raising of fine cats a means to add to a slender income and has sent beautiful cats all over the United States to Mexico and even to Germany. Under her hospitable roof at Indiana Avenue is a cat family of great distinction. First, there is the beetle, a splendid blue male with amber eyes whose long pedigree appears in the third volume of the NCCSP under the number of 1872, seared by Glokos and his dam was house-torn buns. His pedigree is traced for many generations. He was bred by Mrs. Dean of House-Tornidine, Sloth England. The beetle took first price at the cat show held in Chicago in 1896. He also had honorable mention at two cat shows in England when a kitten under the name of Bumblebee. Lord Gwyn is a noble specimen, a long-haired white cat with wonderful blue eyes. He was bred from champion bundle and his mother was out of the musher, number 1027, winner of many championships. His former owner was Mrs. Davies of Upper Cattisham. Mrs. Lok purchased him from A.A. Clarke, one of the best judges of cats in England. Lord Gwyn took a price at the Brighton Cat Show in England in 1895 as a kitten. The father of the beetle's mate, Rosalys, was the famous bluebeard. Mrs. Lok's chinchillas are the finest ones in this country. Atosa, the mother cat, has a wonderful litter of kittens. She was bred to Lord Argent, one of the three celebrated stud chinchillas in England. She arrived in this country in July and 10 days after gave birth to her foreign kittens. One of the kittens has been sold to Mrs. Farnsheim of Cincinnati and another to Mrs. W. E. Colbourne of South Chicago. The other Mrs. Lok will not part with at any price. Smardis, the grand chinchilla male, brought over as a future mate for Atosa, is a royal cat. He looks as though he had run away from Bengal, but like all of Mrs. Lok's cats, he is gentle and loving. He is the son of Lord Southampton, the lightest chinchilla stud in England, and his mother is Silver Spray. His maternal grandparents are Silver King and Harrowbell, and his great grandparents Perso and Beauty, all registered cats. On his father's side, a pedigree of three generations can be traced. One of her more recent importations is Lord Gwyneth's mate, Lady Mirtis, a beautiful long-haired cat with blue eyes. Other famous cats of hers have been Bettina, Nora, Doc, Pashti, Marigold, Grover and Wendell. One of Mrs. Lok's treasures is a Bonafide cat mummy brought by Mrs. Lok from Egypt. It has been verified at the Gize Museum to be 4,000 years old. It's fully 25 years since Mrs. Lok began to turn her attention to fine cats, and when she imported her first cat to Chicago, there was only one other in the United States. That one was Mrs. Edwin Brainard's Madame, a wonderful black, imported from Spain. Her first long-haired cat was Wendell, named for the friend who brought him from Persia, and his descendants are now in the Lokhaven catory. Queen Wendella is one of the most famous cats in America today, and mother of the beautiful Lokhaven Quartette. These are all descended from the first Wendell. The kittens in the Lokhaven Quartette went to Mrs. S. S. Leach, Bonely, New London, Mrs. Lucy Nichols, Ben Mark Hattery, Walter Burry, Mrs. Olive Watson, Barnesburg, and Mrs. B. M. Gladding at Memphis, Teen. Mrs. Lok's Lord Argent, descended from Atozza, and the famous Lord Argent of England, is a magnificent cat. While her smirdies is the son of the second, now owned by Mr. C. H. Jones, of Palmyra, New York, was once her cat, and was the daughter of Rosalees, owned by Mrs. Nichols of Walter Burry, who has a granddaughter of the famous Bluebeard of England. These, with the beautiful brown tabby, Crystal, owned by Mr. Jones, have all been prize winners. Lucy Claire is a recent importation who won second and third prizes in England under the name Baby Flossie. She is the daughter of Duke of Kent and Topso of Merival. Her parental grandparents are Mrs. Herring's well-known champion Bluejack and Marnie. The maternal grandparents are King Harry, a prize winner at Clifton and Brighton and Fluff. Mrs. Lok's cats are all imported. She has sometimes purchased cats from Maine or elsewhere for people who did not care to pay the price demanded for kittens, but she has never heard of her own catry, any cats of American origin. Her stock, therefore, is probably the choicest in America. She always has from 20 to 25 cats and the cat lover who obtains one of her kittens is fortunate indeed. A beautiful pair of Blacks and Mrs. Lok's catry have the most desirable shade of amber eyes and are named Blackbird and Saint Tudno. Her name is cats called Siam and Sally Ward. Mrs. Josia Creti of Oak Park has a catry called the Young Frau Catry and her cats are remarkably beautiful. Her Bartimaeus and True Blue are magnificent white cats seared by Mrs. Lok's Lord Given. Miss Halcy Johnstone of Chicago has some of the handsomest cats in the country. Cherry is a wonderful blue-shaded cat Lord Whom is a splendid brown tabby while Beauty Belle is an exceedingly handsom white cat. Miss Johnstone takes great pains with her cats and is rewarded by having been rated among the best in America. Some of the beautiful cats which have been sent from Chicago to homes elsewhere are Teddy Roosevelt, a magnificent white seared by Mrs. W. E. Claubron Paris and belonging to Mrs. L. Kemp of Curent, South Dakota Silver Dick, a gorgeous buffon white whose grandmother was Mrs. Claubron's caprice and who is owned by Mrs. Porter L. Evans of East St. Louis. Toby, a pure white with green eyes owned by Mrs. Albert W. Sherk of Indianopolis and Amoutis Ashenshila belonging to Mrs. S. S. Leitch of New London, seared by Mrs. Lok's Mardies and the daughter of Rosalith II. Miss Corovalis of East Brady has Lord Ruffles son of the first Rosalith and the beetle formerly Bumblebee. Mrs. Fisk Green of Chicago now owns a beautiful cat in Bumblebee and another in Miss Mariglegs a blue with golden eyes the daughter of Bumblebee and Black Sappho The Mrs. Peacock of Topeka have a pair of whites called Prince Hilo and Rosebud to latter having blue eyes Mrs. Frederick Monroe of Riverside, Illinois owns a remarkable specimen of a genuine Russian cat a perfect blue of extraordinary size Miss Elizabeth Knight of Milwaukee has a beautiful silver tabby Winifred, the daughter of Watchwood, Miss Cat Lorraine Gakes celebrated silver tabby of Brewster, New York The most perfect lavender blue cat belongs to Miss Lucy E. Nichols of Waterbury and is named Roscoe He has beautiful long fur with a splendid rough tail and is a son of Rosalith and the beetle Mrs. Leland Norton has a number of magnificent cats It was she who adopted Miss Frances Williards Tutsi the famous cat which made the $2,000 for a temperance course Miss Nella B. Wheatley has very fine kennels and raises them beautiful cats Her tuffy is a beautiful buff and white Angora which has been very much admired Her cats have been sold to go to many other cities Speaking from her own experience Miss Wheatley says Raising Angoras is one of the most fascinating of employments and I have found when properly taken care of they are amongst the most beautiful strong, intelligent and playful of all animals Mrs. W. E. Colbourne is another very successful owner of cat kennels She has had some of the handsomest cats in this country among which are Paris a magnificent white cat with blue eyes and his mother Caprice who has borne a number of wonderfully fine pure white Angoras with the most approved shade of blue eyes Her catry is known as the Calumet Kennel and there is no better judge of cats in the country that misses Colbourne So much has been said about the cats which were mascots on the ships during the Cuban war that it is hardly necessary to speak of them Tom, the mascot of the main and Cristobald have been shown in several cities of the union since the war The most beautiful collection of brown tabbies is owned by Mr. C. H. Jones of Palmer in New York who has the crystal catry Crystal, the son of Mrs. A. M. Barkey's King Humbert is a champion brown tabby of America and is a magnificent creature of excellent disposition and greatly admired by cat fanciers everywhere Mona Lisa is made and Goosey and Bubbles make up as handsome a quarter of this variety as one could wish to see Goosey's tail is now over 12 inches in circumference Mr. Jones keeps about 25 cats in stock all the time The most highly valued cat in America is Napoleon the Great The owner has refused $4,000 for him A magnificent fellow he is too with his bushy orange fur and lion-like head He is 10 years old and weighs 23 pounds which is a remarkable weight in a male cat only gilded once ordinary running above 15 pounds Napoleon was bred by a French nobleman and was born at the Chateau Fontainebleau near Paris in 1888 He is a pure French Angora which is shown by his long crinkly hair so long that it has to be frequently clipped to preserve the health and comfort of the beautiful creature This clipping is what causes the uneven quality of fur which appears in his picture His mother was a famous cat and his grandmother was one of the grandest dams of France The latter lived to be 19 years old and consequently Napoleon the Great is regarded by his owners as a mere youth He has taken first prizes and medals wherever he has been exhibited and at Boston 1897 once the Silver Cup offered for the best cat in the exhibition Another fine cat belonging to Mrs. Vied is Marguerite mother of Lenoyer a beautiful black Angora Seared by Napoleon the Great and owned by Mrs. Vied Joe Noy's Napoleon the Daughter born in 1894 $1500 When she was 7 months old her owners refused $200 for her She is a tortoise shell and white French Angora and a remarkably beautiful creature All these cats are great pets and are allowed the freedom of the house and barns Although when they run about grounds there is always a man in attendance $6000 or $7000 worth of cats sporting on the lawn together is a rich site but not altogether without risk Mrs. Fabius M. Clarks Persia a beautiful dark-shinned Shilla is one of the finest cats in this country She began her career by taking special and first prizes at Fastman's Cat Show in England as the best long-haired kitten She also took the first prize as a kitten at Lancashire and at the National Cat Show in New York in 1895 She was bred in England in Lancashire, King of Hoon, Dumb Brunette, a pure imported person stock Mrs. Clark brought her home in January 1895 and she is still worshipped as a family pet at her New York home Sylvia was also brought over at the same time She was a beautiful long-haired male Silver Tabby and bred by Mrs. A. F. Gardner Sylvia was served by the famous Topso of Dingley owned by Miss Leake Famous as the best long-haired baby in England Sylvia's mother was Meet Dutsey whose pedigree is given in the previous chapter Mimi Sir was the champion Blue Boy the Great whose mother was Boots of Bridget whose pedigree is also given in the extract from the stud book Sylvia took a first prize at the New York Show 1895 but unfortunately was poisoned before he was a year old This seems a greater pity because he had a remarkably fine pedigree and gave promise of being one of the best cats America has yet seen Persa is a handsome specimen of the fine blue shinshilla class She is quiet, amiable and shows her high breeding in her good manners and intelligence Her tail is like a fox brush and her rough gladdens the heart of every cat fancier that beholds her She is an aristocratic little creature and seems to feel that she comes of famous foreign ancestry Mrs. Clark makes great pets of her beautiful cats and trains them to do many a cunning trick Another cat which has won several prizes and took the silver ball offered for the best cat and litter of kittens in the 1895 cat show of New York is Ellentary, a handsome orange and white exhibited by Mrs. Fabius M. Clark At that show she had seven beautiful kittens and they all reposed in a dainty white and yellow basket with the mother delighting the hearts of all beholders She now belongs to Mrs. Brian Brown of Brooklyn She is a well bred animal with a pretty face and fine weathering One of the kittens who won the silver ball in 1895 took the second prize for long haired white female in New York in March 1896 She is a beautiful creature known as Princess Dinozata and belongs to Mrs. James S. H. Umsted of New York Sylvia is still in Mrs. Clark's possession and is a beautiful creature dainty, refined and very jealous of her mistress affection Mrs. Clark also owns a real man's cat brought from the Isle of Man by Captain Mackenzie It acts like a monkey cleaning up on the mantles and throwing down pictures and other small objects in the regular monkey spirit of mischief It has many queer attributes and hopes about like a rabbit She also owns Sappho who was bred by Ella Wheeler Wilcox from her Madame Reff and Mrs. Stevens Ajax and uncommonly handsome white Angora The site of Topso and Sylvia was Musiach owned by Mr. Ferdinand Danton a New York artist He was a magnificent creature imported for all years in 1894 a pure blue version of uncommon size and beautiful coloring Musiach was valued at $500 but has been stolen from Mr. Danton Probably his present owner will not exhibit him at future cat shows Ajax is one of the finest white Angoras in this country His owner, Mr. D. W. Stevens of Westfield, Massachusetts has refused $500 for him and would not consider $1000 as a fair exchange for the majestic creature He was born in 1893 and is valued not only for his fine points but because he is a family pet with a fine disposition and uncommon intelligence At the New York show in 1895 and at several other shows he has won first prizes One of his sons bids fair to be a fine as cat as Ajax This is Samson bred by Ella Wheeler Wilcox from Madame Reff and owned by Mr. Bryan Brown Mr. Stevens has a number of other cats One is rabie, a reddish black female with a red rough Another is lady who is pure white and then there are monkey and midget who are black and white Angoras All of these cats are kept in a pen a half of which is within the barn and the other half out of doors and enclosed by wire netting Ajax roams over the house at Will and the others pass some of the time there but the entire collection is available to be given the freedom of all outdoors Both Mr. and Mrs. Stevens are very fond of cats and have made a study of them in sickness and health Some years ago a malicious raid was made on the pen and every cat poisoned was the exception of rabie whose life was saved only by frequent and generous doses of skunks oil and milk At the first New York show Ms. Ethon S. Ms. Anderson's Chico was announced after Ajax in the pure white long-haired class The third prize was won by Snow another imported Angora belonging to Mr. George A. Robson of Newton, Massachusetts Snow had already taken a prize at Crystal Palace He is a magnificent animal Mr. Robson owns a number of beautiful cats which are the pride of his family and bring visitors from all parts of the country His orange-colored long-haired dandy first prizes at the Boston shows of 1896 and 1897 in the guarded class He is beautifully marked and has a disposition as childlike and bland as the most exacting owner could wish Ms. Puth is also owned by Mr. Robson and presents him with beautiful white Angora kittens every year The group of ten white kittens raised by him in 1896 gives some idea of the beauty of Angora kittens although the picture was taken with a high wind blowing in their faces causing one white beauty to conceal all marks of identification except an ear and another to hide completely behind his playmates Mustafa was entered by Dr. Heidi Copper in the first New York show but not for competition He was a magnificent brindled version-guarded cat six years old as though he had taken first prize He was very fond of his master but very shy with strangers when at home He slept on the library desk or a cushion next to his master's bed whenever he could be alone with the doctor but at other times preferred his own company or that of the cook Another cat that attracted a great deal of tension was master Petetz Tomy a white person imported in 1889 and valued at $500 although no money consideration could induce his owners to part with him He was brought from the interior of Persia where he was captured in a wild state He was kept caged for over a year and would not be tamed but at last he became domesticated and is now one of the dearest pets imaginable His fur is extremely long and soft without a colored hair His tail is broad and carried proudly aloft curling over toward his back walking His face is full of intelligence His ears well tipped and feathered and his rough a thing of beauty enjoy forever King Max a long haired black male weighing 13 pounds at the age of one year and valued at $1000 took first prizes in Boston in January 1897 1998 and 1999 He is owned by Mrs. A. R. Taylor of Medford, Massachusetts and attracts constant attention during shows His fur is without a single white hair and is a finger deep His rough encircles his head like a great Ariel He is not only one of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen but one of the best natured As his reputation for beauty spreads among visitors at the show everywhere they want to see him and he has no chance at all for naps Generally he is brought forward and taken from his cage But not once does he show the least sign of ill temper and even on the last day of the show he keeps up a continual looper of content and happiness Perhaps he knows how handsome he is Grower P. The Mascot is a Philadelphia cat who took the $25 gold medal in 1895 at the New York show as the heaviest white cat exhibited He belongs to Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Buchanan and weighs over 20 pounds He is a thoroughbred and is valued at $1000 having been brought from the Isle of Malta and he wears a $100 gold collar His remarkable cat noted particularly for his intelligence and amiability He is very dainty in his choice of food and prefers to eat his dinners in his high chair at the table He has a fascinating habit of eating himself with his paws He is very talkative just before mealtimes and is versed in all the feline arts of making oneself understood He waits at the front door for his master every night and will not leave him all the evening He sleeps in a bed of his own snugly wrapped up into blankets and he is admired by all who know him not more for his beauties than for his excellent deportment He furnishes one more proof that the properly trained and well cared for cat and sense and appreciation Mrs. Frances Hodson Burnett's tiger cat dick attracted a great deal of attention at the first New York show He weighs 22 pounds and is 3 feet long with a gurs of 24 inches and he has attained some degree of prominence in her writings A trio of cats that were a center of attraction at that first show belonged to Colonel Mann of Tontovics and rejoiced in the names of Tuffy, the Laird and Little Billy They took a first prize but two of them have since come to an untimely end Colonel Mann is a devoted lover of animals and he has given a standing order that none of his employees shall, if they see a starving kitten on the street, leave it to suffer and die Accordingly his office is a sort of refuge for unfortunate cats and one may always see a number of creatures there who seem to appreciate the kindness which surrounds them The office is in a fifth story of a looking fifth avenue and the cats used to crawl out of the wide window ledge in summertime and enjoy the air and the view of Madison Square but alas the Laird and Little Billy came to their deaths by jumping from their high perch after sparrows and falling to the pavement below and Tuffy, a monstrous shiny black fellow, is the leader in the town topics colony Dr. H. L. Hammond of Killingly makes a speciality of the rare Australian cats and has taken numerous prizes with them at every cat show in this country where they are universally admired His Columbia is valued at 600 dollars and his Trixie at 500 dollars They are indeed beautiful creatures though somewhat unique in the cat world as we see it They are very sleek cats with four so short glossy and fine that it looks like the finest satin Their heads are small and narrow with noses that seem pointed when compared with other cats They are very intelligent and affectionate little creatures and make the loveliest of pets Dr. and Mrs. Hammond are extremely fond of their unusual and valuable cat family and tell the most interesting tales of their antics and habits His Columbia was an imported cat and the doctor has reason to believe that she with her mate are originally from the Siamese cat imported from Siam to Australia They are all very delicate as kittens, the mother rarely having more than one at a time With two exceptions these cats have never had more than two kittens in a litter They are very partial to heat but cannot stand cold weather They have spells of sleeping when nothing has power to disturb them but when they do wake up they have a high time running and playing They are affectionate being very fond of their owner but rather shy of strangers They are uncommonly intelligent too and are very teachable when young They are such beautiful creatures besides being rare in this part of the world that it is altogether probable that they will be so much sought after as pets End of Chapter 8 Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow Chapter 9 Concerning Cats in Poetry As far back as the 9th century a poem on a cat was written which has come down to us from the Arabic Its author was even Allah laf Al-Naharvani of Baghdad who died in 318 AH or AD 930 He was one of the better known poets of the Caliphate and his works may still be found in the original The following verses which were translated by Dr. Carlisle are confessedly a paraphrase rather than a strict translation but of course the sense is the same Commentators differ on the question as to whether the poet really meant anything more in this poem than to sing of the death of a pet and some have tried to ascribe to it a hidden meaning which implies beautiful slaves, lovers and assignations Just as the wise Browning student discovers meanings in that great poet's works of which he never dreamed Nevertheless, we who love cats are feigned to believe that this follower of Muhammad meant only to celebrate the merits perhaps it would be hardly to to cause and butchers of his beloved cat The lines are inscribed On a cat that was killed as she was attempting to rob a dove house by even Allah laf Al-Naharvani For Puss's gun just fades decree yet I must steal her lost deplore for dearer than a child was she I never shall I behold her more With many a sad, presaging tear this mourn I saw her steal away while she went on without a fear except that she should miss her prey I saw her to the dove house climb with cautious feet and slow she stepped resolved to balance loss of time by eating faster than she crept Her supple foes were almost on the watch and marked her course with fury fraught and while she hoped the birds to catch an arrow's point the hunters caught In fancy she had got them all and drunk their blood and sucked their breath alas she only got a fall and only drank the draught of death Why, why was Pigeon's flesh so nice that thoughtless cats should love its us had soup had lived on rats and mice had soup had lived on rats and mice had soup had lived on rats and mice had soup had lived on rats and mice had soup had lived on rats and mice though had been living still, poor Posse cursed be the taste have ever refined that prompt us for such joys to wish and cursed the dainty worth we find destruction lurking in the dish Among the poets Pussy has always found plenty of friends Her fellow in grace and softness has inspired some of the greatest and from Tassau on Petrarch down her quiet and dignified demeanor have been celebrated in verse Mr. Swinburne within a few years has written a charming poem which was published in the Athenaeum and which places the writer among the select inner circle of true cat lovers he calls his verses to a cat stately, kindly, lordly friend can descend here to sit by me and turn glorious eyes smile and burn golden eyes love's lustrous mane on the golden page I read dogs may phone on all and some as they come you a friend of loftier mind answer friends alone in kind just your food upon my hand softly bids it understand Thomas Gray's poem on the death of Robert Walpole's cat which was drowned in a bowl of goldfish was greatly prized by the electric after the death of the poet the bowl was placed on a pedestal at Strawberry Hill with a few lines from the poem as a description in a letter dated March 1st 1747 accompanying it Mr. Gray says at one ought to be particularly careful to avoid blunders in a compliment of condolence it would be a sensible satisfaction to me before I testify my sorrow and the sincere part I take in your misfortune to know for certain who it is I lament I knew sorrow and Selima Selima was it or Fatima or rather I knew them both together for I cannot justly say which was which then as to your handsome cat the name you distinguish her by I am no less at a loss as well knowing one's handsome cat is always a cat one likes best and if one be alive and the other dead it's usually the letter that is the most important besides if the point were never so clear I hope you do not think of me so ill-bred or so imprudent as to forfeit all my interest in the survivor oh no I would rather seem to mistake an imagine to be sure it must be the teppy one that had met with this sad accident till this affair is a little better determined you will excuse me if I do not cry Tempus inna ne peto requerum this he closes the letter by saying there's a poem for you it's rather too long for an epitaph and then the familiar it was on a lofty way the side where China's gazed art had died the azure flowers that blow demursed of the tabby kind the pensive Selima reclined gazed on the lake below Woodsforce kitten and the falling leaves in the high moralizing style that way look my infant lo with a pretty baby show sees a kitten on the wall sporting with the leaves at fall but the kitten how she starts crouches, stretches, poth and darts first at one and then it's fellow just as light and just as yellow there are many now now one now they stop and there are none what intenseness of desire in her upward eye of fire what a tiger leap halfway now she meets a coming prey lets it go as fast and then has it in her power again now she works with three or four like an engine cauldron quickers he in feats of art far beyond in joy of heart where her antics played in the eye of a thousand standards by clapping hands to shout and stare what could little tabby gear of the crowd our happy to be proud our wealthy in the treasure of her own exceeding pleasure pleased by an iran them toy by a kitten's busy joy or an infant's loving eye sharing in the ecstasy I would feign like such or this find my wisdom in my bliss keep this breakthrough soul awake I have faculties to take even from things by sorrow wrought matter for a joven thought spite of care and spite of grief to gamble with life's falling leaf Cooper's love for animals was well known at one time according to Lady Hesketh he had besides two dogs two goldfinches and two canneries five rabbits, three heirs two guinea pigs, a squirrel a magpie, a joy and a starling in addition he had at least one cat for Lady Hesketh says when innings a cat keeping one of the heirs a sound box on the ear the hare ran after her and having caught her punished her by drumping on her back with her two feet hard as drumsticks till the creature would actually have been killed had not Mrs. Unwin rescued her it might have been this very cat that was the inspiration of Cooper's poem to a retired cat which had as a moral the familiar stanza beware of to sublime a sense of your own wars and consequence the man who dreams himself so great at his importance of such weight that all around in all that's done must move an act for him alone will learn its school of tribulation the folly of his expectation body layer of road come beauty rest upon my loving heart but see say Paul sharp nailed play and let me peer into those eyes that dark mixed a gate and metallic ray brave scholars and mad lovers all admire and love and each alike at this full tide those suave and puss and cats the fireside's pride who likes the sedentary life and glow of fire Goldsmith also wrote of the kitten around in sympathetic mirth it's tricks the kitten tries the cricket chirps in the hearth the crackling faggot flies does this not such a trick but a trick does this not suggest a charming glimpse of the poet's English home Keats was evidently not acquainted with the best and sleekest pet cat and his sonnet to a cat does not indicate that he fully appreciated their highest qualities Mr. Whittier our good Quaker poet while not attempting an elaborate sonnet or stilted elegiac shows a most appreciative spirit in the lines he wrote for a little girl who asks him one day with tears in her eyes to write an epitaph for her lost basheba basheba to whom none ever sat's cat nor was their cat ever sat on the mat and caught her act Clinton's colored however has given us an epitaph that many sympathizing admirers would gladly inscribe on the tombstones of their lost pets if it were only the popular fashion to put tombstones over their graves this is Mr.'s colored tribute the best ever written Grimalkin an elegy on Peter aged 12 in vain the kindly call in vain the plate for which so onced was vain at morn and noon and daylight's vain of King of Mothers know when I hear thee poor and poor as in the frolic days that were when to that straps I velvet fur against my trousers how empty are the places where the earth's worth frankly debonair nor dreamed a dream of feline care a capering kitten the sunny hounds were a grow a cat you pondered this considered that the cushioned chair the rug the mat by firelight smitten although a few stood stood in dread how well the new a friendly tread and what upon thy back and head the stroking hand meant a passing scent could keenly wake thy eagerness for chop or steak yet bus how rarely did do break the eighth commandment though briefs a life a little span of days compared with that of man the time allotted to the run in smoother manner now is the warm earth over thy breast a wisest of thy kind and best for ever maced though softly rest in pace Peter one only has to read this poem to feel that Mr. Scholar knew what it is to love a gentle intelligent affectionate cat made so by kind treatment to Francos copy the cat is as sacred as it was to the Egyptians of old the society of his feline pets is to him ever delightful and consoling and it may have inspired him to write some of his most melodious verses nevertheless he's not the cat's poet it was Charles Cross who wrote here is a version in verse of the famous Kilkenny cats of Linn she was an Irishman as very well was known and she lived down in Kilkenny and she lived there all alone with only six great large tomcats that know their ways about and everybody else besides she scrupulously shut out oh very fond of cats was she and whiskey too this said she didn't feed them very much but she combed them well instead and maybe guess these large tomcats did not get very sleek upon a combing once a day and the harpers once a week now on one dreary winter's night of Linn she went to bed with a whiskey bottle under her arm the whiskey in her head the six great large tomcats they all sat in a dismal row and hurriedly glared their hazy eyes their tails wagged to and fro at last one grim Bray Malkin spoke in accent's dire to tell and dreadful there was a ward switch in his hurried whisper fell and all the six large tomcats in aunts were lured to squail let's kill her and let's eat her body bones and all a horrible or terrible or deadly tale to tell when the sun shone through the window hall all seemed still and well the cats they sat and licked their paws all in a merry ring but nothing else in all the house looked like a living thing and on the quarrel surgely they spit this war they hollered at last these six great large tomcats they won another swallowed and not but one long tale was left in that one's peaceful dwelling and a very tough one too it was it's the same that I've been telling by far more artistic is the version for which I am indebted to miss Catherine Eleanor Conway herself a poet of high order and a lover of cats the Kilkenny cats there wasn't worse two cats in Kilkenny I'd thought there was one cat too many so they quarreled and fit they scratched in a bit till accepting their nails and the tips of her tails instead of two cats there wasn't any this version comes from Ireland and is doubly the correct original now it says miss Conway that more than greek delicacy with which the tragedy is told no mutilation no gore just an effacement prompt an absolute there was only one cat then prompt an absolute there wasn't any it would be hard to over praise that fine touch end of chapter 9 chapter 10 of concerning cats this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 10 of concerning cat by Helen M. Winslow concerning cat artists while thousands of artists first and last have undertaken to paint cats there are but few who have been able to do some justice artists who have possessed the technical skill requisite to such delicate work have rarely been willing to give to what they have regarded as an important subjects the necessary study and those who have been willing to study cats seriously have possessed but seldom the skill requisite to paint them well Thomas John Veer whose judgment on such matters is unquestioned declares that not a dozen have succeeded in painting thoroughly good cat portraits portraits so true to nature as to satisfy if they could express their feelings in the premises the cat subjects and their cat friends only four painters he says ever painted cats habitually and always well two members of this small but highly distinguished company flourished about a century ago in widely separated parts of the world and without either of them knowing that the other existed one was a Japanese artist named Hoko Sei whose method of painting was quite unlike to that which we are accustomed in this western part of the world but who had a wonderful faculty for making his queer little cat figures seem intensely alive the other was a Swiss artist named Gottfried Mend whose cat pictures are so perfect in their way that he came to be honorably known as the cat Raphael the other two members of the cat quartet are the French artist Monsieur-Louise Aujean Lambert whose pictures are almost as well known in this country as they are in France and the Dutch artist Madame Henriette Ronner whose delightful cat pictures are known even better as she catches the softer and sweeter graces of the cat more truly than Lambert a sort of good picture of a cat is hard to paint from a technical standpoint because the artist must represent not only the soft surface of fur but the underlying hard lines of muscle and his studies must be made under conditions of cut perversity which are at times quite enough to drive him wild if he is to represent the cat in repose he must wait for her to take that position of her own accord and then just as his sketch is well underway she is liable to rise to touch herself and walk off if his picture is to represent action he must wait for the cat to do what he wants her to do and that many times before he can be quite sure that his drawing is correct with these severe limitations upon cat painting it is not surprising that very few good pictures of cats have been painted Godfrey and Wind has left innumerable pen sketches to prove the beauty and charm of the cat he was born at Berne in 1768 he had a special taste for drawing animals even when he very young even when very young bears and cats being his favorite subjects as he grew older he obtained a wonderful proficiency and his cat pictures appeared with every variety of expression there are silky coats there are graceful attitudes there are firm shape beneath the undulating floor where treated so as to make mince cats seem alive it was Madame Lebrun who named him the Raphael of cats and many a royal personage bought his pictures he like most cat painters kept his cats constantly with him knowing that only by persistent and never tiring study could he ever hope to master their infinite variety his favorite mother cat kept closely at his side when he worked or perhaps in his lap while her kittens ran over him as fearlessly as they played with their mother's tail when a terrible epidemic brought out among the cats of Berne in 1809 he did his minette safely from the police but he never quite recovered from the horror of their massacre of the 800 that had to be sacrificed for the general safety of the people he died in 1814 and in poverty although a few years afterwards his pictures brought extravagant prices Burbank the English painter has done some good things in pictures the expression of the face and the peculiar light in the cat's eye made up the realism of Burbank's pictures which were reproductions of sleek and handsome drawing room pets and the coats he brings out with remarkable precision the ill-fated Swiss artist Cornelius Wishers Marvelous Tomcat has become typical De La Croix the painter of tigers was a man of highly nervous temperament but his cat's sketches bring out too strongly the tigerish element to be altogether successful Louis Eojin Lombard was a pupil of De La Croix born in Paris September 25th 1825 and the chief event of his youth was, perhaps, the great friendship which existed between him and Maurice Sands and Tomology was a fad with him for a time but he finally took up his serious life work in 1854 when he began illustrating for the Journal of Agriculture in connection with his work he began to study animals carefully making dogs his specialty in 1862 he illustrated an edition of La Fontaine and in 1865 he obtained the first medal for a painting of dogs in 1866 his painting of cats Le Horloge Qui Avance won another medal and wrote his first fame as a cat painter in 1874 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor then boy in 1874 Lech Katz du Cardinal and Grandeur de Klein brought more medals although he has painted hosts of excellent dog pictures cats are his favourites on account, as he says Les formes fine et gracieux mouvement souple et subtile in the Luxembourg Gallery Mr. Lombard's family of cats is considered one of the finest cat pictures in the world in this painting the mother sits upon a table watching the antics of her four frivolous kitten there is wonderful smoothness of touch and refinement of treatment that have never yet been excelled after the Banquet is another excellent example of the same smoothness of execution with fullness of action instead of repose and yet there is an undeniable lack of disputes which should be evident in the faces of the group it is here that Madame Ronner excels all other cat painters living or dead she not only infuses a wonderful degree of life in her little figures but reproduces the shades of expression shifting and variable as the sands of the sea as no other artist of the brush has done asleep or awake her cats look exactly to the Felinarian like cats with whom he or she is familiar curiosity, drowsiness indifference, alertness, love hate, anxiety temper, innocence, cunning fear, confidence, mischief earnestness, dignity and helplessness they are all in Madame Ronner's cats faces, just as we see them in our own cats Madame Ronner is the daughter of Josephus Augustus Knipp a landscape painter of some celebrity 60 years ago and from her father she received her first art education she is now over 70 years old and for nearly 50 years has made her home in Brussels there, she and her happy cats a big black newfound land dog named Priam with a bird, cockatoo, named Coco dwell together in a roomy house in its own grounds back a little from the Charlie Roy road Madame Ronner has a good son to care for her and she loves the animals who are both her servants and her friends every day she spends 3 good hours of the morning in her studio painting her delightful cat pictures with the energy of a young artist and expert precision which we know so well she was 16 when she succeeded in painting a picture which was accepted and sold at public exhibition at Dusso Dorf this was the study of cat seated in a window and examining with great curiosity a bumblebee while it would not compare with her later work there must have been good quality in it or it would not have got into a Dusso Dorf picture exhibition at all at any rate it was the beginning of her successful career as an artist from that time she managed to support herself and her father by painting pictures of animals for many years however she can find herself to painting dogs her most famous picture The Friend of Man belongs to this period a pathetic group composed of serving old sand cellar looking down upon a dying dog still harnessed to the little sand wagon with the two other dogs standing by with wistful looks of sympathy when this picture was exhibited in 1860 Madame Ronner's fame was established permanently but it so happened that in the same year a friendly kitten came to live in her home wandering in through the open doorway from no one knew where and deciding after sniffing about the place in cat fashion to remain there for the remainder of its days and it also happened that Madame Ronner was lured by this small stranger who so coolly quartered himself upon her to change the whole current of her artistic life and to paint cats instead of dogs of course this change could not be made in a moment but after that the pictures which she painted to please herself were cat pictures and as these were exhibited and her reputation as a cat painter became established cat orders took the place of dog orders more and more until at last her time was given wholly to cat painting her success in painting cat action has been due as much to her title as patience as to her skill a patience that gave her strength to spend hours upon hours in carefully watching the quick movements of the little little creatures and in correcting again and again her rapidly made sketches every cat lover knows that the cat cannot be induced either by reason or by affection to act in accordance with any wishes save its own also that cats find malicious amusement in doing what they know they are not wanted to do and that was an affectation of innocence that materially aggravates their deliberate offence but madame runner through her long experience has evolved a way to get them to pose as models her plan is the simple one of keeping her models prisoners in a glass box enclosed in a wire cage while she is painting them inside the prison she cannot always command their actions but her knowledge of cat character enables her to a certain extent to persuade them to take the pose which she requires by placing a comfortable cushion in the cage she can tempt her model to lie down some object of great interest like a live mouse for instance exhibited just outside the cage is sure to create the eager look that she has shown so well on cat faces and to induce her kittens to indulge in the leaps and bounds which she has succeeded so wonderfully in transferring to canvas she keeps hanging from the top of the cage a most seductive bob madame runner's favorite models are gem and monmouth cats of rare sweetness of temper whose conduct in all relations of life is above reproach the name of monmouth as many will recall was made famous by the hero Montiore Labidolier's classic mother Michelle and her cat Footnote translated into English by Thomas Bailey Aldrich and the footnote and therefore has clustered about its traditions so glorious that its viewers in modern times must be upheld always by lofty hopes and high resolves doubtless monmouth runner feels the responsibility entailed upon him by his name in the European galleries are several noted paintings in which the cat appears more or less unsuccessfully Broigel and Teniers made their grotesque cat concerts famous but one can scarcely see why since the drawing is poor and there is no real insight into cat character evident the sleeping cat in Broigel's paradise lost in the Louvre is better being well drawn but so small as to leave no chance for expression Lebrun's sleep of the infant Jesus in the Louvre cause a slumbering cat enters the stow and in Barocci's Lobadonna del Gato the cat is the center of interest Hohman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience and Murillo's Holy Family del Pajorito gives the cat as a type of cruelty but how failed egregorously inaccuracy of form or expression Paul the Ronezist cat in The Marriage at Ghana is fearfully and wonderfully made and even Rembrandt failed when he tried to introduce a cat into his pictures Rosa Bonhoir has been wise enough not to attempt cat pictures knowing that special study for which she had not the time or the inclination is necessary to fit an artist to excel with the feline character Lancia too trying twice once in 1819 with the Cat Disturber and once in 1824 with the cat's paw gave up all attempts at dealing with Grimelkin indeed most artists who have attempted it have found that to be a wholly successful cat artist such wholehearted devotion to the subject as Madame Ronez is the invariable price of distinction of late however more artists are found who are willing to pay this price who are giving time and study not only to the supple shadings of the delicate fur but to the varying facial expression and sinews movements of the cat Margaret Stocks of Munich for example is rapidly coming to the front as a cat painter and some predictor for her she is still a young woman a future equal to Madame Ronez Gambier-Bolton's Daydreams shows admirably the quality and tumbleness of an Angora kitten's fur while the expression and drawing are equally good Miss Cecilia Beoth Brighton Katz is famous and every student of Katz recognizes its truthfulness at once Angora and Persian kittens find another loving and faithful student in J. Adam whose paintings have been photographed and reproduced in this country times without number Puss and Boots is another foreign picture which has been photographed and sold extensively in this country Little Milk-Sop by the same artist Mr. Frank Patton gives fairly faithful drawing an expression of two kittens who have broken a milk pitcher and are eagerly lapping up the contents In the Munich gallery there is a painting by Klaus Mayer Bose Tsungen which has become quite noted His three old cats and three young cats show three gossiping old crones by the side of whom are three small and awkward kittens Of course, there are no artists whose painting of the cat is to be compared with Madame Ronez Mr. H. L. Dolph of New York City whose paintings of the cat is to be compared with Madame Ronez Mr. H. L. Dolph of New York City has painted hundreds of cat pieces which have found a ready sale and Mr. Sid L. Brackett of Boston is doing very creditable work A successful cat painter of the younger school is Mr. N. N. Bickford of New York whose peek-a-boo hangs in a Chicago gallery side by side with cats of Madame Ronez and Monsieur Lambert Miskity's birthday shows that he has a genuine understanding of cat character and is mastering the subtleties of long-bite fur Mr. Bickford is a pupil of Jules Lefebvre Boulogneur and Mirals It was by chance that he became a painter of cats Madame Ozel Marie Engel the Primadonna owned a beautiful white Angora cat which she prized very highly and thus her engagements abroad compelled her to part with the cat during his time he left Missy with the artist until her return one day Mr. Bickford thought he would try painting the white silk and fur of Missy the result not only surprised him but also his artist friends who said Lambert himself could not have done better Upon Miss Engel's return seeing what an inspiration her cat could be she gave her to Mr. Bickford and it is needless to add that he has become deeply attached to his beautiful model Missy is a pure white Angora with beautiful blue eyes and silky fur she won first prize at the National Cat Show of 1895 but no longer attends cat shows on account of her engagements as professional model Ben Ostrien who has made the success in painting other animals has done a cat picture of considerable merit it was Styx a beautiful tiger grey belonging to Mr. Marlon W Newton of Philadelphia the cat is noted not only in Philadelphia but among traveling men as he resides at a hotel and is quite a prominent member of the office force he weighs 15 pounds and is of a very affectionate nature following his master to the park and about the establishment like a dog during the day he lives in the office lying on the counter or the key rack but at night he retires with his master at 11 or 12 o'clock sleeping in his own basket in the bathroom and waking his master promptly at 7 every morning Styx picture hangs in the office of his hotel and is becoming as famous as the cat Elizabeth Bosnell is a young American artist who has exhibited some good cat pictures and whose work promises to make her famous some day if she does not worry in well-doing and Mr. Jean Paul selling his kittens are quite well known the good cat illustrator is even more rare than the cat painters thousands of readers recall those wonderful life like cats and kittens which were a feature of the Saint Nicholas a few years ago accompanied by nonsense rhymes or jingles after the work of Joseph G. Francis of Brooklyn, Massachusetts and brought him no little fame he was and is still a broker on State Street, Boston and in his busy life these inimitable cat sketches were but an act incident Mr. Francis is a devoted admirer of all cats and had for many years loved and studied one cat in particular it was by accident that he discovered his own possibilities with the line of cat drawing as he began making little pen and ink sketches for his own amusement and then for that of his friends the latter persuaded him to send some of these drawings to the Saint Nicholas and the wide awake magazines and rather to his surprise they were promptly accepted and the Francis cats became famous Mr. Francis does but little artistic work nowadays more important business keeping well occupied besides he says he is not in the mood for it who does not know Louis Wayne's cats the prince of English illustrators Mr. Wayne's home when not in London is at Bendigo Lodge Westgate, Kentucky he began his artistic career at 19 after training in the best London schools he was not a hard worker over his books but his fondness of nature led him to an artistic career American Indian stories were his delight and accounts of the wandering outdoor life of our aborigines were instrumental in developing his powers of observation regarding the details of nature always fond of dumb animals he began life by making sketches for sporting papers at agricultural shows all over England it was his own cat Peter first suggested to Louis Wayne the fanciful cat creations which made his name famous watching Peter's antics are one evening he was tempted to do a small study of kittens which was promptly accepted by a magazine editor in London then he trained Peter to become a model and the starting point of his success Peter has done more to vibe out of England the contempt in which the cat really held there than any other feline in the world he has done his race a service in raising their statues from neglected forlorn creatures on the one hand or the pampered overfed objects of old maids affection on the other to a dignified place in the English house the double page picture of the cat's Christmas dance in the London illustrated news of December the 6th 1890 contains 150 cats with as many varying facial expressions and attitudes it occupied 11 working days of Mr. Wayne's time but it caught the public fancy and made a tremendous hit all over the world Louis Wayne's cats immediately became famous and he has had more orders than he can feel ever since he works 8 hours a day and then lays aside his brush to study physical science and a humorous story he has written and illustrated a comic book and spent a great deal of time over a more serious one among the best known of his cat pictures after the Christmas party is his cat's rights meeting which not even the most ardent suffragist can study without lotter from a desk an ardent tabby is expounding loud and long on the rights of her kind in front of her is a double row of lines sitting with folded arms and listening with absorbed attention the expressions of these cats faces some ardent some indignant some blessed but all interested form a ridiculous contrast to a row of domes in the rear who evidently disagree with the lecturer and are prepared to hiss at her more advanced ideas returning thanks is nearly as amusing with its 13 cats and a table over their wine while one offers thanks and the remainder we are wearing expressions of devotion, indifference or irreverence bringing home the Yule log gives 21 cats and as many individual expressions of joy or discomfort and the snowball match shows a scene almost as hilarious as the Christmas dance Mr. Wayne believes there is a great future for black white work if a man is careful to keep abreast of the times a man should first of all create his public and draw upon his own fund of originality to sustain it he says taking care not to pander to the degenerate tendencies which would prevent his work from elevating the finer instinct of the people says the recent visitor to the Wayne household I wonder if Peter realizes that he has done more good than most human beings who are endowed not only with sense but with brains if in the firelight he sees the faces of many suffering child whose hours of pain have been shortened by the recital of his tricks and the pictures of himself arrayed in white cravat or gaily disporting himself on a seesaw I feel inclined to wake him up and whisper how one cold winter's night I met a party of five little children helpless and bootless hurrying along an east end slum and saying encouragingly to the youngest who was crying with cold and hunger come along we'll get there soon I followed them down the lighted street till they paused in front of a barber's shop and I heard their voices changed a shout of merriment for in the window was a crumpled Christmas supplement and Peter in a frolic sum mood was represented entertaining at a large cat's tea party hunger and cold and misery were all dispelled who would not be a cat of Louis Wayne's capable of creating ten minutes sunshine in a childish heart Mr. Wayne announces a discovery in relation to cats which corroborates a theory of my own adopted from long observation and experience I have found, he says as a result of many years of inquiry and study I keep cats and are in the habit of petting them do not suffer from those petty ailments which all flesh is hereto rheumatism and nervous complaints are uncommon with them and pussies lovers are of the sweetest temperament I have often felt the benefit after a long spell of mental effort of having my cats sitting across my shoulders or of half an hour's chat with Peter this is the frequent experience of my own nothing is more restful and soothing after a busy day than sitting with my hands buried in the soft sides of one of my cats do you know said one of my neighbors recently when I am troubled with insomnia lately I get up and get bingo from his bed and take him to mine I can go to sleep with my hands on him there is a powerful magnetic influence which emanates from a sleepy quiet cat that many an invalid has experienced without realizing it if physicians were to investigate this feature of the cat's electrical and magnetic influence in place of anatomical research after death or the horrible practice of vivisection they might be doing a real service to humanity Mr. Wayne's success as an illustrator brought him great prominence in the National Cat Club of England and he has been for a number of years its president doing much to raise the condition and quality of cats and the status of the club he has a number of beautiful and hybrid cats at Bendigo Lodge with regard to the painting of cats Chum Florey said the lines are so delicate the eyes are distinguished by such remarkable qualities the movements are due to such sudden impulses said to succeed in the portrayal of such a subject one must be feline oneself and Mr. Spielman gives the following advice to those who would paint cats you must love them as Mohamed and Chesterfield loved them be as fond of their company as Walsley and Richelieu Mazarin and Colbert who retained them even during their most impressive audiences as Petrarch and Dr. Johnson and Canon Lydden and Ludovic Hallevi who wrote with them at their elbow and Tasso and Gray who celebrated them in verse as sympathetic as Carl Lyle who Mrs. Allingham painted in the company of his beloved Tib in the garden at Chelsea or as Wittington the hero of our milk and water days think of Eau de Haire Baybars who fed all feline comers or La Belles Stewart Duchess of Richmond who, in the words of the poet end of the college for her little friends you must be as approbative of their character as they are amenable to education, their inconstancy not to say indifference and their general lack of principle as Madame de Cousteen and as appreciative of their daintiness and grace as Alfred de Musette then and not till then can you consider yourself sentimentally equipped for studying the art of cat painting End of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of Concerning Cats This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Concerning Cats by Helen M. Winslow Chapter 11 Concerning Cat Hospitals and Refugees At comparatively frequent intervals we read of some women historic or modern who has left an annuity as the Duchess of Richmond la battale steward for the care of her pet cats Now and then a man provides for them in his will as Lord Chesterfield for instance who left a permanent pension for his cats and descendants But I find only one who has endowed a home for them and given its sufficient means to support the strays and waves who reach its shelter Early in the 80s Captain Natan Appleton of Boston a brother of the poet Longfellow's wife and of Thomas Appleton the celebrated wit returned from a stay in London with a new idea that of founding some sort of a refuge or hospital for sick or stray cats and dogs He had visited Battersea deeply impressed with the need of a shelter for small and friendly domestic animals At Battersea there is an institution similar to the one the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York have at East 120th street where stray animals may be sent and kept for a few days awaiting the possible appearance of a claimant or owner at the end of which time the animals are placed in the chamber where they die instantly and painlessly as creation in Boston the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have no such refuge or pound but in place of it keep one or two men whose business it is to go wherever sent and mercifully put to death the superfluous, maimed or sick animals that shall be given them Captain Appleton's idea however was something entirely different from this these creatures he argued have a right to their lives and the pursuit of happiness after their own fashion and he proposed to help them to enjoy that right he appealed to a few sympathetic friends and gave two or three acres of land from his own estate near Nonantum Hill where the Apostle Elliot preached to the Indians and where his yard in Springs are located he had raised a thousand or two dollars and planned a structure of some kind to shelter stray dogs and cats when the good angel that attends our household pets guided him to the lawyer who had charge of the estates of Miss Ellen M. Gifford of New Heaven Kentucky I think I can help you said the lawyer but he would say nothing more at that time a few weeks later Captain Appleton was sent for Miss Gifford had become deeply interested in the project and after making more inquiries gave the proposed home some 25,000 dollars adding to this amount afterward and providing for the institution in her will it has already had over 100,000 dollars from Miss Giffords estates and it is so well-endowed and well-managed that it is self-supporting the Ellen M. Gifford sheltering home for animals is situated near the Brooklyn edge of the Brighton District in Boston in fact the residential portion of aristocratic Brooklyn is so fast creeping up to it that the whole six acres of the institution will doubtless soon be disposed at a very handsome prophet while the dogs and cats will retire to a more remote district to live on the interest of their money the main building is a small but handsome brick affair facing on Lake Street this is the home of the superintendent and contains besides the offices of the establishment over the office the tablet with this inscription taken from a letter of Miss Giffords about the time the home was opened if only the waves the strays, the sick, the abused would be sure to get entrance to the home and anybody could feel at liberty to bring in a starved or ill-treated animal and have it cared for without pay my object would be obtained March 27th 1884 the superintendent is a lover of animals as well as a good business manager and his work is in line with the sentence just quoted anyone wanting a cat or a dog and who can promise it a good home may apply there but Mr. Perkins does not take the word of a stranger at random he investigates their circumstances and character and never gives away an animal unless he can be reasonably sure of it's going to a good home for instance he once received an application from one man for six cats the wholesale element in the order made him slightly suspicious and he immediately drove to Boston where he found that his would-be customer owned a big granary over runs with mice he sent the six cats and two weeks later went to see how they were getting on when he found them living happily in a big grain loft fat and contended as the most devoted sultan of Egypt could have asked none but street cats and stray dogs, homeless waves ill-treated on half-starved are received at this home occasionally some family desiring to get rid of the animal for perhaps years will send it over to the sheltering home but if Mr. Perkins can find where it came from he promptly returns it for even this place capable of comfortably housing a hundred cats and as many dogs cannot accommodate all the unfortunate that are picked up in the streets of Boston the accommodations too while they are comfortable and even luxurious for the poor creatures there are a large house and a cat house sufficiently far apart so the occupants of one need not be disturbed by those of the other in the dog house there are rows of pets in each size of the middle isle in which from one to four or five dogs according to size are kept when indoors these are of all of the dogs in the dog house these are of all sorts colors, dispositions and sizes ranging from pokes to Saint Bernard's terriers to mustiffs there are few purely bred dogs although there are many intelligent and really handsome ones the dogs are allowed to run in the big yard that opens out from their house at certain hours of the day but the cats yards are open to them all day and night all yards and runs are enclosed with wire netting and the cat house has partitions of the same all around the sides of the cat house are shelves or banks which are kept supplied with clean hay for their beds here one may see cats of every color and assorted sizes contendingly curled up in their nests while their companions sit blinking in the sun or run out in the yards cooked meat, crackers and milk and dishes of fresh water are kept where they can get at them the cats all look plump and well fed and indeed the ordinary street cat must feel that his lines have fallen in pleasant places not so however with pet cats who may be housed there they miss the companionship of people and the household the longings to which they have been accustomed sometimes it's really pathetic one of these cast-off pets climb up the wire netting and plainly beg the visitor to take him away from that strange place and give him such a home as he has been used to in the superintendent's house there is usually a good cat or two of this sort as he is up to test a well bred cat before giving him away somewhat similar and even older than the Ellen Gifford sheltering home in the refuge of Philadelphia this institution whose motto is the Lord is good to all and his standard mercies are over all his works was first established in May 1874 when Miss Elizabeth Morris and other ladies who took an interest in the protection of suffering animals it does not limit its standard mercies to cats and dogs but cares for every suffering animal first from the Ellen Gifford home chiefly in the fact that while the latter is a home for stray cats and dogs the Morris refuge has for its object the care for and disposal of suffering animals of all sorts in a word it brings relief to most of these unfortunate creatures by means of a swift and painless death it was first known as the city refuge although it was never maintained by the city in January 1889 it was reorganized and incorporated as the Morris refuge for homeless and suffering animals it is supported by private contributions and is under the supervision of Miss Morris and the corpse of kind-hearted ladies of Philadelphia a wagon is kept at the home to respond to calls and visits any residents who are suffering animals may need attention the agent of the society lives at the refuge with his family and receives animals at any time when notice is received of an animal hurt or suffering he sends after it chloroform is invariably taken along in order that if expedient the creature may be put out of its agony at once this refuge is at 1242 Lombard street and there is a temporary home where dogs are boarded at 123,000 11th street in 1995 out of 23,067 animals coming under the care of the association 19,672 were cats in 1996 there were 24,037 animals relieved and disposed of while the superintendent answered 230 police calls good homes are found for both cats and dogs but not until the agent is sure that they will be kindly treated in Miss Morris 8th annual report she says looking back to the formation of the first society for the prevention of cruelty to animals we find since the time a gradual awakening to the duties man owes to those below him in the scale of animal creation the titles of those societies and their objects as defined by their charters shows that at first it was considered sufficient to protect animals from cruel treatment very few people gave thought to the care of those that are without homes now many are beginning to think of the evil of being overrun with numbers of homeless creatures whose sufferings appeal to the sympathies of the humane that the accreditation provokes the cruelty of the hard-hurted hence efforts that are being made in different cities to establish refuges a request has lately been received from Montreal asking for our reports as it is proposed to found a home for animals in that city and information is being collected in relation to such institutions Lady Marcus Bersford has succeeded in establishing an endowing a home for cats in Englefield Green Windsor Park she has made a specialty of Angora's and her collection is famous Queen Victoria and her daughters take a deep interest Queen Victoria and her daughters take a deep interest not alone in finally bred cats but in poor and homeless waves as well her loyal highness in fact took pains to ride the London SPCA some years ago think she would be very glad to have them do something for the safety and protection of cats which are so generally misunderstood and grossly ill treated she herself sets a good example in this respect and when her courts remove from one royal residence to another her cats are taken with her there is a movement in Paris too to provide for sick and homeless cats as well as dogs two English ladies have founded a hospital near Asniers where ailing pets can be tended in illness or boarded for about 10 cents a day and very well cared for their pensioners are there is also a charity ward where pauper patients are received and tended carefully and afterwards sold or given away to reliable people oddly this sort of charity is a charity ward the daughter is a great scientist who it is said tortured more living creatures to death than any other Vivi's section became a passion with him but mademoiselle Bernhard is atoning for her father's cruelty by a singular devotion to animals and none are turned from her gates this is the way they do it in Cairo even now according to Montseur press the distinguished Egyptologist the Sultan held the hair-beye bars who reigned in Egypt and Syria toward 658 of the Higirah 1260 AD and is compared by William of Tripoli to Nero and Wickedness and to Caesar and Bravery had a peculiar affection for cats at his death he left a garden gate L. Kualas situated near his mosque outside Cairo for the support of homeless cats subsequently the field was sold and resold several times by the administrator and purchasers in consequence of a series of dilapidations it now produces a nominal rent of 15 piesters a year which with certain other legacies is appropriated to the maintenance of cats the Khadi who is the official administrator of all pious and charitable bequests ordains that at the hour of afternoon prayer between noon and sunset a daily distribution of animals' entrails and refuse meat from the butcher's stalls chopped up together shall be made to the cats of the neighborhood this takes place in the outer court of the Mech-Keme or tribunal and the curious spectacle mice in BC at this hour all the terraces near the Mech-Keme are crowded with cats they come jumping from house to house across the narrow Cairo streets hurrying for their share they slide down walls and light into the court where they dispute with great tenacity and much growling the scanty mew saw sadly out of proportion to the number of guests the old ones clear the food in a moment the young ones and the newcomers determined to fight for their chance must contend themselves with licking's ground those wanting to get rid of cats take them there and deposit them I have seen whole baskets of kittens deposited in the court greatly to the annoyance of the neighbors there are similar customs in Italy and Switzerland in Geneva cats prowl about the streets like dogs at Constantinople the people charge themselves with their maintenance and feed the cats who come to their doors at the same hour every day for their meals in Florence a cloister near St. Lawrence's church serves as a refuge for cats it is an ancient and curious institution but I am unable to find whether it is maintained by the city or by private charities there are specimens of all colors, sizes and kinds and anyone who wants a cat has better go there and ask for it on the other hand the owner of a cat who is unable or unwilling to keep it may take it there where it is fed and well treated in Rome they have a commendable system of caring for their cats at a certain hour butchers men drive through the city with carts well stocked with cats meat they utter a peculiar cry which the cats recognize and take out of the houses for their allowances which are paid for by the owners at a certain rate per month in Boston during the summer of 1895 a firm of butchers took subscriptions from philanthropic citizens and raised enough to defraud the expenses of feeding the cats on the back bay where in spite of the fact that the citizens are all wealthy and supposedly humane they are more starving cats than elsewhere in the city but the experiment has not been repeated hospitals for sick animals are no new thing but a really comfortable home for cats is an enterprise in which many a woman who now asks despondently what she can do in this overcrowded world to earn a living might find pleasant and profitable a most worthy charity is that of the animal rescue league in Boston which was started by Mrs. Anne Harris Smith in 1899 she put a call in the newspapers asking those who were interested in the subject to attend a meeting and form a league for the protection and care of lost and deserted pets the response was immediate and generous the animal rescue league was formed with several hundred members and in a short time the house at 68 Carver Street was rented and the man and his wife put in charge here are brought both cats and dogs from all parts of Boston and the suburbs where they are sure of kind treatment and care if they are diseased they are immediately put out of existence by means of the lethal chamber otherwise they are kept for a few days in order that they may be claimed by their owners if lost or have homes found for them whenever it is possible during the first year over 2000 cats were cared for and several hundred dogs this home is maintained by voluntary contributions and by the annual dues of subscribers these are one dollar a year for associate members and five dollars for active members it is an excellent charity and one that may well be emulated in other cities there are several cat asulums and refugees in the far west and certainly a few more such institutions as the sheltering home at Brighton, Massachusetts or the Morris Refuge would be a credit to a country how better than by applying it to our cats can we demonstrate the truth of Solomon's maxim a merciful man is merciful to his beast End of chapter 11