|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“A Dog’s Tale” by Acclaimed Author Mark Twain - P1/3
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings, kind viewers,
and welcome to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Today, April 24, 2010 is
World Lab Animal Day,
founded by the National
Anti-Vivisection Society
of the United States.
On this day,
anti-vivisectionists
around the world work
to raise public awareness
about stopping
the unethical, savage
and unscientific practice
of experimentation
and demonstration
on live animals, which
causes extreme suffering
and death to countless
innocent beings each year.
Besides being a central
figure in US literature,
renowned
author and humanitarian
Mark Twain was
a prominent advocate
of animal welfare who
spoke out against abuses
such as bullfighting
and vivisection.
The world-renowned
writer first encountered
the field of publishing
at age eleven when
he began working
as an assistant
in a print shop.
As a young man
he wrote articles for
a number of newspapers
and became famous
in the US
when his short story
“Jim Smiley and
His Jumping Frog”
was published nationally.
The work
he is best known for,
“The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn,”
was written in 1884,
and is considered
by many to be
“the Great American Novel.”
Animals were featured
in many of
Mr. Twain’s works, from
his newspaper articles
condemning animal cruelty
to the thoughtful pieces
written toward
the end of his life,
“A Dog’s Tale” in 1903,
“A Horse’s Tale” in 1907
and his letter to the
London Anti-Vivisection
Society in 1899.
Several of Mark Twain’s
moving commentaries
were widely circulated
in the press and
numerous copies were
circulated as pamphlets
to promote the cause
of animal welfare.
In his letter to the
London Anti-Vivisection
Society, he wrote:
"I am not interested
to know
whether vivisection
produces results that are
profitable to the human race
or doesn't...
The pain
which it inflicts upon
un-consenting animals
is the basis of my enmity
toward it, and it is to me
sufficient justification
of the enmity
without looking further."
We now present the first
and the second chapters
of “A Dog’s Tale,”
a story told by a canine
named Aileen Mavourneen.
CHAPTER 1
My father
was a St. Bernard,
my mother was a collie,
but I am a Presbyterian.
This is
what my mother told me,
I do not know these
nice distinctions myself.
To me they are only
fine large words
meaning nothing.
My mother
had a fondness for such;
she liked to say them,
and see other dogs look
surprised and envious,
as wondering how
she got so much education.
But, indeed,
it was not real education;
it was only show: she got
the words by listening
in the dining-room
and drawing-room when
there was company, and
by going with the children
to Sunday-school
and listening there;
and whenever
she heard a large word
she said it over to herself
many times, and so was
able to keep it until there
was a dogmatic gathering
in the neighborhood,
then she would get it off,
and surprise and
distress them all, from
pocket-pup to mastiff,
which rewarded her
for all her trouble.
If there was a stranger
he was nearly sure to be
suspicious, and when
he got his breath again
he would ask her
what it meant.
And she always told him.
He was never expecting
this but thought
he would catch her;
so when she told him,
he was the one
that looked ashamed,
whereas he had thought
it was going to be she.
The others were always
waiting for this,
and glad of it
and proud of her,
for they knew what was
going to happen, because
they had had experience.
When she told the
meaning of a big word
they were all so taken up
with admiration
that it never occurred
to any dog to doubt
if it was the right one;
and that was natural,
because, for one thing,
she answered up
so promptly that
it seemed like
a dictionary speaking,
and for another thing,
where could they find out
whether it was right or not?
For she was the only
cultivated dog there was.
By and by,
when I was older, she
brought home the word
Unintellectual, one time,
and worked it pretty hard
all the week
at different gatherings,
making much unhappiness
and despondency;
and it was at this time
that I noticed that during
that week she was asked
for the meaning at eight
different assemblages,
and flashed out
a fresh definition
every time, which
showed me that she had
more presence of mind
than culture, though
I said nothing, of course.
She had one word which
she always kept on hand,
and ready,
like a life-preserver,
a kind of emergency word
to strap on
when she was likely
to get washed overboard
in a sudden way—
that was the word
Synonymous.
After these brief messages,
we’ll continue
with Chapter 1
from “A Dog’s Tale.”
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants
featuring a reading
of Mark Twain’s classic
story “A Dog’s Tale.”
Previously we learned
that Aileen’s mother
had a special word
she always kept on hand;
namely, “synonymous.”
When she happened
to fetch out a long word
which had had its day
weeks before and
its prepared meanings
gone to her dump-pile, if
there was a stranger there
of course
it knocked him groggy
for a couple of minutes,
then he would come to,
and by that time
she would be away down
wind on another tack, and
not expecting anything;
so when he’d hail
and ask her to cash in,
I (the only dog on
the inside of her game)
could see her canvas
flicker a moment—
but only just a moment—
then it would
belly out taut and full,
and she would say, as
calm as a summer’s day,
“It’s synonymous
with supererogation,” or
some godless long reptile
of a word like that,
and go placidly about
and skim away
on the next tack, perfectly
comfortable, you know,
and leave that stranger
looking profane and
embarrassed, and the
initiated slatting the floor
with their tails in unison
and their faces transfigured
with a holy joy.
And it was the same
with phrases.
She would drag home
a whole phrase,
if it had a grand sound,
and play it six nights
and two matinees,
and explain it a new way
every time—
which she had to,
for all she cared for
was the phrase;
she wasn’t interested
in what it meant,
and knew those dogs
hadn’t wit enough
to catch her, anyway.
Yes, she was a daisy!
She got so she
wasn’t afraid of anything,
she had such confidence
in the ignorance
of those creatures.
She even brought
anecdotes that
she had heard the family
and the dinner-guests
laugh and shout over; and
as a rule she got the nub
of one chestnut hitched
onto another chestnut,
where, of course,
it didn’t fit and
hadn’t any point;
and when she delivered
the nub she fell over
and rolled on the floor
and laughed and barked
in the most insane way,
while I could see that she
was wondering to herself
why it didn’t seem
as funny as it did
when she first heard it.
But no harm was done;
the others rolled
and barked too, privately
ashamed of themselves
for not seeing the point,
and never suspecting
that the fault
was not with them and
there wasn’t any to see.
You can see
by these things that
she was of a rather vain
and frivolous character;
still, she had virtues,
and enough to make up,
I think.
She had a kind heart
and gentle ways,
and never harbored
resentments
for injuries done her,
but put them easily
out of her mind
and forgot them;
and she taught her children
her kindly way, and
from her we learned also
to be brave and prompt
in time of danger,
and not to run away,
but face the peril
that threatened friend
or stranger, and help him
the best we could
without stopping
to think what
the cost might be to us.
And she taught us
not by words only,
but by example,
and that is the best way
and the surest
and the most lasting.
Why,
the brave things she did,
the splendid things!
She was just a soldier;
and so modest about it—
well, you couldn’t help
admiring her,
and you couldn’t help
imitating her; not even
a King Charles spaniel
could remain entirely
despicable in her society.
So, as you see,
there was more to her
than her education.
CHAPTER 2
When I was well grown,
at last, I was sold
and taken away, and
I never saw her again.
She was broken-hearted,
and so was I, and we cried;
but she comforted me
as well as she could,
and said we were
sent into this world for
a wise and good purpose,
and must do our duties
without repining,
take our life
as we might find it,
live it for the best good
of others, and never mind
about the results;
they were not our affair.
She said
men who did like this
would have a noble and
beautiful reward by and by
in another world,
and although we animals
would not go there,
to do well and right
without reward would
give to our brief lives
a worthiness and dignity
which in itself
would be a reward.
She had gathered these
things from time to time
when she had gone
to the Sunday-school
with the children,
and had laid them up
in her memory
more carefully than
she had done with those
other words and phrases;
and she had
studied them deeply,
for her good and ours.
One may see by this
that she had a wise
and thoughtful head,
for all there was so much
lightness and vanity in it.
So we said our farewells,
and looked our last
upon each other
through our tears; and
the last thing she said—
keeping it for the last
to make me remember it
the better, I think—was,
“In memory of me, when
there is a time of danger
to another
do not think of yourself,
think of your mother,
and do as she would do.”
Do you think
I could forget that? No.
Keeping mommy’s love
and wise words
in her heart, the
young pup Aileen set off
to face life on her own.
What kinds of challenges
await for her ahead?
Please
join us next Saturday
on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants
for the second part
of our three parts series
on “A Dog’s Tale.”
Finally,
our hero’s salute goes to
the esteemed author
and animal advocate
Mark Twain
for his insightful work
promoting the welfare
of animals.
We also thank all
anti-vivisectionists
and concerned citizens
around the world
for their noble efforts
to save our vulnerable
animal friends.
Lovely viewers,
thank you
for your company
on today’s program.
Up next is
Enlightening Entertainment,
after Noteworthy News.
May Heaven’s Divine light
always shine on us all.
“Earthlings,”
an award-winning
documentary directed by
vegan filmmaker
Shaun Monson and
narrated by esteemed US
actor Joaquin Phoenix
examines the terrifying
and horrendous lives of
our fellow co-inhabitants
in the so-called
“entertainment” industry.
When going to the circus,
rarely do we stop for
a moment and consider:
What incites an animal to
do something unnatural,
even dangerous,
such as jumping
through flames,
balancing on one foot,
or diving into water
from shaky platforms
high in the air?
Make the Connection.
Join us for our
presentation of Part 5 of
“Earthlings,”
Tuesday, April 27,
on Stop Animal Cruelty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Download by Subtitle
|
|
Arabic , Aulac , Bulgarian , Chinese , Croatian , Czech-Slovak , Dari , Dutch , English , French , German , Gujarati , Hebrew , Hindi , Hungarian , Indonesian , Italian , Japanese , Korean , Malay , Mongol , Mongolian , Persian , Polish , Portuguese , Punjabi , Romanian , Russian , Sinhalese , Slovenian , Spanish , Thai , Turkish , Urdu , Zulu ,
Bulgarian ,
Croatian ,
Dutch , Estonian , Greek , Gujarati ,
Indonesian ,
Mongolian , Nepalese ,
Norwegian , Polish , Punjabi ,
Sinhalese ,
Swedish , Slovenian , Tagalog , Tamil , Zulu
|
|
Scrolls Download |
|
MP3 Download |
|
|
|
|
MP4 download for iPhone(iPod ) |
|
|
Download Non Subtitle Videos
|
|
|
Download by Program
|
|
|
|
|
|
Download by Date
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
|
|
|
|
|
|