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“A Dog’s Tale” by Acclaimed Author Mark Twain - P3/3
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Greetings,
esteemed viewers,
and welcome to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Today’s show features
the third part of
a three-part series on the
thoughtful, classic short
story “A Dog’s Tale,”
by US author,
humanitarian
and outspoken animal
advocate Mark Twain.
This fine work published
in 1903 is written from
the perspective of
a loyal canine companion
named Aileen.
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.
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.”
Today, we conclude
our presentation of
Mark Twain’s short story
“A Dog’s Tale,”
an engaging first-person
narrative on the life of
a loyal canine companion.
Previously, the story’s
main character,
Aileen the dog,
had risked her life to save
that of her caregivers’
newborn baby from a fire,
but instead of
getting praise or
words of encouragement,
Aileen was chased and
beaten by the male owner
of the house.
In utter confusion
and terror, Aileen, now
limping on three legs,
went and hid
in the home’s small attic.
They called and called—
days and nights,
it seemed to me.
So long that
the hunger and thirst
near drove me mad, and
I recognized that I was
getting very weak.
When you are this way
you sleep a great deal,
and I did.
Once I woke
in an awful fright—
it seemed to me that
the calling was right there
in the garret!
And so it was:
it was Sadie’s voice, and
she was crying; my name
was falling from her lips
all broken, poor thing,
and I could not believe
my ears for the joy of it
when I heard her say:
Come back to us—
oh, come back to us,
and forgive—
it is all so sad without our —”
I broke in with SUCH
a grateful little yelp,
and the next moment
Sadie was plunging
and stumbling through
the darkness and
the lumber and shouting
for the family to hear,
“She’s found,
she’s found!”
The days that followed—
well, they were wonderful.
The mother and Sadie
and the servants—
why, they just seemed
to worship me.
They couldn’t seem to
make me a bed
that was fine enough; and
as for food, they couldn’t
be satisfied with anything
but delicacies that were
out of season; and
every day the friends and
neighbors flocked in to
hear about my heroism—
that was the name
they called it by,
and it means agriculture.
I remember my mother
pulling it on a kennel once,
and explaining it
in that way, but didn’t say
what agriculture was,
except that it was
synonymous with
intramural incandescence;
and a dozen times a day
Mrs. Gray and Sadie
would tell the tale to
new-comers, and say
I risked my life to
save the baby’s, and both
of us had burns to prove it,
and then the company
would pass me around
and pet me and exclaim
about me, and you could
see the pride in the eyes
of Sadie and her mother;
and when the people
wanted to know
what made me limp,
they looked ashamed and
changed the subject, and
sometimes when people
hunted them
this way and that way
with questions about it,
it looked to me as if
they were going to cry.
And this was not
all the glory; no,
the master’s friends came,
a whole twenty of the
most distinguished people,
and had me
in the laboratory, and
discussed me as if I was
a kind of discovery;
and some of them said
it was wonderful
in a dumb beast, the finest
exhibition of instinct
they could call to mind;
but the master said,
with vehemence,
“It’s far above instinct;
it’s REASON, and
many a man, privileged to
be saved and go with you
and me to a better world
by right of its possession,
has less of it that
this poor silly quadruped
that’s foreordained
to perish";
and then he laughed,
and said:
“Why, look at me—
I’m a sarcasm!
bless you, with all
my grand intelligence,
the only thing I inferred
was that the dog had
gone mad and
was destroying the child,
whereas but for
the beast’s intelligence—
it’s REASON,
I tell you!—the child
would have perished!”
They disputed and disputed,
and I was the very center
of subject of it all, and
I wished my mother
could know that
this grand honor had
come to me; it would
have made her proud.
Then they discussed
optics, as they called it,
and whether a certain
injury to the brain would
produce blindness or not,
but they could not agree
about it, and said they
must test it by experiment
by and by; and next
they discussed plants,
and that interested me,
because in the summer
Sadie and I had planted
seeds—I helped her
dig the holes, you know
—and after days and days
a little shrub or a flower
came up there, and
it was a wonder how that
could happen; but it did,
and I wished I could talk
—I would have told those
people about it and shown
then how much I knew,
and been all alive
with the subject; but I
didn’t care for the optics;
it was dull, and when
came back to it again
it bored me,
and I went to sleep.
Pretty soon it was spring,
and sunny and pleasant
and lovely, and the sweet
mother and the children
patted me and
the puppy good-by, and
went away on a journey
and a visit to their kin,
and the master wasn’t
any company for us,
but we played together
and had good times,
and the servants were
kind and friendly, so we
got along quite happily
and counted the days and
waited for the family.
Aileen’s heroism and
intelligence won
the hearts of family
and friends, and
her bountiful happiness
and delight
never seemed to end.
When we return, we will
continue her story.
Please stay tuned to
Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants,
where we now feature
the conclusion of
“A Dog’s Tale.”
And one day those men
came again, and said,
now for the test, and
they took the puppy
to the laboratory, and
I limped three-leggedly
along, too, feeling proud,
for any attention
shown to the puppy
was a pleasure to me,
of course.
They discussed and
experimented,
and then suddenly
the puppy shrieked, and
they set him on the floor,
and he went
staggering around,
with his head all bloody,
and the master clapped
his hands and shouted:
“There, I’ve won—
confess it!
He’s as blind as a bat!”
And they all said:
“It’s so—you’ve proved
your theory,
and suffering humanity
owes you a great debt
from henceforth,”
and they crowded around
him, and wrung his hand
cordially and thankfully,
and praised him.
But I hardly saw
or heard these things,
for I ran at once
to my little darling,
and snuggled close to it
where it lay,
and licked the blood,
and it put its head against
mine, whimpering softly,
and I knew in my heart
it was a comfort to it
in its pain and trouble to
feel its mother’s touch,
though it could not see me.
Then it dropped down,
presently, and
its little velvet nose rested
upon the floor, and
it was still, and
did not move any more.
Soon the master stopped
discussing a moment, and
rang in the footman,
and said,
“Bury it in the
far corner of the garden,”
and then went on with
the discussion, and I
trotted after the footman,
very happy and grateful,
for I knew the puppy
was out of its pain now,
because it was asleep.
We went far down the
garden to the farthest end,
where the children and
the nurse and the puppy
and I used to play
in the summer in the
shade of a great elm, and
there the footman dug
a hole, and I saw he was
going to plant the puppy,
and I was glad, because it
would grow and come up
a fine handsome dog,
like Robin Adair, and
be a beautiful surprise
for the family
when they came home;
so I tried to help him dig,
but my lame leg was
no good, being stiff,
you know, and
you have to have two,
or it is no use.
When the footman had
finished and covered
little Robin up, he patted
my head, and there were
tears in his eyes, and he
said: “Poor little doggie,
you saved HIS child!”
I have watched
two whole weeks,
and he doesn’t come up!
This last week
a fright has been
stealing upon me.
I think there is something
terrible about this.
I do not know what it is,
but the fear makes me
sick, and I cannot eat,
though the servants
bring me the best of food;
and they pet me so, and
even come in the night,
and cry, and say,
“Poor doggie—do
give it up and come home;
don’t break our hearts!”
and all this terrifies me
the more,
and makes me sure
something has happened.
And I am so weak;
since yesterday I cannot
stand on my feet anymore.
And within this hour
the servants, looking
toward the sun where it
was sinking out of sight
and the night chill
coming on, said things
I could not understand,
but they carried something
cold to my heart.
“Those poor creatures!
They do not suspect.
They will come home
in the morning,
and eagerly ask for
the little doggie that
did the brave deed, and
who of us will be strong
enough to say the truth
to them: ’The humble
little friend is gone
where go the beasts
that perish.’”
As the story ends,
our hearts are saddened
by the fate of the
innumerable helpless,
innocent animals
dissected, infected,
injected, gassed, burned
and blinded while fully
conscious in university
and commercial research
laboratories
around the world.
These innocent,
intelligent beings,
who have feelings and
awareness the same
as humans, are forced to
be subjects in unethical,
cruel and appalling
experiments and procedures.
The fact is that animals
are vastly different from
humans with respect to
anatomy, physiology,
biochemistry and
metabolism, so
the results of experiments
on animals are not valid
for humans.
For these reasons, we
call for a worldwide ban
on the practice
of experimentation
and demonstration
on live animals, and
look forward to
soon-in-coming peaceful,
harmonious future where
all of humanity adopts the
compassionate, ethical
organic vegan lifestyle
to preserve animals,
humans and
our precious ecosphere.
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.
Intelligent viewers,
thank you for your company
today on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Up next is Enlightening
Entertainment
right after
Noteworthy News.
May we all live and
let live in peace and unity.
Just as the uniqueness
of each human being
in our society is valued,
the uniqueness of
each species
on our planet is a treasure
we must protect.
However, this treasure
is rapidly disappearing.
Esteemed botanist
Dr. Peter Raven
of the US believes
our planet's Biodiversity
is in severe danger.
In the past,
in the geological record,
we were losing about
a dozen or so per year.
Over the last 500 years,
since people began
writing about well-known
groups of organisms,
we’ve been losing
hundreds a year.
And now we seem to be
losing thousands
per year, going up
towards tens of thousands
Please join us and
learn more about
the biodiversity crisis
from Dr. Peter Raven,
Wednesday, May 12,
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
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