Episode 18 - Beautiful Joe - Marshall Saunders

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter thirty five, Billy and theItalian mister Morris stayed no longer. He
followed mister Monteig along the sidewalk alittle way, and then exchanged a few
hurried words with some men who werestanding near, and hastened home through the

(00:20):
streets that seemed dark and dull afterthe splendor of the fire. Though it
was still the middle of the night. Missus Morris was up and dressed and
waiting for him. She opened thehall door with one hand and held a
candle in the other. I feltfrightened and miserable and didn't want to leave

(00:44):
mister Morris, so I crept inafter him. Don't make a noise,
said Missus Morris. Laura and theboys are sleeping, and I thought it
better not to wake them. Ithas been a terrible fire, hasn't it?
Was it the hotel. Mister Morristhrew himself into a chair and covered

(01:07):
his face with his hands. Speakto me, William, said Missus Morris,
in a startled tone. You arenot hurt, are you? And
she put her candle on the tableand came and sat down beside him.
He dropped his hands from his face, and tears were running down his cheeks.

(01:30):
Ten lives lost, he said,among them. Missus monteg Missus Morris
looked horrified and gave a little cry, William, it can't be so.
It seemed as if mister Morris couldnot sit steel. He got up and

(01:52):
walked to and fro on the floor. It was an awful scene, Margaret's
I never wish to look upon thelike again. Do you remember how I
protested against the building of that deathtrap? Look at the wide open streets
around it, and yet they persistedin running it up to the sky.

(02:14):
God will require an account of thosedeaths at the hands of the men who
put up that building. It isterrible, this disregard of human lives.
To think of that delicate woman andher death agony. He threw himself in
a chair and buried his face inhis hands. Where was she? How

(02:36):
did it happen? Was her husbandsaved? And Charlie, said Missus Morris
in a broken voice. Yes,Charlie and mister Montag are safe. Charlie
will recover from it. Montag's lifeis done. You know his love for
his wife, Oh Margaret, Whenwill men cease to be fools? What

(03:00):
does the Lord think of them whenthey say him, I my brother's keeper,
and the poor creatures burned to death. Their lives are as precious in
his sight as Missus Montags. MisterMorris looked so weak and ill that Missus
Morris, like a sensible woman,questioned him no further, but made a

(03:23):
fire and got him some hot tea. Then she made him lie down on
the sofa, and she sat byhim till daybreak, when she persuaded him
to go to bad I followed herabout and kept touching her dress with my
nose. It seemed so good tome to have this pleasant home after all

(03:46):
the misery I had seen that night. Once she stopped and took my head
between her hands. Dear old Joe, she said, tearfully, this is
a suffer world. It's well,there's a better one beyond it. In
the morning, the boys went downtownbefore breakfast and learned all about the fire.

(04:11):
It started in the top story ofthe hotel, in the room of
some fast young men who were sittingup late playing cards. They had smuggled
wine into their room and had beendrinking till they were stupid. One of
them upset the lamp, and whenthe flames began to spread so that they

(04:32):
could not extinguish them. Instead ofrousing someone near them, they rushed downstairs
to get someone to come up thereand help them put out the fire.
When they returned with some of thehotel people, they found that the flames
had spread from their room, whichwas in an ale at the back of

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the house, to the front part, where Missus Montag's room was and where
the housemaids belonging to the hotel slept. By this time mister Montei had gotten
upstairs, but he found the passagewayto his wife's rooms so full of flames
and smoke that though he tried againand again to force his way through,

(05:18):
he could not. He disappeared fora time. Then he came to mister
Morris and got his boy, andtook him to some rooms over his bank,
and shut himself up with him forsome days. He would let no
one in. Then he came outwith the look of an old man on

(05:40):
his face, and his hair aswhite as snow, and he went out
to his beautiful house in the outskirtsof the town. Nearly all the horses
belonging to the hotel were burned.A few were gotten out by having blankets
put over their heads, but themost of them were so terrified that they

(06:01):
would not stir. The Morris boyssaid that they had found the old Italian
sitting on an empty box, lookingat the smoking ruins of the hotel.
His head was hanging on his breast, and his eyes were full of tears.
His ponies were burned up, hesaid, and the gander and the

(06:25):
monkeys, and the goats, andhis wonderful performing dogs. He had only
his birds left, and he wasa ruined man. He had toiled all
his life to get this troop oftrained animals together, and now they were
swept from him. It was crueland wicked, and he wished he could

(06:48):
die. The canaries and pigeons anddoves the hotel people had allowed him to
take to his room, and theywere safe. The parrot was lost,
an educated parrot that could answer fortyquestions, and, among other things,
could take a watch until the timeof day. Jack Morris told him that

(07:14):
they had it safe at home,and that it was very much alive.
Quarreling furiously with his parrot Bella.The old man's face brightened at this,
and then Jack and Carl, findingthat he had had no breakfast, went
off to a restaurant nearby and gothim some steak and coffee. The Italian

(07:38):
was very grateful, and as heate, Jack said, the tears ran
into his coffee cup. He toldthem how much he loved his animals,
and how it made the hot bitterto his them crying to him to deliver
them from the raging file. Theboys came home and got their breakfast and

(08:03):
went to school. Missus Laura didnot go out. She sat all day
with a very quiet, pained face. She could neither read nor sew,
and mister and Missus Morris were justas unsettled. They talked about the fire
in low tones, and I couldsee that they felt more sad about Missus

(08:28):
Montag's death than if she had diedin an ordinary way. Her dear little
canary Barry died with her. Shewould never be separated from him, and
his cage had been taken up tothe top of the hotel with her.
He probably died an easier death thanhis poor mistress. Charlie's dog escaped,

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but was so frightened that he ranout to their house outside the town.
At tea time, mister Morris wentto town to see that the Italian got
a comfortable place for the night.When he came back, he said that
he had found out that the Italianwas by no means so old a man

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as he looked, and that hehad talked to him about raising a sum
of money for him among the Fairportpeople, till he had become quite cheerful
and said that if mister Morris woulddo that, he would try to gather
another troop of animals together and trainthem. Now what can we do for

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this Italian, asked missus Morris.We can't give him much money, but
we might let him have one ortwo of our pets. There's Billy.
He's a bright little dog, andhe's not two years old yet. He
could teach him anything. There wasa blank s violence among the Moorish children.

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Billy was such a gentle, lovablelittle dog that he was a favorite
with everyone in the house. Isuppose we ought to do it, said
Miss Laura at last, But howcan we give him up? There was
a good deal of discussion, butthe end of it was that Billy was

(10:24):
given to the Italian. He cameup to get him and was very grateful
and made a great many bows,holding his hat in his hand. Billy
took to him at once, andthe Italian spoke so kindly to him that
we knew he would have a goodmaster. Mister Morris got quite a large

(10:48):
sum of money for him, andwhen he handed it to him, the
poor man was so pleased that hekissed his hand and promised to send frequent
word as to Billy's progress and welfare. End of Chapter thirty five Billy and

(11:09):
the Italian, Chapter thirty six,Dandy the Tramp. About a week after
Billy left us, the Moors family, much to its surprise, became the
owner of a new dog. Hewalked into the house one cold wintry afternoon

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and lay calmly down by the fire. He was a brindled bull terrier,
and he had on a silver platedcollar with Dandy engraved on it. He
lay all the evening by the fire, and when any of the family spoke
to him, he wagged his tailand looked pleased. I growled a little

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at him at first, but henever cared a bit and just dozed off
to sleep, so I soon stopped. He was such a well bred dog
that the Morrises were afraid that someonehad lost him. They made some inquiries
the next day and found that hebelonged to a New York gentleman who had

(12:13):
come to Fairport in the summer ina yacht. This dog did not like
the yacht. He came ashore ina boat whenever he got a chance,
and if he could not come ina boat, he would swim. He
was a tramp, his master said, and he wouldn't stay long in any

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place. The Morrises were so amusedwith his impudence that they did not send
him away, but said every day, surely he will be gone tomorrow.
However, mister Dandy had gotten intosome comfortable quarters, and he had no
intention of changing them for a whileat least. Then. He was very

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handsome and had much a pleasant waywith him that the family could not help
liking him. I never cared forhim. He famed on the Morrises and
pretended he loved them, and afterwardturned around and laughed and sneered at them
in a way that made me veryangry. I used to lecture him sometimes

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and growl about him to Jim,but Jim always said, let him alone.
You can't do him any good.He was born dad. His mother
wasn't good. He tells me thatshe had a bad name among all the
other dogs in her neighborhood. Shewas a thief and a runaway. Though

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he provoked me so often, yetI could not help laughing at some of
his stories. They were so funny. We were lying out in the sun
on the platform at the back ofthe house one day, and he had
been more and usually provoking, soI got up to leave him. He

(14:03):
put himself in my way, however, and said, coaxingly, don't be
cross, old fellow. I'll tellyou some stories to amuse you, old
boy. What shall they be about? I think the story of your life
would be about as interesting as anythingyou could make up, I said,

(14:26):
dryly, all right, fact orfiction, whichever you like. Here's a
fact, plain and unvarnished, Bornand bred in New York. Swell Stable,
Swell coachman, swell Master, jeweledfingers of ladies poking at me.
First thing I remember, first painfulexperience being sent to vet to have ears

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cut. What's a vet, Isaid, A veterinary animal doctor. Vet
didn't cut ears, though Master sentme back cut ears again. Summertime and
flies bad ears got sore, infestedflies very attentive. Coachman set little boy

(15:13):
to brush flies off, but he'drun out in the yard and leave me
flies awful though they'd eat me up, or else I'd shake out brains trying
to get rid of them. Mothersshould have stayed home and licked my ears,
but was cruising about the neighborhood.Finally coachman put me in dark place,

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powdered ears and they got Well.Why didn't they cut your tail too,
I said, looking at his long, slim tail, which was like
a sewer rats. Twasn't the fashion, mister way back a bull terrier's ears
or clipped to keep them from gettingtorn while fighting. You're not a fighting

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dog, I said, too muchtrouble. I believe in taking things easy.
I should thank you dead, Isaid, scornfully. You never put
yourself out for anyone, I notice. But speaking of cropping ears, what
do you think of it? Well, he said, with a sly glance

(16:22):
at my head. It isn't apleasant operation, but one might as well
be out of the world as outof the fashion. I don't care now
my ears are done, but Isaid, think of the poor dogs that
will come after you. What differencedoes that make to me, he said,

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I'll be dead and out of theway. Men can cut off their
ears and tails and legs too,if they want to. Dan Indeed,
I said angrily, you're the mostselfish dog that I ever saw. Tonet
to excite yourself, he said,coolly. Let me get on with my

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story. When I was a fewmonths old, I began to find the
stable yard narrow and wondered what therewas outside of it. I discovered a
hole in the garden wall and usedto sneak out nights. Oh what fun
it was. I got to knowa lot of street dogs, and we
had gay times, barking under people'swindows and making them mad, and getting

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into backyards and chasing cats. Weused to kill a cat nearly every night.
Policemen would chase us, and wewould run and run till the water
just ran off our tongues and wehadn't a bit of breath left. Then
I'd go home and sleep all dayand go out again the next night.

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When I was about a year old, I began to stay out days as
well as nights. They couldn't keepme home. Then I ran away for
three months. I got with anold lady on fifth Avenue, who was
very fond of dogs. She hadfour white poodles, and her servants used
to wash them and tie up theirhair with blue ribbons, and she used

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to take them for drives and herphaeton in the park, and they wore
gold and silver collars. The biggestpoodle wore a ruby in his collar worth
five hundred dollars. I went drivingtoo, and sometimes we met my master.
He often smiled and shook his headat me. I heard him tell
the coachman one day that I wasa little blackguard and he was to let

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me come and go as I liked. If they had whipped you soundly,
I said, it might have madea good dog of you. I'm good
enough now, said dandy airily.The young ladies who drove with my master
used to say that it was priggishand tiresome to be too good to go

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on with my story. I stayedwith me. Is this judge Tibot till
I got sick of her fussy ways. She made a simpleton of herself over
those poodles, each one high highchair at the table and a plate,
And they always sat in these chairsand had meals with her and the servants
all called them Master Bujew and MasterTot, and Miss Tiny and Miss Fluff.

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One day they tried to make mesit in a chair, and I
got cross and bit Missus Tibbott,and she beat me cruelly, and her
servants stoned me away from the house. Speaking about bulls, Dandy, I
said, if it is polite tocall a lady one, I should say
that that lady was one. Dogsshouldn't be put out of their place.

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Why didn't she have some poor childrenat her table and in her carriage and
let the dogs run behind? Easyto see, you don't know New York,
said Dandy, with a laugh.Poor children don't live with the rich
old ladies. Missus Tibbett hated childrenanyway. Then dogs like poodles would get

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lost in the mud or killed inthe crowd if they ran behind a carriage.
Only knowing dogs like me can maketheir way about. I rather doubted
this speech, but I said nothing, and he went on patronizingly. However,
Joe thou hast reason, as theFrench say, Missus Judge Tibbott didn't

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give her dogs exercise enough. Theirclaws were as long as chinaman's nails,
and the hair grew over their pads, and they always had red eyes and
were always sick, and she hadto dose them with medicine and call them
her poor little weeny teeny sicky wickydoggies. Blah. I got disgusted with

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her. When I left her,I ran away to her nieces, Miss
Balls. She was a sensible younglady, and she used to scold her
aunt for the way in which shebrought up her dogs. She was almost
too sensible for her. Pug andI were rubbed and scrubbed within an inch
of our lives, and had togo for such long walks that I got

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thoroughly sick of them. A womanwhom the servants called Trotsey came every morning
and took the Pug and me byour chains, and sometimes another dog or
two, and took us for longtramps and quiet streets. That was Trotsey's
business to walk dogs. And MissBall got a great many fashionable young ladies

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who could not exercise their dogs tolet Trotsey have them, and they said
that it made a great difference inthe health and appearance of their pets.
Trots he got fifteen cents an hourfor a dog. Goodness, what appetites
those walks gave us, and didn'twe make the dog biscuits disappear? But
it was a slow life at MissBall's. We only saw her for a

(21:57):
little while. Every day she slepttill noon. After lunch she played with
us a little while in the greenhouse. Then she was off driving or visiting.
And in the evening she always hadcompany or went to a dance or
to the theater. I soon madeup my mind that i'd run away.

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I jumped out of a window onefine morning and ran home. I stayed
there for a long time. Mymother had been run over by a cart
and killed, and I wasn't sorry. My master never bothered his head about
me, and I could do asI liked. One day, when I
was having a walk and meeting alot of dogs that I knew, a

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little boy came behind me, andbefore I could tell what he was doing,
he had snatched me up and wasrunning off with me. I couldn't
bite him, for he had stuffedsome of his rags in my mouth.
He took me to a tenement housein a part of the city that I
had never ravenion before. He belongedto a very poor family, my faith,

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weren't They badly off six children anda mother and father, all living
in two tiny rooms. Scarcely abit of meat did I smell while I
was there. I hated their breadand molasses, and the place smelled so
badly I thought I should choke.They kept me shut up in their dirty
rooms for several days, and thebread of a boy that caught me slept

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with his arm around me at night. The weather was hot, and sometimes
we couldn't sleep, and they hadto go up on the roof. After
a while they chained me up anda filthy yard at the back of the
house, and there I thought Ishould go mad. I would have liked
to bite them all to death ifI had dared. It's awful to be

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chained, especially for a dog likeme that loves his freedom. The flies
worried me, and the noises toacted me, and my flesh would fairly
creep from getting no exercise. Iwas there nearly a month while they were
waiting for a reward to be offered, but none came, and one day

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the boy's father, who was astreet peddler, took me by my chain
and led me about the streets tillhe sold me. A gentleman got me
for his little boy. But Ididn't like the look of him, so
I sprang up and bit his hand, and he dropped the chain, and
I dodged boys and policemen and finallygot home, more dead than alive and

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looking like a skeleton. I hada good time for several weeks, and
then I began to get restless andwas off again. But I'm getting tired.
I want to go to sleep.You're not very polite, I said,
to offer to tell a story,and then go to sleep before you
finish it. Look out for numberone, my boy, said Dandy,

(25:00):
with a yawn, for if youdon't, no one else will. And
he shut his eyes and was fastasleep in a few minutes. I sat
and looked at him. What ahandsome, good natured, worthless dog he
was. A few days later hetold me the rest of his history.

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After a great many wanderings, hehappened home one day just as his master's
yacht was going to sail, andthey chained him up till they went on
board, so that he could bean amusement on the passage to Fairport.
It was in November that Dandy cameto us and he stayed all winter.

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He made fun of the Morrises allthe time and said they had a dull,
pokey old house, and he onlystayed because Miss Laura was nursing him.
He had a little sore on hisback that she soon found out was
mad change. Her father said itwas a bad disease for dogs to have,

(26:06):
and Dandy had better be shot,but she begged so hard for his
life and said she would cure himin a few weeks that she was allowed
to keep him. Dandy wasn't capableof getting really angry, but he was
as disturbed about having this disease ashe could be about anything. He said

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that he had guide it from alittle mangy dog that he had played with
a few weeks before. He wasonly with the little dog for a while
and didn't think he would take it, but it seemed he knew what an
easy thing it was to get.Until he got well, he was separated
from us, missus Laura kept himup in the loft with the rabbits where

(26:55):
we could not go, and theboys ran him around the garden for exercise.
She tried all kinds of cures forhim, and I heard her say
that though it was a skin disease, his blood must be purified. She
gave him some of the pills thatshe had made out of sulfur and butter
for Gem and Billy and me tokeep our coats silky and smooth. When

(27:21):
they didn't cure him, she gavehim a few drops of arsenic every day
and washed the solar and indeed hiswhole body with tobacco water or carbolic soap.
It was the tobacco water that curedhim. Miss Laura always put on
gloves when she went near him,and used a brush to wash him.

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For if a person takes mange froma dog, they may lose their hair
in their eyelashes, but if theyare careful, no harm comes from nursing
a mangy dog. And I havenever known of anyone taking the disease.
After a time, Dandy's sore healedand he was set free. He was

(28:07):
right glad, he said, forhe had got heartily sick of the rabbits.
He used to bark at them andmake them angry, and they would
run around the loft stamping their hindfeet at him in a funny way that
rabbits do I think they disliked himas much as he disliked them. Jim

(28:30):
and I did not get the mange. Dandy was not a strong dog,
and I think his irregular ways ofliving made him take diseases readily. He
would stuff himself when he was hungry, and he always wanted rich food.
If he couldn't get what he wantedat the Morrises, he went out and

(28:52):
stole or visited the dumps at theback of the town. When he did
get ill, he was more stuffbut about doctoring himself than any dog I
have ever seen. He never seemedto know when to eat grass or herbs,
or a little earth that would havekept him in good condition. A
dog should never be without grass.When Dandy got ill, he just suffered

(29:18):
till he got well again, andnever tried to cure himself of his small
troubles. Some dogs even no enoughto imputate their limbs. Jim told me
a very interesting story of a dogthe Morrises once had called Jip, whose
leg became paralyzed by a kick froma horse. He knew the leg was

(29:42):
dead and gnawed it off nearly tothe shoulder, and though he was very
sick for a time, yet inthe end he got well to return to
Dandy. I knew he was onlywaiting for the spring to leave us.
I was not sorry the first fineday he was off, and during the

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rest of the spring and summer weoccasionally met him running about the town with
a set of fast dogs. Oneday I stopped and asked him how he
contented himself in such a quiet placeas Fairport, and he said he was
dying to get back to New Yorkand was hoping that his master's yacht would

(30:26):
come and take him away. PoorDandy never left Fairport. After all,
he was not such a bad dog. There was really nothing vicious about him,
and I hate to speak of hisend. His master's yacht did not
come, and soon the summer wasover and the winter was coming, and

(30:48):
no one wanted Dandy, for hehad such a bad name. He got
hungry and cold, and one daysprang upon a little girl to take away
a piece of bread and butter thatshe was eating. He did not see
the large house dog on the doorseal, and before he could get away,
the dog had seized him and bittenand shaking him till he was nearly

(31:12):
dead. When the dog threw himaside. He crawled to the Morris's,
and Miss Laura bandaged his wounds andmade him a bed in the stable.
One Sunday morning, she washed andfed him very tenderly, for she knew
he could not live much longer.He was so weak that he could scarcely

(31:37):
eat the food she put in hismouth, so she let him lick some
milk from her finger. As shewas going to church. I could not
go with her, but I randown the lane and watched her out of
sight. When I came back,Dandy was gone. I looked till I
found him. He had crawled intothe darkest corner of the stable to die,

(32:04):
and though he was suffering very much, he never uttered a sound.
I sat by him and thought ofhis master in New York. If he
had brought Dandy up properly, hemight not now be here in his silent
death agony. A young pup shouldbe trained just as a child is,

(32:27):
and punished when he does wrong.Dandy began badly, and not being checked
in his evil ways, had cometo this Poor Dandy, poor handsome dog
of a rich master. He openedhis dull eyes, gave me one last
glance, then, with a convulsiveshudder. His torn limbs were steel.

(32:53):
He would never suffer anymore. Whenmissus Laura came home, she cried bitterly
to know he was dead. Theboys took him away from her and made
him a grave in the corner ofthe garden. End of chapter thirty six

(33:15):
Dandy the Tramp