Senator Vest's Eulogy On The Dog
Gentlemen of the Jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn
against him and become his enemy. His son and daughter that he has
reared with loving care may become ungrateful. Those who are nearest and
dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name,
may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may
lose. It flies away from him when he may need it most. Man's reputation
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may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who
are prone to fall on their knees and do us honor when success is with us
may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its
cloud upon our head. The one absolutely unselfish friend a man may have
in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that
never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog.
Gentlemen of the jury, A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and
poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground,
when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may
be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to
offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the
roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if
he were a prince.
When all other friends desert, he remains, when riches take wings and
reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in
its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an
outcast into the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks
no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against
danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all
comes and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid
away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their
way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head
between his paws and his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness,
faithful and true even to death.