Preface

Beautiful Joe

an Autobiography

by

Marshall Saunders

author of My Spanish Sailor, Charles and his Lamb, Daisy etc.

with an introduction

by Hezekiah Butterworth

of

You th's Companion

1903.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Only a Cur

The Cruel Milkman

My Kind Deliverer and Miss Laura

The Morris Boys Add to My Name

My New Home and a Selfish Lady

The Fox Terrier Billy

Training a Puppy

A Ruined Dog

The Parrot Bella

Billy's Training Continued

Goldfish and Canaries

Malta the Cat

The Beginning of an Adventure

How We Caught the Burglar

Our Journey to Riverdale

Dingley Farm

Mr. Wood and his Horses

Mrs. Wood's Poultry

A Band of Mercy

Stories about Animals

Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Harry

What Happened at the Tea Table

Trapping Wild Animals

The Rabbit and the Hen

A Happy Horse

The Box of Money

A Neglected Stable

The End of the Englishman

A Talk about Sheep

A Jealous Ox

In the Cow Stable

Our Return Home

Performing Animals

A Fire in Fairport

Billy and the It alian

Dandy the Tramp

The End of My Story

Dedication

To

George Thorndike Angell

President Of The American Humane Education Society

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

and the Parent American Band of Mercy

19 Milk St., Boston

This Book is Respectfully Dedicated

by the Author

Contents

Preface

Beautiful Joe is a real dog, and"Beautiful Joe"is his real name. He belonged during the first part of his life to a cruel master, who mutilated him in the manner described in the story. He was rescued from him, and is now living in a happy home with pleasant surroundings, and enjoys a wide local celebrity.

The character of Laura is drawn from life, and to the smallest detail is truthfully depicted. The Morris family has its counterparts in real life, and nearly all of the incidents of the story are founded on fact.

The Author

.

Contents

Introduction

The wonderfully successful book, entitled"Black Beauty,"came like a living voice out of the animal kingdom. But it spake for the horse, and made other books necessary; it led the way. After the ready welcome that it received, and the good it has accomplished and is doing, it followed naturally that some one should be inspired to write a book to interpret the life of a dog to the humane feeling of the world. Such a story we have in"Beautiful Joe."

The story speaks not for the dog alone, but for the whole animal kingdom. Through it we enter the animal world, and are made to see as animals see, and to feel as animals feel. The sympathetic sight of the author, in this interpretation, is ethically the strong feature of the book.

Such books as this is one of the needs of our progressive system of education. The day-school, the Sunday-school, and all libraries for the young, demand the influence that shall teach the reader how to live in sympathy with the animal world; how to understand the languages of the creatures that we have long been accustomed to call"dumb,"and the sign language of the lower orders of these dependent beings. The church owes it to her mission to preach and to teach the enforcement of the"bird's nest commandment;"the principle recognized by Moses in the Hebrew world, and echoed by Cowper in English poetry, and Burns in the"Meadow Mouse,"and by our own Longfellow in songs of many keys.

Kindness to the animal kingdom is the first, or a first principle in the growth of true philanthropy. You ng Lincoln once waded across a half-frozen river to rescue a dog, and stopped in a walk with a statesman to put back a bird that had fallen out of its nest. Such a heart was trained to be a leader of men, and to be crucified for a cause. The conscience that runs to the call of an Animal in distress is girding itself with power to do manly work in the world.

The story of"Beautiful Joe"awakens an intense interest, and sustains it through a series of vivid incidents and episodes, each of which is a lesson. The story merits the widest circulation, and the universal reading and response accorded to"Black Beauty."To circulate it is to do good; to help the human heart as well as the creatures of quick feelings and simple language.

When, as one of the committee to examine the manuscripts offered for prizes to the Humane Society, I read the story, I felt that the writer had a higher motive than to compete for a prize; that the story was a stream of sympathy that flowed from the heart; that it was genuine; that it only needed a publisher who should be able to command a wide influence, to make its merits known, to give it a strong educational mission.

I am pleased that the manuscript has found such a publisher, and am sure that the issue of the story will honor the Publication Society. In the development of the book, I believe that the humane cause has stood above any speculative thought or interest. The book comes because it is called for; the times demand it. I think that the publishers have a right to ask for a little unselfish service on the part of the public in helping to give it a circulation commensurate with its opportunity, need, and influence.

Hezekiah Butterworth.

(

Of the committee of readers of the prize stories offered to the Humane Society

.)

Boston, Mass

., Dec., 1893.

Contents