



Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rick Morris, MFR and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net






[Illustration: “CHARLIE”]




                            BETTER THAN MEN


                                   BY
                            RUSH C. HAWKINS

                              J. W. BOUTON
                      TEN WEST TWENTY-EIGHT STREET
                                NEW YORK
                                  1896

                          Copyright, 1896, by
                              J. W. Bouton

 TO MY BELOVED AND LOVING WIFE, EVER FAITHFUL AND TRUE, WHOSE GOODNESS
                       PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING




                                CONTENTS


  Explanatory                                                           1
  The Excursion                                                        13
  Tim, the Dissipated                                                  91
  Carlo, the Soldier                                                  113
  Jeff, the Inquisitive                                               127
  Toby, the Wise                                                      139
  Two Dogs                                                            149
  Two Innocents Abroad                                                165
  About Columbus, by an old showman                                   171
  In Relation to Mysteries                                            187
  Mysteries                                                           195




                              EXPLANATORY


The title chosen for the following sketches, written for the purpose of
presenting certain prominent characteristics of the lower animals worthy
of the attention of the human animal, stands for rather a serious
proposition which may be questioned by a majority of those readers whose
kindly interest in our mute friends has not already been seriously
awakened.

To write so that those who read may infer that a certain selected number
of so-called lower animals are better, by nature and conduct, in certain
elemental virtues, than men, is, to say the least, rather imprudent, and
to the optimistic student of human nature may appear irreverent to an
unpardonable degree. Usually, to the minds of such observers, humanity
is accepted for its traditional value, regardless of established
conditions or inherent actualities. Such investigators investigate only
one side of their subject. They start