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National Geographic : 1925 May
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THROUGH THE BACK DOORS OF BELGIUM corporated with revolutionary France; merged with Holland into "the Kingdom of the Netherlands"-this small, much quarreled-over people miraculously sur vived every form of exploitation, malad ministration, and political experiment. In 1790 their formation of a "Belgian United States," though it was immedi ately crushed by Austria, showed that they had caught an inspiration from across the Atlantic. And when, in 1830, revolution came to Paris, and an opera audience in Brussels, inspired by patriotic airs, rushed into the streets, crying, "Imi tate the Parisians!" there was inaugu rated the final revolt which transformed a vague, foreign-governed section of the Netherlands into a political entity named Belgium. In the following year, a national con gress elected a king from the house of Saxe-Coburg, and the Powers recognized Belgium's sovereignty as a neutral state. A volume might he written on "Bel gium, the Battleground of Western Eu rope." Ramillies, Oudenarde, Waterloo, Jemappes, and many other battle names, not to mention those of the World \Var, indicate that for centuries the Low Coun tries have been the scene of international conflict. Not merely as a symbol of a recent yesterday do "poppies blow in Flanders fields." WHEI:RE I)DOGS GO TO BOARDING SCIIOOI, At Brussels, as throughout Flanders, civic monuments ought to be erected to that soldier-policeman-laborer, the log. \Ve heard of his war exploits. \Ve le held him harnessed, drawing milk, wash ing, and garbage. Sometimes he was hitched to war-cripples' gocarts. Some times he was doing night-patrol duty in city cemeteries. And sometimes indeed. when we saw him towing an able-bodied man on a bicycle, we almost expected him to growl out, "A bit thick, this-canine joy riding!" He even goes to boarding school, as any visitor in Brussels may witness at the Club de Chiens Utiles. This is a training center for dogs, who ultimately matricu late for service on some municipal police force, or for competition purposes in the concourses which are held regularly all over Belgium. \We were ushered into a 70-yard stretch of dirt courtyard, high-walled, with a row of kennels behind a padlocked gate. Upon the trainer's arrival, excited barks announced his pupils' keenness for the day's lesson. One by one they were led forth, unmuzzled and tried out, Tom and Mac especially distinguishing themselves. They were black shepherd dogs of the celebrated Groenendael breed. Scent, agility, strength, audacity, fidelity, vigi lance, and intelligence are the character istics of this race. The comparatively small amount of training needed by the shepherd dogs is a striking example of hereditary influence. Tom, aged two and a half years, had not had any food since early morning. Apparently by accident, the trainer dropped a bit of raw meat under the recumbent animal's nose, then sauntered off. But Tom knew. His expression was a study as, his nose averted, he sedu lously studied the weather. TRAINING A POIICI' DOG TO ATTACK A TIIIIEF In public concourses, the judge com monly throws raw meat to a contesting dog. To touch it means instant disqualifi cation, since the dog has permitted some one other than his master to feed him. "Tom sit !" "Tom lie!" "Tom stand !" At these successive orders, the dog smartly took the required positions. He then repeated them in any given order, as the trainer made silent signals with his fingers. After the dog had repeatedly leaped an 8-foot wall and a pit 20 feet across, he was temporarily kenneled, while a tough looking and sufficiently padded individual. the school's paid "thief," secreted himself in one of the yard's many hiding places. Then out trotted nTom,with a "\hat's next" expression in his wolfish eves. At the trainer's signal, which indicated the discipline of "Find him, frighten him. but don't attack him," Tom was off, nos ing behind chicken coops and woodpiles till, with a signaling bark, he unearthed the thief. Then, by sheer intimidation, he forced the fellow to accompany him to the trainer's side. Now the thief suddenly drew a re volver. The trainer shouted the signal for attack, and at once Tom leaped upon the malefactor, careless of the successive 529
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