Had that extremely humorous cur Crab, the property of one Launce, in Shakespeare's _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, met with an accident terminating his career, his master could have found a successor in Owney, the railway mail-dog, a product of our own time, who would be fully qualified to fill the shoes, or rather the place of the other.
Owney is a terrier, now ten years old, and weighs about thirty-five pounds. By his own exertions he has achieved a fame of which to be proud, and as a traveller a distinction that few men can boast of. When a pup he decided upon his vocation, and in accordance with his views he entered the basement of the post-office at Albany and attached himself to the regular mail service. His devotion to the self-appointed duty of guarding mail-sacks interested the clerks, and as a reward he was permitted to accompany them on trips in the mail-cars.
Owney recognized this as an upward step in his career, and permitting his independence to assert itself, he would disappear for weeks at a time, returning at last to his adopted home at Albany. The numerous railway tags attached to his collar upon his return showed that he had been travelling with the mails. The route his dogship selected sometimes embraced the four extreme points of the United States, and it was, and is, no uncommon thing to find him wearing such tags as Seattle, Washington, Galveston, Texas, and Tampa, Florida, after one of these trips.
One day, thinking that some mail-pouches for Washington from Albany might contain state secrets to be zealously guarded, he assumed the duty, and thus received his introduction to John Wanamaker, then Postmaster-General. Mr. Wanamaker presented Owney with an elaborate harness, and, proud of his present, the dog made an extended tour. The weight of the tags gathered on this trip at last equalled his own, and, unable to stand the strain, he was compelled to return home and be relieved of his honors.
There are few post-offices and railway lines in the United States and Canada that have not entertained Owney. His Canadian experience was, however, a lamentable one, as a railway collision deprived him of an eye and part of one ear. The North German Lloyd steamers have carried him as passenger a number of times, and the P. and O. steamers took him to the far East during the Chino-Japanese war. During this trip he inspected the mail service of India.