Then the judges ordered horns and hoofs and spiked tails and dragons’ teeth to be fitted upon them, and that they be brought before the multitude; in whose sight they painted them blacker than hell, and told the mob that these dogs were dragons and devils. Whereupon the deceived and enraged multitude did set up a great cry “Hang them! Hang them! Hang them!”
So they were delivered over to the police dogs, who carried them away and hanged them.
Thus were they suppressed.
CHAPTER XIX.
Shows that Virtue is Much More a Matter of Victuals than is Commonly Imagined.—How the Reverend Doctor Immaculate Barkworst Went out to Save Sinners.—Some Kinds of Virtue More Vicious than Vice.
IN process of time it was noised abroad that there existed in Canisville a crowd of dissolute dogs, who, on the sly and in dark holes and corners of the town, smeared themselves all over with filth at night, and danced before other dirty dogs; which other dirty dogs would reward the dirty dancers with a few bones.
So the dancing dogs were able to live—which, the dancing dogs said, was the main thing in life; whereas as for Virtue, there was no wealth in it; they could get along very nicely without Virtue, but they must have Victuals. They said they had gone to every market and tried to exchange their Labor for something to eat, and all the fleas and all the salaried barkers, and even the missionary dogs, had laughed at them and uttered some jargon about the Labor Market being Glutted, which some dogs, well educated in foreign languages, had translated unto them to mean, that a very great deal of Labor would buy only a very little bone with a very little meat on it, and that all skin and gristle. They had tried to find a place at the Handle of the fleas’ Blood and Bones Grindery, but had with difficulty escaped being thrown into the hopper. And having nothing but Virtue to sell for Victuals they had sold that; and, strange as it might appear, that fetched a far better price than honest toil. So, if in the market Labor was held in such contempt, they did not see that they were bound to hold it in reverence, and if Society made it easier for poor dogs to be wicked than virtuous, that was Society’s look-out, not theirs.