Post #4: Man's Best Friend

George Graham Vest was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Missouri in the late 19th Century. Before he ever served in what was once the world's most deliberative body, Mr. Vest was a country lawyer in the small Missouri town of Sedalia. Like other famous Missourians (Twain, Truman), Mr. Vest certainly had a flair for the dramatic. In a collection of "World's Greatest Speeches" that my father gave me a few years ago, I came across this speech that Mr. Vest gave to a Missouri jury after his client's dog was killed by another man:

"Gentlemen of the Jury: The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

Senator G.G. Vest

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death."

Anyone who has owned a dog understands every inch of this wonderful speech. Mr. Vest must have given countless political speeches, an untold number of arguments in jury trials, but it was this speech about an obscure hunting dog that has won him lasting fame.

We have all had those dogs that mean something special to us, if you haven't, no offense, but you haven't truly lived... and you must not be from the South! Just this past weekend, I watched my own dog "Sol," use the broad side of his body to keep my toddler niece from leaving my parents' back porch. No matter how hard she tried, she was cut off by Sol. It drove home the fact that dogs really are smarter than we give them credit for, and it proves Mr. Vest right once again.

"Sol" at 10 weeks