18th Century Dog Censuses of Questionable Validity

Are you entertained?

This week's selection from the Library of America's "Story of the Week" collection is George Catlin's mid-19th century account of accompanying some Iowa Natives (as in Native Americans from the Iowa tribe) around Paris to, among other things, meet the King and talk about how many effing dogs there are in his capitol city.  The Iowan medicine man, whom Catlin refers to as "Doctor," and the warrior, "Jim," are flummoxed by the sight of so many women walking around the city with dogs.  The Doctor more so:

The Doctor seemed puzzled about the custom of the women leading so many dogs, and although he did not in any direct way censure them for doing it, it seemed to perplex him, and he would sit and smile and talk about it for hours together. He and Jim had at first supposed, after they found that the ladies were not blind, that they cooked and ate them, but they were soon corrected in this notion, and always after remained at a loss to know what they could do with them.

Later, during a carriage ride through the city, the two men decided to keep a detailed account of how many women with dogs they saw:

They had been absent near an hour, and driving through many of the principal streets of the city, and their list stood thus:

Women leading one little dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .432

Women leading two little dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . .71

Women leading three little dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .5

Women with big dogs following (no string) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .80

Women carrying little dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .20

Women with little dogs in carriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . .31

The poor fellows insisted on it that the above was a correct account, and Jim, in his droll way (but I have no doubt quite honestly), said that “it was not a very good day either.”

What's not to get?

I love the ambiguity of Jim's droll declaration that "it was not a very good day either."  He might be suggesting that it was boring to have to count dogs while being carted around Parisian city streets, but he's most likely suggesting that those numbers don't even accurately reflecting the sheer number of dogs they see on a regular basis.

Either way, it's a lot of ladies with dogs.