One of the most beautiful tributes ever paid to the dog came from the lips of George Graham Vest, the distinguished Missourian, who has recently retired to private life, after a long and honorable career in the United States Senate. Senator Vest has long been recognized as a most forceful and eloquent orator, and his speeches have been widely read for many years. It is doubtful, however, if in all his distinguished career he has ever made a speech which has been more widely quoted or universally appreciated than his impromptu remarks on the dog, made many years ago in a country town.

Shortly after the Civil War, when he was a young man, just beginning the practice of law, and without the fame which has since become his, he happened to be in attendance upon a term of the Johnson County Circuit Court, at Warrensburg, Missouri. A suit for damages for the killing of a dog was on the docket, and was in due time called. Voluminous evidence was introduced to show that the defendant had shot the dog in malice, while other evidence tended to show the dog had attacked the man. There were attorneys engaged in this case, who, if not then, have since become famous. Senator Vest was not employed in the case, but was invited to speak for the plaintiff. The occasion is said to have been a rare one, and his speech has been highly praised, and has gone the rounds of the press for thirty years.

"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.

"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 encounter 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 journeys 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."

The effect of the speech is said to have held the court room audience spellbound, and when Senator Vest concluded his remarks there was not a dry eye in the house. The case was submitted to the jury without further argument, and in a very few moments they returned a verdict in favor of the owner of the dog for the full amount sued for. The case finally reached the Supreme Court, where it was affirmed, and is set forth in detail in the 50th Missouri Reports.