22/08/2024
Old Drum the Foxhound
Old Drum was a foxhound owned by Charles Burden, a keen hunter who owned property along Big Creek in Johnson County, Missouri. On October 18, 1869, Burden found Old Drum dead from a gunshot wound. The killer was none other than Burden’s brother-in-law, Leonidas Hornsby, who lived nearby. After losing a number of sheep to predators, Hornsby had publicly vowed to kill any dog on his land and the first dog to cross the property line was Old Drum. Burden was furious and demanded justice.��Within a year, a jury in Warrensburg, Missouri, awarded Burden 25 dollars (approximately $600 today). Hornsby appealed the decision, and the verdict was overturned. Undeterred, Old Drum’s owner petitioned for a new trial and hired new lawyers, including George Graham Vest, from nearby Boonville, Missouri. During this second trial, instead of going over the details of the case, vest focused on the relationship between Hornsby and his dog, and the relationship between mankind and all dogs. Reports from the time describe jurors openly weeping in court as Vest spoke. In the end, Old Drum’s owner was awarded a hefty sum of money for the loss of his dog. After the trial, the speech, to use a modern term, went viral. It was reprinted in newspapers across the US and internationally. Eventually, it became so famous that in 1958, the town of Warrensburg erected a statue to honor George G. Vest and Old Drum.
Vest’s speech, “The Eulegy of the Dog,” was recorded in the Congressional Record on April 23, 1990, 120 years after it was delivered:
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 whom he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with out happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies 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 a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog.
Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can 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 journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast into 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 in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws and his eyes sad but open, in alert watchfulness, faithful and true, even unto death.
Project Upland
Credit to History of Guardian and Working Breeds
