Friday, December 22, 2017

'Beautiful Joe'

While I'm still learning about Meaford, I must tell you about Beautiful Joe.  Joe was a dog who lived here in the 1890's, part bull-terrier and part fox-terrier, but widely described as a mutt.  I'm not sure that any book about a dog ever, has been as popular as 'Beautiful Joe'.

Beautiful Joe suffered badly from an abusive owner initially, a local milkman who was known to be cruel to his animals.  Near death and suffering from having his ears and tail cut off, he was rescued and came to live with the Moore family in 1890.  Mr. Moore's sister was the celebrated novelist Margaret Saunders.  After coming to visit and learning of Joe's story, she wrote a full-length autobiographical novel, from Joe's point of view.  Published in 1893 it was an an immediate best seller, and sold nearly one million copies by 1900, and 7 million worldwide over the next 30 years.  It was the first Canadian book ever to sell one million copies and was translated into several languages.

This is the Historic Plaque in Beautiful Joe Park, near downtown Meaford.  The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society maintains the park and there are apparently several other monuments present in the park.  I was so focussed on  checking out 'Beautiful Joe' that I only noticed one other monument.

 
Appropriately, this monument celebrates the contribution of Police Canine Units.  Mly picture was taken on a dull November Day, but this picture I found online seems to capture the park and memorial much better.  I need to return to search out the other monuments and tell you the full story of the park.

The book 'Beautiful Joe' is clearly written to educate the reader about animal welfare, an increasing issue in the late 19th Century.    Margaret Saunders herself compares her effort to the book 'Black Beauty', a similar but even more popular book written from the viewpoint of a horse, one of the most popular books of all time.  The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was established to protect the many carriage horses in late 19th Century cities from abuse.  Black Beauty had been a carriage horse pulling taxicabs in London, England.  These books voice the animal welfare argument quite specifically, that children need to learn to be kind to animals if they are going to grow up to be kind as people.  Who knows how big an influence this book was on the animal welfare movement, but it certainly made Beautiful Joe a local Meaford hero.

 Linking to:

18 comments:

  1. I just went over to my library website and found that they have the book, so I put a hold on it. It sounds like it will be a good read; I always love stories about dogs. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I will end up looking for this book.....if you ever read dog stories, read The North Runner. It is one of those books that I go back and read every so often.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll have to check it out. If you enjoy books written from a dog's point of view you might enjoy "Lonesome" and "Harry" by Chris Czajkowski from the Chilcotin/Bella Coola region. - Margy

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember reading this book in a country school on the prairies of South Dakota many, many years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A memorial that stands true to Police dogs and their handlers. And Joe, a wonderful story full of love and care.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting. There's a lot of history in this story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That book looks interesting. Sad that people are mean to animals, but sounds like this story had a happy ending.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I confess to never having heard of the dog or the author. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. isn't it amazing, one dog, touching so many hearts. it's kind of a beautiful story, at least it has a very happy ending and the story made me feel good today!!

    you are really getting in to things, good for you!! have a wonderful holiday my friend!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Glad that you are giving Meaford a thorough investigation , what a nice story about Joe and the memorial .

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great story! I hadn’t heard of Beautiful Joe!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello, Joe's story is really sad! I am glad he was rescued. I will have to look for this book. The memorial is beautiful! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. I appreciate your visits and comments too. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
    Enjoy your day and weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  13. A book and story I haven't heard of before!

    Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm going to see if I can find the book to read also.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Interesting. I'm glad we are more aware now of animal welfare.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh my ...I will look for the book. So sad how some people treat animals:(

    ReplyDelete
  17. Once again, you've found an interesting back story. Now I'm off to find the book ...

    ReplyDelete