Sepia Saturday #184: Rabid Dogs and Sculptures

"On this day, July 6th,1885 Louis Pasteur successfully treated a boy with rabies vaccine. This plaque in Arbois is one side of a pillar dedicated to Pasteur and his achievements."  Little Nell

This week, our Sepia Saturday theme has to do with rabies.  And sculptures.  I don't know much about the horrific disease of rabies itself, except that it involves foaming of the mouth and fear of water and that if you get bit by an unknown dog you have to get a series painful shots in your stomach, just in case.  Oh, and that a rabid dog is just as dangerous dead as it is alive.  Except that you won't actually get bit by a dead rabid dog.

I am probably not the only person this week to think of Atticus Finch killing a rabid dog in the book and movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird".   The book was written by Harper Lee in 1960 and is one of my all-time favorite stories.  The movie is just like the book.  I have re-read and re-watched it many times.

Atticus (Gregory Peck) is quite handsome.  A quality man, inside and out.  As I searched for images and videos, I learned that the message behind this scene was that rabies=racism.  Atticus wanted both of these issues eliminated from society.  It was easier to kill one dog than to save one man though, as it turns out.

Here is a picture of the rabid, "mad" dog in the movie. His name was Tim Johnson, and he belonged to Mr. Harry Johnson, Scout and Jem's bus driver.  Tim doesn't look well, but I don't see any foaming of  the mouth.  Because some of you fellow Sepians were upset about the Cary-sitting-on-the back-of-the-donkey photo, I want to assure you that the poor dog above was not actually shot.  Apparently, they had something tied around his back legs when they pulled him to the ground in front of Boo Radley's house.

A three minute YouTube video shows this part of the movie.  You can skip the sexy-Pepsi ad if you want to; I did.  I am boycotting Beyonce ever since last years Superbowl performance. 

This concludes the rabies portion of this post.

Now we will go ahead with the sculpture part.  Back in 2010, when we had time to kill before our flight back to Portland, we visited the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas.  

The Witte Museum is very large, if you include all of the outbuildings and gardens (which we didn't have time to go through).  We walked around the outside of the grounds after touring the main exhibits though, and I took a few pictures.

I was quite impressed with the sculptures.
  
The statues below are "A Monument to Trail Drivers" and were made around 1925 by famous artist  John Gutzon De La Mothe Borglum.



 

And here is one of a mighty fine cactus.

Hope that you all have a super weekend.  We are going to clean the garage.

~ Kathy M.

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Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

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