In the 19th century, Owney the postal dog was a hit sensation. He was in the newspapers, the telegraphs, and the mail as well. This adventurous dog could do no wrong, and he brought his boundless luck with him wherever the trains took him. So naturally, when Walter and William Smith, two brothers working as inexperienced trainmen in Chicago, Illinois, heard that Owney would be hopping a train to the busiest railway town in the United States, they were as merry as could be. Although, this wasn’t to say that they hadn’t seen this coming. When they had first read the name “Owney the Postal Mail Dog” in the “Chicago Tribune” years back, they knew that the dog would show his snout back there eventually. Afterall, they hadn’t met him the first …show more content…
The “Saint Nicholas Magazine” told the story like Owney was a mongrel cur, or a stray looking for a home. They’d said that Owney found the post office and its warmth irresistible, and so he used his charms to convince the postmaster to let him stay there and ride the trains. That story though, was only one in over two-hundred, and the “Saint Nicholas Magazine” wasn’t exactly the most reliable source, being a children’s magazine and all. Walter and William weren’t the oldest trainsmen though, and they’d believed the story at first. It was only when they’d brought it up to an older coworker out by the trains that they’d realize that they had it wrong. “That’s completely wrong,” teased James Miller, an older engineer who worked with Walter and William, with a humored snort, “Owney’s from Ohio, the clerk that owned him left him behind when he quit.” Miller reached down from the train car’s edge, and he handed them the “Chicago Tribune”, the newspaper that they’d originally read Owney’s name in. “I’d say that this is lil’ more reliable than whatever you got your story from.” The brothers quickly flipped through it before Miller noticed the time, wanted to get back to work, and jumped down from the train car to wave Walter and William off. They were more than happy to run along, since they wanted to avoid doing work in anyway that they could so that they might read Owney’s