Are Cats People? by Oliver Herford

If a fool be sometimes an angel unawares, may not a foolish query be a / momentous question in disguise? For example, the old riddle: "Why is a / hen? " which is thought by many people to be the silliest question ever / asked, is in reality the most profound. It is the riddle of existence. / It has an answer, to be sure, but though all the wisest men and women / in the world _and_ Mr. H. G. Wells have tried to guess it, the riddle / "Why is a hen? " has never been answered and never will be. So, too, the / question: "Are Cats People? " seemingly so trivial, may be, under certain / conditions, a question of vital importance.

Suppose, now, a rich man dies, leaving all his money to his eldest / son, with the proviso that a certain portion of it shall be spent in / the maintenance of his household as it then existed, all its members / to remain under his roof, and receive the same comfort, attention, or / remuneration they had received in his (the testator's) lifetime. Then / suppose the son, on coming into his money, and being a hater of cats, / made haste to rid himself of a feline pet that had lived in the family / from early kittenhood, and had been an especial favorite of his father's.