An anonymous poem about Dachshunds taken from Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy.
There was a dachshund once, so long
He hadn't any notion
How long it took to notify
His tail of his emotion;
And so it happened, while his eyes
Were filled with woe and sadness,
His little tail went wagging on
Because of previous gladness.
The following is from The Waltz Kings written about Johann Strauss. This particular excerpt takes place in the 1830's and refers to a particular job given to Dachshunds by the railroad at the time:
Traveling itself was still a risk. The newly invented railroads with their tiny wood-burning locamotives and their open-sided cars were a splendid adventure. The Viennese, who had their own way of looking at progress, regarded railroads as a new form of entertainment, in a class with such innovations as the steam-driven merry-go-round. The government declined to support such frivolities, and only the baron Rothschild seemed to see any future in rail travel. He financed the first Austrian rail lines and is said to have emplyed a unique signaling system along the tracks. Watchful dachshunds were tied near refueling stops. They could hear approaching trains long before human ears, and annnounced imminent arrivals with their frenetic barking. According to report, the dachshunds were railroad emplyees, with pension rights and the resounding title of Zugsvormeldehund.