The wonderful pictures from the Scopes "Monkey Trial" era (linked by Glenn Reynolds) triggered an outburst of pit bull nostalgia.

Perhaps out of fear of boring readers, I don't indulge myself in such antics as often as I might like, but I just think these dogs are an incredibly cool part of forgotten American history. I say "forgotten" because Americans today tend to see pit bulls not as a part of history, but as a modern problem associated with drugs and urban crime.

It wasn't always that way. . .

Of course, it goes without saying that such things as drugs (legal before World War I) and urban crime did exist in those days.

I'm not saying it was a better world, but still, this was a country where people mostly took care of their own business.

And in the days before the evolution of bureaucratic rule, few would have blamed crime and drugs on guns or dogs.

Definitely nostalgia.