The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1858-10-16
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Mr.. Editor: was grieved to day to be-
hold man cruelty beating dumb brute-a
patient suffering OK; and was forced to be-
lieve thecruel man would make bad COM
panion. Tenderness to animals is the only
return we can make them for taking them
from the freedom of the fields, and imposing
upon them the yoke of ceaseless servitude.-
What do they gain by their submission to US?
Nothing that nature has not freely provided
for them--the green grass they love and the
water that slakes their thirst, these are not
our gift but hers From weary day to wea-
~ day, from year to year, we compel them
to the performance Of our heavy tasks, and
make them shsrers in the curse of Adam,
though they were not partners in his sim
Patiently they submit to the heavy burdens
we impose upon them, never tasting the sweets
of liberty until we turn them out to die
How wrong, then, to aflict them with blows,
bearing nothing with them although they
bear so mach from US !
How know we that the gentle spirit which
looks through the soft eyes of the horse or
OK, is not as immortal as our own-as pre-
cious in the estimation of Deity' Who shall
say that the groans of the suffering quadru-
ped upon whom we infict our cruelty do not
ascend to heaven in accusation against us?-H
If not sparrow falls to the ground without
HIS knowledge, shall not the reproaehful
voice of the poor beast be heard?
Not alone nature, calling in our breasts
for pity, teaches us to be kind to our dumb
brethren in toll, but poetry and history join
the plea and enforce the lesson; showing US,
also, that unkindness to animals is one of the
indications of hard unfeeling heart. The
poet Southey, after describing the fearless
burial of wealthy man, and wondering
s<How can this man have lived that thus his death
"Costs not the soiling white handkerchief
makes one of his characters reply as follows:
sWho should lament for him, Sir, in whose heart
Love had no place nor natural charity!
The parlor-spaniel. achen she heard has step,
Rose slotuly from the hearth and stole ASIDE
With creeping pace; she nerer raised her eyes
To kind cords from him, nor laid her head
Upraised upon his knee; vith foadling whine"
No, she knew too we'll that miser nature,
fit to wrong orphans or to beat brute. An
animal recognises harsh disposition in man
with the we'll known quick perception which
distinguishes childhood. Perhaps the most
remarkable instance of the sensibility of the
brute creation is to be found in the history of
the famous war in La Vende. Every reader
has shuddered with horror at the recital Of
Republican cruelty towards the heroic Ven
deans, and Allison says that "the dogs eren
had contracted an Aversion to the Repubh-
cans, ,vho Gl,cays used them ha, SHY; they
barked invariably at their approach, and
were thus the means of saving great num-
bers. On the other hand, they never uttered
sound when the Royalist fugitives were to
be seen, taught by the peasants to do nothing
that could betray them"
Besides this lesson from history, we have
that original poem by Coleridge-"The An
Gent Mariner which, in mode Of une-
qualed beauty, teaches "love and reverence
to all things that God made and loveth." The
Ancient Mariner inhospitably kills the bird
of good omen, the lovely albatross, that fol-
lowed the vessel in company with the f'good
south wind" which "sprung up behind," and
that
-eevery day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners, hofo"
For this offense he goes through terrible
penance, his fellow-voyagers all dying around
him and leaving him
NAlone, Alone oil, all, alones
Alone on a wide wide seal"
The vessel is becalmed in the tropics, and
lies
Gas idle as painted ship
Upon painted ocean"
whilst the wretched mariner is exposed to
supernatural terrors and to extreme suffer-
ing, mental and physical, until finally re-
stored to his native country and some peace
of mind. Bnt ever afterwards he is seized
at intervals by a strange interior compulsion
to tell his tale, and to convey the humane
lesson of kindness to all created things
aFor the dear God that loveth as,
He made and loveth ALL"