The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-05-13


eagerly for the coming Of the next anniversary
in 1867.
Prevention Of Cruelty TO Antmals-Grsat
Mass Meeting ut Union Square.
We publish in another column q full report
of the mass meeting held at Union square last
evening, to take action in regard to the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Our
pages have been crowded with reports Of meet
ings during this anniversary week but none
of these were Of greater or more general
interest than that which We now lay before our
readers. Since our legislators and the excellent
gentlemen connected with this movement have
expressed their views very freely, it is only
right that the animals themselves should be
heard. They have certainly spoken very
eloquently and to the point. The chairman
seems to have been of about the usual
caiibre of those who preside over
public assemblages; but the speakers were
unusually terse, vigorous and spicy. Al
though the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals was quite severely criti-
cized, yet the good sense Of the meeting at
length prevailed, and the thanks of the animals
were rendered to the society on the same
ground that the thanks of the anti-slavery peo-
pie were recently rendered to Congress-not so
might be done hereafter.
We are glad to be able to endorse the COM
plimentary resolutions of this meeting. The
treatment Of animals has already been in some
degree reformed, and those persons who are
disposed to be brutal are now continually on
their guard against detection by the
agents of the society. There is great
change, for instance, in the mode. of
carting calves through the streets. For
merly these animals were cruelty tied, and
their heads were allowed to hang painfully
over the sides of the cart. Now they ride
along in sort of triumph, sitting or standing
upright, and gazing at the wonders of city life
with that calm, innocent unsophisticated ex-
preston peculiar to Horace Greeley and other
persons from the country. Fast driving is at
an end, and even Bonner restraints his flying
steeds. As for the omnibus drivers, they will
pull up their teams suddenly and subside into
a quiet jog-trot if anybody stares sternly at
the animals. horse that has fallen upon the
slippery pavement of Broadway is now Lifted
as gently as an invalid, instead of being kicked
into an erect position as of yore. Owners Of
animals now see in every lamp post an officer
of the new society. The CHEEKY whistle has
succeeded the cruel whip. In a word, all
classes of the community are more careful than
before in their treatment of the brute creation.
We have noticed certain resemblance be-
tween the mass meeting last evening and the
Anti-Slavery Convention a few days ago. The
resolutions are not unlike; the conclusions
reached by those present are not dissimilar.
But the strongest point Of resemblance is in
the radical tone of the speeches. The animals,
like the abolitionists, are not contented with
better treatment than they have ever received
before. They demand for themselves that
exemption from labor and from punishment
which the radicals demand for the negro.
They complain because no Freedmen's Bureau
has been provided for them. The negroes,
who were grooming under the lash a year
or two ago, are now aspiring to seats
in Congress, instead of thanking Provi.
dence for the boon of freedom. So the
animals are no sooner relieved from cruelty
than they at once desire to be our masters. The
rat objects to being trapped; the cat to being
chased out of doors; the horse to being driven.
At this rate, If Mr.. Bergh's society and the So
ciety of Wendell Phillips are equally success
full, we shall soon have our animals eating us
out of house and home, and the darkies whom
we freed will be making laws for us at Washing
ton. Still, there was more sense displayed at the
animal meeting than at the anti-slavery meet
ing Although there were great many dom
keys in the Union square assemblage, they would
have nothing whatever to do with the negro
question. Would to Heaven that the other
donkeys in Congress and among the radicals
had as much practical wisdom.
The W0MEN's RIGHTS CONvENrION.-Among
the anniversaries the most prominent and per-
haps the most attractive is that of the I" Wo-
mems Rights Association" or, as it is in future
to be known, the Equal Rights Association"
There is nothing very new in the ideas set forth
by the speakers who participated in the discus
sion of the question whether women shall be
encouraged in abandoning their natural posi-
ton in society, or shall be legalized by statute
in exercising the political functions usually
exercised by the other sex. All the arguments
and good deal Of the oratory we have heard
before. Mrs. Mott and Mrs. Anthony, and
Henry Ward Beecher, and Tilton, who once
wished to be black man, and evidently now
desires not to be man at all, have not told us
anything in behalf of woman's right To unsex