Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-12-22
WHAT rs CRUELTY.

WHAT IS CRUELTY
Ifyou were asked, What is cruelty? you
would, perhaps, answer ~"Giving pain"
This would be part of the right answer, but
not the whole of it.
When surgeon cuts off limb, or a
dentist pulls out a tooth, he gives great
deal of pain, but he is not cruel. When a
butcher kills animals for food he cannot
help giving pain; but this is not cruelty.
The dentist is friend to us while he is tor
turing us with his pincers, because he does
so to slye us from far more torture; and
the butcher may be merciful man while
killing the animals, if he gives no more
pain than he can possibly help.
Cruelty is givisg needless pain; and the
worst kind of cruelty is when we have
pleasure in giving it. If the dentist en-
joyed your agony, and tortured you more
and. longer than was necessary, for the
pleasure of seeing you writhe and struggle,
you would detest him for his cruelty, and if
the butcher gives needless pain to the poor
animals, we detest his cruelty also. In
like manner, if we torture, for our sport, a
cat or hedgehog, frog or bird, or any
other animal, we are as detestable for our
cruelty as that dentist or that butcher.
Even animals know well enough the differ
ence between pain given in kindness and
pain given in cruelty. A dog viii lick our
hand and look gratefully up into our face
while we are dressing his wound and giving
rim almost more pain than he can bear. In
ths old story of Androeles and the lion,
wh3n the lion came linping up TO andre
cles With thorn in his foot, and Androcles
took he great paw tenderly up and pulled
II, 81, hsa it-alr hG
quite as much pain as if he had thrust thorn
into the not. But the lion knew the diff
ference; be knew that this pain was given
in kindness. II Androcles had dared to
give the lion he same amount Of pain for
the purpose IF seeing him suffer, tker5
would have been very different ending to
the story, and very speedy end to andre
cles.
How is it that so many children, and
boys especially, are so often cruel to ami
mails?
Many Of them are Tuel from want Of
thought. They do not mean to be cruel
any more than the baby who kills flies on
the window-pane for the leasure Of stop
ping with his finger the little moving things,
or than the cat that plays with the mouse.
Children will often catch thu butterflies,
and crush their beautiful tel der forms,
with no more thought than if thew were so
many flying flowers that had no feeling.
Some children are cruel because they
have been Taught by ignorant people that
animals have no feeling. But how do we
have feeling? BY the nerves that tel the
brain what is being done to any part Of The
body. So that wherever there are nerves
and brain there is feeling. Horses, dogs,
cats, and all the higher animals have nerv-
nus systems very similar TO our own; and
every bird, frog, hedgehog, or mouse, has
its own little brain and set Of nerves that
suffer scutely under rough and cruel hand
ling, mt which can feel pleasure from the
soft shoking or patting of friendly hand.
Because many of these animals are dumb,
that is NJ sign that they do not feel. The
pig screams under pain while the noble
horse suffei5 in silence; but the horse prob
ably suffers LlOre than the pig.
Animals suffer mental pain as well as
bodily pain l is common saving that
"Care will kill a cat" and we know how
many animals gneve and pine when their
Young ones or matts are taken from them,
and how they suffer from fear just as chill
dren do.
Ne doubt the lowe animals have less
power of feeling than We have; but if they
can feel less pain, they car feel less pleasure
also, and, therefore, it is tie more hard and
cruel Of us to take away any Of the enjoy
ment from their short lives.
Some BOYS are cruel fro.a the mere
british habit of killing every small thing
they meet with. If they see bird or a
squirrel, they try to knock it down; if they
see a frog, they pelt it; if they find a stray
kitten, they drown or worry it; anil they
think themselves brave and grand Llen if
they can swagger along with gun and
cur-dog, and so kill and worry still more
Sir Charles Napier said of himself and
his noble brothers, who were all the braves,
Of the brave and fought their country's bat
ties in India and elsewhere, in the face Of
every danger: ave are all fond of hunting,
fishing, and shooting, yet we all gave them
up when we were young, because we had
no pleasure in killing little animals" The
truly brave are always tender to the weak
and defenseless; and you often find that
boys who are cowardly enough to run away
from the least danger, and who cry and
blubber like babies at the least burt to them
selves, are the foremost to torment little
creatures who cannot iniure them in re-
turn.
Some BOYS who would not be cruel Of
their own accor d, are not brave enough to
say "No" when other boys invite them to
ioin in cruel sport. They are not like
The brave little Harry Sanford, who was de-
ternined to protect the poor hare from the
hounds. and bore savage whipping from
the brutal squire, rather than tell which
way he had gone.
Some people have a natural love of kill
ing. In old times man was a hunting ami
NAL. and had to chase the beasts and birds
for food; and so the hunting nature has
been inherited by some of us, and we are
horn with an instinct for hunting animals,
as bulldog is born with an instinct to pin
a bull by the nose whenever he meets one.
Men who have this natural love OF killing
are thus partly savages; and If the higher
and nobler part of their nature does not
overcome the lower and british part, they
will remain half barbarians all their lives,
and their children will most likely inherit
the same inferior nature.
Some children are cruel from mere idle
ness. A number of boys have half holl-
day and turn out into the fields to ENJOY
themselves, and spend their holiday In hunts
ing in every hedge, ditch, and pond, Tor
something 10 COTlueIb dLu uOoSlO9' We
read of Roman emperor who, when he
had nothing else TO do, ordered one of his
slaves to be brought and killed before him,
that he might amuse himself by watching
his dying agonies. He considered the slave
an inferior being, whom be had, therefore,
right to treat as he pleased. And, no
doubt, those boys consider the birds, frogs,
cats. and hedgehogs, inferior beings, that
they have a right to treat as they please.
But what is it to be an inferior being?
Is it to be one that lives in its proper place,
makes its own house, provides for its fami-
", Injuries no one, and lives all its life as
nature meant it to live? Or is it to be one
who robs others of home, offspring, and
life, and who does them all the harm he
possibly can for no useful purpose WnateV,
er9 Mrs Chds. Bray, in an Animal |
World.
THE Mikado of Japan, is putting bus new |
American ideas into practice, and he shows