St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-11-15

even to what we term inferior animals,
it will do much to give them higher
character and tone through life. There
is nothing meaner than barbarOus and
cruel treatment of the dumb creatures
who cannot answer us, or resent the
misery which is so often inflicted need
lessly upon them" Most certainly that
child who is allowed to treat, and who
delights to treat, unkindly such little
animals as may be within his power,
and that other child who is taught to
treat and who loves to treat them with
gentleness, ,are each nursing DISPOSE
tons that will have much to do with
future character and conduct. The lit
tie prince, who, according to tradition,
amused himself with sticking flies upon
bOdkin, afteTward made his name,
that ought to have been so illustrious,
an everlasting synonym for the most
hideous and loathsome cruelty. On the
other hand an emperor of our own age
is said to have been characterized by
humane sentiment while yet child !;
and his name will forever stand glori-
fed by the emancipation of forty mill
ions of serfs, the acknowledgements of
forty millions of bondmen with the
rights of humanity.
Cruelty to anything hardens and de-
praves the heart. The wholesale de-
struction of those harmless and beauti-
tul little creatures, that once made our
forest glades and hill side copses so
CHEEKY, but which have now become so
scarce, is everyway to be regretted ;
but it is most of all to be deplored for
the hardening effect of the cruel sport
upon toose who destroy them. OF
course, it is quite righl to kill what,
while living,is actually harmful enough,
or when dead is really serviceable
enough, to justify the killing. But
when parties of young or older men
sally out to kill for sport, with scarcely
the thinnest pretence of utility, emu
lous only as to which shall excel in in
fiicting a every Saint Bartholomew
upon beautiful little creatures, which
are equally harmless when living and
useless when dead, then the sight is one
to fill every humane person with sad
ness and shame. The heaps of game
at ht,-hundreds of pretty creatures
mangled and dabbled in blOOd-these
are not the only or the most pitiful re-
suit of the days cruel sport. Hundreds
more, wounded but not killed outright,
while their slayers are feasting and
merry making over the days gallant
exploits, are bleeding and painting away
their lives in the hiding-places where
they have dragged themselves to die.
And the worst and most deplorable re-
suit of all this, that every one who has
been engaged in this cruel diversion,
has been bunting his humane and kind
ly feelings, and nursing into life taste
and love for cruelty.
Some years ago a Brahmin addressed
to paper published in Calcutta a COM
municatiOn against the wholesale shoot
ing of pigeons for pleasure, as practiced
by the English residents. ''The taking
of life"-such was a single sentence in
his dignifed and pathetic remonstrance
-''the taking of life may be hard ne
cesslty, but can have been intended by
the Creator as a sport" Such Il heath
en- might well have been pardoned for
looking with disgust upon Christian
cruelty.
Kind and humane sentiments respect
ing the treatment of animals, are now
happily having a wider diffusion, and
a greater practical influence, than ever
before. Systematic efforts for the pre-
vention of cruelty are no longer looked
upon as whimsically sentimental, and
many now living may hope to see the
time, when cruelty to animals, in the
most enlightened and Christianized
communities at least, will be practical
ly abolished.
And now suffer word of eXhOrtatiOn.
Let us heather practice ourselves, nor
countenance in others, cruelty to any
thing that lives but let us try to make
that kindness which is prompted by our
better feelings, and inculcated through
out the Holy Scriptures, a pei vading
and controlling principle. AS it is
necessary sometimes to suffer, so some
times it is to infiict pain but as we do
not wish to endure, so never let us will
lingly intlict any needless suffering.
Is there not something in the help
lessness of the lower creatures, their
utter inability to cope with man, that
appeals strongly to our magnanimity
and pity? Is there not something in
their speechlessness, in their inability
to express their pain or implore our
pity, that may well touch and move
the heart ? Is there not something in
their mute beseeching eyes, to which is
denied even the soft pleading of tears,
that may well soften and dispel any
cruel impulse? And does the thought
that they are together with ourselves
the creatures of Gods love and care,
beget within us no religious aweq Dare
we needlessly and ruthlessly, and in
wanton cruelty, destroy what God has
been pleased to create, and is pleased
to preserve? The beautiful little crea-
ture that sports lithely and gracefully
along our forest walk, the pretty little
bird that carols or chirps among the
branches, may seem a tempting mark,
but let us remember that not the least
of them all exists without our Heavenly
Fathers care or falls without his notice.
And let us remember that we are bene-
fitted, and He is honored, when in
everything we obey His own benign
precept, "Be pitiful."