New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-03-20
gAPBtRIrY OF THE CATTLE BUSINESS.

President L. L. Brown, of the American Humane
Association. presented in recent lecture data con-
corning cruelty to animals III this Christian land
VIII ch could not. he justly maintained, be paralleled
in so-called Hcathcndon. A prominent person had
told him that of the 10000 men about the stock
yards of Chicago. 200 seemed in their barbarty
no better than murderers" similar state of things
exists on the railroad lines. Cattle and swine
packed in cars are tortured with "prods." often
having eyes torn from sockets by the brutal dro-
ver.. They are In some cases. if not generally,
kept from water twcnty-four 10 thirty
six hours or even longer, meanwhile sup
Piled with SALT and ut last allowed
10 drink their FL to increase weight, 100 pounds
being often thus added to the ayoirdupOls of
single steer The consequence OF all this is that
large proportion, sometimes amounting To nine
tcnhs Of the beef consumed In the great cities Is
mot meat but fever" These shameful facts have
long been familiar. and frequently referred TO.
Knowledge of them is naturally provocative of
vcgetaIianism. and points to the necessity of hui
name education, which would pay" in financial
sense since il is said that 900 hogs smothercd TO
death have been taken from one train on a hot day
land probably worked ne into oleomargarinc or lard
cheese) and tho loss consequent on Overcrowding
aggregates it is thought, over $i0,000,000 per
year.
Leneicent purpose, arc by representation of these
abuses striving to build upa better public senti-
ment on the subject and the law Is often employed
10 assist IN the same direction. The matter should
DO considered in all schools, since there occur in
stances of cruelty in nearly every neighborhood.
For example, Connecticut man was sent to prison
the other day for keeping his COW tied to n stake
during all tho biting cold of recent months, not
having provided even the mock screen OF crooked
rail fence. This was petty imitation Of the whole
sale cruelty of tho oattle-mon, and to extent
of tho shcep-men, of the far West, most OF
whose stock exposed to tho occasional
80 to 40 below severity incident
TO that climate, and tho winter billiards which
sweep the plains with terrific snow and sleet leaving
deposit two feet deep frequently coated with hard
crust. over wide areas. and rendering watercourses
and even railroad tanks almost solid masses of
zee. Kansas paper, The Sterling BuHctin reports
that on the range 90 to 100 mcs south and west
of that place thousands of cattle persisted during
the late cold" Special dispatches to The Chicago
Tribune, from 100 points, represent loss during
the fearful storms Of the first half of February in
the principal stock regions of Colorado, Kansas.
Nebraska, Wyoming. Montana, Utah and Idaho,
of over So OO0, 900, though definite info rmatIOn
cannot be obtained previous to the spring round
up"
Tho details of tho slaughter are pathetic and
narrowing in the extreme. For instance,
along the 1030 miles of the Union
Pacific from Omaha thousands of cattle
were seen standing near the railway, their
backs bumped up, and weakened by cold and
hunger that they could not get out OF their tracks"
These animals seem to hayo become discouraged or
disabled for the instructive flight before storms
which sometimes takes them hundreds of miles
southwark in pursuit of shelter and grass. Others
Of the same region gave great trouble TO trains by
clustering IN tue snowshods that shield tho road at
various points. From Cheyenne comes lucid
porlraituro of conditions consequent on tho
bowling waste of atmosphere which hurled itself all
over that part of the country" leaving the
level TO the depth of ten to thrty-iye inches in an
unbr0ken waste" "Tbe cattle on all this vast range
cannot obtain a morsel of grass" On the huge
expansep known AS Laramie Plains, says another
correspondent, the severity was such to over
come antelope, many dead of these hardy, fleet
footed natives being found the roads along Little
Laramie River 1.-TWO years ago some stock men
lost high fifty por cent and the bones Of
iamished herds wore gnawod by coyotes from
Cheyenne to Central Kansas" Similar cruel
havoc marks each winter to some extent,
depending on The condition OF flesh of the animals
when cold sets IN and the character of weather
that follows.
Recent dispatches sent out by the Stock Growers
As.ociation from Chsvenns nentra of tina in tarast