Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-12-19
Men and Other Animals.

very much like the higher order of brutes-
like that kind of brutes, we should specify
to prevent any possible misunderstanding,
which have not been injured, morally and
by association and cOntamina-
ton with human bipeds who have fallen
from their high estate and become common
loaters and Doodle politicians. There are
dogs, We may remark by way of illustra-
ton, who have become mean, vicious and
sneaking from frequent contact with a cer-
tain sort of men who have become more
and worse than brutal from the indulgence
of bad practices and the pursuit Of unhcly
passions and csllings.
Man as an animal, purely, in his highest
state, as be was fashioned by the Almighty,
in the beginning. before the devil attempted
TO reconstruct and improve him, after his
own damnable fashion, was a splendid
specimen of divine handiwOrk. Nothing in
the animal kingdom could have been finer.
He was made in the image of God and
formed to be the sovereign Of all created
animals. Had he been true to himself and
to the order and object of his being. he
would have remained regnant and supreme.
1t is true, too, that men now who do their
level best to be decent that is to say, to be
manly, may rank as lords of the creation.
But men who are not manly, but merely
snimalish, degenerate to brutality, and in
nothing so much or so quick do they show
their descent into brutishness as in the bad
treatment of other animals.
Let US refer again to the dog, and use him
as a means of showing what We wish to
illustrate. The dog in his primal condition,
uncontaminated by vicious associations, is
usually perfect gentleman-Or lady, as
the case may be. lie (or she) is good
Judge Of human nature and character, and
when the dog sees a man who is a man, he
knows him, and he treats him with that
courteous consideration to which true
man is always entitled. And when dog
becomes once attached to a man he will en-
dure the very worst possible treatment,
without complaint or resentment When
his master falls into ways which no decent
dog weuld consent TO follow, the dog per
ceives that the man (so-called) is the victim
of evil associations. that he is really not
himself and is unfortunate as well as sin
ming, and he (the dog proves himself to be
not merely a gentleman but Christian
at least so far as bearing and conduct are
concerned.
The horse may be taken as another noble
specimen of the animal kingdom, nearly
though his strength is great, and his neck
clothed with thunder, he is the devoted
friend and companion Of his master, docile,
gentle, afectionate at no act Of
duty, service, or daring, alive to every
token of affection, appreciatiye OF every
kind word or act. Nothing more splendid
than the devotion of the fine-brsd horse to
a master who his worthy of his esteem, can
be seen in the animal kingdom. What,
| then, can be meaner or more unmanly in a
man than a failure to respond in kind to the
advances Of an afectionate and devoted
horse, dog or other domestic animal?
Men. as men, should be as decent, as
courteous, as other animals. 1t is too much
to expect that they will do as much for
dumb animals as they have been known to
do, on occasion, for men, for it is not r rare
thing for horse or dog to lay down its
very life for its human master.
What we would be glad to do is to put
cruelty to animals in its very strongest light
and to properly characterize the meanness
and brutality of men who indulge in it.
This sort of cruelty is against nature, res-
son, sense. and the laws of God and man.
1t would seem that there ought TO be a
heaven for domestic animals, for many Of
them have rough time of it and very un-
fair treatment in this life, and that there
ought TO be he'll for those who mistreat
them, in which they should be plunged II
! they refuse to apologize when they meet
the animals they have wronged, in the
regions sey0nd.