St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-28
MAN \ HIS o
Always a VAIN Spot in His Heart
for Canine Pets.

o Canine Pets.
London Letter TO Chicago News.
Sidney Clay WIS Il London builders
clerk, living in Euston road. He was
thirty-siX yeais OF age and had q wife
and several children. a s~ister-in-law
lived with the family. and this lady had
q pet dog. & toy terrier, called Peep,
which became a great favOrite with all.
Last July Clay took the pet dog for a
walk and lost it; presumably the Great
ure was stolen, for 1t was e~XtraOrdina-
rily small and marvellouslv intelligent.
Clay made every effort to recover the
pet, but failed. Thereupon he became
respondent and moody. and last Sunday
he suddenly fell dead in the family sit
ting room. At the ~post-mOrtem eXami-
nation it TRANSFERRED that the man
had taken a dose of cyanide OF potas-
SUM with suicidal intent. 1t seems
that Clay had for a long time contem-
plated making away with himself. for a
letter dated July 49,, addressed to his
wife was found upon his person. 40
the best and dearest of women, Marian
my WIFE" he wrote; there are times
in the life of aman when be is SUI
premely happy. Such has been my lot
with you until quite recently. Then
comes a downfall, such as has befallep
me. Since | lost our dear, darling Peep
the life, light and joy of our heart-I
have been broken hearted. l told you
on one occasion. that l should never be
able to brook her loss, and feel | never
can. With kindest love, your affection
ate husband, Sidney Clay"
1t is hard to understand how the loss
Of a pet brute could break a human
heart. This mai does not seem to have
taken his family into consideration at
all; he suffered his selfish grief to lead
him to al act which Shamed his wife
and children and deprived them of the
support which he vowed them. Yet the
attachment of some men to the
ial. Schopenlauer the German
love. vet he Iayished the alleged wealth
Of his affection upon pet poodles; If
n of these died he would at once get
another as near as possible like the de-
ceased, and these pets slept. ate and
lived with HIM. When he died he be-
queathed a part of his fortune to the
support of the poodle that survived him.
SchOpenhduer believed that the spirit
Of Christendom was condemned by its
treatment of dumb animals. The ruth
lessneSS with which a Christian popu-
lace he TVIlufkS, Kills, muulluIpS anu
tortures creatures aimlessly and with a
laugh-with which it strains in his old
age the last energies of the horse, the
beast that has served 1t so long-cries
aloud 10 heaven" ScilOpenhauer had
no patience with those who contended
for ''mercy" to dumb animals. "What
they want" he says, lis not mercy,
but Justice; they who, in all essentials,
are the same as man."
1t is curious to note that the philOso
pher who felt sc keenly for the brute
creation evinced in his long life a
singular disregard for the feelings of
human beings. He was an exception
ally coarse-grained, brutal man, quar-
reling with everybody with whom he
happened to be associated in any way.
He offended, shocked and grieved his
mother for many years, and finally
broke altogether with her; his relations
with his only sister were equally
tempestuous. He wrote eXalte6ly of
women and love and that sort of thing,
Berlin, where he knocked a seamstress
down, called her vile nameS and kicked
her in the stomach! For this philo-
sophie recreation he was compelled to
pay the manned creature a considera-
BILE pension annually until she died. II
seems more than possible that Goethe
had Schopcnhauer's example In mind
when ne wrote his bitter invectiye
against that kind of love which dis
eliminates against humanity and In
favor Of brutes.