Mexico weekly ledger., 1892-05-05
pHARIsEEISM REBuKEDs
Mr.. basket Neatly fakes the Hide
on an impudent Boston
Crank.
From the st. Loms Republic.

the hepaOttc nom the pen Oh taihes
Newton Basket of Mexico, Mo-,
have been widely read and highly
commended, especially by sports
men. But Is seems that they are
not received with universal favor in
Boston. A humanitarian of that
town who disapproves OF bird-shoot-
ing felt called upon the other day to
indite an impertinent and vitupera-
tive note to Mr.. Basket, in which
he expanded upon the cruelty OF
hunting, the atroeity of numbering
the birds, etc. Mr.. Basket replied
to this superior being in the follow
ing tone of voice:
MEXICO, Mo-, April 26.-Mr.
-, Boston, Mass: DEAR Sir
Your not overcourteous, but rather
missionary letter, is at hand, con-
corning, l suppose, my articles on
hunting, either in some Western
paper or in the Youths Companion
of your own city. l presume you
are n of that kind, so prevalent in
your region, who fast every day and
pay tithes of all they possess thank
ing God that they are not like those
poor savage Western hunters are.
We feel immensely complimented
at your indignation. You are
doubtless a very Rhinestone OF con-
sistency, and abstain from lard IN
your bread OF on your griddle, and
your tender heart bleeds at the bone
and b~ristles in your toothbrush. OF
course, such consistency as yours
never walks abroad in cowhide shoes
or WOODEN hose, and the silk OF a
poor worm is a thing that you ablure
exclusively. The horse car and the
common carriage drawn by beasts OF
burden you have been too tender
hearted to try, and you are a
parasite, you know, if you ride in a
railway coach while someone, in
the sweat of his face, shovels coal
into the furnace.
imagine | see your benevolent
figure walking abroad with hemp
and manila strings, binding wooden
sandals to your feet and a straw hat
and cotton umbrella over your head.
You abstain from water also, doubt
less, because of the thousands of
creatures that you might consume
at a gulp, and I suspect you are too
good to take Ia grippe, because you
would first have to capture the
microbe. No doubt when the feas,
bedbugs, Jersey mosquitoes, o
Western woodticks care to tackle
your ethereal body you simply
demonstrate with them, but nothing
more. You have possibly written
Koch and Pasteur each a letter
demonstrating against their expert
ments on animals for the benefit of
mankind, and perhaps you have
made an eloquent appeal IN strong
Bostonian adjectives for the bacilli
themselves.
I do not see how you can afford to
give me a permanent address. How
can you stay in that city of culture
with all the world suffering for your
ministrations? You impress me as
one whose devotion would leave his
family to starve while he went out to
convert the heather sportsman and
save the humber creatures from
destruction. I might add that if
you will follow my papers through
you will find that wanton and I'M
necessary destruction is nowhere
advocated; that trap shooting at
live birds is condemned, and that
slaughter for use only is the spirit or
the true sportsman.
If you reflect a little you may see
that a man can prostitute his pen in
writing epithets and strong vitupera-
ton, as well as in other ways, and
exhibit in a common letter more
WITHDRAWING cruelty of heart than
any hunter ever felt. | have met
your "clahass" before. Yours is
the kind, doubtless, that invests its
rupees in first mortgages on West
ern real estate, and while your agent
sells out the poor farmer, who has
not had bread enough in his house
for years because he has paid you a
higher rate of interest than you
could get at home and borne the
burden of an iniquitous tariff that
you might grow rich, you sit within
your classic and refined circle and
weep over birds and negro rayishers
and Indian murderers.
Should you ever walk out this
way should like to see you in your
straw and sandal and cotton. The
latter perhaps you may have to alb
iure because of the scent of African
sweat there is in it. But come
along, anyway, just clad in your
sweet emotions. | would like to
classify you. Although I do not
arrogate to myself the title of natur-
alist, az you insinuate, | think l
should have no trouble in your case
at all, for doubtless the sprouting
~pin-feathers in your shoulder blades
not to mention the halo which
you must wear on Sundays-would
place you among the angels at first