Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-12-14
CRUELTY TO
BY ELIAS MULEE'
LYNN LAKE, DEc.


LYNN LAKE, DEc. 1893.
The mount of suffering brought upon
the defenseless and the dumb animals
by unthlnking and unfeeling men, is
Immense. AS winter is coming upon
our animals, every editor would perform
an act of kindness to them by calling at
t~ention to their suf' rings. There is a
beautiful belief among the northern
people OF Scandinavia, that animals
thlnk and wait for the Day of Judge
ment. This innocent belief has made
those northern people very kind toward
their inferior servants, by n aking warm,
hight and dry houses for them and by
not overworking them. At Christmas
time (Yule-tide) even the wild birds are
provided for by placing bundles of bar
ley on the top OF the barns for them.
AS l write these lines, there rises in
my memory an occurrence which took
place last February, in the village of
Bristol, S. ID. l can hardly think of
that occasion without emotion, I was
confined to bed at that time and wal
only strong enough to look out upon the
street from my second story window.
This, probably, made me more sympa-
thetic. On the street, / saw a suffering
horse, which m%ethought waited the Day
OF Judgement. On q very cold and pier
cling day, a man drove up the street,
with a hungry-look,ng horse and a little
homemade cutter. He tied the horse
in front OF the drug store. about ten
O'Clock in the forenoon, threw an old.
ragged, dirty horse, blanket over his an
imal, and walked away to the poolroom.
The man himself was warmly, though
not stylishly dressed. He had on a pair
OF thick, red socks. overshoes, u goatskin
coat, buckskin gloves, and q cap that
came down over his ears. Time passed
away. Again, l looked u of the win
dow. This time the blanket had fallen
to the ground. There, the poor horse
stood IN the open street, without a blan-
ket and the thermometer awav below
zero. The man thought too much of his
own pleasure to fasten the blanket, or
put the animal in a warm barn, which
would only have cost him ten cents, the
price of n game Of pool, or of one
drink. The worst is not told, for the
animal might have held ont without
pain for twenty or thirty minutes, but
he stood on the same spot, scrsping with
his feet and pulling at his halter, to get
away, during the whole afternoon.
Towards dark, came the fiend. Mr..
Editor. you Will please excuse hard
names in your family paper, forI think
this man deserved a hard name. AS /
saw the maj take the poor horse home,
| felt a great relief. l hope he came
into a warm, light, dry stable and that
he got a good meal of oats, which is
rather doubtful with such a man.
| resolved at that time TO write an ar.
ticle for the papers IN this subject-the
best l could. iremained in my room
until the kind sun melted the snow and
made the flowers grow upon the prairie.
The poor animal slipped my mind till
the return Of another winter.
l hope editors will copy this article, or
a better one. for the happiness Of our
inferior servants. Day county papers
are especially requested to copy. At
bottom, it is for our own interest to de-
velop the feeling CT kindness and unset
fshness. Americans love fair play"
| The more cruel and selfish men are, the
more dissagreeable it is to men and ami
mails. "Do unto others even as ye
would have them do unto you"