The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-02-24
RIGHTS OF ANIMALS.
Horses in Germany Must Not Be
Insulted.
Dogs in Belgium Must Have Seats In
Trains-Pampered Life of the German
Students Corps-Dogs = Better
Treated Than Children.

child life is infinitely happier IN bne |
senni-barbaric orient and even in the |
wilds of Africa than in the most highly
civilized portions of Europe and Ameri-
ca, writes sEx-Attache'' in the New
York Tribune, yet the enlightenment
and progress of the west, while they
seem to carry in their train fresh in
genuity of infant torture, lead on the
other hand to very marked improve
ment in the treatment of animals
These are subjected by orientals to
much the same horrible cruelty as the
children of the white races so often
suffer at the hands of their parents,
relatives and seniors in general But
in Europe and America domestic AMI
mails are gradually acquiring an I'M
portance and consideration undream-
ed of save in those olden times when
they were worshiped as gods or adored
as saints.
On some future occasion hope to be
permitted to draw contrast in these
columns between child life in orient
and child life in the occident, and to
demonstrate from personal experience
the superiority of barbarism to civili-
zation in that one particular. But for
the present I will content myself in
dealing with the vast Improvement IN
the treatment of our dumb friends,
whom strangers might often be
tempted to believe enjoy the prefer
ence over our children.
No one has ever heard of a man be-
ing imprisoned for apostrophizing a
child with some coarse, contemptuous
or insulting epithet, yet only short
time ago the Berlin press contained the
record of a sentence of three weeks
imprisonment imposed on a stableman
employed in the imperial news of Pots
dam, for having addressed an insulting
epithet to q favorite mare belonging to
the kaiser. Although this is the first
instance known of a man being actual
ly sentenced in regular judicial way
10 imprisonment for the use of insult
ing language to n horse belonging to
the state, yet l have often seen troop
ers in crack cavalry regiments of Eu-
ropean armies taken severely to task
and threatened with punish ment for
talking roughly to their mounts, the
welfare of which is a subject of infi-
nitely greater solicitude to the officers
than that of the men. For the horse is
worth so much to the national treasury
in cold cash, which the trooper is not,
at any rate in the countries where mil
over, the advancement and promotion
of the commanding officer depends, as
a rule, far more upon the physical con-
| dition of the horses of his regiment
than of its men.
This being the case, no one need be
astonished to hear OF one of the lead
| ing Austrian sportsmen, Count Paul
Festetics, bringing legal proceedings
| n S11n1.finrr FOR
having referred in sighting manner
to his race-horse Tha lany, the insult
consisting in remark to the effect
that though the mare had won certain
stakes she did not deScrve to take
them, owing to the fact that her COM
petitors had run so badly as to deprive
she victory of every atom of glory OF
merit. This is hardly a grave insult
| but the count thought otherwise anC
demanded printed apology on behalf
of his mare, failing which, he has lnstl
tuted the legal proceedings referred to
| It remains to be seen whether he will
obtain decision in his favor, and nc
one need be astonished if during the
course of the proceedings the mare her
self is subp9naed as a witness.
In Belgium the government, which
owns and controls the entire railroad
system of the country, has just issued
decree which, as far as railroad trav-
ell is concerned, places the dog on ex
actly the same level as a grown-uI
man or woman, and infinitely higher
than a child. For whereas the latter is
entitled to half a place if under twelve
years of age, a dog has now right te
full seat, providing he has his ticket
That is to say in compartments Ii
censed to hold ten travellers, if there
} are eight adult human beings and two
dogs in the compartment, the latter il
regarded as complete" and no othel
passengers are admitted, and if thu
train happens to be full partly will
dogs and partly with human beings
any additional passengers will have t.
be left behind rather than that the dog
should be forced to,yield up their seats
The government decree, however, con
tains no intimation as to the manne
in which the canine travellers are ez
pected to conform to the regulation
which prohibit passengers from putin!
3 their feet on the cushions; and it mus
be admitted that the seats of railroa
: carriages as at present constructed ar
! not suited to the dogs style of repose
Inasmuch, however, as the govern
ment has already given him the prefer
ence over children by according to hir
an entire seat, instead of merely hal
t of one, it is quite within the bounds c
y possibility that it may in course c
n time be brought to modify the cars
o such manner as to add to the comfoI
: of the canine passenger at the expens
of the human traveller.
= Floating Cities.
q The modern American man-of-war
o little world in itself, or perhaps MOI
q properly a floating city, with its i