Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-12-28
w. G. T. u. COLUMN.
Motto: "God and Home and Native Land.
THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS.

OugnG 60 receive more careful con-
sideration in an age which is charac-
terized by attention to the rights oil
| the higher animals. The question is
sometimes asked, elias a dumb crea-
ture any rights which the lords of
creation are bound to respect?''
Jermey Bentham says wisely. ssThat
interrogatory must be settled by this
! other, ssCan they suffer-" Anything
that can suffer has rights, infringe
ment of which will call out a protest
from the moral sense God has pla ced
within every human breast.
One who lived to do work which is
still bearing fruit on the continent
records a reminisence of his childhood
which shows how he became conscious
of the rights Of the lower animals.
While but four years Of age he had to
pass one day pond on his fathers
farm in which a rhodora fiourished
in full bloom. The flaming shrub at
tracted his attention and drew him to
the spot. He saw a little tortoise
summing itself in the shallow water at
the roots Of the shrub. He lifted the
stick he had i'll his hand to kill the
harmless reptile, but all at once some
voice within him said clear and loud,
sIt is wrong!" Running home in
amazement he flung himself into his
mothers arms and asked what the
strange voice meant. With the wis
dom and love of true mother she
told him it was the voice of God
speaking up for the rights of the tor
toise to protection and tender treat
ment. From that ho ur to the end of
long and honored life the boy be-
came a champion of the law of kind
ness to weak and helpless creatures,
believing with the poet, that
He prayeth best who 1oveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth US
He made and 1oveth all.
The rights of the lower animals find
an eloquent advocate in Ouida, the
famous novelist. She contributes to
the current number of The Nineteenth
Century singularly pathetic and
powerful plea for mercy. The facts
she gathers and presents with mark
ed skill ought to make an abiding i'm
preston on all who read them, and
lead to immediate reform of habits of
cruelty. She is by no means COM
plimentary to the boosted civilization
of our century. Even the Romans of
long ago were better than we. A
citizen of Rome who wrung the neck
of a dove who flew to him for pro-
lection from a pursuing hawk was
promptly stoned to death by the in
dignant crowd that witnessed his in
human act. A pampered footman in
the house of an English nobleman
only one year ago beat little dog
with a red-hot poker, and piled burn
ing Goals on it until it died. Such
horrible cruelty was visited with the
trifling punishment of a fine. 1h
modern England is by no means fat
tering to the worlds growth in mer-
cifulness, and casts lurid light on
the need for the enlightenment of
the conscience of the human race in
regard to the rights of our poor rela
tons in the lower orders of life.
Something should be done, and
that without any further delay.
Apathy in such cause is treachery to
the duty of mercifulness so promi-
nently emphasized in our common
Christianity. Vegetarians boast that
they are the only consistent people in
this matter, but even they kill slugs
and insects. The first step should be
mercy in organizations with a def
mite pledge like that of the Society of
st. George: "I will not kill or hurt
any living creature needlessly, nor
destroy any beautiful thing; but I
will strive to save and comfort all
gentle life" The next step shonld
be the rousing of the public conscience
to the many acts Of thoughtless cru
city which abound in our generation.
Evil is frequently done more through
want of thought than want of heart.
Tender and refined ladies would sure
ly not wear ospreys and aigrettes in
their bonnets if they knew that
these decorations were torn from a
living heron. That epicurean must
be pagan in his tastes who persists in
having such dishes as lobster la
AmericGi1oe and roasted oysters after
knowing that their preparation in
wolves the cooking of the fish alive.
A determined and aggressive cam
paign of enlightenment ought to be
begun at once, which will never cease