San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-08-09

great game beasts of the older con
tinents. AS a matter of sporting wis
dom, is this best? Would it not be
better ON this account to preserve by
some fair restrictions these animal
representatives from destruction?
This however is foreign to the real
matter of this discourse. 1t is not a
refinement of the cruelty that is want
ed, but destruction of the tendency.
There will be little question among
the more thoughtful of the men and
women of this age that this cruelty
of disposition so apparent in us, is the
survival of those earlier ages in which
the destruction of the fierce beasts of
the field and the forest was neces-
sity of the situation. Necessary not
alone on account of self preservation
from their bold attacks, but in many
cases necessary to supply the early
settlements with food. Such beasts
and birds as were good for food were
sought out and killed for the table,
and very savOry additions to the mea-
gre food supplies of primitive times
they made. No one today with a well
regulated appetite rejects the flavor
of the wild fowl or the Squirrel or
'possum or turkey or deer or quail oS
dove. There is a something gamey
about these wild foods that particu-
larry appeals to the taste, and in
clines to its qualification.
While this is true and not either
denied or condemned, the question re-
mains, to what extent should this
taste be gratified? Have the lower
animals, so called, no rights. that man
is bound to respect? Because the
larger animals, the bruteS, prey on
each other, is that any reason why
man should prey on these larger ones
by way of retaliation? Or if that is
so argued is that any reason why be-
cause the larger animals prey upon
the smaller ones and the edible birds
that man should join in the attack of
these larger and more powerful and
slaughter the innocents as we'll? 1t
does seem hard that the poor birds
have no rest from their enemies,
either on wing or ON foot, or that es-
Gaping these they come into the rarge
of hideOus MAN with his murIerous
powder and shot to be swept away
as a sand house is by the tide. But
apart from the sentiment of the thing
are not the lessons of cruelty thus
taught pernicious?
As the little children around the
home hearth see the pretty little
doves. and quail brought into the
kitcnen from papa's buggy and hear
him Boosting of how many he shot,
do not they acquire a desire to kill
something also? What right has papa
to scold Johnny for stoning his favor
lite dog, when papa himself has set
him a worse example of cruelty in
killing the dear little birds? Can any
sensitive child really come face to face
with this cruelty, see the bloody, be-
draggled bodies and plumage of the
doves without shuddering at first, par
ticularly if he has been nicely educat-
ed into. habits of kindness to the ami
mails of the home and the neighbor-
hood? Does not contact with this
kind of thing breed hardness in the
child and educate into cruelty? 1t
certainly is natural that it should.
The question recurs is the game worth
the candle? Is it worth while to per-
petuate cruelty in the minds of the
children and encourage it for the
small amount of pleasure to a few
that the shooting gives?
Without entering into any question
of how far the intelligent principles
of man and the so-called lower ami
mails are one, it is certain that some
of these poor birds that are so wan
tonly shot down by great big men
armed with murderous' weapons of
killing. can give these same men
points in great many matters. They
can distance him in the art of finding
his way over trackless wastes, they
can discount him in the art of house
building, they are teaching the art
Of flying to him, albeit he is mighty
slow to learn, they can tell him more
about weather probabilities than he
ever dreamed Of, and in various ways
they can make him feel his inferiori-
ty. Why should he be given the right
to murder them at will? There is
something wrong here and it should
be made right. Should be not so much
for the birds and the beasts, as for
the sake of the man who is brutalized