San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-02-02
CIVILIZED oANNIBALs.

that too many excuse the sins
they are inclined to, by damning
those they have no mind to. In
common with the christian world
we cry out in horror and disgust
at the taste of the cannibal ma
lions, who prefer baked missionary
to mutton and roast baby to suck
ing pig, but not one word Of re.
proof or condemnation for the
civilized cannibal, who feasts on
the inner substance of humanity,
while turning up his eyes in
pious horror at the wickedness
of the poor heather, who eats
human flesh only and picks its
bones.
AS between these two, there is
verify less to condemn inl the
cannibal who eats human flesh,
never having been, taught that lit
is q monstrous thing to devour the
bodies of ones kind, than in the
one who devours regulations and
widows houses and the substance
of the poor, and sucking the very
marrow out of the soul-bones
leaves thu q as dry as a lost tender
foot in the arid sands of the
Arizona desel I. 1t may be an open
question il ii is not as merciful. to
devour the flesh of the enemy
who is taken in warfare, as to i'm
mure him in a dungeon or chain
him to galley bench, to rot our
in the heat and exposure OF that
terrible slavery. Surely it is not
less kind to kill outright and eat
than to put to slow torture and
exhaust nature with pain, pro-
tracing the agony Of the tortured
and making Of it a ministry OF
pleasure to the torturer.
After all, this matter Of eating
human flesh is more a question o.
education, or the lack OF it's
matter Of usage and habit, thar
one of morals. Out Of it all savag'
!. races come in time, as they ex
perSance the reforming influence
of that&hich is called civilizedso
enlightened life. 1t is like tn
nudeness of Adam and Eve in tn
garden, something that was s.
natural that it never struck then
as something to be ashamed OF
1t is Only when the instructo
comes and new idea is born int
being that the fig leaves are see
to be necessary. So it is with tn
poor untutored savage. He see
no inhumanity in his feasting o
the flesh OF his fellow man, unit
the Instructor comes and the ne
idea is born into the household
his consciousness.
But it is not of the uninstructe
savagery OF material canniblisl
that this sermon is to speak. Ho
far the more enlightened, as v
call it, idea Is the true one, ar
how much better man is ths
q sheep. may pass for the presen
There is no doubt, however, tn
there are among the higher ord
of.mind, those who believe tn
it is equally monstrous to fea
ON the flesh of four legged ar
mails and on the flesh OF the tw
legged humanity. That to X
for food is altogether uDjustifabI
while the earth teens with frui
and vegetables and cereals, al
that to slay the animals that
desire to eat is as unjustifiable
to slay a man for the same pu
nose. Leaving these subtle d
tlnctions for the curious in SUI
m alters we recur to the subje
properly before us.
The most peculiar thing that
TO be noted concerning civiliz
cannibalism, is. that it is; tn
there is such thing to discour
of at all. How it has come tn
the human race in its progre
toward civilization has steppt
from the physical habit to IL
moral, from eating flesh to devOu
ing character, is one Of the thing
.ry,f L. fIAa authcritiS