San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-06-20

ignorant that is condemned but that
being these he is so eternally stuffed
up with his own conceit. 1t is not so
much charged against him that he
knows so little, as that he assumes to
know all things. Not only that,
but he tries to put on side and build
hells for all who will not seen things
as he sees them. Having tried his
prentice hand on the lower orders Of
creation (what he is pleased to call the
lower orders) he assumes to lord 1t
over his own kind. Here is where his
greatest achievements have been
wrought, his greatest infamies, too.
He might be excused for shooting
and robbing and stealing and doing all
other acts Of wanton cruelty to other
animals II he had only let his own kind
alone. But he has not done this. The
blacklist page of human damnableness
has been written in his treatment of
his fellow humans.Not only so, but in
his treatment of his own tribe, his own
fellow racemen. Man is the bully Of
the universe. Weakness wins for him
no regard, helplessness no sympathy.
Poverty is becoming crime. The man
punished in the courts. Asking for
bread is a misdemeanor. Might builds
a fence around all the pleasant things
and places and keeps the great world
out Of it's inheritance, its rightful share
in these things.
All this and much more is the direct
and natural and inevitable result of
that original cruelty to the beast Of
the field and the fowls of the air that
has so generally characterized earth.
Where this destructiveness and cruelty
to the lower creation has not obtained
there is not that distinction of wealth
that there is where cruelty and wan
ton destruction has obtained. Our
poor are being trampled under foot to-
day because we have grown accustom-
ed to trample under foot the domestic
animals, our household companions.
The man who kicks his dog naturally
kicks his child. He who whips his
horse is only learning to beat his wife.
Cruelty to that which is beneath us
leads to cruelty everywhere. The
meanest of all is the cruelty to the
helpless.
Cruelty breeds crime as naturally as
stagnant water disease. Lack Of kind
ness in the home and in the school and
in the business house and in the street
is at the bottom of that wave of de-
struction that has led to the commits
sion Of more than ten thousand MUIR
ders in this country within the past
year. 1t is time to pause. To learn
that kindness is necessary. To under
stand that the rights of the poor are
paramount That government must
interpose it's strong hand between the
expressions of self interest and the
rights of all. That human life and
happiness and opportunity are not
names, but holy things to be the care
of the state. The greatness is only
great goodness. Goodness, being good
Beloved! Think on these things. If
we go on in the present path where
will we strike bottom? In hell. Not the
pictured hell of the theologies, but the
actual hell of an earth too wicked and
cruel to live with comfort or safety in.
We are fast drifting that way. The
law of cruelty has been legislated in
and lived in and the few have thrived
on it to the destruction of the many
Now let the motion be reversed a few
centuries and note the result. Let the
law of kindness replace the
law of cruelty, and vice will
become questionable, crime will
die out, deeds of violence
grow scarce, our children s children
will be happier and more secure than
we, and every living thing that hath
breath share in their greater happi-
ness.