Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1901-08-23
Summary Justice.

IneIG WIS OihiulndHce IN new
York not long ago. A starved
tired, sick horse was dragging truck
loaded with coping stones along
Broadway. Its strength gave out
and 1t dropped. The driver belabor-
ed the wretched animal with a heavy
whip, jerked with all bis strength
upon the reins and finally pulled the
horse up to its knees. Then he re-
newed his beating.
This performance caused a crowd
to gather, and it was not long before
the temper Of the crowd became
warmer that even the high tempera-
ture Of an August day would war
rant. The driver was warned to stop,
and threatening gestures were made
in his direction, but he was a stub
born sort of person and the more the
crowd talked the more iiercely he
thrashed the horse. He finally sue
ceeded ia driving away, but at the
pace he was able to go the crowd
very easily kept up with him.
When he began to beat the horse
once more the crowd closed in on
him, and a policeman of the Broad
way squad arrived on the scene.
Then the crowd began to tell the po-
liceman what to do. One we'll
dressed man said: "Arrest him, Of
ficer, and I'll make a complaint" "
The driver, his temper now up as
nigh as that of the crowd, declined to
get off his seat, and there was a gen.
eral cry of ''Pull him Off that tFuckp'
1t did not take long to do it. A doz-
en- people hustled the man off his
seat, and a dozen more unhitched the
horse, and an elderly man gave the
prisoner a cordial blow on the side of
his face. He did not need to follow
the Biblical injunction TO turn the
other cheek, for there were people on
the other side of him ready to attend
to that cheek and two or three chorus
girls hit him over the head with
their umbrellas Altogether, he spent
the next few minutes being hustled
about and thrashed, while the horse
rested and looked on, and it is to be
hoped that the animal enjoyed it,.
AS soon as the policeman could get
through the crowd he marched his
prisoner off to Jail.
of course. il is not To he argned
that it is always best for the public
to take the law in its own hands, but
there are times when it seems to be
unavoidable. If the man had been
maltreating a woman or a small boy
on Broadway at that time of day, or
at any time when there was crowd
about, he would probably have been
made to suffer quite as severely, and
the spectators would not have waited
for the police. The kind of rascal
who is given to pounding those who
are manifestly unable to defend them
selves against him knows perfectly
we'll that the public will not stand
any doings of the sort in public. He
therefore confines that sort of brutal
ity to the privacy Of his own home.
He has quite enough intelligence
and self-control to do that. There is
no reason why he should not be made
to feel the same need of self-restraint
in the case of a horse or any other
dumb animal. The trouble has been
hitherto that the public conscience
was not sufficiently awake to notice
whenever a big, rough bully thrash
ed horse. 1t should be thus awak-
ened. 1t is just as proper for crowd
to stop that sort of proceeding as for
the passer-by to interfere to stop any
other sort OF misdemeanor until the
police arrive. One cannot feel sorry
for the individual who figures in this
case. He was big strong and healthy,
and he suffered for a few minutes a
modified form of the misery he had
inflicted on a wretehed, sick, half
starved animal whose life ne had
made perpetual Calvary.