Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1901-08-16

Cruelty to Animals Eduoates to the
Higher Degree Of Crime.


New York. To those who read of
the incident it may occur that some
pains ought to be taken to sort out
different types of humanity and con.
slider which is best worth encouraging.
There is a line of coast steamships
plying between New York and Bos
ton, which owns as its mascot
small woolly dog known as Pete.
He has travelled to and fro on one
steamer or another for several years,
and has always been well treated.
One day during the recent hot
weather, lot Of boys We're swimming
near one of the steamers which was
tied up in New York harbor, and It
occurred to them that they wanted
little fun. So what did they do but
catch Pete, who was loafing about in
sociable and friendly way, and
throw him into the river! Not con-
tent with that, they began pelting
him with stones when he tried to
swim ashore. To many people it
will seem strange that there should
be any fun in that sort of a thing, but
there is. The more miserable a de-
fenseless animal can be made and the
longer he can be made to fight for a
chance of life before being finally
killed, the more amusement there is
in it for some folks. The folks who
take their sport in this fashion
would see no fun in things which
other civilized human beings regard
as highly desirable. Their idea of
heaven would possibly be a place in
which they would have an unlimited
number of helpless creatures, brute
or human, but preferably human, to
torment as they chose. The chances
are that if these boys could, without
danger of punishment, have gotten
hold of smaller boy and treated him
just as they did Pete, they would
have been still more amused.
In default Of anything better, how
ever, Pete did very well. But in
the midst of the entertainment the
watchman came on tho scene, and he
was an old man and fond of the dog.
Strangely enough, he was one of the
people who fail to see fun in things
of this kind. He told them to stop.
He was on shore and the boys were
in the water, and they had the adj
vantage and knew it. They kept on
having fun, and presently a stone
struck Pete on the head and he began
to sink. The old watchman did not
stop to take his clothes off. He
jumped head first into the river,
and swan toward the dog. His
head was hit by a floating beam
and he was stunned. Then a fifteen
year-old boy, who had taken no part
into the previous sport, came along,
and saw what was doing; and he
leaped into the water and rescued the
old man, and then pulled the dog out
with boat hook. Both recovered,
and the dog insisted on going where
the watchman went.
There are many persons, including
the boys whose amusement was so
summarily interfered with, who will
say that this was good deal of a
fuss to make over a dog, and that a
human life is worth more than that
of an animal. Undoubtedly it is.
But that is not just the question.
When a fireman risks his life to save
that of crippled child in a tenement
fire, we do not reason in that way.
We do not argue that he ought TO
weigh the worth of his life with that
of the child, and sit down on the
sidewalk and let the child burn to
death. 1t is obvious that the moral
value Of his act Of herOism is worth
something to the community, aside
from its direct consequence. The
same is true in this case. 1t is un-
likely that the boys who threw this
little dog in the water and stoned
him will amuse themselves in just
that way again, where the watchman
is, and perhaps some Of them were
sufficiently ashamed of themselves tC
refrain from such performances foi
the rest Of their lives. A great deal
of such cruelty is more thoughtless-
ness than anything else. One boy
stronger, more active or more viciou.
than the rest, sets the fashion anC
the rest join in. The difference be
| tween different ''crowds," 'sets' ol
"gangs" of boys is not so much il
the character Of the rank and file a.
in that Of their leaders.
At any rate, there were concerned
in this incident two opposite types o
humanity,-the type which delights
in inficting pain and that which il
willing to suffer to prevent pain be
ing inflicted. It is likely that many
Of those who came to know about
did little thinking about the desir
ability of allowing the former type L
perpetuate itself 1t was a sort 0