The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-06-07
.THH SPORT OF KILLING

In: this refined and sensitive age when
thousands Of otherwise reasonable persons
c;ritieize. the. soldiers. engaged in actual
warfare as cruel for doing the: very acts
that war; consists in--kiAing, manning,
tmprisoning, destroying property. retaliat-
ing-it is not to be wondered at that there
Is such a powerful and growing sentiment
against the unnecessary taking of life of
any kind. There is a large number of re-
fined persons who shudder at the thought
of5kilang any living thing flor sport. And
there are some, though fewer in number,
who are vegetarians not only because they
believe that vegetable dietais healthier
than one that includes meat, but because
they do not believe that man has right
to deprive any animal of it's lite that. he
may eat it's flesh There are others that
eat meat but cannot stomach it if they
are wildly reminded that they are con-
Stunning what was a living creature a few
hours or days before and was. butchered
for food. When so reminded they esteem
themselves little better than cannibals;
AS the interest in wild animal life
grows the desire to kill for the mere
pleasure of killing declines. The student
of birds and animals finds so many signs
OF intelligence in the creatures he observes.
so much to win his admiration, so much
to- elicit his sympathy, that he feels
sort Of relationship to them that makes
him feel almost as unwilling to kill one
Of them as to kill a man. Some persons
who would not think OF hunting with the
gun do not. object to the rod and line,
but now and then will be found super
spectacle Of wounded fish Hopping out it's
life in the bottom of a boat. A man has
been known to feel the keenest remorse
for killing a blackbird. A person who
had killed useless cur dog was, from
time to time, oppressed for years by the
recollection of his act Few boys grow to
manhood without painfully regretting the
birdnest robbing and the ruthless killing
| Of every wild thing that comes in their
way that is SO characteristic Of the boy
/ from ten to fifteen.
The hunting instinct is stronger in The
English speaking than in the. other civil
lied races. Some bitter critics have said
Of the Englishnfan that his highest con-
| ception Of pleasure is to go out and kill
something. Englishmen and Americans
travel around the world, penetrate to- the
| middleSof Africa, ascend dangerous noun
| tain slopes, risk starvation in the barren
lands and endure the EXTREMIST privations
for the sake OF shooting some particularly
rare or especially shy and elusive animal.
And when the end is finally attained, in
| what does it consist: Often I'M killing
| some unsuspecting animal with a deadly
bullet fred from ambussade. The animal
| rarely has either the ability or the OPP
portunity to take the offensive. His only
protection is In Hight or concealment Per-
| haps 1t Is because they realize that there
is SO little fair play in ordinary hunting
that some hunters despise all forms Of the
sport except those-such as tiger and lion
hunting In which there Is some element
Of danger to the hunter from the hunted.
It was In this spirit that the British sur
geon in South Africa, who had hunted
harmless apes on the very kopje where
some months later his regiment was fight
| ing Beers, felt, DIS he saw the enemy dodg-
| ing IN and out behind the rocks just as
the apes had before, saw them throw up
their hands now and again and fall as
the apes had, but saw his friends falling
around him likewise, that war is after all
the noblest form OF The killing sport-@the