Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-05-12


means. in popular Interpretation, that
after a man dies his soul passes into
the body of dog or a cat or a horse
or n lion and so lives on through the
coming ages If he is a mean man
then he becomes q mean beast like a
iackal or a hycna, If good man then
his soul takes upon itself the form of
II noble beast; but though in Christian
tied America we do not believe in the
transmigration of souls we may see
around us an analogous phenomenon.
When Il man abuses Il dumb brute he
IS not punished by having his soul al
death pass into the body of n jackal,
but he takes on the character of those
cruel. bestial four legged Scavengers
of the desert. and he becomes one of
them in his nature. Every time the
old Mexican skinned a lamb alive,
thinking that thereby tho meat was
made the swccter. he destroyed that
moral constituencies which enabled him
to distinguish between right and
wrong. Every time boy transtixcs IA
fly with Il pin and then laughs to see
it wrigglc and sQuirm in its death
agonics that boy is fitting himself to
become a monster, Il murderer and Il
destroyer of men. Nero, the Roman
demon, became the inhuman monster
he was by first, as a boy, learning to
take pleasure in the suifcrings of his
nursery pets Every man takes upon
himself the heart of n savage animal
when he abuses the helpless dumb
br,ltes that God gave 10 him as de
pcndents.
Cause of Moral Dcgcncrncy.
What is to-day one of the chief causes
of the moral and spiritual rs well as
the temporal dc@Cncracy of Spain? 1t
IS without doubt due to the bestial and
brutalizing tendencies of the mcrciless
hullight. When ON the Sunday follow
ing Easter and on subsequent Sundays
the 11,oDO spectators gather about the
arena of Seville or the 1900 watch
the arena of Madrid and the 1000 on
circle the arena of Valencia, they are
glCI! iul; in the vice which has been
the moral and spiritual death of their
country. These Spanish hulltights al
ways take place on Sunday because
game. 4 famous American traveller
tells 1ls That at each bullhght between
six and cigh. of the ferccs: kind Of
bulls and from twenty to forty horses
are killed. The waving of the red man
ties, the shooting of the darts. the are
IN soaked with blood. the screams of
the dying horses dragging themselves
or wit lie
in fui, view of the excited populace
the mad charges of the cnragcd bulls
combine to make scene of horror in
dcScribabi. and one which it is i'm
possible for the civilized american to
fully grasp When the famous Francis
co Romero de Runda taught tine Span
iSh people how 10 scientifically abuse
and madden ana torture to death
four legged hrut" he made ii possible
for the people themselves. by looking
upon such scenes of horror to become
worse than blutcs No human heiug
can he unmcrcifu t. a beast without
himse,. after awhile growing merci
less il his dealings with his fellow
men.
Trained by Kindness
The Humane Society of America. in
teaching man to be kind to the dumb
Nrutc. has second practical mission.
II teaches that harshncss and bitter
ness and cruelty do absolutely no good
In the training and the true subjuga.
ton of an animal. A cruel master
never was able to get the best results
ont of a horse. Blows and kicks and
cuffs on make a stubborn horse the
moro stubborn and the balky animal
the more set in his traces. never
/ learned his lesson in more impress
/ sive way than when passed two sum
mcrs almost within a stones throw Of
one of the best stock farms in this
country What maguitccu, animals
those were. Racing horses We're not
raised there, but the best blood for
carriage horses and roadsters Of all
sorts. Their clean limbs. their flash
ing eyes. their high strung. nervous
organization. made those animals the
pride of almost every stable they en-
tered. Yet the whip was never used
upon them. They were trained almost
entirely by kindness. After the colts
/ had been allowed TO run in the fields
for about three years, always, however
being pcttcd by their owners. they
were ready for the harness. The first
day on which the bride was put upon
them a strap was fastened on the fore
hoOf to teach them that they must
mind. That was all. After the first
two or three days the horse learned
that if he plunged the strap would be
applied To raise his forefOot and keep
him on three legs. Having learned
the lesson he ceased to plunge, and the
use Of the strap was discontinued
Then these colts We're quietly hitched
by the sides of the older horses and
driven out to pillow. The drivers nev-
or jcrked them, but always talked
kindly 10 them and coaXcd them And
though those horses seemed to have
within them al the pentup ambition OF
Jobs wnr charger, smelling the bat
tie from afar," yet in the hands OF
their kind masters they became gentle,
lovabIe ard dociie
Power OF Gcntlcncss.
An old. grumpy, dyspeptic philos-
Ophcr once said, THE more | see Of
me the better ] like dogs" That is
not ny idea. But the more | see OF