The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-18
KINDNESS TO ANIMALS
A Correspondent Thinks 1t Should Be
Impressed on the Young.

Boys who torture dogs and cats are
naturally cruel and should be punished.
HaZing at college is another form of
cruelty to animals.
I have received a letter from one of
the officers of the Humane society ask
ing that sometime in this department
the subject of humane education of the
children be taken up and a word said
for the protection of birds. This is an
excellent subject for the spring-if it is
spring, 1t ought to be labeled-When the
birds are coming into their own and
the world about us is being born again.
Cruelty among children is so incom
prehensible to me that / am almost in
clned to consider it a disease and born
in some unfOrtunates. The child that
would torture bird, insect, dog, cat or
any other animal must be naturally
cruel, and the best one can do is TO
punish and try to train the young mind
to realize the enOrInity of the offense.
Boys are apt to be more cruel than
girls, an original idea for which 1 Will
charge nothing. Once in a While we
see some misguided boy swing a cat by
its tail, or torture a dog, and it makes
the blood boil While we wonder how far
the boy is responsible and how far his
bringing up is TO blame. Many the
mother who has secretly Wept bitter
tears to find that her son is naturally
of a cruel disposition and seems to en-
JOY inflicting pain upon animals. She
scOlds him, Furnishes him, talks to him
sternly of the enormity of his offenses,
but all the time she pOnders in her
heart upon the sources of his instincts
and wonders whether some of the FAM
lily ancestors were cruel folk and had
sent down a dreadful heritage to their
descendants.
Surely the little boy who delights in
torturing animals, or even boys who are
smaller than he, becomes the young
man who is the greatest hazer in col
lege, and viii pour cold water down
the back of the new student with glee
and do other absurd and reprehensiDle
things which are considered very clever
by other young men. 1t is difficult to
find words severe enough to condemn
young men who will torture or frighten
raw scholars at colleges to break them
in, although the young men who in
dulge in these ridiculous and wicked af-
fairs are much hurt if anyone tells
the truth about them. There is a great
deal of nonsense talked about college
graduates, and a very absurd Senti-
mentality wasted on q man who hap
pens TO be college man." Education
is very desirable and a college man will
always command some attention, but
there are excellent and learned men
who never saw the inside of one, and
some very stupid ones who graduated
with hcnors
If mothers and fathers would start
in early and impress upon young minds
that there is nothing worse than caus-
ing unnecessary pain upon people or
animals, much might be done for hui
name education. The subject of the
protection of birds is now being agi-
tated and urged in schools, and should
be brought up frequently at home The
robbing of bird nests is a particular
delight to the infant masculine mind,
and it is difficult 20 persuade 49, q
boy to give up the practice. It would
be well for the father to step in and
threaten to punish severely the boy
who INDUCES in this cruel paStime, for
alas, mothers are not always taken as
seriously as they might be by young
men. 1t is strange, but true, that a
son can persuade his mother into be-
lieving that the sun goes round the
earth, so gullible is she in regard to
the reliability of her hopeful. About
the only thing to do with cruel boys
is to give them the sort of medicine
they administer to others. Stray cats
are the delight of cruel boys; in New
York some humane folk have taken the
matter in charge, collect the cats and
give them as painless a death as pos
sible, which is much better than allow
ing them to roam the streets and fall
into the hands of cruel street boys.