The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-05-15

A mans nature is degraded by IN
dulgng in cruelty to animals. He loses
his manlinpss and acquires tue nature
of brutes He undcrgocs in his life
time the metamorphosis that the ori.
entails believe he suffers after death
In the far east there is 4 popular be.
lief held by multitudeS; 1t is Il belief
in the transmigration Of souls This
means, in popular interpretation. that
after man dies his soul passes into
or a lion and so lives on through the
coming ages. If he is Il mean man
then he becomes a mean beast Ike 4
jackal or Il hycnn. il Il good man then
his soul takes upon itself the form of
Il noble beast; but though in Christian.
lied America we do not believe in the
trdnsmigration of souls we may see
around us an analogous phenomenon.
When a man abuses 4 dumb brute he
is not punished by having his soul at
death pass into the body of jackal,
but he cakes on the character of those
cruel, bcstial 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 the meat was
made the swecter, he destroyed that
moral sensltivencsS which cnahled him
TO distinguish between right and
wrong. Every time boy transtixes a
fly with Il pin and then laughs to see
it wriggle and squirm in its death
agonics that boy is fitting himself to
become Il monster murderer and a
destroyer of men. Nero, the Roman
demon. became the inhuman monster
he was by first, as boy, learning TO
take pleasure in the suilcrings of his
nursery pets Every man takes upon
himself the heart Of savage animal
when he abuses the helpless dumb
brutes that God gave to him as dc
pendents.
Cause of Neral DeGeneracy.
What is today one of the chief causes
of tue moral and spiritual as well as
the temporal dcgcneracy of Spain? 1t
is without doubt due to the bcstial and
brutalzing tendencies Of the mcrciless
bulfight. When on the Sunday follow
ing Easter and on subsequent Sundays
the 1900 spectators gather about the
arena Of Seville or the 1900 watch
the arena Of Madrid ana the 1900 en-
circle Abe arena Of Valencia, they are
glorying in the vice which has been
the moral and spiritual death Of their
country These Spanish bullfights al.
ways take place on Sunday hecnuse
they are held to be the sacred national
game. A famous American Traveller
tells us that mt each bullhght between
six and eight Of the lcrcest kind Of
bulls ana from twenty to forty horses
are killed. The waving Of the red man
tics. tho shooting Of the darts, the are
ma soaked with blood, the screams OF
the dying horses dragging themselves
around. sometimes with their entrails
in full view of the excited p0pulace;
the mad charges of the enraged bulls,
combine to make scene Of horror in.
describablc and one which 1t is i'm.
possible for the civilized American to
fully grasp When the famous Francis.
go Romero dc l,undn taught the Span
ish people how to scientifically abuse
ana madden and torture to death a
four legged brute he made it possible
for the people themselves, by looking
upon such scenes of horror. to become
worse than brutcs No human being
can he unmcrciful to beast without
himself after awhile growing ncrci-
less in his dealings with his fellow
men.
Trained by Kindness.
The Humane Society of America. in
teaching man TO be kind to the dumb
brute has n second practical mission.
1t teaches that harshncss ana bitter
ness and cruelty do absolutely no good
in the training and the true suhjuga-
ton of an animal \ cruel master
never was able to get the best results
out of a horse. Blows and kicks and
cuffs only make a stubborn horse the
more stubborn and the balky animal
the moro set in his traces. never
learned this lesson in more impress
sve way than when passed two sum
mcrs almost within Il stones throw of
one of the best stock farms in this
country. What magnificent animals
those were, Racing horses were not
raised there, but the best blood for
carriage horses and roadstcrs Of all
sorts. Their clean limbs. their flash
ing eyes. their high strung, nervous
rcanization. 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 tie colts
had been allowed to run in the fields
for about three years, always. however,
being petted by their owners. they
We're ready fOr the harness. The first
day on which the bride was put upon
them n strap was fastened on the fore
hoof to teach Chem that they must
mind. That was ALL After the first
two or three days the horse learned
that il he plunged the strap would be
applied to raisc his forcfoot and keep
him on three legs. Having learned
the lesson he ceased TO plunge. and the
use of the strap was discontinued.