Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-05-14


brute inevitably paves the way for in
Justice against the dumb brutc's mas
Ter. IL a boy delights Ia torture Il dog
or II cat or Il mouse. there will surely
come time when that boy. grown into
n man. will delight in torturing his fell
low beings.
4 mans nature is degraded by in
dulging in cruelty to animals. He loses
his manlincss and acquires the nature
of brutcs. He un,icrgoes in his life
time the metamorphosis that the ORR
entails believe he suffers after death.
In the far east there Is Il popular be
lief held 10y multitudcs; il is n belief
In the tranSmigration of souls. This
means. in popular Interpretation. that
after a man dies his soul passes into
the body of ~ dog or cat or horse
or a lion and so lives on through the
coming ages. II he is a mean man
then Inc becomes n mean beast like a
jackal or n hycna. IL n good man then
his soul takes upon itself the form of
n noble beast: but though in Christian
lied America we do not believe i'm the
transmigration of souls we may see
around us an analogous phenomenon.
When n man abuses n dumb brute he
Is not punished 10y having his soul at
death pass into the body of a jackal.
but he takes on the character of those
cruel. beStial four "d s,glvcngers
Of the desert. and Il. becomes one of
them in his nature. Every time the
old Mexican skinned lamb alive.
thinking that thereby the meat was
made the sweeter. he destroyed that
moral sensitivcness which enabled him
TO distinguish between right and
wrong. Every time n hoy transfiXes a
fly with II pin and then laughs 10 see
II wriggle and squirm in its death
agonics that boy is fitting himself TO
become monster. a murderer and Il
destroyer of men. Nero. the Roman
demon. became the inhuman monster
he was by first. rs a boy. learning 10
take pleasure i'm the sufferings of his
nursery pets. Every man takes upon
himself the heart of savage animal
when he abuses the helpless dumb
brutcs that God gave TO him as de
pendents.
Cause of Moral Degeneracy.
What is today one of the chief causes
of the moral and spiritual as we'll as
the temporal degeneracy OF Spain? II
Is without doubt due To the bestial and
brutalizing tendencies of the merciless
bullfght. 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 and the 1900 en-
circle the arena of Valencia. they are
glorying in the vice which has been
the moral and spiritual death of their
country. These Spanish bulliights al
ways take place on Sunday because
they are held 10 be the sacred national
game. A famous American traveller
tells us that ut each bulliight between
six and eight of the tiercest kind Of
bulls and from twenty to forty horses
are killed. The wavin. of the red man
ties. the shooting of the darts. the are
ma soaked with blood. the screams of
the dying horses dragging themselves
around. sometimes with their entrails
i'm full view of the excited populace:
the mad charges of the enrage,l bulls.
combine 10 make Il scene of horror in
describable and one which il is i'm
fully grasp When the famous Francis
90 Romero de Runda taught the Span
ish people how To scientifically abuse
and madden and torture to death a
four legged brute he made il possible
for the people themselves. by looking
upon such scenes Of horror. to become
worse than brmtes. No human being
can he unmrrciful To u beast without
himself after awhile growing mcrci-
less in his dealings with his fellow
men.
Trained by Kindness.
The Humane Society Of America. in
teaching man To he kind To the dumb
II teaches that liarshncss and bitter
ness and cruelty do absolutely no good
in the training and the true Subiuga-
ton of an animal. \ cruel master
never was able Ia get the best results
out of II horse Blows and kicks ami
cuffs only make Il stubborn horse the
more stubborn and the balky animal
the more set in his traces. | never
learned this lesson in u more impress
sive way than when I passed two sum
mers almost within II stones throw of
one of the best stock farms in this
country. What magnificent animals
those We're. Racing horses We're 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
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 10y their owners. they
were ready for the harness. The first
day on which the bride was put upon
them 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