The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1905-01-13

popular actress, is heading cru
sade having for its object the
more humane treatment of cattle
shipped by rail from the range to
the stock yards and slaughter
houses. AS Mrs. Fiske is too
popular to need the services of
the stolen diamond and ''di-
vorce' press agent, we are quite
certain that she is i'll earnest in
this matter, and we hasten to con-
graduate her upon her interest in
the physical comfort of our dumb
animals.
There is certainly room for vast
improvements i'll the methods
now i'll vogue among cattle ship
pers. The poor beasts are al
[lowed to freeze or suffocate, ac-
cording to the weather, and en-
dure the pangs of hunger and
thirst for manv weary hours.
Much of this could be obviated
by a little care and thoughtful
ness, and it seems STANCE that it
should remain for an actress to
take steps looking towards an i'm
provement i'll present methods.
One would naturally think that
the humane societies should take
the lead
But while congratulating Mrs.
Fiske upon her regard for the
dumb cattle Of the range, we
rather opine that a greater work
lies right at her own door. Whi1e
Mrs. Fiske is shedding tears over
the cruelty inflicted upon cattle,
tens of thousands of women and
children are starving and freez-
ing within radius of five miles of
her own palatial New York resi-
dence Over $4,000 children in
New York City are deprived of
schooling because the is not adc-
quate facilities i'll that city. Has
Mrs. liske ever shed any tears
because of this deplorable fact
While she is bemoaning the fate
of the range steers has size eyer
given thought to the misery
and squalor all about her? Has
she ever headed a crusade to do
away with the horrors of the
New York sweat shop?
If Mrs. Fiske wants to Sc mis-
cry in all its horrors, let her go
over on the East Side and spend
few hours in the tenement
blocks where dozens of men, wo-
men and children eat, sleep and
work in single rooms that have
no outside openings, and which
are lighted by flaring gas jets day
and night Let her study the
pinched and starving faces Of
widowed mothers as they bend
over their sewing machines for
eighteen hours day, striving to
earn the scant pittance doled out
by the sweat shop employer. Let
her interview the thousands Of
hopeless women who have, as a
last resort. sol! their bodies and
souls. ior the crusts that not even
the pes dogs and cats in the Fiske
mansion would deign to touch.
Let Her gaze upon the babies
slowly starving to death as they
tug at the barren breasts of de-
spairing mothers. Let her inves-
tigate all the miseries and hor-
rors and heartacles of the thous-
ands of human beings in her own
home city, and if she really has a
wonanly heart in her bosom she
will not give all of her sympath
les to the maltreated cattle ship
ped from range to slaughter
house.
There are scores and hundreds
of children in New York City to-
day that suffer far more than any
steer that ever grazed upon a
western range Their are women
in New York City today who
daily undergo more OF physical
Ito say nothing of mental-su
fering than any western steer ever
endured, be the weather ever SC
incleme1t.
Not for worlds would we put
a stick or stone in the way of any
effort to reform the present meth
DDS Of shipping cattle. But when
we see some one like Mrs. Fiske
paying all her humane attention
to dumb brutes and none at all
to sufferin..e humanity, we recall
the words Of tile Nazarene wher
he talked about the sparows. One
hungry and freezing child is
worth more than all the steer:
that ever ate grass. Then why SC
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