New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-11-04

With i illustrations by MeSsrs. W. J.
Horton and H. NJ. Brock, Y. I. l2mo,
pp. 1865. Henry Holt & Co.
Nr Haggard leads a happy life.
When he is not writing the delightful
romances which everybody reads he is
busy among his flowers and his crops
Nature. indeed, means more to him than
books. The present little volume shows
that his life close TO the earth has made
him generously thoughtful of beast and
bird. One would have supposed him to
be an ardent sportsman, after the fash
ion of his fellow squires, but it is to be
inferred from THE Mahatma and the
Jare" that if he has ever filled that role
h has latterly experienced a change Of
heart. At all events, this is a powerful
argument against the slaughter of ami
mails for fun.
The dream in which it had its origin
followed the authors reading of couple
of items in the daily press. both describ-
ing the hunting and killing of a hare.
AS he awoke the phantasy took shape in
his mind, and, with his accustomed lite
airy art. he has made out of it a very
persuasive and touching composition.
Tn, supposititious narrator is saved from
suicide by the intervention OF one hav-
Ing supernatural knowledge. He comes
to share in his rescuer's gift of peering
through the veil that separates life from
death, and from time TO time he is priv
legged to gaze upon the figures who pass
from the grave along the Great White
Road which leads TO eternal happiness
ON that road he sees only human beings
until. for once, an animal passes. a pitt
full little hare. He here tells the hare's
story. II is full of pain. From the be-
ginning the poor creature has to reckon
with the blood thirst Of men and dogs
1t sees its own parents killed in agoniz-
ing circumstances, and, though for long
it escapes its enemies, the time at last
comes for it to be coursed and to fall
into the jaws of the hounds. TO get
away from the latter it has leapt into
the sea, but the hand of man has saved
it from drowning and flung it upon those
crashing teeth.
All this is, as we say, painful and even
horrible but the sympathy which tie
ia awakes i'm the reader is even more
seriously played upon when, in the last
chapter, the Red Faced Man, who had 30
often pursued the hare, himself travels
along the Great White Road and the two
meet. There the argument between man
and the object of his sport is thrashed
out When the hare complains of hay
/ ing been thrown living to the pack, the
man retorts that he and his kind have
dominion over the beasts, and cites the
Book Of Genesis. The dialogue thus con-
tinucs:
Il never heard Of tho Book Of Genesis, -"
said the Hare, but what does dominion
mean? Does this Book of Genesis say that
it means the right to torment that which
is weaker than the tormentor|
"Ali you ANIMALS Were made for us 10
eat" commented the Man. avoiding an an
swer TO the direct question.
VERY good answered the Hare, ''let us
euppose that we tCere given you 10 eat
Was il in order 10 eat me tlat you came
out against me with guns, then with dogs
that run by sight. and then with dogs that
III You were 10 be killed and eaten, why
should you not be killed in one Of these
why should ! be killed in those ways.
Man. when others more merciful were To
YOUR hand? Indeed, why should | be killed
a. aIl5 Moreover. n you wished TO satisfy
Your hunger with my body. why at the
last was I thrown to the dogs 10 deyour?''
Il don't quite know; Hare Hare Never l7s9k COKE
a. T. " got YOU now ne added triumph
amfly' NJ II hadn't been for me you never
would have lived. You see I gave you
hiinS Won should be very much Obliged
10 me Don't you understands pre-,
served hares. so that without ne YOU would