The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-01
EVENING CHAT
By RUTH CAMERON.

There is ample room for many kinds of
people in the world. But there are mary
people who do not seem to realize that
fact.
Some weeks ago, wrote little article
,uirSlhg people to do what they could to
HSnten the burden and prevent the abuse
OF delivery horses. Several letter friends
kindly commended this, but one wrote
reDuk1nS me for wasting my space and
| sympathy on the delivery horses when
there are SO many poor, suffering children
IN the world who are surely more import
ant than soulless animals
Madame, your letter expresses an atti-
tude which have met many times, and
which always arouSeS my antagonisTil
Does the fact that there are so many
poor, SUFFERING children in the world need
TO prevent everybody from plying the
suHer1ngs of dumb animals? To be tender
to one form of suffering must one be cal
loUs to all other forms?
kIeOw a wealthy old man who gives
almost all of his charity money. towards
various schemes for alIeviating the suffer-
1ngs of dumb animals. He is often criti-
c1zed by people with my letter friend
viewpoint Just think of all the human
beings in the world who suffering .
they say, land he gives all his money for
cats and dogs and horses. It's outrag-
eous."
Now L can't see it that way at ALL 1t
seems to be a beneficent law of the uni
verse that some people should be sensitive
to one form of suffering and some to an
other There are other people who will
unfortunate fellow beings, who could,
nevertheless, unfeelingly drive away the
sh1Vering, starving, lost doggy that fawns
on them, or see nothing so very pitiful
in that gaunt skeleton of a horse, hitched
to a load that two strong young horses
tug at, and dashed on and on by brute of
a master, until he dies in the TRACES.
Folks like my wealthy old friend are the
balance for this kind of people and help
to make up symmetrical world.
Think how many charities and philan-
thropieS there are in the world. Is it
not we'll Shat there should be so many
different kinds of people to found and sup
port them? Is it not fortunate that one
man should be pitiful to the sufferings of
old people and give gladly to any scheme
to make them little happier, and that
another should feel for the blind ba bieS,
and another for the heather, and another
for cripples, and another for the dumb
doggies, and another for the fallen wo-
men, and a million others for almost as
many kinds of suffering and need?
I, for my part, am not against anyone
who is fighting to cure or relieve any
form of abuse or suffering. I'm for him.
His corner of the vision of responsibility
may not be mine, nor mine his, but are
both set toward the same great goal.
The only tragedy, the only failure, the
only culpability is not to have been soft
ened and taught by your own sufferings
to pity the sufferings of some other crea-
ture, animal or human being.
1 was greatly impressed by the following
sentence IN a letter from Harriet Beecher
Stowe to a friend, regarding the death of
the authoreSs' little boy.
lit was at his dying bed" she writes,
land at his grave, that 1 learned what
a poor clave mother may feel when her
child is torn away from her. In those
depths of sorrow which seemed to me i'm
measurable, it was my only prayer to God
that such anguish might not be suffered
in vain
How little in vain that suffering was,
millions of people know.
There is ample room for many kinds
of people in the world-the kind who pity
the horse and dog, the kind who want to
help the negro, the kind who love the
homeless children. The only kind of peo-
pie for whom there is not ample room is
the kind who have not been taught by
their own experience to be eager to help
some corner of the suffering of the world