The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-02-13

carry an injunction to so far regard the
lives OF animals as not to wantonly
sacrifice them?
In a leading religious paper OF late
date is q very Interesting article en-.
titled, Vacation yagrancy.', 1t appears
that h people had gathered from far
and nearsto a Decoration day celebra-
ton and after the formal services were
concluded, betook themselves to pleas
ure seeking. The writer then says:
we went to the lake. a whole train
load OF us. The leader OF our Bap-
list contingent had engaged boats by
telephone q few days before. Many
who had not been so thoughtful had no
access that afternoon to the sea of
glass mingled with Are
THAT was my first lesson. Shall it
be so up there before the Great White
Throne?' Every duty done now is an
order for a divine delight them. Every
dalliance now means a deprivation
then. We are forever sending ahead OF
us the specifications for our great a
OF rest.
We shall moi soon forget the rest
fulness of that afternoon. The SPLEEN
did fishing, SO abundant as to compel
the most awkward angler to catch his
quota Of ~croppies, pearch and sunfish."
These good folks We're only thought
less-and they represent the large ma-
Jority of is. But frankly. looking at
1t apart from the exhilaration of a fish
ing excursion with pleasant company,
does it not seem homogeneous to think
of appearing before h Great White
Throne" in the. presence of that God
without whose loving care no SPAR
row comes to the earth. and then at
once dashtng into a delightful descrip--
ton of a ~"dalliance," the pleasure of
which consists largely In the numbering
Of Gods innocent creatures? The fault
is not with the, ingenious writer, but
with ourselves that the facts so easily
lend themselves to relations Of this
kind.
When the Ash or other creatures are
taken for food it is very different, but
the character OF such a as
that described and probably the quail
ity of the fish indicate that the angling
Twas sport-pastime.
1t is argued by many that fish do not
feel pain. Even We're this true we have
no right to wantonly deprive them of
the life which is certainly pleasure. !
nave known men, and women too, take
speckled beauties from the brook and
rainbow lints upon the scales as the
fish struggle in expiring agony! Bryon
says:
Parting day
Imbues with a new color al 1t gasps
away;
The last still loveliest till it's gone,
And all is grey
1t cannot be predicated of fish that
they do not suffer. and they may we'll
cry out as Shylock did to the Chris
tians. III you prick us, do we not
bleed?"
Cowper says:
IAN inadvertent step may crush the
snail
That crawls at evening. in the public
path,
But he that has humanity forewarned,
Will tread aside and let the reptile
live"
But what shall we say Of those who
in sheer wantonness tread aside from
their way and take pleasure in depriv-
ing harmless creatures of life?
Is 1t not a relic of barbarism-of
savagery-akin to that detestably muir
derous disposition which leaves the
bones of the last buffalo whitening
upon the plain, which rounds up a
promiscuous lot Of wild animals. n
while the poor creatures are trembling
with fright. shoots them down IN cold
blood, which despoils the waters OF
their beauty and the woods of their
song, and is unhappy unless engaged In
killing something?
What a fine spirit is that which has
it's expression in the poets words:
II would not enter on my list OK friends,
Though graced with polished manners
and fine sense
Yet wanting sensibility-the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm"
one or Great bIitaiH
statesmen, having, when a boy, been
presented with a gun, his father took
him into the copSe to shoot something.
The boy carried his gun at the ready
and the father soon said, There's a
partridge-shoot," and bang went the
shot. The bird fell but was not killed,
and as the boy went up, it fiuttered
through the grass to it's nest where her
chicks-just about ~fedged-saw their
poor mother put her breast against the
side of the wee bit housie" and give
up her life. Throwing the gun down,
the boy, with tears in his eyes, turned
to- his father and vowed that he would
never shoot again.