Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-02-14

lives of animals as not to w%antonly
sacrifice them?
In q leading religious paper OF late
date is Il Very interesting article en-
titled, Vacation Nagrancy.' II appears
that the people had gathered from far
and neal to a Decoration day celebra-
ton and after the formal services We're
concluded. betook themselves to pleas
urc seeking. The writer then says:
we Went to the lake. Il whole train
load of us. The leader of our Bap-
list contingent had engaged boats by
telephone a few days before. Many
who had not been so thoughtful had no
access that afternoon to the sea of
glass mingled with fire
THAT was my first lesson. Shall it
be SO up there before the Great White
Throne. Every duty done now is an
order for Il divine delight then. Every
dalllance now means a deprivation
then. We are forever sending ahead of
us the specifications for u great day
of rest.
We shall not 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 were only thought
less-and they represent the large ma
jority of us. But frankly. looking at
1t apart from the eNhilaration of Il fish
ing excursion with pleasant company,
does it not seem homogeneous to think
of appearing before the Great White
Throne i'm the presence of that God
without whose loving care no a
row comes to the earth. and then at
once dashing into a delightful descrip-
ton of Il "d~alliance." the pleasure of
which consists largely in the numbering
of Gods innocent creatures? The fault
ic NOT with tho inoarnn1c N-riter h11f
with ourselves that the facts so easily
lend themselves to relations of his
kind.
When the fish or other creatures are
taken for food 1t is very different. but
the character of such a company as
hat described and probably the quail
ity. of the fish indicate that the angling
was sport-paStinle.
1t is argued by many that fish do not
feel pain. Even We're this true we nave
no right to wantonly deprive them of
the life which is certainly pleasure. /
have known men, and women ~ take
speckled beauties from the brook and
throw them up on the bank to see the
rainbow lints upon the scales as the
fish struggle i'm expiring agony, Bryon
says
Parting day
Dies like a dolphin whom ZACH pang
Imbues with Il new color as 1t gasps
away;
The last still loveliest till tbs 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. IF % prick us, do We not
bleed?"
Cowper says:
AN ~inadvertent step may crush the
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 it not a relic Of barbarism-of
savagery-akin to that detestably muir
derous disposition. which leaves the
upon the plain, which rounds UP a
promiscuous lot of wild animals. and,
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
its expression in the poets words:
II would not enter on my list CO friends.
Though graced with polished manner
and fine sense
Yet wanting sensibility-the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm
One of Great Britain's foremost
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 its nest where her
chicks-just about fiedged-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.