Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-18
AS ONE WoMAN,sEEs IT
chlidren's Tales Teaching Kindness
to Animals Have Had Their Effect
on the Present Generation and
Cruelty No Longer Pieases
BY SARAH ID. LOwRIE

BY SARAH d. LowRIE
A WOODCHUCK and cottontail have
"A been having an eating contest as TO
which could eat up my garden first. A dog
got the woodchuck and my neighbours gun
got the rabbit. 1t was the rabbits fault
mat he got shot, for on his way to my
garden he stopped to take a nibbie at my
neighbor.s lettuce, and as the children we;e
not around to protest he was executed green
mouthed-so to speak. The children pro.
tested nightly when they heard OF the deed
DO vegetable garden was worth any Peter
Rabbit in their opinion.
Two generations Of kindly and humorous
tales about animals have made their actua.
deaths by trap or gun unpleasant hearing
70 the coming generation. The editor of a
cniidren's department in a weekly journal
told me that he had uneartheda n lot Of animal
sketches for children in one Of the first
volumes of Young Folks, a magazine that
preceded st. Nicholas some time in the
1S6Os. And as much Of the information
was exact and well told, he used the edi-
toriai scissors in order to reprint the
sketches. But on preparing them for the
coming editions OF his section of the paper
he was Mortified to find so much blood and
suffering in them. Their capture and death
were foregone conclusions at the hands Of
the enterprisinns boys who were the heroes
OF the tales, but 80 callous were the boys
and apparently the author and the antici-
pated readers Of the stories that every little
four: footed furry beast was n victim and
usually martyr. He realized no modern
child would like the boy trappers, and that
no modern mother would read the cruel
little details of their prowess aloud. So in
the end he could not use the stories, which
in his fathers youth would have seemed
as commonplace as motor accidents over a
holiday do to ours.
EWX-HUNTING still goes on and bull
= fights, and II an Irishman tells of the
fox hunt one reads the tale with pleasure,
because 1t Is about the mishaps Of the hunt
ers. Irappers, too, are still busy, and the
furs most Of US wenr without q thought 81
any cost, save that Of money, are procured
at the price Of suffering to the trapped or
captive animal, but we do not like to think
OF the tragedy involved and the details are
no longer fireside talk. and no longer Is
man, woman or child considered squeamish
or sentimental who dislkes the tales of
boodshed and broken bodies.
II Is this quality Of mercy" growingly
motive in our slow and halting progress
toward the goal of perfection that has made
the reaction from the war different from
the aftermath Of any previous war. It is
Why the men, who were brought up on Peter
Rabbit stories and Brer Rabbit stories and
were taught in their school books to despise
witch batting, to abhor the nquisition and
w bo ONtE tHt usHIUS OF martyrs
and the slaughter Of innocents, do not like
to review even among themselves the misery
inflicted.
I heard plenty Of logical and much lofty
as well as much illogical and sentimental
pacifst talk before America declared war,
but It does not touch the intensity Of the
present pacifst talk that is the common
place OF everyday conversation when men
OF affairs meet who were In the war up to
the hilt two years ago. In times Of peace
prepare for war Is no longer an unchal-
lenged axiom to these men Of the new school.
T WAS listening the other night to a pub.
Usher and several other persons Of af-
fairs discussing a book the publisher was
about to bring out sketching the outlines
of the discoveries made since the war III
the matter of destructive chemicals and
forces. The book apparently only outlined
the results Of the discoveries, since the dis
coveries are Government secrets both for
England and this country. 1t was known
apparently that what was being done by
scientists for these countries was not being
left undone by Germany, so that the sum Of
awfulness could only be vaguely surmised.
Certain things are known, however. and
are not secrets. A gas that can be set free
200 miles from the center of population II
is meant to decimate, which with weather
conditions that can be calculated for the
incredibly brief time necessary, can OBJ
literate all life over all the area 1t trayerses
before 1t has spent It's force; bomb dropped
from an airplane out Of sight that can
poison the air of a great city are some of
these acknowledged discoveries.
A ONE of the men said. 1--WE worship
"A bigness, mere bulk and height and
thickness in this country, but the real forces
Of life or Of destruction are without bulk
invisible In their potential forms to the eye
secret things half understood that can be
confined in a glass phial and yet can shake
a mountain from its place
The publisher gave the name Of a great
English scientist, who had been urged this
year by his Government to undertake the
stabilzing Of these terrible secrets 80 that
for the next war England could annihilate
the very populations of the countries at
tacking her IL they got her with her back
against the wall. l was interested in the
reaction to that mans answer to his Gov
They had all, as have intimated, been at :
tackers during the war in one way or an
| other, most Of them attackers of pacifists
as we'll as of Germany.
It appears the English scientist declined
| the great honor done him by the Govern
ment and refused to assume the RESPONSE
| bility Of Investigations Of chemical de-
structives, his stated reason being that his
| profession was that of conserver of life,
| not a destroyer.
What interested me was that no one of
| the late warriors seemed TO quarrel with
his choice or think him unpatriotic.
| T ASKED clergyman once what to his
i mind was the basic reason for the be
merciful' commandant enjoined by the
Founder Of Christianity. He called my at
/ fanA Al