Page images
PDF
EPUB

A

Sunday School Lesson.

KINDNESS TO ANIMALS.

BY DAVID MACREE.

"He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small :
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."-Coleridge.

I. Does God remember the birds and the beasts? Yes; "He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry."-Psa. cxlvii. 9.

2. What is said in the 104th Psalm? "He sendeth the springs . . . which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation which sing among the branches." Psa. civ. 10-13.

3. What is said about the grass? "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle." Psa. civ. 14.

4. What is said about places for the birds' nests? "The trees of the Lord are full of sap; trees which he hath planted, where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house."Psa. civ. 16, 17.

5. What did Jesus say about God's care for the birds?" Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.". Matt. vi. 26.

6. What does he say about the little sparrow?" Are not two sparrows sold

Photo by J. B. Beasley]

the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels."-Gen. xxiv. 19, 20

10.

Was the Sabbath rest to be for man only? No; it was to be also for the dumb creatures that work for him.

II. Repeat what is said in Exodus xxiii. 12. "Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest." See also Exod. xx. 9, 10.

12. What is said about not muzzling the ox? "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn."--Deut. xxv. 4.

14.

13. Were people to be kind only to the animals that belonged to themselves? No; they were to be kind also to those that belonged to others. What do we read in the 22nd chapter of Deuteronomy? "Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not; then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass."Deut. xxii. 1-3.

[graphic]

[Gt. Houghton, Northampton.

"SPRING-TIME.

for a farthing; and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."- Matt.

[blocks in formation]

He

8. What did Jacob say about the flocks? said, "The flocks and herds with young are with me; and if men should overdrive them one day all the flock will die. I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goes before me. be able to endure."-Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14.

9. What did Rebekah do after she had given a drink of water to Abraham's servant? "When she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for the camels also, until they have done drinking. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again unto

15. And what is said about a neighbour's beast that has fallen down?"Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him "If a

to lift them up again."-Deut. xxii. 4. 16. And what about bird's nests? bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young; but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days."-Deut. xxii. 6, 7.

17. What is said in Psalm 37th about the righteous? "The righteous sheweth mercy."

-Psa. xxxvii. 21.

18. What did Dr. Doddridge once say about a man's religion and his kindness to animals? He said, "I would not give much for the religion of a man whose very dog is not the better of it."

Jurs and their Wearers: A bady's Confession.

O show how blind one is to one's own failings, I am going to relate how my eyes were opened to my gross cruelty and inconsistency, at a time when I erroneously called myself an Animals' Friend! I was ill in London, and was for some time attended by a doctor whose name I have since seen printed in the Anti-Vivisection Society's 'black list" as a Vivisector. Having always been a very chilly mortal, with a weak circulation, I have been accustomed in the winter to envelop myself in fur cloaks, fur boas, etc., and never went out driving without a fur rug. To show to what lengths I went with regard to furs I blush to have to record the fact that at the time I received my lesson in compassion I possessed four sealskin coats, one long otter coat, boas made from every variety of fur, long fur-lined cloaks, sealskin capes, shoes and boots lined with fur, fur gloves, &c., &c., besides wearing on my head feathers taken from innocent birds.

All these badges of cruelty I wore with as little thought of how they were obtained as I should wear a lace scarf without troubling myself as to who made it. All this time I was a vile hypocrite! I blamed others for cruelty, I called myself a "lover of animals," and I was arrayed in clothing obtained by cruelties and barbarities quite equal in horror to those cruelties which our Victoria Street Anti-Vivisection Society tries to stop-cruelties practised by men in search of physiolo gical knowledge.

Behold a squirrel writhing in a steel trap caught by one poor little paw (so like a human hand in a fur glove), writhing and crying in agony, beating its soft nose and bright eyes against the cruel steel, for hours and hours, until when the trapper comes, the poor little creature is hardly to be recognised. Its tiny paw is swollen and bleeding, the flesh and sinews hanging in strings from the leg, leaving the white bone exposed, the nose and eyes bruised beyond description. All this suffered for hours at the instigation of woman, that she may strip a tiny piece of fur from the back of the innocent victim. What difference is there between the victim of this fur-clad woman and the victim of the Vivisecting doctor? The lesson administered to me by the doctor was as follows (such a few words, but they changed my whole way of living): One of my many fur-lined cloaks was lying on a sofa, he took it up, passed his hand over the soft fur-lining, and said simply "What a beautiful cloak, but it is lined with squirrels' furs. Poor little things! I wonder ladies like to have them killed; what hundreds must have been killed to line this one cloak!" He said it in a musing tone, did not

seem to blame me, and said goodbye,-but the lesson sank deeply into my soul.

I remembered that many animals, killed for their furs, are trapped. I remembered having seen a poor little being, in a steel trap, its face of agony, its beseeching eyes. I remembered another one released, which I had tried to nurse back to health, but which died miserably of gangrene. I shuddered when I thought of myself, so-called friend of the animals, paying out my money so that cruel brutal men might invade the happy homes of the woodland creatures; setting cunning traps to cause hours of agonised suffering to those merry little beings, the squirrels, with their quaint enticing ways. Of course if women did not wear furs, men would not kill the pretty little owners. It is only vanity which causes us to wear fur. It is so becoming! Cloaks with wadded and quilted linings are quite as warm and much

more healthy than fur cloaks. Since leaving off all my furs and boas I have had very many less colds and I can keep quite as warm with wadded garments. Of course I do not look so smart, but what of that? All who know me admire me for being consistent. Do let us be consistent! Do not let us blame the doctors for using animals in a cruel way, whilst we our. selves use them equally cruelly! The doctor has a better sounding excuse than we have. He says that he is trying to gain knowledge to benefit humanity. Woman alas! can only say, that she is pleasing herself, and trying to look smarter than her poorer sisters who cannot afford furs.

[graphic]

A REPENTANT SINNER.

N.B. My readers may say "What did you do with all your furs when your conscience forbade your wearing them? I sold all that I could, and gave the money to various Animals' Societies, the remaining furs I gave away. Some of the money went to our Victoria Street Society in the Anti-vivisection cause.

DO WOOD PIGEONS INJURE FARMERS CROPS? -A correspondent from the country writes :"I have to-day bought in the market a wood pigeon (a beautiful young female bird). I remarked to the farmer's wife of whom I bought it that it seemed a pity to kill the pretty creature. She replied You would not say so if you saw them eating our crops.' On preparing the bird for cooking I opened its crop, and in it I found four grains of barley, a few oats, and more than one hundred and fifty small snails, many of them yet alive. The poor bird had well earned the few oats she had eaten for destroying over 150 destructive snails at one meal."-Weekly Telegraph, Sheffield.

A Brave Fisher bad-An Appeal.

DEAR SIR,-You may be interested to hear the following act of heroism shown by a boy in saving the life of a cat. Bertie Griffiths, thirteen years of age, was got by me, as having no home, on board the Sooltan. He sailed from Leith about a month ago, on a Monday; on the Wednesday he fell from the rigging overboard, but

was saved by a rope thrown to him. On the Friday a storm came on, and the ship was wrecked off Yarmouth; the lifeboat saved the crew, twenty-six in number. They were nine hours in her, and it was bitterly cold. They jumped from the ship to the boat, but Bertie held firm in his arms the poor cat, and told me though he was so cold he kept pussie warm inside his jacket, and landed her safely in the shelter. When asked why he did not save his box instead he said "the cat had life." He is such a plucky boy that, nothing daunted, he is ready to be off to sea again, and is appointed

his only regret is that the Captain's beautiful Collie was drowned.-Yours faithfully, LISETTE HOGAN.

Gladwyn, Wrexham, December 14, 1896. We hope some of our readers may be able to help this poor but brave lad to a new outfit.

[graphic]

THE SHIPWRECKED CREW AND THE CAT.

to the Mooltan to sail at Christmas, but the sad part is the boy lost all his outfit, costing £7 10S. bed, etc., and now he must have a new one, and I feel sure many who love animals will help to get this boy his outfit. I enclose the photograph. Bertie is seen with the cat in his arms;

[ocr errors]

He is of the right stuff, and more worthy of his race than all the physiological experimenters bundled together. Remittances should be sent direct to Mrs. Hogan, who has, we believe, made herself responsible for the amount required.-EDITOR, A. F.

Regimental Pets.

"TOBY" OF THE GUARDS, AND THE CAT OF THE FORTY-TWA.

In his history of the Coldstream Guards, just published by Messrs. Innes and Co., Colonel Ross narrates how the regiment's pet dog Toby" amused himself and made the soldiers laugh by chasing the enemy's cannon balls that went rolling along the battlefield of the Alma. Man and dog, they took the deadly sport as cheerily as if it were a game at cricket. At that same battle, the Black Watch had a pet cat, christened, from its native land, Bulgarian Bell. After the fight began, Lieut.Colonel Wheatley asked where the cat was. You would have thought the gallant Colonel must have had something more serious to Occupy his mind. He must have been reassured when he saw Bell quietly watching the hurly-burly (perhaps purring over the same?) from her corner in a Forty-Twa man's haversack. Says Mr. Archibald Forbes, in his History of the Forty-Second (Cassell), "the man who carried the cat and took care of it was exempted by the company from fatigue

duties, his turn of carrying the company's kettles, and other drudgery." The FortySecond cat, probably the only cat, says Mr. Forbes, that ever went into action, died at Balaclava.

"PILCHER" AND "DONALD" THE DEER.

In the same book Mr. Forbes narrates the history of the two most famous pets of the Black Watch, the dog Pilcher, and Donald the deer. Pilcher was a brick. He was "severely wounded" at Quatre Bras, but "would not quit the field." He was in action at Waterloo. He marched with his glorious regiment to Paris, curling up his tail, you may be sure, to the music of the pipes. We suppose Pilcher must have known a Forty-Second man at sight-from his tartan, his red heckle, his general get up-if he did not know him personally. For if the Regiment chanced to be dispersed in detachments on duty in the old country, Pilcher would visit them all in turn. Though he was often long absent on tour, his

friends never felt uneasy about him. They knew he was paying his visits, and that sooner or later he would return to his headquarters. Donald, the deer, who first became known sixty years ago, always marched at the head of the regiment, alongside of the Sergeant-Major." The Dublin folk knew him well, the roughs especially, when they crowded the Forty-Second guard party's line of march to and from the Castle. A rush from Donald, head down, would have been as disagreeable as a bayonet charge; so the idlers kept out of his way. He had his likes and dislikes. He loved the Scots Greys, who gave him oats, and litter to make his bed with. He disliked the Bays, who, succeeding the Greys, stopped his oats and straw. So Donald "declared war against all Bays, whenever and wherever they approached him, till at last a Bay trooper could scarcely venture to cross the Royal Square without looking around to make sure that Donald was out of the way." In an evil hour Donald first tasted whiskey, and sherry. The habit grew upon him. Giving Donald liquor was declared punishable by fine. In the first forties, the Black Watch, leaving Ireland for Corfu, were forced to part with Donald. "It was really an affecting spectacle to see poor Donald overthrown, tied with ropes by those he loved so well, and put into a cart to be carried off. His cries were pitiful, and he actually shed tears--as, indeed, did some of his friends." Lord Bandon took charge of him, and put him into Bandon. But Donald "declined having any intercourse with either man or beast.. he harboured in out-of-the-way places to which no one could approach." He fell into dangerous habits, and poor Donald had to be shot.

Faithful Unto Death.

A poorly-clad, emaciated woman was found by a constable lying in an unconscious state on one of the seats of the Chelsea Suspension Bridge, apparently overcome by the cold. When the officer attempted to lift her a small Scotch terrier that was crouching beside her commenced to snarl and show his teeth, in the belief that some injury was going to be done to its mistress. The constable pacified it and put it under his cape to carry it to the station, whither he intended to go for assistance, but the little dog howled so piteously when taken away from the woman that the officer put it

back under its mistress's shawl. When he returned with help the woman was dead, and the little terrier had laid its body over her face in the vain attempt to keep her warm.-Daily Telegraph, Dec. 2nd, 1896.

A Dog's Sagacity.

At a special meeting of the members of the Amalgamated Society of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, held on Tuesday evening, December 8th, at the King Henry the Eighth, High Street, Lambeth, Mr. Harry Gosling, the general secretary of the

society, in the chair, a handsome silver collar was placed around the neck of a retriever dog known as "Roger," owned by Mr. W. T. Court, of Strood, in recognition of the sagacity it displayed in saving the lives of the captain and mate of the sailing barge Eliza, which foundered in Northfleet Hope on September 23rd last. The Chairman briefly related the circumstances. The barge sprung a leak while the two men in charge were asleep in the cabin. When the water began to flow into the hold the dog began to bark and to scratch at the cabin door. The men awoke to find that the barge was rapidly sinking. They were just able to reach a small boat at the stern, when the barge foundered. The silver collar had principally been subscribed for by the members of the sailing barge branch of the society, and was suitably inscribed.

Protecting Wild Birds.

At the Brentford Police-court, Mr. Montagu Sharpe, J.P., who is the Chairman of the Wild Birds' Protection Committee, representing the County Councils of the Home Counties, has asked the assistance of the Press in spreading a knowledge of the fact that the Home Secretary had issued an order still further extending the close time for wild birds in Middlesex. Under the previous regulation close time covered the period from February Ist to August 31st in each year, but under the present order there would be a close time all the year round for the following birds: Nightingale, goldfinch, lark, nightjar, woodpecker, kingfisher, cuckoo, owl, kestrel, buzzard, honey-buzzard, merlin, hobby, osprey, wryneck, swallow, martin, swift, bearded tit, shrike, magpie, wheatear, stonechat, whinchat, red start, flycatcher, sedge warbler, reed warbler, blackcap, garden warbler, wood warbler, willow warbler, chiff chaff, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, longtailed tit, nuthach, wren, golden-crested wren, wagtail, hawfinch, linnet, bunting, starling, landrail or corncrake, and coot. Mr. Sharpe added that the order had been issued at the request of the Middlesex County Council in consequence of the great slaughter of wild birds which had occurred at the end of the last period of close time. It would also enable justices to deal with cases of cruelty, which, in the past, they had only been able to recognize during certain months of the year. Only the other day some boys were brought before that Bench, and were proved to have caught certain wild birds, torn off their legs and wings, and roasted them alive. As these birds were not "domestic animals" the boys could not be punished for cruelty, and as it was not close time they were not in illegal possession of the birds. In future the magis

trates would be able to deal with such cases of brutal cruelty at any period of the year and they would be able to stop the destruction of the bird life of the country, which had been carried on ruthlessly in the past.

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

RESULT.-The Prize of Half-a-Guinea has been awarded to Mr.'SYDNEY H. BRIGHTMAN, 61, Redland Road, Bristol, for the Photo from which the above has been reproduced.

The Protection of Birds.

We read in the Anwalt der Thiere that in Riga the sale of singing birds, living or dead, is strictly forbidden; and the police are also instructed to prevent the catching of singing birds in the woods and gardens. These regulations are in force all the year round.

"Bibi."

In a delightful book entitled, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," recently published by Mr. Heinemann, we read of a sergeant of the engineers and a sapper, both French, and in charge of a railway and telegraph station on the river Bakoy in the French Soudan, who have caught and tamed a young hippopotamus. Bibi, for that is the name of their pet, with a discretion unlooked for in such an animal, spends the day in the river, so as not to interfere with his friends' occupations. They go to the bank when in want of amusement, and call "Bibi! Bibi!" Bibi's pink muzzle soon appears; he looks round for them with his little black eyes, and dripping and wriggling, runs up to be caressed.

Taught by the Poor Buddhists.
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Colombo, Ceylon, Nov. 5th, 1896. WO very touching scenes have been witnessed in the Fort, near the landing. place here, within the last few days. One was that of a sea turtle, which some Mahommedans had captured and taken for sale for the soup tureen of a hotel. That the animal was suffering was apparent from the manner in which it was carried about. The

Jui Rickshaw coolies-who, by the way, are Buddhist Singhalese, and who are located at their own "stand "-immediately resolved to relieve the suffering animal. Sending the hat round among the Rickshaw wallahs, a few rupees were collected, the ransom fee for the turtle was paid, and the animal was taken lovingly to the sea beach and there it was let free, amidst a joyous cry of "Sadhu." alas! the poor animal not being able to get far out into the sea, owing to its exhausted condition, was washed to shore later on, and was recaptured by some men of the British garrison, who made a "merry feast" of it.

66

But

The other scene was more touching than the turtle episode. It was the joyous thanksgiving twitter of several hundred wee paddy birds." These were caught in the country by a Christian and brought to town for sale-and the same fraternity of Rickshaw wallahs purchased the two big cages of these little birds with a small collection they made, and let them free on the Galle Face Esplanade. With a joyous "tweet-tweet" the wee little things disappeared in the air.

I say that the scenes were touching, considering the fact that the Rickshaw wallahs are ignorant coolies, without any education whatever! They profess to follow the Buddhist philosophy, and their knowledge of it is very meagre. "Parrot like," they will repeat the Buddhist precepts, one of which is to abstain from taking away "life." However, their " parrot like" knowledge has instilled into them a keen sense of mercy and love towards all living things, and moves them to be animals' friends! Compare these with the Mahommedan turtlemonger and the native Christian bird-catcher! Readers mine, draw your own conclusions !

« PreviousContinue »