Chapter XVI

One year Master and I spent in the city. He was supplying the place of a friend in the profession, who was sick and had gone abroad.

I saw a good deal of life there, but dark as some of the pictures were, they had in some instances their bright side. In this city a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, had lately been started, and, though people generally did not give it much countenance, there were still a few brave, humane men and women who dared to speak for those who could not speak for themselves; who dared to do right despite the sneers and jeers of the world.

We dumb animals have reason to thank the Creator that He made a few like these. Horrible cruelties had gone uncensured in this city before. Animals had died for lack of food and water, others had been cut and mangled by trains and left to die by inches, lesser creatures had been openly tortured to death, and beasts of burden had been kicked and pounded to death on the streets.

Perhaps a month had elapsed, after we were settled there, when, as Master drove leisurely down one of the principal thoroughfares, he noticed a crowd gathered on a corner just ahead. Coming closer we beheld a mule lying on his side, attached to a heavy load of coal. Blows and kicks were falling fast on his head and body.

"Get up, you lazy brute! get up, I say! don't try any of yer tricks on me," and then there were more blows, kicks and curses.

The crowd grinned and seemed amused. Springing from the cart, Master asked a boy to hold me, and elbowed his way to the side of the driver.

Touching him on the arm, he said gently, but firmly: "Don't strike again; there is something wrong here or the creature would get up and go on."

"He's jest cussed lazy!"

"Let me handle him."

With that Master stooped down and stroked the mule's face gently, speaking in a kind, encouraging tone.

Presently when it found it had a friend, it began to struggle to its feet, succeeding at last in standing upright. Then Master began to examine the harness, which was old, stiff and full of knots.

"If you would grease this harness until it is soft, and take more pains in mending it, your dumb servant would thank you for it," he said. At that moment he noticed that when he touched the collar the animal flinched and his fore-leg trembled. Lifting that part of the gearing, there was revealed a spot as large as the hand of a twelve-year-old child, all raw and bleeding.

"No wonder, sir, the poor thing could not draw this heavy load, with such an affliction as that," the doctor said, almost angrily.

"It wasn't so bad this mornin'," the man answered, "and anyway that ain't much of a sore to use a mule up."

"A mule, my man, has just as much feeling as you or I. If you think you would be willing to pull right along, enduring the torture he is enduring, then there is some excuse for you working him, but, if you don't, then there is not. God made these creatures to serve us, but he made us intending we should be just and kind to them."

Then he took a silk handkerchief from his pocket, folded and put it over the bruise under the collar.

"Now," said he, "a few of us will push until we get this load well started, and you may take it a little way, wherever you can leave it, and then you must promise not to use the mule again until his shoulder is thoroughly healed, and to pad and fix that collar and harness."

"See here, now, Mr. Whoever-you-be, this yer mule is mine, and I don't have to promise no stranger nothin'."

"Oh, well, if that is your game, all right. I meant to be easy with you, but, if you prefer, I will have you arrested and fined at once."

"Fined! great blazes, ain't that mule my own, and hain't I a right to cut him into sarsage if I want to?"

The crowd (part of it) laughed, but the rest watched Master earnestly.

"Maybe you have not heard, my good fellow, that there exists in this city to-day a society for the prevention of such abuses as this; and that it has power from the State to arrest, try and fine you for the deeds you have just committed. In the first place, you used the animal when he was unfit for service, and, in the second place, you kicked and pounded him. Unless you promise the two things I mentioned, and this one added, that you will be kind and humane in your treatment hereafter, I will complain of you at once."

"But I don't b'lieve there is such a s'ciety; leastway, I've allers used my critters as I pleased 'nd nobody's meddled before."

"Exactly, and that is the reason the society has been founded; there are too many like you who use dumb animals as if they were made of granite instead of flesh and blood like ourselves. However, if you don't believe what I say I will prove its truth at once."

"Wall, you look like a man as knows what he's talkin' about; anyway it's kind of you to tuck that fine handkerchief in there. I'll promise."

"Keep the handkerchief as a sign of your promise," said Master; "now, boys, let's all lend a hand."

It only took a few minutes to get the cart to the top of the up-grade, and after that the mule walked slowly but readily off. Master kept him in sight, however, until he saw him unhitched and led away.

Another day we met a man driving a horse that limped very badly. Master pulled up and spoke to him. The fellow was about half drunk and very ugly.

"Mind your own business; this brute belongs to me," was the leering answer.

"No matter who it belongs to, it is unfit for travel. You can either drive at once to No. 12 T---- alley, where a veterinary will examine it free of charge, or you will be arrested on charge of cruelty to animals."

The man began to curse and whip the horse.

"Hold on, sir, every blow you strike will increase your fine or term of imprisonment."

The fellow paid no heed, and Master signaled a policeman, who put him under arrest. I learned afterward that he was fined twenty dollars and costs, besides losing the use of his horse for many weeks and having to pay for its board during the time. The treatment was given free. A little later Master obtained a policeman's star for himself.

(It is quite common in cities for the humane detectives to wear their star under a civilian's coat.)

He engaged actively in the work all the year, reporting a hundred cases or more. For the benefit of persons who think such a society unnecessary, and who imagine there are few cruelties being perpetrated on the dumb creation, I will mention a few of the cases where Master interfered.

A woman scalded a dog until his hide peeled off his back; a man got angry at a neighbor and shut the latter's dog in a cellar until the poor animal starved to death; two young fellows raced their horses until one horse dropped and had to be shot, and the other was practically ruined; a drunken man drove a horse ten miles with a dislocated knee; a jockey drove a horse a mile with one hoof torn off; another disemboweled his horse with spurs; three men, in fits of anger, cut pieces from horses' and mules' tongues; another shot a mule and went away without waiting to see if it was dead, and it was found alive two days after; a colored man overloaded his team, and when they were unable to start the load he buried an axe in the shoulder of each; dozens were arrested for driving lame and galled horses, several for using unshod animals on the ice; four blacksmiths for inhumane treatment of horses they were shoeing; two men for leaving cows and calves unprotected until they froze; some for underfeeding domestic animals; a number of butchers were fined heavily for rough and inhumane treatment of animals to be slaughtered, such as punched their eyes out and the like.

Then there were countless cases, not on record, where kindly advice induced people to be more humane, and I heard Master say that he had spent two hundred dollars out of his own pocket for horse-blankets, new collars, easier bits, etc.

And now, if there is any evidence lacking to convince the indifferent and skeptical of the need of humane societies and brave men to work, I wish they might hear some of the tales of woe and abuse that were repeated to me that year while boarding at a city livery barn.

I remember one handsome pair of imported Arabian horses that were stalled one night there.

To look at them, I suppose they were proud and happy, but they said they were neither, they had had to leave their own homes, and be brought across the ocean; and through all that dreadful voyage, they said, they had been obliged to stand up. The swaying of the vessel made them dreadfully sick, and every cord and muscle in their bodies was strained. They were very home-sick, and neither the climate nor the food agreed with them.

At another time a noted race-horse was there, "Queen of the Turf," they called her.

She said she would willingly exchange places with an old cab horse. So much was expected of her, and she was too proud to fall below her record.

"But, oh," she said, "it is a hard life. I long for some freedom and real rest, but it is all training or care. I hate the race-course!"

And here, for the first time in my life, I saw horses wearing the over-draw check, and going about with tails and manes cut off.

It all seems so unnaturally inhuman, that, even yet, I think sometimes I must be dreaming.