26 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



repair this great national wrong ; and within tlie past twelve 

 years thirty-four States of the Union, recognizing the justice 

 and beauty of the example of New York, have incorporated 

 among their laws statutes almost identical with our own. I 

 wish you had the time and the patience to listen to my expe- 

 rience of the prejudice and opposition by which this merci- 

 ful movement was surrounded in its inception ; but this 

 may not be, and I must hasten to a conclusion. Cruelty to 

 animals is in itself bad enough ; but it becomes doubly so, 

 when Ave think of the direful moral consequences it inflicts 

 on the human race. I could occupy the whole day with illus- 

 trations, but will content myself by referring to one only. 

 About a year ago I received a letter whose composition and 

 orthograph}^ bespoke the writer to be a person of good educa- 

 tion and respectability, although poor. It was from a man 

 who said he occupied, along with his wife, the fourth floor 

 of a tenement-house, and their only companion and associate 

 was a cat, which had been allied to them by the ties of 

 friendship for many years. They being childless, loved this 

 speechless creature with real affection, which it returned 

 with almost human fondness. Upon the same floor, and in 

 the rear, the letter went on to say, there resided a cruel and 

 vindictive man, who had just thrown this unoffending animal 

 out of the window into the yard below, whereby its back 

 was broken, and it had died in consequence. " Now," said 

 the aflPected writer, — " now, Mr. Bergh, I address you this 

 letter, not so much in anger as in sorrow, to ask you to em- 

 ploy the legal authority you possess to make this man realize 

 the crime which he is guilty of, and for this reason : he has 

 a sick wife, whom he is in the almost daily habit of abusing 

 and beating; and I believe, if he was made to feel the 

 wrong he has done to his brute victim, his suffering wife 

 would reap the benefit." 



Yes, the practice of cruelty toward inferior creatures, no 

 matter how insignificant they are, is sure to re-act upon the 

 human family. Upon the platform where I have the honor 

 to stand, Mr. President, there are at this moment to be 

 found among the members of your honorable association two 

 gentlemen equally distinguished in their respective callings. 

 One is the intelligent citizen-soldier who has so ably ad- 

 dressed you this day, — Gen. Sargent; the other, the learn- 



