A REFORM NEEDED. 



cultivated portions of Europe prevail, the civilization is at so low an ebb in this res 

 pect, that hogs and cows have free range of the streets — that droves of fat cattle and 

 sheep are driven through the streets at mid-day, and hardly a month passes by that 

 the newspapers do not record accidents to women and children — gored or trampled 

 upon in the very park in front of the city-hall itself. All over the country the condi- 

 tion of things is little or no better. In Washington, droves of cows and hogs, by 

 hundreds, ramble at will over the open unimproved grounds about the city — in almost 

 every town the traveler stumbles over swine at every corner of the street ; in almost 

 every country neighborhood, the owners of gardens and orchards tremble daily for 

 the sanctity of their premises, and guard jealously the gates, lest the domestic animals 

 that are nobody's property in particular, but live by robbing the community in general, 

 should make an onslaught upon our light wooden fences, and sweep gai-den and orchard 

 before them. 



The extra cost of fencing against these commoners, amounts to at least hundreds 

 of millions of dollars to the country at large — as any one who has traveled through 

 France,where no animals run at large, and there are miles without fences, will understand. 

 Every man who owns a few acres of land, spends hundreds of dollars in shutting out 

 animals that are not his own, and have no right to be at large to his annoyance and 

 cost ; and thus the country is both disgraced and over-taxed by a miserable shortsight- 

 edness upon the part of the more intelligent members of the community, who will not 

 boldly enforce the law and protect their own interests. 



We have called this feature a mark of a low condition of civilization, and every 

 thinking person who will give it a few moment's, reflection, will, we think, agree with 

 us. 



In Ireland, the poor cottagers think it no degradation to humanity to share the best 

 and only room of their cabins, with their pigs. In Switzerland, even wealthy farmers 

 lodge their cattle in the basement story of their houses, and a neatly rounded manure- 

 heap is one of the scenic features that meets the eye from every front-door. 



Will any American attempt to argue that this condition of things in Ireland and 

 Switzerland, is not the index of a lower state of civilization than our own ? But will 

 not any person, either from England, France, or even Massachusetts, also feel equally 

 shocked at the hriUal aspect of the streets in most parts of the United States, and 

 put it down as an almost equally decided mark of low civilization ? 



It seems to us that as there can be no question on this subject, and as no right- 

 thinking man can Avish to live among cattle or share the streets and avenues with 

 them, it is time that something should be done to arouse public attention to the 

 barbarism we speak of. It may be thought a little matter by many persons, but so 

 are personal cleanliness, the health of cities, the introduction of pure water in towns, 

 and even common schools — all " little matters" if the public sentiment and public 

 intelligence are at so low an ebb as not to see and feel their value. But in fact every- 

 thing A^hich tends to make mankind respect themselves, tends to raise them in the 

 scale of humanity. Certainly the more we live like men, the more we fulfil this 

 dition, and it is no help to such a hopeful condition to pass great part of our time 



