SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by ALICE HALL WALTER 



Address all communications relative to the work of this depart- 

 ment to the editor. :it 5,^ Arlington Avenue, Providence, R. 1. 



A QUESTION FOR UNPREJUDICED CONSIDERATION 



The majority of questions affecting public interests arouse strong pre- 

 judices pro and con, since each of the opposing parties feels that its claims are 

 just. Questions of minor importance are quite as likely to arouse extreme 

 prejudice as large ones. It is, therefore, well to assume a neutral attitude until 

 one is thoroughly informed and intelligently convinced concerning the merits 

 of any particular issue. 



We are hearing more and more about cats nowadays, and the desirability 

 of allowing them to increase without check is being very forcibly brought to 

 our attention. This question is far less trivial than might at first appear; 

 indeed, it is much more important than most people suspect. It is, moreover, 

 a question about which a great many people are undeniably prejudiced. 



A good way to become broad-minded on any subject is to look at that sub- 

 ject from more than one point of view. In the case of the cat, there are especial 

 reasons for approaching the debated question of its usefulness by this method. 

 In the first place, the domesticated cat has a history almost as old as that 

 of civilized man. The ancient Egyptians not only protected the cat, but they 

 also worshipped it. As an object of sacred veneration, this highly cultured 

 people made it a crime to kill a cat, and they even went so far as to preserve 

 dead cats as mummies and to bury them in a cemetery, where their remains 

 have been dug up centuries later by archaeologists. 



The house cat was regarded as an object of special blessing, and the grief, 

 felt by a family upon the death of its cat was made evident to the outside 

 . world by a most peculiar sign, namely, shaving off the eyebrows. In ancient 

 China and Japan, cats were regarded with great affection, and in many parts 

 of Asia, they were considered useful in protecting granaries from rodent 

 enemies. The Romans probably carried domesticated cats to Great Britain, 

 but as late as the year looo A.D. there were very few cats in England. 



No trace of house cats can be found among the early lake-dwellers of 

 Europe, nor among nomadic tribes. Their history seems to be connected 

 only with that of civilized man, and especially, with that of races devoted 

 to agriculture. 



When the fetish-worship of the early Egyptians gave place to a higher 

 standard of religion, the domesticated cat still remained an object of affection. 

 It gradually became associated with the superstitions of uneducated people, 



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