VII 



KEEN BIRDS AND DULL MEN 



IF all men could know how greatly the human species varies 

 from highest to lowest, and how the minds and emotions 

 of the lowest men parallel and dove-tail with those of the 

 highest quadrupeds and birds, we might be less obsessed with 

 our own human ego, and more appreciative of the intelligence 

 of animals. 



A thousand times in my life my blood has been brought to 

 the boiling point by seeing or reading of the cruel practices of 

 ignorant and vicious men toward animals whom they despised 

 because of their alleged standing "below man." By his 

 vicious and cruel nature, many a man is totally unfitted to 

 own, or even to associate with, dogs, horses and monkeys. 

 Many persons are born into the belief that every man is 

 necessarily a "lord of creation," and that all animals per se 

 are man's lawful prey. In the vicious mind that impression 

 increases with age. Minds of the better classes can readily 

 learn by precept or by reasoning from cause to effect the duty of 

 man to observe and defend the God-given rights of animals. 



It was very recently that I saw on the street a group that 

 represented man's attitude toward wild animals. It con- 

 sisted of an unclean and vicious-looking man in tramp's 

 clothing, grinding an offensive hand-organ and domineering 

 over a poor little terrorized "ringtail" monkey. The wretched 

 mite from the jungle was encased in a heavy woolen straight- 

 jacket, and there was a strap around its loins to which a stout 

 cord was attached, running to the Root of All Evil. The 

 pavement was hot, but there with its bare and tender feet on 

 the hot concrete, the sad-eyed little waif painfully moved 



