306 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



wealthy or the idle rich, but the hard working business men, 

 who steal a half holiday whenever they can. If it is in them, 

 they'll find the way. 



There is no country in the world where one can find so 

 many men and women who possess the financial independence 

 to enable them to indulge in such pastimes. The lamentable 

 thing about it is that as the rich grow richer, at the same time 

 they seem to be giving way more and more to idle luxuries. 

 It is only a case of history repeating itself. Still, strange as 

 it may seem, some well meaning men and women are doing all 

 they can to discourage the chase in every form. They don't 

 want the foxes killed, nor the horses ridden so hard as is neces- 

 sary to go the pace. At the death of a chicken-thief fox they 

 rave. If a rider is injured, it "serves him right." 



The strange thing about this dumb animal worship is that 

 the more dumb and helpless the animal is, the more some people 

 gush. There is no sentiment in human nature so blind as exag- 

 gerated heart sentiment, which is the usual source whence 

 comes a lot of sentimental bosh and fairy tales in the form of 

 nature studies. A morbid feminine instinct seems to possess 

 some effeminate men and over sentimental women, not toward 

 the human but toward the dumb race. 



We have all heard of the woman who kissed her cow and 

 clubbed her husband over the head with the milking stool, 

 because he allowed the cow to kick over the pail of milk. "Dear 

 old Bossie." "Brutal man." The most consistent dumb animal 

 worshipper the writer ever heard of was the chap who could not 

 bring himself to eat an oyster, because it would kill the oyster. 

 "Bless his precious little heart." Whose heart? Well, help 

 yourself. 



The follo^ving is given as a sample criticism on the chase. 

 It is from a man in a western state. He says he "is shocked at 

 the barbarity of the foreign idea of sport." He says he has "a 

 choking throb of pity for the hunted, and furthermore that 



