298 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL, 



administered. We scarcely ever walk abroad, 

 without beholding sights the most re- 

 volting. Let any one, for instance, watch the 

 starting and progress of one of the " penny 

 omnibuses," on the line of road between Oxford 

 Street and Holborn Bridge. Some of the half- 

 starved cattle (their bones all but through 

 their skin), employed to drag these crazy and 

 overladen machines to and fro, are totally 

 unequal to the task. We have seen them, 

 after once stopping, positively unable to make 

 a fresh start. It has been a matter of 

 physical impossibility. The whip has been 

 actively used ; and by aid of assistance 

 behind, applied to the wheel, a start has been 

 gained, we acknowledge. But is it not 

 infamous that such gross brutality should be 

 tolerated? Is it not disgraceful, we ask, 

 that Englishmen should stand by, gazing on 

 such a sight, and not take the law into their 

 own hands — nor even cry out shame ! We 

 did, and got laughed at for our " softness ! " 

 What is the " Society for the prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals " about ? Where are 

 their emissaries ? Have they no funds ? or 

 are they all sleeping ? But we shall speak 

 more of them, anon. 



This is only one branch of cruelty to 

 animals. On market-days, the sights that 

 come under the eye are awful. A poor 

 sheep, or a bullock panting for breath, stoops 

 to allay its thirst by a little foul water found 

 in a gutter. For this, it receives a blow 

 across the nose or forehead that causes it to 

 reel and stagger. It patiently passes on, at 

 the bidding of the miscreant who drives it. 

 The pangs of thirst are unheeded, and its 

 sufferings continue till death comes to its 

 aid. This is going on, " as regular as clock- 

 work," three days a-week to our knowledge 

 in London. And yet nobody interferes; 

 nobody seems to think it is wrong ! 



We have recently called attention to the 

 cruelty practised on animals — by attaching 

 them to balloons, and subjecting them to a 

 heavy pressure of the atmosphere, until the 

 blood was forced from their nostrils. Even 

 this, the law did not clearly define to be 

 cruelty. It required a long consultation 

 among the magistrates, to decide whether it 

 was so or not. " Counsel" were very readily 

 found to defend the practice ; ancl assured 

 the magistrates, with a gravity most un- 

 accountable to us, that the animals enjoyed 

 it, because they vjere used to it I To back them 

 up in this argument, they referred to k ' the 

 number of well-dressed and respectable per- 

 sons who had frequented Cremorne Gardens 

 to see the animals go up." It certainly does 

 not require a very clever man to be a magis- 

 trate ; but every magistrate ought to have a 

 human heart ; at least such is our opinion. 



One thing is very clear : there is a pre- 

 vailing opinion among high ancl low, rich 



and poor, that animals were only made for use 

 — not for the enjoyment of life. Look at our 

 fashionable folk, who keep late hours while 

 their poor animals are exposed to all kinds 

 of rough weather in the streets. It may be 

 said they are not worse treated than the 

 coachmen and the footmen. That is no 

 answer to our complaint. The two last can 

 quit the service of their employer if they 

 wish it. The poor animals cannot. 



But we have not now to do with " fashion- 

 able " folk. We appeal to people with, a heart 

 that can feel, and a mind that can reason. 

 To such we address the following remarks, 

 penned by Mr. Sydney Whiting, who has 

 come forth as a champion in behalf of a 

 Society, which really deserves the most ex- 

 tensive support. He says in his printed 

 pamphlet, page 12, &c. :-— 



Notwithstanding' the great benefits to society 

 which have been accomplished in the suppression 

 of many ferocious and brutal pastimes, there yet 

 remains much — very much — to accomplish, es- 

 pecially while whole masses of the people still 

 remain in ignorance. Within the last year or so, 

 legislation has increased our means of punishing 

 delinquents by imprisonment or fine, according 

 to the option of the magistrate; and consequently 

 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals is armed with greater power than for- 

 merly. The good it has accomplished is im- 

 mense, and the crime it suppresses is even more 

 important; but it can only hope to be truly 

 effectual by possessing the means of diving into 

 those hidden places which are the foci for abo- 

 minations of cruelty scarcely conceivable. This 

 institution, to be efficient, must be ubiquitous, 

 and its emissaries, on their sacred mission, spread 

 all over this huge metropolis, so as, with more than 

 Argus eye, to watch the knacker's yard, the 

 slaughter-houses, and the cattle markets. Lon- 

 don boasts of its charities and its institutions for 

 the alleviation of almost every description of 

 disease, misfortune, or suffering, and can it refuse 

 to support, with the fullest and most bountiful 

 means, the only society which exists for the 

 benefit of those, who have no voice to complain — 

 no tribunal of appeal? 



Again I repeat, there is much, very much to 

 accomplish. Our public vehicles are at this 

 moment a disgrace to our metropolis, to the 

 times we live in. The law provides for the 

 benefit of the passenger by allotting him sixteen 

 inches of space in our omnibuses ; but the law 

 says nothing of the proper weight for the poor 

 beasts to draw. Let any one who doubts the 

 fact of overloading our public conveyances, 

 station himself at the top of Hungerford Street, 

 and he will often see, not only there, but all over 

 the town, such loads of human beings piled out- 

 side, and packed in, as will assure him, with 

 sickening evidence, that every strain up the steep 

 hill .is a strain of torture to the horses. 



To the fair and more sensitive sex, I should 

 scarcely venture to appeal in particular; but 

 we all know the influence they exert upon 

 society by their gentle, yet puissant might- 

 Women, in a great degree, influence the tone of 



