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Read Ebook: A Sheaf by Galsworthy John
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Ebook has 987 lines and 90623 words, and 20 pages
PAGE MUCH CRY--LITTLE WOOL
ON THE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS 3 CONCERNING LAWS 77 ON PRISONS AND PUNISHMENT 95 ON THE POSITION OF WOMEN 130 ON SOCIAL UNREST 148 ON PEACE 160
THE WAR
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW 169 CREDO 169 FRANCE 171 REVEILLE 173 FIRST THOUGHTS ON THIS WAR 175 THE HOPE OF LASTING PEACE 188 DIAGNOSIS OF THE ENGLISHMAN 194 OUR LITERATURE AND THE WAR 204 ART AND THE WAR 210 TRE CIME DI LAVAREDO 219 SECOND THOUGHTS ON THIS WAR 223 TOTALLY DISABLED 243 CARTOON 247 HARVEST 249
AND--AFTER?
PRELUDE 255 FREEDOM AND PRIVILEGE 260 THE NATION AND TRAINING 266 HEALTH, HUMANITY, AND PROCEDURE 276 A LAST WORD 283 THE ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED 289
MUCH CRY--LITTLE WOOL
ON THE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS
FOR LOVE OF BEASTS
? 1.
We had left my rooms, and were walking briskly down the street towards the river, when my friend stopped before the window of a small shop and said:
"Gold-fish!"
I looked at him very doubtfully; one had known him so long that one never looked at him in any other way.
"Can you imagine," he went on, "how any sane person can find pleasure in the sight of those swift things swimming for ever and ever in a bowl about twice the length of their own tails?"
"No," I said, "I cannot--though, of course, they're very pretty."
"That is, no doubt, the reason why they are kept in misery."
Again I looked at him; there is nothing in the world I distrust so much as irony.
"People don't think about these things," I said.
"You are right," he answered, "they do not. Let me give you some evidence of that. . . . I was travelling last spring in a far country, and made an expedition to a certain woodland spot. Outside the little forest inn I noticed a ring of people and dogs gathered round a gray animal rather larger than a cat. It had a sharp-nosed head too small for its body, and bright black eyes, and was moving restlessly round and round a pole to which it was tethered by a chain. If a dog came near, it hunched its bushy back and made a rush at him. Except for that it seemed a shy-souled, timid little thing. In fact, by its eyes, and the way it shrank into itself, you could tell it was scared of everything around. Now, there was a small, thin-faced man in a white jacket holding up a tub on end and explaining to the people that this was the little creature's habitat, and that it wanted to get back underneath; and, sure enough, when he held the tub within its reach, the little animal stood up at once on its hind legs and pawed, evidently trying to get the tub to fall down and cover it. The people all laughed at this; the man laughed too, and the little creature went on pawing. At last the man said: 'Mind your back-legs, Patsy!' and let the tub fall. The show was over. But presently another lot came up; the white-coated man lifted the tub, and it began all over again.
"'What is that animal?' I asked him.
"'A 'coon.'
"'How old?'
"'Three years--too old to tame.'
"'Where did you catch it?'
"'In the forest--lots of 'coons in the forest.'
"'Do they live in the open, or in holes?'
"'Up in the trees, sure; they only gits in the hollows when it rains.'
"'Oh! they live in the open? Then isn't it queer she should be so fond of her tub?'
"'Yes,' he repeated, rather proudly, 'she know me--Patsy, Patsy! Presently, you bet, we catch lot more, and make a cage, and put them in.'
"He was gazing very kindly at the little creature, who on her gray hind legs was anxiously begging for the tub to come down and hide her, and I said: 'But isn't it rather a miserable life for this poor little devil?'
"He gave me a very queer look. 'There's lots of people,' he said--and his voice sounded as if I'd hurt him--'never gits a chance to see a 'coon'--and he dropped the tub over the racoon. . . .
"But, surely," I said, "those other people would feel the same as you. The little white-coated man was only a servant."
He seemed to run them over in his memory. "Not one!" he answered slowly. "Not a single one! I am sure it never even occurred to them--why should it? They were there to enjoy themselves."
We walked in silence till I said:
"I can't help feeling that your little white-coated man was acting good-heartedly according to his lights."
"Quite! And after all what are the sufferings of a racoon compared with the enlargement of the human mind?"
"Don't be extravagant! You know he didn't mean to be cruel."
"Does a man ever mean to be cruel? He merely makes or keeps his living; but to make or keep his living he will do anything that does not absolutely prick to his heart through the skin of his indolence or his obtuseness."
"I think," I said, "that you might have expressed that less cynically, even if it's true."
"Nothing that's true is cynical, and nothing that is cynical is true. Indifference to the suffering of beasts always comes from over-absorption in our own comfort."
"Absorption, not over-absorption, perhaps."
My friend muttered something I couldn't catch, and then went on:
"That afternoon I took the drive for which one visits that hotel, and it occurred to me to ask my chauffeur what kind of hawk it was. 'Well,' he said, 'I ain't just too sure what it is they've got caged up now; they changes 'em so often.'
"'Do you mean,' I said, 'that they die in captivity?'
"'Yes,' he answered, 'them big birds soon gits moulty and go off.' Well, when I paid my bill I went up to the semblance of proprietor--it was one of those establishments where the only creature responsible is 'Co.'--and I said:
"'I see you keep a hawk out there?'
"'Yes. Fine bird. Quite an attraction!'
"'People like to look at it?'
"'Just so. They're uncommon--that sort.'
"'Well,' I said, 'I call it cruel to keep a hawk shut up like that.'
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