ASMODEUS COMETH OUT AS A PROPHET OF A NEW DISPENSATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6296, 21 January 1882, Page 6

ASMODEUS COMETH OUT AS A PROPHET OF A NEW DISPENSATION.

Much hath been said, written, or done anent cruelty to animals. An obstinate quadruped of the equine persuasion may not be drubbed or coerced into obedience without an interview with the majesty of the law, as represented by Robert Grabem, Esq., otherwise Policenan X; and, therefore, as a horse with a will of his own is of little earthly use, except to kill or disable his quaudom owner, there remains nothing for that independent brute except the knacker's yard. You may disable a burglar a-burgling of your premises by a dose of buckshot or the kitchen poker, but if you happen to disable a cow, a goat, or a horse a burgling of your beautiful garden and remorselessly a-gobbling of all your choice flowers, why, dear me, it is a case of compulsory geological study of the crystalline and silicious formation of the volcanic rocks of the Auckland isthmus at Mount Eden, until a certain cycle of time shall cease and determine; the length of that aforesaid cycle be«u dej pendent on the state of the biliary ducts of the presiding Judge for the time being (vide "The Shadow of Justice.") In a word, all animals are now well cared for and looked after by the namby-pambies, but the priest hath not hitherto arrove who will preach to us the doctrine that the human animal is as well worthy of care and protection as the quadrupedal ones. Take, for instance, the beer duty stamp — that ingenious instrument of torture. Instead of devising some stamp that cannot be obliterated from the barrels except with proper tools or some such device, our precious Government have decided that adhesive stamps shall be used. Now, everyone knows what beer barrels in transitu have to undergo ; how they are left out in the rain, or on the wet ground ; and how, after unlimited maltreatment of all sorts, they are finally deposited in damp cellars; and the smallest particle of nous would have shown the frame.s of that law the absurdity of adhesive labels under such circumstances. Why, for his own protection, the publican will ere long have to go personally to the brewery and escort the barrels home with as much tenderness and solicitude as if they were so many pretty girls. He will have to hold umbrellas over them during the rain, and wrap them up in blaukeis at night, lest the rain or the damp should wash away or loosen the stamps; lie will have to watch them all night, in company with pocket pistols of two kiuds, lest some rival publican or enterprising loafer should take a rise out of him by wishing off his stamps and giving information; and, finally, he will have to guard his cellar, when the barrels are safely deposited therein, as if they were easks of diamonds, lest some barman or employee who owes him a grudge should remove the stamps and give nformation to the police that the stamps are non est. Dear me ! what comparison can there lie between flowing an obstinate horse or kicking a vicious dog, and the slow and lingering torture suffered by the owner of a beer barrel under the new Act. Again, when yon see the panting multitude on a hot day around the Domain cricket crouud. vainly endeavouring for shade under the miserable, disreputable things that once were flourishing young oaks, you will realise how little the human animal is considered compared to a horse or dog. Take also, for instance, the Grafton Board. That body is always tinkering the Grafton Road, albeit that road is in a state of chronic semi-desertedness ; yet, though they are able to spend £120 ayear on gas alone, they cannot find funds to put a decent footpath to Kylier Pass Road ; and, in spite of every remonstrance and entreaty, neither will they be persuaded into putting a crossing at the top of Symonds-street—at a point where the road is always in a state of deep mud, deep dust, or juvenile rockiness, owing to the immense vehicular traffic. Why, more pedestrians have to cross that via dolorosa m one hour, daily or nightly, than pass down the Grafton Road in the 24 hours- Is not this a case of cruelty to the human animal ? Again, among minor and unconsidered things, it is becoming a very commod habit for carts or vehicles to draw up on the street crossings, or at the roundings from one street to another, compelling all pedestrians to walk round the horse's head or the cart's tail. It is only a trifle, yet it partakes of the nature of that inconsiderate cruelty to the human aniriial which is so prevalent here ; and ■ many a man is fined for municipal transgressions that cause far less annoyance to the public than this does. Among the unconsidered trifles that go to make up-the sum total of cruelty to humans is the mode in whioh many butchers ' boys carry on. They ride straight down on all pedestrians who may lie in the roadway, and expect them to clear out of the way as best they can ; and they have a vicious habit of biding their time in wet weather till the pedestrian is passing a puddle, and then they rush past him at a gallop or canter, apparently for the sole purpose of splashing him with mud. To rise again, there is the Ferry Company. On crowded holiday times, instead of putting their barrier out on the broad part of the wharf, w-here people .-an have breathing room or get out of the crowd backward if they like, the barrier is placed in a sort of at' ilf sac, where no one can ever straggle out again when once jammed therein. Asmodeus hath a vivid recollection of a twohour jam there on a burning hot day, with ladies fainting and children suffocating, and he only emerged therefrom in a generally dilapidated condition, both in soul and body, and eke in dress. Is not this cruelty to the human animal ? In this line also, the Railway management out-Herods Herod at holiday times. It is unnecessary to enlarge on this; our experience hath been too recent thereanent-. These instances of fnconsiderate cruelty to humans might be swelled to the bulk of a volume, but the above will suffice, on the principle that "sufficient to the day is the evil thereof." Not until people are mors thoroughly imbued with the true and real spirit of a "gentleman" will these cruelties cease, or, rather,' be ameliorated; but, O, my brethren, is it not pitiful that we should all admit the truth of the poet's words, "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless milliona mourn," and yet make no effort to lessen each indi- | vidnal quota that we contribute to those | countless millions of mourners. Asmodkcs.