Transcribed from the 1917 Mills & Boon edition ,email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
Very early in my life, possibly because of the insatiable curiositythat was born in me, I came to dislike the performances of trained animals. It was my curiosity that spoiled for me this form of amusement, forI was led to seek behind the performance in order to learn how the performancewas achieved. And what I found behind the brave show and glitterof performance was not nice. It was a body of cruelty so horriblethat I am confident no normal person exists who, once aware of it, couldever enjoy looking on at any trained-animal turn.
Now I am not a namby-pamby. By the book reviewers and the namby-pambysI am esteemed a sort of primitive beast that delights in the spilledblood of violence and horror. Without arguing this matter of mygeneral reputation, accepting it at its current face value, let me addthat I have indeed lived life in a very rough school and have seen morethan the average man’s share of inhumanity and cruelty, from theforecastle and the prison, the slum and the desert, the execution-chamberand the lazar-house, to the battlefield and the military hospital. I have seen horrible deaths and mutilations. I have seen imbecileshanged, because, being imbeciles, they did not possess the hire of lawyers. I have seen the hearts and stamina of strong men broken, and I haveseen other men, by ill-treatment, driven to permanent and howling madness. I have witnessed the deaths of old and young, and even infants, fromsheer starvation. I have seen men and women beaten by whips andclubs and fists, and I have seen the rhinoceros-hide whips laid aroundthe naked torsos of black boys so heartily that each stroke strippedaway the skin in full circle. And yet, let me add finally, neverhave I been so appalled and shocked by the world’s cruelty ashave I been appalled and shocked in the midst of happy, laughing, andapplauding audiences when trained-animal turns were being performedon the stage.
One with a strong stomach and a hard head may be able to toleratemuch of the unconscious and undeliberate cruelty and torture of theworld that is perpetrated in hot blood and stupidity. I have sucha stomach and head. But what turns my head and makes my gorgerise, is the cold-blooded, conscious, deliberate cruelty and tormentthat is manifest behind ninety-nine of every hundred trained-animalturns. Cruelty, as a fine art, has attained its perfect flowerin the trained-animal world.
Possessed myself of a strong stomach and a hard head, inured to hardship,cruelty, and brutality, nevertheless I found, as I came to manhood,that I unconsciously protected myself from the hurt of the trained-animalturn by getting up and leaving the theatre whenever such turns cameon the stage. I say “unconsciously.” By thisI mean it never entered my mind that this was a programme by which thepossible death-blow might be given to trained-animal turns. Iwas merely protecting myself from the pain of witnessing what it wouldhurt me to witness.
But of recent years my understanding of human nature has become suchthat I realize that no normal healthy human would tolerate such performancesdid he or she know the terrible cruelty that lies behind them and makesthem possible. So I am emboldened to suggest, here and now, threethings:
First, let all humans inform themselves of the inevitable and eternalcruelty by the means of which only can animals be compelled to performbefore revenue-paying audiences. Second, I suggest that all menand women, and boys and girls, who have so acquainted themselves withthe essentials of the fine art of animal-training, should become membersof, and ally themselves with, the local and national organizations ofhuman