CRUEL DESTRUCTION OF CATTLE.
IN view of the thousands of cattle which die from starvation and cold on the great western plains every year, oftentimes because of carelessness and thoughtlessness on the part of men, the following from the New Orleans Picayune is to the point:— “A king, a cattle king, was what they called him, this man who came loaded with diamonds and free with money, to spend the winter in a mild Southern city. A king, and yet no royal blood in his veins! A self-made monarch—and his subjects?—Only the lowing herds in the far-off West. His kingdom is the frozen plains, where his cattle are dying. For it is cheaper to lose half his subjects than to feed and protect the whole. He has left his ice-bound home, has closed his ears to the suffering beasts; he wraps his great coat close about him and seeks pleasure. Can he shut out the cries that are piercing the winter nights beyond that mountain chain out towards the setting sun? Do not dreams of the cattle—his subjects—suffering, starving, freezing, and dead, haunt the pillow of this king? Murder!—surely this king did no murder. There is no blood on his hands. He only let his dumb beasts starve or freeze to death—that is all!” “But there is another King—a King whose kingdom is the universe—‘and the cattle upon a thousand hills are His.’ How will the cattle king stand on the day when deeds stand witness for and against us, and balanced against his gold will be the cattle—God’s cattle—which he left on the plains without food or shelter, to die of slow starvation, that he might have more gold?”