Hide Article Text (OCR)
THE DANCE OF DEATH.TTNDER the above title, the World says that, irrespective ofthe horrors of the war, increased by the morbid pictures of some illustrated journals, we are at home indulging in sights of a brutalising character under the disguise of amusement or sport. Alluding to Gale’s feat, we are told there is nothing to stir the imagination, except, a.sense of the cruel and the horrible; nothing to excite the fancy, except the certain knowledge that the man is going through an ordeal full of torture, full of terror, of wliinhthe sroal mav be death or madness, for the sake of monev.exhil tionThereunder such conditions that the sense of courage is eclipsed by thatof disgust, and that, to say the least, instead of admiration for pluck, the predominant feeling is one of melancholy and loathing. We are now witnessing in England precisely the same phenomena—the lust for human danger, the sensational displays of a human life trembling in the balance—as those which delighted society upwards of twenty centuries ago in the amphitheatre of Imperial Rome. The passion for cruelty is inextinguishable in human nature ; and if English humanity and politeness profess to be shocked at the gladiatorial shows of the Caesars or the bullring of Spain, it is as well to remind them that the spectacles which the professors of these fine sentiments affect are in theiressence quite as inhuman, quite as demoralising. When Zazel commenced her performances at the Westminster Aquarium, it. was explained that the real risk was infinitely less than the apparent, and that her skill just enabled her to take her dive from the height fixed. In the last few weeks the habituSs of the place ha' clamoure for something more stirring, and the height has at last been raised to a point which must satisfy the most inexorable appetite. The exhibition is now appreciated the more acutely by the statement that Zazel herself sheds tears before she can face ’ lt;p, which a false step or wronnight, the slightest clumsinessmight and must render fatal. At the Canterbury Music Hall the feat of Zazel is emulated or surpassed by a man who nightly jests with death in the same fashion; and the male and female enthusiasts who wildly yell disapprobation when the Russian national air is played, and shriek applause when the notes of the Turkish anthem are he i t, look and laugh and encourage the poor wretch above with their cruel, cowardly bravoes at the very momenlwhen he is preparing to plunge through the foul atmosphere oi the gents haunt mto the net below.When the sentiments to which this kind of exhibition pander* are: deliberately encouraged, it is not surprising that crimes oi hideous brutality are common among the lower classes, or thai society generally witnesses, without the slightest compunction oi remorse, the cruelty inflicted systematically on the dumb creation There exists, indeed, a society for the prevention of cruelty tc animals, but this society, we suppose, cannot rise superior to th( morality of the time, as the cant aphorism is, and cannot be expected to interfere where the public looks on. The associatioi madua great show of activity last week, and appointed two oi ltfe officers to be present at the riding-match bet\ een the “ Yorkshire gentlemanand the Mexican jockey. This was a step ii the right direction, but why does the society ignore what passe* daily under its eyes in the streets of London P Half an hour’* walk in some of the most frequented or fashionable thoroughfare* of: the metropolis is enough to supply the retentive mind with nev materials for a picture like that which Hogarth limned in hi*Sewn Stages of Cruelty.” London coal-merchants are compolled by law to send out weights and scales with each of then carta; they are not compelled by law to abstain from overloadim their carts to a degree which results in struggles of the horses tlt; drag the undue load that are horrible to witness. The sam. barbarity is inflicted on the nobly-enduring animals of brew'* diyfl 5 and a still mor© painful spcctacl© may b© soon in efforts of horses wh h slip and founder at every stride as the labour along the surface of the loose Macadam. One more gro illustration of systematic cruelty to animals remains to 1 mentioned. No sort of supervision; police or otherwise exercised, over the cabs of London. It is no rare thin even in the daytime, to see cab-horses lame or wounded, and a* absolutely unfit condition to be driven. In the case of tl nightKjabs t is the rare exception to find a horse in a proper stai f on hia work. If this is not cruelty to animals, what is P Iffor the prevention of cruelty to animals, where is-;asion for its interference, if not here P But in «aety exists fihd i ust osaaaettou
Newspaper Details
Brief
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Nov 17, 1877
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Charlotte H.
GB 20 May 2021
Other Publications Near London, Middlesex
Bingleys Journal
Arminian Magazine
London Daily Mail
London Stars and Stripes
London Daily Universal Register
