“There are many children of foreign birth who perhaps would not break
the laws of this country if they knew of them, but do so innocently
because they either do not know, or do not speak English well enough to
understand them fully, and think that in this country, where they have
so much liberty, they are free to do as they like about everything.
“There are also Americans, I am sorry to say, as well as foreign-born,
who have a heartless streak in them, and first show it by cruelty to
helpless, harmless animals. This should be stopped, as much for their
good as future citizens as for the welfare of the wild animals
themselves, for the child who will kill or torture a dumb beast has the
germs of murder in him that may later, in a fit of passion, break out
toward a fellow-being.
“What do you think of boys—yes, and girls, for I saw one last
spring—who would spend an afternoon in stoning the hanging nest of an
Oriole until the nestlings, dying, stopped their pitiful cries and fell
to the ground in the rags of their wonderful home, while their parents
circled about in agony? Sad to say, these were American-born children,
too, who live not far from Foxes Corners, who very well knew right from
wrong.
“When children have this evil mind, the laws of the state must be used
to cleanse,—just as the law may enter the house and do away with
contagious disease. Cruelty is often as infectious as sickness; and it
is, in fact, a sickness of the mind. It is quite as necessary sometimes
that the heart should go to school and be taught kindness as that we
should learn to read.