Life — October 10, 1895 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

236 UP TO DATE. OWEER it be, it seems to me, Naught under threes are worth the fare, For fours made up of coronets Beat simple faith and two small pair. Tt following communication is much too long for the space we should wish to give, but as the writer feels himself injured by our previous comments we prefer to print it entire. The author signs his name at our own request : FADDOMANIA AND COURTESY. To the Editor of Live. Sir :—In Lire (August 15) you lampoon a physician for declining as editor to print in hit journal a letter from a correspondent, and you read him an illustrated lesson in etiquet. By all rules of humor and literary exegesis the vignet you use, a hog reading books of etiquet, can only be construed as setting forth your own office and mental condition. It is a praiseworthy and admirably frank personal confession, But that you do not choose good books is evident from the fact that every line of your article violates the rules of courtesy and good breeding practiced by gentlemen, Your hooks should teach you : OPEN TO DEBATE, -LIFE: 1, Not to villify a brother-editor for the courteous rejection of a manuscript written by a (to you) unknown correspondent. To mind one’s own business is simple decency. 2. Not todrag a physician's name into public print (lay journals) without his consent. 3. Not to name an editor personally, instead of his journal, when discussing editorial action. 4. Not to indulge in personalities instead of discussing principles, Please now ask yourself : 1, Is it good editorial judgment, especial as editor of a humorous journal, to be a fad- domaniac? Does not zealotry destroy the sense of humor? Please let us yet read our Fliegende Blatter and Lire for many yearsto come. 2. Is intense conviction any proof of sound judgment? Have you taken the least precau- tion to know the truth, either as to the question of vivisection or as to that of the rejection of a manuscript by a distant brother-editor ? All good men will join with you in stopping the abuses of vivisection, which, to a limited de- gree, all physicians will recognize to have occurred in the past, but let us have no fanati- cism ! Remember that the great vivisectionist, Ludwig, wasthe greatest promoter of kindness to animals in all Europe. 3. Should not the vain editorial portrait you reproduce have much longer ears, without, of course, losing the characteristic face given ? Lire’s article is as non-intellectual as it is boorish. E. gi: A little exercise of judg- ment would have brought you proof that both the anti-Vivisection Society and the malicious creature who sputters her pitiable nonsense in every possible journal of the land, and who has so egregiously duped you, are the butts of ridicule with those of any degree of under- standing. You also charge a gentleman with “defending the cutting up of living animals for the entertainment of medical students.” ‘This person, however, never did defend the practice of vivisection for didactic purposes, but has always and publicly argued against Injustice and calumny are bad, even in a good cause—a fact you two have yet to learn, ally, let me ask you : 1. If your child falls ill with diphtheria will you calla vivisectionist physician, and will you permit him to use the antitoxin treatment to save its life? Even your poorly informed self must know that this boom to humanity could only reach you through vivisection. 2. Are you a meat-eater? If so, you live by the deaths of animals. You are a butcher as well as a vivisectionist, Is the nourishment of your individual body of more good to humanity than the progress of medical science? ‘The animals you have butchered and vivisected for this purpose were not, as almost always in the laboratory, painlessly killed, but were either brutally pounded to death, or (lobsters, etc.) often ended their liv after long hours of atrocious torment for your palate’s sake, CHAPPIE AND HIS SENSITIVE ENGLISH TROWSERS. LaTesT REPORT FROM LonDON: RAINING STEADILY FOR THE LAST FOUR HOURS, 3. Do you not know that every line you write about the vivisection controversy is loaded with error and falsehood—the often exposed charge of cruelty and pain? The fact is that pain would destroy the value of nine-tenths of all vivisection experiments, even if the sym- pathy of the experimenter were not active to prevent it. 4. Do you not know that such rabid and ill- informed faddists ax you and Mrs, White are the greatest provokers of cruelty to animals ? You disgust people with a movement they would otherwise aid, and you make everyone with a grain of sense or indignation wish to kick all dogs and horses for having such *de- fenders” and “ friends” as your illogical and foolish selves. Luckily we have pity despite you, and are not haters of all womankind be- cause of our virago, Sincerely yours, : George M. Gould. Philadelphia, September, 1893 It is, perhaps, only fair to give our read - ers both sides of a question, and we honestly regret that our fervid correspondent should have displayed so much more heat than logic in the space at his disposal. We also regret his questionable allusions to a universally respected lady whose disinterested labors in a splendid cause have won an enviable fame. comicbooks.com Ws