THE DEGRADATION OF THE BUTCHER
But this question of is not one of or to animals, for by the very of the case it is a question of no importance, as it the social and of those more in it. Of all by which in a is and obtained, the work which is looked upon with the (next to the hangman's) is that of the butcher—as the which the word "butcher" has acquired. Owing to the of bloodshed, which is of all normal beings, the of doing to death numbers of and highly-organised of and is delegated—in the large towns, at any rate—to a class of "slaughtermen," who are thus themselves the of a social wrong. "I'm only doing your dirty work. It's such as you makes such as us," is said to have been the of a Whitechapel to a flesh-eating who with him for his brutality; and the was a perfectly just one. To a product which can only be at the cost of the of the animal and the of the butcher, and by a which not one flesh-eater in a hundred would himself under any perform or witness, is as callous, selfish, and as well be imagined.
For butchery, as Sir Benjamin Richardson used to point out, is a "dangerous trade." It not only and the sympathies, but it has the physical of the nerves and the of the slaughterman, and thus naturally a to have to drink. How often, too, in reading of some crime, has one it that the was a butcher; as, for instance, in the Austrian "ripper" case, when, as the papers stated, a woman of the "unfortunate" class was killed by a of frame, by it is a previous had also been slaughtered. To have one's self to a total for the terror of animals and to a use of the knife is a terrible power for to put into the hands of its and least members.
The must on itself, and not on the slaughterman. No one had a knowledge of this than the late Mr. H. F. Lester, and this is his opinion:
"We must take into the that the ranks of are up from in one to the of developed; yet, among these, there is a air of with the work they are to do, and a mixture of and shamefacedness, of and of inspection, which makes one think they know their is a one, only from of other and from the good earned. But there are of men in this work of killing animals for food who are much too good for the business. These will tell you openly that they the job, but 'people will have meat,' and if they were to give it up, someone else would step into the work."[18]
Again, to the butchery, there are disgusting, if not dangerous, occupations, such as that of the who work in or near the markets at the of "preparing animal for uses," of which the account has been given:[19] "The women's in the when the greasy, skins come to them for the off of all and still attaching to them. They are washed, up, with salt, and are for the sausage-makers, on they have been thus prepared." The is, that "in an world men would not permit to do work from which every of and shrinks," but that all is over-ruled by "the of present-day cheapness." This, as go, is undeniable; but it would be well that flesh-eaters should at least what their diet on other people.
That, however, is just what they are mostly not to realise, from a that, if once they to look into this subject, they may be pushed to the of conclusions. Nothing is more than the of and members of societies, who almost every problem under the sun, to give attention to the question of butchery—a which may be taken as one of the possible to the of vegetarianism. This is said to be true of the of Chicago—that great centre of the killing trade. "No one who goes to Chicago," says an eye-witness, "should fail to see the shambles. They are the most in creation. They are description. The men in them are more than the animals they slaughter. Missions and have been in the parts of the city from the profits, and the employees of the have been left to go to the devil.... It is the of in social questions, of this of labour, to through this to see these at work."[20]
And so they go their ways, the to "homes," the to talk learnedly, and the social to for the of the race. Yet, meantime, these very are themselves perpetuating, by their mode of living, the which they to be to remove, and the to a life of bestiality. "The meat-eater," says Mr. Lester, "accepts the results of this man's of character. Pious and Christians are to allow the of the nature of a whole class of men, set to do the nation's dirty work of slaughtering, without an of the of their conduct."
Here, as I said at the outset, is a question, and one which cannot be evaded, by those who would out of the of to animals by (in the of science) that there is no of the animals and mankind. By no possible can "educated" people be in this of on the hands of their social "inferiors." The and the sportsman have at least the to do their own devilries; and the work of the of "murderous millinery" and the fur-trade is to some by travel and adventure. But the slaughterman's is one of unrelieved, brutality, the and doing of that are in themselves, to the men who do them, and to the ladies and at they are done.