This is now so generally admitted that the point in dispute is not so much the duty of humaneness, as some particular application of that duty, as in the present case to the slaughter of animals for food. What have humane people to say to the tremendous mass of animal suffering inflicted, in the interests of the table, on highly-organised and sensitive animals closely allied to mankind? By the unthinking, of course, these sufferings, being invisible, are almost wholly overlooked, while the deadening power of habit prevents many kindly persons from exercising, where their daily "beef" and "mutton" are concerned, the very sympathies which they so keenly manifest elsewhere; yet it can hardly be doubted that, if the veil of custom could be lifted, and if a clear knowledge of what is involved in "butchery" could be brought home, with a sense of personal responsibility, to everyone who eats flesh, the attitude of society towards the vegetarian movement would be very different from what it is now. If it be true that "hunger is the best sauce," it may also be said that the _bon vivant's_ most indispensable sauce is _ignorance_—ignorance of the horrible and revolting circumstances under which his juicy steak or dainty cutlet has been prepared. BON VIVANT: What is this? "Vegetarian" you call yourself? VEGETARIAN: And you? You are a _bon vivant_. You "live well," I understand. BON VIVANT: Not ashamed of enjoying a good dinner, but not greedy, I hope. VEGETARIAN: Nor cruel, I suppose? BON VIVANT: Cruel! I subscribe regularly to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. VEGETARIAN: And _eat_ them. BON VIVANT: Why not? A speedy painless death is no cruelty, is it? VEGETARIAN: While you are finishing that choice beef steak, I will tell you something of the speedy painless death of steak-producing animals. It may serve as an aid to digestion, like a musical accompaniment. BON VIVANT: Oh, you won't spoil my digestion. Fire away! VEGETARIAN: Let us suppose, then, that our friend (on your plate there) hails from Ireland, and at one of the fair grounds, of which there are several thousand in that island paradise, he meets the first agent in his euthanasia—the drover. "On such occasions," says the Report of the late Departmental Committee on the Inland Transit of Cattle, "animals already, perhaps, exhausted and foot-sore from a walk of many miles, stand for hours on the hard road, bewildered by the beating they receive and their unaccustomed surroundings.... It was repeatedly asserted by responsible witnesses that many of the drovers are brutally harsh." So ferocious is the treatment that in many cases, when the animals are slaughtered, the hide, as butchers testify, simply falls off the back, and is worthless even for use as leather. I hope your steak is nice and tender?