A bit of a ramble today! It may appeal to folk who are fond of a bit of animal related history! Henry S. Salt, standing up for cats – The Mieaou Club being reformed – Edith Carrington remembering Harrison Weir.

Henry S. Salt & Edith Carrington were pioneers of vegetarianism (actually of veganism long before the word was invented) & of animal rights. Harrison Weir taught our great-grandparents to love & respect animals with his art. They all worked together in the original Humanitarian League from circa 1895……

Henry S. Salt writing about Edith Carrington –

~ ……Miss Carrington has the crowning quality of style. She can write; and would that this could be said of many of the champions of animals! Despite a tendency to diffuseness, which seems to be her chief fault as an author, it remains true that to take up any article or book by her is to read what is written with the grace and tenderness of genuine workmanship. ~

– in full – here.

The Cat. By H. S. Salt – in – The Animals’ Friend Annual – 1909

THE CAT

I ASK permission to say a few words on behalf of the Cat, an animal whose interests, in comparison with those of the Dog, are somewhat neglected by humanitarians. Comparisons are odious, says the proverb. That depends entirely on the spirit in which they are instituted. The comparisons which are sometimes drawn between the merits of the Cat and the Dog, as if we could only bestow a limited friendship on one or the other of them, are (to me) very odious; especially as the contrast seems usually designed to depreciate the merits of the less favoured Cat. But why can we not appreciate both? Or, if we must feel a partiality for either, can we not see that it is but a personal, individual preference, and not an absolute one? On this understanding, I would say a good word for the much maligned, ill-used Cat.

How well we know all the stock phrases by which the Cat is disparaged! The Cat, forsooth, loves places and not people. The Cat cares only for her own comfort, and is not sufficiently grateful for kindness bestowed on her, whereas the Dog is man’s faithful friend and follower. The real difference, I take it, between Cat and Dog is this. The Dog has become a wholly artificial and civilised animal, having been for centuries bred to man’s order, and formed to meet his wants. He is a visible embodiment of gratitude and friendship, a flattering tail-wagging testimony to the exceeding goodness and nobility of the human race. The Cat, on the other hand, is less plastic and compliant, there being a feral element in her nature which has not lent itself so readily to the shaping hand of man. She is more obstinate, more independent, more self-centred. But that the Cat does offer her friendship to those who possess the key of sympathy, who shall doubt? Even to propound such a question is laughable to anyone who has ever really known a Cat. Indeed, as Pierre Loti says, in his wonderful “Book of Pity and of Death,” there is a “supreme confidence” in the way in which a Cat will entrust her life and welfare to the human companion whom she loves.

The question, therefore, of preference for Cat or Dog simply resolves itself into this. Which sort of friendship do you prefer – the faithful, grateful, obsequious attachment of the Dog, or the less accessible, less demonstrative, but not less genuine affection of the Cat? Where both are true and valuable, it is no more than a matter of individual taste and choice. For my own part, I like the aloofness, the fastidious waywardness of the Cat; and I think that the friendship which needs some effort for the making of it is, perhaps, better worth having than that which is offered almost ready-made.

As to the statement, sometimes made by Dog-lovers, that the Cat, being by nature a wilder animal, does not stand in such need of human protection against cruelty, it seems too absurd to call for serious refutation. I remember a country­man remarking to me, “They say a Cat’s not an animal, but vermin“; and I believe this view to a great extent underlies the common and widespread ill-treatment of Cats. The real truth is more nearly expressed in the words of De Quincey, that “The groans and screams of this poor persecuted race, if gathered into some great echoing hall of horrors, would appeal to the heart of the stoniest of our race.”

H. S. SALT.

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Another version of this article – posted at our Henry Salt Archive – here.

Henry S. Salt also used a very slightly different version of the Thomas De Quincey quotation in his book – “Animals’ Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress:…” in 1892.

Chapter 2 – THE CASE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS – page 33.

The dog is probably better treated on the whole than any other animal; though to prove how far we still are from a rational and consistent appreciation of his worth, it is only necessary to point to the fact that he is commonly regarded by a large number of educated people as a fit and proper subject for that experimental torture which is known as vivisection. The cat has always been treated with far less consideration than the dog, and, despite the numerous scattered instances that might be cited to the contrary, it is to be feared that De Quincey was in the main correct, when he remarked that “the groans and screams of this poor persecuted race, if gathered into some great echoing hall of horrors, would melt the heart of the stoniest of our race.”

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The Mieaou Club

The Mieaou Club was originally founded in 1933, inspired by the book Our Cats And All About Them by Harrison Weir – read it – here.

We are relaunching The Mieaou Club – here is its new Facebook Page. Harrison Weir cooperated with Henry S. Salt, Jessey Wade & Ernest Bell on many of the children’s publications of the original Humanitarian League.

In our Ernest Bell Library, we are caring for many of Harrison Weir’s illustrations of cats, some of the archives of The Mieaou Club & many items from the original Humanitarian League. They will all be reproduced & shared over time.

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Wiki – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Weir

Harrison William Weir (5 May 1824 – 3 January 1906), known as “The Father of the Cat Fancy”, was an English gentleman and artist.

He organised the first cat show in England, at The Crystal Palace, London, in July 1871. He and his brother, John Jenner Weir, both served as judges in the show. In 1887 Harrison Weir founded the National Cat Club and was its first President and Show Manager until his resignation in 1890.

Edith Carrington, remembering her close friend Harrison Weir in her children’s journal – Our Animal Brothers – March 1906 – p69

Harrison Weir

Harrison Weir was born at Lewis in 1824, and from a letter written by himself we learn that he began to show his taste for drawing at a very early age.

“Being with my mother at a farmhouse at Pembury, Kent, on my fifth birthday,” he writes, “I was missed, and found with pencil and paper busy trying to draw some of the Poultry. As portraits they were not good, but they were treasured by my mother for many a year afterwards.”

Indeed, she had reason to be proud of a son who not only possessed great talent, but the far more valuable gifts of perseverance, patience, and humility, with that love of work for its own sake which is its own reward. “I am a great believer in work,” he would say; “work done well, with a heartiness and a will, is a grand thing for anyone, and is a help to happiness and comfort, if not wealth. If one is in sorrow, let him work. If his heart is in his work, as it should be, all else will be forgotten. Work never hurt a man, given that he has food and raiment, with regular times for food to the minute, and regular times for work. Anxiety, worry, trouble, irritation, and vexation, kill, but work is medicine for the suffering. I know it.” His knowledge of the usefulness of work was proved during illness by the great Artist, for he had not good heath, and tells us that for forty year he was not out of pain. He seems never tired of repeating that work was his delight, adding that “the changing from one kind of thoughtful work to another, perhaps a little less so, is sweet and profitable rest. Idleness is neither.”

Another cause of Weir’s happiness and usefulness seems to have been an absence of lust for money. “The striving for wealth,” says he, “the hankering after something we have not, simply because others have it, is wearing. Honest, true, good work, brings satisfaction and contentment, and with it a blessing beyond price.”

Facing life after this noble fashion, Harrison Weir set his foot bravely on the lowest rung of the ladder, and was not above beginning as an engraver. He was wise enough not to refuse an offer to draw the fashions for the Illustrated London News, though with his love of animals and gift for drawing them, the task of sketching human beings smirking in hideous new clothes, must have been irksome. But it was work, distasteful work, but leading gradually to something better. By degrees he found a footing in the word , and was able to occupy his talents in a manner that was more to his liking, till towards the close of his life he must have felt some honest pride when hundreds of people wrote to him saying that his drawings, then widely circulated everywhere, had not only “given a happy tone to their daily lives, but had changed their very hearts and natures.”

As an Artist, not even Landseer himself, has done more to plead with all hearts, especially those of children, on behalf of the Speechless. He, “opened his mouth for the dumb,” though he believed in the silent art rather than in the eloquence of the tongue. “Eyegate is easier than eargate,” he would say, “and where people are slow to grasp what is written, they are quick to read it in the form of a picture.”

Of the pictures which he painted, one of the best, that of a Robin Redbreast, was called “A Christmas Carol.” It was sold for 150 guineas, but the money was the least of its merits. This picture formed the first “Coloured Supplement” ever chromo-printed, and was the forerunner of all the beautiful coloured pictures of the kind which now adorn the walls of many a home. “A good picture,” wrote Weir, “often softened sorrow. Art can teach as well as Literature.”

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time ;

    Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s (1807-1882) – A Psalm of Life – first published in the Knickerbocker Magazine in October 1838.

See a low-res image of Harrison Weir’s – “A Christmas Carol” – here.

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More on Edwin Landseer – here.

Read Jessey Wade’s And Cats – here.

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Our Projects

The Henry Salt Archive is one of our, almost completed, projects.

The Humanitarian League is our Hong Kong registered charity. It cares for The Ernest Bell Library, which was conceived in 1934.

The library is still strong & very active eighty years later –  its primary objectives are to: –

Collect all of Ernest Bell’s book & non-book works and make them easily accessible to everyone.

Collect the literature of vegetarianism and all the other humanitarian movements in which Ernest Bell was so deeply involved.

Assist students and scholars in their research.

Introduce all aspects of Ernest Bell’s life, including his writings, campaign work, influences and his circle of friends.

Undertake our own research into missing aspects of Ernest Bell’s life and work.

We already have more than 300 pieces of Ernest Bell’s own writings.

We are also actively building a collection of examples of promotional material, campaign material, fundraising & marketing activities etc. – related to: –

Veg(etari)an products.

Veg(etari)an books & other publications.

Veg(etari)an organisations.

Veg(etari)an businesses.

Animal rights organisations.

Animal rights publications.

Humanitarian organisations.

Humanitarian publications.

Rambling clubs run by members of the above groups & related publications.

The work of Richard St. Barbe Baker & the ‘Men of the Trees’ organization & its many sub-branches.

The history of Democratic Socialism.

Pre-WW2 Trade Union badges / pins / ephemera.

There are currently more than 2,000 items in the Ernest Bell Library. We will complete the cataloging of the collection as & when adequate funds are available.

 “I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of centre for students, will meet with a wide response.” 

Henry S. Salt – writing in September 1934

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What is our connection with HappyCow?

HappyCow is now very ‘vegan focused’ and, in our opinion, is very effective at promoting vegan businesses & projects.

We have been writing reviews on HappyCow & submitting new listings & edits since 2007.

Our library team cooperates with, and post articles to, HappyCow, primarily because the site is busy with ‘our kind of people’. HappyCow often gets 1,000,000+ visits each month & our ‘message’ gets out to many more times the number of people than it did when we used to post only to our UK based site – www.henrysalt.co.uk.

We are deeply attached to the history humanitarianism – and especially attached to the history of veganism – ……which is know by many different names around the world. In 1905 Ernest Bell referred to veganism / ‘animal rights related plant eating’ as the –

‘…wholesome and invigorating diet of the arboreal ancestors from whom we inherit our canine teeth (wrongly so called),…’

– more.

Luckily for all of us, almost 40 years later, Fay K. & G. Allan Henderson, with input from Dorothy & Donald Watson thought up the terms –

‘Vegan & Veganism’

We now have more than 100 blog posts visible on HappyCow.

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If anyone would like more information about our projects, please send an email to: – 

humanitarianleague (at) outlook (dot) com 

– or message me  through HappyCow – 

https://www.happycow.net/blog/author/JohnnySensible/

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“A people without a history is like a tree without roots.”

April / May 2007 – Satya

Q) Colleen Patrick-Goudreau – You use the phrase “historical amnesia” to refer to the fact that contemporary animal activists—and society as a whole—know nothing of the legacy of animal activism in the U.S. What are some of the effects of having “historical amnesia”? Why is it so important to know our legacy?

A) Diane Beers – Animal advocacy has an amazing history, yet it is essentially an untold story. African American activists will often say, “A people without a history is like a tree without roots.” Indeed, if activists don’t know the history of their cause, they can have no sense of their movement’s struggles, long-term strategies, achievements and heroes. In addition, they can’t promote their long impressive movement to the public, and their opponents—the meat industry, medical research industry and the government—will fill the void. They have been the ones most aggressively and successfully constructing negative images and outright myths of animal advocacy that the public often believes.

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