"Carload after carload of wretched-looking cattle were brought to the stock yards, having come thousands of miles, some of them without one drop of water. It turned me faint, used as I am to suffering, to see the piteous pleading in their sunken, frightened eyes. Great heavens, it was a sight to remember!
"And then the way they unloaded them! There were thousands of them, and people were in a hurry. The poor beasts, weak and terrified as they were, did their best to obey the rough, unintelligible orders, but assistance (?) was inhumanly rendered by the men using heavy poles with great iron spikes in the end. Prod, prod, prod! time and again the cruel iron pierced the hide and buried itself in their quivering flesh. The air was full of the cries and moans of fright and pain. Many were hauled out dead or dying. Something of what they endured may be conceived when one witnesses their frantic greed for water. It is terrible to think of the torturing thirst that had lasted for days.
"I tell you, man, there's a day of reckoning coming when men will cry unto the mountains and hills to fall on them and hide them."
"But why do they abuse them so? Water is plentiful," Martin asked.
"Well, I suppose it saves time and trouble, but the main reason is greed. They starve them for water, then give them a chance to drink all they want just before they are weighed, thus increasing their weight dishonestly. Then, when Saturday night comes, the water is shut off, and the poor animals in the stockyards get no more until Monday; and of all dreary, hot, dusty places on earth those stockyards take the lead.
"But the worst of all is the cruelties of the slaughter houses. Hundreds of cattle crowded around awaiting their turn to be butchered, and gazing with staring eyes at their mates' bloody fate. You know how the smell of blood terrifies such creatures. Their whole systems are doubtless poisoned with the agony. Such meat cannot be healthy.
"Now there could be humane means devised for all these proceedings if only men cared."
"If only they cared," echoed Martin, much impressed by Master's words.