Anti Slavery Bugle

Animal Suicides.

It is related in the travels of Monsieur Violet, the truth of which is avouched by Captain Maryatt, that he saw horses that had been tyrannized over by other horses, and treated by the whole herd as outcasts, commit suicide. When tired of their Paria life they walk round and round some large tree, as if to ascertain the degree of hardness required, measure the distance, and, darting with furious speed against it, fracture their skulls, and thus get rid of life and oppression both together. He says that squirrels sometimes persecute one among their number till he destroys himself. "One day, while we were watching this outcast of a squirrel, we detected a young one slowly creeping through the adjoining shrubs; he had in his mouth a ripe fruit; at every moment he would stop and look as if he were watching, just as if he feared detection. At last he arrived near the Paria, or outcast, and deposited before him his offering to misery and old age. They were, however, perceived by the other squirrels, who sprang by dozens upon them. The young one, with two bounds, escaped; the other submitted to his fate. I rose—all the squirrels vanished except the victim; but that time, contrary to his habits, he left the shrub, and slowly advanced to the banks of a river, and ascended a tree. A minute afterwards we observed him at the very extremity of a branch projecting over the rapid waters, and we heard his plaintive shriek—it was farewell to life and misery."—Boston Daily Journal.