Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/578

554 voice, resembling the shriek of a man. Just as we were passing they began to kill it. One of the men gashed its throat with a knife. The pig squealed still more loudly and piercingly, broke away from them, and ran off covered with blood. Being near-sighted, I did not see all the details. I saw only the human-looking pink body of the pig, and heard its desperate squeal; but the carter saw all the details and watched closely. They caught the pig, knocked it down, and finished cutting its throat. When its squeals ceased the izvoshchik sighed heavily. "Do men really not have to answer for this?" he said.

So strong is man's aversion to all killing; but by example, by encouraging greediness, by the assertion that God has allowed it, and, above all by habit, people are entirely deprived of this natural feeling.

On Friday I went to Tula, and meeting a gentle, kind acquaintance of mine, I invited him to accompany me.

"Yes, I have heard that the arrangements are good, and have been wishing to go and see it; but if they are slaughtering, I will not go in."

"Why not? That is just what I want to see! If we eat meat, it must be killed."

"No, no, I cannot."

It is worth while to remark that this man is a sportsman, and himself kills beasts and birds.

So we went to the slaughter-house. Even at the entrance one could perceive the heavy, disgusting, fetid smell of carpenter's glue or paint on glue. The nearer we approached, the stronger became the smell. The building is of red brick, very large, with vaults and high chimneys. We entered the gates. To the right was a spacious inclosed yard, three-quarters of an acre in extent,—twice a week cattle are driven in here for sale,—and adjoining this inclosure was the porter's lodge. To the left were the "chambers," as they are called, i.e. rooms with arched entrances, sloping asphalt floors, and contrivances for the moving and hanging up of carcasses. On a bench against the wall of the porter's lodge were seated half a dozen butchers, in frocks covered with blood, their tucked-up sleeves disclosing their muscular