A thousand of ordinary men will gather at Gateshead or Hanley
and howl with delight when two wiry whippets worry a stupefied rabbit.
They are decent fellows in their way, and they generally have a rigid
idea of fairness; but they fail to see the unfairness of hooking a
rabbit out of a sack and setting him to run for his life in an enclosure
from which he cannot possibly escape. Pastimes that do not involve the
death of something or the wagering of money are accounted tame. It is
one of the riddles that make me wish I could not think at all. I give it
up, for I am only a Loafer, and the dark problems of existence are
beyond me.

Perhaps they are beyond Mr. Herbert Spencer.

Our ragged regiment met in a wide, quiet field. Nearly all my costers
were about, and they cried "Wayo!" with cordiality. Half the company on
the field could not muster threepence in the world; many of them were
probably hungry; many were far gone in drink; but all were eager for
"sport." We shall have some talk presently about the bitter ennui of the
poor man's life. The existence of that deadly ennui never was brought
before me so vividly as it was when I saw that queer multitude,
forgetting hunger, cold, poverty, pain--and forgetting because they were
about to see some rabbits worried!

On a low stand stood a broad pair of scales and an immense hamper. The
stand was watched by a red-faced merryandrew, who gibbered and yelled in
a vigorous manner. A funny reprobate is that old person. Every hour of
his life is given over to the search for excitement; he is never dull;
he has a cheery word for all whom he meets; he will drink, fight, and
even make love, with all the ardour of youth. When there is nothing more
exciting to do, he will drive a trotter for twenty miles at break-neck
pace. When he dies, his life's work may be easily summed up:--He drank
so many quarts of ale; he killed so many pigeons and rabbits. Nothing
more.

My terrier made a ferocious dash at the big hamper, and I knew that our
victims were there. Presently the dogs began to arrive, and I was amazed
and amused to see some of the little brutes. They could no more catch a
rabbit on fair ground than they could pull down a locomotive; but the
long railway journey, the strange field, and the clamorous mob render
poor Bunny almost helpless, and he gives up his life only too easily.
The best of the terriers were beautiful wretches with iron muscles and a
general air of courageous wicked