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THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
after a dog fight to the death had been staged in the city. The Picayune also editorially denounced the police for failing to move against a series of cockfights held at the Game Breeders Association convention in New Orleans. Police said the laws did not cover cockfighting.?
By March, 1884, the Picayune was editorially lamenting non-enforcement of the law against cruelty to animals. ?We believe there is more cruelty practiced toward animals in New Orleans than in any other city in the United States," said the newspaper. It was time for the residents of New Orleans, advised one editorial, to do more than ?feel sorry" for animals. ?Why cannot New Orleans as well as other cities, have a 'Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals?? "I0
Mrs. Nicholson first turned her efforts to the children of New Orleans. On April 16, at her home at 290 Jackson, she established the ?Louisiana Pioneer Band of Mercy," an organization to teach young persons to be kind to animals and to protect animals. The ?Band of Mercy" was a movement already underway in other parts of the nation, and the Picayune reported 125,000 members nationally in 1,497 organizations. One of the twenty boys named as a local member was Leonard Kimball Nicholson, the first Nicholson child, born January 11, 1881."
In the fall of 1884, the Picayune launched a regular Monday morning column devoted to Mrs. Nicholson's crusade. Headlined ?Nature?s Dumb Nobility,? the column first appeared November 19 and was edited for several years thereafter by Mrs. M. L. Schaffter. Mrs. Schaffter represented her publisher at annual meetings of the American Humane Association and held national
' Tauromachy," Picayune. May 19, 1880. p. 4; "A Barbarous Entertainment,? Picayune, January 10, 1882, p. 4; "Cock Fighting," Picayune, February 22, 1883, p. 2.
?^Everybody's Business Is Nobody's Business," Picayune. March 23, 1884. p. 4.
" Our Dumb Animals," Picayune, April 20, 1884, p. 16. Leonard was later proprietor of the Picayune, and after the merger of the Picayune and Times in 1914, he eventually became president of the Times-Picayune Publishing Company. He died in October. 1952. A second son, Yorke Poitevent, was born May 4, 1883. He, too, served as a company executive; Yorke died in 1948.
AN EDITOR'S VIEWS ON ANTI-CRUELTY
307
offices in the organization. She continued to edit the column until about 1890, when her health became frail. At the end of 1892, the column was dropped as a regular feature.1?
In February, 1885, a meeting was held to form a local SPCA. Mrs. Nicholson attended, as did her husband, Mrs. Schaffter, Mrs. M. R. Field (who wrote for the newspaper as ?Catherine Cole"), and C. Harrison Parker, editor-in-chief of the Picayune. In March, formation of the society was announced, and George Nicholson was named a vice president.? In the 1886 Louisiana legislature, a bill to define cruel and merciless treatment of animals was introduced, but the Louisiana General Assembly indefinitely postponed consideration of this bill to define terms used in anti-cruelty laws. Mrs. Schaffter?s column noted somewhat disgustedly: ?Thirty-eight superior animals in their superior wisdom deemed it best to oppose a bill for the relief and protection of the inferior animals ? dumb and defenseless." Supporters of the SPCA had two jobs, noted the writer of this column: protect the inferior animals and educate the superior animals."
Mrs. Nicholson and the Picayune were commended for their work at the 1886 national convention of the American Humane Association. Mrs. Nicholson was re-elected a member of the group's executive committee. She did not attend the meeting, but Mrs. Schaffter represented her. At the next year?s meeting in Rochester, New York, the Picayune received special mention for the humane work it was doing in the South.
But while the Nicholsons and their newspaper were receiving national attention for their work in behalf of animals, they were receiving lukewarm support at home, even with all
l,MNature's Dumb Nobility,? Picayune, November 19. 1884, p. 2. This initial column said its purpose was to ameliorate the condition of animats or at least protect them from cruelty.
"?Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,** Picayune, February 6. 1885, p. 6; "Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," Picayune, March 25, 1885, p. 4.
?"Nature?s Dumb Nobility.? Picayune. June 12, 1886, p. 7.