(Ernest Bell, 1851-1933)
“I dedicate, I dedicate,
I consecrate with tears.”
It is but four years ago that a large party of animals’ friends met in London from all parts of England to do honour to Mr. Ernest Bell in person, on the occasion of his withdrawal from the more strenuous public work with which his name has so long been associated.
He was asked then to accept a somewhat unique offering in the form of a hand-made album, containing messages of love and appreciation from representatives of twenty-two different societies working for animals, and each page had its individual touch. In the preliminary pages was inscribed an address from the pen of the present editor of this magazine, commencing with the following sincere and gracious words:
“Of all the titles of nobility none is more highly esteemed among us than that of ‘The Animals’ Friend’. It is a title of high honour and emprise which has been yours these many years and by it you are known among your fellow-men. Upon you it has been conferred spontaneously by friends of justice and lovers of animals the wide world over, but not until this day have the letters patent of your title been inscribed.”
And now we once more meet, if only in spirit, to offer a last tribute to the memory of that same “Animals’ Friend”, that very perfect, gentle knight who, within the last few weeks has gone beyond these voices.
The friend of animals he was truly, but he was also something more; he was a humanitarian in its widest meaning, and the secret, to me, of his life of service and unusual consistency, lies in the fact that his philosophy of living was based on the sound foundation of a refusal to participate in the eating of animals—which is a point of ethics usually the last one to be reached instead of the earliest, with many social reformers, while to be a vegetarian at Cambridge in his day must have required far more determination than it does now.
But once the principle of the right of the animal to its own life was accepted, it seems to have been a swift progression onwards to the full recognition of that wider sympathy which enfolds all sentient beings.
And so it followed naturally that when in 1891 Ernest Bell heard of the suggestion to form a Humanitarian League he was amongst the early and prominent members of that band of workers, under the guidance of Mr. H. S. Salt, whose programme embraced the abolition of Spurious Sport, of the Eton Beagles, and of Capital Punishment; a crusade against the wearing of feathers and furs, a plea for better treatment of prisoners, for reforms in the slaughter-house, etc., and, not least in importance, the creation of a Children’s Department through which agency and that of the publishing house of which Mr. Bell was a partner, so much valuable literature has been distributed. Humane teaching in schools became for the first time a thing of practical achievement.
The years of the Humanitarian League can be counted as amongst the happiest of his useful career and it was a real sorrow to its Treasurer when, in 1919, it was disbanded, mainly as a result of the War.
Through the pages of THE ANIMALS’ FRIEND, which he conducted for over thirty years, however, he continued his influence upon a wide circle of readers; he issued series of pamphlets and leaflets, posters and school pictures and freely were they given where most needed.
The National Anti-Vivisection Society, from the days of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, can claim him as one of its staunch pioneers. Amongst my earliest recollections of our office routine is the never-failing regularity with which he attended its monthly Council meetings, for many years as Chairman.
The Birds’ Society, the Canine Defence League, the London Vegetarian Society and others, made equal demands upon his time and generosity.
It may almost appear that animal questions absorbed all his time and yet I could tell of many other interests, purely human, such as the women’s demand for equal suffrage, the helping of the blind, which found places in his thought. And, again, always, as new problems arose, it was Mr. Bell who seemed to settle them. Causes without homes of their own were taken in and sheltered at York House. The Performing Animals, the Pit Ponies, the Cats’ Protection League, the Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, could never have flourished as they have without his timely protection. Where, indeed, does the story end?
But let me tell now of another side of the character of this man of many parts, whereby he has attained another kind of reputation, and those who have been with him at the Vegetarian Summer Schools will know what I mean.
It was there he was in his element, playing the part of Headmaster, giving out “Mottos for the day at breakfast time, and holding dancing classes at eleven! Strongly did he believe in the value of developing one’s natural faculties and under his guidance quite elderly gentlemen were to be found learning the art of “reversing” and the intricacies of the Lancers (for dancing was dancing in those days).
You might also have seen him, as a member of the Magic Circle, giving conjuring entertainments to the delight of the juvenile “Summer scholars”, but they never saw a live rabbit produced from that conjurer’s hat!
Yes, he loved those social gatherings, the study circles and discussions and the friendships thus formed.
There are still a few copies of his volume of collected Summer School Papers (The Wider Sympathy is its revised title). No friend of the author should be without one. And then—The Joy Book by Ernest Bell, compiled only a few years ago—this will show the humorous and sunny side of our seriously-minded philosopher and friend, and many are the testimonies I have seen to the beneficent effect of this book upon the folk who needed cheering up.
Perhaps the last word can never be said of one who has left behind such a record, while memories of his never-failing response to every call, his wise and practical counsel that has helped so many in moments of stress, his kindly and humorous sayings—all these come surging to the fore as in memory we look back through the years of association with this great gentleman who now has joined “the great march onward”.
No better appreciation of his worth could be given than a steadfast determination to bring to successful issues the ideals he had in mind—and one of his dearest hopes was that humane education should grow and grow; for the future lies with the children.
Our Children’s card for signature runs:
“The animals need all the friends they can get I will be one of them.”
We laid one of these cards upon his grave with three little rosebuds attached by a white ribbon—our very simple tribute to his memory, adding these words:
We will “not say Good-bye, but on some brighter shore
We’ll bid you GOOD MORROW”.