The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-01-09
REECHER'S HORSE.
a Very Lively and Touching Story.
fE,,,, ia. Nau, Nnrk I e1per

! From the New FORK Ledger.
Does not moral justice require that
there should be some green pasture
land hereafter for good horses? Say,
old family horses, that have brought up
Il whole family of their masters child
rem, and never Iun away in their lives
Doctors horses, that stand unhitched,
hours, day and night, never knowing
the post or fence, while TIE work of in
tended humanity goes onH Poor mems
poor horses, that everybody laughs at
on earth, and yet giyeall their power to
keep their poor master comfortable.
Ownibus horses, that are jerked and
pulled. licked and kicked, ground up by
inches Oh hard, sliding pavements,
overloaded aul abnsed! Horses that
died for their country on the field of
battle, or wore out their constitutions
in carrying their noble generals through
field aud flood Or Ey horse, my old
Charley, the first horse that ever /
owned: of racing stock, large, raw.
boncd, too fiery for anybOdy's driving
but my own, and as docile to my voice
as my child was
We were crossing the prairics more
thah twenty-five years ago, another
horse by his side, and in the carriage
wife, cousin and child. The road had
been thrown up for thirty rods on either
side of low rail bridge, across q slug
gish stream; the ditch on either side full
of water, prevented any turning off the
road if YOU once got upon it. | did get
on il before | saw that the soil was the
stihcst, greasiest OF blue clay, and that
it was wet with recent rains My horse
saw the trouble before | did. He was
nervous and troubled. There was rea-
son. In the middle of a wide prairie,
with no house within six or seven
miles, and wife and children behind
You, no fences nor wood where, il yOu
stuck, you could get a lever to pry out.
| spoke gently, growing at each sec
ond little more earnest. Every lit of
their hoolS pulled out of the sucking
mud sounded like a pistol, We hearad
the bridge. The road grew decper-the
mud more tenacious. For second
Charley seemed to despair. The black
horse by his side was for giving up.
| rose in my seat with yell that
started Charley like breath on Goals of
fire. brought down my whip on tlauks
seldom dishOnored with blow. In an
instant be- gathered himself like buck
for mighty leaps lie had the strength
of ten horses. The muscles lay like
knots ard cords along his body. Away
went the carriage, Jerk 10y jerk, carriage
and black horse, tOo-all drawn by the
terrible earnestncsS of my brave Char
ley, till the bridge was reached and
crossed, and the road on the other side,
aud the dry grass road once more gained.
Did | not bless the OK whose hide
made that harness Did not bless the
men whe put in those stout stitches
Did not dance and shout, aud Caress
old Charley-yes, kiss him, too, Did
we not all get out, women and children
and pat him and praise him, and did he
not, like prince as he was vet tremb-
ling all over with excitement, receive
our gratulations with proud in.elli
gencc: Charley was sold, on my re-.
moval, to minister, somebody stole
him and sold him TO the Indians. |
don't know whatever became of him.
should know HIM among ten thousand.
Do you think that he is entirely put
outf
1t horses don't have another chance in
land Of tender grass and infinite oats,
thrn think We ought to treat them a
"'a' better than we do in this word.
HENRY WARD BEECHER.