The Republican journal., 1872-10-31
Letter From Boston,
Correspondence Of the journal

an absence OF horse flesh will permit the
comparison; and on Saturday, owing te
a drenching rain, we swan about witt
umbrellas in lieu of the poetical Condo.
llers. This horse dstemper is singular
trial OF human legs and temper, and JUS
shows us how dependent we are on the
noble brute who is only very little low
er than the angels. The alarm first be-
gan week ago to-day, but no percepti
bic difference was noticeable in the streets
until Thursday, when l, with other timc
pedestrians, found the usual snarl of men
women and teams, at the corner of Wash.
ington and Winter streets much abated,
and the services of the gallant policemen
quite unnecessary at that dangerous cross
ing hat this sudden thinning out real
ly meant total abstinence on the part OF
stage lines and careful owners of expen.
slve horses never occurred to me until
the next day. when not single private
turnout was visible to the naked eve, and
the carriage-rddcn people, if one NAV
use the expression, We're seen ambling
peaceably along doing their shopping and
visiting on plebeian shank's mare. OF
course the most obtnse newspaper reader
graSped the situation by that time, and
believed all the stories and telegraphic
dispatches that had choked their tavorite
columns OF gossip with dstempered ac-
counts of this strange horse disease. Ex-
element, if not interest spread, as one
means OF conveyance after another drop
ped out of time being, and the prospect
of being horseless and houseless BOTH
gained upon the community who are de-
pendento on horse cars to reach their homes.
The newspapers, as you know, have had
the disease as badly as the beasts them
selves, but in the one case it has been
only nuts to greedy newsmen, while to
distressed stable keepers it is veritable
husks, and the fact that they longed with
out hope to take advantage of the i'll wind
blowing a neighbours cattle into disuse.
made the repast yet more unsavory. The
reflection that every turtle, private own
er, every company owning a great num-
Der OF horses, were ia this universal boat
didn't help matters of transportation, or
prevent many laughable contretemps that
We're duly itemized throughout the city
Saturday saw secession of metropolitan
horse-cars, with the exception of two or
three four-n-hand cars that made the
round every now and then; the stages
had already given in, and the prospect of
'demnition, moist, unpleasant" walks in
stead of rides, weighed heavily on thou
| sands to whom blessings always brighten
as they take their flight And really to
the South-ender this necessity of walking
| couple of miles means the loss of forty
minutes valuable time, and at first the
possibility of such misfortune went hard
Those corners of cross streets where peo-
pie most do congregate to take the cars
down town, showed groups of impatient
walters Hong the curb-stones during the
morning hours, but gradually they fell
| away as the car came not. and any chance
of getting to business, other than on foot,
grew fainter and fainter But nothing
| could look drearier than the business por-
ton of the city where turmoil generally
| reigns supreme, during the past few days.
Jordan, Marsh & Co., employed oxen
and gangs Of men to drag their heavy
merchandise to the depots, and other deal
ers have since followed the fashion The
Oriental Tea Company, always ready to
advertise, yoked up pair Of beeves, gild-
| ed their horns, and went it alone some
time before any one had dreamed of re-
turning to this slow but sure method.
in y
| as to despised wheebarrows. they were
worth their weight in gold. They were
i'm one instance the innocent means of
transporting the trousseau of q recent
bride to the Albany depot, who otherwise
must have been left by the New York
train, or gone baggageless on the we'd
| ding journey!
Such are some of the Inconvenience of
trying to run great city without horse
power. Why, nobody can be buried or
tashionably married under the existing
circumstances. A gentleman living eight
miles out of town, and owning 4 valuable
Hamitonian mare, rode her, as is often
his custom, into the city last Thursday,
not realizing the extent OF rapacity of the
distemper- The poor creature was at
tackled during the day, and, so alarmed her
tender hearted owner, that he led her all
the way home, pretering to walk the dis
lance himself than to add an ounce to her
load. People living in the country three
or four miles from the stations are obliged
to walk or remain at home, and the Bos-
ton Highlanders have crowded the Provi-
dence and Boston steam cars for a few
days, past speech. The outwardt rains at
night carry as many extra cars as can
hang together, and even then from the
conductors up to the directors are revled
because there is scarcely standing room
"Plenty of chairs but too much company"
grOWled a regular season ticket holder
the other night. when on arriving late,
newspapers, basket and bundle in hand,
he found his usual seat under the kerosene
lamp filled by lot of ''horse car people :"
but generally this sudden rush of travel
is taken good humoredly and only the
postscript of malediction is overheard by
these same horse car people.
No one seems to think much of the suf-
tering the poor horses endure, in the real
Inconvenience their illness causes to a
great mass of citizens; but if one owns a
fine stud it makes all the difference in the
world. l went into famous club stable
yesterday, where some twenty animals
were on the sick list They were all COM
fortably blanketed and tended like babies
the same watchful care, the same regu-
lar medicines, as if they were wholly
human. But it was pitiabe to hear them
cough, and see their distressed condition.
You wonder what they thought about it
all. Were they nervousP had they any
idea of making their wills +? and if they
didn't find it rather pleasant, after all, to
be cossetted, and know how important
they are to this nimbe world of ours (?
Sunday, that day of supposed rest, was
dull and silent enough. A blight seemed
to have fallen over the city. Pedestrians
missed that tiresome jingle, jingle of the
horse car, and the long line of equipages
in front OF fashionable church doors, and
their hearts softened,if their soles hardened
under this dispensatlon of silent exercise.
The few people who were intrepid enough
to use horse We're regarded with So
ciety-for prevention f-crue lty to- animals
look that BODIED no good, and much have
carried terror and visions of fines to the
owners heart. This however is but
surface matter cOmnaro with +l,o c+.to .