Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-05-16
soul awakning thought and feeling from
the slumber of neglect. At any rate feel
that have endeagored to do justice to the
organ grinders as well as the others.

the slumOer OF neglect AC any rate ieel
that | have endeagorcd to do justice to the
organ grinders as well as the others,
A CHAPTER ON HORSES.
No animal in our city enter so indispcn-
sibly into its immense business as the
horse in his auxiliary service with man,
and he is so important in motive power
and locomotion, that we could more
easily give up the iron horse and every
other means of force and speed than this
patient, obedent and much. abused animal.
For what matters it what immense freights
our cars and steamers bear to and from
the city, if horses are not ever ready to
distribute or concentrate it? Where is
the availability of our city stretching out
It's magnificent length to the upper end Of
the island, if horses are not ever at hand
to speed us away in car and stage, in hack
and "ansom cab" in open top and closed
coupe, as in the words Of SAKE,
"Wo lift our heads and smoothly soar
Der every passage reckond stony,
We drive the spur, but never score
single honor to the pony"
but comfortably keep our seats in the
crowded cars, and never think once to "put
a shoulder to the wheel" to help the poor
STRUGGLING and oycrstraincd horses over an
uphill grade or the dead pull on curve.
Since his first seryitude to man, the
horse has been the most thoughtlessly
abused of animals. Surely when the Sa-
vior said, "The poor yc have always with
ye," ho too brought the poor horse under
our compassion; he perhaps stands most
in need of it from the frequency wherein
he is the object of ii treatment. We can.
not kick and beat the mechanic who
builds our house, or the blacksmith who
makes our machinery or plow, or the labor.
or who works in our factory or on our
farm, for the big-fsted fellow may pun
mel us well for it; but in Shakspeare's
words - slightly changed -"A staff is
quickly found to beat horse" Now,
this is not right, and the " Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has beer
proving it wrong, as their report for the
past twelve months shows there were 365
cases of cruelty to animals prosecuted, Q
other cases awaiting trial by jury, $50
lame and disabled horses turned out OF
harness and their owners warned, 1876 dis
abled horses which had fallen in the streets
removed by the ambulance OF the Society,
and 443 condemned animals humanely de-
stroyed by the officers of the Society.
This commendable society should he
branched throughout the whole country.
This report and the above paragraphs
refer to the working horses of our city,
horses that bring from SIS TO $500, horses
that began spirited career as fancy teams,
and from various causes, losing their beauty
and speed, have become public hacks and
draughts, and wind up o miserable career
before stages and cars, where they either
fall painting beneath the heat and load. or
in crippled old age 80 before some gar
bage cart, and when the old bones 90 down
for the last time they are hauled off to the
soap, glue, and phosphate factories
But there is another class of horses that
possess a petted distinction, horses that
are seen on the road each pleasant day
making the time in $50 or less, horses that
bring $4,000 or more. These horses call
forth our admiration, but not our svmpa-
thy. They are more ornamental than use
ful, their speed is more a matter o! pride
than utility, the world can get on as we'll
without them as with them; but they look
nice and 60 fast, and so appeal to our love
of the beautiful and our fancy for Cast
Things
As the value of the horse is not to be
computed by pounds, the horse market
would be q hard one to quote with the
same correctness as the cattle market ;
however, it does not undergo many fuctu-
ations on the average; there is a steady
demand for them at all times. They are
sold by private advertisement in the pa
pers and daily at auction houses. One can
buy morse any day, and from the many
forced sales, as low as in the country.
No animal deserves fairer price and
better care than the horse, for if he is in
dispensible to the business of the CITY,
how much more impossible it would be to
settle up our vast country and carry on
its farms without the valuable animal.
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