Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-17
THAT HORSE
Max Adcler's Curious Equine Expo
philadelphia To-Day"


bought horse If had not been strongly urged
TO DO SO by other persons. L do not care a great
deal tor riding and driving. and If it ever did
occur to me that il would, perhaps, be a nice
thing to have a horse of my own regarded the
necessary expense aa much too great for the
small amount OF enjoy ment which could be ob-
tanned from the investment. IL ALWAYS seemed
TO me TO be much cheaper to hire horse at a
livery stable II only occasional dr va was de-
sired; and cling TO that theory yet. But every
body else seemed To think that ought to owna
horse Mrs. Adeer was especially anxious
about 1t. She insisted that we were doing yery
well in the world, and she did not see the use OF
having means II we were to live ALWAYS as we
did when we were poor. She said she often
wanted to take drive along the river-road in
the evening with the children, and she FREE
quently wished 20 visit her friends in the coun-
try, but she couldn't bear to go with a strange
horse, of which she knew nothing.
My friends used to say, "Adeler, I wonder
you don't keep horse and take your family
out sometimes" and they hammered away at
the theme until L actually began to feel as 1t
the public suspected me OF being a niggsrdly
and cruel tyrant, who Rugged my gold TO my
bosom, and gloated over the misery of my wife
and cbildren-gloated because they couldn't
have a horse. People used to come down from
the city TO see us, and, after examining the
house and garden, they would remark, Every
charming very charming, indeed! A little
paradise, in fact; but, Adeler. why don't you
buy horse" ! gradually grew nervous upon
the subject, and was tOlerabiy well convinced
that there would never be perfect happiness in
my family TIL purchased steed Of some
lives next door to me, had a cream-colorei
horse knocked down TO him at one of those
auction sales which are known in the rural
districts as "Nandues." And when | saw
Sensenderfer drive past the house every after
noon with that cream colored brute, and his
family in dearbOrn-wagOn, and observed
now he looked in at US and smiled superCll-
iously, as if he was thinking "there lives a
miserable Outcast who has no horse, and can't
get one" determined to purchase at once.
L have not had much experience with horses,
but / found whose aDpearaQCa q al
pleased me, and | was particularly drawn to-
ward him because the man recommended hun
as being "urbane.' had heard many descrip-
tons OF the points OF good horse, but this was
the first time had ever met horse whose most
prominent characteristic was urbanity. Ii
seemed to me that the quality was an excellent
one, and made bari gain on the spot and drove
home.
"Mrs. Adeler,'' l said, as exhibited the pur-
chase to her, Il do not think this horse is very
fast; do not regard him as in the highest sense
beautiful; he may even be deficient in wind; his
tail certainly is short; and l think | can detect
in his forelegs tendency to spIing too far for
ward at the knees; but, Mrs. Adeler, the horse
is urbane. The man said that his urbauity
amounted to positive weakness, and that is
why bought him. liza horse is not Urbaue, my
dear, it is useless, no matter what its merits IN
other respects"
She said that had been her opinion from early
childhood.
al do not care greatly, Mrs. Adeler, for ex-
cesslve speed. Give me horse which can pro-
coed with merely tolerable degree OF celebrity
anu COHLGnt. L COulu never complement
why aman whose horse can trot mile in two
minutes and forty seconds should be made I'M
happy because another mans horse trOts the
same distance one second sooner; that Is, of
course, surprising that they were not running
for money. One second of time never makes
any especial difference to me, even wnen |
am in hurry. What want in a horse il not
sWiitneSs, but urbanity. / woul1 rather have A
kind hearted horse nike ours, than the most
rapid trOtter with wicked disposition"
For while enjoyed having a horse, aud |
oil rtJF had .l,A Il
pie to drive down by the river bank upon
a pleasant evening, with the cool breeze blow
ing in from the water, and the country around
beautiful with the bright foliage of early
tumn, with green he gees aud ripening crops.
There was a sufficient compensation for tue
heat and wTetcDedness OF the busy day in this
quiet journey over the level road, anu past the
fragrant fields in the early twilight; and a. We
came home amid the deepening shadows we
cculd 1nd pleasure in watching the schooners
lar of IN the channel ding out their lights, aud
we could see the rays streaming across the wide
interval of ripping surface, and moving weirdly
and strangely with the motion of the water.
Sometimes, upon going out, we would over
take Sensendefer IN his dearborn, and then il
was felicitous to observe how, when / touch cd
my horse with the whip, the horse put his head
down, elevated his andrews ted tail to a hor-
ZOntal position and left Sensendefer far behind
logging his cream cOored horse with such fury
as would surely have subjected him to the re-
proaches of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, II that excellent organiza-
ton had been present. My horse could achieve
toleraby rapid gait when he desired to do 20.
That fact made existence in this world OF
anguish and tears seem even more sad to SEN
sendefer than 1t had done previously. | feel
sure that he would have given fabulous sums if
his cream colOred horse could have trottsd a
mile in a minute-just once-When we wer.
upon the road together began TO think 1t was
just as well, after all, to have progressive
horse as a slow one.
But when the novelty of the thing had passed,
my old indlspOsiton to anusements OF that kind
gradually returned. | drove less freq IenLly
One day my man said to me, 'Mr. Adesr, nat
boss is a eatiu' his head Off, sir. II you DON'T
take him out, he'll be so wild that he'll bust the
machine to flinders, s.r,''
The threatened catastrophe seemed 50 alarm
ing that took him out, although had import
ant work to do at home. The next day /
wanted To stay up in the city to go to the
lecture: out that morning early the horse dis
played an alarming amount Of freshness, and
felt as If i must exercise him. / drove him
tor three hours at rapid gait, and succeeded
in working off at least the exuberance OF his
spirits.
on the following Wednesday I came home in
the afternoon exhausted with WORK and intend
ing to retire at an early hour. At half past SIX
O'Clock Chubb came in. He remarkeJ:-!'Ade-
Ter, that horse of vourn'll 20 crazy it you don't
move him around. He kicks like fl ut lock
nusket now, II you come within forty feet Of
went out and hitched up, and that night 1
drove twenty four miles at a frightful speed.
Horses, perhaps, have gone further and faster
bat few have been pushed forward with a
smaller regard Tor coDssq uences. Nothing but
recollection of the cost of the horse restrained
me from driving him into the river and lea wing
him there.
By degrees the despicable brute became the
curse of my existence. Ii | desired to go on A
journey, the restlessness of the horse had first
to be overcome. 1t L received an invitation to
party, the horse must be exercised before
hand. Ii had an important article to write, [
must roam around the country behind that
horse for two or three hours. holding him in
with such force that my hands were m ade too
unsteady for penmanship. If / wanted to take
row on the river-an exercise of which l AN
passionstely fond-that accursed animal had to
be danced up and down the turnpike In order
to keep him from kicking the able to pieces
And he was recommended to me as "urbane."
He made my life unhappy. 1 became de-
pressed and morose, and even sometimes when
amid a circle of friends, there was a provoca-
ton TO laughter, and participated in the gem
eral hiiarity, would suddenly become con-
sclous Of the fact that the horse Was in active
existence, and the mlrth would be extinguished
In gloom. He mingled with my dreams. Wis
ions of a bob tailed horse consu ming spectral
oats and kicking with millions of legs disturbed
my rest at night. I rushed with him over
countless leagues of shadowy road, and plunged
with him over iDcOmprehensble precipices
lie organized himself into hidesus night,n are
shapes. And CHARGED wildly nvar ma o. I elan