The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-01-30


= try behind that horse for two or thre
, hours, holding him in with such fore
that my hands were made too unstead
for penmanship. If wanted to take
row on the river-an exercise of whic
. l lam passionately iond-that accurse
animal had to be danced up and dow
,, the turnpike in order to keep him froI
4 kicking the stable to pieces. And h
j was recommended to me- as "urbane /!
He made my life unhappy. / becam
,, depressed and morose, and even some
times, when amid a circle of friends
there was a provocation to laughter, an
,, 1 participated in the general hilarity,
would suddenly become conscious G
the fact that the horse was in activ
existence, and the mirth would be e1
tinguished in gloom. He mingled wit
my dreams. Visions of a bob-taile
horse consuming spectral;oats and kick
ing with millions of legs disturbed m
rest at night. / rushed with him owe
countless leagues of shadowy road, an,
plunged with him over incomprehensi
BILE precipices. He organized himsel
into hideous nightmare shapes, an,
charged wildly over me as / slept, ant
filed all the air of that mysteriou
!
moniac neighing.
The reality was bad enough, without
the unreal nocturnal horrors. 1 NIGH
have sold the brute, but my wife really
wanted to have horse, and wished tC
oblige her. But it was very wearing tC
bear about constantly the feeling of re.
sponsibility, which the animal engen.
dered. / had..to choose between driving
him continually and having the lives OF
the members of my family imperiled
when they took him out, and the con-
sciousness that, whether there was sick
ness or business, storm or earthquake,
calamities or death, the horse must be
driven, gradually placed Ile in the po.
sition of a man who is haunted by some
dreadful specter, which clings to him
and overshadows.. him forever and fore
ever.
The perpetual nervous worry told
upon me. became thin. My clothing
hung loose upon me. / took mp two
inches in my waiscoat strap. The ap-
petite which enabled me to find enjoy
ment at the table deserted me. The
food seemed tasteless, and if in the
midst of the meal the neigh of the horse
came eddying up through the air from
the stable, turned away with feeling
of disgust, and felt as if wanted TO
prod somebody with the carving knife.
One day my wife said to me:
"Mr. Adeler, you know that urged
you strongly to buy that horse, and 1
thought he would do, but -
"But now you want to sell him % 1
exclaimed quickly, and with delight.
every well I'll send him to the auc-
tioneer's this very day."
"I wasn't going to say that, " she re-
marked. "What 1 want to mention
was, that nearly everybody in good cir
cumstances about here drives a pair,
and think we ought to get another
horse; don't you, my dear? It's so
much nicer than having only one"
"Mrs. Adeler, said solemnly, "that
one horse down there in tie stable now
has reduced me to a skeleton, and made
me perfectly miserable. / will do as
you say if you insist upon it; but tell
you plainly that if another horse is
brought upon these premises, I shall go
mad"
"Don't speak in that manner, my
dear"
"I tell you, Mrs. Adeler, that shall
go stark, staring mad Take your
choice go without the horse or have a
maniac husband"
She said, of course, that she would
do without the horse.
But the affection was suddenly and
unexpectedly removed. My horse had
a singularly brief tail, and thought
| that it might be that some of his violent
demonstrations in the stable were in
| duced by his inability TO switch of the
| flies which lighted upon sensitive por-
tions of his body. 1t occurred to me to
get him up an artificial tail for home
use, and / procured n piece of thick
| rope for the purpose. There was, too,
| a certain humorousness about the idea
| that pleased me, and as the amount of
| jocularity which that horse had occasion
ed had, thus far, been particularly small,
| the notion had peculiar attractiveness.
I unraveled about eighteen inches of
the rope, and fastened the other end TO
the horses tail. This, / estimated,
would enable him to switch fly off the
very end of his nose when he had ac-
! quire little practice. Unfortunately,
| neglected to speak to the hostler upon
the subject, and when he came to the
stable that evening he examined the
rope and concluded that / was irving
experiments with some new kind of
hitching-strap, so he tied the horse TO
the stall that night by his artificial con-
tinuation. By morning the feed-box
was kicked into kindling wood, and the
horse was standing on three legs, with
the other leg caught in the hay-rack,
while he had chewed up two of the best
boards in the side of the stable in front
of him.
Subsequently I explained the theory
to the man, and readjusted the rope.
But the patent tail annoyed the hostler
so much while currying the horse that
he tied stone to it to hold it still. The
consequence was that, in n moment of
unusual excitement, the horse swung
the stone aroung and inflicted n severe
wound upon the mans head. The man
resigned the next morning.
then concluded to introduce an inn
provement. I purchased some horse
hair and placed it upon the tail so neat
ly that it had the appearance of natural
growth. When the new man came he
attempted to comb out the horses tail,
and the added portion came off in his
hand. He had profound confidence in
his veterinary skill, and he imagined
that tire occurrence indicated diseased
condition of the horse. So he pur-
chased some powders and gave the ami
NAL an enormous dose in a bucket OF
warm "mash." In half an hour that
pestilential horse was seized with con-
vulsions, during which he kicked out
the stable-door, shattered the stall TO
pieces, hammered four more boards out
of the partition, dislocated his of hind
leg and expired in frightful agony.
He was more urbane after death than
he had been during his life, and con-
templated his remains without shedding
a tear. He was sold to glue man for
eight dollars, and when he had departed
1 felt that he would fulfill wiser and
better purpose as % oohtTiouCor tEan 20 70 In Ine
conscious prosecutor of his former
owner.
USEFUL ADVICE To BoYs.-To throw
stones. Fold each one carefully in a
L Ill