The Portland daily press., 1881-02-08
Horses and Harnesses.

In Mr.. Samuel Smiles's recent volume,
''Duty," occur many sensible and humane
paragraphs upon the treatment of animals,
from which the following are selected:
The gentleness of chivalry, properly so called,
depends on the recognition of the order and
awe of lower and loftier animal life.
There is, perhaps, in all the Iliad, nothing
more deep in signifcance-there is nothing in
all literature more perfect in human tender
than the verses that describe the sorrow of
the divine horses at the death of Patroclus,
and the comfort given them by the greatest of
the gods.-Ruskin.
Miss Braddon speaks of the "high-mettled
horses champing their bits in that eloquent
nartyrdom by which fashion contrives to make
the life of three hundred guinea pair of car
riage horses good deal worse than that of
costermonger's donkey" A lady wrote re-
Gently to Truth, describing the tortures which
she had seen inflicted on pair of horses stand
ing in Regent Street.
Il Observed" she said, IAN open barouche
and a pair of horses standing at the side of the
street. So tightly were the bearing-rens fas-
tened back that it was impossible for the poor
brutes to close their mouths, and their distress
was so painful to behold that went and tried
in vain to get the coachman to loosen the reins
little. All 1 could get from the man was,
They are used to it; missus likes 'em to be
like that The offside horse seemed to suffer
the most In vain the poor brute tried to get
relief; the. look of misery in its eyes will
haunt me for many a long day."
The man who has done more to abate the
misery of carriage-horses than any other is
Edward Fordham Flower. He may almost be
called ''The Missionary of Horses" He gives
the following description of the Harvesting of
the horses of fashionable turnout" A tight
bearing-rejn is used to pull the horses head
up, fxeo martingale to pull them down,
close binders to prevent their seeing their way,
cruppers which are OBLIGED to be tight to hold
the beariDg-reins in their places so that the
heads and tails of the animals are tied tight
together. To obtain a little ease by shortening
its back when standing still, the horse extends
its forelegs beyond their natural position,
while the hinder ones are proportionably
thrown back. causing inflammation and navic
ular lameness. The tight bearing rein, by
holding the head in an unnatural and fixed pc
sition, strains the windpipe and respiratory Or
gans inducing roaring and other maladies.
The front part of the bride is frequent
ly too short, thereby hurting the low
strap, which, when tight, besides drawing the
wlnkers too close, pulls forward the top of
the bride SO as to hurt the ears: and when the
horse shows signs of uneasiness by throwing up
its head, he is punished by more and tighter
straps, the coachman seldom troubling himself
to find out and remedy the cause Of the irrita-
ton.
Fashion is strong-stronger, L fear, than
humanity-but still have hopes. Fashion
no longer orders horses to be cropped, docked
and nicked; therefore these new forms of dis
tortion and cruelty may give way If few
women of common sense and lovers of human
ity, we should soon wipe out this blot upon our
civilization. 1 am happy to have been allowed
to raise my feeble voice in the cause; and I
heartily thank all those (and they are many
who have come forward to help and encourage
me. L shall perSevere and thOu oh am old r
do not despair of living long enough to have it
engraved upon my tombstone, He was one of
those men who caused the bearing-rein to be
abolished