Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-07-27
Curing a Balky Horse.

On Thursday man came into the
Sun Office with the worst looking hcad
on him that ever was seen outside of
Oconomowoc. His eyes were both
blackened, there was cut across the
nose, one ear was stuck on with court
plaster, one arm was in a sling. and he
used pair of crutches. He hobbled in
the door of the blue room, and asked If
the editor was in, and on being told that
the great prevaricator stood before him.
he spit on his hands, grabbed a crutch
rs one would club, looked wild. and
accepted an invitation to set down on
the sofa. He sat down reluctantly as
though it hurt, and after laying his
crutches on the floor, and feeling of his
ear to see lift was on yet, he said:
''About three weeks ago you had an
item in your paper telling about a new
scheme for curing balky horses. TWAS
an electric battery to be placed in the
buggy, with wires running to the horses
bit, and when a horse baked the in
structions were to touch a button with
the foot, when the electric current
would 90 TO the horses mouth, take his
attention from his balkiness, and he
would 60 along all right. Do you re-
member such an item?'
The editor scratched the bald spot on
his head, looked wise, and said he did
remember something about it, and asked
the visitor if he had purchased battery
and tried it.
Tried itr' said he, as he picked ND
one of the crutches and fixed the splints
on his sprained arm. Look at me-
Don't L look as though had tried it? /
tell you these newspapers are doing
more to populate our cemeteries with
their lies about scientific matters than
all the doctors. Yes, sir, / tried it, and
it is a wonder that am spared to come
in here and maui YOU. / live out near
| Eagle, and have got an old mare that
has been balky off and on for sixteen
years. have traded her off more than
twenty times, and had to take her back
each time or have law suit, and the
first four law suits / had about her got
beat, so / had concluded not to trade
her off any more. / read about that
battery, and sent to Chicago and got
one, and rugged it up in the bottom of a
democrat wagon, and fixed the wire in
the bit Just rs you said. One morning,
about week ago, hitched up the old
mare to take a few cans of milk TO the
cheese factory, and / was afraid she
wouldn't balk so could cure her. had
more confidence in the electric cure than
anything in The world, for two reasons:
First, have always found your paper a
truthful one, and second, electricity
cured me of intiammatory rheumatism,
which was worse than any balky horse
you ever saw. Well, / got almost to
the cheese factory, and the old mare
baked. She had baked there before,
and all the neighbors and the hands at
the factory came out to tell me how to
start her. | told them to all stand
back, and | would show them how to
start a balky horse. They stood back
and laughed and l touched the button
with my foot, and / could see that the
old mare got the shock, because she
stuck up her ears and shook her head
Just As l stepped on the button again,
TO give her the second dose, she switched
her tail around and caught the wire,
which was quite slack. and wound it
around her tail about four times, and
my foot was on the button. o, hoIO she
kicked. i forgot to take my foot off
the button, in the excitement, and
kept the electric current going, and /
hope to die If the air was not full of
heels, and pieces of wagon, and milk
cans, and me. She seemed to have the
strength of n hundred horses, and it
seemed to me rs though the whole con-
veyance, horse and all, went over the
trees as though carried by n cyclone.
and the wagon came down first, and
then it began to nail milk cans and rain
milk, and the old mare stood there with
the copper wire wound around her tail,
kicking and paving milk cans, and tip
ping pieces of wagon on me. The boss
OF the cheese-factory got me by one leg
and pulled me out of the wreck, and
one of the neighbOrs got hold of the bat
terry and pulled the wire off from
around the mares tail, and she went to
eating grass and drinking some of the
milk that had collected in a hole in the
road, and they got me home, and l
have been in bed ever since till this
morning. / came in on the train to see
what you would give to settle. don't
want to be hard on any man that is
struggling TO build up business, but
by gaul, il does seem to me there ought
| to be n responsibility somewhere for
such Outrages."
The editor looked wise some more.
and finally told the man that if he had
not paid a royalty to Edison for the use
of the electric balky horse persuader,
he was liable to be arrested by United
States Marshal and taken to New Jer-
sey for trial on n charge of infringement
of patent, and that it would cost him
thousands of dollars, so he concluded to
keep still about it if the editor would,
and he went off, after saying that he
, still had faith in the battery, if they
could keep the wire from getting around
J the tail of the horse, and as he was 90
ing TO take city boarders at his farm
) this summer, he would get some of them
: TO practice on the old mare with the
/, electric current.-Peck's Sun.