Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-10-28


Metropolitan roughfares-Teamsters
Too Busy to Send Their Equines to Their
Stables
II is a common saying that Chicago's great
ambition is fully equaled by her energy. The
youngest mother of q million souls in all the
earth, she amazes sister cities by the audactty
with which she converts the seemingly i'm
possible into verify.
SO very young, 1t would be passing strange
IL she had cast aside all the giddiness Of teen
hood There yet clings about her reminders
OF the DAYS when a single inn could well care
for all her visitors and when farmers on
court DAYS fed their horses in the street.
There is nothing small about Chicago, and
she is 50 sturdily independent that her sons
have caught her spirit aud do as they please
II the fancy suits them, and while rejoicing
In innovations, they do not scruple to cling
tenaciously 20 practice that is convenient
and time aud labor saving, even though it
have about Il the air Of antiquity.
CUkBsroNE SPREADS
The stranger that is within her gates as
well as those native and to the manner born,
may aud doubtless do see what obtains IN
Porridgeville, whose 800 souls live in lively
expectancy Of eclip.4ag New York ia pOpula-
ton and London in wealth, will not do for
Chicago. This practice which has chung per
tinaciously in all the mutations OF time is
nothing more or less than the feeding Of
horses ON the public highway Go where one
will between the hours of IL and s and he
may see horses of all ages and conditions
crunching oats enjoyably. Some have feed
bags muzzling their jaws; others are content
edly eating from soap boxes, and still there
are more which modestly gather theirs In
from the stones OF the street
Nor must II for moment be supposed that
this great crowd of feeders is owued by I'M
fashionables from the rural districts who
with economic forethought bring in the
grain from their own bins Contrariwise
the animals are city owned, many of whose
masters are owners of great warehouses;
others are the property OF cab and hack com
panies; Others yet are humble drawers Of ex-
press wagons One may see the massive Per-
cheron, the ponderous Clydesdale and the
handsome Morgan, as well A. the infinite va
riety Of scrub stock thick skinned and inert
Scattered among the fat and sleek are the
lame, the halt and the blind, but all possessed
of vigorous apPetites and apparently indif-
ferent 10 the fact that, like Louis XIV Of
France on stated OCCASIONS they are dining
in sight OF all the people.
Nor is any street too sacred or too crowded
for this outdoor dining. Not only are the
dray horses of Franklin and Market streets
fed on those busy thOroughfares, but also
along staid La Sale fast developing Dear
born, fashion gathering State, crowded and
packed South Water, busting Clark and
hustling Fifth avenue-on each and every
| one of these may be seen daily, ss well as
| upon others not named, lines of horses tum-
bling 20 their oats and oats only; for long
| feed is denied the faithful animals at their
midday repast Incidentally, il may be said
| that horses in the British army are ''edu-
Gated" TO rejection OF all kinds of fodder,
| living upon an exclusive diet of grain. The
stomachs of these animals, by that felicitous
faculty of adaptation Of ones self 10 changed
conditions, become very much contracted
and II any pass into the hands OF farmers
they must again be educated by slow de
grees 20 acceptance Of hay.
This fact is thrown out in order to empha-
size a statement made by a man well up in
| horse knowledge 10 reporter, TO the effect
that horses accustomed % hay are not bene-
flied by a meal of grain only, that just as the
goose and the ostrich must have gravel as
aids to digestion, 80 the enormous stomach OF
the equine demands hay or some other fill
| ing" substance TO go along with the grain.
He declares he never, under any circum-
stances, gives oats alone 10 his many horses.
Its against nature, and too trying ON their
digestive apparatus, he declared.
ApropOs TO long feed, it may not be gener-
ally known that in some parts OF England
and of this country sawdust is used as a sub
stitute for hay. Hoses are readily brought
70 this diet by the help Of salt, their fondness
for which will lead them to swallow the
requisite quantity Of sawdust il 1t have q
sprinkling OF salt in it. 1t is claimed by
high authorities that there is more nutrition
in sawdust than IN hay, and that animal,
actually thrive better under a diet of the
former than Of the latter.
mo SIXTEEN COURSE DINNER"
Why this feeding of horses on the street
this practice 50 common in villages, but cast
aside usually soon as young cityhood /.
first reachedi This query was propounded tc
a drayman on Franklin street as be stood
with folded arms regarding his team Of giant
horses at their luncheon.
You'd oughter know y'rself The man
what gifts ahead in this yer city's got to hustle
fer it. Us fellers don't have no sixteen courss
dinners, n we don't have ter take a couple
| NV hours fer our wine. The business afore
us Is haulin'. He's the best Teller that gifts in
the most time n loads. That's the size Nv It.
It's economy S'pOsin' one druv two ur
three ur five ar six mile to his barn n back,
he'd be losiu' half his day fur nawthin'
Horses beant over nice about eatin'. Man N
boy, I've been drivin' a team twenty year,
N my experience Is that horses taste lays
altogether Ia the amount OF feed n not In
how it's give % him A pine box is Just as
sweet TO him as a mahogany trough. Sence
his feelin's amt hurt by eatin' outdoors
can't see no use Wv other folks complainin'
No greater anomaly, no stranger thing in
all this big city of curiOsities, is presented
than that of these thousands of harnesssd
horses leisurely eating their oats, with air as
independent rs though they owned all they
saw. Probably they do, as their eyes rarely
get beyond their grain. Youth Is as stoica
| as age, the colt Of four summers being a,
staid, sedate and as settled down TO bushes
rs the old mare of twenty. They may not b.
epicurean in their tastes, but they are hearty
They may not exactly understand why the,
should have their dining halls along tn
streets, but such lack Of knowledge does no
give them indigestion.
In silence they eat what Is laid before them
and like the thrifty and economical farme
Of Pawtunk leave nothing upon their plates
One old fellow, which feeds near the corne
Of Fifth avenue and Lake streets, has a cry
ing sort Of face, one that hints at great mem
ories, and he really does look as though
had been here ever since the "forties," ha
seen the entire growth Of the city, mourne
the death Of thousands, and was ininitel
Inundated because he must needs expose th
weakness of an enormous appetite 20 so man
strangers. Gaze at him for a moment, an
his eyes will glance reproachfully, as thong
he had said: II know better, but it isn't m
fault. If I had my way I'd eat indoors, lilI
white people, Still he seems TO be altogethe
an exception, the remaining animals bein
about as indifferent TO the habit as their ma.
ters, who compel them 50 TO eat-Chicag
Herald