Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-19
THEY LUNCH IN PUBLIC.
HORSES TAKE THEIR MIDDAY MEAL.
ON THE CITY STREETS.

ON THE CITY STREETS.
Sights Familiar to villages Duplicated -
Metropolitan NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Too Busy to Send Their Equinss to THAR
Stables.
It is q common saying that Chicago's great
ambition is fully equaled by her energy. The
youngest mother of million souls in all the
earth, she amazes sister cities by the audacdty
with which she converts the seemingly i'm
possible into verify.
So very young, it would be passing strange
If she had cast aside all the giddinees of teen
hood. There yet chngs 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
have caught her spirit and do as they please
if the fancy suits them, and while rejoicing
in innovations, they do not scruple to cling
tenaciousy to practice that is convenient
and time and labor saving, even though it
have about it the air of antiquity.
cURBsroNE SPREADS.
well as those native and to the manner born,
may and doubtless do see what obtains In
Porridgeville, whose 800 souls live in lively
expectancy of eclipsing New York in popula-
ton and London in wealth, will not do for
Chicago This practice which has chung per-
tinaciously in III the mutations of time is
nothing more or less than the feeding of
horses on the public highway. Go where one
Ill H. - L.
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 it for a moment be supposed that
this great crowd of feeders is owned 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 as 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 to 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, as well as
upon others not named, lines of horses trnl-
bling to their oats and oats only; for long"
feed is denied the faithful animals at their
midday repast. Incidentally, it 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 to changed
conditions, become very much contracted,
and if any pass into the hands of farmers
they must again be educated" by slow de-
grees to acceptance of hay.
This fact is thrown out in order to empha-
size statement made by q man well UP in
horse knowledge to a reporter, to the effect
that horses accustomed to 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 to his many horses.
"It's 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 sub
stitute for hay. Horses are readily brought
to this diet by the help of salt, their fondness
for which will lead them to swallow the
requisite quantity of sawdust if it have a
sprinkling of salt in it. It Is claimed by
high authorities that there Is more nutrition
in sawdust than in hay, and that animals
actually thrive better under diet Of the
former than of the latter.
mo SIXTEEN COURSE DINNER"
Why this feeding of horses on the street,
this practice so common in villages, but cast
aside usually as soon as young cityhood is
first reached! This query was propounded to
a drayman on Franklin street as he 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 citys got to hustle
fer it, Us fellers don't have no sixteen course
dinners, n we don't have ter take 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. Sposin' one druv two UT
three ur five ur six mile to his barn m back,
he'd be losin' half his day fur ma within
Horses beant over nice about eatin'. Man N
boy, I've been drivin' a team twenty year,
n my experience is that q horses taste lays
altogether in the amount Of feed n not in
how it's give to 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 zee no use Nv other FOLKS complainin'n
No greater anomaly, no stranger thing in
al this big city Of curiosities, is presented
than that Of these thousands of harnessed
horses leisurely eating their oats, with air as
independent as though they owned all they
saw. Probably they do, as their eyes rarely
get beyond their grain. Youth is as stoical
as age, the colt Of four summers being as
staid, sedate and as settled down to business
epicurean in their tastes, but they are hearty.
They may not exactly understand why they
should have their dining halls along the
streets but such hack Of knowledge does not
give them indigestion.
In silence they eat what is laid before them,
and. like the thrifty and economical farmer
Of Pawtunk. leave nothing upon their plates.
One old fellow, which feeds near the corner