Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-02-05
SORRY OLD HORSES.
A VISIT ToA PLACE WHERE WORM
OUT EoulNEs ARE SOLD.

a VISIT TO A PLACE WHERE WORM
OUT EoUlNEs ARE SOLD.
fractures Long Past Being CsefnI,
Scared by whipping into Market Form
and Sold at Prices Ranging from Four
to Twenty-Five Doilars-Pitiable Sights.
Twenty five dollars for boss an har-
niss.n' shouted the man in the sulky. who
was diving 'skinpoor" black gelding
al,.;,t the great dusty field, stopping in
front of the little knots of men which were
here and there in the outskirts.
Now. it may seem incredible that real
live horse and a harness fit to hitch him to
a wagon should be sold for so little as
TWENTY-FIVE dollars, but the evidence that
it is done is plentiful twice Il week at the
horse fair out at the end of Halsey street,
Brooklyn And that is not the worst of it.
Many horse is sold at that fair, wild de
harniss trowed i'm for considerably less
than twenty five dollars. A man who
looked as though he might be. intermit-
tently truthful told a reporter the other
day that a week before he had bought
pair of horses for fourteen dollars
He further said, II seen boss sold here
one day for twelve shillin."
Just think of that A horse that could
stand, walk, eat spoon vittles" and draw
light load going for the ridiculously
small sum of twelve shillings. a grocer
could almost afford to give such horse us
that away with every pound Of his fifty
cent tea.
This Halsey street horse fair is a great
institution. 1t has been holding Mondays
and Thursdays for the last eight years on
vacant block Of ground just opposite the
Putnam avenue stables. 1t started III an
informal way and it has existed without
rules or regulations ever since. Somebody
owns the land who will one day order the
Jockeys to move off, but who the owner is
from whom the eviction order will come
sooner or later not even those traders who
have attended the fair regularly from the
first day to now have the faintest idea.
PITIABLE SPECIMENS
A rapid walk about the ground inspires
in the humane man the strongest sort of
desire to buy every one of the poor beasts
which he sees and emancipate him, so that
he may spend the rest of his days in clover.
Poor. lame, halt, blind, wheeZy. tired
things, it makes Il decent mans blood boil
to see them led and driven about, under
going constant lashings from the brutal
fellows who own them, their shaky nerves
wrought upon by continuous terrorizing.
He'd fall down, surer'n guns, if he
wasn't licked" said young man to the
reporter, who had asked him what he
thought of the conduct of great hulk of
jockey who about every other minute set
thin, SCARED old chestnut horse to dane
ing by cracking him over the ears. The
horse had been stifled and foundered and
looked as weak rs IA man convalescing from
pneumonia.
''The whips the biggest part of the bust
ness on these grounds unused the young
man. Its the man that can scare bosses
the most that gets along best here.
There's boss over there to the fence.
though, that nobody Twin could scare" re
sumed the young man. Come and take a
peep at him."
The horse in question was {. strawberry
roam, which looked more like a horses skin
thrown over clotheshorse than like Il
flesh and blood thing. He was such pitt
able creatures!
Say" said the young man, eff a man
should go up to that old fellow and put a
pistol to his head. I'll bet yer the boss
would open his mouth afore he died and
sing out, Much obleeged.' It's enough to
make body cry to look at him.
Just about as miserable a creature was
the horse hitched alongside the roam. He
had milk leg on him half rs big around as
"A -four barrel, but that was the only plump
thing that he could boast of. The few
whole pieces of hide left on him indicated
that he had once been black. He was just
about to lie down when his owner came
up. and 'twixt yells and whip cuts scared
him into such a frame of mind that he
actually recalled the time ten. fifteen, it
might have been twenty, years ago, when
be ran away with the milk cart Or the
family carryall; whichever it was he didn't
say.
TRhDED FOR 1915 TO BOOT.
IT guess ! kin sell Old Milky" said the
owner to one of the jockeys standing near.
He unhitched the poor brute and led
him. dancing like colt, across to the other
side of the field, where he was ranged
alongsidea swaybacked gray mare, which
was also dancing like colt in spite of the
fact that she may have helped haul a can
non at Lundy's Lane.
wall, what dyer say?" demanded the
owner of the milklegged horse of the
owner of the swaybacked mare.
.Gimme four dollars boot and take her."
was the answer.
81 guess not I'll give yc three an
haf.''
Eventually they split the difference and
traded with 3d. Is for boot.
One of the most active horses on the
ground was under saddle. He was a
knockkneed, foundered fellow. with a
''baddish" cough. There was IL small boy,
armed with big whip, on his back.
'Let him out, Jimmy" the owner would
say. and then he and the boy would go at
the old horse as though they meant to cut
his hide up into shoestrings the man run
ming behind equipped with Il great lash
whip. The old horse would gradually work
up into a tremendous stride and gorushing
off across the field III Il fashion quite sug-
gestive of Sheri,ian's historic ride. 1t was
funny to see the old horse stop, which he
did just as soon as it came into his mind
that nobody was walioping him. Moving
on Il rapid trot one second. the next he was
rs if he had heard the crack of doom and
stopped to ascertain what it meant.
One big bay mare had forelegs which
were SO used up that as she stood on them
they were crooked like the elbow of stove
pipe. She seemed all the while just on the
point of falling on her nose, but she dared
not do it, and was constantly engaged in
pulling herself up. Probably she fell on
her nose once in the presence of her owner,
and paid tremendous penalty for doing
it. These horses have great memories
New York Times.