The record-union., 1894-03-10

You may think that 1 am trying to
write in humorous vein. but l was
never more serious in my life. l know
| horses pretty we'll, and l am willing to
confess that love them more than their
long-eared cousins. But that does not
prove the horse the better. There is a
certain active individuality about the
horse which in the ass is replaced by q
negative quality coming of the long neg
lect and abuse from which his race has
suffered. The nerves of the horse all end
near the surface; those of the ass are
deeply embedded. But if there is any
one quality for which, as | grow
older, / gain in admiration, it is sweet
reasonableness, and this the ass pos
sesses while the horse does not.
Ii the ass. has virtues to-day he
must have possessed them in excep-
tional purity ages ago. for that man has
done his best to make him vicious is tes-
titled in hieroglyphics five thousand years
old, and in countless documents of stone,
metal, canvas, papyrus, parchment and
paper since.
THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY.
AS he is to-day in his native haunts he
is one OF the prime necesSarieS OF life. He
is as essential as wheat and as good. In
our own land, which metaphorically
overflows with milk and honey and
where no one knows what actual poverty
means, the ass would be of small use.
We can afford to employ horses and
mules, whose keep is a distinct item of
expense. In the southern countries,
where warm and sunny skies have
robbed man of the ambition to clothe and
house himself, because it is not an abso-
Lutte prerequisite Of existence TO do so,
the little ass, who can feed himself on the
heritage of the highway, and needs and
receives no care whatsoever, can do all
the labor necessary to keep whole
family in food. 1t matters little what his
master may do for living, the brave
little fellow will labor with him from
early dawn till late at night, dragging or
bearing unheard-of weights and uncom-
plainingly doing double the work he
ought to do, with blows unstinted, rarely
kind word, and more rarely still the
care or feed, without which the horse and
mule will speedily die III his tracks.
There is an aristOcracy of asses and
there are the many headed. If you want
the former, look at one of tile white
Syrian asses. He is richly saddled and
bridled and has two attendant Arabs TO
cater 10 his wants, for he must be kept In
the finest condition for his master, the
Emin. This handsome fellow is truly
a noble, ii handsome is as handsome
does. His manners are perfect and his
gaits are as smooth as they are rapid. He
would not spill a drop OF water out of
brimtul cup and which will cover full six
miles an hour. He can canter all day at
an eight gait, but his travelling gait
is the running walk on the rock, and in
these gaits he has no equal. He is far
more comfortable than any horse, and
in weeks travel will go quite as far.
A YOUNG COUSIN.
Now turn and look upon his poor
oonSin fnha Uht oar of tho Tolla occ
has dropped into the detection of utter
weariness. And yet he is young ass
His mouth and muzZle show unmistak-
able youth, but his eyes and ears look
as If he had lived with the PharOahs.
Only one OF his human companions is on
his back, but ali OF them are capable of
mounting him at once and he will be eX-
pected to carry them fast and far.
Happily he is not always thus abused
He may be the faithful servant OF a Cairo
cOstermonger, and it is often evident that
he is well liked and cared for. He then
looks and is both strong and active, and
though he has none OF the rapid sgaits or
endurance at speed which the aristocraI
has inherited from long line of carefully
bred and trained saddle ancestors, he is
capable of sustaining labor under which
any other animal would succumb.
Still another may carry an Egyptian
woman, probably the most curious eques-
trienne who exists. How she can sit on
the peculiar donkey saddle of Egypt it is
hard to see. Her position is much as if
you should sit down on a hassock and
bring your heels we'll back under your
thighs. She has no hold whatever, but
rides by balance alone. Were not the ass
the most reliable of mounts she could not
keep her position for block A shy
must unseat her. But the patient little