The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-10-25

who cut and bruise and whack and
| welt and strike and maui and out
rage and insult the horse, that beau
tiful servant of the human race,
who carries our burdens and pulls
our plows, and turns our threshers
and our mills, and runs for our doctors
when l see men thus beating and
abusing and outraging that creature,
it seems 20 me that it would be only
fair that the doctrine of transmigra-
ton of souls should prove true, and
that for their punishment they should
pass over into some poor miserable
brute and be beaten and whacked and
cruelty treated, and frozen and heated
and overdriven, into an everlasting
stage horse, an eternal traveller on the
an eternal winter, smitten with eter-
nal epizooticsl
Oh, is it not a shame that the brute
creation, which had the first possession
of the world, should be so maltreated
by the race that came at last-the fowl
and the fish created on the fifth day,
the horse and the cattle cres ted on the
morning of the sixth day, and the hu-
man race not created until the evening
of the sixth day? 1t ought to be that
if any man overdrives horse, or feeds
him when he is hot, or recl1lessly
drives nail into the quick of the hoof,
or rowels him to see him prance, or so
shoes him that his fetlocks drop blood,
or puts collar on raw neck, or I'M
necessarily clutches his tongue with a
twisted bit, or cuts off his hair until
he has no defense against the cold, or
numerically abbreviates the natural
defense against insectile annoyance
that such a man as that himself ought
to be made to pull and let his horse
ride.
But not only do our humanity and
our Christian principle and the dictates
of God demand that we kindly treat
the brute creation, and especially the
horse; but | go further, and say that
whatever can be done for the develop
ment of his fieetness and his strength
and his majesty ought to be done. We
need to study his anatomy and his
adaptations. l am glad that large
books have been written to snow how
he can be best managed, and how his
ailments can be cured, and what his
usefulness is, and what his capacities
are. 1t would be a shame if in this age
of the world, when the florist has
turned the thin flower of the wood
into gorgeous rose, and the pomolo-
gist has changed the acrid and gnarled
fruit of the ancieuts into the very
80
and grape, and apple. and the snarled
cur of the Orient has become the great
mastiff, and the misera BILE creature of
the olden times barnyard has become
the Devonshire, and the Attorney, and
the Shorthorn, that the horse, grander
than them all, should get no advantage
from our science. or our civilization, or
our Christianity. Groomed to the last
point of soft brilliance, his flowing
name a billow of beauty. his arched
neck in utmost rhythm of curve, let
him be harnessed in graceful trappings
and then driven to the furtherest goal
of excellence and then fed at iuxuriant
oat-bins, and blanketed in luxuriant
stall
The long tried and faithful servant
of the human race deserves all kind
ness, all care. all reward, all succulent
forage and soft litter and paradisiacal
pasturefield. Those farms in Ken
lucky and in different parts of the
north. where the horse is trained to
perfection in heetness and in beauty
and in majesty. are we'll set apart.
There is no more virtue in driving slow
than in driving fast, any more than 4
freight train going ten miles an hour
is better than an express going fifty
There is a delusion abroad in the world
that thing must be necessarily good
and Christian if it is slow and dun and
plodding. There are very few good
people who seem to imagine it is
humbly Pious to drive a spawned,
CALLED, glandered, spring halted,
blind-staggered jade. There is not so
much virtue in a Rosinante as in a
Buchephalus. We want swifter horses,
and swifter men. and swifter enter
prises, and the church OF God needs
to get off its jog trot. Quick tempests,
quick lightnings, quick streams; why
not quick horses?
In the time of war the cavalry serv-
ice does the most execution. and as the
battles of the world are probably not
all past. our Christian patriotism de-
mands that we be interested in equinal
velocity. We might as well have
poorer guns in our arsenals and clum-
sier ships in our navy yards than other
nations. as to have under our cavalry
saddles and before our parks OF artil
lery slower horses. From the battle
of Granicus, where the Persian horses
drove the Macedonian infantry into
the river. clear down to the horses on
which Philip Sheridan and Stonewan
Jackson rode into the fray. this arm
of the military service has been recog
nized. Hamilcar, Hannibal, Gustavus
Adolphus, Marshal Ney were cavalry
men. Gin this arm of the service,
Charles Martel at the battle of PoitierS
beat back the Arab invasion. The
Carthaginian cavalry, with the loss of
only 700 men, overthrow the Roman
army with the loss of 20, OO0 In the
same way the Spanish cavalry drove
back the Moorish hordes. The best
way TO keep peace in this country and
in all countries is to be prepared for
wa-. and there is no success in such a
contest unless there be plenty of light
footed chargers. Our Christian pa
triotism and our instruction from the
Word of God demand that first of all
we kindly treat the horse, and then,
after that, that we develop his fleet
ness and his grandeur and his strength.
But what shall say of the effort be-
ing made in this day on large scale