The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-10-23

eternal posi-, IN an eternal WluJer, SIllI-
ten with eternal epizootics! Oh, is it
not shame that the brute creation,
which had the first possession Of our
world, should be so maltreated by the
race that came in last-the fowl and
the fish created on the fifth day, the
horse and the cattle created on the
morning of the sixth day, and the hui
man race not created until the even
ing of the sixth day? 1t ought to be
that if any man overdrives horse, or
feeds him when he is hot, or recklessly
drives nail into the quick of his hoof,
OF rowels him to see him prance, or so
shoes him that his fetlocks drop blood,
or puts collar on a raw neck, or un-
necessarily clutches his tongue with
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 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 die
tates of God demand that we kindly
treat the brute creation, and especially
the horse; but l can go further, and
say that whatever can be done for the
development of his fleetness and his
strength and his majesty ought to be
done. We need to study mis- anatomy
and his adaptations am glad that
large books have been written to show
how he can be best managed, and how
his ailments can be cured, and what
his usefulness is, and what his capac-
tiles are. 1t would be shame if in
this age of the world, when the florist
has turned the thin flower of the wood
into a gorgeous rose, and the pomolo-
gist has changed the acrid and gnarled
fruit of the ancients into the very poetry
of pear, and peach, and plum, and
grape, and apple, and the snarling cur
of the orient has become the great
mastiff, and the miserable creature of
the olden times barnyard has become
the Devonshire, and the Alderney, and
UllC OllOl OlldU ullS
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 billow of beauty, his arched
neck in utmost rhythm of curve, let
him be harnessed in graceful trappings
and then driven to the furthest goal
of excellence, and then fed at luxuriant
oat-bins, and blanketed in comfortable
stall. The long tried and faithful
servant of the human race deserves
all kindness, all care, all reward,
! all succulent forage and soft litter
and paradisaical pasture-field. Those
farms in Kentucky, and in different
parts of the north, where the horse is
trained to perfection in fleetness and
in beauty and in majesty are well set
apart. There is no more virtue in driv-
ing slow than in driving fast, any more
than freight train going ten miles an
hour is better than an express train go
ing fifty. There is delusion abroad
in the world that thing must be nee
essarily good and Christian if it is slow
and dull and plodding. There are very
few good people who seem to imagine
it is humbly pious to drive spawned,
CALLED, glandered, string-halted, blind.
staggered jade. There is not so much
virtue in q Bosinante as in Bucep.
halus We want swifter horses, and
I swifter men, and swifter enterprises,
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 service does the most execution
and as the battles of the world are
probably not all past, our Christian
patriotism demands that we be
interested in equinal velocity. We
might us well have poorer guns
in our arsenals and clumsier
ships in our navy yards than other ma
tions, as to have under our cavalry sad
dies and before our parks of artillery
slower horses From the battle oi
Granicus, where the Persian horses
drove the Macedonian infantry into
the river clear down to the horses on
which Philip Sheridan and Stonewall
jackson rode into the fray, this arm OF
the military service has been recog
nizcd. IIamilcar, Hannibal, Gustavus
Adolphus, Marshal Ney, were cavalry
men. In this arm of the service
Charles Martel at the battle of Poi
tiers beat back the Arab invasion. The
Carthaginian cavalry, with the loss Of
only seven hundred men, overthrew
the Roman army with the loss of sew
enty thousand. In the same way the
Spanish chivalry drove back the Moor
ish hordes. The best way to keep peace
in all countries is to be prepared for
war, and there is no success in such q
contest unless there be plenty of light
footed chargers. Our Christian patriot
ism 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 fleetness and
his grandeur and his majesty and his
strength.
But what shall say of the effort be
ing made in this day on a large scale tc
make this splendid creature of God
this divinely honored being, an instru
ment of atrocious evil? l make no in
discriminate assault against the turf,
believe in the turf if it can be con
Quoted on right principles and with nc
betting. There is no more harm in Of
fering prize for the swiftestracer thar
there is harm at an agricultural fair
in offering prize to the farmer wht
has the best wheat, or to the fruit
grower who has the largest pear, or tc
the machinist who presents the best