Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1895-10-26

lStioal blasphemy. ! do not believe in the
RECONSIDERATION Of souls, but I cannot
very severely denounce the idea, fol
when see men who cut and bruise and
!swhack and welt and strike and maui
and outrage and insult the horse, that
beautiful servant OF the human race,
who carries our burdens and pulls ou1
sp1ows and turns our thrashers and our
mills and runs for our doctors-when ]
See men thus beating and abusing and
autraging that creature, it seems to me
That it would be only fair that tho doc
srine Of transmigration Of souls should
prove true, and that for their punish.
ment they should pass over into some
poor miserable brute and be beaten and
swhacked and cruelty treated and frozen
and heated and overdriven-into an ev-
erlasting stage horse, an eternal traveller
ON towpath or tied to an eternal post,
gin an eternal winter, smitten with eter-
slnal epizootiosl
Y Oh, is it not q shame that the brute
Ycreation, which had the first possession
of our world, should be go 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 hu-
man race not created until the evening
of the sixth day? It ought to be that if
any man overdrives g horse, or feeds
him when he is hot, or recklessly drives
a. nail into the quick of his boof, or
rowels him to sec him prnnce, or SO
shoes him that his fetlocks drop blood,
OF puts collar on raw neck, or un-
necessarily clutches his tongue with q
twisted bit, or cuts off his hair until he
has no defense against the cold, or I'M
naercifully abbreviates the natural do
fense against insectile annoyance-that
such q man as that himself ought to be
made to pull and let his horse ridel
Kindness to Brutes.
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 1 go further and say that
whatever can be done for the develop
ment Of his feetness, and his strength.
and his majesty ought to be done We
need to study his anatomy and his adap-
tations. I am glad that largo books
have been written to show how be can
be.best managed. and how his ailments
can be cured, and what his usefulness
is,. and what his capacities are 1t
would be shame if In this age of the
world, when the florist has turned the
thin flower of the wood into gorgeous
rose. and the pomolo2ist has changed
the acrid and gnaried fruit Of the an
clients into the very poetry of pear and
peach and plum and grape and apple,
ard the snarling cur of the orient has
become the great nlastiff, and the mis-
er9ble creature Of the olden times barn.
yard has become the Devonshire, and
the Alderney, and the Shorthorn, that
ting horse, grander than them all, should
pet no advantage from our science, or
our civilization, or our Christianity.
Gghomed to the last point Of soft bril-
luce, his flowing name billow Of
beauty, his arched neck In utmost
n: Of curve, lot him be harnessed
IS tbe sfnftEess gS glngs and then driven
then fed at luxuriant oatbins and Blank
eted in comfortable stall. The long tried
and faithful servant Of the human race
deserves all kindness, all care. all re-
ward, all succulent forage and soft lit
ter 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 Ia drlv-
Ing slow than IN driving fast any more
than freight train going 10 miles the
hour is betteS than an express train 60
ing 80.
There is a delusion abroad IN the
world that thing must be necessarily
good and Christian if 1t is slow and
dull and Flooding. There are very few
good people who seem to imagine 1t is
humbly pious to drive spawned, eall-
ed, glandered, spring halted. blind stag
gered jade. There Is not SO much virtue
in Rosinante as In Bucephalus. We
want swifter horses, and swifter men,
and swifter enterprises, and the church
of God needs to get of its Jog trot.
Quick tempests, quick hghtnings, quick
streams; why not quick horses? In the
time of war the cavalry service does the
most execution, and rs the battles OF
the world are probably not oil past, our
Christian patriotism demands that we
be interested in equinal velocity. We
might as we'll have poorer guns in our
arsenals and clumsier ships In our navy
yards than other nations as to have
under our cavalry saddles and before
our parks of artillery 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 Stonewall Jackson rode into the
FRAY, this arm of the military service
has been recognized. Hamilcar, Hann1-
bal, GuStavus Adolpnus, MARSHAL Ney
were cavalrymen In this arm of the
service Charles Martel at the battle OF
slPoitiers beat back the Arab invasion.
The Carthaginian cavalry, with the loss
of only 700 men. overthrow the Roman
army with the lose Of 10000. In the
same way the Spanish chivaEy drove
back the Moorish hordes. The best way
TO keep peace in this country and in all
countries is to be prepared for war, and
there is no success in such contest IN
less there be plenty Of light footed
chargers. Our Christian patriotism and
our instruction from the word Of God de-
mand that first Of all we kindly treat
the sorse, and then after that. that we
develop his feetness and his grandeur
and bis majesty and his strength.
An Instrument of Evil.