The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-10-25

III tho Bible, IA righteous man regard
eth the life Of his beast" Sir Heary
Lawrence's care Of the horse was beau
tifully Christian. He says: II expect
we shall lose Conrad, though have
taken so much care of him that he may
come in COOL always walk him the
last four or five miles, and as I walk
myself the first hour, it is only in the
middle Of the journey we get over tho
ground The Ettrick Shepherd in his
matchless "Ambrosial Nights speaks of
the maltreatment of the horse as prac-
teal blaspnemy. I do not believe in the
transmigration of souls, but I cannot
very severely denounce the idea, for
when I see men who cut and bruise and
whack 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 our
plows and turns our thrashers and our
mills and runs for our doctors-when l
see men thus beating and abusing and
outraging that creature, it seems to me
that it would be only fair that the doc
trine 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
whacked and cruelty treated and frozen
and heated and overdriyen-intoa an ev-
erlasting stage horse, an eternal traveller
ON towpath, or tied AN eternal post,
in an eternal winter, smitten with eter-
nal epizootics!
Oh, is it not a 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 tho cattle created on the
morning of tho aixth day and the hui
man race not created until the evening
of the sixth day? 1t ought to be that if
! any man oVerdrives a horse, or feeds
him when he is hot, or recklessly drives
nail into the quick of his hOof, or
rowels him to see him prarce, or so
shoes him that his fetlocks drop blood,
Or puts collar on a 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 un-
mercifully abbreviates the natural de-
tense against insectile annoyance-that
such a man as that himself ought TO be
made to pull and let his horse ride!
Kindness to Brutes.
But not only do our humanity and
our Christian principle and the dictates
of God demand that we kindly treat
tho brute creation, and especially the
horse, but | 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. / 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 capacities are. 1t
would be shame if in this age of the
world, when the florist has turDed the
thin flower of the wood into gorgeous
rose, and the pomologist has changed
the acrid and gnarled fruit of the an
clients 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 mis-
cradle creature Of the olden times barn
yard has become the Devonshire, and
| the Alderney, and the Sborthorn, 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 bril-
lance, his flowing mane 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 oatbins and blank
eted in comfortable stall. The long tiled
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
parts Of the north, where the horse is
trained to perfection in feetness 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 a freight train going 10 miles the
hour is better than an express train 60
| ing so.
There is delusion abroad in the
world that thing must be necessarily
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, gall
1 ed, glandered, spring halted, blind stag
J gered jade. There is not SO much virtue
| in Rosinante as in Bucephalus. We
1 want swifter horses, and swifter men,
and swifter enterprises, and the church
Of God needs to get off its jog trot.
Quick tempcsts, 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 as we'll have poorer guns in our
arsenals and elumsier 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 tc
the horses ON which Philip Sheridan
and Stonewall jackson rode into the
fray, this arm of the military service
has been recognized. Hamilcar, Hanni.
bal, Gustavus Adolphus, Marshal Ney
were cavalrymen. In 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 10000. In the
same way the Spanish chivalry drove
back the Moorish hordes. The best way
10 keep peace in this country and in al
countries is to be prepared for war, and
there is no success in such contest un
less there be plenty of light footed
chargers. Our Christian patriotism and
our instruction from the word of God de
p,opd that first of all we kindly troa-