The age-herald., 1898-09-18
Copyright, 1S98.1

I have always had a weakness for horses. The kind I like best is com monly and yulgarly known as the skate" He belongs to the breed that can be driven by women, children or the new cook of Polish origin. He has few little weaknesses of his own, but you admire him notwithstanding what might be called his nerviness. He never passes a fruit store without making a stop. The finest brandy in the world would not tempt him, but a particular ly nice apple, blushing on one side, or a tender peach, looking most too good for this world, charms him, so that he has been known to really enter the shop and demand in a horses way, the fruit that he loves best.
 This particular skate" which 1 have controlled during the summer months, unfortunately got what was called by the gentleman who owned him "a nod dity in his fore leg" During this time we drove, to our sorrow, a horse or, rather, mare, titan of color, good of shape, but with a temper like all the tempers that were ever made and then consolidated in one horse I never drove her but once, and that once was quite enough for me. She shied at ragman, ran down the road, dumped me in the grass sent my slippers flying through the air, while my companions were scratched and bruised and accused me of trying to kill them, while, between you and me, I think they were glad, after the first ache was better, to de- scribe themselves as heroines and to tell of the adventure after the fashion of detective story.
 After this I was content with the skate" and I drove him with loose rein and a feeling that my heart was true to him even if he did wheeze and had a queer fashion of going into the barnyards of people who were entirely unknown to me. He was a sociable horse. At least that's the way we have worked out his idea. He longed to get acquainted with the neighbors. One afternoon the skate" whose name was Prince and who had good blood in his veins-at least we were told so-agreed with me that 1t would be pleasant to give all the children a drive. So off we went, little and big, wearing hats from linen tam, to a large leghorn laden with white plumes. Prince went along very we'll for a short time but at the foot of a certain hill he took his stand and re- fused to budge.
 Prince was determined to go up that hill, and I concluded it was just as well to let him go, and so learn what object he had in view. He piled up the hill, while the children hit stray boys with peanuts and fired chewing gum at the dogs, and at the very top Prince cytn fa cti1 a us all, as much as to say: "Who among you poor miserable two legged crea- lures is worthy of a monument like that? You can get hold of a scoundreT any day you can get hold of some re- spectable man any day, but it is only once in a century that Hambletonian appears" And then the smallest boy, who was in the Second Reader read out the inscription on the obelisk of plain granite. He was pretty slow about it. but he succeeded in making even me understand. The inscription read:
 HAMBLETONIAN,
 The Great Progenitor of Trotters.
 Born May 5, 1S4S
 Died March 27, 1876.
 So, you see, after all, a good trotter like the small child in a Sunday school book, has a monument raised to his memory, but it's Disgrace, with a capital D, that some of the numerous bodies who contributed to Hambleto- nian and who had gained ducats by him do not have the grounds kept in, order and the fence painted. Having been born a Quaker, I can't bear to see things not quite tidy, but for once in my life and that's this summer, I had so much tidiness that I turned and fled.
 Things were arranged this way: There was an oyster shell on every mantelshelf to hold dead matches. By dead matches I mean those that have had the breath of life burned out of them. In the corner of the room was tiny tea chest intended to hold scraps of paper, and if by chance you drop- ped your dead match in your tea chest or your piece of paper in your shell the ladies of the family, usually spo-- ken of as girls" though it's been many a day since they clapped hands for mamma, came down upon you with wrath that only a boarding house keep CT can exhibit. They were the cleanest people ever saw. Cleanliness to them meant Christianity, but it was impos- sible to be as gone on cleanliness as they are and still be Christian. They hadn't a pet around the house-they considered pets unladylike-and one of the family who had that sort of temper that breaks out like big Fourth of July cracker and fizzes and buzzes would have liked to wash the water in the we'll. The Lord Almighty and she couldn't arrange this, so they took it as it came. Having seen such ultra cleanliness, I shall in the future be charitable to those who regard dust as the bloom of time.
 I've been trotting around a good bit this summer and been forming a good many conclusions, and one of them is the more man claims to be Chris tian the less likely is he to give you anything to eat He waters the milk at the expense of his soul, and he takes a