Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-07
BETTER DAYS FOR The HORSE
His Place in the Scheme of Modern Life
Steadily Improving.
MORE STYLE AND LESS DRUDGERY
steady Demand for the Best Grades,
Interior Animals Discreditcd-Sig-
niHcant Features of the
New York show.

! This years horse show in New York is Of
fcially, the fifteenth annual exhibition of the
National Horse Show association reports
Harper's Weekly. II the forebodings OF
some OF the prophets who have lately fore
cast the future OF the horse are well founded,
the horse show must be a decaying institn-
tion, and the most fragile of us may expect
to see the last of 1t. Meanwhile 1t gives
no convincing evidences of decrepitude. No
doubt. as a social appliance for the exhibit
tion OF persons of high fashion to one an
other and the general public 1t eliminated
some years ago, but as show OF horses 1t
continues to do we'll. At the auction sale
of boxes for the present show, the other
day. 100 was realized which is better
by more than $1,000 than last years show
ing Probably the total receipts of this
years show will reflect in due measure the
boisterous prosperity of the country
Every year more and more of the worlds
heavy drudgery is done by machinery. In
innumerable things machinery does the work
that used to fall to human muscles. The
hodcarrier is growing obsolete; the donkey
engine now carries UP the bricks and the
steam drill pounds holes in the rocks; but
there are more men than ever, and ap-
parently more work for them to do. What
machinery does in the end is not to crowd
men out Of employment, but to tighten the
work of their hands and muscles and call
for increased activity in their minds. Ma
chnery, we hope, is helping to lit up the
great mass of humanity by making life
easier for ii and making possible fuller
reward for its labors. 1t is doing an analo-
gous work for the horse in that it encour
IL !, ,tnh Dt--
ing the general average of horse intelli-
gence and ability. We must expect, as cleo
trcity and steam and gasoline and COM
pressed air are more and more used to
propel all sorts of vehicles, that the num-
ber of horses in the world will diminish.
That is where the case of man and that OF
the horse may differ, for we do not look
to see fewer men on the earth, however
much work may be done by coal. But the
number of horses is directly determined by
the demand for them, and it cannot be
doubted that the demand for horses OF in
ferior quality has already decreased.
Easing the Burden.
For purposes of carriage and transporta-
ton coal and it's extracts are a prodigious
success In so far as they release the horse
from the work of hauling public vehicles OF
every sort, they do him good turn and
benefit creation. If our children never see
a horse strain at the tugs to start loaded
street car SO much the better, both for hu-
manity and equinity. Whenever the mouth
of the horse ceases to be sawed by the reins
that descend from the roof of the hanson
cab. so much the better. We need not even
mourn the disappearance of the truck
horse, though at his best he is fine, intel
and in good hands must
lead a happy life. All the horses that are
driven by butcher boys and grocers' boys
and that haul express wagons and delivery
wagons we can part with without a sigh,
unless 1t Is q sigh of relief at their release
from labor that is apt to be ignominious and
harassing.
What we cannot spare, and what there is
no present sign that we ever will spare, is
the horses personal qualities and his beauty.
As the companion of man he would be mt to
be cherished even il there were no work
left for him to do; but there is, and always
will be- great work for him to do in CIV
ing health and pleasure to man. Machinery
can beat him in speed and certainty and en-
durance can supplement him and often take
his place as a minister to our pleasures, but
it cannot equal him in personal beauty and
interest. He has style; he has life; he has
affection and sense and a disposition. In |
those characteristics the creature that God |
made will always be unrivalled by any de-
vice Of man.
Automobiles.
Automobiles will supersede the horse with |
many persons even for purposes of display |
and pleasure. They are full of the promise |
of usefulness to humanity. A good many |
folks to whom every horse is a wild beast
feel much safer on a machine than behind |
ouadruped who has mind of his own and
emotions which may not always be fore
stalled or controlled. Certainly there is a
great future for these machines but they
will not altogether take the place OF the
horse. Horse lovers may claim that they
are imperfectly educational, since swapping
them or selling them can hardly develop
such mental acuteness as does dealing in
horses Perhaps they are moral, and make
up in that direction a part of what they
lack as engines of sport. That the horse
is of good repute as promoter of morality
can hardly be claimed even by his best
friend The aeatory quality in him which
delights the sportsman will perhaps always
be the moralists despair. Even In the
country, where he Is the indispensable ad-
unct of agriculture and hauls the parson S
buggy he does not cease to be gamble;
and his speed his obvious merits, his recon
lite defects and inseparable uncertainties,
ire as liable to strain the rural conscience
rs they are to sharpen the rural wits. 1t is
lot the horses fault, and we should not
,hun him for it. Horse nature is good
enough, and if 1t brings out some weak
points in human nature 1t Is as well for our
,onsciences to have their proper exercise
md be kept in training. We pray not to be
ed into temptation, but we may well mean
,uch temptation as is beyond our strength.
We should not be content with a rectitude
10 collapsible that we dare not own a horse
hat can go a mile in less than three minutes
pr Jump a fence more than forty inches
ligh. II we really mistrusted the moral
influence Of the horse as much as we some ;
lines think we do, we should not want our
hildren to have equine companionship in
heir childhood Yet that is something that
most parents covet for their children and
t is a great vindication OF horse nature and
great compliment to horses that 1t should
De so.
Knowledge of the Horse.
1t was in the newspapers the other day
hat it was proposed to give instruction
bout the horse to the children in the pub
ic schools OF New York, What the ultimate
i'm of 1t was is not here recalled-to teach
hem TO be kind 10 animals, perhaps-but