Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-09-06

/ was leading when there arrived ulsaS-
ter. 1t came III the shape of milk
leg. Perhaps it was caused by over
feeding. bet more likely it resulted
fre much standing in stall during
fortnight when the runs lad been few
and short.
| 1t behaved much as milk legs usual
| iy do While there was no great pain,
the leg was unhandsome to look upon,
and it gave to Old Silver clumsiness
he had never known before.
Industriously did Lannigan apply
ouch simple remedies as he had at
band. Yet the swelling increased until
from pastern to hook was neither shape
nor grace. Worst of all, in getting on
his feet one morning Silver barked the
skin with a rap from his toe calks.
Then it did look bad. OF course this
had to happen just before the veteri-
nary inspectors monthly visit.
.Old Silver, eh?" said he. well, I've
been looking for him to give out. That's
bad leg there, a very bad leg. Send
him up to the hospital in the morning
and I'll have another gray down here.
It's time you had new horse in bis
place.
Lannigan stepped forward to protest.
1t was only milk leg. He had cured
such before. He could cure this one.
Besides, he couldn't spare Silver, the
best horse on his team.
But the inspector often heard such
pleas.
You drivers" said he, would keep
a horse going until he dropped through
the collar. To hear you talk any one
| would think there wasn't another horse
in the department What do you care
so long as you get another gray?
Very much did Lannigan care, but
be found difficulty in putting his senti-
ments into words. Besides, of what
use was it to talk to a blind fool who
could say that one gray horse was as
good as another Hence Lannigan only
looked sheepish and kept his tongue
between his teeth until the door closed
behind the inspector. Then he banged
a hamlike fist into broad palm and
relieved his feelings in language both
forceful and picturesque. This failed
to mend matters, 50 Lannigan, putting
an arm around the old gray's neck,
told Silver all about it. Probably Sill
yer misunderstood, for he responded
by reaching over Lannigan's shoulder
and chewing the big mans leather belt.
Only when Lannigan fed to him six
red apples and an extra quart of oats
did Silver mistrust that something IN
usual was going to happen. Next morn
ing, sure enough, it did happen.
Some say Lannigan wept. AS to that
none might be sure, for he sat facing
the wall in corner of the bunk room.
No misunderstanding could there have
been about his remarks, muttered
though they were. They were uncom-
plimentary to all veterinary inspectors
in general and most pointedly uncom-
plimentary to one in particular. Below
they were leading Old Silver away to
the hospital
Perhaps it was that Silver's milk leg
was stubborn in yielding to treatment.
Perhaps the folks at the horse hospital
deemed it unwise to spend time and
effort on horse of his age. At any
rate, after less than a weeks stay, he
was cast into Oblivion. They took
away the leaden number medal which
for more than ten years he had worn
on strap around his neck, and they
turned him over to sales stable as
carelessly as battalion chief would
toss away a half smoked cigar.
Now sales stable is a place where
horse destinies are shuffied by reckless
and unthinking hands. Also its doors
open on the four corners of the worlds
crossed highways. You might go from
there to find your work waiting be-
tween the shafts of bakers cart just
around the corner, or you might be
sent across seas to die miserably OF
tsetse stings on the South African
veldt
Neither of these things happened to
Silver. 1t occurred that his arrival at
the sales stable was coincident with a
rush order from the street cleaning de-
rartment. So there he went. Fate, it
seemed, had marked him for municipal
service
There was no delay about his initia-
ton. Into his fore hoofs they branded
this shameful inscription: D. s. c. 937.
On his back they flung a forty pound
single harness with a dirty piece of
canvas as a blanket. They hooked him
to an iron dump cart, and then, with
a heavy dashed whip, they hailed him
forth at $50 a. m. to begin the inglo-
rious work of removing refuse from
the city streets.
Perhaps you think Old Silver could
not feel the disgrace, the ignominy, Of
it ALL Could you have seen the low
cred head, the limp hung tail, the dull
ed eyes and the dispirited sag of his
quarters you would have thought, diff
ferently
1t is one thing to jump hook aud
ladder truck up Broadway to the re-
lief of a fire threatened block and quite
another to plod humbly along the curb
from ash can to ash can How Silver