THE EFFECT OF THE OWNER'S INDIFFERENCE. 5 



especially in large cities and at fashionable summer resorts, 

 where the complexities of life and social competitions are to 

 blame for much of the evil. 



As a rule, when an equipage forms only one of the many 

 luxuries of an establishment, the management is entirely in 

 the hands of a coachman, who " owns the stable," being 

 limited in nothing, except possibly as to the total expense 

 for each month. This method of shirking a self-inflicted 

 responsibility would not be so pernicious, provided every 

 man intrusted with the care of a stable were as good as the 

 best servants, but without some personal knowledge it is 

 impossible to pass judgment on one's coachman or groom. 

 Intemperance or ignorance is often not discovered until an 

 accident occurs to the horse, carriage or perhaps the owner. 

 It may or may not then transpire that the worthy servant 

 had previously served the profession of sign painter, yacht 

 steward or at best strapper in some livery stable. 



From a general lack of intelligent supervision, Jehus, 

 recruited from every walk of life, have been given liberty to 

 run riot with their theories, remedies and individual methods 

 of accomplishing, or of appearing to accomplish, their voca- 

 tions, with the result that to the majority of the public the 

 management of the stable is shrouded in mystery. People 

 have a vague impression that the horse is kept alive by magic 

 art, indispensable powders or other unknown concoctions of 

 the stable magician. In reality the work should be of the 

 simplest order, and the very complexities which confront the 

 owner are the products of ignorance and mismanagement, 

 just as dust and dirt are of slovenliness. 



The thoughtlessness or bad judgment which character- 

 izes the blind confidence of many who intrust the care of 



