DISCHARGING. 367 



tion as strong supports and ample protection given to every 

 lamp. The hay-chutes should be filled by daylight so that 

 there will be no need of carrying a lamp into the hayloft or 

 under ordinary circumstances into the stalls or boxes. Most 

 men are criminally negligent regarding the use of lamps and 

 stoves, and require all the caution and watching that can be 

 given to them. 



DISCHARGING. 



A servant should be discharged immediately if found 

 guilty of criminal neglect, drunkenness or theft. A man 

 who will turn his horses, hot and dirty, into their stalls, or 

 hose off a carriage and run it into place undried, ought not 

 to be allowed an opportunity of repeating such acts of van- 

 dalism ; and should tippling, serious disobedience to orders, or 

 the doctoring of horses for the production of glossy coats be 

 discovered the servant should be " sacked " at once, i. e., turned 

 out of the stable within a few hours. Under such circum- 

 stances a servant often enters a claim for a month's wages 

 in advance, but if he is discharged for some serious misde- 

 meanor, the law, unless some special compact has been made,* 

 entitles him to nothing more than the payment in full of all 

 indebtedness up to, and including, the day of his dismissal ; 

 nor is it necessary to pay his return travelling expenses if 

 engaged in a city and he is out of town at the time of his 

 discharge. When an owner discharges his servant for lying, 

 cheating or some less harmful fault than those mentioned 

 above, or is contemplating breaking up his stable, a month's 

 pay in advance should be given and the man turned off im- 

 mediately in the first instance, and in the second the servant 



* The law governing the employment of servants in most states treats the matter of 

 dismissal according to the understanding of the parties at the time of engaging. 



