THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 3 



have taken no harm, but rather good, from the walk; 

 and yet neither when he hired the horse nor when he 

 related the transaction did it occur to him that the 

 act was one of inexcusable cruelty. How many peo- 

 ple, indeed, know or care what is the condition of 

 the livery horses that they hire from time to time ? 

 How many, when they summon a cab, so much as 

 glance at the beast in the shafts ? But it is almost 

 always possible to make a selection, rejecting the 

 palpably unfit, choosing the fit horse ; and if every- 

 body took even this slight amount of trouble, the em- 

 ployment of broken-down cab horses would cease to 

 be profitable. 



There is a good deal of hard-heartedness in our 

 Puritan blood as respects dumb animals. I once spent 

 several weeks on a farm where many beasts of vari- 

 ous kinds were kept. The family was of pure New 

 England stock, farmers for many generations back, — 

 stalwart, intelligent, honest people, pillars of the 

 church, leading men in the village, but in their treat- 

 ment of dumb beasts without feeling or compunction. 

 If the cows did not enter their stalls at the proper 

 moment, they were pounded with whatever weapon 

 came handy ; horses were driven when they were 

 lame, and neglected when they were tired. Every 

 animal on the place was in a continual state of hunger, 

 and none ever received a kind word or a pat of the 

 hand. That on all convenient occasions I surrep- 

 titiously fed the occupants of the barn, horses, cows, 

 oxen, and bull, is a fact wdiich I may be permitted to 

 state, lest I should include myself in the condemna- 

 tion of these hard-hearted farmers ; and I recall with 

 pleasure the anticipatory neighing, the scraping of 



