262 HORSE AND MAN. 



they were as sharp as knife- blades. The doubly 

 thick ' milled ' edge of the modern coinage, how- 

 ever, has had the curious effect of saving from a 

 painful operation thousands of starlings, jackdaws, 

 and magpies. 



When I was at school at Ashbourne, in Derby- 

 shire, I remember one old sixpence, which belonged 

 to a man of sporting propensities, and which was 

 kept sharp expressly for the purpose of cutting birds' 

 tongues. 



Now, I maintain that the men who will burn 

 out the eyes of a bird to make it sing, or slit its 

 tongue to make it talk, or cut off the ears or tail 

 of a dog or a horse at the demand of fashion, would 

 not hesitate to go one step farther, and put out the 

 eyes of the horse if the prevailing fashion required 

 that it should be blinded. 



Fortunately, fashion has not as yet gone so far, 

 and the groom may not destroy the eyes of the 

 horse. But, in order to be in the fashion, he does 

 go as far as he can towards injuring the eye. 



In the first place, the eyelashes, which, of course, 

 are intended for a protection for the eye of the 

 horse as for that of man, offer a temptation which 

 the fashionable groom cannot resist, and he cuts 

 them off. The eyelashes will, however, grow again, 

 and the harm is but temporary. Far different, how- 



