280 HORSE AND MAN. 



and could not recognise a man as a soldier unless 

 he wore it. 



As for feminine humanity, words fail to express 

 the countless methods by which women have done 

 their best to cripple themselves for life, and the extra- 

 ordinary ingenuity of the excuses — ' reasons ' they 

 term them — with which they defend tight corsets. 

 I have seen one which was made entirely of steel, 

 like a cuirass, and which opened at one side with 

 hinges. Tight boots, with high pegs under the 

 centre of the foot instead of heels ; hoops in the 

 days of George II., crinolines in the time of Victoria, 

 poisonous metallic paints covering the face, neck, 

 and arms, and a hundred other absurdities, all had 

 their advocates and their ' reasons.' 



Among the reasons which the groom urges in 

 favour of clipping, and which his master accepts as 

 true, is that it is impossible to keep his horse dry 

 if it be allowed to retain its winter coat, and that it 

 is almost impossible to clean the horse from mud 

 after he has been out on a wet day. 



Here unwittingly the groom betrays the real 

 reason of his advocacy of clipping. He is saved 

 trouble by it, no one denying that it is easier to 

 clean a short-haired than a long-haired animal. 



The wetness of which the groom complains is 

 simply the result of imperfect ventilation in the 



