FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



hand whose experience not improbably, has been 

 acquired upon the quarter-deck of a dump-cart ; 

 the employment of a groom to cc do " horses 

 whose most energetic efforts are directed toward 

 " doing " his employer. A man will cheerfully 

 expend large sums in the purchase of expensive 

 horses, carriages, and harness, lease a costly stable, 

 and go liberally into other details, but, when the 

 matter of employing servants comes up, he begins 

 to retrench, and not improbably winds up by 

 engaging some incompetent, who has no real 

 knowledge of, or fitness for, his business. Forth- 

 with, horses go lame and grow thin, paint and 

 varnish tarnish, harness grows shabby, and gene- 

 ral family complaint and dissatisfaction brings the 

 whole outfit ultimately, in a more or less dilapida- 

 ted condition, to the auction block, and to the loss 

 side of the ledger. Better far a first-class man 

 and poor horses, etc., than the best that money 

 can buy and an incompetent in charge. The 

 good man, who is liberally paid, has his em- 

 ployer's interest vitally at heart, and the matter of 

 perquisites will receive much less attention from 

 him than from the employee, who, knowing his 

 own worth, is forced by circumstances to accept a 

 wage which is not really a fair return for the 



