EVILS OF MODERN STABLES. 205 



escaped previous attention. The soft tongue of the horse, passed over 

 the hardened surface of the wood, occasions no noise. Often a few 

 grains will have lodged in the corners ; then the effort to displace these 

 affords a long game. Others, from want of something to do, or from 

 finding impure air and inactivity do not, in accordance with the general 

 doctrine, promote equine digestion, learn "to crib;" a few, from the 

 operation of the like causes, become perfect as "wind suckers." All 

 "speed the weary hours" as they best can; and many heads are turned 

 round to discover if it be feeding time again ; not that they are hungry, 

 but eating is an occupation, and they sadly wish for some employment. 



Certain quadrupeds, under these circumstances, adopt a habit, which 

 is the more remarkable because hours of tedium have generated the like 

 indulgence in human beings. Mortals, when compelled to remain sta- 

 tionary, and forced to preserve silence, often strive to kill time by rock- 

 ing to and fro, or by "see-sawing" their bodies. Such a pitiable excuse 

 for amusement is very common among the little people whose undevel- 

 oped limbs are perched on high forms, and in whose hands are fixed very 

 uninteresting primers, from which the infant mind wanders into vacuity 

 during the hours of imprisonment which occur in those abominations 

 termed "Preparatory Schools." The horse, also, when forbidden the 

 pleasures in which nature formed it to delight, will move its head me- 

 thodically from one side of its stall to the other, and will continue thus 

 engaged for hours together. 



So exciting a pastime, most sane people might deem to be harmless 

 enough. It interferes with nobody ; if it can amuse the solitude of the 

 creature, it should certainly excite no person besides. But in the arbi- 

 trary notions of rectitude entertained within the stable, such a very sim- 

 ple custom is punished as a positive "vice." A horse which "see-saws" 

 is said "to weave," and "weaving" is, by grooms, esteemed highly cul- 

 pable. What the poor animal is "weaving," no one can point out; but, 

 supposing -an idle time to be so creditably employed, "weaving," though 

 not a highly remunerative occupation, nevertheless does not usually 

 entail penal severity upon the offender. But grooms act upon their own 

 convictions, and disregard the general morals of mankind. When a 

 monotonous sound, however gentle, but long continued and regularly 

 repeated, falls upon the ear of watchful ignorance, the awful fact that 

 one of the imprisoned is endeavoring to cheat its misery, causes the lash 

 to be grasped ; the smart of a well-directed thong cuts short the melan- 

 choly recreation, to inform the captive that its keeper is determined the 

 fullest flavor and the most distant relish of the situation shall be silently 

 appreciated. 



The imagination cannot picture a harder fate 1 Man, under such a 



