FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 255 



side. But the conduct which in man draws forth no remark, when ex- 

 hibited by the horse is abominated by a virtuous groom as the declara- 

 tion of inveterate "vice." 



Pitiable vice ! It is melancholy to behold a man cruelly punish an 

 animal for a reasonable act. But heavy castigation does every horse 

 receive that is guilty of exercising the instinct with which Heaven has 

 endowed it. The groom, being excited to resentment, grasps a stick and 

 deals well-aimed blows, while his voice shouts forth harsh words, which 

 pain and terrify the patient creature, whose only faults were too much 

 sense and too great feeling. 



When a horse is terrified, danger is likely to ensue in exact proportion 

 to the smallness of that space which can be commanded for the display 

 of its alarm. The timidity being excessive, of course the contortions 

 of the body are equally demonstrative. The animal dashes about, re- 

 gardless of its own safety, and heedless of those around it. It sees 

 nothing ; it can remember nothing, save only that some horrid torture is 

 imminent. Its struggles are wild efforts to escape. In the momentary 

 panic, it may break, or it may damage anything. It may kill any per- 

 son who shall stand in its way, or, in the furore of its agony, it may, 

 through misadventure, do serious mischief to its own body. 



Such consequences are always to be expected when a horse is beaten 

 within the stable while the head is fastened to the manger. By the 

 latter circumstance, the probability of an injury is increased. Harm, 

 however, to his employer's property, danger to his own person, and peril 

 to the safety of his charge, the groom despises, or willingly hazards, 

 rather than allow an odious "vice" to escape correction! No severity, 

 however, can teach a quadruped not to seek the ease which it has dis- 

 covered the means of realizing. When the groom is absent, or during 

 the night, the act of " wickedness " is always renewed, although, in the 

 presence of its attendant, the indulgence may be suppressed. 



Slanting pavements likewise instruct horses in the practice of other 

 habits which the groom, in his peculiar sphere of mental elevation, can- 

 not otherwise than recognize as "vices." As such,, he punishes their 

 exhibition without mercy. Some public-house companion may visit the 

 stable-man while he is dozing through the afternoon upon the locker. 

 Most servants notoriously have no choice between stubborn duty and 

 the relaxation of "pipe and pot." The groom is always the ready 

 victim of temptation, and upon the slightest persuasion quits the stable 

 for the parlor "over the road." Some sad and patient animal may have 

 been silently watching, longing for the man's absence, during a consid- 

 erable period ; no sooner does the creature hear the door slam, than it 

 begins to take small steps backward. The horse thus feels its way till 



