THE LIVERY STABLE. 61 



until at last there is room for none, and discomfort for all. 

 It may be asked why the livery system of keeping horses 

 is so distasteful to us ? This can only be answered by per- 

 sonal experience and observation, and comparison of other 

 establishments of a more private character. It is an 

 always understood principle of trade, that a person gets 

 what he pays for, whether it be a peck of oats or a bale of 

 goods ; but in the feed of a horse at livery, the promise 

 must be taken for the performance — the shadow for the 

 substance. 



There are, however, some good livery stables amongst 

 us, but they are an exception ; and if it were not con- 

 sidered invidious, we would with pleasure give the 

 names and locations of them in the principal cities of the 

 seaboard. This only can be the excuse for our silence in 

 the exceptions just alluded to. To have a horse at livery 

 is to subject him to sickness brought to the stable by 

 horses from all parts of the country, and suffering from 

 infectious and contagious diseases. This is one explana- 

 tion of the prevalence of epizootic disease in the livery 

 stable, when found or seen nowhere else at the same time. 

 The livery stable, like the tenement house, is the nursery 

 for the production of disease. The horse for sale or 

 exchange is here brought to be disposed of, not unusually 

 diseased, and no one daring to say a word against it or to 

 inform the patrons of the stable, till other horses in the 

 livery have the same disease ; then the veterinary surgeon 

 is sent for, and is perhaps the first to detect the source 

 5* 



