1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



731 



and workmanship, and the sooner they are 

 consigned to his department and workshop 

 the better, if they propose to continue in 

 this way. 



Now, if there is one who reads these 

 pae^es who has not paid his board-bill, es- 

 pecially if it be due to some hard-working 

 woman, will he not go this minute and set- 

 tle it up? If you are a >nan, God made j'ou 

 in his image. Will you put him and all 

 humanity to shame? My friend explained 

 to me that it was a hard thing for the wid- 

 ow to require all these boj's to pay in ad- 

 vance, but he feared she would have to 

 do it. 



Our machine was done. I climbed into 

 the seat beside the man who put it up, and 

 round it whizzed on the trial trip. When 

 awaj' over on the side of the race-course 

 furthest from the factory, when every thing 

 so far as I could see was all right, he 

 jerked out an ejaculation, and stopped the 

 machine so suddenly it nearlj^ pitched me 

 over the dashboard. Somebody had forgot- 

 ten to fasten one of the wheels securely. 

 The wrench he wanted was over at the 

 shop; but he called to a comrade who was 

 whizzing past, and the wrench was at hand 

 in almost no time. 



Besides the race-course test they have a 

 steep incline on whicli the power to ascend 

 a grade is tested. If a machine will go 

 over this it is called up to standard in 

 power. 



When I first looked at that incline it 

 seemed to me that no machine could go up 

 it. But up thej' went allying, and down 

 again on the other side. Once in a while, 

 however, a machine would be found defi- 

 cient (we might say in wind); and when 

 almost at the top it would have to back 

 down again and go back to the hospital to 

 have its wind mended. Oh if we could take 

 weak and crippled human beings, and give 

 them life and strength as they do these ma- 

 chines, what a grand thing it would be! 

 Let me digress again a little right here: 



The great Father above gave horses to 

 humanitj' as beasts of burden. We do not 

 know just what the horse was like when it 

 came from the hand of God; but we do 

 know that humanity, created in God's own 

 image, grasped hold of the horse, as it were, 

 and proceeded to fashion it according to 

 his needs. See the trim light-footed racer; 

 then contrast it with the heavy-limbed thick- 

 set draft horse. And man did this fashion- 

 ing. Now, it occurs to me that man has 

 not only been able to fashion the bones and 

 muscles, but I think he has had much to do 

 with shaping the intelligence of the horse. 



Much has been said and written about 

 frightening horses on the road with auto- 

 mobiles; and as I write, after an experience 

 of four weeks through Michigan on the auto, 

 I have had something to do with meeting 

 horses. I have not only learned about 

 autos, but I have studied horses, and I 

 think I have become better acquainted with 

 them than ever before. One day in going 

 down a gentle incline at a pretty good 



speed, Huber and I saw a bright young 

 horse coming toward us across the valley. 

 Of course, he pricked up his ears and 

 ,' canned us critically. At first it was curi- 

 osity on his part to know how a carriage 

 could go at such speed as we were going, 

 without a horse like himself to pull it. He 

 was using his reason, or perhaps you may 

 prefer to call it his "horse sense." Now, 

 a cow or a pig or a sheep pays no attention 

 to the swift-running auto at all. It is be- 

 yond their comprehension, or it is none of 

 their affair, perhaps, whether the carriage 

 goes of itself or has a horse to pull it. Not 

 so with the intelligent horse. He is keenly 

 alive to any thing unusual or to any thing 

 not easily explained by his horse sense. 

 This horse of which I am speaking eyed 

 us first with curiosity, then alarm. When 

 he got a little nearer it was consternation; 

 and when he decided it must be a specter 

 or some sort of hobgoblin to go thus of it- 

 self, his consternation turned to downright 

 dismay and fright, and he started to flee in 

 downright terror from the apparition. His 

 owner may have called him a "fool." 

 Some men swear at their horses just because 

 the animals have this God-given intelligence 

 that comes so near human knowledge. 

 This is all wrong. I honor the horse be- 

 cause of his inquiring mind, and because 

 he is frightened and demoralized when a 

 cow would see nothing to be troubled about 

 at all. 



I have many times felt as if I should like 

 to shake hands, not with the whole human 

 race, but with the whole /wrse race. Huber 

 was studying horses, like myself; and he 

 finally suggested that if we would talk to 

 the horses as we went by them they would 

 be less afraid; and he succeeded nicely. 

 When they heard a human voice coming 

 from the machine in tones of kindness and 

 sympathy they became reassured. When 

 women were driving, and there seemed to 

 be any trouble, I jumped out and led the 

 horse past the machine. I never found a 

 horse I could not lead close up to it by talk- 

 ing to the animal and rubbing its nose to 

 reassure it. Dozens of times people were 

 unnecessarily' alarmed. They would jump 

 out and hold the horse, Lead him up a steep 

 bank, or off into the field, when he paid no 

 attention to the machine whatever, and was 

 evidently wondering what they were all 

 making such a fuss about. When we turn- 

 ed out as far as we could, and slowed down 

 the powc", making the machine run as still 

 and quietly as possible, not one horse in 

 ten made any trouble. 



Now, this intelligence I have described, 

 on the part of the horse, I believe is largely 

 the result of man's work. People have 

 been for ages breeding colts from mothers 

 that showed unusual intelligence. There 

 are horses that learn trades. We have one 

 in our lumber-yard that pulls a car of lum- 

 ber, then turns around of his own accord, 

 and follows the car back. No one pays 

 any attention to him, comparatively. But 

 he is always on hand when a car is ready 



