2IO Our Noblest Friend, The Horse 



him mad by day, millions of mosquitoes gnaw his 

 bones by night; and if he in his agony charge 

 through woodlands, rub against fences and trees, 

 or roll upon the ground, his skin thereby suffers 

 abrasions which immediately form a most attract- 

 ive feeding-place for his enemies; secure havens 

 to deposit their eggs, and to promote festering sores. 



Reduced finally to the cab ranks and the peddler's 

 wagon, his lot is fully as hopeless, for now his duties 

 daily call him where insects swarm, his repose (?) 

 must be sought where similar conditions obtain. 



" Banging " — i. e. squaring the hair at the end 

 of the bone — is not quite so barbarous in its future 

 results as docking, but for present purposes, and 

 while the hair remains short, it is just as bad. An 

 outrageous custom — utterly without reason, save 

 that a little wiork is saved to lazy stable-men — has 

 sprung up in New York, of thus mangling the tails 

 of animals used upon express wagons, street-cars, the 

 street-cleaning department, etc., to the number of 

 thousands. These animals are never protected from 

 flies, and their w^ork (and rest) is always where they 



