FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



ing. What matters it that an occasional brute of 

 a man is imprisoned or fined? He knows no 

 better, nor will his descendants learn from his 

 punishment. Show them the why and wherefore 

 of such matters by actual demonstration, talks, 

 lectures, pictures, living examples, and teach them 

 not only the proper treatment of birds, cats, dogs, 

 horses, etc., but explain to them in a practical 

 way how and why things are right and wrong. 

 Text-books and pamphlets are all very well, but 

 they are not practical, and no one knows that 

 more quickly than the children for whom they 

 are intended. Such matters should be part of 

 the curriculum of every school (public or private) 

 and college ; not the dilettante end of it, but the 

 hard, old business end that has, after all, so much 

 in it of sentiment, of sympathy, of romance to 

 those who really love dumb animals and appre- 

 ciate their needs and their neglect. 



Prices, of course, vary as widely as do the merits 

 of the animals sought. A good, plain, family 

 horse will cost all the way from ^loo to ^250, 

 the first figure, or perhaps a trifle less, being 

 sufficient to secure a practically sound, " second- 

 hand" animal, displaying probably the scars and 

 effects of honorable toil, but none the worse for 



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