A PLEA FOR THE HORSE. 



261 



points. There is often 

 shameful neglect of 

 horses when hitched- 

 They are left unsheltered 

 and uncovered in the 

 cold and rain, while their 

 riders or drivers are in 

 some drinking saloon, 

 toasting their shins in 

 comfort, drinking from 

 the cup that exhilarates 

 only to deprave or de- 

 stroy the best impulses 

 of their natures. With a 



Fig. 331.— In the Hands of Fast Young Men. 



without reason and without 

 mercy. They are clubbed, 

 and kicked, and cursed, and, 

 in fact, treated with every 

 conceivable indignity prac^ 

 ticed by barbarous tribes 

 upon captive prisoners. 

 There is no spectacle more 

 calculated to excite the pity 

 and sympathy of the be- 

 nevolent and philanthropic, 

 than the faithful old family 

 horse, worn down with serv- 



Fig. 330.— All Day in the Storm. 



brain on fire with excite- 

 ment, or henumbed .with 

 torpor, the poor horse is 

 driven home again, heated 

 and exhausted, to be fol- 

 lowed perhaps by a chjll 

 that often seriously injures 

 or destroys the poor animal 

 by causing inflammation in 

 the feet^founder) or inflam- 

 mation of the lungs (pneu- 

 monia), etc. They are un- 

 necessarily lashed and sav- 

 agely jerked upon the bit, 



Fig. 323.— Ruined by Fast Driving. 



