THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 7 
and agility.”? ‘Treat him as you would treat him if he 
had cost you a great sum, or as if you expected to win a 
great sum through his exertions. Let him have good 
blankets, good grooming, and all the little attentions 
of a well ordered establishment. Is there anything 
ridiculous in this? Shall not the stable, as well as 
the house, have its sacred rites of hospitality ? 
Shall not the old cheap horse be made as comfortable 
as the young and costly one ? 
And here I anticipate an obvious criticism. “The 
horse should be killed, and the money that it costs to 
maintain him be given to the poor.” I grant it. Let 
the old horse be shot, and let the two dollars and fifty 
cents per week necessary for his support be given in 
charity. But see to it, ye who might maintain an 
equine pensioner, and forbear to do so for reasons of 
conscience, —see to it that the poor be not defrauded 
of the sum thus saved for them. 
Doubtless the ideal manner of keeping a horse is 
that practised in Arabia, where, we are told, he is 
treated like one of the family, being the constant 
companion of the children, and allowed to poke his 
nose within the tent and in all the household affairs. 
Unfortunately, our habits of living will not permit 
such intimacy, although I have seen a yearling colt 
within the walls of a country dwelling-house, taking a 
moderate lunch of oats from the kitchen table, and 
afterward, with ears erect, briefly surveying the out- 
side world through the drawing-room window. Mr. 
Briggs’s introduction of his hunter to the dining- 
1 The final illustration is a portrait of an old cab horse, rescued 
in a moribund condition, and rejuvenated in the manner stated in 
the text. 
