1 3 HORSES: 



on every horse, will amount to two millions and a quar 

 ter ; and there will be the further saving in straw as 

 well as on medicines, nostrums, and remedies no 

 longer needed for animals rescued from a system 

 which was a fruitful source of discomfort, disease, and 

 death. The angry controversies which the subject 

 is now constantly calling forth and exasperating will 

 at the same time disappear. There will no longer be 

 an outcry for uniformity in the system of paving 

 towns, for horses will go as well on one kind of pave- 

 ment as on another. There will no longer be queru- 

 lous demands on inventors for the devising of a 

 perfect shoe, because it will be clearly seen that this 

 perfect shoe has been furnished already by nature, and 

 that it is only human ignorance and conceit which has 

 marred the work of God. We may now look back 

 with some feeling of envious regret on the wiser, be- 

 cause more natural methods of the ancient world ; 

 and future generations will look back with feelings of 

 simple wonderment at the infatuation which could 

 submit without a struggle to a system which doomed 

 the horse to unnecessary disease and agony and to a 

 premature death, while it deprived his owner of 

 wealth often sorely needed for his own welfare and 

 that of all depending on him. Of the ultimate issue 

 there can be no doubt ; but it is still the duty of 

 •" Free Lance," as of all whose eyes are opened to 

 the mischief of the existing system, to fight the battle 

 to the end. 



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