HABITATIONS 307 



proprietor or petty tradesman, whose means can afford no 

 comforts, and whose ideal does not rise to cleanliness. 



Nothing useful would be gained by a description of these 

 places in our towns and cities, they are a disgrace to our 

 civilization, but they will exist so long as the law permits. 

 There is no attempt at any kind of sanitation, the animals 

 are overcrowded, frequently two in a stall ; there is an 

 absence of light and air, and the presence of stench from 

 faecal and other excreta ; the floors are porous, broken, 

 containing puddles of urine and saturated with filth ; the 

 air is ammoniacal, and wretchedness predominates. 



Such places are found in crowded courts, side by side 

 with human habitations, in busy streets, in cab yards, in 

 the back premises of the small tradesmen, and even in 

 places where the surroundings might reasonably be expected 

 to give better results. 



We can do nothing with such places, the only thing is to 

 sweep them away, though we fully realize the enormous 

 value of the property we would thus ruthlessly destroy. 



What we intend to do in this section is to describe how 

 horses belonging to the industrial class should be housed, 

 it refers to the large proprietor, it makes no reference to 

 the small owner whose means and inclinations do not lie 

 in the direction of improvement, and whose landlord cannot 

 be touched by law. Some day the State will be compelled 

 to step in and prevent men breeding disease amongst their 

 animals to the common danger of the public, but that time 

 is not yet at hand. 



When ground space is limited and the number of horses 

 to be accommodated numerous, it is quite possible stables 

 two or three stories high may have to be built; but the 

 cardinal principle is that they should have an open roof, 

 which under the above circumstances is obviously impos- 

 sible. Eegarding stables built in stories, it can only be 

 said that as far as possible they should in other ways follow 

 the general conditions to be laid down for model industrial 

 stables. 



The number of horses to be provided for may be in tens 



20—2 



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