660 
MISCELLANEA. 
Stringhalt. 
This is an unnatural binding of the sinews, which imperfection 
a horse bringeth into the world with him, and therefore it is cer¬ 
tain it is incurable, and not painful, but only an eye-sore; yet 
the best way to keep it from worse inconvenience is to bathe his 
limbs with a decoction of coleworts. 
Horse-Racing in America. 
Very striking and amusing scenes may be witnessed upon a 
Charleston race-course. I remember being present at the run¬ 
ning of a famous match between a Virginian and South Carolina 
horse. The two first heats were won by the Virginian, and the 
two last by the favourite of South Carolina, whose name, I recol¬ 
lect, was Bertram. The interest always attendant upon a good 
horse-race was increased to intensity by the feeling of state rivalry 
prevalent all over the union, and which is called forth in its full 
'strength on such occasion. Many a dirk was g^rasped and fierce 
threat uttered. At last the South Carolina horse came up vic¬ 
torious, and the scene which followed recalled to my mind Gib¬ 
bon’s account of the Blue and Green factions of Constantinople, 
when the triumph of a political party depended upon the speed 
pf a horse. Ever since, the horse-races in England have appeared 
to me to be very tame affairs indeed. I was in New York at the 
time of the match between Henry and Eclipse, between the 
north and south, which is well remembered by many as evi¬ 
dencing the existence of a spirit of rivalry by no means favour¬ 
able to the future permanence of the federal union.— Whittaker^s 
Monthly Magazine, _ 
Turcoman Shoeing. 
The value of a good horse in Turcoman is from four to fifteen 
dollars. The price of a set of shoes nine dollars, thirty-six shil¬ 
lings—a sum that will purchase a horse of moderate qualifica¬ 
tion. A German Baron paid twelve dollars (£2..8s) for a spirited 
long-backed, long-legged, long-tailed, grey. He gave orders to 
have the fore-feet only shod, and to his utter astonishment the 
charge for the pair of shoes was four dollars and a half (eighteen 
shillings)! a price at which a tolerable horse might be purchased. 
The Baron thought it extremely hard that he should be charged 
more than one-third of the whole value of his horse for only half 
shoeing, and told the smith, in very gQjjd German-Spanish, what 
he afterwards told me in very good German-English, that he 
could shod get in his country all four horse feets fur sechyehn 
groschen” The smith, smoking his cigar, calmly replied, “ that 
he was at full liberty to take his horse to Germany; but if he 
required that operation to be performed in Turcoman, he must 
pay four dollars and a half, or go without—‘ no hai remedis,^ ” 
