The Stable and Kennel 
training had been along this line from the time he 
was first broken to bit and bridle. 
This incident, above all I have ever witnessed in 
animal life, gave me a clear conception of the love and 
obedience which the horse in private life, apart from 
exhibition circles, is capable of manifesting. The 
exhibition added much stimulus to an underlying 
belief that the equine friend of man is indeed most 
responsive to training and treatment, influenced by 
kindness, mercy, patience and love. When men 
learn the genuine potency of the gentle methods of 
treating their fellowmen and animals, their horses 
will surely be among the first to respond to the more 
humane training involved. The responsibility for 
the best development of animal character rests on the 
exemplary influence of men and women—not on 
their horses or other subordinate creatures. It is 
always the preroga¬ 
tive and duty of 
higher manifesta¬ 
tions of intelligence 
to rightfully influ¬ 
ence and encourage 
the lesser. 
This circumstance 
of the Swiss doines- 
tique and his most 
tractable animal was 
a spontaneous result 
accomplished with 
child-like natural 
simplicity. And 
therein, like the w ild 
flora of the rugged 
Alps, is f o u n d the 
beneficial signifi¬ 
cance of the encour¬ 
aging lesson which it 
illustrates. Our best lessons in animal or human 
life are not found in ritual, rubric, or in the problems 
of profound philosophies, but in the unexpected and 
commonplace occurrences of life w hich need only 
to be observed and studied a little to reveal the 
beauties and fragrance of the inner blossom. 
We often observe the effects of concentrated train¬ 
ing of animals in exhibitions wherein trainers display 
the results of continuous specialized attention to 
horses, dogs, seals and other representatives of the 
lower kingdom, merely for the purpose of amusing 
people and illustrating the scope and influence of 
human intelligence. But these manifestations are the 
products of expert concentrated attention on animals 
which act and pose largely for the purpose of amusing 
children and adults. In these exhibitions of control 
and training, kindness seems to be used in perfunc¬ 
tory w^ays, but the whip in hand indicates that it 
may often play a part in forcing issues which do not 
illustrate the best methods or bring out results which 
are truly beneficial in the higher development of 
animals. 
In the incident herein narrated of the Swiss horse, 
the whip, or control merely for exhibition purposes 
were not the strong factors; the circumstance illus¬ 
trated natural results wdiich were always apparent in 
the practical every day life of horse and trainer, or 
horse and master, and go to show the possibilities of 
better practical relations between man and beast 
wherever the one serves the other. 
At the recent annual meeting of the American 
Humane Association at Boston, the president, Dr. 
Stillman, called attention to the twm sides of philan¬ 
thropy, the humanitarian and the commercial. On 
the one hand, the anti-cruelty movement presents 
itself as an encouragement and an opportunity to be 
kind. On the other hand, nothing can be surer than 
that to the world col¬ 
lectively regard for 
human and animal 
life pays. State orni¬ 
thologists estimate 
that the wanton 
destruction of bird 
life means the loss of 
crops amounting to 
the value of ^800,- 
000,000 each year. 
The annual loss in 
cattle and sheep 
through neglect and 
exposure is over 
^24,000,000, accord¬ 
ing to the department 
of agriculture. Loss 
is measured more 
easily than profit, but 
if cruelty costs this 
much, kindness must have saved many times as much. 
It is estimated that the 25,000,000 horses and 
mules in the United States live on an average five 
years less than if they were treated with greater care. 
An addition of five years to the life of each of these 
animals would be worth hundreds of millions of dol¬ 
lars. Much cruelty which cannot be cured by any 
appeal to sentiment would be stopped if the perpe¬ 
trators could be made to see how they are injuring 
themselves financially. 
Kindness to animals has its cash value to a com¬ 
munity. Kindness to human beings has a greater 
value. The cost of the machinery for the punish¬ 
ment of criminals is greater than it ought to be. 
Among criminals some are degenerate or defective 
mentally, so that no early training could have pre¬ 
vented them from going wTong, but in many other 
cases a little more attention paid by the State to ignor¬ 
ant and neglected children would have been cheaper 
than punishment. The State not only loses money 
145 
