One of the members of the Humane Society, who lives in an aristocratic
ward, had been annoyed at hearing sounds from a stable near his
residence, which indicated that a boy who had charge of a horse was
in the habit of pounding the animal vigorously every morning, while
cleaning off the dirt. It seemed to the humane man that the boy must use
a barrel stave or fence board to curry off the horse, and the way the
animal danced around the barn was terrible.
It occurred every morning, and the humane man made up his mind that it
was his duty to put a stop to it. He went to the barn one morning, just
as the cotillion commenced. Looking through a knot hole he saw the horse
tied so his head was away up to the top of the barn, so he could not use
his teeth to defend himself. The boy stood with a curry comb in one hand
and a piece of plank in the other, and he warmed the horse with both,
and the animal kicked for all that was out.
The humane man thought this was the worst case of cruelty to animals
that ever was, and he rapped for admission. The boy, covered with
perspiration, horse tail, stable refuse and indignation, opened the
door, and the humane man proceeded to read him a lecture about cruelty
to dumb animals, called him a fiend in human form, and told him that
kindness was what was necessary, instead of a club.
The boy couldn't get in a word edgeways for a while, but when the man
had exhausted his talk the boy told him that kindness might work on
ordinary horses, but this horse was the meanest animal in the world.
He would bite and kick without any provocation, and the present owner
couldn't sell him or give him away. He said that the only way he could
be curried was to tie him up at both ends, and the only way he could be
harnessed was to toss the harness on him with a pitch fork.
The horse, with his head tied up so high that he could not use it,
looked down at the humane man with one eye filled with emotion--the
other eye had been knocked out years ago--and seemed to be thanking
the kind-hearted citizen for interfering in the matinee and causing
hostilities to be suspended. The humane man was touched by the
intelligent look of the horse, and insisted that the animal be untied
and allowed its freedom. The boy said he didn't dare untie him, for he
would kick the side of the barn out, but the man insisted that he should
release the horse, and went up to his head to do so, when the boy went
through the manure hole in the side of the barn.
What happened when the humane citizen untied the halter will perhaps
never be definitely known, but no sooner had the boy struck the ground
through the hole, than there was a sound of revelry in the barn, there
came a yell through the crevices, there seemed to be a company of
cavalry drilling on the barn floor, there was a sound as of cloth
tearing, and then it appeared as though something was climbing up the
inside of the barn, and after which the hind heels of the horse could be
heard playing the snare drum on the manger. The boy roused the neighbors
and they armed themselves and entered the barn. They found the horse in
the stall, with its head where its tail should be, with its mouth full
of pantaloons cloth, and kicking away as though its heart would break.
And the humane man, where, O, where was he? Ask of the winds that far
around with fragments of hat and coat tail strewed the barn floor.
“Shoot the horse.” said a faint voice from the upper part of the barn,
and every eye was turned in that direction. The humane man was up there,
clinging to a cross piece. He had evidently gone up the ladder which
led to the hay loft, a little ahead of the horse, and as he clung to the
cross piece, his coat tail gone, and the vital part of his pantaloons
and some skin gone to that bourne from whence no pantaloons seat
returns, his bald head covered with dust and cobwebs, he was a picture
of meekness.
The crowd got the horse into another stall, head first, and put bars
across, and the humane man came down from his perch. Seizing a barn
shovel, and spitting on his hands, he asked his friends to wait and
watch him curry off that horse just a minute for luck. He said he only
wanted to live just long enough to maul every rib out of the animal, and
if he was forgiven for interfering in somebody's else's business this
time he would try and lead a different life in the future.
They put a horse blanket around his wounds and led him home, and he has
given the boy five dollars to pound the horse an hour every morning for
the next thirty days. You can't make that man believe that a horse has
any intelligence.