IS THE HORSE LOSING HIS JOB?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1919, Page 7

IS THE HORSE LOSING HIS JOB?

Even though motor power has come extensively, there are’ still thousand® of city horses, ■ Most of them wear a look of prosperity, and are fit and willing for work.

It seems probable (says a writer in the Melbourne “Ago”} that the cab horse will pas® before the majority of his brothers. He is usually a patient animat, much given to meditation. He ha® a tendency to catarrh, due to a frequent application of nose-bag. Hi® front legs may sometimes be more bowed than Nature intended them to be, but he generally appears contented with hi® lot, mid on good terms- with his- master. The iaxi is rapidly doing him out of his job, though there are some old-fashioned people who object to motors, an the "mn.nd of nhvsical' danger. One old lady, well known to cab drivers, consistently refuses to travel, in taxis because They look so unfinished. As the cab horse comes rarer his condition seems ,to improv(e. This is, satisfactory, for most people pretea? quality to quantity. When he passes entirely he will probably leave behind him a few mourners, who will expatiate for a year or two on the comforts and safety of the old four-wheelers.

The fire hors© also threatens to become obsolete in a very short time. He will! leave a hundred mourners where the cab horse leaves one. It is his fortune, not his merit, for he is invariably handsome and wonderfully sagacious. He seems to be as fond 1 of a fir©- as the ordinary boy in the street, and' as deter- ' mined to get in by the early doors. He- is » rara avis nowadays, and, hn» petrol-driven successor is a tame thing in comparison with him and his brU- ' lianb chariot. Hi® next of kin in intellgence is the trooper’s horse. Who has not admirea him at The head of processions, and when he is on crowd duty? He wear® a : more aristocratic .look than the fire honge and is sometimes almost firtt i cousin to the. blue-blooded racer. If the ©tones of hatpin atrocities, committed . upon him while on crowd duty are true, it is hard) to make oneself admit that the, perpetrator is the higher ammal of the two. . Last but greatest of all, as the draught horses. The motor lorry is not ' yet. very common, and the big _ homes are sill numerous. They are fine fel- , lows, docile, end magnificently strong. Some of them have their splendid heads ‘ free from disfiguring winker©. These fortunate® look as though they took a more intelligent interest in What goes on around them than do many of their bipedal superiors. There are sons© excellent teams oni th© city streets, the whites amd greysi of milk-ki*s fame being among them. > , j Weary Eorinantes are sometimes to he seen in Melbourne, but they are certainly the exception. Australians are proverbial horse-lovers, wd the lean-, nees of a man’s hors© can generally he traced to the leanness of his purse. Otherwise he is a scoundrel, and de- I serves rough handling until he realises his misdementuore, . . The tragedy of a horse s lite is often his old age. When he loses his bloom he is useless to the prosperous mau. It is then that he is passed on to the poor man, who, willy-nilly, has to extra© every available ounce of work from mm at as little cost as possible. The result is an exaggerated Rosinante. He may die in harness, or he may spend a few week® of almost unknown leisure in the- - paddocks at Royal Park before he make® a meal for th© lion®. He is man s splendid Sully, and is deserving of a better fate : tban ...either of these. To be food for the lion® is not. a tragedy, for a. J merciful death comes Before, but ms state of weariness and the shortness of h ? s r£st ai*© to hi®. pitiful incogs. Jn, the future philanthropy may make . this world a better place for him. At preset wc ctu only bop© tbnV in bts •next incarnation be will have his due reward, 1 ’ ; j