Page 24 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Mail, Issue 361, 11 January 1879, Page 24

* Cruelty is not only wicked but most improvident, and the cruel man, boy or woman should find no place on the farm, even if he offered his services for nothin". “Mr. Mechi, writing of the ploughman who hit a horse on the head with a knob stick, reminds me,” says a correspondent, “of a similar character that came under my notice during childhood, and which brought with it a swift and severe retribution on the spot. A farmer had been to a fair and bought a splendid cart-horse for 40gs.—they were much cheaper then than now. He had drunk to excess, and was leading the horse home himself. Coming to the road that led to its old home, the horse tried to turn in that direction. The purchaser’s farm led in another. The man stood in front of the horse, lifted his large walking stick and hit it with all his force with the nob on its forehead- It fell instantly with a crash, stretched out its legs and died, almost touching me as it fell, for I happened to be there at the moment. The man cried like a cldld at the swift and terrible punishment of his passion, but his horse was beyond reach of his repentance.”—Ed. A. G.