HARPIES OF THE STABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 50

HARPIES OF THE STABLE.

House Dealers and Horse Thieves at Home. " A recent race meeting at Epsom was characterised by that which the daily prass styled a " very remarkable incident." It was nothing less than the theft of a horse from the shafts of a dogcart. A gentleman had driven down to the course ia a stylish turnout. Being sublimely ignorant of the rogueries and frauds which hedge about a horse, he had left his trap in charge of a pleasant-looking tout, who had greeted him with the common invitation, " Hold your 'oss, sir." After seeing a great race, and lunching, the confidiog owner of the dogcart returned to find his property. Nor did ho have any difficulty in dping so. There was the horse and there was the cart, and thero was the tout, anticipating with a broad grin the shilling soon to be put into his band; It was only when Epsom was left some way behind that the driver discovered that all was not well with his nag. Instead of his customary free motion there was a hopand-go-one trot which promised to land the party in town some time next; year. And in addition to this, the brute was obviously as lame as a horse could be. ■ This discovery was somewhat alarming. It was more alarming when the driver got down from his seat and examined the horse. ° At first he could not believe hia eyes. In height, in colour, in the markings, the animal he drove resembled his own nag exactly. But his was. a youug horse, and a casual glance at the mouth of the new brute proved him to be aged. Then the whole trick dawned upon him. The horses had been changed while he was watching the race. How the thing was done remains a mystery. Cleaily, the tout who held the horsa knew of the business. He must, have been one of as astute a gang of thieves as ever went to Ep3om. But even granting this, it is nothing bnt, amazing to remember that these men found, during the hour that the driver of the trap was upon the course, a horse exactly like the one to be stolen. On no other point is the victim of the story. so emphatic. The wretched beast of whioh he became so unexpectedly the master was as like hie own horse as brute could be. And the thieves must have found this animal in some time under an honr. The only assumption is that they went to the course prepared to steal, and provided with the wherewithal

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pastors in certain churches. At the bead of a volume containing the census of the occupations of women in the United States, one of them, a poet of high standing, Julia Ward Howe, has placed this proud sentence. It explainß better than whole commentaries that passion for activity which characterises the claims of woman in this country : " The theory that women ought not to work is a corruption of the old aristocratic system. . . . A respect for labour is the foundation of a true democracy." Who can be surprised if creaturus possessing this pride, this consciousness of individuality, having conquered the right of taking upon themselves occupations most foreign to their sex, reign un contested in the realm most tit for them — the management of social life 1 LOVE AND MABBIAGB. With thß American girl " the question of love is relegated to the background." The question whether or not she will be married in accordance with the desires of her heart, whether or not her life will be a love story, has very often not the slightest place in a girl's thoughts. Even for those who seem the most intent on pleasing,- and who make the most of their personal attractions — there are fewer of them than Frenchmen suppose, more of them than Americans will admit — it is^still true that nine times out of ten their relations with a man are merely a fact of social life. It is simply a way of gratifying their self-love, of becoming what the newspapers call " prominent people in society " by the number of their adorers. This love of admiration has not the danger here that it | would have elsewhere, because, on the one band, of the reserve of men in America ; on the other, of the girl's thorough understanding of the masculine character. They began at so early an age to be on intimate terms with men that, so far as they are concerned, they are in the position of the ohiidren of a circus rider with horses. And the result of all this is to produce A WONDERFUL VARIETY OF TYP3 AMOKG AMEKICAN GIKLS. Precisely because the Amerioan girl's imagination does not play around sentimental problems, she has far more shades of variety in her character than her compeers in Europe. The latter do not expect their true development

with the jewels of a queen, behind each one of whose whims lie days and days spent in the ardent battle of Wall street. Frenzy of speculations in land, cities undertaken and built by sheer foroe of millions, trains launched at full speed over bridges built on a Babel-like sweep of arch, the creaking of cable cars, the quivering of electric cars, sliding along their wires with a crackle and a spark, the dizzy ascent of elevators, in buildings 20 storeys high, immense wheat fields of the West, its ranches, mines, colossal slaughter-houses — all the formidable traffic of this country of effort and struggle, all its labaur — these are what have made possible this woman, this living orchid — unexpected masterpiece of this civilisation. . . . This woman can do without being loved. She has no need of being loved. What she symbolises is neither sensuality nor tenderness. She is like a living object of art, the last fine work of human skill, attesting that the Yankee, but yesterday despairing, vanquished by the Old World, has been able to draw from this savage world upon which Fate baa cast him a wholly new civilisation, incarnated in this woman, her luxury, and her pride. Ererything is illuminated by this civilisation, at the gaze of these fathomless eyes, in the expression of which the painter has succeeded in putting all the idealism of this country which bas no ideal ; all that which, perhaps, will one day be its destruction, but up to the present time is still its greatness— a faith in the human will, absolute, unique, systematic, and indomitable.