Amusing and Instructive.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 347, 5 February 1866, Page 1

Amusing and Instructive.

Scratches nr Horses. —lt is my purpose in this writing to give a few practical hints to avoid a troublesome disease, known as “scratches” or “ grease.” It is generally caused by bad stable management. It seldom attacks the forelegs, and horses with white legs are more subject to it than any others. Strict cleanliness is the only prevention. To-day’s dirt should not be left for the morrow’s cleaning. A man that is truly fond of his horse will attend to his being properly cleaned at the proper time—he will say that it is not good for him to sleep in his sweat. I well know the benefit of an hours work at night. Suppose a man with a four horse-team—and it is heavy horses that are more subject to greasy heels —with a currycomb in one hand and a brush in the other, for he can use two hands in cleaning horses, though a good many drivers appear ignorant of the fact —spends one hour industriously on his horse’s sides and legs, he will be surprised in the morning to see how much sleeker a horse looks, than if he has been in the habit of feeding, hangng up his gears, and calling his work done. He will from this time devote one hour tocleaning—thatis but just enough to save greasy heels—when opportunity permits : do the work well regardless of time. lamnotastrangertothejob. Justgetonyour knees: with a corn cob and a handful of straw, rub off every speck of dirt, and continue rubbing after the dirt is gone. The stable is the place to make your horse look well. When you have him out he has got to work, and he can perform that ■work better if he is properly cared for over night. The first appearance of grease is a dry scurvy state of the skin of the heel—in white legs it will show a blue shade under the hair. Custom has very properly retained the hair on the horse’s heel. It guards the heels from the rough surface of our ploughed fields, creating a greater necessity to hand-rub the dirt therefrom. It should never he washed, as the washing keeps the heels moist, and to prevent grease the heels should be kept dry-and clean. —Maryland Farmer.

Hot long ago, an English sailor killed the wife of a Chinaman by accident, an event which gave him considerable uneasiness. The woman’s husband hearing of the circumstance, came to the vessel, and, after some talk, offered to make it up with the man, compromising the affair for thirty dollars. The sailor was glad to escape so easily, and paid the money, when the Chinaman said, “It did not matter so much, as she was an old ■wife, and he could get a new one for twenty-five dollars, which would leave five dollars to buy rice.”

In a criticism of the Royal Academy by Tom Taylor in the Shilling Magazine, is the following anecdote concerning one of Millais’s pictures A lady and gentleman were standing before a picture by Millais, which most of our readers still remember, called “Trust Me,” in which an elderly squire confronts his daughter, who holds a letter behind her back. The picture admits of more explanations than one, for Mr Millais has that rare faculty of putting blended expressions into his faces, which often puzzle us, as the expressions of real faces do. But the one this gentleman was overheard giving his companion is as new, we will be bound to say, to the painter as to onr readers. ‘‘Your see,” he said. “ she has got a letter in her hand, which she is keeping back from the man in the red coat. Well, he is the postman, and has just given her the letter; I supposeits from abroad. She hasn’t the money to pay the postage, so she says, 5 Trust sue.’ ” The explanation was given ■with perfect gravity, and in apparent good faith. It was gratefully accepted in the same spirit; and the lady seemed proud of her companion’s intelligence in so rapidly reading the riddle.

In one of the courts, lately, there was a long and learn ed discussion as to whether the witness should ha allowed to answer the question, “What did Mary say ?” Three judges gave long elaborate opinions in the affirmative, and the question being repeated, the answer was “Hot a word.’’ ;