MAN'S BEST FRIEND.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9463, 4 June 1909, Page 6

MAN'S BEST FRIEND.

The following issued as a leaflet by the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Ornelty to Animals, should be read by all who have to do with the noble animal, the horse: A HORSE'S APPEAL. “To the drivers and owners of carriages, carta, etc. “Man—God made yon. He also made me; and He also recommended me to your mercy. I wish to serveyou and obey your will, and to love you, too, if you will let me. Do not, therefore, break my heart with ill-treatment. I have intelligence, memory, affection, and gratitude; only Ido not know how to speak. I want to understand "you and do yonr bidding, but lam bo often terrified by you that I no longer know , what you want me to do, nor why yon punish me. Often lam full of pains from blows you give me; my whole body writhes with your lash; my mouth and teeth aoha with the hard bit which you incessantly tug as if it were a bell rope. lam old, and have become so lame irom yearaof hammering away upon the hard' metal that I oan’t easily pot my foot to the ground ; yet I mnst esill nm up and down hill; over the sloney roads, all day in a burning heat or a cutting south wind, overladen. My collar frequently works a sore upon my shoulder—look at that wound that goes nearly to the bone —and when it presses upon mo, if I falter, instead of looking to it, or easing me, you out me with your whip. I willingly, even, in my old age, etrnggle my utmost to do your work,, yet often, when lam broken down, yon take me out upon a common to die from starvation. God has made me a nervous animal, and when you call upon me I strain every muscle. But often you overwork me and illuse me so that I become faint and ill-, and then you curse mejfor a sorry brute, when it is you that have made me so! I come home quite knocked np with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, full of pain and misery; and then my food i« poor and old and scanty, and I often cannot get rest tor the nekt day’s struggle. If you do not care forme as I wish ynn would, only think of this: that if you treat me well I will do more work for you, and last you much longer, and so you will make more oucjof me in the end. And think of another thing ; You also have a Master. You are as mi oh in His power as I am m yours, and you will want mercy from Him one day. Gan yon fairly ask it if you show none to me?—Signed respectfully by a broken down horse in the name of all the ill-treated horses.”