s clipped, and
check-reined, and had his tail docked. I wouldn't drive behind a
tailless horse now. Then, I wasn't so particular. However, I made her
unfasten the check-rein before I'd set foot in the carriage. Well, I
thought that horse would go mad. He'd tremble and shiver, and look so
pitifully at us. The flies were nearly eating him up. Then he'd start a
little. Mrs. Maxwell had a weight at his head to hold him, but he could
easily have dragged that. He was a good dispositioned horse, and he
didn't want to run away, but he could not stand still. I soon jumped up
and slapped him, and rubbed him till my hands were dripping wet. The
poor brute was so grateful and would keep touching my arm with his nose.
Mrs. Maxwell sat under the trees fanning herself and laughing at me, but
I didn't care. How could I enjoy myself with a dumb creature writhing in
pain before me?

"A docked horse can neither eat nor sleep comfortably in the fly season.
In one of our New England villages they have a sign up, 'Horses taken in
to grass. Long tails, one dollar and fifty cents. Short tails, one
dollar.' And it just means that the short-tailed ones are taken cheaper,
because they are so bothered by the flies that they can't eat much,
while the long-tailed ones are able to brush them away, and eat in
peace. I read the other day of a Buffalo coal dealer's horse that was in
such an agony through flies, that he committed suicide. You know animals
will do that. I've read of horses and dogs drowning themselves. This
horse had been clipped, and his tail was docked, and he was turned out
to graze. The flies stung him till he was nearly crazy. He ran up to a
picket fence, and sprang up on the sharp spikes. There he hung, making
no effort to get down. Some men saw him, and they said it was a clear
case of suicide.

"I would like to have the power to take every man who cuts off a horse's
tail, and tie his hands and turn him out in a field in the hot sun, with
little clothing on, and plenty of flies about. Then we would see if he
wouldn't sympathize with the poor, dumb beast. It's the most senseless
thing in the world, this docking fashion. They've a few flimsy arguments
about a horse with a docked tail being stronger-backed, like a
short-tailed sheep, but I don't believe a word of it. The horse was made
strong enough to do the work he's got to do, and man can't improve on
him. Docking is a cruel, wicked thing. Now, there's a ghost of an
argument in f