Is it nothin' to make a man love at all? How
many fellers get more kicks than coppers in their life--have no home,
nobody to love them and nobody to love, in whose breast all the
affections are pent up, until they get unwholesome and want
ventilation. Is it nothin' to such an unfortunate critter to be made a
stable help? Why, it elevates him in the scale of humanity. He
discovers at last he has a head to think and a heart to feel. He is a
new man. Hosses warn't given to us, Doctor, to ride steeple-chases, or
run races, or brutify a man, but to add new powers and lend new speed
to him. He was destined for nobler uses.
"Is it any wonder that a man that has owned old Clay likes to talk
hoss? I guess not. If I was a gall I wouldn't have nothin' to say to a
man that didn't love a hoss and know all about him. I wouldn't touch
him with a pair of tongs. I'd scorn him as I would a nigger. Sportsmen
breed pheasants to kill, and amature huntsmen shoot dear for the
pleasure of the slaughter. The angler hooks salmon for the cruel
delight he has in witnessing the strength of their dying struggles.
The black-leg gentleman runs his hoss agin time, and wins the race,
and kills his noble steed, and sometimes loses both money and hoss, I
wish to gracious he always did; but the rail hossman, Doctor, is a
rail man, every inch of him, stock, lock, and barrel."
"Massa," said Sorrow, who stood listenin' to me as I was warmin' on
the subject.
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