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Tours, when the fate of Christian Europe for hours hung in the balance, we may well believe that the strong and enduring horses of the northern cavalry did much to give victory to our race. Along with our general account of the place of the horse in civilization, it is fit to give something to the story of his near, though inferior, kinsmen, the ass and the mule, both of which have played a subordinate, though important, part in the same field of endeavor in which the nobler species has done so much for man. The original progenitors of our donkeys differed from the ancestral form of the horse by variations of good specific value. So far as we can determine from visible features, these forms were more distinctly parted than the dog and the wolf, or either of these animals from the jackal. Nevertheless, these equine forms are clearly closely akin, for they may be bred together. Although the original stock of the ass may possibly have been lost, it seems most likely that the wild forms which exist in Asia have not wandered off from captivity, but are the remnants of the original wilderness form.

It appears likely that the two domesticated equine species have been under the care of man for about the same length of time, but the difference in their condition, and in the place which they hold in civilization, is very great. As we have seen, the horse has been made to vary in a singular measure, his form and other qualities changing to meet the need or fancy of his master. His humbler kinsman has remained almost unchanged. Except small differences in size, the donkeys in different parts of the world are singularly alike. In part this lack of change may be explained by the relative neglect with which this species has been treated. From the point of view of the breeder, it has perhaps been the least cared for of any of our completely domesticated animals. In some parts of the world, as for instance in Spain where a long-continued effort has been made to develop the animal for interbreeding with the horse, the result shows that the form is relatively inelastic. It is doubtful if any con

ceivable amount of care would develop such variations as the horse now exhibits.

The principal hinderances to the general acceptation of the donkey as a helpmeet to man are found in the small size and slow motion. These qualities make the creature unserviceable in active war or in agriculture, and they seem to be so fixed in the blood that they are not to any extent corrigible. So long as pack animals were in general use, and in those parts of the world where the conditions of culture cause this method of transportation to be retained, the qualities of the donkey have proved and are still found of value. The animal can carry a relatively heavy burden, being in such tasks, for his weight, more efficient than the horse. He is less liable to stampedes. He learns a round of duty much more effectively than that creature, and can subsist by browsing on coarse herbage, where a horse would be so far weakened as to become useless. Thus, in developing the mines in the unimproved wilderness of the Cordilleras, where ores of the precious metals have to be carried for considerable distances, trains of "burros" are often employed. The animals quickly learn the nature of their task, and will do their work with but little guidance from man.

In general we may say that the donkeys belong to a vanishing state of human culture, to the time before carriage-ways existed. Now that civilization goes on wheels, they seem likely to have an ever-decreasing value. A century ago they were almost everywhere in common use. At the present time there are probably millions of people in the United States to whom the animal is known only by description. In a word, the creature marks a stage in the development of our industries which is passing away as rapidly as that in which the spinning-wheel and the handloom played a part.

As the use of the ass in the economic arts began to decline, the mule or hybrid progeny of this creature and the horse has progressively increased. Although the value of this mongrel has been known, particularly in southern Europe, from very early days, its most

extensive employment has been found in the old slave-holding States of the Federal union. The custom of using mules was almost unknown in England, and has never been generally adopted in the northern part of the United States. It appears to have been introduced into southern regions by the Spaniards and the French, and there to have spread, because of the peculiar fitness of the creature to the climate and the employment it had to endure in that part of America. The mule has the peculiar advantage that it is on the average as large as the horse, is nearly as quick-footed when walking, and has at the same time a considerable share of the patient endurance to hard labor and scant fare which characterizes the donkeys. It matures somewhat more speedily than its nobler kinsman, being ready to meet severe strains perhaps a year earlier. Unless unconscionably abused, its period of fitness for hard work endures about one-third longer, often lasting for thirty years. It is singularly exempt from disease; its sturdy frame withstanding rude usage until the old age time.

It is commonly thought that a mule is a stupider creature than the horse, but I have never found a person who was well acquainted with both animals, who hesitated to place the mongrel in the intellectual grade above the pureblood animal. There is, it is true, a decided difference in the mental qualities of the two creatures. The mule is relatively undemonstrative, his emotions being sufficiently expressed by an occasional bray a mode of utterance which he has inherited from the humbler side of his house in a singularly unchanged way. Even in the best humor he appears sullen, and lacks those playful capers which give such expression to the well-bred horse, particularly in its youthful state. It is evident, however, that it discriminates men and things more clearly than does the horse. In going over difficult ground it studies its surface, and picks its way so as to secure a footing in an almost infallible manner. Even when loaded with a pack, it will consider the incumbrance and not so often try to pass

where the burden will become entangled with fixed objects.

Mules soon learn the difference between those who have the care of them and strangers. It is a well-known fact that trouble awaits the wight who unwarily ventures to take from his stall a mule who has not the pleasure of his acquaintance. On this account they are rarely stolen. Even in the daytime they are often dangerous for strangers to approach, and the most of the ill-usage which men receive from their heels arises where unwitting people venture to treat them as they would horses. Mules are much less liable to panic fear than the most of our domesticated animals, yet, when kept in the herded way they occasionally become stampeded. Many a soldier of our Civil War, where mules played a large part in the campaigns, doubtless remembers the mad outbreaks of these creatures from their corrals, when they went charging through the army with a fury which, if directed against an enemy, would have been almost as effective as a cavalry charge.

In considering the general influence of the horse and its kindred forms on human culture, we clearly perceive that we are now attaining a time when the machinery of civilization is to depend in a much less degree than of old on the help which these creatures give to man. Even fifty years ago the horse was far more necessary to the work of our kind than it is at present. Going back a hundred years, we perceive that the population of the civilized world could not possibly have been maintained, if by some disease all the horses had been swept away. Such a calamity in the year 1800 would have led to the depopulation of almost all the cities of the interior country, famine would have ravaged our States, and the whole economic system of society would have had to be reconstructed. Now the greater part of the work which of old had to be done by horses, can, at a slight increase of cost, be effected by mechanical engines. Ploughing, except on steep hillsides, and in very stony ground, can be cheaply and effectively done by steam. The same agent can propel the harvesters, and work the threshing ma

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TRUE PICTURES AMONG THE POOR

THE BELLS OF ABERDOVEY

By Robert Howard Russell

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OR many years the way to my office has led me past a dingy little shop with green shutters and dusty, cobwebbed windows. It had been for a long time without a tenant, doubtless owing to its gloomy and unprepossess ing appearance. Situated

on one of the narrow streets leading away from Newspaper Row, near the dark arches of the great bridge, it was hardly a promising locality for the establishment of a thriving business, and it had occasioned me no wonder that it stood so long vacant. One morning, however, I was surprised to see the shutters thrown open, the windows washed, and inside, seated on a cobbler's bench, a brisk little redhaired man with a pipe in his mouth, tapping away cheerfully at a pair of shoes which he had just put on the last. Attracted by the unusual signs of activity about the place, I paused for a moment and looked in at the window. The new-comer had banished the cobwebs from the walls, and had placed a row of pine shelves about the room, on which long lines of new wooden lasts of various sizes were neatly arranged, while rolls of soft leather, stacks of heavy, roughly cut brown soles, papers of eyelets, nails, wooden pegs, and bundles of shoe thread and waxed ends attested that the little cobbler was prepared to execute any orders that he might receive.

A small white globe stove warmed the room and filled the air with the odor of the leather chips upon which it was fed, and as the little cobbler scraped to gether the pile of red sole-leather shavings which had fallen before his busy

These are absolutely true stories of characters and

incidents among people who live in the poorer parts of New York City.

knife and emptied them from his apron into the open door of the stove, the added heat caused the glue-pot on top to sputter and bubble furiously.

Once or twice while I was peering in at his window the little cobbler looked up from his work, but he did not seem annoyed at my inquisitiveness. He was a pleasant faced little man in spite of his bristling red beard, which might have given him a fierce expression had it not been belied by the kindly twinkle of his little gray eyes, and I mentally determined that I should give him the chance to make the next pair of shoes I needed. A few days later a large gilded boot was suspended above the dingy little door, and a modest sign informed the passers-by that "Isaac Lloyd, Fine Custom Boot and Shoe Maker," was established there. Day by day as I passed I could see him busily hammering away at the shoe on his knee, or waxing the end of the long thread which fastened the sole together. He seemed cheerful and happy even on the gloomiest days, and his red head and queer little clay pipe bobbed back and forth over his work as merrily as if making shoes were the greatest sport in the world. For some weeks he worked away apparently without disturbance, for as yet I had seen no customers enter his little shop; so one day I stopped in, partly from curiosity, and gave him an order for a pair of shoes. The little man's eyes sparkled as he carefully measured my foot and traced its outline on a paper which he had placed on the floor. When the numerous measurements were completed to his satisfaction he replaced my old shoe, and while lacing it up he volunteered the information that he was a Welshman and had been working for some years at one of the fashionable bootmakers in Regent Street, London; but

he was not happy in the London shop, and longed for the hills and glens of his native Wales, so he had finally saved up enough money to come to America and establish himself in business, hoping that after awhile he should be able to lay up a little competency so that he could return to his beloved Wales and pass his old age at the little village of Llanfair, where he could indulge to his heart's content in his favorite sport of salmon-fishing.

When the shoes were finished the little Welshman brought them to my office and carefully unfolded the roll of soft batting in which they were wrapped. They were indeed a marvellous creation; the very soles were blackened and polished until they shone like mirrors, and his thorough and careful workmanship was apparent at every point. The little man explained to me that the uppers were made of kangaroo skin, which was light and cool and would wear like iron. The facings were of porpoise hide, so tough that an eyelet once fastened in would stay there until it wore out, while the vamps were of the best calfskin that could be obtained in the "Swamp," the famous leather district of the city. No wonder that I found the shoes serviceable. To procure his materials the little cobbler had ransacked the ends of the earth and even the waters under the earth. From that time on he made all my shoes, and I sent him so many customers that he was soon obliged to put another bench in his little shop and engage an assistant who kept time with him in tapping at the leather soles.

On holidays he always went fishing, winter or summer, if there was a chance to drop a line in the water anywhere; he was off at break of day, and neither bad weather nor bad luck could discourage him, for he held the firm belief that fishing was the only natural recreation of man, and he enjoyed it on principle-whether he caught anything or not. He was convinced that every man in his heart must share this feeling, and many a pair of my discarded shoes has he patched up, oiled, and brought to me, saying, in an apologetic way, that he thought I would find them useful for trout-fishing.

His calendar held one holiday which he observed with particular enthusiasm for he was a patriotic little man and held the old Welsh traditions very dear -so on the first of March, "St. Tavy's Day," his bench would be deserted and he would be off early in the morning for a day's fishing, with a green leek stuck in his hat in honor of David, the titular saint of Wales; and the next morning, when I passed his little shop, he would inform me of his day's outing and tell me how in ancient times the kings of England wore leeks in their bonnets on this day in honor of the ancient Britons, and that formerly it was the perquisite of the sergeant-porter to present the leek to the King, and claim in return the clothes his majesty wore on that day.

Then, while the waxed end of a shoethread stuck from either corner of his mouth, he would hum the words of one of Leathart's old Welsh Pennillion Songs:"

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Ere Alfred hung in the highway,
His chains of gold by night or day;
And never had them stol n away,

His subjects were so meek.
When wolves they danc'd o er field and fen;
When austere Druids roasted men ;-
But that was only now and then,

Ere Welshmen WORE THE LEEK, When the warm spring evenings came, after the tiny shop had its shutters up for the night, the little cobbler would fill his pipe and stroll down to a large open place near one of the arches of the Bridge, where the newsboys and street gamins were used to assemble, after their papers were sold and the down-town streets had become deserted.

He was fond of these little gamins, although they had annoyed him, when he first made his appearance in the street, by throwing stones at his golden boot, and by such ingenious allusions to his red hair as only a street arab could devise; but he forgave them freely, for he was a keen student of human nature, and knew that thoughtlessness rather than cruelty was the cause of their persecution.

Whenever he had been particularly vexed by them, he would blow energetic puffs of smoke from his short pipe and say:

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