Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1915 — GIVES HIS HORSE ANNUAL VACATION [ARTICLE]

GIVES HIS HORSE ANNUAL VACATION

Owner Keeps Flies Off Twenty-Year-Old Mare, Rests Her Feet and Provides Luxuries Kansas City, Mo.—“ Gypsy,” a 20-year-old mare, owned by Frank D. Parsons, a real estate dealer, is so faithful and so well thought of by her master that she is given a vacation once •very year, Just like railroad presidents, doctors and other folk of the city, except that her period for rest ■nd pleasure is much longer. Four montha out of every year are play months for her. For fifteen years ‘‘Gypsy* has virtually been a member of the Pareons family. She stands without hitching, is always ready for work, and, despite her age, is in rugged health and shows no signs of being an old horse. December Ist every year Parsons has “Gypsy’s” shoes removed, and she is allowed to rest four months. She is given a diet of rolled oats and alfalfa, a box stall to sleep in, and a big lot for romping and rolling when she feels like IL “I am often asked how I keep her looking so well when she is so old,” Parsons said in talking of his horse. “It’s because of the humane treatment she receives. Gypsy has pulled my buggy many years, and she has earned •a yearly vacation. She rests all winter, and In the hot summer days she has leisure besides. If the day is hot rd rather take a street car than hitch her up. “The files never bother Gypsy in the summer because I spray her twice a day with a preparation that keeps off the pests, and she will stand all day without tossing her head or stamping her feet “The hard pavement never hurts her feet, either, because she has a piece of sole leather next to her hoofs and the shoes are nailed on the leather. She hasn’t had a sick day in years and she neyer fails me. “Some day she is going to be too old to poll me around, and then she is not going to get a bullet. I am going to give her freedom and let her close her days in some pleasant pasture. A horse will work without food until it drops. It never complains, and it puts all its trust in its master. A man who wouldn't treat his horse right won't treat his family right.”

Farmer Owns Old Mule Big’fiaurel, Va.—William H&mphrey, • farmer who is 61 years old, has a mule which is older than he by one month and one day. “Fannie,” the mule, helped pull a Union ammunition, wagon in the battle of Bull Run. In the retreat the animal was slut through the leg and captured by the victorious Confederates. After the • war Humphrey found the mule in Georgia and it lias been on his farm ?ever since. When young Fannie was ’jet black but is now white as snow. The animal has the run of the farm and has been no work for tan