Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1915 — Cost of a Long Tall. [ARTICLE]

Cost of a Long Tall.

On the highway between Dieppe and Gouraay, France, there is an interesting wayside inn that never fails to attract the attention of travelers who journey over the road. Nailed over the door of the inn there is a notice that reads: “Horses boarded here: Rates —Horse with a short tail 50 centimes a day. Horses with a long tail, one franc.” No one could understand a discrimination among horses based on the length of their tails until a reporter for a Paris paper questioned the proprietor, and later published the explanation in his newspaper. The honest old inn keeper gave an amusing but logical answer to the reporter’s question. “Why, that’s very simple,” he said. “A horse with a short tail is very much bothered by flies and gnats. He is kept so busy driving them off with his head that he naturally cannot eat much. A horse with a long tail does not need to use his head to keep off the flies, bet can busy himself eating. In that way he eats more than the other. Therefore it is only logical that I should charge a higher rate for his board.” The inn keeper’s argument surely sounds reasonable. — Youth’s Companion.