Punch (54.1868)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

May 30, 1868.]

KNOCKING OVER AN OLD BUCK.

“What, you here, my dear Mr. Brummle ! If we had only known! Why, you might have Chaperoned me, and poor

Papa might have Stayed at Home ! ”

MAGNETISM OF THE HORSE.

Whatever, Mr. Punch, may be your opinion about Mesmerism,
you will doubtless admit that, in a certain sense, there is some reality
in a species of animal magnetism ; a magnetic force which attracts
some people to some animals. Not to mention mere pets, dogs and
horses may, for example, be said to be animal magnets, or magnetic
animals. The magnetic properties of the horse, especially, are wonder-
ful in the extreme. What attraction the creature has for the multi-
tude, what fascination for most, and how it possesses some people
with downright infatuation ! Permit me, this racing week, to quote a
few lines from your friend “ Argus ” :—

“ Still, faulty and ruinous as the conduct of the Marquis of Hastings must be
admitted to have been, and for which, as I have said before, 1 am no apologist, it is
only right the public should know, before they condemn him so severely as they
1 have done, the sacrifices he has made for the maintenance of his credit. In the first
place be has disposed of his Racehorses, his Hunters, his Hounds, his Hacks, the
Reversion to Donnington, and his London estate. In addition, he was absolutely
forcing into the market the other securities he had to offer to meet his difficulties
when they had come to a crisis, as he felt them at the time very keenly.”

The liabilities which have necessitated these sacrifices ou the part of
the Marquis op Hastings are estimated by “Argus” at about
£50,000, t.o meet which the Marquis was prepared to raise £20,000—a
sum whereof one-half would make a philosopher (without wife and
children) happy. That noble lord the Marquis oe Hastings, you see,
Sir, has lost all his property, apparently, if not more besides, in bets
made upon that noble animal, the horse. A noble animal it is, truly ;
chivalry and the equestrian order derive their very names from it; yet
in these days, anyhow, it is one thing to be chivalrous and another to
be horsey. Regarded as an animal magnet, the horse does not appear
to emit exactly a noble animal magnetism—does it ? On the contrary,
it attracts blackguards about it in far greater numbers than gentlemen,
and it is apt to exert a very demoralising influence even on gentle-
men; stultifying most of those whom it does not demoralise. Under
the influence of that noble animal men win money like rogues, or lose
it like fools. But what I want to call your attention to is the evidently
magnetic nature of this influence.

I

In the first place, Sir, consider the polarity of the horsey influence.
The roguery on the one hand, and the folly on the other, in which it
becomes visible, curiously correspond to the north and south poles of
terrestrial or ferro-magnetism, or to positive and negative electricity.
In the next, think of the property which horses thus apparently pos-
sess, of imparting the aptitude to cheat or to be cheated. Is there not,
something in this similar, at least, to magnetic and electric induction ?
The horse appears to affect the majority of those about it either with
positive dishonesty, or with a negation of intellect. In the latter case,
that is to say, when its magnetic induction is an inducement to lose
money, may not that noble animal the horse be said to induce upon a
man the condition and quality of that ignoble animal the donkey ?
Strange that the horse should make asses of men ; but so it does.

Iu the particular case to which this communication refers, let us
rejoice, Mr. Punch, that the negative effect of horsey animal magnetism
was the only one induced. Let us hope that it was transient, and no
longer exists.

Allow me to conclude with a remark on a few peculiar words iu the
foregoing quotation. I wonder how many sporting gents would like
to bet that they could correctly recite the statement of “ Argus ” that
the Marquis of Hastings bad disposed of his Hunters, his Hounds,
and his Hacks. Horsey magnetic influence does not seem always to
confer the ability to pronounce the word “ horse ” aright, or to talk
horse with any utterance of that word’s initial letter, unless where it
ought not to be sounded. Of the betting men congregated at Epsom,,
for instance, a no small proportion, perhaps, would, tell you that they
don’t believe in ’Qssy Hanimal Magnetism. They demonstrate, how-
ever, what they mean to deny to Paracelsus Minor.

P.S. Horse-shoes are still nailed to doors by bumpkins for a defence
against witchcraft. The most usual form of magnetised iron or steel
is that of the horse-shoe magnet. These are facts—valeant quantum.

Latest Intelligence. — Stuart Knox’s Comprehension of the
meaning of “ Corroboration.”