quotes_aug29_2010.htm

(August 29th to Sep 4th)



Format: Triple

‘…What’s the use o’ them advantages to you ? Man the Oppressor comes along, an’ sees you’re likely an’ good-lookin’, an’ grinds you to the face o’ the earth. What for ? For his own pleasure: for his own convenience ! Young an’ old, black an’ bay, white an’ grey, there’s no distinctions made between us. We’re ground together under the remorseless teeth o’ the engines of oppression !’…

  

This is from “A Walking Delegate” in The Day’s Work.

A group of horses are chatting together in a Vermont hill pasture. One of them, a wall-eyed idle ugly yellow horse, is – like an industrial rabble-rouser – trying to stir up the other horses against Men. But the others are not impressed.


…saddle and bridle were stripped off, and the handsome creature was left alone in the centre of the straw yard. Then the fun began. A naked horse does not offer any obvious points to lay hold of, and this one lashed out in front and behind; and filled in the pauses with trying to bite…

   

This is from “Captain Hayes and the Horse”, originally written for the CMG of 14 April 1886, included in Sussex Scrapbboks 28/3, and collected in Thomas Pinney’s Kipling’s India.

It describes the breaking of a horse by the redoubtable Captain Hayes, a famous authority on horses in India in those times.


…he behaved himself very politely, and ate bread dipped in salt, and was petted all round the table, moving gingerly; and they drank his health, because he had done more to win the cup than any man or horse on the ground.

   

This is from “The Maltese Cat”, in The Day’s Work. The Upper India Free for All Polo Cup has been won by a native Pioneer Regiment, nicknamed ‘The Skidars’, against much more expensive opposition. The hero of the hour has been the pony of the Skidars’ captain, Lutyens, ‘The Maltese Cat’, a past-master in Playing the Game.