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THE HORSESHOE AS A TALISMAN Louisville Ky May 9 It Is not ditncult to un ¬ derstand why lovers of horses came to adopt the horseshoe at a talisman against misfortune In the early days horses were considered to be especially liable to the machinations of witches If precau ¬ tions were not taken it was the belief these mis chevlous witches would ride the horses at dead of night over hills and when the owner came to the stable in the morning he would find hia animals in a lather and utterly exhausted exhaustedWith With the passing of a few hundred years there came an Improvement over the oldtime witch Evolution made him a man and up in Canada an1 on other tracks too riders under cover of darkness slipped Into stalls of fleet horses carded to run tliu following day and certain on account of their class and past performances to win Riding these horses several miles ct a fast clip had Its effect just as it did when the pesky witches did the same tilnj cen ¬ turies ago Some of these crooks were r ut it is probable that this practice was fre y re ¬ sorted to but no more Stables are now A and trustworthy men are on guard with th orougli breds bredsDating Dating back beyond the time of memoiy a horse ¬ shoe fastened over the stable door was l elieved to ward off such evil Out at Churchill Downs one may see this There Is no superstition more deeply ingrained in all classes of society than that which is attached to the horseshoe Observe the number of Individuals you see wearing horseshoe scarfpins The pattern is a favorite with women not aloue in jewelry but in the design of figures on gowns gownsAs As an emblem of good fortune it holds pride of place Nelson did not disdain to nail a horseshoe to the mast of the Victory In the early part f the nineteenth century the horseshoe was highly prized and it was a decoration in palaces Humbler people use It today Horses were not shod either by the Greeks or Romans The ancients were con ¬ tent with wrapping fibre cloth around the feet of their horses in cold weather weatherNero Nero who over strove to outdistance his con ¬ temporaries caused his horses to be shod with silver while his wifes horses were resplendent with gold but in no case were nails driven into the hoofs Tli practice of shoeing horses by driving nails into th hoofs was Introduced into England by William ti Conqueror but such a practice did not make any headway for centuries centuriesIndians Indians who had no superior as horsemen never thought of shoeing their mounts in any way ami yet they wore capable of performing remarkable Jour ¬ neys over most difficult country In Japan the mod ¬ ern horseshoe finds a strong competitor in the old fashioned sandals made of straw which are fastened to the horses hoofs after the manner of eqnino cricket shoes shoesThe The art of shoeing a horse for a great raw lik the Kentucky Derby is accompanied now witli tltc same skill that chnracterizes the work of a manicure artist Tlie cuticle over the frog of the crack racers foot is pared to a nicety and with the care exercised by the most efficient surgeons in perform ¬ ing a most difficult and delicate operation In fast ¬ ening the shoe or plate to the horses foot tin niil are even disinfected so that by no possibility anv infection may be transmitted into the equine sys ¬ tem So particular nro some horsemen to have their horses shod in a proper manner that they have been known to send a thousand miles for a blacksmith to do the work on the eve of 1 great race It was a twisted plate that caused Lonpfellow to ho re ¬ tired from the turf Horsemen to this day have not forgotten that incident
