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Paris Moderne no. 931 – Les Femmes Cochers

Source:
www.delcampe.net (Item no. 09067923). Click here to view source.

Les Femmes Cocher / 86

Cab Horses / 6

Picture (left): Mme. Decourcelle and her best friend.

Revolting instances of cruelty were frequent occurrences in the streets of Paris, London and other cities. Humane societies energetically prosecuted offenders but the prosecutions rarely extended beyond the immediately guilty parties – drivers, stablehands, grooms or others having direct charge over horses.

These very people were the intended audience of Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty (1878), nowadays thought of as a children's classic rather than as a book for adults.

Anna Sewell was acutely aware of the industrial system which enmeshed both horses and humans but she hoped that Black Beauty would help to minimize the cruelty arising from mere ignorance and bad training. She also hoped to instil the idea that horses were intelligent, sensitive creatures deserving of respect and sympathy.