Q: Why is money like a whip?
A: Because money makes the mare go. (p. 40)
* At the end of the 19th Century, America’s dependence on the horse for transportation had become a serious problem. Horse excrement filled the streets, the sound of clopping woke countless light sleepers, and the horses themselves grew extraordinarily powerful. By 1896, the horse lobby was the single most powerful political force in Congress, and horses made up 5/9ths of the Supreme Court. (The controversial “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson actually wasn’t about race; its intent was to compel train operators to add a separate, private car for horses to ride in.)
Fig. 297 – “Dagobert,” the first horse millionaire
Another side-effect of America’s reliance on horse power was that horses became extraordinarily expensive to ride. A single cross-town canter from a respectable operator could cost upwards of four dollars ($78,000 in 2010 money), creating a thriving new market outside of the tightly regulated horse-conomy. Many horses would accept bribes under the table in exchange for unregulated, black market rides, circumventing their owners and becoming wealthy in their own rights.
Horses grew powerful to the point of being insufferable, until two unrelated events in the 1920s combined to end their reign: Ford’s effective mass production of the automobile, and the discovery that dogs loved the taste of horse meat.
** Though it was common enough at the time, the fact that the conundrum refers to a “mare” specifically should in no way suggest an implication of horse prostitution or equiphilia of any kind.
