Our old friend, the ass, writes recently, in a small town in the South, I noticed that the rows of asses and carts, laden with produce, which I used to see, have been replaced to a great extent by Fords and lorries. The farmer's wife now drives her own car. Although the extra accommodation afforded for sacks and parcels, and the infinite saving of labour and time, rapidly increases the use of machine versus animal labour, I cannot help regretting the disappearance of one of the most picturesque and familiar sights of our countryside. For all his slowness, too, the ass is a good friend, and he cannot as yet be entirely replaced upon the farm.
Laurence Sterne thought the ass the most companionable and most talkative of all beasts. Discussing the possibility of conversation with parrots, cats and dogs, he says: "I can make nothing of a discourse with any of them beyond the proposition, the reply and the rejoinder; and, those uttered, there is an end of the dialogue. But wit an ass I can commune for ever."
The Irish Times, May 21st, 1931.