And without horses the firemen that might have prevented the Great Boston Fire of 1872 weren't able to move very quickly.

> Trains refused to stop at some cities where depots overflowed with undelivered goods.

I've heard it described as a rail-and-horse system, with a rail network connecting hubs, and horse last miles.

I read or heard something about this recently in connection with some etymological deep dive someone was doing. I can’t remember any details, unhelpfully.

You are probably thinking of On the Origin of “Oops!”: The Language and Literature of Animal Disease by Ray Malewitz claiming it came a gradual shortening of the word “ooperzootics” (epizooty, a disease affecting many animals at the same time) to “oops” between 1872 and 1921.

https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/origin-word-%E2%80%98oops...

Yes!! That was it!

Please try to make comments that add to the conversation

Reminds of what horses did for us and what we do to them. Thanks for the great article.