
    STATE v. C. J. OST and Others.
    
    June 4, 1915.
    Nos. 19,374-(249).
    Horse stealing — construction of statute.
    
      A mule is not a horse within the meaning of G. S. 1913, § 5196, giving a reward for the arrest and conviction of any person charged with horse stealing.
    Several persons applied to the district court for Steele eonnty for an order directing the payment to them of a reward for procuring the arrest and conviction of George Thomas Greer as a horse thief. The court, Childress, J., made findings and denied the applications. Erom the order denying the applications, Bernhard Eischer and C. J. Ost appealed.
    Affirmed.
    
      Leach & Leach and Moonan & Moonan, for appellants.
    
      Lyndon A. Smith, Attorney General, John C. Nethaway, Assistant Attorney General, and F. A. Alexander, County Attorney, for the state.
    
      
       Reported in 152 N. W. 866.
    
   Bunn, J.

G.-S. 1913, § 5196, provides that a reward of $200 shall be paid for the arrest and conviction of any person charged with horse stealing. The appellants herein procured the arrest of Thomas Greer, charged with stealing a pair of mules. They applied for the reward, were defeated in the trial court, which ruled that a mule was not a horse within the meáning of the reward statute. We sustain the view of the trial court. The statute is in derogation of the common law; though probably justified in the early days of the state, there is little excuse for its existence today. It should be strictly construed.

Order affirmed.  