The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-09-11
The Intelligence Of Horses.

STREET-CAR horses have apparently
a very monotonous sort of life. One
day is so much like another, that like
the human animal under the same con-
ditions, it would seem that their facul-
ties would become deadened and the
slightest evidence of intelligence impos-
sible. There is not much stimulus to
mental activity in life of plodding on
a street-car track and yet instances are
known where horses have taken a lively
interest in the road, the methods of
carrying on the business, and especially
that portion of it which involves their
time and labor. They have thought it
all out and have actually been able to
tell the number of trips assigned for
their days labor, and whenfit ends.
When a horse is able to tell how much
work is required of him each day, and
when his day ends, the achievement
passes beyond therange of mere animal
instinct and attains the plane of reason
and intelligence. Horse-car drivers tell
marvellous stories of the intelligence dis
played by the animals under their
charge. A driver on one of the Four
teenth Street cars is strongly of the
opinion that horses know how to count.
Ii this rather unusual statement is ques-
toned, the driver simply says: "Well,
ifthey DOM, how are you going to explain
this?" and then he goes on to say that
each car makes nineteen trips per day
There are four horses used, three max
ing five trips. At the end of each trip,
the car is driven into the stables and
then turned upon the turning table. At
ter the car is turned the horses are
changed if it is the proper time, before
the car starts back on the trip. The
horses will make the four trips, going
in and out of the stable without any diff
tculty. At the end of the fifth trip, if
for any reason it is necessary to send the
car back, it is almost impossible to get
the horse out of the stable. He holds
back, resists, and it requires the united
exertions of several men before the
animal can be induced to move. The
horse has kept strict account of the trips
and knows that he has finished his DAVIS
work, and ought to go to his stall. The
same thing occurs if the attempt is made
to make the horse that has only four
trips take an additional one. With the
drivers and stable men, who frequently
witness such exhibitions, there is a firm
belief in the mathematical ability of
horses. The street-car men also tell an
interesting yarn about the hill horse that
works on the hill between New York
Avenue and H Street. His time for
stopping work is very irregular, and he
is sometimes taken to the stables with
one car and sometimes with another.
But the horse knows perfectly well when
it is the intention to take him to the sta
BILE, and when he comes to the top of
the hill, instead of stopping, he starts off
on run. If the time for his going
home was at all regular this singular
intelligence might be explained, but
whether it is early or late, the horse
knows when he is going home. Until
that time he plods along steadily and
has never been known to make a mis-
take. One of the drivers explains it by
the fact that the boy who has the horse
in charge usually sits on the dash board.
with feet on the outside, while going up
the hill. But when the boy is going all
the way to the stables he gets all the
way in from the front platform. The
horse sees that the boy has drawn his
legs In instead of dangling them on the
outside, and, by the inductive process
OF reasoning, he concludes that it is time
to 60 home. He accordingly goes.
Another horse always SHES when he
passes certain corner after dark, be-
cause some four or five years ago he was
frightened at that Washington
Cd. CO. Post. ..,....a