Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-10
Horses That Can Count.

There Is not much stimulus to mental ac- tivity 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 method of carrying on the business, and especially that portion of it which invol- yes their time and labor. They have thought it all out and have actually been able to tell the number of trains assigned for their days labor and when it 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 the range 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 Fourteenth street cars is strongly of the opinion that horses know how to count. If this rather unusual state ment is questioned the driver simply says
 Well, if they don't, how are you going to explain this ?' and then he goes on to say that each car makes 19 trips per day. There are four horses used, three make five trips and one four trips. At the end of each trip the car is driven into the stables and then turned upon the turning table. After the car IS turned the horses are changed if 1t 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 stables without any difficulty. At the end of the fifth trip, if for any reason 1t is necessary to send the car DECK, It Is aIIIlOSG 1n pOSSlDle to get the horse out of the stable. He holds back, resists, and it requires the united exertionf 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 days 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 stablemen, who frequently witness such exhibitions, there is firm belief in the math- ematical 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 in- tention to take him to the stable, and when he comes to the top of the hill, instead of stopping, he starts of on run. If the time for his going home was at all regular this sin gular iptelligence might be explained,a 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 mistake. One of the driV- CTS explains it by the fact that the boy who has the horse in charge usually sits on the dashboard, with feet on the outside, while going up the hill. But when the boy is go- ing all the way to the stables he gets all the way in the front platform. The horse sees that the boy has drawn his legs In instead of dangling them on the outside, and, by the in ductive process of reasoning, he concludes that 1t is time for him to go home He ac- cordingly goes. Another horse always shies