Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-10
Lot of the Car Horse.

Lot Ofthe Car Horse.
 How He Is Bought, Cared Tor, Used, an
 Finally soId-The Good Care Taken { Keep Hin, in Condition and Use Him t 1 Advantage During His Working LiE From the New York Timesl
 The life of street car horse is general
 considered to be an unusually hard one, bu
 in reality he earns his bread at the expens
 of much less sweat of the brow than the aver
 age of his kind. How he lives when at hom
 and some of the details of his existence tn
 writer ascertained at the model stables of tn 1 Fourth avenue line, where 200 car horse are living in tho lap of equine luxury. Mos
 Of these animals in on the streets of thu 1 city are natives Of the West, and are reared
 for the most part in Missouri, Indiana anc
 Ohio. After frolicking through his giddJ colthood, having sown his wild oats and beer l taught the hard fact that this is werkaday l world, the youthful and inexperienced car horse to be is torn from his native pastures and brought to the metropolis to toll for his l living.
 1 The car company's purchasing agent takes 1 the animal from the city dealer on one week s l trial, and he is brought to the stable of the company and tag affixed to him which gives 1 the date he is taken on trial the firm he is to | be purchased of, his number on the sellers 1 invoice, his age, height, weight, and general description as regards color. He is also 1 given q number, which he will keep if he is 1 purchased by the company. On trial the novice Is harnessed up with we'll educated I car horse and driven before car on the practice-track, under the surveillance of Q practical trainer, the superintendent of the | company, and the company's veterinary sur geon, and this tribunal sits upon his merits If he cannot be cured of tendency to trot on the outside of the rail. if he is balky, or fond of finging his heels over the dash board of the car, or should he be discovered to be unsound, he is sent back to his owner If on the other hand, he attends strictly to business and is sound and kind he is very sure to be purchased by the company. The prices paid for these horses averages between $160 and $175. Animals --hsin1~4t'o- ysats of age. Nine years is the limit of age at Ehieb horses are purchased for street car fine animals otherwise. Having been accept ed by the company, the aew car horse Is branded on the hoof with the number which is to distinguish him from his fellows while he remains in the service. and his hoof con- tinually grows down, the brand is periodical Ily renewed This number is also printed in letters several inches long on broad iron plate hung over the stall which is assigned to him. He is given a section of page in the company's great registry-book, which con- tains description of every horse in the stable, and his own description is copied therein from the tag and the latter is filed away In the registry-book is also copied the disposition of every horse, whether by death or sale, and the number thus vacated is reissued to another animal.
 The matter in which the new car horse Is most interested, after thus being regularly introduced into his quarters, is what he is going to get to eat, and he may be imagin ed to look forward to his first meal with the same feelings which agitate the mind of him who comes down to breakfast for the first IL l. 1n
 horse is fed three times in 24 hours, and each animal receives 16 pounds of grain and 10 pounds of hay in these three meals, which are administered at 9:3O in the morning, 3:30 in the afternoon, and 80 at night. It is fed wet in the shape of ''cut feed,' the hay being chopped fine, the corn and oats ground, and the whole mixed together with water. The horses are in charge of an army of host lers, each of whom takes care of IS of the animals under the supervision of the Stable Superintendent. The hostlers duty Is to feed, water and clean each of the Is horses under his care. It is his duty also to harness his horses at the proper time and put them on the floor of the waiting room. function ary called 'hitcher'' takes the animals In hand at this point, attaches them to the whif- fletrees, and tethers them to long chain by the bridles His responsibility ends here and the ''shifter's begins. It Is the latter duty to take the horses from the chain, at tach them to the cars, and turn them over to the driver.
 Each hostler is supposed to look after the sanitary condition of the horses under his charge He fills their hoofs with oil-meal on each Wednesday and Saturday to draw out any inflammation caused by the lncessant travel on the hard pavements, and he tries their shoes every morning to ascertain wheth- CT they are tight When horse gets ''of his feed,'' becomes lame, or manifests any other indication of ill-health, the hostler re- ports to the foreman of his division of the stable and the animal is taken to the doctor. If the doctor finds the illness serious, the horse is put into the hospital and hls number tied about his neck. report IS sent daily from this hospital to the superintendent, giv
 ing the number of the sick horses and the complaint from which each is suffering, and also the numbers of those discharged cured. This report is copied into the hospital record of the company, which also contains page for each animal. glance at thls record shows how often each horse has been ln the hospital during the entire career and, if an animal is laid up so often that he does not earn his living he is disposed of. The hos pital is in charge of skilled veterinary sur geon. It has an extensive apothecary's shop and all the instruments and appliances nec- essary in the treatment of sick and injured horses visit to the place showed score of animals under treatment. Some Of them were unable to stand up, others were sus- pended in broad swings which hung from the ceiling, and others, whose ailments were trifing, bore no indication of sickness A hostler led in bay horse and asked the doc tor to look at him.
 s'What seems to all him ?" asked the doc ter, after critical inspection.
 ssShure he don't ate ything at all at all, !" replied the hostler.
 The doctor produced a brown pill, about an inch in diameter and four inches long, and dl- rected an assistant to administer 1t. The lat fer, with the assistance of the hostler, opened the horse's mouth and placed the pill as far down it's throat as possible, the animal betray ing no more agitation than if 1t were 8 com mon thing to have such liberties taken with him. The man who administered the pill, the m oment he had placed 1t in the horses throat, came to the side of the animal and gagged intently at it's neck. The hostler made preparations to lead the beast away.
 s'Wait until he swallows the pill, said he who had administered it.
 tsWait antil he's swallyed the pill '! sald
 the hostler. Faith, he's swallyed It al- ready" ..4.
 ssThere it goes now" said the other. He vas boldino it in his mouth. It's so big I could see it slip down his throat from the out
 side when it went"
 ssOh inc sly divil !' said the hostler ad- ,,;r;noIv tsAnd to look at the ipnicint eye av i'm all the time! Shure, the haste was lay
 in fer to drop that down the back av me neck
 while was leading him to the stable
 The ills to which horse-fesh becomes heir in the street car service are mainly confined to the legs. Green horses are apt to contract throat and lung diseases, however. very common Rilment Is corns, which are pro- duced by stones getting under the shoes or