The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-30
How a Show Lost Its Trick Horses In
Nashville-Gen. Wilson's Surrender
to Girl Rider-Getting a Joke on
the Battlefield

l
lion in contiguous cage took it as a per-
sonal affront and talked back Half a
dozen monkeys and some parrots
| chartered together behind some
wire netting; while grizzly
bear, who was chained by the neck to a
stake, sat sulky and mute as the Sphinx
| All these had for company job lot of
| tigers, elephants, wagon painters, hyenas
| canvas men, grooms, spotted ponies, lady
and gentlepan riders, gymnasts, tumblers,
rlngmasters, clowns, cockatoos, and candy
| boys.
They were getting ready for the spring
campaln in the winter headquarters Of old
| John Robinson's circus a stable on the
| corner of John and Poplar streets, in the
| heart of Cincinnati. A circus ring of the
orthordox size and character was thrown
up in the center of the stable, and around
its Sawdusted circumference cream-col-
| ored mare was carrying an equestrian queen
! OF the arena. She wore blue flannel
| boomer costume, with Turkish trousers
reaching to the ankle, and went over ban
ners and through hoops, and pOStured,
| pirouetted and danced to the pie asings OF the
| ringmaster's whip.
Eyes, sir, he gave her eighteen horses, al
| though the loss of horses meant more than
| life at that time to him.
Eighteen horses meant all that, and yet
| the General gave them upp
mo; | said horses meant all that, and
| every horse counted as one."
~ GU see it was this way. Every man,
woman, and child who was in Nashville dur
ing the winter OF '64 and Us will remember
| Bill Lakes and Levi North's circus, which
| showed there from October, 1864, to Feb
ruary, 1865. We got that far South on our
regular route. and then one fine morning in
| October, along with some thousands of
other people, we found that we
were booked to stay in Nashville
until Hood whipped Thomas, or
Thomas whipped hood. Wer our prices
up to a dollar in good Federal money for a
single ticket, 25c. for an orange, and 25c.
| for glass of pink lemonade, and looked for
slim houses. But the contrary ruled.
There were plenty of strangers and plenty
of money in town. and as nobody knew how
long he would keep his property they were
no ways backward in blowing il in at the
show.
AT o'clock on the morning of Dec. 6,
we were all in the practice ring drilling for a
new grand entry. We had nineteen ring
horses, including three black stations,
which Miss Lake used to drive in manege
act, and which she had trained herself on
her fathers Kentucky farm, and loved as a
kentucky girl will love her horses.
"Well, sir, the band rad just finished the
I "
army, and called Lake aside.
"'You have nineteen horses here l see,
| he said; 'one Of them is lame; we don't want
| him, but the others are confscated. Rather
a fine lot. Suppose we sa a hundred apiece
| for them Then lie made out a requisition
on the Treasury fol 81, 500, handed it to
Lake, called in his men, and in five min
utes we were left with a show on our hands
and only one lame horse to do all the eques-
TRAN business.
"MiSs Lake cried, and some of the rest of
lis swore little; but all the same, for -four
| days we gave a show twice a day with
that one lame horse. Then Miss Lake got
| desperate. She was a mere girl, and with
| a girls audacity she did thing which an
older person would have considered the
widest folly.
John she said to me, Pm going to
| Gen. Wilson to get my horses. want them,
and they want me-
"Nothng that | could say would hold her
back, and 50 away she went TO Gen. VIII
sons headquarters. He was Thomas right
hand, you know, all through that cam
paign, and was chief of cavalry. Now,
| when you come to think how the case was
at that time with wilson you will appre-
ciate the cheek-I can't call it anything Else
of that girls going to him and asdug
| him for eighteen horses. If your history is
a little rusty on that point You are excus-
| able; out as I was there on the ground |
have since studied the matter up, and the
whole is in my mind very wildly.
"On the morning of the 9th, Thomas
| telegraphed Grant: AS soon as get re-
spectacle force of cavalry l will march
against Hood. Gen. Wilson has parties
out now pressing horses, and 1 hope to
| have {, 1000 or S, 900 cavalry mounted in three
days That very day Wilson seized our
| horses.
"Glapt replied the same day to attack
Hood at once, and not wait for Wilson's
men to get mounts; but Thomas knew how
essential force of cavalry was, and he
waited for more horses. Then there was g.
| hulIaballoo. Stanton wired Grant that
Gabriel would be blowing his last horn be-
| fore Wilson would get enough horses. Hal
leck dispatched to Thomas that if he waited
for W ilson to be mounted, he would wait
| until doOmsday.
But still Thomas waite1, and Wilson
secured the country for horses.
''Then on the 95h Grant got tired of
waiting, and issued orders relieving
Thomas of his command, and placing Gen
| Schofield at the head of the Nashville
| forces, all because Wilson found it impos-
sibe TO get horses to mount his men.
"And in the face Of these facts, although
of course she did not know about them,
Miss Lake marched in on Gen. Wilson at
his headquarters on the morning of the 10th
and ask for her horses back. She had a
sweet and winning way; she was a thor
oughly womanly girl, was Alice, and when
| she cried and tod him how heart-ick she
was for her horses, and how much she
knew they missed her, / don't blame the
General for letting his feelings get the bet
ter of his sense of duty and for giving her
au order for every horse taken from the
circus.
zone of Wilson's orderlies gave me a
reason for giving the horses back, which,
while it is not 50 romantic, may be partly
true. The horses, you know, were all
trained for ring service, and most Of them,
including the stations, were trained TO
dance to the music, and to fall upon their
knees and sides upon being touched upon
the launches with spur or the whip. Our
whole bunch was turned over to a military
| band as their mounts, and the orderly told
me that during thefour days that the band
was mounted on our beasts, there was not
an hour when one of them was not dane
ing around 50 that he could not keep time
TO save his soul, or else, horse or man
som times three or four of them--were roll
ing on the ground together, the musician
having unwittingly given the horse his ly
ing down cue.
"Well, as everybody knows, Grants
order relieving Thomas. was not enforced,
aud on Tuesday, the 18th, Thomas went
out, and, without the aid of our horses, he
attacked Gen. Hood. That night, while the
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