Passaic City record., 1892-04-30
FOUR. FOOTED SENTlNELS.
ANIMALS UTILIZED IN MILITARY
OPERATIONS.
Valuable Aids on the Battle Field
Horses of the Cossacks as Pfckets
--Sfmian Sentries.

Valuable Aids on the Battle FIelu-
Horses of the Cossacks as Pickets
--Simian Sentries.
H OGS have been utilized fol-
military purposes with great
success in France, Prussia and
Italy, but especially in Austria,
where regular drill barracks for the
training of four-footed soldiers have
been established at three different points
-one on the Militar Crane (the "mili-
tary frontier" of the Turkish border),
one at Temesvar, and one near Wells on
the Traun River, in the foothills of the
Austrian Alps.
At the latter place surprising results
have been obtained with Alpine collies,
who range territory of twenty and
thirty square miles and contrive to
discover sscripples" in all sorts of hid
ing places.
Dogs of the same breed are also trained
to carry messages, in small leather bag
attached to ring in the collar, between
different detachments of a corps engaged
in active service. On field maneuvers
these foar-footed adjutants may be seen
darting along the line of the imaginary
battle front, needless of the crash of big
and small guns, but withal taking care
to confuse the aim of hostile marksmen
BY running zigzag, or taking advantage
of every bit of cover the ground affords.
Knowing that the miniature mailbag is
not apt to be detached by the scraping
of bush, the dog will prefer thickets to
open fields, but in default of better
chance he will run along the safe side of
rocks or fallen trees and occasionally stop
and look about for moment, as if cal
culating the best route for avoiding an
encounter with parry of hostile skirm-
lshers.
Arriving at the post of the addresses
the shaggy mail carrier will look about
for commissioned officer or a sergeant,
apt to be stationed near fugleman, but
privates attempting to touch the collar
will be stood off with warning growl.
Should no answer be needed the dog will
take short rest and recsnniter the
ground before running the gauntlet of
another bullet shower. A reply depos-
tied in his collar bag is, however, the
signal of instant departure, and within
half an hour the feet messenger may thus
make round trip of five or six miles.
Near Wells the operations of train
ing party involved a considerable ex-
pense of gunpowder to accustom the
four-footed recruits to the noise of fire.
arms. Horn signals guide the scattered
skirmishers, and a stranger passing
night at the summer hotel of the little
town might easily be led to believe
that the neighboring highland must
be the favorite rampage ground Of
the wild huntsman, or that all the fox
hunters of the Austro- Hungarian Empire
must have met in general convention.
An hour before daybreak the echoes of
rifle shots and horn blasts may be heard
all along the river cliffs, and soon the
shouts of the skirmishes will be answered
by dog voices as multitudinous as those
Of a first-class bench show, the object
being to conclude the somewhat exten-
sive maneuvers during the cool of the
morning. An average of four out of ten
recruits will prove intelligent enough to
graduate. The rest are sold or returned
to their breeders, or possibly assigned to
different training post, since some ex-
cellent messenger dogs are too deficient
in scent to make good scouts.
A breed of Hungarian dogs resembling
our Spanish American bloodhounds make
the best sentries, and competent Aus
trian army officer maintains that after
dark their efficiency surpasses that of
the best human sentinels by as much as
the range of good ield-glass exceeds
that of the unassisted eye.
Horses, too, will scent danger before
man with his ear on the ground can
hear the slightest sound of an approach
ing footstep. The Cossack ranges
habitually take their ponies on picket
duty, and more than one of our Western
scouts owes his life to the timely snort
ing of his horse.
Still stranger sentries are employed by
the Kafir nomads of the Orange River.
Dogs being rather expensive pets in a
country where every scrap of animal food
is needed for culinary purposes the ma
tives have bethought themselves of do
mesticating species of their Darwinian
relatives, the chacma balloons that haunt
the rocks of Southern Africa and whose
senses have been miraculously sharpened
by the exigencies of their defensive war
fare against the prowling carnivora of
that wilderness. In frosty nights, when
dogs curl themselves up on the lee side
,f o,I