Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-27
How the Trooper Becomes Attached
to His Mount.
SOME NOTABLY INTELLIGENT ANIMALS
Soldiers May Go Hungry, but They
viii Steal for Their Steeds.
REMARKABLE ENDURANCE
Trom the New York Times.

An Arab maxim says Care We not a
date stone IL a thoroughbred horse carries
worn-odt saddle. That In no disgrace to
the horse" When Colonel waring first dis
covered poor Vix she had fallen TO tho
lowest sphere OF equine lie. She was haul
ing clam cart. She had succumbed to
dire necessity, and earned her ignoble oats
with logged fidelity" There was such In
herent sweetness in Vix that even her
-peddling owner did not abuse her.
But she was worn TO skeleton Coarse
harness. badly fitted. had CALLED her: her
coat was sunburned. only the perfect head,
with the keen. deer-like eyes. and their
active ears" remained. Her royal brood
shone out from the face and kept IL beauti-
full"
Attached to the early work OF Central
Park in 1855. Colonel Warning. then at the be-
ginning OF his engineering career had to
have a horse-and thin. worn. bruised and
pitiable as Vixen looked, he bought her
Good judgment, kind treatment. at once
metamorphosed the mare. Her minor
bruises were soon obliterated. there might
have been some few scars left, but her
blood told. She never became fat; that was
not in her race. A perfect horse never
shows age, and Nix was OF that KIND She
kept looking like a colt 10 the end OF her
Sex, she liked 10 be admired She might
snow on at times, but her inherent dignity
never was lessened. A man may have many
horses. but he can love only onc-and Nxs
master never has forgotten her.
When Colonel Waring went into service
Nlx was his mount. Alas, doing heavy SER
vice on little food was too much for her
she broke down all but in spirit. Fording a
swollen stream overtaxed her strength.
she was tenderly nursei. There is NO
harder pull on troopers feelings than to
see MS horse in an agony of pam, beating
the head from side 10 side on the hard
ground. Slx might have recovered, for a
blooded animal, through will power alone,
make vigorous fight for life; but IAN in
fefnal brute" of horse broke into Nixs
Enclosure, and with one kick laid open her
mock joint, and she was done for. still she
rubbed her velvet nose against her mas
ter's arms. but she could not rise There
might have been heard a plaintive whinny
A horse cannot whinny with that tender
appeal, and so that whinny was vix's last
farewell There was q single shot and
vixen. the Incompatible, has her name cut
deeply ON the bark of a great oak tree,
Just VIZ" and some time Colonel wartng
is going to make a journey, a pilgrimage of
some thousand miles, and only wants to
scrape the moss from the inscription
Perhaps man must have been i'm service
TO thoroughly understand the close friend
ship which exists between the trooper and
ms horse. Just live for months closely as
ISOLATED with a horse, and care for him
groom him, sleep alongside of him and steal
1000 Tor him and keep on thinking about
him all the time. and ties are formed which
never are severed. You forget the selfish
instinct in it all-that your life depends ON
the vitality. the endurance Of your horse.
ana so you may set IL down, in part at
least to your own good intentions.
In the many sketches in this little volume
nothing Is more happily conceived than the
story OF Wettstein, the Swiss. with his
mincihg German and cultural French
Wettstein was the trumpeter, and the ring
of his trumpet is audible today in the ears
of every man of the regiment" who made
the campaign In south Missouri. The
ciarions mount was a small, understood
mare, and he had called her Klitschka
She was iron gray and tough as iron,
too Her master is to be forgiven, for he
would steal forage for her while other
horses might go hungry. Little Klitschka
always had her rations. and it is quite pos
sible that, with affection for Col Waring,
maybe the commanding officers own horse
sometimes had the advantage Of the trum-
peters peculiar methods of foraging.
Wettstein was a brave fellow, and was
ready with his saber. When the skirmish
was over, he would sing the RAM des
Faches' and pet his little mare. Alas!
Wettstein was badly wounded in the arm,
a swollen river had to be passed, and there
was rotten ferryboat. The herr oberst
and the trumpeter got into the boat Then
a huge floating tree struck the craft and
both men were i'm the water: bringing the
rope against Wettstein's wounded arm, IL
tore loose his hold and Klitschka was free"
The weight of his arms prevented his ris-
ing again, and only an angry eddy glisten-
ing in the moonlight marked his grave.
After that there happened long and try
ing campaign, but wettstein was not for
gotten: more than one of us was the better
soldier for the lesson his soldlerly life had
taught u.s.
OF another horse, Ruby by name, the
author of whip and Spur tells. All good
horses are surprises. and Ruby was pre-
cisely of this kind. He acted much better
than he looked. That depends. however on
the man in the s.irrups. Max, another
horse, must have been an animal of great
endurance. for Colonel Waring once rode
him much of the time at a gallop or a
rapid trot for fifty-four hours" Why this
happened may be at once understood. Col.
Warnings regiment was tackling Forrest.
and when that happened men and horses
had all they wanted In the way OF work.