The age-herald., 1900-11-12
WHAT THEY KNOW
 AND DO NOT KNOW
Horses of the Birmingham Fire
 Department
WONDERFUL INTELLIGENCE
How They Read the Stroke of the Court House Clock and Distinguish Sun day from Other Days
 The Chiefs Horse

Fire department horses are noted for their intelligence Outside of those edu- cated professionally" for show purposes no horses display anything like the meas ure of sense that the fire horses do. Many of them seem to be little short of human in their understanding of routine duties. They evidently have mental processes.
 But horse sense, even in the fire depart ment, Is not as highly developed as some persons imagine. One often reads in the newspapers of the marvellous things that the horses do. Only recently New York reporter got up story about certain horses In the engine houses of the great metrop- oils that counted the strokes of the gong and located the box, the same as the fire men. It has been said that here in Bir- mingham one of Chief Mullins horses was smart enough to read the box It Is not true. No horse in New York or any other city has yet demonstrated his ability to find the box from which the alarm was sound- ed without being guided.
 But within horse-sense limits these fire department animals are singularly clever. They are quick to learn and they certainly know lot. Of the many evidences of their smartness one of the most striking of them Is observed at the headquarters station at the city hall every week day at noon and at D. m. At those hours there Is A drill. The gong sounds, the horses, unloosed in their stalls automatically rush to their places under the harness of their respec- tive machines" and are hitched up. All this is entirely perfunctory, and the horses show 1t. They know just as well as the that the iS n1O tftnrned in for a fire run. But they are supposed to work up a little excitement and pretend to be interested in what they are doing
 Now, here is where the acute intelligence comes in. The clock on the courthouse, three blocks away, usually begins to strike a few seconds before the gong sounds. When the clock strikes seven the horses pay no attention to It. They continue to doze in their stalls. But at the first stroke of eight they brace up and quiver and snort and paw the floor. They make a noise and "commotion that can be heard all about the neghborhood - before the gong sounds.
 By the time the courthouse clock has tolled off three or four the regulation hour is sounded by electricity, and the horses are instantly free and are jumping for their positions.
 On Sunday the engine drill is dispensed with. When the courthouse clock strikes 12 and on that day the horses pay no at tention to it. They do not budge.
 Casual observers might naturally con- clude that the horses do understand num- bers and distinguish between the hours of the day and between week days and Sun day But an old fireman explains it as fol- lows:
 Just before hitch-up time comes all of us about the house begin to stir around and get ready The horses, always having an eye on us, take in the situation. They become familiar with the courthouse clock, and it would be a stupid horse that wouldn't be able, after a little service in this bust ness, to put two and two together and connect our movements the sound from the courthouse tower and the electric gong The cue the horses get from us explains the whole thing"
 Notwithstanding the explanation, this training of the horses to connect the facts, simple enough for human beings but seem- ingly complex for dumb animals, Is of un- common interest in the study of horseol- ogy.