Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-05
HORSES ON THE TRANSPORTS.
The SufferinKs They Endured on the
Way to Cuba.

From the Boston Transcript.
The stories of the sufferings of the horses
on the transports bound to Manila take
hold on my feelings, for l saw horses and
mules staggering in improvised stalls be-
tween decks on the way to Cuba and
have seen few sights more pathetic. Down
there, all the way from Lobos to Santiago,
the trade winds, meeting the ocean current,
stirred the intensely blue water into high
seas: and though the sun shone resplen-
IDENTIFY all day and the flying fishes scaled
and skinned and glittered, and the world
above and about us seemed in the midst of
the most beautiful festival 1t had ever en-
jcyed, the steamers pitched and rolled heav-
lily on the great blue waves. and those who
went from transport to transport in open
boats found themselves battling big fluid
mountains.
And in the holds and the spaces be-
tween decks. where sick men and soldiers
and horses were penned up, the days were
horrible On some of the smaller animal
boats the mules Were packed in loose in
masses, and these masses swayed and surg
ed, the poor creatures leaning and straining
this way and that, holding desperately with
their hoofs to the deck in the attempt TO
avoid sliding. but slipping nevertheless from
moment to moment, and rafting together
in cruel heaps to leeward. like masses of
pebbles following Il great receding wave
down the slope of gravelly beach. 1t is
mules behind us on those glitter:ng tropical
seas.
But the horses were for the most part
kept in little rough-board stalls, purposely
made so narrow that the animal could slip
but little distance. The sides of the
horses were almost together with the thin
boarding between them. 1t was impossible
for them to lie down. The thing which in
tereSted me most as l watched them in
their rows was to see how differently the
individual horses t. ok it. The stoiid calm
Souled kind of horses squared themselves,
spreading their feet apart little, and
seeming, as the mules had seemed, to cling
to the deck with their hoofs; they would
even let the fierce lunging of the ship sway
their heavy sides against the boarding Of
the stall. without moving in their tracks;
they would even fall asleep and nod, while
the steamer was going almost on her beam
ends These horses were standing it well,
and promised to come through the ordeal in
fair condition.
these philosophers there was a nervous
uneasy, high-spirited horse. who could not
or would not, adapt himself to the rslling
of the ship With terrible, weary look
OF fear he glanced about to see if he could
perceive another lunge of the vessel COM
ing, or if there was any one who would
help him out of the terrible place. Each
successive wave found this horse as un-
prepared to meet 1t as if it had been the
ftrst-he hardly braced himself at all, but
with trembling little half steps tottered
backward or forward, to jerk at his halter
or be hurled against the rough manger in
front: then TO recover himself, with another
lettering, and to look about him with an
other pitiful. appealing glance, showing the
whites Of his eyes, and looking always to-
ward whatever man might be in sight and
seeming to say, "Oh, why, why do they do
it to me?" No wonder many such horses
refused to eat, and by and by fell dead in
the little stalls-an inert weight. a pitiful
stiffened thing pounding perilously at the
be ards.
And If the horse survived the dreadful
journey. what awaited him at the end of it?
He was led at last out of the little stall.
and pushed, with weakened. aching legs, 10