The Press., 1903-05-21
MAN KILLING HORSE
THE WAY HE ACQUIRED HIS HATRED
 FOR HUMANKIND.

It All Began With the Cruel Treat..
 ment He Received I'm His COlthOOd.
 Vicious Incidents That Marked His Downward Career.
 The development of a vicious horse from an innocent colt is described by Sewell Ford in one of the stories in Horses Nine" The colts disposition handling on the farm of one Perkins. Then he was sold, and his subsequent career is thus pictured:
 In the weeks during which he trailed over the fruit district of southern Mich igan in the wake of the horse buyer Blue Blazes learned nothing good and much that was i'll. He finished the trip with raw hooks, hOOf print on his flank and tooth marks on neck and withers. Horses led ill a bunch do not improve in disposition.
 Some of the scores the blue rOan colt paid in kind, some he did not, but he learned the game of give and take. Men and horses alike. he concluded, were against him. If he would hold his own, he must be ready with teeth and hoofs. Especially he carried with him always a black, furious hatred of man in general.
 So he went about with ears laid back, the whites of his eyes showing and & bite or a kick ready in any emergency. Day by day the hate in him deepened until it became the master passion. A quick footfall behind him was enough | h Aryfp oc had been released by hair trigger. He. kicked first and investigated afterward.g The mere sight of a man within reach ing distance reused all his ferocity.
 Toward his own kind Blue Blazes bore himself defiantly. Double harness was something he loathed. One was not free to work his will on the de spised driver if hampered by pole and mate. In such cases he nipped manes and kicked under the traces un- til released. He had special antip- atby for gray horses and fought them on the smallest prOvocation or upon none at all. .... ,
 As result Blue Blazes, while know ing no masters, had many ownerss sometimes three In single week. He began his career by filling a three months engagement as livery horse, but after he had run away a dozen times, wrecked several carriages and disabled a hostler he was sold for half his purchase price. G rfi|
 Then did he enter upon his wander ings in real earnest. He pulled street cars, delivery wagons, drays and ash carts. He was sold to unsuspecting farmers, who, when his evil traits cropped out, swapped him unceremOni- ously and with ingenious prevaricatiOn by the roadside In the natural course of events he was much punished.
 Up and across the southern penin- sula of Michigan he drifted conten- dously, growing more vicious with each encounter, more daring after each victory. In Muskegon he sent the driv- CT of grocery wagon to the hospital with shoulder bite requiring cauter- ization and four stitches, Tn Manistee he broke the small bones in the leg of a bakers large boy. In Cadillac a boarding stable hostler struck him with an iron shovel. Blue Blazes kick ed the hostler quite accurately and very suddenly through a window.
 Between Cadillac and Kalaska he spent several lively weeks with farm CTS. Most of them tried various tam ing processes. Some escaped with bruises and some suffered serious in- jury. At Alpena he found an owner, who, having read something very con vincing in horse trainers book, elab- orately strapped the roan's legs ac- cording to diagram and then went into the stall to wreak vengeance with riding whip. Blue Blazes accepted one cut, after which he crushed the aveng- CT against the plank partition until three of the mans ribs were broken. The Alpena man was fished from un- der the roan's hoofs just in time to save his life. i h. asz gg,a zEDss.
 This incident earned Blue Blazes the name of man killer,' and 1t stuck. He even figured in the newspaper dis patches. Blue Blazes, the Michigan Man Killer" 'The Ugliest Horse Alive" "Alpena's Equine Outlaw" these were some Of the headlines. The Perkins method had borne fruit.