Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-13
HORSE IS NOT DOOMED
Greater Factor in Business
Life Now Than Ever.
HIS COURSE NOT RUN
BIG DEMAND AND HIGH PRICES
FOR EoUINEs.
Many Thought the Bicycle, the Trolley
and the Automobile Would Re-
tire the Noble Animal.

When it was seen that the electric troll
lev car was bound to drive the horse car
off the rails, when the bicycle boom was
on and "horseless carriages began 10 DE
talked Of. the newspapers were filled with
gloomy articles about the future OF the no
BILE animal in America.
Some of the linen who sit in cock-lofts
and write BREWER the fabricators OF
heavy editorials sometimes Joklngly
termed, were seized with the notion that
the horses course was virtually run. The
mystic electrical current, they felt sure
was destined to haul practically all the
street cars, the light steel-wheeled steed
as they called the bicycle, was largely to
dsplace the saddle horse; the new road
locomotives were soon to be perfected. and,
in consequence 1.-The horse had got to go.
This was especially true, they Inferred
in the cities. In the country, where there
are no pavements he would still be a ne
cessity for some time to come. AS dirt
roads gave way to macadam however. ana
the new self-moving vehicles We're perfect
ed, the horse would be driven farther and
farther away from the towns and into the
wids of remote rural regions; there he
might possibly survive permanently 1t
was also thought that some rich men would
preserve specimens here and there for sad
die purposes, and that he would still be
bred for the race track He would never
become actually extinct. probably, but
surely his day one of the most lmpor-
tant factors in business life was over and
passed
Well, the bicycle boom. which had not
yet achieved it's zenith when the gloomy
predictions about the horse began, grew
and grew, and finally collapsed of its own
weight; the substitution of the trolley for
the horse car became complete everywhere
but-in New York and almost complete even
in the metropolis; the "horseless carriage,
now known the automobile, has become
flr ia W We |
a bigger factor in the affairs of men than
ever before.
Do you doubt this? Then visit the horse
markets of Chicago and New York. of St.
Louis and Louisville, of Philadelphia and
Boston. of any city you might name and
be convinced. For in all these markets the
dealers will tell you that the traffic in
horses was never before so large it is
now, and that prices all around were never
before SO high.
Some Reason for Being Blue.
Yet, it was not alone the newspapers that
were impressed by an apparently impending
doom for the horse, back in the nineties,
nor were the forebodings without SEM
blance of justification. The change of the
motive power of street railroads to cleo
trcty threw good. fair horses upon the
market by the tens of thousands and
knocked the price of car horses and Light
delivery horses, which are of the about
the same type, SdlleyWeSt
On oath and 25th streets, New York a
horse-dealing center of note, when the troll
ley was developing most rapidly. such
horses We're sold in great lots at $10 $11
and So each. They We're worth about that
to be killed and rendered" into various by
products. These were glue, from the in
testines, Prussian blue from the hoofS, soap
from the fat, and knife handles and other
things from the bones. Besides, the hair is
used to make wall plaster hang together
and the hide makes leather that is almost
imperisha BILE
1t was a truly pathetic sight in 1895 to
see the rows of discarded street car horses
standing in the New York horse markets
on Mondays and Thursdays to be auctioned
off for the ridiculous prices mentioned. the
sole purpose of the buyers being to take
the poor beasts out to Barren Island truly
named, where they were to be killed,
skinned and resolved into the various ma
terals obtainable from their carcasses.
1t must be remembered that most of
these horses were still serviceable, not ut
te-ly worn out and broken down. nor Suf-
fering from bad hoofs. The proverb about
the ill wind that blows nobody good was
often verified during that period of horse
trade depression, though, for now and then
a farmer was lucky enough to hear about
the situation and so stock up his farm
with fairly good horses at truly nominal
prices.
Equine Tragedies in Rural Regions.
While this sacrifice of horses was going
or in New York and practically all the
other big centers of population in this coun-
try real equine tragedies were being en-
acted in many farming community. For
the releasing of so many horses from the
drudgery of the street car utterly demon
allied the horse-breeding business, and hum
dreds of farmers who had been growing
horses, especially for the street car trade,
lost their all On the Pacific coast whole
herds of horses. for which there was no
further demand. are said to have been
killed to get rid of them, and it was the
general belief that the industry had re-
ceiVed blow from which 1t would prob
ably never recover.
The losses aggregated millions, and, nat
urally, many breeders went out of the bust
ness entirely. AL this did not apply to the
breeders who raised horses for the track,
or for the carriage trade, or the light har-
ness demand, except indirectly, but even
they were much cast down by the general
demOra liZation.
But, had the breeders only known 1t, the
very decentralization from which the trade
was suffering was laying the foundation
for a new, and so far. a lasting boom. Some
out of the business, and they Investigated
the foreign demand. This proved capable
of great expansion. The European tram
ways were still operated mainly by horse
power, and, though American horses were
not in much favor over there at first big
growing market was soon found for them.
Sold in European Armies.
A little later it was found possible to sell
American "remounts to the European
armies, and a considerable number of men
found profitable occupation travelling
through the states buying, and travelling
through Europe selling, the American prod
uct This trade received tremendous boom
when the Boer war broke out; most news
paper readers must remember the big for
tunes made out of the sale of American
horses and mules to the British government
during that contest, and also the vigorous
protests made against the traffic by the I'M
fortunate Beers.
At the height of the horse export boom
New Orleans, New York, Boston and Port
land, Me-, were great ports of horse export,
and the scenes at the docks the days
when horses were put aboard were bustling
and interesting.
Thus little by little the business of breed
ing horses was rehabilitated. One by one
many of the old breeders. big and little,
took up again the occupation which they
loved SO well; one by one new breeders en-
barked in it, and today the number of
horses raised in the United States every
year is greater than ever before, and the
prices are higher. But, curiously enough,
the export business has almost vanished,
though not because the American horse has
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