The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1910-04-14
KILLS TER HORSES.
A Woman WHO Did Not Want Them to
Fall Into Hands Of Others.

Rather than allow another person 10
use The coach horses she loved. Mrs. M.
IL. Edgerton OF At East Front street.
Iialnfeld- y. j.. WHO inherited several
million dollars recently, ordered Il vet
CrlIlaIy surgeon 10 sn0O5 her pets.
Wnen James ClauSen, several time a
millionaire, died last April he left mis-
entire fortune to Mrs. EdgertOn, his sis
ter. Among other things that came to
Mrs. Edgerton with her brothers home
were the horses, the highest stepping and
best Sroomed IN the colony of million
aires, where one of the best open-air
horse shows i'll the vicinity Of New York
is annually given. The boxes OF the
horses were literally adorned with the
blue ribbons they won at horse shows.
Not long ago Mrs. EdgertOn came to
New York to visit Il woman who is a
devotee of the automobile. Motor trips
about the city and its environS were Of
daily occurrence and Mrs. EdgertOn fell
in love with the auto. She purchased
several cars on condition that William
Douglas, her aged colored %coachman,
be taught to master the machines. He
IS now Il daily cOmmuter. between Plain
field and New York, attending Il school
for automobile instruction here. Yester-
day Douglas, who was for years Mt.
ClauSen'S coachman, said to Il World re-
porter:
Just before Mr.. Clausen died ne told
me he wanted mt to go with the horses
and spend the remainder of my days
with Mrs. Edgerton. He left me sew
2ral thousand dollars, and if L continue
with Mrs. Edgerton as long as she lives
there is another legacy to come to me.
When Mrs. Edgerton told me she had
bought an automobile and wanted me
to learn to be a shower | asked her
what was to become of my horses. She
told me she had arranged to dispose of
them. \ day or two afterward a veter-
mary surgeon called at the barn, saying
he had been sent to kill the horses.
Say, L nearly went crazy. | thought
as much of those horses almost as l
did of my children. and I just couldn't
stand around and see them killed. l
asked the horse doctor how he was go
big army pistol out of his pocket l just
lit out. | didn't go back to the stable
that day; but when | did return | found
the horses-and they cost $500, too, so
you know they must nave been good
0nes-had been shot: They were buried,
but | don't know where. / haven't got
the heart to ask.
The missus feels as bad about it as
| do. Some people will say, L reckon,
that she should have bought g pasture
and turned them out to. grass for the
rest of their days. But she feared some
thing would happen TO them or that
somebody would get a hold of them and
work them too hard, so the easiest way
out of it was to rave them shot. l
wanted the horse doctor to chloroform
them, but he told me it would take two
or three hours to give them enough Of
the drug to kill them. So | guess that
was the only way out of it. But /
surely do miss them horses, and every
time | go into the barn and see their
empty box stalls, with their halters and
blankets, hanging by the door, | just
busts out crying. l can't help it, deed
| can't, sir"
The home of Mrs. Edgerton is in one
of the most fashionable sections Of
Plainield. She is childless and she lives
alone with her s~ervants.-New York
World.