Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-11-04
low blanket when Sergeant Atwater
came into the stable to give orders to

low blanket when Sergeant Atwater
came into the stable to give orders to
his men. -.i+" :
Ready men," was the command.
At the sound Of Atwaters voice the
nag OF the yellow blanket pricked UP
his ears, 49,. IT. Is
Horses in line" commanded At
water. ">
With a feeble plunge-enough to
throw the yellow blanket from his
back-the old nag leaped forward. A
Joyous whinny Of recognition and then
a brown nose going up and down AT.
waters sleeve The startled sergeant
took one look and with a glad cry
threw an arm around the old fellows
neck. +~- .
"Dunner.und-blitzen, by all that's
good" shouted he.
And Dunnder-und-bl bitten it was. The
joyous neighs and whinnys of the old
nag told this. Crowding around the
wondering officers wanted to know
who was Dunner.und.bl bitten. Atwater
told them-told them, strong man
though he is, with a choke in his
voice and something suspicious tremD'
ling on his eyelids.
Dunner-und.blitzen was once the fif-
est horse In the New York police de-
partment. He stood fifteen hands high
and the gloss Of his silken coat gave
him a post in Prospect park where the
grand folks Of Brooklyn disport them
selves and where the aristocrats OF
the equine world take this morning
canter. There was spirit in his step,
fire in his eye and the way he hello.
his head was the boast of all who
knew him. He was celebrated, too,
as q catcher of runaways. Once Wien
his rider, dead and gone these many
years, was busy with an offender i'll a
side street, down the boulevard came
q maddened truck horse, little child
in its path. Not waiting for his rider
nor sign from him, Dunner-und-
bitten dashed out into the roadway.
Planting himself with four feet set
firmly on the ground, he waited for the
rush. When it came he fell back
second. then turned and catching the
bride of the runaway in his teeth, he
raced block beside the truck horse
tugging with all the strength of his
stout heart until he had brought 1t
back upon it's launches, several feet
this side of the little child.
That act made Dunner-und-blitzen
famous in the police department, and
Atwater, his voice a-tremble, recalled
it to the Liberty avenue force while
poor old Dunner-und-blitzen stood by,
half starved and marked
with many blows-the forlorn object
OF a mighty come-down.
Where Dunner-und-blitzen came
from, nobody knows. All that is known
Is that two years ago he became too
old for further use in the police de-
partment, and with that kindly return
which the big, rich city of New York
makes to the horses that have served
it long and faithfully in police or fire
it put Dunner- und- blitz-
en- upon the block for sale to the high
est bidder.
Plainly, the highest bidder had not
been kind to him. Maybe it was the
daily grind of a junk wagon that trans
formed him from the pride of Prospect
park into the old nag Of the Liberty
avenue police station; or maybe it was
just the starvings and the beatings
that did it. If horses have hearts,
that Of Dunner-und-blitzen must have
broken under the fate to which a
thankless city turned him over. Who
knows but what he may have, for days
and weeks and months, planned to run
away from it-planned to get away and
return to old friends and scenes? May
be it was some hope Of finding his way
back to these that spurred him on
!, %l@ III ~ =
der, one day last week. Anyhow,
something-kind chance, perhaps,
brought him past the Liberty avenue
police station and into the friendly
care Of the officers.
How they fed him, and rubbed him
down, and gave i'm a stall and made
their own of him! There we prefer
to leave him. It is to hard to think
of him given back to the highest bid.
der, who has not been kind to him.