Bisbee daily review., 1917-03-04
BATTLE SCARED
 OLD WAR HORSES
 NUMBER THOUSANDS
Dare Death as Men, But Get No Gold Braid on Sleeves. They Also Suffer by Shat tered Nerves.

WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN FRANCE Correspondence of the As sociated Pressl-lt would be difficult to find a more pampered lot of beings than the war-horses. In the stress of battle they suffer with the men, but the number of equine casualties" among the hundreds of thousands of horses employed is really very small.
 There are veterans among the hors- es who havs been three or four times wounded: there are even those who suffered ner, ous breakdowns from the, shattering shock of the shells. If they were men in khaki they would have gold stripes of honor upon their sleeves. but the faithful old horses go back to the front time and time. again asking nothing in the way of distinc- tion.
 What they get instead is the very best of food and plenty Of it. the kind est of care and the keenest apprecia- tion of the services they render. Wis itors to the battle zone invariably ex- press amaZement at the appearance and condition of the horses. Just now they are snug and warm under the self-protection of their long winter coats They are fat and strong mus cled. They plod and splash content edly through the mud in twos, threes and fours or twelves, dragging guns and heavy wagons behind them with never the necessity of a harsh word or a whiplash from their drivers. The men come to love the horses. Officers who have been here from the begin ding. and there are still few left, say that in all that time they have never seen an act of cruelty toward horse or mule.
 One reason for the splendid appear ance of the horses at the front is the fact that the moment one begins to show signs of over-fatigue or debili- tation, he is taken out of service and sent back to a hospital to recuperate Occasionally. too, the horses come down with mud blisters upon their backs. with an injured foot that may not have been noticed in time. or with some of the diseases that equine flesh is heir to. It is a great tribute to the veterinary services, however. that most of the old contagious dis eases that used to decimate the ranks of horses in war time. have been ef- fectuallv stamped out and no longer give concern Glanders. for instance. once 8 dread scouree. is now thing of the past None of the. horses in France is infected. Occasionally case comes with new shipment from abroad, but it is quickly eliminated.
 At the end of two years of the South African war fully 90 per cent of the horses had been affected by the mango. During two years and a half of the present war, with the nun Der of horses engaged multiplied by thousands, less than two per cent have been affected. The mules have been even less involved As q matter of fact the mules are so tough and hardy they seldom enter into the vet erinary statistics.
 The hospitals provided for them by the army must very nearly approach the horses idea of Heaven. It is a joy 10 go into one of the convalescent wards" especially at meal times. Sometimes the oonvalescents stand al most nose 10 nose, and if the horse across the way gets his hay first, there is terrible hula baloo. A par ticularly ra enous patient now and then will not only eat his portion of hay but the rope net that surrounds it. A few nights ago one had such a