The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-03-21
300 DUMB
BRUTES ARE
POISONED
Soldiers Guarding Stock Yards
As Federal Officials Carry
On Investigation
Ten Thousand Men, Women and Chill.
dren Participate in Remarkable De.
monstration of Patriotic Protest
Against Pro-German Propaganda.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Covington, Ky.-Five hundred of
the 700 horses bound for army service
in France were dead in Covington and
others showed signs of distress. A
new theory was advanced as to the
method used in what is declared to be
a German war plot to destroy the ami
mails. 1t is believed that the horses
are victims of the incubation of a
deadly tropical disease germ, and not
dying of a poison taken in food or
water. Experts investigating the death
lieved Saturday that the symptoms
pointed to this tropical disease. The
only way the horses could have con-
traCted the disease, the experts say, is
by inoculation. If this is true, the
plot must have been carried while the
animals were in transit to Covington
from Camp Grant, Rockford, ILL.,, en-
route to an Atlantic port.
Soldiers were guarding the Coving-
ton stockyards while Federal officials
continued their Investigations. The
horses dead so far are valued at about
$65,Ge0. c. S. Weakley, of the Depart
ment of Justice, is leading the investi-
cation by Government agents.
Chemists worked all night on their
investigations, but thus far have
reached no definite decision as to what
is causing the death of the horses.
Dr. Blume, chief food inspector of Gin
Cinnati, who has taken charge of the
meteorological phase of the case, re-
fused to make any statement until he
had received a report from the chem
fists. The 727 horses were in 80 cars
from Camp Grant Rockford, III. They
reached Covington and were to be
transferred to the c. & o. for ship
ment to an Atlantic port. The horses
were unloaded, fed and watered. They
were reported to be in first-class con.
dition when they left Rockford, and
the way they attacked their food on
their arrival at Covington indicated
that they were still healthy on arrival
there.
Lieut.. Frank Lille is in charge Of
the shipment. He expressed the opin-
ion that the horses had been poisoned
either by having some drug placed in
their food or drinking water after
their arrival at Covington.
Dr.. Blume and his assistants, Drs.
A w. Ziebold and c. E. Johnson, went
TO the Covington Stockyards and III.
spected all the horses there. They
expressed the belief that anthrax had
not caused the deaths. The blood Of
some of the dead horses was brought
to Cincinnati and guinea pigs were
inoculated with it. DR.. Blume said
that if the deaths were caused by poi
son the guinea pigs will live, but if
by disease, they will die. He said that
several days will elapse before the
exact nature Of the poison or disease
can be determined.
Ten thousand men, women and chill.
dren of Covington, KY, participated
in a remarkable demonstration of pa
triotic protest against pro-German
propaganda in Covington as eXempli.
fed by the murder by poisoning o.
500 Government artillery horses in.
tended for service in France. Ten
thousand others were unable to gel
near the field outside the stockades o:
the Covington stock yards, Sixteenth
and Russell streets, wherein lay the
carcasses of hundreds of animals and
the steadily diminishing number OF
survivors of the poison plot. Ken
lucky farmers and stock raisers from
Alexandria, Independence, Williams.
town, and even as far as Lexington,
mingled with the crowd, their counte.
naaces dark with thoughts of ven.
geance as they beheld the work of
German agents.