The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 7, 1900, Page 2

THE SUNDAY CALL. was providing his soldiers w ticular delicac goods ects to t and become corps. n 2 ship by & iz here the k 2s if they This is not f the horse, te done it is isting arrange- F ners it takes to Eet rse recruits to ha g w re r ¢ might ap- for few peo- of his crate lie on, and ge. There 1s required, for gh to require dies. snd a esent fleet at work on tae trans- portation of the horses, together with the ship will carry. is g 547, Alestadse, Frank- nd Bosnia about 1200 s a condenser % gallons of he supply of fresh and salt water must It takes twenty-five condenser for one ns would only last little over four days, so would prove v ship carries an water and food, r sixty days, and the un should not take over S0 none of them are to call upon artificial ir water supply. allowance per day for each horse 20 pounds of hay, & pounds of ter and carrots for <e of the Bosnia with its 1200 horses provided with rations on that basis for sixty days it is easy to un- derstand why the dock looks as if the products of all the farms of California were there to be dropped Into the cave ernous hold of this great ocean monster, The horses are to be well cared far ¢ this ample supply however—rations f trip with a falr twenty-eight d ing the trip, for one man is taken for each lot of ten, and it is his duty to de- vote himself exclusively to those ten horses and see that they want for nothing. Besides this. there is a veterinary for ole P, each ship, a foreman to see thaf the men do their duty and three engineers to keep the dynamos and fans running that pro- vide the horses with fresh air.- For whether the horse s on the shelter deck. the second deck or down in the depths below the atmosphere around him is changed every five minutes to the fresh, invigorating sea air of the outer world. This is done bv a series of fans and ven~ tilators which are kept constantly run- ning and by an ingenious arrangement of pipes and outlets that keep the air pure without causing any cold draughts. The censulting enxineers who have had charge of the alterations and fittings of the boats have done remarkable work considering the short space of time allowed between the arrival of the ships entirely devold of preparation for stowing horses, and their departure fitted out completely with everything necessary for the welfars of the animals. But the horses are well worth the trouble and deserve the best that skill and money can give them, for & finer lot of Animals never left this port, or any other for that matter. They are well formed, sleek and spirited enough to prove an addition to any gentleman's stable, and if the Kalser is not well pleased with his American horses he is not a good judge of horseflesh. It 1s rare sport to see the cowboys at work persuading the animals brought up in bands on the dock into the belief that they would like to climb up a steep gang plank and then siide down another one into the darkness of their future quar- ters. Once on the gang plank and started up they go on the run, and the man lead- ing them has a hard time to keep out of the way. But to make the start often re- quires the combined effort of two mounted men, who rush their horses against the initiate and literally 1ift him bodily up the first few feet, while a half dozen foot- men whip, pull, haul, sweat and say things that help out but would not appear well in print. Many of the animals go up as quietly as lambs and seem to enjoy it, but of course there are exceptions. The mules are as active as kittens and fre- auently one of them that feels esvecially PrHoToS BY CHARLESDS WEIDNER . gay will leap over the foot sifiss of the gang plank and back again to the wharf. One of them the other day, after he had been duly boarded up in suddenly took the notion to s really could do if he wanted to an r and it would be tnupossible for him to make such & leap; but it shows the necessity of not allowing too' much room and demonstrates that the two feet six by seven feet deep is none too small for a horse’s stall on shipboard. Getting the horses from the main deck down into their stalls is no light task, but the ingenuity of the method of starting them below decks is singularly effective and well shown In the snap shot on th! page taken of a horse en route. He Is headed on the down shoot and then a strong rope fastened to a post at one end and hauled taut' by a half dozen pairs of strong arms at the other forces his hind legs under him, and to keep his footing he is obliged to make the descent. Chief Engineer F. H. Evers of the Lee- lanaw, which is now in port, has proba- bly had as much experience with horses at sea as any man, for he has made five trips with such a cargo In the last two years. In all the five trips they lost b fifteen animals, and these, the chief says, died in the first few days out, for a they become accustomed to the sea the horses seem to enjoy the trip rather than dislike it. “Many people ask me if the horses got seasick. That is always-the first anyway about anything living th: an ocean voyage,” sald the chi ing about his trips. “Of course they but not so far as their stomachs are cerned. They simply get dizzy and, wisely, will not e they become a customed to the m W they get used to the to sway bac! modate the they get In still w; this motion, so that certed movement they will quite a roll from side to first strike the land it { them. They seem dazed ually dawns free again They roll, a kittens and W legs alr with a total disregard to the proxin 1ty of their fellows. When two or three days out from horses develop splendid appeti come just as well p as the olde: paw and raise par! turn comes for ratic with a will that woul starving sall clally h n m are turned out to rest t as quiet and docile as | requently climbed backs whole row to inspect pipes or mact at the other end. “They understand a Joke, to one of them kicks the legs o next to him they will pass it along the line, gaining in force as it goes the last horse gets an eye-opener tha amasing. You would not think that they could get thelr legs w e boards di viding the stalls, but they manage some way, and as they can't do mue harm and seem to enjoy it why, it does not matter.” Twenty-eight days Is a long time for a horse to stay in his stall without a glimpse of the blue sky except an occa- sional beam through an open hatch in weather. But as they have all th c wish to eat, plenty of good company and nothing to do but to stand and look wise, there is no reason to belleve that these tes and do credit t fair American horses who are now sworn re- cruits of the German force in China should not have rather a pleasant tima of ft—probably much better than many a steerage pussenger on the broad Atlantia