Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1893 — Learning Their Lesson. [ARTICLE]

Learning Their Lesson.

Engine horses which are expected to rush from their stalls at an alarm of fire differ as much in their capability for learning that duty as schoolboys at their tasks. Half a minute is the maximum time for companies in a first-class department to make ready and leave the house. And the ordinary time is fifteen or twenty seconds. At a night alarm the men slide down on poles from the loft, the horses scramble to their feet, the doors in front of them fly open, and out they rush. Each horse goes to his proper place, and the driver, from his seat, let down the harness. Two or three men, standing at the pole, snap the collars together, fasten the reins to the bits, and off they go. The author of “Road, Track, and Stable” says that teaching a new horse to come out of his stall at the signal, and range himself alongside the pole, is not sc difficult as might be supposed. Imagine a pair of new horses assigned to an engine. The surroundings are more or less terrible to them, but they are very gently and carefully handled, and gradually lose their fear. Their tuition begins at once, and the driver is their teacher, assisted by the other men. The ordinary signal is given as if for a fire. The stall doors open, and the horse? are led out, put in position, and in a few minutes led back. This process is perhaps a dozen times repeated. Great pains are taken that the animals shall not strike against anything, or be by any means frightened. * The unusual spectacle of a harness suspended in air is apt to disturb them at first, but they are led slowly up to it, and induced to smell of it and inspect it on all sides. After they have been led to their positions a few times, they are allowed to come of their own accord when the signal strikes, though a man stands behind them to touch them up a little, if they do not start promptly at the opening of the doors. Two weeks constitute the average period of instruction, but horses have been known to learn in one lesson. Others, however, are months in arriving at equal proficiency. A pair of new horses in a Boston engine-house were led out three times in this manner. They were then left to themselves. The gong sounded, the stall doors opened and the pair trotted out, each going to his place beside the pole. They had caught the idea at once.