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Show MAWA! HORSE LAIS 1 CELLAR Smasks Glass, irat Is Not iri. Big Crowd Gathers and Offers Of-fers All Sorts of Ad-vics. i-' ' - - ' .Takes Combined Efforts of Police Force and Axel Steele to Extricate Ex-tricate Animal. It required the combined efforts of the police force and Deputy Sheriff Axel Steele to extract a horse from the cellar cel-lar under Walker Bros-.' bank yesterday yester-day afternoon. The west rifle of Main street wao blockaded for an hour, telegraph tele-graph poles swarmed with men and boys; the bank was compelled to close Its east doors; prominent business and professional men came from their offices of-fices and mingled with the ?rowd; a photographer climbed twenty feet on an electric light pole and snapped his camera; the police, were swept aside by the mob. which paid no attention to anything but the Indian warwhoops of Axel Steele. Horse Watches Quietly. In the mid9l of all this excitement the ojd gray horse stood calmly at the foot of the stone steps leading to the basement, base-ment, watching with philosophic mein the extensive preparations. "I got down here," lie seemed to say, "and it is up to you to get me ouL" The horse had been hitched to a delivery de-livery wagon belonging to the Huddart Floral company. It took fright at a piece of .wind-blown paper while the driver was out of the rig and ran west on Second South street. In front of the Wilson hotel it struck a wagon. This only added to its excitement and increased in-creased its srpeed. When it struck Main stre.et It swerved to the north and was making straight for Hogle's barroom when the front wheels of the wagon struck the curbing. The palms and other potted plants fiew through the air and were scattered on the sidewalk, the front wheels collapsed and the spokes-rlcoc'netted In eery direction. Falls Down. Stairway. The sudden stoppage ,of the wagon brought the horse to his knees. There was a rending of harness, and the animal, ani-mal, loosened from the rig,, slid across the smooth pavement sto the stairway. G. H. Knowiden, a real estate man, saw the horse coming and sought safety by running down the steps. As he descended de-scended he heard the body of the equine rolling down behind. him. Suddenly there was a crash of glass which wa heard for a block in each direction. di-rection. The horse had fallen into the big glass showcase in the middle of the stairway, used by Qoddard & Bowman to display , their real estate bargains. Fragments of the glass rattled around Mr. Knowlden's cars as a running jump landed him safely In the office at the bottom of the stairs. Smashes the Glass. The horse lay for a few seconds on his back among the ruins of the showcase show-case and then begaxi to kick. His extraordinary ex-traordinary exertions precipitated him clear to the basement floor. In striving to right himself he kicked out the gla9? door leading Into the office of Cramer & Sons, florists. Having inflicted tills damage on his competitors?, he got up and waited to see what they were going to do about it. A crowd collected almost instantaneously instanta-neously around the top of the stairway. stair-way. First they tried to lead him up the steps. He did not like the looks of the crowd above and refused to budge. Then some one, brought a. rope and an 'attempt was made to drac the animal up the steps. This failed. So They Offer Suggestions. "Bring some hay," suggested one of the advisors. "Blindfold him."" "Hypnotize him." "Twist his tall " These and other suggestions were freely offered. All the policemen on the afternoon shift had gathered and they tried to keep a passageway open through the , mob. but it was like the attempt to sweep back the cea with a broom. As the various devices failed excitement grew more intens. Small boys risked their lives and limbs in climbing to points of vantage where thej could witness wit-ness the proceedings. Grave lawyers and dignified politicians dropped their work and 'crowded to the front. Axel Steele'G Resources. "I will get that horse out in two minutes," min-utes," said Axel Steele. He was gone for ten minutes and came back with two wide planks. As he gave the battle cry of the Viking league the crowd gave way before him and the planko were laid in position. Steele lnvitc-d the horse to walk up and the horse did not do it. Steele used argument. In convincing con-vincing language he demonstrated that there were no oats nor hay In the basement. base-ment. When his blandishments failed 10 accomplish the results Steele said: "I know what's the matter. He thinks this Is a Democratic platform. Get more planks and make It look substantial-" Two more planks were added to the gangway, but the animal was still shy. Finally a rope was fastened around his body and he wa3 thrown down. The other end was attached to the rear end of an express wagon and seized by the police. The double pull brought the horse up tho planks and dragged him Into the street. At that the crowd gave a hearty cheer and dispersed. Horse Not Badly Hurt. The horse, strange to say. had no serious se-rious Injuries, although cut In several places by the broken glass. He received the plaudits of the multitude with becoming be-coming dignity and walked away with evident consciousness of the fact that he had risen, or rather descended, from obscurity to fame In one short hour. Aside from the damage to the wagon and contents, there was no loea excepting ex-cepting broken glas3. . The . showcace which was destroyed cost about 350 and the glas.i door woo worth perhaps $15 mors. |
