Show HORSES I 1 SES far FOR FIRES SELECTING AND ANIMALS FOR FIRE ENGINES considerable patience and a perlo period 1 of r about a month is I 1 needed for raw re ke coults the horse plays play an important part at every fire in ft die city of the praise bruise which has been showered upon the new york fire department for the excellence of its system the splendid animals that haul tho the heavy engines and tracks have their share sham anyone any one who has watched one of the crack engine companies tearing through the street in response to an alarm cannot have failed to notice how the horses strained every muscle to cover the distance as quickly as possible with scarcely a touch h from the drivers whip some of the horses show an almost human intelligence in the quickness with which they respond to the alarms arins al sounded by the big gongs nowhere can that be seen deev better than in the house of engine 7 at chambers and center streets where two horses jo and charley hold the ree rd for the quickest time in getting ir ip ness horses and men have to sho ff r frequently for the benefit of visitors vis toru itura the foreman sounds the gong in one of these exhibitions but does not release the horses at once oace as the regular alarm does by electrical apparatus aratus the two big horses whose stalls are on either side of the engine strain at their baltera halt ers and jump juip in their eagerness to get to their places tle moment the foreman releases them by touching an electric but ton they spring forward and duck their heads under the collars suspended with the rest of the harness from the ceiling and ready to be fastened about their necks ba sometimes I 1 the foreman snaps ahn 4 col lar beforehand to test teft the in intelligence dellige nee of the horses then jo and charley barley poke their heads through the closed collars and struggle until they get their heads through them at an actual alarm of fir fire the horses will start on the instant and they vie with the firemen in their eagerness to get to the fire AN IMPORTANT ANIMAL it is plain that the horse plays just as necessary nac essary a part in the autonomy of tho the fire department as a human member the more intelligent fhe he horse is the quicker the engine or truck which he is ia helping to haul will be ba at the scene of a fire horses that enter into the spirit of the work as heartily as the firemen are almost invaluable for every moment saved frequently counts for much in saving life and property it follows that the training of the horses which are added add ed every year to the department is as important in as the training of the firemen who must learn to handle tho the hose ax and scaling ladder with expertness although that branch of the service is heard beard of seldom by the general public chief bonner gives it the strictest attention and the recruits in horseflesh have to go through an ordeal just as severe as aa that which their human allies must n undergo the training stables in west ninety ninth street are in a quiet neighborhood and the new building is used also as the departments horse horsa hospital foren foreman joseph shea who is also dr shea hm has charge of the stables he was graduated as a veterinary surgeon and has been connected with the department for eleven years his hia position is ia one of the most important in the department he looks after all the sick horses in the engine houses and is ia kept busy at the hospital with the horses laid up there he buys the green horses for the department accepting them only after they have shown their ability to do the work required rc qu ired tha commissioners allow for the puro purchase base of each horse and dr shea makes his selection from the big bunches of western cistern horses in the bulls balls head market he ha always selects a horse of good size bize generally blocky with plenty of muscle the horse that has bas speed and strength nath in good proportion is the horse that dr shea is looking for constantly TRAINING TRAG NEW there are horses in active service in the department and about fifty recruits have to be added each year they usually go up to the ninety ninth street stable on trial half a dozen at a time and dr shea has a mouth month in which to accept or reject any one or all of the lot la in th that t time he can tell whether the horse is likely to be of any value As AB soon as the green horses arrive they are housed comfortably in the third story of the stable three roomy box stalls are there too and their doors indicate hard bard usage some of those green horses one of the stablemen will said dont seem to know anything else but how to kick and they do that with vengeance all AH of the new recruits do not take kindly to their new quarters and still less to the training in the ground story the green horse gets his first lesson he is usually four or five yeara old and barely broken to harness yet A part old of it the story is ia partitioned off for a tender or hose cart the custon customary Y big fire gong is ia on the wall and all 0 of the alarms from morrisania Morri sania to the battery are sounded in stalls beside the tenders the raw recruits are broken in two at a time at first firs t they must become accustomed to the sound of tho big gong most horses are so BO confused by by the clanging that they are absolutely intractable tractable ta for awhile some never get acm accustomed tomed to the noise and these are rejected in the course of a day or t two c the average 0 o recruit begins to understand undersea under sfa stanl i i that it bears a very close relation to lu it move meata now york sun sm I I f 1 07 |