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Show WAR HAS HAMY EQUINE HEROES Rival the Men in Distinguished Service on the Battle Front in France. GET BEST OF FOOD AND CARE Horses Find the Front More Nearly Approaches Their Idea of Heaven Than Home Hospital Service J Most Efficient. With the British Armies in France. It would be difficult to find a more pampered lot of beings than the war horses. In the stress of battle they suffer with the men, but the number of equine "casualties" among the hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of horses employed is very small. There are veterans among the horses who have been wounded three or four times, there are even those who have suffered nervous breakdowns from the shattering shock of shells. If they were men in khaki they would have gold stripes of honor upon their know it are in the convalescent ward. The operating rooms with their big beds spread upon the concrete floors are as cheery and Immaculate as if intended for human beings. For all except the most minor operations ah anaesthetic is administered. "TJie horses take the chloroform remarkably re-markably well," said the officer commanding com-manding one of the hospitals to the correspondent of the Associated Press. "I don't think we have lost but one patient in the last six months." "Patient" seems a most appropriate designation for the horses. They are very pictures of patience until they reach the stage of convalescence. Each patient has a little aluminum tag and a hospital chart which tefls his age, color, where he came from, what he shall have to eat and drink and take, when he shall have a nice hot bath, and various notations as to his condition condi-tion and behavior. There is a personal touch about the treatment of the horses which in itself bespeaks the esteem in which they are held. Walking about the wards the genial "O. C." had a kind word or two for his patients. It seemed a particularly human thing to do. sleeves, but the faithful old horses go back to the front time and time again, asking nothing In the way of rank or distinction. What they get instead is the very best of food and plenty of it, the kindest kind-est of care and the keenest appreciation apprecia-tion of the services they render. Visitors Vis-itors to the battle zone invariably express ex-press amazement at the appearance and condition of the horses. One reason for the splendid appearance appear-ance of the horses at the front is the fact that the moment one begins to show signs of over fatigue or debilitation debilita-tion he is taken out of service and sent back to a hospital, to recuperate. The hospitals provided for them by the army must very nearly approach the horse's idea of heaven. It is a joy to go into one of the convalescent "wards," especially at meal times. Sometimes the convalescents stand almost al-most nose to nose, and if the horse across the way gets his hay first there is a .terrible hullabaloo. Fed Four Times a Day. AH the horses in hospitals are fed four times a day. The more debilitated ones are fed five and six times. When they are particularly run down and in clanger of being mistaken for boneyard hatracks of some sort, the patients get nothing but cooked foods, and they fairly revel in them. They have tonics, too, and it is remarkable to see the improvement in their condition that a few weeks work. The diet for "debilities" "de-bilities" consists of oatmeal gruel, linseed lin-seed gruel, boiled turnips and scalded oats. Later they get crushed oats and chopped buy, and almost before they A Glass Eye for One. "This old charger," he said of one, "is a great favorite in the hospital, tie has been one of the bravest of the brave, has lost an eye in battle, and so we call him Nelson. I am going to send to Paris and get him a good glass eye before he goes back to the front." So thorough is the work of the veterinary vet-erinary service that if a patient develops de-velops a contagious disease all the horses in the unit from which he came are called in for disinfection and examination. ex-amination. So successful is the work that S2 per cent of all sick cases and "casualties" are returned to active service. "If we were dealing with human beings," be-ings," said the officer commanding, "we could run the percentage up to the nineties. But unfortunately in dealing with the horses we have at times to weigh their cases in the scales of pounds, shillings and pence. In other oth-er words, we have to decide whether it will pay to save the animal. Is he too old to be of much service when he is cured, or will the course of treatment treat-ment be so long and expensive as to outweigh the value of future usefulness? useful-ness? In striving for war efficiency j and the highest potentiality of horse power all these things must be considered. con-sidered. It is the old, old story again of the survival of the fittest. There is no other way." Some idea of the number of American Ameri-can horses "doing their bit" in the war can be gained from the fact that 40 per cent of all admitted to hospital come from the United States. j |
